Title Page, Troisième Livre

This ornamental title page announces a collection of frieze designs and architectural ornaments by Gilles-Marie Oppenord, Premier Architect to the French King. The elaborate baroque frame, with its scrolling acanthus leaves and central sculptural cartouche, exemplifies the decorative vocabulary of the Régence period. Oppenord's designs circulated widely through print, influencing furniture makers, metalworkers, and interior designers across Europe. The format—text surrounded by architectural framing—became a standard presentation for pattern books that transmitted visual ideas through engraving, establishing conventions for organizing and disseminating design knowledge before the modern printed book.