Celtic and Old Norse Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

I bought this book looking for inspiration for a Celtic or Viking tattoo design. Hearing what a revered artist Courtney Davis was, I thought I couldn't go wrong with this book. Unfortunately, all the drawings were incredibly unsophisticated and they remind me more of an amateur's work (perhaps at copying Courtney Davis). All of the designs were in black and white and many of them were just plain - and I *do* mean plain - knotwork patterns better suited to tablecloths than tattoos. There is none of the beautiful intricacy you find in real Celtic art - almost all of the patterns have huge unfilled or "blackened" spaces.

If you're looking for inspiration in Celtic design, buy a reproduction of the Book of Kells. I know that will put the shoddiness of this work to light. I suspect this was just a cheap attempt at making money and that Courtney himself does not prize this work.

The good news is - it's cheap, so it wasn't a total waste.

I purchased this book as an artistic tool. In the process of ultimately developing my own designs in this stylistic vein, I wanted to be able to refer to line art renderings of actual ancient Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Nordic designs. This book has proved to be an excellent resource. The representations featured here make up a top-notch selection, and I appreciate the basic geographic and chronological labels for each piece. The renderings are nicely detailed, but they're not so intricate as to prove impossible to mimic in a sketch book.

Most of the designs in CELTIC AND OLD NORSE DESIGNS by Courtney Davis appear to have been copied from items found in and around archelogical sites that date from around 1,000 B.C.E. to about 1,000 C.E., now housed in museums. Davis does not inform the reader of the specific aspects of these pieces. In fact, her text is almost non-existent.

Some of the items shown appear to match items that precede Roman times, others seem to coincide with Roman and early Christian times, and others are very similar to items discoved in Anglo-Saxon tombs like Sutton Hoo, or Viking sites in Scandanavia and are thus contemporary with the early Middle Ages. Some designs are found on spoons, horse collars, or weather vanes, while others are taken from church sculpture or graveyard crosses.

As the elements shown are not categoried by historical period, or referenced or sourced, this is not the scholarly work that I hoped it might be. However, if you don't care it does not matter. I will be using the book for children's artwork projects this summer (i.e. coloring books).

This is a great resourse for those looking for charted scrollwork, knotwork and other Celtic or Norse motifs.

STRONGLY recommend this book as THE best source for Norse type designs! Bold and true, this book is highly usable to impart the Nordic of Old flavor to your work!