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Whilst many books have been published about war, the role of the prisoner of war has been largely ignored or paid scant attention. This book, along with the author’s other title – A History of Napoleonic and American Prisoners of War 1756-1816: Hulk, Depot and Parole – aims to correct this imbalance, and is the result of his quest over thirty years into this almost-forgotten field of history.

Illustrated here is an extensive selection of items from museums around the world and the author’s own collection – one of the largest private collections of prisoner of war artefacts in existence – revealing the incredible skills of these imprisoned craftsmen. The items – delicate, intricate and highly detailed – include boxes, toys and automata made from bone, straw or paper, as well as paintings by artists whose work is now much in demand. The creation of these pieces seems even more remarkable when the conditions under which they would have been made and the extreme limitations the prisoners would have endured in terms of access to materials and resources are considered.

This book records in great detail the fascinating accounts of the lives and occupations of the prisoners of war, and the prison markets in which they were permitted to sell their wares. It also tells of the comings and goings of the highly interesting variety of characters who lived and worked alongside the prisoners, or were paroled prisoners themselves, and who would travel for many miles to trade with these, quite literally, captive audiences.

Providing an excellent insight into general life at the time, much information, such as the laws, and the trading and working conditions of both the prisoners and their non-prisoner acquaintances is given as background to the former’s stories.

A detailed account of the historical background to the wars that saw these men become prisoners can be found in the author’s, A History of Napoleonic & American Prisoners of War 1756-1816: Hulk, Depot & Parole.

Unlikely to be challenged as the standard work on the subject, British Artists 1880-1940 includes entries for a staggering 41,000 British artists who exhibited at forty-nine of the major exhibition centres and commercial galleries throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland between the years 1880-1940. While there are many books on specific artists, schools and movements, until the publication of this book there has been no basic work of reference covering the vast mass of artists who painted during the period and whose work can be found in most British homes.

Artists are listed with their birth and death dates (or, if these are not known, the years they were known to exhibit) and with their address. Further information includes the medium in which the artist worked, membership of societies and associations, as well as the exhibitions and galleries where their work was shown.

‘…a wealth of information that has never been published before…‘ – Antique Monthly

Britain has been blessed with many fine poets; Simon Drew isn’t one of them. It is tempting to call this a book of doggerel, but maybe that’s aiming a little high. This book makes a Co-op receipt seem intellectual. However, there are many collectors of Drew’s work (some of them locked up) who will welcome a collection of all the best verses. This book will be left lying around the best homes with the aim of impressing odd people and passing hyenas. A selection of Simon’s work can be found at: simondrew.co.uk

Simon Drew’s first book published by ACC was A Book of Bestial Nonsense, setting a high standard for the pursuit of nonsensical intellectualism and poppycock.

Many years later, Fowl Fleas and Fancy Fauna, Simon’s latest book, concentrates on the Animal Kingdom again, following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin in seeking to offer a unifying theory on our existence: humankind has developed an acute sense of the ludicrous and Simon is an expert in ridiculous behavior. So will this book be compared to the Origin of Species? We leave the readers to make up their own minds – if, indeed, they are still in possession of their wits after reading this book.

Either way any library would be a poorer place without this book and it is expected that the Nobel committee will be in contact soon.

The Golden Age of English Glass features 150 objects from the collection of John H. Bryan, ranging in date from c.1650-1809. These enable a full and detailed discussion of the history of English glassmaking during its critical period of innovation (c.1650-1675) and its world triumph (c.1700-1775), including discussions of crystal table glass, ‘black’ glass bottles, window glass, mirrors and lighting (glass candlesticks and chandeliers). In spite of the fact that these pieces are among the most important examples of English glass known (the collection includes, for instance, twenty-five drinking glasses made between about 1690 and 1720, when English table glass is widely regarded as being among the most refined and perfect expression of the glassmakers’ art anywhere in the world), few have ever been published. The scholarly text brings together the latest information in a dynamic area of research. Essays accompanying catalogue discussions of individual glasses place them in their wider historical and technical settings. The book is illustrated with some 215 colour photographs of the objects in the collection (including groups and details), some seventy-five comparative objects from other collections and fifty-five period prints, paintings, drawings and other documents that convey the historic context of their use and also document processes of manufacture and decoration. Also available:
British Glass 1800-1914 ISBN 9781851491414 20th Century British Glass ISBN 9781851495870

Simon Drew has produced this book in much the same way he played golf. In the dim distant past he would attempt to drive a ball straight down the fairway only to see it fly off at a tangent in a direction the ball had chosen all on its own. Now he finds his drawings behave in a similar manner; whatever the intention, you never know what the end result will be. This book will poke fun at almost anyone who loves golf and a few who don’t. Most of the verses and word plays are by Simon Drew though a couple of well-known quotations were too good to ignore. It includes the Ballad of the Lost Ball, which turns golf into pantomime: something that happens to most golfers sooner or later. Simon Drew’s Birthday Book ISBN: 9781905377619 £9.50 Gin’ll Fix It ISBN: 9781905377558 £7.50 Simon Drew’s Inappropriate Address Book ISBN: 9781905377039 £9.95 Spot the Book Title ISBN: 9781851493562 £7.50 …And So I face the Vinyl Curtain ISBN: 9781905377015 £7.50 A Collection of the Most Pointless Verses of Simon Drew ISBN: 9781905377077 £7.50 A is for Aardvark ISBN: 9781851496549 £7.50 Dogsbodies ISBN: 9781851492718 £7.50 Shepherd Spy ISBN: 9781905377169 £7.50 Simon Drew’s Book of Ludicrous Limericks ISBN: 9781905377367 £7.50 The Plot Thickens ISBN: 9781905377299 £7.50 The Quotations of Oscar Wilde ISBN: 9781851494774 £7.50 The Very Worst of Simon Drew ISBN: 9781851493319 £8.50

The finest books produced during the quarter century prior to the outbreak of the Great War were almost invariably printed by the private presses, but post-war, with the development of new technology, the accolade of excellence passed into the hands of a small number of commercial firms, with the Curwen Press very much to the fore. Like those earlier printers, Harold Curwen was inspired by the Morrisian ideal, but he did not adhere to the tenet that ‘hand made’ was necessarily better than ‘machine made’, which led him to become one of the pioneering figures in the technical revolution that transformed the printing industry. Harold Curwen joined the family firm in 1908 and by 1916 had instigated a general replanning of the works and, aided by the wartime staff shortage, felt able to push ahead with the installation of modern machinery. He was in the forefront of the development of offset lithography, which ensured that the Curwen Press would be in the vanguard of fine color printing throughout the next decade. Harold also pioneered, as far as England was concerned, the pochoir technique of hand-stencilling. 1922 was the beginning of the Curwen Press’s golden decade, during which it produced The Woodcutter’s Dog, the English language edition of Julius Meier-Graefe’s two volume biography of Van Gogh for the Medici Society, the exhibition catalogue of books and manuscripts for The First Edition Club, Goldoni’s Four Comedies and the delightful little pocket engagement book, The Four Seasons, illustrated by Albert Rutherston. Rutherston was later to illustrate Thomas Hardy’s Yuletide in a Younger World, the first of the Ariel Poems for Faber & Gwyer which were to become a feature of the collaboration between the two firms. In addition there was the ‘Safety First’ Calendar, adorned with Lovat Fraser’s cautionary illustrations. Following restructuring in 1933 the Curwen Press had a further forty years of distinguished work ahead both in the printing of books, particularly those illustrated by Barnett Freedman, as well as jobbing work, including some of the finest posters for the London Underground by Bawden, Wadsworth, John Banting, Betty Swanwick, Barnett Freedman and others. Also avaliable: Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631 GPO ISBN: 9781851495962 Peter Blake ISBN: 9781851496181 FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327 David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955 David Mellor ISBN: 9781851496037 E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009 El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198 Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337 Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665 Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191 Rodchenko ISBN: 9781851495917 Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778

Welcome back to the wonderful world of Simon Drew! A combination of artist and wordsmith, Simon combines these talents with an inventive and quirky sense of humor in his range of books, this being his twenty-seventh. Gifted with a keen sense of fun and a lively imagination, Simon Drew interprets conventional words and phrases, situations and circumstances in pictures and prose, turning his attention this time to the alphabet.

Jacqueline Groag was probably the most influential textile designer in Britain in the post Second World War era. Although originally Czech, she studied textile and pattern design in Austria in the 1920s. During the late twenties and early thirties she designed textiles for the Wiener Werkstatte in Vienna and subsequently designed and produced unique hand printed lengths of fabrics for many of the leading Parisian fashion houses, including Chanel, Lanvin, Worth, Schiaparelli and Paul Poiret. She was awarded a gold medal for textile design at the Milan Triennale in 1933 and another gold medal for printed textiles at the Paris World Fair in 1937. Jacqueline was not only a serious and highly respected contender in the field of textile and pattern design but, with her husband, the Modernist architect Jacques Groag, was also deeply immersed in the intellectual life of Vienna.

In 1938 the sophisticated world of Jacques and Jacqueline was brutally shattered when the Anschluss, the political unification of Austria and Germany, occurred and the German army entered Vienna. Faced with the actuality of the Nazi terror the Groags, who were Jewish, fled to Czechoslovakia and their home city of Prague. After a brief respite they were once more forced to flee in 1939, this time to London. On their arrival in England they were welcomed and championed by leading members of the British design fraternity, amongst whom were Sir Gordon Russell, the doyen of British architects Sir Charles Reilly and Jack Pritchard, founder of the modernist design company, Isokon. From 1940 until her death in 1986, Jacqueline had a long and successful career. Much of the Contemporary style of the textiles and wallpapers shown at the 1951 Festival of Britain were heavily indebted to her influential designs of the 1940s. Many examples of her work were featured prominently at the Festival and from then on she became a major influence on pattern design internationally. She developed a large client group in the United States during the fifties and sixties, amongst whom were Associated American Artists, Hallmark Cards and American Greetings Ohio.

In the later 1950s and throughout the 1960s she became increasingly involved with Sir Misha Black and the Design Research Unit (D.R.U.), working on the interiors for boats and planes and trains, particularly the design of textiles and plastic laminates for BOAC and British Rail. One of her last commissions from Misha Black, in the mid-seventies was a distinctive moquette for London Transport, for seating on both buses and tube trains. Her work and influence did not just extend to the large corporations and exclusive couturiers but was familiar to the general public through stores and companies such as John Lewis, Liberty of London, David Whitehead, Edinburgh Weavers, Sandersons, Warerite and Formica. Her remarkable achievement finally received public recognition in 1984 when, at the age of 81, she was made an R.D.I. – a Royal Designer for Industry – the ultimate accolade for any designer in Britain.

A peculiar can be defined as something that ‘has eccentric or individual variations to the general or predicted pattern’. And, as it turns out, London is overflowing with them. This pocket-sized book will accompany you around the capital, guiding you from the tent-shaped tomb designed for Victorian explorer Sir Richard Burton by his widow, Isabel Arundel Gordon; to what may be the last surviving porter’s rest in London; to a stone niche by a long-demolished foundling hospital where almost 15, 000 infants were discarded over the course of the 18th century. Sometimes heroic, sometimes tragic, often amusing and always unexpected, these so-called ‘peculiars’ bring color to the fabric of London. Whether you are a lifelong resident or a visitor passing through, London Peculiars is guaranteed to lead you on an adventure. Also in the series: Art London ISBN 9781788840385 Vinyl London ISBN 9781788840156

In this fascinating volume, china-ware expert Geoffrey Godden shows how collectable and decorative New Hall Porcelain is. The factory produced over three thousand patterns which served to enhance a long series of attractive yet very functional forms. They were welcomed for their excellence over a period of over fifty years, from 1782 to 1835.

The success of these pleasing Staffordshire porcelains in the marketplace helped to turn the Staffordshire Potteries, then famed only for its earthenwares, into a porcelain-producing center of world importance. The New Hall firm in England were market-leaders in their own time, their shapes and styles widely copied by their several imitators.

New Hall Porcelains presents historical facts in a novel, helpful manner, supporting with a broad selection of clear illustrations. Geoffrey Godden is able to illustrate how diverse and attractive these Staffordshire ‘Real China’ porcelains can be, placing New Hall in its rightful position in the study of British porcelains and their history.

Victor Chinnery’s scholarly work covers the history and development of furniture in oak and kindred timbers in the British Isles and New England, from the Middle Ages through to 1800. The subject is broken down into a logical sequence of aspects and each section is generously illustrated. The furniture shown ranges from the finest examples of the period, to the sort of sturdy and workmanlike pieces which modern collectors will find affordable.

The study of oak furniture is a remarkably rich and varied subject, which reflects at several levels the social and domestic life of many generations of our ancestors. Victor Chinnery has explored and clarified many important topics, whilst fully realizing that scholarship in this field is still very much in its infancy.

One of the most profound influences on the appearance of furniture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was the system of rigid demarcations operated by the different furniture making trades, and in which the work of the joiners was the most important. The author explains the techniques and materials of the different trades, as well as other considerations of vital interest to the modern collector and curator.

The furniture of Connecticut and Massachusetts in the seventeenth century is presented as an extension of the range of styles to be found in other English provinces at the same date.

Since first published in 1991 Pocket Jackson’s, as it is most often called, has enjoyed enormous success and is constantly rated as a best seller in the Arts & Antiques category. During the last twenty three years important developments have taken place in the Hallmarking system. Most notably the introduction within Europe of a universally accepted system of marking has lead not only to the addition of new marks, but also, to a change of status of several historic marks. This edition brings up to the present day all the date letters and commemorative marks. It also includes the recently introduced marks for Palladium and a section illustrating the Assay Office identification marks of those countries that are signatories to the International Convention marking system. In addition and of importance are the changes made in the early cycles of Dublin date letters which result from recent research by silver scholars in Ireland.

Wemyss Ware is an evocative name to anyone with an interest in pottery. It conjures grinning cats and pot-bellied pigs, jugs and plates and other items of tableware, often decorated with an intricate pink cabbage rose or other such bucolic scenes. Produced in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, from 1882 to 1930 (and in Bovey Tracy, England, 1930-1952), Wemyss Ware has an illustrious history. From the Wemyss family, the patrons of this pottery line; to the Queen Mother and Prince Charles, Wemyss Ware has caught the eye of many individuals of note. Among these was George Bellamy, now a legendary collector of Scottish Wemyss, who has been seeking out his pieces since 1976. A treasure trove of Wemyss Ware, this book catalogues a collection lovingly compiled over decades. Carol McNeil’s essay traces the history of the Fife Pottery where Wemyss Ware saw its debut, while Bellamy’s introduction guides the reader through several of the key figures involved in the locating and preserving of these works of art. Scottish Wemyss Ware celebrates the labor, design and artistry that poured into each hand-decorated pot. Often inspired by the Fife countryside where they first originated, these characterful creations are just as delightful now as when they were first produced.

Stuart Devlin was probably the most original and creative goldsmith and silversmith of his time, and one of the greats of all time. His originality of design marked him out as a master craftsman and his prolific output was a tribute to the width of his imagination.” – Foreword by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.

This book gives an idea of Stuart Devlin’s extraordinary creativity, his skill, and the beauty of his work. It comprises over 500 pages with hundreds of images of Devlin’s gold, silver and coins as well as his jewelry, sculpture and furniture. Many collectors will recognize pieces that they originally commissioned or have bought. Also shown are numerous sketches and working drawings. The short sections of text include concise captions and reviews from primary sources. Although it has been impossible to encompass everything ever designed or produced by Devlin, the book highlights how remarkable it is that this wealth of ideas was conceived by just one man. Stuart Devlin was a pioneer goldsmith who rejected the anonymity of corporate design during the 1960s. He adapted old techniques and devised many new ones. His commissions included those for the Royal Households, cathedrals, the armed forces, sporting bodies and universities, as well as abundant private commissions. He was also a coin and medal designer. Australian born, recognition came to Devlin after designing the Australian decimal coinage in 1963. He went on to design coins for more than 30 countries.

White Salt-Glazed Stoneware of the British Isles is the first book on salt-glazed stoneware since 1971. This book is the first to cover salt-glazed production in the whole of the British Isles, not simply the production in Staffordshire. Beginning with the introduction of salt-glazed stoneware into England by German and Dutch potters in the mid-seventeenth century, and John Dwight’s patent of 1672, this book goes on to discuss in detail early industrial stoneware, the manufacture from raw materials to producing and decorating the pots, to marketing and distribution, and even the history of collecting salt-glazed stoneware. There is a chapter on the American market and the final chapter identifies, for the first time, a number of manufacturers who produced salt-glazed stoneware, attributions made possible by the excavations of pottery sites. Beyond that, there are five invaluable appendices with details of all manufacturers of salt-glazed stoneware identified thus far, price lists from the eighteenth century and an extensive bibliography.

“When one is tired of London, one is tired of life.” – Samuel Johnson London has long been a center of the literary world. From Shakespeare to Amis, Byron to Blake, Plath, Thomas, Christie and Rowling; many of the greatest names in literature have made this metropolis their home. Writers’ London guides the reader through homes, bookshops, pubs and cemeteries, in search of where literary greats loved and lost, drank and died. Discover the Islington building where Joe Orton was murdered by his lover, the Soho pub where Dylan Thomas left his manuscript, the Chelsea hotel where Oscar Wilde was arrested, and the Bank of England where Kenneth Graham was shot at (and missed) three times. Gathering hundreds of famous and less-well-known anecdotes, this meticulously researched volume will entertain any lover of literature. Also in the series: Vinyl London ISBN 9781788840156 Rock ‘n’ Roll London ISBN 9781788840163 Art London ISBN 9781788840385 London Peculiars ISBN 9781851499182

This book, using the paintings that Mary McMurtrie left to illustrate an unpublished book on cottage garden flowers, records how she created the garden at Balbithan and used her nursery to distribute the double primroses and cottage garden plants which her husband, John McMurtrie, bequeathed to her. Mary McMurtrie belonged to the small band of enthusiasts, which included Margery Fish and Gladys Emmerson, who grew double primroses during the period after the Second World War. At a time when every fifth day a house of some architectural importance was being demolished, these enthusiasts, along with fellow gardeners, preserved many of the plants from our gardening heritage of the previous centuries. Her flower paintings have been published in Growing Old Fashioned Flowers and Wild Flowers of Scotland and have been widely exhibited in Scotland, England and Europe. The publication of this book symbolises the tradition that she and her small circle maintained for many years as the only keepers of garden plants until the foundation of the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens Gently proud of her Scots ancestry, Mary would have been delighted to know that one of her paintings was chosen as a gift for Prince Charles during a visit to The Gordon Highlander Regiment in 2006. ‘The exquisite watercolor drawings of an accomplished botanical artist, Mary McMurtrie, fill the pages of this retrospective of the life and work of this dedicated collector and grower of precious flora. Born in Scotland in 1902, she died at age 101. During her lifetime, she became an ardent advocate for saving the historic garden plants of Britain. Author Timothy Clark recalls in the narrative the influences on her career, her gardening friends, her restoration of an historic garden, and her favorite plants. His literary style is reminiscent of a cozy chat with a gardening friend as he tells of the heritage of plants and how to grow the rare beauties featured on the pages of this book’.
Marilyn K. Alaimo, garden writer and volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden.

Acknowledged as one of the most important sets of early English tapestries, the Four Seasons set at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, raise many scholarly questions surrounding the design, production and uses of woven tapestry in sixteenth and early-seventeenth century England. Although their main subjects have long been known to copy a set of prints by Maarten de Vos, the 170 emblems with Latin inscriptions that fill their borders have never been fully described, or even listed, in the existing literature and it is only Professor Bath’s identification of sources for more than 100 of these in Renaissance emblem books which now allows us not only to understand exactly what these emblems represent and what they mean, but also to draw some conclusions about the design process of early tapestries and the deeply embedded status of emblems in early-modern British culture.

The 6th International Architectural Paint Research Conference draws on the successes of five previous APR conferences: Stockholm (2014), Lincoln, England (2010), New York (2008), Copenhagen (2005) and London (2000). It was hosted by Columbia University in New York City, March 2017. The theme of the conference, Powers of Ten, is a reference to a short film from 1977 by Charles and Ray Eames. Like the film, Architectural Paint Research (APR) deals with magnitudes of scale, from a single pigment particle, to a painted house, to the decorative tastes of an entire region. In the spirit of the film, the 2017 APR conference took a closer look at how we carry out our research at every level, from the micro to the macroscopic. The papers in this volume come from the talks at this conference and cover many topics including: theoretical and analytical examination of colours and pigments, Conservation requirements and treatments all over the world, interiors, wooden structures and the use and progress of the digital.

Goldscheider, a Viennese factory (est. 1885), soon sped to the top of European ceramics makers. Figures and vessels of faience and terracotta as well as bronze and alabaster, all of top quality in respect of form and workmanship, were created in the Historicist, Jugendstil and Art Deco period styles. A crucial factor to their success was the collaboration with distinguished sculptors and ceramicists of the day, which included Demetre Chiparus, Walter Bosse and Josef Lorenzl, all of whom were responsible for a great many of the Goldscheider designs. This success story was quashed by the National Socialist aryanization in 1938: the Goldscheider family was forced to emigrate, the firm was sold and the new proprietor was unable to sustain the high aesthetic quality standard. The Goldscheider brothers did manage to open new ceramics businesses while in exile in the US and England, and Walter Goldscheider even returned to Vienna after the Second World War to resume his post as managing director of his old firm; however, in the 1950s the great ceramics tradition of this venerable Viennese business ended when it was sold to the German Carstens company. Over 600 color photographs show Goldscheider examples, demonstrating why this firm earned such a highly regarded reputation in the world of ceramics. Text in English and German.

The Alice and Louis Koch Collection of finger rings was originally collated by a jeweler from Frankfurt am Main, once described as the German ‘Cartier and Fabergé’. By 1909 the collection comprised 1,722 rings from Antiquity to 1900. Rene Lalique, a contemporary of the time, was included, undoubtedly as a modernizer of the ring form. In the past twenty-five years the fourth generation of the family continued where Louis Koch and his wife Alice left off and expanded the collection to include rings from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

This publication will present the complete collection of contemporary rings, now kept in the Swiss National Museum, Zurich. Nearly 600 rings by artist jewelers from around the world document how these miniature works of art have become modern sculptures showcasing new materials and techniques, daring designs and current themes.

Text in English and German.

The Formula One book. Art of the Race – V18 is book 5 in a series that encapsulates the very essence of Formula 1 motor racing through the lens of Darren Heath, one of the sport’s most celebrated photographers. Art of The Race captures the key moments and rarely seen images of each race as the 2018 season unfolds, culminating in Lewis Hamilton winning his 5th World title. “Formula 1 is the aesthete’s ultimate sport: an intoxicating cocktail of speed, spectacle, competition and power, at the heart of which are the thoroughbred racing machines exquisite manifestations of form following function, driven at dizzying speeds by the quickest-of-the-quick, the best racing drivers on the planet. From a young age I dreamed of one day photographing the sport I adored. My one desire: to demonstrate through this creative art just how beautiful Formula 1 can be. This yearning has never dimmed. I hope you enjoy the pictures that follow as much as I enjoyed taking them.” Darren Heath – Multiple award-winning photographer with an Honorary Fellowship of The Royal Photographic Society in 2005.

Zen master Takuan Soho (1573 1645) was Abbot of the Daitokuji, the leading Rinzai Zen Temple in Kyoto, and was founder of the Tokaiji Temple in Edo. Living proof that ‘A master of Zen can be master of anything’, his teachings and practice influenced calligraphy, painting, poetry, martial arts, and the tea ceremony. He taught and inspired the Shogun Iemitsu, Yagyu Munenori, founder of one of Japan’s greatest schools of swordsmanship, and Miyamoto Musashi, author of The Book of Five Rings and Japan’s most famous swordsman and master of strategy. Immovable Wisdom includes an account of Takuan’s life and translations of his most important writings, as well as anecdotes encapsulating the essence of his wisdom, which are as relevant today as in his own turbulent era. Master Takuan taught that, rooted in immovable wisdom, the trained mind becomes unfettered; undistracted by the irrelevant, one’s response to the unexpected is always instantaneous and correct. Nobuko Hirose is a translator, writer, and co-author of Japanese Art Signatures, the standard reference on the subject. After graduating from Meiji University in Tokyo she obtained a Master’s degree in Japanese Art History at SOAS, University of London, and settled in England. Her translation skills and lineal descent from a traditional Japanese Zen family make her uniquely qualified to present the wisdom of Takuan Soho to a broader Western audience.