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The Pre-Raphaelites

In the mid-1800's a group of artists and poets, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, with their initial publication, "The Germ." These artists desired to free themselves from the restrictions and mechanizations which they perceived suppressing their natural inclinations of creativity.

Later, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and others were to decry the current state of the art world with their slogan, "Art For Art's Sake," ushering in a golden era of revitalization in book design in Great Britain. The movement quickly spread abroad, and reached every aspect of artistic expression including architecture, furniture, metalwork, tapestry, ceramics, wallpaper design, and much more. The books exhibiting these Pre-Raphaelite influences, published from 1850-1900, in England, as well as the United States, continue to stand out in the pantheon of excellence in art, book design and illustrative book design worldwide.