In the space of a few short years, English and Welsh sparkling wines have become recognized as some of the best in the world. Improvements in viniculture, a changing climate and terroir that often mimics the conditions found in the Champagne region of France have combined with the care and attention of predominantly artisanal makers to make fantastic wine. Traveling around more than 50 vineyards, Sparkling Wine celebrates this revolution. The expert author provides tasting notes, visiting information, and details on the terroir for each vineyard, along with engaging insight into the makers and their craft. This book provides an effervescent accompaniment to any country holiday. It collates directions, maps and opening times, making for an informative and accessible guide. You are rarely as far from a vineyard as you might think, and with Sparkling Wine in your pocket, with its pictures of rambling hills and grape-laden vines, Britain’s vineyards seem even closer still.

This concise yet wide-ranging survey of collectible antique furniture, illustrated throughout in full color, guides the new collector through almost three centuries of Western Furniture with clarity and authority. Invaluable as a reference tool, it offers collectors the means to identify key features of a wide variety of pieces, ranging from the Gothic and Renaissance period to Art Nouveau, and the beginning of the twentieth century. The book is structured chronologically by century and, within each time period, by country. Existing collectors will find all titles in the series act as a handy and portable reference, and beginners will welcome a reliable, accessible starting point from which their interests can develop. Readers will find succinct sections detailing all major phases in Western Furniture, with full-color coverage of English, American, French, Italian, German, Austrian, Low Countries, Spanish and Portuguese pieces. The work of important furniture designers is discussed, from the French ébénistes and Chippendale, through key 19th century figures such as Biedermeier, Pugin and Stickley and the mass producers of bentwood such as the Austrian Thonet, to the Belgian and French Art Nouveau designers.

This lavishly illustrated book concentrates on pieces related to eating and drinking and celebrates the range and richness of the turner’s art from 1600 to 1900. It covers a wide range of objects for everyday and ceremonial use; goblets to nutcrackers, platters to lemon squeezers, mortars to salts, wassail bowls to egg cups. It discusses the work of the ‘jobbing’ village turner or ‘bodger’, the skilled craftsman’s workshop and the grand Court turner producing complex rose engine turning. It illustrates pieces only to be found in museums and examples you can find today in your local antiques market or fair.

Information is given on where treen may be seen and found and there is practical advice on pitfalls for the collector, dating and cleaning, as well as a chapter dealing with surfaces and patina and one asking for readers’ help in identifying the purpose of some curious objects. This volume will appeal not only to new collectors seeking guidance and inspiration and antique dealers who may come across treen, but also to experts who can compare the objects in their own collections with those illustrated in this veritable feast of treen.

London’s record shop scene is at its most vital and buoyant point since the 1990s, following a resurgence of interest in vinyl over recent years. Tom Greig, who has immersed himself in the world of London’s record shops for close to two decades, profiles and tells the story of 60 distinctive independent record stores, selling both new and used vinyl. Vinyl London is at once a practical guide, featuring maps, addresses, opening times and stock information, and an attractive visual celebration of London’s record shops. The book is organized geographically, and contains the following chapters; Soho; North; East; South; West; Suburbs; Markets; Vinyl Cafes. Also in the series: Art London ISBN 9781788840385 London Peculiars ISBN 9781851499182

Time in a bottle; this is a collection that explores the unlocking of history through the identification of its unique seals, using crests and coats-of-arms as the ‘keys’ towards identifying the original owner. This three-volume collection examines the evolution of the sealed bottle from the 1640s to the late 1800s and provides a detailed description to accompany each entry, supported by numerous photographs, including the number of examples known, their condition, and the collections where the bottles and detached seals are held. The laying down of wine to improve its quality and longevity related to the social history of the day, the design of the bottles, their evolution and manufacture, are a reflection of the individuals who ordered and used the bottles at home or in the private gentlemen’s clubs, much influenced by the historic events of the 17th through to the 20th centuries. Wine consumption has a place in cultural history; these collected bottles existed at times of incredible upheaval and social change. From the early colonial settlements of the New World, into the slave markets of Richmond, VA, New Orleans, Charleston, SC, and Philadelphia, and with the plantation owners who amassed vast wealth and prestige as a result of this trade. In the taverns and coffee houses of London, alongside the bear baiting and cock fighting to be found across the River Thames in Southwark, in the cellars of the Oxford colleges and Inns of Court, these sealed bottles give much information on the early drinking habits of the aspiring and upwardly mobile, and the established aristocracy. Contents: Volume One: Dated Sealed Bottles 1650 – 1900 Volume Two: Undated Sealed Bottles 17th Century; Undated Sealed Bottles 1700 – 1900; Crests and Coats of Arms, pre-1700 identified; Crests and Coats of Arms, pre-1700 unidentified; Crests and Coats of Arms, post-1700 identified; Crests and Coats of Arms, post-1700 unidentified Volume Three: Chapter One: What is a Sealed Bottle? Chapter Two: Sealed Bottles from the Seventeenth Century; Chapter Three: Sealed Bottles from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries; Chapter Four: Heraldry and Sealed Bottles; Chapter Five: Sealed Bottles from the West Country; Chapter Six: Sealed Bottles from Wales; Chapter Seven: Sealed Bottles associated with the American Colonies; Chapter Eight: Sealed Bottles in Major Public Collections; Chapter Nine: Building a Collection; Chapter Ten: Price Guide and Price Trends

“What a super book! Great photos, and such interesting facts – it all makes a fascinating read.” Christine Walkden – BBC- TV and Radio 4 Gardening Expert

“This is a wonderful book, tracing the history of the family firm and the marvellous structures they created, in great detail. There are detailed accounts of 40 of the firm’s most prestigious structures, stunningly photographed by professional garden photographer Jennifer Lilly. There is even a detailed chronological gazetteer of all the known Pulhamite sites. Definitely a must for your Christmas present list and garden history bookshelf. Hazelle Jackson, Heritage Consultant London Landscapes Autumn/Winter 2012

“It is excellent . . . A brilliant piece of work – I thoroughly recommend it.” Peter Seabrook – Gardening Writer and Broadcaster Amateur Gardening

“The result of many years’ patient research, pulling together fascinating information on the Pulhams’ work, which extended from grand gardens such as Sandringham and Waddesdon to modest suburban villas.” The Times

“A Charming Labour of Love, this offers everything you could wish to know about Pulhamite – and probably much more… The photographs are superb, the research exhaustive and the gazetteer makes it invaluable for the study, restoration and maintenance of Pulhamite features in 19th to early 20th-century gardens.” BBC Gardens Illustrated

This book tells the story of James Pulham & Son, the eminent family of Victorian and Edwardian landscape artists who specialized in the construction of picturesque rock gardens, ferneries, follies and grottoes. The book covers more than four generations of the family business that was also responsible for the manufacture of extremely high-quality terracotta garden ornaments including fountains, vases, sundials and bulastrading. The rock gardens, for which the firm are mainly remembered today, were built with ‘artifical’ rocks – formed from heaps of old bricks and rubble, coated with cement, and sculpted to simulate the color and texture of natural stone. The author’s interest in James Pulham & Son stems from the fact that no fewer than five of his ancestors worked for the company as ‘rock builders’. Features many incredibly famous locations, including Buckingham Palace, Sandringham, Heatherden Hall, Waddesdon Manor, Battersea Park, Friar Park and RHS Garden Wisley.

Inspired by the European project Bosch & Bruegel: Four Paintings Magnified this book contains papers which explore how historical and technical examination of 15th to 18th century European paintings conducted in tandem can not only address key subjects such as meaning, materials and manufacturing techniques, but also allow fresh perspectives on the prevailing workshop practices of copying, replicating and emulating paintings.

This is the first comprehensive overview of the techniques and materials used in a range of monumental paintings from different regions, dating from the mid fourth century BC to the first century BC, which reflect Hellenistic culture. It is based primarily on the technical examination, undertaken by the author during her D.Phil thesis at the University of Oxford, of materials of different typology: paintings – including wall paintings, painted architectural elements and marble monuments. Further information was taken from selected published and unpublished sources. The book provides significant new evidence on techniques and materials of painting and pigments during this period. The in situ examination of the paintings was based on careful visual observation and employed special lighting and photographic methods for recording and documenting the paintings. This revealed important features and allowed hypotheses to be established concerning the techniques and materials of the Ancient Greeks.

Along the great Silk Road, numerous objects of cultural heritage survive as witnesses to the mingling of indigenous cultures with ‘foreign’ cultures. One type of surviving witness is mural painting and the papers in this volume are witnesses themselves of a colloquium on the subject of Mural paintings of the Silk Road attended by art historians, historians and archaeologists, scientists and conservators from East and West, held in Tokyo in 2006. A newfound recognition of the vastness of the Silk Road, along with a genuine rediscovery of the ancient cultural exchanges that took place there is reflected in this collection of papers which examines the range of information (art styles, techniques and materials) encapsulated within mural paintings, allowing the reader a glimpse of the dynamism inherent in the cultural exchanges between East and West. Today, parts of the Silk Road, rich in the magnificence of the ancient arts they possess, are often located in countries facing major challenges. Countless important archaeological sites are in danger of demolition or severe damage by human encroachment or turmoil. This symposium also addressed such issues – more from an Asian point of view, reaching beyond European perspectives. This volume is published in association with the Japan Center for International Co-operation in Conservation, National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, and contains the proceedings of the 29th Annual International Symposium on the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, January 2006.

This publication is the result of a project of technical examination on metalpoint drawings which was undertaken in preparation for the exhibition Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns. In this volume we report the results of the examination of thirty metalpoint drawings in the British Museum’s collection from Germany and the Low Countries dating from the 15th to 17th centuries. This research builds on the work done for an earlier project, published in Italian Renaissance Drawings: Technical Examination and Analysis. The research methodology used combines techniques of visual examination, technical imaging and chemical analysis in order to understand drawing techniques and the use of materials. In some cases curators had particular questions that might be further investigated through this research. The results are fully documented here and it is hoped that this will form a useful reference in the future, as comparative information to the examination of drawings in other collections.

This book follows the author’s popular title ‘Fungal Facts’ and is designed to help collections managers, conservators, curators and students (of materials and material culture) to understand the properties of fibrous proteins. The author presents relevant information to assist in developing new approaches to care, conservation and research of objects and understanding conservation treatment interactions. Subject areas include: the link between heritage objects and natural history specimens; the different collagenous tissues used in heritage artefacts including the skin structure of several different specimens; amino acids; the numerous agents of protein deterioration; the effects of water in fibrous protein materials; collagen structure and the deterioration of collagen; tanning processes; striated muscle and elastin in fluid-preserved natural history specimens.

The primary aim of the ATSR Working Group is to establish a focus for historical documentary source research and reconstructions on art materials and techniques. Documentary source research is often an essential component of conservation research, or art historical research. Reconstructions, a natural follow-on from the collection of information on materials and their use, can form an invaluable tool. This publication is a collection of papers from the third symposium of the Art Technological Source Research Working Group held in 2008. The papers centre on the exploration of artists’ practice from a wide range of disciplines and periods, as recorded in visual and written testimonies; from treatises and manuals to correspondence, ledgers, diaries and journals, as well as images such as paintings, prints, photographs and film.

Presents a detailed study of the transferred wall paintings in Denmark. However, the material and case studies presented contain information of interest to all conservators and others working with wall paintings.

Du Paquier, an independently operating Viennese porcelain factory, was established in 1718, only eight years after Meissen. Although its heyday was brief, lasting only twenty-five years, Du Paquier produced porcelain of great beauty, notable for an enchantingly graceful style and consummate sophistication of execution. In three sumptuously illustrated volumes, scholars of international standing present the distinctive style and the exciting history of Du Paquier porcelain in the context of Baroque Vienna. The first comprehensive publication on this important porcelain factory, this work has been made possible through a five-year research programme conducted by the Melinda and Paul Sullivan Foundation for the Decorative Arts. The objects shown, many of them for the first time here, are in major public and private collections. The first volume deals with the historical and stylistic background of Du Paquier porcelain: art and architecture in early eighteenth-century Baroque Vienna; furthermore, the history of the porcelain factory, its style and its manifold sources of inspiration as well as Du Paquier’s relationship to Meissen and the role played at Du Paquier by independent porcelain painters and decorators. The second volume places this Viennese porcelain in its cultural context, providing broad-ranging information on court banquet ceremony as well as private pleasures such as drinking and festive dining. Objects used in aristocratic circles are shown along with choice presents of state made to the Ottoman and Russian courts. In addition, this volume contains a new study on the Dubsky Room, the only room still in existence devoted to Du Paquier porcelain. The contents of the third volume include an annotated catalogue comprising approximately 500 objects, scholarly analysis and a chapter on the history of collecting Du Paquier porcelain, an inventory of the Dubsky Room, a bilingual glossary of terms and a complete bibliography. An enclosed CD-ROM contains transcriptions of original documents that have played an important role in the history of the Du Paquier porcelain factory. “This definitive work provides a fascinating survey of Viennese baroque court culture.”
The Art Newspaper

The upsurge in publishing in the sixteenth century turned the Reformation into a media event, and printed products of every kind superseded the communication methods used thus far. Flyers were particularly successful in reaching their audiences as an easily affordable information medium. Renowned artists such as Hans Sebald Beham, Lucas Cranach Sr, Albrecht Dürer and Michael Ostendorfer produced the woodcuts for these single-sheet prints, which thematised the political, religious and societal happenings of the time. Portraits of protagonists, such as Luther and Karl V., but also fables and proverbs as well as reports on miracles and celestial phenomena, catastrophes and crime all found their platform in these pages. One of the largest collections of illustrated single-sheet prints in the Palace Museum of the Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha provides a rich treasure trove of prints that informed the Reformation. The Gotha inventory of around 700 flyers from 1480 to 1599 is today considered unprecedented. Now for the first time it has been published in its entirety. Text in German.

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 work of the English artist Hamish Fulton (b. in London in 1946) uncontestedly occupies a unique position among the artistic stances taken in the 20th and early 21st centuries. Fulton is a “walking artist”, one whose central theme is nature and nature as humans experience it. For the past thirty years he has been taking long walks on all five continents. He captures the emotional and physical experiences resulting from this activity in photographs, drawings, murals and texts. They range from basic information on the duration, location and conditions of these walks to Haiku-like, poetically meditative excerpts from his diaries. His work contains aspects of both Land art and Conceptual art. Fulton has taken hundreds of walks and lives by the motto “No Walk – No Art”. On his most recent perambulations, his diary has increasingly replaced his camera; hence words and drawings have pride of place in the present book on the trip he took to Tibet in 2007. For Fulton is not concerned with providing travel documentation that is as objective as possible. On the contrary, he wants to capture the feeling of walking and express it in his – by now increasingly abstract – works.