Pioneering Edinburgh photographers David Octavius Hill (1802-1870) and Robert Adamson (1821-1848) together formed one of the most famous partnerships in the history of photography. Producing highly skilled photographs just four years after the new medium was announced to the world in 1839, their images of people, buildings and scenes in and around Edinburgh offer a fascinating glimpse into 1840s Scotland. Their much-loved prints of the Newhaven fisherfolk are among the first images of social documentary photography. In the space of four and a half years Hill and Adamson produced several thousand prints encompassing landscapes, architectural views, tableaux vivants from Scottish literature and an impressive suite of portraits featuring key members of Edinburgh society. Anne M. Lyden, International Photography Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, discusses the dynamic dispute that brought these two men together and reveals their perfect chemistry as the first professional partnership in Scottish photography. Illustrated with around 100 masterpieces from the Galleries’ unique, vast collection of the duo’s groundbreaking work.
Growing up, almost every kid dreams of finding buried treasure. That dream slowly fades with age as they realise that Blackbeard never visited their backyard. For some, the search for treasure continues in their adult lives in other ways. Metal detectors and shovels may be replaced with online searches and library visits, but the thrill of the hunt is still alive, ever driving the quest forward.
Lost Danish Treasure tells the tale of two stories: 1) the history of Finn Juhl’s iconic Chieftain Chair and a long-forgotten painting that preceded it, and 2) the individual connections to this design by a small group of collector researchers. Although starting in different eras and timelines, the two accounts start to intertwine over the course of the book, with the research efforts of today helping to unravel the mysteries of the past. As each chapter unfolds, more and more clues are revealed that slowly weave the storylines closer together— until the summer of 2021, when both accounts collided after Lot 242 popped up in an auction house in Chicago. The result of the subsequent analysis sheds new light about the origins and identity of the very first Chieftain Chair.
This illustrated book shows an adventurous photo journey across Europe to the remotest regions of the USA, because no way is too far or too daring to reach the ‘lost cars’ in forgotten places.
The nostalgic subjects of the photo artist Dieter Klein are legends and outsiders: Porsche and Cadillac, VW Beetle and Citroen DS. On inconspicuous backyards, in old barns and dense forests, they beautifully show the charm of decay as well as the power of nature and inspire us to think up fantastic stories about the history of objects.
Text in English and German.
The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University is honoured to offer viewers in the United States their first opportunity to contemplate masterpieces from the leading historic private art collection in Spain. The treasures of the Alba family represent more than five hundred years of patronage and collecting of European art of the highest quality and importance. One hundred thirty-eight exemplary objects from these vast holdings will be presented in Dallas and then travel to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville. Coinciding with the Meadows Museum s golden anniversary, the exhibition Treasures from the House of Alba: 500 Years of Art and Collecting and this companion publication trace the history of the Alba family from the fifteenth century through the present day through the works they collected. The book explores the family’s wealth of paintings, sculptures, furniture, tapestries, and other objects, as well as the Alba archives and library. The stature of the painting collection is clear from the artists represented in the exhibition, among them Fra Angelico, Titian, Rubens, Mengs, Goya, Ingres, Sorolla, and Renoir. The relationship of the Alba legacy to America is highlighted in decorative objects and in a selection of documents from the Alba library related to Columbus and his voyages. The ten essays in this publication shed light on the dynasty’s particular interest in collecting tapestries; its patronage of writers such as Garcilaso de la Vega; the influence of Eugenia de Montijo, empress of France, who was directly related to the Alba family; the pivotal roles of the Seventeenth Duke of Alba and his daughter, the Eighteenth Duchess, in the twentieth century, both of them keenly engaged with the art of their time; and the three palaces Liria, Monterrey, and Las Dueñas that house much of the collection today. Finally, there is one essay covering the biographical life of the Albas as well as an article that discusses their artistic legacy. As a result, the book provides an in-depth study of the rich life and cultural achievements of this legendary dynasty that still lives strong today.
In a 2021 study, McKinsey describes Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) within the watch market as ‘the industry’s fastest-growing segment’. The trade in pre-owned watches is expected to overtake that in new watches by the middle of the decade. ‘Certified Pre-Owned’ is thus a booming trend. Pre-owned watches are becoming increasingly popular for various reasons: CPO makes classic watches and exclusive rarities accessible to connoisseurs, but also to new customers. Since the fine pieces are authenticated by experts, the market offers security. Above all, however, the CPO business enables an emotional approach: buyers get watches with a history that they can perpetuate themselves and then pass on to the next generation. Dive into the fascinating world of watches and watch collecting with Timeless Treasures.
Does a good watch really have to be expensive? What factors determine the condition of a watch? What should I look for when buying? Are CPO watches a good investment? These and many other questions are answered here by leading experts in the field.
But you will not only find useful information for building your own high-quality collection. You will feel the passion for elegant timepieces on every page of this book. Discover first-class photographs of classic and current watch models from the major brands, of celebrities professing their passion for this accessory, or of legendary film scenes in which special watch models play supporting and leading roles.
The reading is rounded off with a ‘style guide’, which offers watch lovers inspiration on how to perfectly stage their favourite pieces in every situation or also answers the question: What type of watch am I?
The result is an emotional all-round portrait of the impressive world of CPO watches, perfectly attuned to an ever larger and more diverse fan community. It’s time to let a little luxury into your life with this book!
Text in English and German.
Established by an act of Congress in 1989, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and the arts of Native Americans. The museum’s collections span more than 10,000 years and – as this lavishly illustrated miniature volume demonstrates – include a multitude of fascinating objects, from ancient clay figurines to contemporary Indian paintings, from all over the Americas.
The works in this book have been selected because of their historical value, uniqueness, character and state of preservation. The result is 100 treasures that reflect the diversity of Brussels’ museums, and the permanent collections that reside within them. For each of the 100 artworks the authors give a description, a context and an anecdote. Themes range widely, from modern and contemporary art, ancient art, history and archeaology, to science, nature, and architecture. This book is a multifaceted aesthetic and scientific experience, and contains something everyone will enjoy.
Hereto unknown statues of great significance to the art world will be revealed in this publication, their aesthetic features thoroughly analysed. Quite exceptionally, Treasures of Stone Uncovered also encompasses a full chapter explaining the scientific methodology that was employed to authenticate the objects. The goal of this publication is, on the one hand, to let the artworks capture the gaze of the reader with their splendour and refinement, and on the other, to increase the knowledge and understanding of the underexposed Buddhist art of the Northern Qi. Text in English and Chinese.
When it opened on November 19, 1819, The Museo del Prado, in Madrid, consisted entirely of works from the Spanish royal collections. Numerous treasures have been added since opening day, but the unique strengths of the Prado’s collection can still be traced to that original core of remarkable works – many acquired or commissioned from the artists themselves during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
The Prado is internationally renowned for its unsurpassed collection of masterpieces by Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, Hieronymus Bosch, El Greco, and Peter Paul Rubens. As this richly illustrated little volume makes clear, it also possesses a brilliant collection of paintings and drawings by other artists throughout Europe as well as fascinating decorative arts and notable sculptures.
Innovation, exclusivity, and elegance define Patek Philippe, a family-owned company with a single and passionate calling: to perfect the watch. These lavishly illustrated books present some of the most important timepieces from the more than 3,000 watches exhibited at the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva. These precious timepieces have been passionately assembled over more than 40 years by Philippe Stern, Honorary President of the company, and include some of the most valuable pieces in watchmaking history. The books allow you to take the Patek Philippe Museum’s exhibition home with you, or, alternatively, to get a preview of its treasures before you visit.
From the collection of historic watches featuring the first portable timepieces dating back to the 16th century to innovative milestones in Patek Philippe’s portfolio since its founding in 1839, each watch is reproduced with such beauty and precision that you can almost hear it ticking. With expert curatorial insight and context from Peter Friess, Conservateur of the Patek Philippe Museum, these intricate mechanisms are not only presented for themselves; they also offer a unique perspective into the cultural history of the last 500 years. True to the trust and excellence of the Patek Philippe brand, the presentation, the extraordinary book design by Birgit Binner, and content of these sumptuous publications meet the highest professional standards. They are the perfect books for the “perfect watch.”
Take a spectacular armchair voyage to one of earth’s most magnificent and ancient sites: Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. This exquisitely produced guide is lavishly illustrated with more than 800 pictures (including archeological reconstruction drawings); six gatefolds; and the finest paper. Conducted by a team of world-acknowledged experts who provide the most up-to-date information, this virtual guidebook to Egypt’s greatest treasures is the perfect mix of artistic brilliance and scholarly research. The Valley of the Kings and the tombs of the nobles are, with the pyramids of Giza, among the world’s best-known sites. Yet a significant portion of this remarkable place remains unseen by most who visit – but this illuminating and spectacularly produced volume fully maps both the artistic and the architectural features of the tombs. Renowned photographer Araldo De Luca was granted full access to these ancient wonders, and he provides unrivalled colour images of the funerary temples and private necropolises. An exploration of their structures and embellishments features plans, photos, drawings of motifs, and hieroglyphs. To complete the presentation: walking itineraries in the Theban mountains are shown from many unusual vantage points, making this book a visual treat, and an extraordinary adventure, for real and armchair travellers alike.
The hidden art of London is for the ever-curious roamer of both the back streets and the familiar places you never quite see – churches, gardens, graveyards, pubs. What little garden finds the poet John Keats sitting in the corner of a bench? Which abandoned building tells the story of a great Roman Road?
There are always marvels hidden in plain view – the back corner of a museum containing great sculptures by Rodin or the naked, street-corner golden boy, who marks where the Great Fire of London finally petered out. A famous literary cat or a painting by Hogarth on the bend of a stairs in an ancient hospital.
This guidebook takes you exploring London beyond its most famous sights to find the art we have never quite noticed before: the hidden statues, paintings, and murals that have escaped from the official museums, and often live unnoticed lives in tucked away places.
Leon Keer is the master of optical illusion. The ‘Dutch JR’ plays with perspectives and creates a whole new world. One in which Snow White is stuck under a door. Or a world in which you unexpectedly enter a seventies living room. This is his first monograph. He allows the reader an exclusive look into his world and imagination. How does he work? And how does a wild idea develop into a gigantic 3D artwork?
“…this book is a knockout” —Doug Stokes, LA Car
“A gorgeous coffee table book with excellent photography, this concentrates on the rarer and more exotic end of the spectrum and features beautiful pictures of each car.” —Auto Express
Ever heard of the Volkhart Sagitta? L’OEuf électrique, or the Stanley Steamer? If not, you are in for a beautiful surprise, 50 times over!
Often times the cars in this richly illustrated book were lost because the manufacturer ceased to exist, or because they were found on the bottom of Lake Maggiore after 75 years, like the Bugatti Brescia. Among the 50 beauties there are one-offs, concepts, trendsetters, and failures as well as cars of the rich and famous, from Marilyn Monroe to Clark Gable.
Text in English and German.
“A perfect storm! Spellbinding photo book by ‘the pope of bad weather photography’ shows the beauty of the world when the sun isn’t shining, from rainy Scotland to wintry New York.” — The Daily Mail
When a bad weather front piles up in front of a big city, Christophe Jacrot is certainly not far away. The French photographer specifically looks for rain and snow to capture his atmospheric snapshots. The bad weather conditions give the motifs special lighting conditions. Jacrot’s subjects could come from film noir, but they are deliberately in colour. For more than a decade, the name Christophe Jacrot has been associated with the photography of landscapes (urban or natural) determined by the weather. In his work, weather conditions are always extreme: the city is seen through a windowpane dripping with rain or a curtain of snow. His images capture the beauty of megacities transfigured by the weather with perfection and poetry. In his eyes, “there are two ways of photographing the world: capturing its horror or sublimating it”. In view of his nature photography, it quickly becomes clear which he prefers.
Text in English and German.
With the special magnifying glass that can be taken out from the cover, the children will have to find secret clues hidden in the pages of this clever book! Help the famous detective Sherldog Holmes to identify the super villain that has stolen the Big Diamond from the Museum! A chase along the city, in different settings (the subway, the research lab, the park…) to collect all the clues and find the guilty party. Passing the magic magnifying glass over the pages, the reader will find hidden clues to exclude one of the characters from the suspect lists: the games will help children to focus and to develop logic and visual skills. Ages: 4 plus
Over 200 years ago, the Mauritshuis hosted not one, but two museums. On the upper floor was the Royal Cabinet of Paintings, while on the ground floor, thousands of objects of all kinds were on display in the Royal Cabinet of Rarities. This rarities cabinet closed in 1875 and the objects were distributed to various Dutch institutions. The temporary exhibition The Vanished Museum about this Royal Cabinet of Rarities is accompanied by a publication with essays by 30 experts, including curators of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Wereldmuseum in Leiden. In relatively short texts, the reader is taken through the rich and often complex history of the institution. The diverse topics and perspectives suit the motley nature of the collection. From a text about an unusual ivory Chinese puzzle ball, to a reflection on the formation of cultural stereotypes; from a kayak on the ceiling, to a hat that turns out not to belong to Willem van Oranje after all.
The Wellby Bequest, received by the Ashmolean Museum in 2013, consists of some 500 precious and exotic objects, mainly from Continental Europe, from the late medieval to the rococo, and is the most remarkable accession of this kind of material to any museum in the UK since the bequest of Ferdinand de Rothschild to the British Museum in 1898 (the Waddesdon Bequest). The collection was assembled by three generations of the Wellby family with an intention that it should reflect the great princely treasure chambers (Kunstkammer) preserved in Dresden, Vienna, Innsbruck, and elsewhere. Many of these objects have never been previously published. This beautiful and accessible book introduces over sixty of the prime pieces from this astonishing addition to the Ashmolean, presenting material of the type incomparably superior to anything in other UK museums outside London. Both authors are specialists in European decorative arts of the Renaissance and later periods.
Published to coincide with the opening of the new Wellby Bequest Gallery in the Ashmolean Museum September 2015
Contents: Preface and Acknowledgements; Introduction to the Michael Wellby Bequest (by Timothy Wilson); Introductory essay on the Kunstkammer tradition (by Matthew Winterbottom); 50 catalogue entries on highlights of the Wellby Collection; Glossary, Bibliography; Index
Accompanying a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, this catalogue presents a broad selection of nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century French and Danish art from the celebrated Ordrupgaard museum near Copenhagen. Assembled for the most part between 1892 and 1931 by the Danish insurance magnate Wilhelm Hansen (1868-1936), the Ordrupgaard collection offers a spectacular overview of French painting from Eugène Delacroix through to Paul Cézanne, as well as magnificent examples from the Danish Golden Age.
Fully illustrated and including an essay by Dr. Paul Lang, Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Canada, the catalogue provides the opportunity to experience the highlights of the Ordrupgaard collection. It includes remarkable groupings of works that reflect various stages in the careers of painters such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Paul Gauguin, C.W. Eckersberg, and Vilhelm Hammershøi. While French Impressionist and Danish works are a focus, other-often contradictory-art movements of nineteenth-century France, including the Barbizon school and Realism, are also well represented.
Text in English and French.
As one of the Tiny Folio Great Museum series, this book is designed as a tour of the National Gallery’s collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture. Visitors to the National Gallery in Washington usually make straight for the rooms holding the museum’s works by the greatest Impressionist artists, including Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and many others. This miniature compendium includes all the favourites, along with many less-familiar works photographed especially for this volume.