This book, using the paintings that Mary McMurtrie left to illustrate an unpublished book on cottage garden flowers, records how she created the garden at Balbithan and used her nursery to distribute the double primroses and cottage garden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.

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.

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.

“Anyone who appreciates the beauty of antique tools needs to have a copy” Jim Gehring, The Fine Tool Journal
“Lavish, stunning, outstanding, magnificent … superlatives just don’t do justice to this book.” canadianwoodworking.com Amassed over nearly forty years, the David Russell collection brings together a stunning array of edge and boring tools from Britain, continental Europe and North America, thus providing a broad survey of hand tool-making from prehistory to today. All the tools are illustrated with James Austin’s photographs, with details and marks shown where appropriate. Special attention is given to planes, and the great British makers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are discussed in depth. Since prehistoric times there has been a never-ending quest for better ways to cut and bore wood. Along the way this has produced a wide variety of hand tools, and there are many where beauty and function meet. The book will appeal to a wide range of readers, including collectors, craftsmen, industrial archaeologists and social and economic historians, as well as historians of material culture.
Amassed over nearly forty years, the David Russell collection brings together a stunning array of edge and boring tools from Britain, continental Europe and North America, thus providing a broad survey of hand tool-making from prehistory to today. All the tools are illustrated with James Austin’s photographs, with details and marks shown where appropriate. Special attention is given to planes, and the great British makers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are discussed in depth.

Since prehistoric times there has been a never-ending quest for better ways to cut and bore wood. Along the way this has produced a wide variety of hand tools, and there are many where beauty and function meet.

The book will appeal to a wide range of readers, including collectors, craftsmen, industrial archaeologists and social and economic historians, as well as historians of material culture.

Accompanying a touring exhibition, which opened at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and is now traveling through the U.S. and Australia, this highly illustrated catalog showcases highlights from Paul Cahn’s collection of magnificent silver bearing the mark of the illustrious Huguenot silversmith, Paul de Lamerie. Other pieces marked by Lamerie’s contemporaries are also featured to show the broader context of his work and to give us a deeper understanding of the London trade at the time. The author provides us with new insights into Lamerie’s remarkable success and influence within the London cultural scene.

A magnificent collection of silver-gilt objects from England and France, meticulously cataloged and illustrated with stunning photographs that illuminate these beautiful items. Famous makers include: Pierre Platel, Benjamin Smith, Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot, Martin-Guillaume Biennais, Phillip Rundell and Paul Storr.

Each entry includes comprehensive technical data, with an accompanying short description, setting each object in its social and historical context.

Published in conjunction with displays shown at: TEFAF, Maastricht, 15th-24th March 2013; Masterpiece, London, 26th June-3rd July 2013; Fine Art Asia, Hong Kong, 3rd-7th October 2013; International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Shows, New York, 24th-31st October 2013.

Joseph Losey’s award-winning movie The Go-Between was filmed entirely on location in Norfolk in 1970. The film charts the tragic story of a young boy’s loss of innocence during a hot summer and stars Julie Christie and Alan Bates as a pair of lovers crossing class boundaries in late Victorian England. The production brought together the playwright Harold Pinter, who adapted L.P. Hartley’s elegant novel for the screen, the acclaimed director Joseph Losey and a cast of international stars for ten weeks’ filming in and around Melton Constable Hall in north Norfolk – a time of happy creativity, some tension and a good deal of comedy. But the idyllic summer only came about after years of bitter battling over the rights of the book, and it was to be followed by yet more intrigue and high drama, which culminated in the film’s triumph at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Palme d’Or.

Thomas Daniell was thirty-six years old when he and his nephew William, barely sixteen, sailed out from Gravesend in April 1785, headed for the East. They arrived in Calcutta via China the next year.

The Daniells traveled across India, painting oriental scenery wherever they went. Their views were widely appreciated and are representative of that fascinating period. The Daniells returned to England in September 1794. This special book presents a selection of their work in India, bringing alive the scenery and architecture of that age.

Bloom: The Luminous Gardens of Frederico Azevedo presents the accomplished work of Frederico Azevedo – the Brazilian landscape designer who has established himself as the leading gardener of the Hamptons. With stunning projects all over Long Island, Azevedo’s work carries an emphasis on flowers which he uses to ‘lure the eye through the flow of the design’. His signature curving, floral borders are the hallmark of an Azevedo garden. He also often creates multi-dimensional vistas using layers of flowers, trees, grasses, shrubs, and hedges for a dramatic effect. The results of his impeccable designs are soft and romantic, but always sophisticated, well executed, and most importantly, adaptable to whatever its environment may bring. Discover the luminous world of Frederico Azevedo and his dazzling gardens.  Contents: Introduction; Casa Meu; Vista; Bloom; Green; Border; Tree; Stone; Water; More.

Published in conjunction with the tenth year of the New York-based showhouse Holiday House, the book highlights the best and brightest rooms by over 75 of the world’s top interior designers. Holiday House: Ten Years of Decorating for a Cure is a celebration of the union of design and philanthropy. The Holiday House showhouse was founded by Iris Dankner to raise breast cancer awareness in the design industry. Dankner is a 20-year breast cancer survivor, and has made it her mission to raise funds for breast cancer research and to support women who need help fighting this disease. In 2008, combining her two passions – her love of design and her efforts to help women in need, Dankner created Holiday House, the first designer show house held in New York to benefit a breast cancer organization. In this lavish book, the magic and skill of interior designers comes to life as empty rooms are transformed into a variety of interpretations. The showhouse was held at the Academy Mansion, a historic house on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and was a resounding success, with all the proceeds donated to help end the scourge of breast cancer. Since its inception, Holiday House has received critical acclaim, been endorsed by some of the most celebrated global luxury brands, and has expanded to showhouses in the Hamptons on Long Island, SoHo in downtown Manhattan, and in the Fall of 2017 in London, England.

Siam 1890. Blue-stocking Julie Gallet is an independent-minded Parisian who has made what her English mother describes as an imprudent match. Following her husband to the Far East, she comes to stay with Michael Crawfurd, her British diplomat cousin and discovers a glittering city of golden spires and colonial intrigue as the Kingdom is caught between France’s territorial ambitions and England’s quest for supremacy and influence in Asia. Resisting her family’s entreaties to return home, Julie settles in Bangkok, becomes a French teacher to the ladies of the Royal Court and becomes passionately involved in Siamese life and affairs. Her frank and irreverent journal recounts her growing political awareness along with the awakening of her sensuality. While Paris and London play a game of global chess with the Siamese as their pawns, both she and Michael find their national and personal loyalties tested. Their lives and loves take unexpected turns, and Siam struggles to retain its independence against a ruthless and formidable opponent. Blending fact and fiction, Siamese Tears is a faithful account of the events leading to the Paknam incident through the eyes of those who witnessed them.

House design in Britain and Ireland is guided by climate, landscape and local resources just as much as the centuries-old traditions that have influenced architectural shape and form. Today’s best-known and emerging architects interpret their briefs with imaginative flair: they are transforming houses for the next generation of families by blending their renewed vigor for a local aesthetic with new materials and trends. Many of the new houses featured in British + Irish Modern reflect the architect’s focus on redefining local expectations for form by beautifully juxtaposing the traditional with contemporary structures, thus forging a new vernacular. Architects across this region are wholeheartedly seeking opportunities to re-use existing structures in myriad ways, resulting in surprising and remarkably unique renditions of old houses and buildings made new. Shown in stunning, full-color photographic detail are hundreds of pages of new and renovated houses, cottages and even converted barns nestled in misty rural valleys, including new and retrofitted modern inner-city terraces and townhouses that make the best use of available space. Houses are selected for levels of comfort, use of materials, and dramatic expression of traditional and contemporary architecture, as well as houses that capitalize on longer and warmer summers imposed by changing weather patterns in this corner of the globe. Houses are designed with indoor spaces and intimate courtyards for play and recreation that draw in light and shield from the extreme weather elements yet maintain an eye on sustainability and affordability. British + Irish Modern reveals a rich array of works that showcase how architecture in Britain and Ireland today has much to teach the world about creative, high-caliber design, innovative application of materials, and cautious but clever reliance on resources.

Living Where Land Meets Sea features 35 homes that showcase 10 years of work inspired by the coast and designed and built by Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects Builders (PSD). This stunning volume also contains the firm’s resort work; selected work in process; an introduction by John Wriedt; text by John R. DaSilva, the firm’s Design Principal; and interpretive poetry written specifically for the book by GennaRose Nethercott. The work of PSD synthesizes ideas from Modernism, the Shingle Style and New England vernacular architecture into unique, playful homes that are carefully crafted for each different site and client. Living Where Land Meets Sea continues the lavishly illustrated and thoughtfully written coverage of PSD’s work that occurs in previous IMAGES titles on the firm, Architecture of the Cape Cod Summer and Shingled Houses in the Summer Sun, and is a wonderful addition to IMAGES’ expanding New Classicists series. PSD’s poetic architecture reflects on the beauty of living by the sea, and this major new monograph beautifully presents that work and the ideas embodied within it.

Classic, refined, and alluring are just some of the ways to describe Sarah Blank Design Studio’s timeless kitchen designs. Sarah Blank’s vast expertize in the classicist language spanning many decades and her creative vision for contemporary elegance form the basis of her understanding that a beautiful and functional kitchen is not only an integral part of the architecture of the house, but the very heart of the home. She incorporates a set of rules and principles in her work that are imperative to beautiful and functional design, mastering some of the finest kitchens ever developed for a new generation of happy homeowners. This beautifully photographed volume presents a stunning selection of award-winning projects, each showcasing exquisite beauty, attention to detail, and technical prowess.

Sir Edwin Lutyens is widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest architects. In a career of over 50 years, spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and modern eras of architecture, Lutyens was prolific. His work ranged from great country houses, city commercial office buildings, his famous World War I memorials across Europe and Britain, and his magnum opus designs for New Delhi built during the 1920s and 1930s. Despite such diversity of building types across his long career, Lutyens’s most celebrated works remain his country houses, which first established his reputation during the 1890s. As Lutyens’s practice flourished his work became widely promoted in publications such as Country Life magazine, and his houses, particularly those designed in the vernacular manner, would subsequently give rise to an entire genre of the English country house that became known, as it is to this day, as a ‘Lutyens-style’ house. Sir Edwin Lutyens: The Arts and Crafts Houses brings together in new, wide-format, full-colour photography a definitive collection of 45 of Lutyens’s great Arts and Crafts houses, in which he ingeniously blended the style of the Arts and Crafts movement with his own inventive interpretation of the Classical language of architecture. The book features 575 all-new current photographs of the houses, inside and outside, together with a selection of floor plans of the houses, and a fresh interpretation of Lutyens’s enduring architectural genius.

This monograph on Susanna Bauer presents the artist’s work to an international audience for the first time in book form. The essential ingredients of Bauer’s artistic production are the ephemeral natural elements that she encounters during walks and hikes in the South-West of the UK where she lives and works. They are leaves, stones, twigs… elements that become the heart of more elaborate creations rendered with crochet – sometimes used conventionally as a decoration, other times as a sculptural means of communication. Bauer’s leaves are airy sculptures in which the artist pursues a balance between strength and fragility. Nature becomes a metaphor for humanity: the artfully interwoven threads remind us that we are all part of a vaster network and therefore generators of connections. But it also stands for life: viewing these works it is impossible not to reflect on the confluences of beauty and vulnerability, resistance and transformation. 

The theme of the relationship between art and nature, and the ensuing interconnections, are investigated both through Bauer’s original work and in an introductory essay that analyses her œuvre within the broader context of the history of art.

Xu Zhimo (1897-1931) was China’s first great modern poet and a major figure of the intellectual revolution that shaped modern China. Educated in China (Peking University), America (Columbia and Clark), and England (Cambridge, where there is a monument in his honor), he was in contact with every major Chinese literary figure of his day, and met and was influenced by Rabindranath Tagore, Thomas Hardy, Katherine Mansfield, and Bertrand Russell, among others. Xu incorporated elements of the English poetic tradition and that of East India with native Chinese traditions to create a body of work that spoke to his contemporaries at a critical time in their history, and still speaks today. This book presents the largest selection of Xu’s poems available in English, as well as some of his prose works. Essays by translator Dorothy Bonett put the poet into context for English-speaking readers and reveals links between his works and other modern poetry, both Chinese and non-Chinese.

During a career spanning more than 50 years, the Belgian visionary Panamarenko – engineer, poet, artist, physicist, inventor – conducted meticulous studies of the natural world and various scientific principles. He analyzed the secrets of the universe, gravity, and other energetic mysteries, and formulated both logical and well-considered solutions. His work was poetic, the result of a seamless coalescence of artistic skill and scientific research; the outcome of which could take the form of a flying saucer, backpack helicopter, flying carpet, zeppelin, solar powered car, submarine, or prehistoric mechanical bird. Each of his spectacular constructions possessed not only a peculiar beauty and naive playfulness, but also a degree of conspicuous consideration. In 2001, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent held a retrospective of Panamarenko’s work, for which the artist designed and wrote this oversized catalog – a work of art in its own right.