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Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, with 80,000 hectares of vines spanning a variety of soils and climates. It has been producing wine since the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century and today makes a range of wines: sweet, sparkling, easy-drinking and ageable. Although it produces similar volumes to countries such as New Zealand, Greece and Austria, its wines are not well known outside of South America.

The Wines of Brazil is therefore for wine explorers in search of diverse, off the beaten track wines. It begins by relating Brazil’s wine-making history, before moving on to explain current viticulture and wine making. The regions and their wine producers are profiled in detail, with a particular focus on those whose wines are sold outside the country.

Features a detailed history of alcohol production in Brazil, from indigenous peoples to the arrival of European settlers to the foundations of today’s wine business.

Explores Brazil’s differing varieties and wine growing methods across its broad range of terroirs, from the pioneering region of Serra Gaúcha in the south to the northern tropics of the São Francisco Valley.

Provides details on many of Brazil’s producers, including the author’s recommendations and information on visiting wineries. Author is a Brazilian national who has been a wine educator for more then two decades. Supported by color maps and photos.

Horological trends flit by faster than ever in today’s fast-paced society. But Rolex does not rely on gimmicks; theirs is a more perennial allure, with a reputation built on traditions and hard-earned skill. A company that innovates while paying homage to their roots, every Rolex is the culmination of centuries of watchmaking expertise. Within this bestselling book you will find explanations of the making process, descriptions of the materials involved and expert commentary on what makes each Rolex wristwatch unique.
This new revised edition of The Book of Rolex has been brought right up to date since it first published in 2015, to include all the latest information on this most desirable of watch brands along with many new images. Demonstrating how each model fits its social milieu, present and past, this book also addresses the multitude of fakes on the market, including the so-called ‘Frankensteins’ – watches made from a mixture of real parts and forgeries, which are notoriously hard to spot – imparting all the skills needed to pick counterfeits out of a line-up. A holistic view of Rolex watches, this book promises to be as timeless as the brand itself. Should you be considering a Rolex, this book will convince you of its worth as an investment. 

The Little Book of Solitude invites you to explore the meaning and impact of seclusion. Photographer Joost Joossen presents a collection of inspiring stories, quotes, and insights from extraordinary thinkers, artists and famous writers, all of whom have embraced the power of being alone. This book offers a fascinating glimpse into their minds, exploring the power of solitude and the importance of withdrawing from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Learn how inspiring figures like David Lynch, Susan Sontag but also the Japanese samurai look for and find moments of profound reflection in seclusion and how they translated these valuable insights into their work and creative expression. Whether you yearn for a moment of silence and introspection yourself or simply have a curiosity about the inner journey of remarkable minds, the content but also the carefully designed form of this book will inspire you to embrace the power of being alone and discover how it can enrich your own ideas and insights.

Paris is the physical memory of seven World Expos that took place in the city from 1855 to 1937. These Expos left behind monuments like the Eiffel Tower, the Musée d’Orsay, the Grand and Petit Palais… But many traces are more subtle: your suitcase today is an evolution of the trunk Louis Vuitton won a gold medal with at Paris’ Exposition Universelle in 1867, and the typical Parisian bistro chairs were designed during those years when a multitude of cafés and restaurants flourished because of the Expos, including icons like Le Procope.

A cocktail of travel guide and history book, Nobody Sits Like the French tells these stories and many more, pointing out the marks the Expos left behind. From now on, you’ll know that every time you sip a glass of burgundy, drink from Baccarat crystal, admire a Manet or a Gauguin, and even enjoy the benefits of a working sewer system in Paris, you owe it to a World Expo there.

Follow The Coast guides you along the Atlantic coast, on the west side of the Iberian peninsula, from San-Sebastián, the capital of gastronomy, to Gibraltar, on the southern tip of Europe. This visual travel guide explores the Spanish and Portuguese coastlines, with countless charming beaches, rugged cliffs and hidden gems. The book is a photobook gathering high-end nature photography, but also a guide which can be your companion for a road trip or beach holiday. Last but not least, it tells the formidable story of our project where we run the entire European coastline with a collective of brave runners who run 100km a day.

The World’s Best Beaches takes you to 200 breathtaking beaches scattered across the globe. This book is a true tribute to the most beautiful coastlines, where every beach lover can find their paradise. From pristine, pearl-white sands in the tropics to dramatic cliffs along rugged shores, these carefully selected destinations are all worthy of your bucket list. Be inspired by gorgeous photos that make you dream of your next beach adventure, and plan your trip with the practical information provided. This book is a must-have for anyone who loves sun, sea, and sand.

Katya and the Prince of Siam is the story of a daring love affair and marriage between a beautiful young Ukrainian-Russian girl Ekaterina Ivanovna Desnitskaya from Kiev and Prince Chakrabongse, one of King Chulalongkorn‘s favorite sons. It tells of their meeting in St Petersburg in 1904 where the Prince had an honorary commission in the Hussars as a protégé of Tsar Nicolas II, of elopement to Constantinople and their journey to Siam. At first she was an outcast in Thai Society, known as Mom Katerin, but gradually gained love and respect. In 1908, their son, Prince Chula, was born and for the next 10 years they enjoyed life in Bangkok society as well as making various trips abroad and throughout Siam.

Making use of unpublished archive material, the book is a fascinating insight into life of both pre-Revolutionary Russia and the Siamese court. This revised edition by Narisa Chakrabongse includes many newly found letters which provide new insights into the lives of Katya, Prince Chakrabongse and their son Prince Chula.

Cycling Myanmar, Mandalay, and the Nylon Hotel over three decades, Daniel Ehrlich opens a series of windows onto people and places held captive in time. Through beautifully crafted vignettes of coming and going, meeting and waiting, we are invited to get to know a prince among sidecar drivers, and anglophile living on the banks on the Irrawaddy, a long-haired freedom fighting musician, an octogenarian English teacher who might have been a princess, and the inventor who built a helicopter out of teak. Each story, in its own way, reflects the tragedy of a country trapped under military rule. But each contains human possibilities, fragile hope for the future, and the connections to deeper traditions in which darkness is a necessary counterpart to the light.

Ehrlich writes with warmth, insight, and a good deal of humour. This book should be required reading for all who are friends of Burma and who wish a better and free future for the Burmese people”. Richard Axelby, SOAS, University of London

The latest in the super-successful Stickerbomb line of urban art sticker books. This book, of fully peelable stickers, brings together the best in today’s craft label brewing design and illustration from around the world. From super slick minimal design, wild and wacky illustration to raggedy type, The Craft Beer Sticker Book presents an exploration of the visual culture behind indie brewing.

Featuring over 300 stickers from 34 microbreweries near and far including Admundsen, Basqueland, Exale, To-øl, Reubens, The Craft Beer Sticker Book explores the eye-catching visuals breweries use to make their beer stand out. With key interviews with designers on the forefront of brewing, this sticker book is an indispensable collection for any beer, graphics and illustration obsessive.

Jan Verlinden refers to himself as a “Scenery Sculptor,” specializing in the creation and design of green spaces for exceptional country homes and castles in Belgium and France. His work emphasizes a harmonious balance between humanity and nature through intuitive design. In this first monograph, he showcases his eight favorite garden and landscape designs from recent years, richly illustrated with his stunning drawings and accompanying texts. Jan is introduced by three prominent figures in the field: architect Bart Moors, “Solitair” owner Dirk Cools, and the Pas-Partoe architecture and interior design studio.

World-renowned photographer Thomas De Bruyne (Cafeine, with over 140,000 followers on Instagram) has taken on the challenge of capturing the landscape and garden poetry of Jan Verlinden in stunning photographs.

Text in English and Dutch.

Geert Baudewijns, full-time ransomware negotiator, is called every week by hacked companies and governments across the globe. But by then, it’s too late. Cybercriminals have infiltrated the system. To prevent worse-case scenarios – weeks of downtime, all your data leaked – over 70 percent of the victims give in to ransom demands. And malicious hacker collectives on the dark web are making fortunes. This is still a taboo because no one wants to go public with it. Who is at risk? How do hackers operate? How can we protect ourselves? In this book, Baudewijns takes the reader into the dark side of the digital world. His insider stories describe recent cases from around the world.

The catalog brings all the paintings in the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze together for the first time. It is a straightforward, convenient tool, aimed at all types of users, particularly suitable for educational use, for a first approach to the museum’s paintings or for quick searches by experts or those who would like to become one.

Arranging the paintings in alphabetical order by the names of the artists seemed to us to be the simplest and most natural criterion for anyone who was not already an expert. The catalog includes the various names of the painters, and a brief biography introduces each artist. This is followed by the entry or, if there is more than one, the entries on the works by this artist in the museum collections, in alphabetical order by title. Each work is reproduced with a recent photograph.

This volume constitutes an invaluable collection of data, essential for future studies and discussions regarding the paintings. The book is introduced by an exhaustive essay by Cecilie Hollberg, the Director of the Galleria.

The new edition of The Art of Cookery re-proposes the recipes of the Florentine culinary tradition, enhancing their simplicity, capturing their modern aspects, veering some of them towards an accuracy in the procedures to ensure that those who try the recipes – and then those who are lucky enough to taste them – will discover the presence and taste of each individual ingredient. All organized within the time frames of today’s schedules. We should not be scandalized if the procedures cemented in the historical memory of domestic walls are made faster through the use of the appliances now routinely used in the kitchen. So bring on the pressure cookers, mixers, blenders and immersion robots if they can help to free up a bit of time and a bit of happy effort in favor of imagination and creativity.

Cooking with passion is a game that continually puts us to the test, with results that only our guests can judge.

The Global Eye. Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese Maps in the Collections of the Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici is the companion catalogue to the exhibition of the same name. For the first time, it presents all 82 ‘Castello’ maps in color. The maps are so named because from the end of the eighteenth century until their transfer to the Laurentian Library in 1921 they decorated the rooms of the Medicean villa of Castello outside Florence.

From 1667 to 1669, the young Grand Duke Cosimo III conducted his grand tour, which took him to various countries in Europe. While in the Low Countries on his first journey he purchased 65 maps and hand-drawn views of cities; on his second, longer trip he arrived in Lisbon, where he bought copies of maritime maps. The collection of maps and colonial vistas from Holland, Portugal and Spain provide us with insight into the shape of the world in the mid-17th century as well as information about the circulation of people and ideas.

The catalog describes and accurately analyzes each map while providing details on the places shown and the contents of the legends and captions, when these are present. The essays discuss the history of the maps, from the time of their purchase by the grand duke to their arrival at the Laurentian Library.

It’s easy to fall in love with the Hamptons. Charming towns, pristine beaches – and that luminous light cherished by locals and generations of beach lovers. While it’s famous for its magnificent mansions and coiffed hedges, there is so much more here to than meets the eye. Come find the hidden secrets of the Hamptons waiting to be discovered with 111 Places in the Hamptons That You Must Not Miss. Hang ten at a secret surfers’ beach. See the studio where artist Jackson Pollock painted his masterpieces. Get lost in a field of lavender. Visit a haunted lighthouse. Ride a horse along a secluded beach. Take a stroll in the graveyard where Picasso’s forgotten muse is buried. From wood-shingled windmills to hydrangea-rimmed roads. White, sandy beaches – to calm, bayside views. These places of nature, history, art, and delightful quirkiness are the very reasons why the East End of Long Island has become one of the most beloved travel destinations in the world.

This volume contains papers and posters presented at the conference Bridging the Gap: Synergies between Art History and Conservation, which was held at the National Museum, Oslo, 23–24 November 2023, organized by the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Conservation Section in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam, the University of Oslo and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.

Bridging the Gap – Synergies between Art History and Conservation aims to bring forth new research in conservation and conservation science by highlighting the benefits of multidisciplinarity. The scientific committee invited conservators, art historians, educators and heritage scientists alike to present research from collaborative projects that aid our understanding, interpretation and dissemination of art, architecture and design.

Utrecht, The Netherlands. 13 February 2034. A self-driving car is hacked and its safety features deactivated, causing a deadly accident. NATO, supervising global internet security, realizes the whole world is in danger when soon afterwards two more attacks occur. Europol inspector Lara Hartman and communications specialist Frank Willems are at the forefront of a desperate manhunt for the criminals behind these acts of cyber terrorism. Everything seems to be pointing to a dangerous computer virus. But time is running out, and they must find an antivirus that can prevent evil from striking again…

Tent Poles in the ground is a collection of twenty-one texts by Stephen Bates. Like Papers (2001), Papers 2 (2007) and Papers 3 (2016), which were written in collaboration with Jonathan Sergison, co-founder of Sergison Bates architects, ‘Tent Poles’ testifies to the importance of writing as part of a form of practice that includes building and teaching.

The reflections included are part of the process of developing and testing ideas in Sergison Bates’s London studio and in Stephen Bates’s teaching studio at the Chair of Urbanism and Housing, TU München. Covering a range of themes, from domesticity to the city, landscape and the design process, they record both the fundamental principles that inform his approach to architecture and the shifts in thinking that have come about in 30 years of practice.

While these are personal reflections on buildings and spaces, they were inspired by discussions across the table in the London studio, with teaching colleagues and students in Munich, and meetings with interesting people from different creative disciplines. Like the making of buildings, thinking and writing about them, too, is always the result of a process of collaboration.

The largest surviving portion of the first major collection of Classical antiquities in Britain – the sculptures and inscriptions collected in the early 17th century by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel for his London house and garden – is in the Antiquities Department of the Ashmolean Museum. This handbook tracks their eventful history.

The collection of drawings in the Ashmolean is one of the greatest treasures of the University of Oxford. It began spectacularly in 1843 when a group of drawings by Raphael and Michelangelo that had previously belonged to the portrait painter, Sir Thomas Lawrence, was bought by subscription. Lawrence’s collection was one of the greatest collections of Old Master drawings ever assembled and its dispersal was much regretted. The Raphaels and Michelangelos, however, were the jewels in its crown. Following their arrival in Oxford, their fame attracted a number of gifts and bequests of drawings and watercolors by Dürer, Claude Lorraine, Brueghel, J. M. W Turner and many others.

This is a story not only of Old Masters but of benefactors – Francis Douce, Chambers Hall, John Ruskin and their successors – whose different tastes account for the variety of the drawings in the modern Print Room. It is a story also of the curators who bought them. In particular, it is the story of Sir Karl Parker who arrived at the museum in 1934 and left a collection when he retired in 1962 that comprehensively covered the history of the art of drawing in Europe from its origins to the present day. The exhibition, Master Drawings: Michelangelo to Moore, celebrates this history. It includes many of the finest drawings in Oxford, representing the work of many different artists: Raphael and Michelangelo; Dürer and the artists of the Northern Renaissance; Guercino and Rubens; Boucher and Tiepolo; German Romantics; J. M. W. Turner; Degas and Pissarro; the artists of the Ballets Russes; British twentieth-century artists from Gwen John to Hockney; and much else.

Dante (the seventh centenary of whose death is being marked in 2021), the author of one of the greatest works of European literature, has also inspired a wealth of images which, themselves, continue to shape our perceptions of the poet as visionary; of romantic love and political corruption; and of hell and salvation, whether understood in the context of this world or another. At the core of the Comedy and of its related visual images is the emblematic significance of the lives of individual persons.

Dante may be considered the inventor of our modern ideas of fame and celebrity. He was the first person who, though of no particular distinction in the world – a mere poet – became a celebrity in his own lifetime. And in the Comedy, Dante made famous individuals about whom we should otherwise know nothing. For the first time, poetry turned obscurities into household names – the doomed adulterous lovers, Paolo and Francesca; Ciacco the glutton; the gentle personality of La Pia. The radical democracy of Dante’s perspective had no precedent. 

Dante also questioned the significance and value of worldly fame. His reflection on the human desire for notoriety is paradigmatic for our own society of spectacle, in which (as Andy Warhol predicted) ‘everyone will be world-famous for five minutes’. Dante himself was keenly aware of religious warnings about the futility of worldly vanity; yet he arrived at a personal conviction that the earthly fame of the poet could none the less be a force for good. 

Insurgency and the Artist explores not merely how Indian printmakers and artists responded to the freedom struggle but also how the art they fashioned invoked their own conception of the nation, their sense of the past, and the contors of the movement for India’s emancipation from the yoke of colonial oppression. Recent scholarly work has been almost entirely riveted on nationalist prints, and much of it has focused on the idea of Bharat Mata, but this book seeks to furnish a more rounded account of the artwork — including etchings, paintings, woodblocks prints, and cartoons — contemporary to the freedom struggle and also highlights the work of neglected artists such as Babuji Shilpi, S.L. Parasher, Zainul Abedin, and M.V. Dhurandhar, among others. The author considers how the Indian past was rendered as one of martial resistance to ‘foreign’ rule, the manner in which artists worked with mythic material, and, of course, the treatment of the larger-than-life figures of Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Subhas Bose, and other patriots in nationalist art. This gloriously illustrated work simultaneously offers a narrative history of the freedom struggle and the rich interplay of text and images is designed to offer insights that neither conventional histories nor images can offer in isolation. Insurgency and the Artist is also an inquiry into how ideas travel across borders, the porousness of culture, and the relationship of art to politics.

This book accompanies a major exhibition in the Ashmolean Museum on the early work of internationally acclaimed German artist Anselm Kiefer. It focuses on his paintings, drawings, photographs and artist books created between 1969 and 1982, in the private collections of the Hall Art Foundation. Anselm Kiefer: Early Works is the first institutional show and publication in the UK dedicated to Kiefer’s early practice. The book introduces themes, subjects and styles that have become signature to Kiefer’s work, while providing a more intimate and complementary context for his large-scale installations that he is best known for today. The early works are accompanied by three recent paintings from the artist’s own collections and White Cube, chosen by the artist himself.

Art historians, artists, curators and experts of Kiefer’s art from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Britain and the US have contributed 46 original texts on individual works, organized in a chronological structure. An illustrated chronology at the end of the book compiled by Stephanie Biron from the Hall Art Foundation provides an overview of the artist’s early practice and life, to contextualize the works.

The book begins with Kiefer’s iconic Occupations and Heroische Sinnbilder series, created in 1969 and 1970, which Kiefer views as his first serious works. Kiefer was among the first generation of German post-war artists to directly confront the country’s troubled past and identity. Full of complex references to German socio-political history but also to culture, literature and his personal life, Kiefer’s early works carry a unique iconography, linking classic ideas of great art with a distinctive understanding of concrete artistic materiality. The landscapes in his watercolors are historically charged; hand-written words on paintings are closely linked with poetry well known to most German viewers; motifs and symbols point at Nazi ideologies and a collective feeling of guilt.

Hugely popular in his own day and an enormous influence on Monet, van Gogh and other leading European artists, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 1858) has never lost his appeal. A prolific artist, he produced between 4,000 and 5,000 woodblock print designs. He is particularly renowned for his landscape prints, which are among the most frequently reproduced of all Japanese art in both Japan and the West. Hiroshige’s unusual compositions, humorous depictions of people involved in everyday activities and masterly expression of weather, light and season, are explored in this publication with its especially fine printing and experts’ notations. It is part of a series featuring the depth of the Japanese art holdings at the Ashmolean Museum of the University of Oxford, the world’s first university art museum. The gems of information are numerous, including a page on “how to read a print” — with such as a note on “the censor’s mark,” a detail that only the cognoscenti might recognize. The book adds greatly to the art lover’s knowledge and pleasure.

Contents:
How to ‘read’ a Japanese Print, Preface, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) Woodblock Print Designer, Making a Japanese Woodblock Print, I Views along the Tokaido, II Views of the Provinces, III Views of Edo, IV Views of Mount Fuji, Further Reading.