Книги про антиквариат

Chess, one of the world’s most popular games, has inspired artists for hundreds of years

Though apparently offering a limited canvas – each set has 32 pieces, each board 64 squares – sets have nevertheless been designed in countless ways, using almost every imaginable material: from precious metals, to ivory and rock crystal. They have taken many forms, from figural to abstract, and used many diverse themes, from the historical and political to the beauty and variety of the animal kingdom.

This book brings together some of the most beautiful and unusual chess sets ever made. Over hundreds of years, from five continents, they are culled from private collections and museums, including: 200 year-old sets made by nameless Indian craftsmen; sets by Peter Carl Fabergé; sets from Soviet gulag prisoners; and sets by leading artists of the 20th century, like Max Ernst.

Each set has been especially photographed for this book, with detailed insights provided by an exceptional group of experts: Dr. George Dean, Jon Crumiller, Larry List, Barbara Drake Boehm (senior curator of the Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art) and William Wiles (Dezeen), with an introduction by the book’s editor, Dylan Loeb McClain, (former New York Times chess columnist).

First published in 1998, Miller’s Antiques Encyclopedia has sold more than 150,000 copies worldwide and been published into seven languages. This new edition includes a thoroughly updated directory, list of suppliers and up-to-date price codes.

Compiled by an international team of over 40 consultants and writers, and offering clear and wide-ranging coverage of antiques and collectables, this book contains valuable information for both the enthusiast and the experienced dealer. An extensive glossary explains the terms used throughout the book and clear cross-referencing leads you into related areas of interest. All the traditional areas of collecting are featured, with extensive sections on furniture, ceramics, silver and glass. More specialist subjects, such as jewellery, scientific instruments and Oriental art are also included.

Packed with absorbing and useful information, this is the definitive reference book on the subject.

About the Author:

Judith Miller began collecting in the 1960s while a student at Edinburgh University in Scotland. She has since extended and reinforced her knowledge of antiques through international research, becoming one of the world's leading experts in the field. In 1979 she co-founded the international best-seller Miller's Antiques Price Guide and has since written more than 100 books, which are held in high regard by collectors and dealers. Judith Miller appears regularly on TV and radio. She is an expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow and co-hosts the popular BBC series The House Detectives, ITV's Antiques Trail, and Discovery's It's Your Bid. She has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and CNN. She is a regular lecturer and contributor to numerous newspapers and magazines, including Financial Times, BBC Homes & Antiques and House & Garden. She has lectured extensively, including at the V&A in London and the Smithsonian in Washington.

Miller's Antiques Handbook & Price Guide remains the essential and trusted guide to the antiques market. It has earned the reputation of being the book no dealer, collector or auctioneer should be without. Compiled by Judith Miller, world-renowned antiques expert and co-founder of the book, the guide features more than 8,000 antiques.

Comprehensive sections cover Ceramics, Asian Antiques, Furniture, Glass, Silver and Metalwares, Jewellery and objets de vertu, Clocks and Watches, Books, Textiles, Toys, Decorative Arts and Modern Classics. Special features explain why one piece is worth more than another, show how to value an item and teach you to be your own valuer. Biographies of designers and factories give the background information you need to help date and value objects, while special 'Judith Picks' sections give fascinating background and valuation details for particularly interesting or unusual objects.+

About the Author:

Judith Miller began collecting in the 1960s while a student at Edinburgh University in Scotland. She has since extended and reinforced her knowledge of antiques through international research, becoming one of the world's leading experts in the field. In 1979 she co-founded the international best-seller Miller's Antiques Price Guide and has since written more than 100 books which are held in high regard by collectors and dealers.

Judith Miller appears regularly on TV and radio. She is an expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow and has co-hosted the popular BBC series The House Detectives, ITV's Antiques Trail, and Discovery's It's Your Bid. She has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and CNN. She is a regular lecturer and contributor to numerous newspapers and magazines, including the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, BBC Homes & Antiques and House & Garden. She has lectured extensively, including at the V&A in London and the Smithsonian in Washington.

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Пролистать книгу Miller's Antiques Handbook & Price Guide 2022-2023 на Google Books.

In The Art of the Japanese Sword, master swordsmith Yoshindo Yoshihara offers a comprehensive view on the making, finishing and appreciation of Japanese blades.

The Japanese sword, a unique work of art in steel, can be appreciated from a number of viewpoints. Its functionality as a weapon, the sophisticated metallurgy and scientific thinking utilized by the swordsmith, the shape of the blade itself, and the different crystalline forms in the steel all contribute to the beauty of these remarkable weapons. The Art of the Japanese Sword conveys to the reader a basic background regarding the Japanese sword, as well as an explanation of how to view and appreciate a blade. It also illustrates the details of how a sword is made and finished today.

Modern craftsmen use completely traditional methods from the past to prepare their steel, forge the sword and create the unique hardened edge. By gaining a good understanding of how a sword is actually made, the reader will be able to appreciate the Japanese sword more fully.

Japanese sword art stands out in many ways: functionality as a weapon, sophisticated metallurgy and metalsmithing, the shape of the blade itself--all contribute to the beauty of these remarkable weapons. The Art of the Japanese Sword conveys to the reader Japanese samurai sword history and Japanese sword care, as well as explaining how to view and appreciate a blade.

With 256 full-color pages, this sword book illustrates in meticulous detail how modern craftsmen use traditional methods to prepare their steel, forge the sword and create the unique hardened edge. By gaining a good understanding of how a sword is made, the reader will be able to appreciate the samurai sword more fully. Topics include:

- Appreciating the Japanese sword
- History of the Japanese sword
- Traditional Japanese steelmaking
- Making the sword
- Finishing the sword

About the Authors:

Yoshindo Yoshihara is a third-generation swordsmith. His grandfather Kuniie began making swords in 1933 in Tokyo and was ranked among the top swordsmiths in Japan during his career. Yoshindo lives and works in Tokyo with his son, who represents the fourth generation of swordsmiths in the family. Yoshindo, who is always training young swordsmiths and currently has five apprentices working with him, has been named an Important Cultural Property of the city and prefecture of Tokyo and is a mukansa (top-ranked swordsmith) in Japan.

Leon Kapp, a molecular biologist, lives with his wife Hiroko in San Rafael, California. He has been seriously interested in Japanese swords for over twenty-five years and has spent a great deal of time learning about them from Yoshindo.

Hiroko Kapp is a writer for Senken Shimbun News of Tokyo and writes about fashion and the fashion industry in the US. She graduated from Musashi-no Art University in Tokyo. For twenty-five years, she was active in the apparel business and designed scarves for her own line in the US.

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Пролистать книгу The Art of the Japanese Sword: The Craft of Swordmaking and its Appreciation на Google Books.

Timepieces are the perfect distillation of Cartier's craft: At once bona fide jewels, the ultimate expression of style, and miracles of detail and precision, they are at the heart of all that the legendary house represents. Equal in beauty, value, and design to Cartier's jewels, each timepiece is an object of unparalleled luxury and elegance, emblematic of the "Cartier style." More than 450 pieces, including the complete collection of "mystery clocks" whose hands seem to float in midair, are presented here, representing more than 150 years of the finest horology. Each object is accompanied by its individual history and detailed technical specifications. Full-scale reproductions, including 12 gatefolds, are followed by an illustrated and comparative chronology, glossary of terms, and complete index.

About the Authors:

François Chaille is an art historian and fashion expert. He has written several titles, including The Cartier Collection: Jewelry, The Cartier Collection: Precious Objects, Cartier: Creative Writing, Cartier: Innovation through the 20th Century, and Girard-Perregaux. Franco Cologni is Chairman of the Cultural Council of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie.

A celebration of philanthropist Marjorie Merriweather Post’s passions for her residences and personal collections, reflecting centuries of some of the finest treasures in the world.

Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887–1973) was an extraordinary person, not only for being the head of a major corporation but also for overseeing elegant and well-run residences and amassing collections of astounding beauty. Including portraiture, imperial Russian tableware, Fabergé creations, stunning garments and jewelry, books, and rare objects in gold, silver, and porcelain, Post’s works of art were acquired with intelligence and acuity. She was inspired by past royal and aristocratic patrons as well as countries that she admired: France, Russia, England, and Austria.

This publication illustrates the evolution of Post’s collections and her interactions with dealers, artists, artisans, and architects. The backdrops for her treasures — residences in New York, the Adirondacks, Palm Beach, and Washington, D.C. — are depicted with period and newly commissioned photography. Recent scholarship focusing on the highlights of her trove of exquisite objects sheds new light on Post’s legacy as a twentieth-century collector.

About the Author:

Kate Markert is the executive director of Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens. Wilfried Zeisler is the chief curator at Hillwood. Megan J. Martinelli is the associate curator of textiles, apparel, jewelry, and accessories at Hillwood. Jason G. Speck is Hillwood’s head of archives and special collections.

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Пролистать книгу The Houses and Collections of Marjorie Merriweather Post

The Watch Book I and II in one volume: Expansive knowledge from renowned watch expert and historian Gisbert L. Brunner alongside almost 1,000 high-quality color photographs brings together the latest innovations and most important names in top-end timekeeping under one roof. Few objects combine function, elegance, and status as well as a wristwatch.

A blend of precise mechanics, craftsmanship, fine materials, and innovation distinguishes the truly superlative examples. With so-called smart watches playing a larger role, the world of watches is in transition. However, classic timepieces with mechanical movement will not disappear from people's wrists, because the ticking of a mechanical watch has been and will continue to be the heartbeat of human culture. After their individual success, the bestsellers The Watch Book I and The Watch Book II are finally available together in one comprehensive volume. Readers can feast their eyes and minds on a magnificently-illustrated and well-documented chronicle of the world's best timepieces.

Portraits of more than 40 watch brands, from premium manufacturers Patek Philippe, Rolex, and Cartier to watches from the "affordable luxury" segment, right up to timepieces from the chronometric creme de la creme. We explore their unique features and quirks and learn about the remarkable breakthroughs and exclusive technical developments that have contributed to the history of the watch. This volume also includes a helpful glossary of important terms, making it an absolute must for both timepiece experts and collectors and those new to the world of watch artistry.

For bibliophiles, connoisseurs of contemporary printmaking, and everyone whose imagination is fired by the macabre

With breathtaking virtuosity and a unique, dreamlike vision, Érik Desmazières – a master of contemporary printmaking – re-creates interiors, cityscapes and fantastical compositions.

For this book - the first to include the artist's rare work in colour - Desmazières has delved deep into the arcane theme of cabinets of curiosities. Taking as his starting point the melancholy musings of the seventeenth-century antiquary Sir Thomas Browne, he has reinterpreted these shadowy collections of the recondite, rare and bizarre – precious corals, shrunken heads and magical artefacts – as a series of meditations on the vanity of earthly life. Death and decay are never far below the surface, as a depiction of Sir Thomas Browne’s own skull, disinterred and displayed in a museum until the 1920s, reminds us.

The erudite text by Patrick Mauriès traces the preoccupations of Browne and his fellow collectors through history, showing how abstruse objects and spectres of death - subject matter once considered the preserve of specialists - have now entered the cultural mainstream.

Rich in atmosphere, refreshingly strange and exquisitely produced, A Cabinet of Rarities is a bibliophilic treasure for anyone whose imagination is fired by the esoteric and macabre.

Contents List:

The Artist-Engraver • The Virtuoso • Reawakenings

About the Authors:

Erik Desmazières is a French engraver and printmaker, who is represented in numerous important public and private collections all over the world.
Patrick Mauriès is a writer and publisher of many notable titles on fashion and design, including Jewelry by Chanel, A Cabinet of Rarities, The World According to Karl and Fashion Quotes to name a few, all published by Thames & Hudson.

The basic tenet of Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) was to "suffuse all areas of life with art". This also applied to objects in everyday use.

The German Blade Museum boasts the world's biggest cutlery collection. Vol. I of the Museum catalogue presents "Jugendstil Cutlery" in all its diversity. Silver, silver-plate and other materials were used for this cutlery, most of it made in Germany. The collection comprises more than 300 patterns, which are arranged here by purely formal criteria to reveal the enormous variety of forms and decoration. No other era produced such a diversity of decorative designs and this is the first ever publication to deal with it. All known makers and designers, as well as anonymous factory designs for patterns, are represented in this collection.

The best-selling guide to British antique furniture for over forty years, now in its sixth edition.

For the past forty years this book has, in its various editions, outsold all others on British antique furniture simply because it is unique in explaining what to look for when assessing the value of individual pieces. In this, the sixth edition, the huge financial importance of patination and colour has been explained and illustrated - something which has become increasingly important in recent years. This classic guide consists of over 1,600 photographs of furniture found in shops and auction rooms throughout the country with the author's down-to-earth comments on important features that affect individual prices. The reader will come to understand the rules and prejudices which apply while the eye will become aware of gradations of quality. He will come instinctively to assess the workmanship and how all this affects the final price tag. This is, above all, a reference book for the practicing collector and dealer, a work from which the memory may be refreshed and points checked.

John Andrews is both a founding member of, and the first author published by, the Antique Collectors' Club. His professional background as a market researcher and his love of furniture have made his books unique in their clear explanations and practical, factual approach. Apart from collecting, restoring and writing about furniture, he is an active businessman and fiction writer.

This is the first volume of the definitive reference series dealing with commercial bronze sculptures in the period 1800 to 1930. This period spans the rise and decline of commercial industrial foundries in Europe, especially in France, and a wide array of international sculptors. Together, they produced millions of fine statuettes for the general public. Volume 1 includes 799 photographs of sculptures on 224 pages with essays on specific topics of identitication and caring for bronze. It incorporates lists of the sculptors whose work is shown, the founders represented, 24 different founders' seals and an index to this volume. The photographs are remarkably clear enabeling small details in the sculptures to be visible. With this reference series, collectors will be able to identify many of the old commercial bronzes found on the market today

This is the second volume of the definitive reference series dealing with commercial bronze sculptures in the period 1800 to 1930. This period spans the rise and decline of commercial industrial foundries in Europe, especially in France, and a wide array of international sculptors. Together, they produced millions of fine statuettes for the general public. Volume 2 includes 1025 photographs of sculptures on 272 pages with a numbered list of the sculpture categories and an essay on early twentieth-century sculptural styles by Tom Tomc of Chicago. It incorporates lists of the sculptors whose work is shown, the founders represented, and 58 different founders' seals. The photographs are remarkably clear enabeling small details in the scuptures to be visible. With this reference series, collectors will be able to identify many of the old commercial bronzes found on the market today.

This is the third volume of the definitive reference series dealing with commercial bronze sculptures in the period 1800 to 1930. This period spans the rise and decline of commercial industrial foundries in Europe, especially in France, and a wide array of international sculptors. Together, they produced millions of fine statuettes for the general public. Volume 3 includes 1315 photographs of sculptures on 320 pages with information on the Hirsch Foundry of Paris and Brooklyn, New York. It incorporates lists of the sculptors whose work is shown, the founders represented, and 21 different founders' seals. The photographs are remarkably clear enabeling small details in the sculptures to be visible. With this reference series, collectors will be able to identify many of the old commercial bronzes found on the market today.

This is the fourth volume of the definitive reference series dealing with commercial bronze sculptures in the period 1800 to 1930. This period spans the rise and decline of commercial industrial foundries in Europe, especially in France, and a wide array of international sculptors. Together, they produced millions of fine statuettes for the general public. With this reference series, collectors will be able to identify many of the old commercial bronzes found on the market today

A comprehensive guide to the dazzling ceramics of Clarence Cliff - a must-have for Art Deco collectors

The dazzling ceramics of Clarice Cliff and of the Wilkinson Pottery that first encouraged her work in the 1920s are among the best of many fine achievements of the renowned Staffordshire Potteries in the English Midlands. Today they have become one of the great collectables from the twentieth century. The exuberant colours and bold shapes of her classic Art Deco pieces have caught the imagination of collectors and auction houses the world over as prices move inexorably upwards.

After years of research both in the Wilkinson archives and through oral testimonies of surviving employees, Greg Slater has produced the ultimate survey of Clarice Cliff's work and those of her largely uncredited colleagues from the 1920s to the 1950s.

This massive reference work identifies the pattern name, designer, date and decoration method of all the significant piece, and a host of lesser-known ones. Accessible through three indexes - pattern name, number and backstamp - the book is broadly chronological, organized by Pattern (including ranges assigned by the Wilkinson Pottery and recognizable themes) and also by Shape (an instant identifier for ceramics without a backstamp).

With copious illustrations - all fully referenced and indexed - along with an introduction, bibliography, glossary and collectors' guide, this is the definitive book on the subject and will be for generations to come.

About the Authors:

Jonathan Brough is a Clarice Cliff expert and on the editorial board of the Clarice Cliff magazine The Agora
Greg Slater is the editor of the online Clarice Cliff collector’s magazine, The Agora. He is the author of Comprehensively Clarice Cliff, also published by Thames & Hudson.