"Two sketchbooks that were produced while Orpen was a student at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. The first volume is entitled "Principles of Ornament" and contains drawings of tapestry, wallpaper, stone and metalwork, panelling, bookbinding, jewelry, architecture and sculpture. The second volume contains drawings of furniture, in chronological order, from Assyrian to early 19th-century English. Both volumes include extensive textual passages and annotations giving descriptive, explanatory or additional information on the subjects of the drawings."