“… it’s also a book to dip into – for inspiration, for discovery, or simply for the pleasure of armchair exploration.” — Worldwide Writer
Dorset doesn’t have any motorways. Or cities. Or major industries. We do have railways – but don’t expect high speed intercity connections. But these are the reasons why the county is so appealing: The pace of life is slower, the people friendlier, the views more unspoiled. The county is a magnet for creative types: artisan food producers, eco-preneurs, artists and craftspeople who are quietly building businesses in small towns and villages, tucked away in back lanes and converted farm buildings.
Whether you’re a local, a seasoned traveller or first-time visitor, beautiful, quirky Dorset will surprise and delight you. This guide will introduce you to 111 off-the-beaten track (and sometimes off-the-wall) locations that make this slice of the West Country a wonderful place to live and a great place to visit.
Pick flowers in the grounds of a ruined abbey. Watch the summer solstice at a mini Stonehenge. Spot badgers in fancy dress. Buy wobbly bread from a post office. Moon-bathe in a beach-side sauna. Or fill your boots at a dry dock.
Barefoot Together is an invitation to slow down and reconnect—with nature, with your surroundings, and with the people who matter most. Through her personal perspective, Natalia Swarz explores a way of living rooted in simplicity, presence, and togetherness, drawing inspiration from places where life unfolds at a gentler pace: the Mediterranean coast, island communities, the countryside, Latin America, and vibrant city escapes. Filled with beautiful photography, thoughtful reflections, and inspiring visits to private homes, guest houses, and boutique hotels, Barefoot Together celebrates the spaces and moments that bring people closer. More than a book about interiors or travel, it is a reminder that the richest experiences are often the simplest ones—shared around a table, beneath the sun, or with bare feet on the ground.
The little kitchen cellar at Paleis Het Loo is unique. It formed part of the private apartments of Princess Mary II Stuart (1662–1695), the palace’s first resident. In summer she could leave behind the foul-smelling court city of The Hague and enjoy the peace and clean air of the countryside at Het Loo.
In the kitchen cellar Mary pursued her hobbies. She arranged flowers from her own garden and made preserves from citrus fruits grown at Paleis Het Loo. Mary’s kitchen cellar offers readers a glimpse into the life of a woman with an international network, who built a large collection of plants and flowers, collected Asian porcelain and Delftware, and as a patron stimulated and promoted the Delft pottery industry. Mary’s life included themes that remain current today, such as slowing down and growing and preparing one’s own food. The book includes recipes and inspiring examples for readers to try themselves.
This is the story of the Reeves Collection of botanical paintings, the result of one man’s single-minded dedication to commissioning pictures and gathering plants for the Horticultural Society of London. Reeves went to China in 1812 and immediately on arrival started sending back snippets of information about manufactures, plants and poetry, goods, gods and tea to Sir Joseph Banks. Slightly later, he also started collecting for the Society but despite years of work collecting, labelling and packing plants and organising a team of Chinese artists until he left China in 1831, Reeves never enjoyed the same degree of recognition as other naturalists in China. This was possibly because he had a demanding job as a tea inspector. Reeves himself never claimed to be a professional naturalist and the plant collecting and painting supervision were undertaken in his own time. Furthermore, fan qui (foreign devils) were restricted to the port area of Canton and to Macau, so that plant-hunting expeditions further afield were impossible. Furthermore, Reeves never published an account of his life in the country, unlike Clarke Abel and Robert Fortune, but he left us some letters, notebooks, drawings and maps. The Collection is held at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Library in Vincent Square, London. It is a magnificent achievement. Not only are the pictures accurate and richly coloured plant portraits of plants then unknown in the West, but they stand as a record of plants being cultivated in nineteenth-century Canton and Macau. In John Reeves: Pioneering Collector of Chinese Plants and Botanical Art, Kate Bailey reveals John Reeves’ life as an East India Company tea inspector in nineteenth-century China and shows how he managed to collect and document thousands of Chinese natural history drawings, far more than anyone else at the time.
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
Sculptor Claus Bury (b. 1946) has been enhancing public spaces in Germany for more than four decades with his monumental sculptures, which by now total more than 100. His canon of forms is comprised of geometric basic corpuses, such as squares and cubes, triangles and pyramids, rectangles, rhombuses and segments, which he employs in a contemporary Archaic style oriented on the antique structures of Egypt, Greece and Mexico. Bury’s sculptures are almost always accessible, and the contingent changes in perspective do not only thematise the basic requirements of the human experience of form and space; they also articulate people’s experience in their surroundings, impressively underpinning Hegel’s theory that the world has a ‘house character’ and that man is fundamentally a domestic creature. A spectacular review of Claus Bury’s monumental works in ships, gates, houses, arches, bridges and temples.
Text in English and German.
Wood is a fundamental natural resource for building. Environmentally sustainable building is a worldwide trend.
Wood is widely available and widely used, particularly in creating buildings that connect to the environment and have low energy consumption.
This book brings together wooden houses of different styles from all over the world, featuring contrasting yet contemporary residential homes for a new age of environmentally responsible construction.
The 2000s proved a turning point for the skateboard and its relationship to art. Previously restricted to practical use, the skate deck left the pavement to appear on the walls of galleries and auction houses. Such was the advent of an entirely new contemporary art movement, laconically baptised Skate Art. From silk-screening to Posca markers, from repurposing and twisted shapes to upcycling broken boards, this volume provides an overview of the most significant techniques and decks of the last two decades. Artists from the realm of Street Art have long had a close relationship with Skate culture, and figures like Shepard Fairey, D*Face and ROA are among the first to have applied their art to this support. At the other end of the spectrum, Mark Gonzales, Thomas Campbell and Ed Templeton are pure products of the skater world, and it was through their collaborations with brands to produce boards that they acceded to the title of artist. In its 320 pages, this anthology presents a specialised and eclectic selection of decks made by artists from all over the world.
Text in English and French.
On Stage shows everything that must be done before the curtain can be lifted and the prepared decorations of an opera house can be seen on stage so that the performance can start. The words ‘stage machinery’ describe only very inadequately the interaction of hundreds of people in highly skilled occupations: the flies, sinking, props… On Stage offers not only a glimpse behind the stage but also to mysterious places on, under and next to the stage, a preparatory drama that is as dramatic as the play itself. After Metamorphoses, Creation, ISBN 9783901753077, Celebration, Close-up, ISBN 9783901753190, Passion, Emotion and Glamour, ISBN 9783901753589. On Stage is the 8th volume in an encyclopaedic series about the Vienna Opera House, conceived to grow by one volume per year until 2019, when the opera house celebrates its 125th anniversary.
“It is a rare species, but it exists,” as ’60s art critic Pascal Renous pointed out on the subject of artistic couples. This designer-decorator duo of Janine Abraham and Dirk-Jan Rol met at Jacques Dumond’s studio in 1955. The couple shares the same love of precision, line and plain colours. Their earliest joint creations were first exhibited at the Salon des artistes décorateurs, in Paris. Their furniture, made of wicker, wood and aluminium, twice won prizes at the Salon des artistes décorateurs (a sideboard in 1956 and an armchair in 1958), garnering notice from the public and professionals alike. Jean Royère did not hesitate to use their emblematic Soleil armchair (gold medal at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair) in the decoration of the palace of the Shah of Iran, in Teheran. Their light and functional designs are available today, re-edited by Yota Design. Abraham & Rol were also interior designers and intervened in this capacity for both individual clients and large corporate clients, such as Yves Rocher and Saint-Gobain, with the same precision and sense of composition that define their furniture pieces. Finally, the couple also expressed their creativity through architecture, their mastery of this discipline enabling them to design some twenty houses from the 1960s through the 2000s in the Île-de-France region. Their homes are genuine inhabited sculptures, of which certain have become truly emblematic. Text in English and French
From the white plastic bed for the Prisunic catalogue (1966) to the Culbuto armchair issued by Knoll, and from the Lip watch to the private apartments of the Élysée Palace, Paris, (1983), the furniture and objects conceived by Marc Held have been emblematic of the renewal of French design, following the line of Scandinavians such as Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen… With his gallery L’Échoppe on the rue de Seine, Paris, and then with his agency, the designer and architect Marc Held also took part in major projects for IBM and Renault.
This book traces fifty years of design, whose success with the public at large has contributed to a great liberation in our style of life. The generosity of his vision has remained faithful to the humanist values that guided his childhood in Bagnolet, where he was born in 1932. Having settled in Greece, on the island of Skopelos, over twenty years ago, Marc Held still continues to build houses and furnish them with his creations, working closely with Greek craftsmen.
Text in English and French.
The Fondation Baur, Musée des Arts d Extrême-Orient, Geneva, Switzerland, houses one of the most important collections of Asian art in the world: some 9,000 works from China and Japan. This new book celebrates the 50th anniversary of the museum and the 150th birthday of Alfred Baur (1865-1951), whose collections are housed in the museum’s elegant nineteenth-century townhouse. Lavishly illustrated with stunning new photographs, most full page, the book showcases the diversity and quality of Baur’s collections, which span netsuke, lacquerware, saber fittings, prints, jades, imperial ceramics, textiles, and much more. Precious Japanese objects, meticulously worked and technically perfect, reveal the outstanding skills of Japanese craftsmen; the simplicity of the forms of Chinese monochrome ceramics displays the contemporaneity of the visionary master ceramists of the Song dynasty.
The Scuola Grande di San Rocco, considered the Sistine Chapel of Venice, houses the most acclaimed works of the city’s greatest painter, Jacopo Tintoretto, as well as the masterpiece of Italian carving, the magnificent wooden choir-stalls by Francesco Pianta. Mirabilia Italiæ is a unique series. It owes its existence to an innovative and ambitious project: an atlas of the great monuments of Italy that will display them in all their details, from the best known to the least. This series represents a completely new way of documenting art. Mirabilia Italiæ provides a guided tour of each monument, fully and accurately explained. Each atlas contains hundreds of colour photographs, arranged in a precise topographical sequence and accompanied by diagrams showing the exact location of each detail. The atlas is complemented by a volume of texts edited by the premier scholars in the field, consisting of critical essays and descriptive notes. Essays examine the monument from the art-historical point of view, and record the alterations it has undergone over time. Descriptive notes analyse the content and significance of the images. Extensive cross-references link the essays and notes to the images, facilitating consultation of the work. The General Editor of Mirabilia Italiæ is Salvatore Settis, Director of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. Firm sale only.
Text in Italian.
As the ultimate powerful construction toy, LEGO® offers endless possibilities – just give your imagination free reign! In order to assist you in this, the authors are revealing a wide range of construction techniques using various newly available bricks. Their new tips and tricks are all clearly displayed in easy-to-grasp step-by-step instructions for creating new and individual models, whether houses, cars, spaceships, figures, or even small accessories. The authors even explain how to integrate LEGO® electric motors, revealing new ideas for your own personal LEGO® masterpiece!
“… pieces are beautifully crafted” – Net-a-porter.com
Birds of paradise, exotic flowers, the Garden of Eden, Gustav Klimt, Art Nouveau and Les Ballets Russes are sources of inspiration for the fantastic and exclusive oeuvre of Belgian lingerie and nightwear designer Carine Gilson. She transforms Calais lace and silk from Lyon into ‘haute lingerie’ with masterly finesse, and her designs catapult the imagination into a dream world of sensuality and elegance. This book explores her philosophy and work, focusing on her designs, the luxurious material she sources, and the craftsmanship of the atelier that has been transforming lace and silk into exquisite and luxurious lingerie, robes, and nightgowns for nearly 30 years. Carine Gilson’s couture lingerie is sold in her own stores in Paris, London, Taipei and Brussels and in famous couture houses around the world.
Since the practical invention of photography in the 1840s, Scotland has been at the centre of the history and development of the medium. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery – which houses the Scottish National Photography Collection – and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, hold outstanding collections of photographic art spanning three centuries. Included are figures such as D.O. Hill and Robert Adamson, Julia Margaret Cameron, Thomas Annan, Alfred Stieglitz, Robert Capa, Bill Brandt, Annie Leibovitz and Andreas Gursky. This book offers a detailed guide to the collections as well as an accessible and informative introduction to photography. This revised edition includes recently commissioned photography and significant new acquisitions, with works by Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman and Robert Mapplethorpe.