The wee folk have returned! Uncover the mystery of who they are and why they are here in the first book of the Vinetrope Adventures. Following a young girl, Sara, who has recently lost her mom to cancer, Return of the Vinetropes tells the story of a remarkable fairy-like creature found in Sara’s back yard. Lucinda Vinetrope: born wise, full-grown, and all alone. She may only be 12 inches high, but her personality is huge! Her arrival signifies the return of the Vinetrope nation, but also the return of their evil counterparts, the Chargons and the Vinkali. Joined by a supporting cast of comedic characters, animal and human alike, Sara and Lucinda set off on their quest to find the other Vinetropes and protect their world from danger.

At the end of the nineteenth century numerous painters succumbed to the charms of the Orient. Travel to distant lands was easier, and artists brought back voluptuous images filled with sun and colour. The noted specialist Lynne Thornton has studied almost 150 painters, from Delacroix to Ziem. This stunning reference work features numerous lesser known masters and is an essential reference work for collectors. It is also a marvellous invitation to travel.

Between 1885 and 1891 the Swiss pastor Wilfried Spinner sojourned in Japan on behalf of the East Asian mission. He founded the first Christian parishes in Tokyo and Yokohama and began to intensively teach there. However, his interest was also directed at local beliefs, which informed the everyday lives of the population. He brought back to Europe around eighty religious scrolls, comprising some painted hanging scrolls and numerous black-and-white prints (ofuda). Ofuda are paper amulets featuring representations of important deities, Buddhas and bodhisattvas, which were printed in and distributed from temples. Some of them additionally feature calligraphy, which was written by the monks in the presence of the pilgrims. They are evidence to their pilgrimage and accompany them onwards as protection and good luck charms. The recently discovered collection of Wilfried Spinner in the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich covers a broad spectrum both figuratively and in content.

Text in English, German, and Japanese.

Animal liver, deer legs, sepia and cosmic dust are not usually amongst the preferred materials used by goldsmiths in the creation of pieces of jewellery. This is not the case for the Estonian group of artists õhuLoss, which means ‘Castle in the Air’. Its seven members make use of many organic materials in the design of objects which are on the border between applied and visual arts. They create confusing pieces of jewellery which appear to hover in time and space and play with these concepts. The lyrical creations of the seven artists evoke a past era, but their choice of materials is shocking enough to bring the viewer back to the present. The undisputed strength of the work lies in its suggestive power, which puts the viewer under its spell. The new Estonian jewellery of the õhuLoss group probes itself, the world and life. It is a medium for communication without words, expressing the ambivalence of the modern attitude towards life. The young Estonian jewellery artists show that especially intelligent jewellery, close to nature, is very powerful. This jewellery reveals the human feelings of the wearer. The purpose of this jewellery, according to Kadri Mälk, lies in the quiet support of its wearers and in the discrete revelation of their identity. Artists featured include Villu Plink, Eve Margus-Villems, Kristiina Laurits, Piret Hirv, Katrin Sipelgas, Tanel Veenre and Kadri Mälk. Contents:
Introduction by Kadri Mälk; sight/vaade; Castle in the Air | Rüdiger Joppien; The Touch of an Invisible Space | Saale Kareda; The Ultimate Castle in the Air | Karl Bollmann; Mart Raukas; The School and the Academy. Castle in the Air | Tamara Luuk; Homage to the Most Beloved | Lars Pahlman; jewellery/ethed; Kadri Mälk | Kristiina Laurits|Villu Plink | Eve Margus-Villems | Piret Hirv | Tanel Veenre | Karin Sipelgas; beyond/pilvevaatlus; lighthouse/tuletorn; post scriptum: chronology, bibliography, biographies. Text in English and Estonian.

A ‘vessel for living’ – such were the words Glenn Adamson used to describe this remarkable residence. Richard Meier designed the Grotta home to house Sandra and Louis Grotta’s collection of contemporary studio jewellery and significant works in wood, ceramic and fibre. The building was conceived around the collection, framing the objects within the open architecture, which comprises an equal blend of glass and concrete. Nature, visible from many vantage points, plays an essential supporting role. The Grotta Home by Richard Meier: A Marriage of Architecture and Craft is rich in photographs of the collection and provides impressive insights into this exceptionally personal project. The accompanying essays afford the reader a greater sense of how the Grottas have not simply acquired art, but have immersed themselves in it.

Food and dining were transformed in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment, and these profound changes continue to resonate today. What many of us now eat, the way our food is prepared and how we dine are the result of radical changes that occurred in France from 1650 until the French Revolution in 1789. Over thirty French and English recipes of the period are presented in this cookbook, offering readers a taste of the past. Amusing stories, culinary insights, and snippets of history outline the cultural milieu of the time. The King’s Peas is richly illustrated with pictures of paintings, books, silver, glass and ceramics to stimulate the imagination – and the appetite. You are cordially invited to take part in this delectable historical feast.

The Miller Ceramic Art Collection features masterpieces highlighting the artistic ideals of numerous luminaries of mid-twentieth century to early twenty-first century American ceramic art. In addition, the collection includes important examples of European and Japanese ceramic artworks of the same period. Marlin Miller’s profound understanding of materials began with ceramic engineering. His interest in brick and its role in architecture informs a keen eye for surface texture, dimension and materiality.

The publication is a comprehensive presentation of one of the world’s most distinguished private collections of contemporary studio ceramics, and an observation on the correlation between ceramics and architecture. With contributions by Meghen Jones, Sequoia Miller, Michael McKinnell and Wayne Higby.

The Swiss artist Otto Künzli has revolutionised modern art jewellery. In the 45-odd years in which he has been addressing the topic of jewellery, Künzli has carved out for himself a unique position of far-reaching international influence, not only as an artist and a pioneer but also as an author and mentor. Otto Künzli’s works are based on complex reflection, conceptual and visual imagination. The result: objects with a clear, minimalist appearance, captivatingly crafted to perfection and highly visible – jewellery that adorns and at the same time possesses an autonomous aesthetic status of its own. The publication presents for the first time Otto Künzli’s highly diverse oeuvre. It includes hundreds of jewellery objects as well as interdisciplinary conceptual works from the artist’s various creative phases. An extraordinary artist’s book designed in close collaboration with Otto Künzli and Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich.

Otto Künzli was born in 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland. Since 1991 Künzli has held the Chair of Art Jewellery at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich – as the successor of Prof. Hermann Jünger. Otto Künzli’s work is represented in numerous international museums and collections. Alongside numerous awards, in 2010 Otto Künzli was awarded the Swiss Grand Prix Design, and in 2011 the Goldener Ehrenring der Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst, the golden ring of honour conferred by the German Association for Goldsmiths’ Art.

The Padua School originated from the Istituto Pietro Selvatico in Padua. The distinctive features of this jewelry are the use of gold reminiscent of the goldsmith’s art in antiquity and a modern and abstract formal expression within the group. Mario Pinton, who brought the goldsmith movement international recognition and acclaim in the 1950s and ’60s, is credited with founding the experimental goldsmith movement in Padua. Francesco Pavan has enlarged the scope of the Padua School with his kinetic and geometric formal idiom.

The breakthrough on the international jewelry scene took place in the late 1960s with Giampaolo Babetto, under whose support the geometric and Minimalist tendency was most pronounced. Other distinguished artists in jewelry such as Graziano Visintin, Renzo Pasquale, Annamaria Zanella, Stefano Marchetti and Giovanni Corvaya continued along these lines or went their own highly individual ways by experimenting with the use of new materials including plastic. The work of these creative artists is beautifully displayed through color photographs, which serve to highlight their great talent.

The unique cultural landscape of southern Africa (Nambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa) is a highly dynamic and complex area where old traditions are confronted by explosive social and political upheavals. The resulting contradictions and conflicts stimulate a directions as well as ancient roots. The collection of highly varied essays by knowledgeable experts on Africa ranges from historical and political problems to questions of artistic production and of how to deal with culture and nature in the face of industrialisation and globalisation. Art is one of the major subjects, and the contemporary artistic activities, including photography. The publication presents a picture of a vigorously alive southern Africa, contradicting common western Cliches which regard the region as having no art and solely being riddled with problems of post-apartheid, crime and AIDS.

The representation of mysterious and fantastical figures, magical inscriptions and mythical beings that are half man and half beast are characteristic of the jewellery works and art objects created by Ulo Florack. With artistic mastery and an exuberant imagination, he tells stories using gold, silver, platinum and enamel. Ulo Florack is a multi-talented artist. It is almost impossible to categorise him. The question of whether he is more a painter or a jewellery artist cannot be answered definitively: both aspects cross-pollinate each other. His jewellery objects incorporate sculptural elements, whilst the choice and application of colours reveal the artist. His style is very distinctive and his objects use surprising ideological and intelligent imagery, which consciously hovers in the grey area between fantasy and reality.

Text in English & German.

Austin Cooper was by chance of birth a Canadian but built his career as a commercial artist in London. Art-educated in Wales and Scotland, he became, in the inter-war years, one of the most highly-respected poster artist in the United Kingdom – one of L.N.E.R’s ‘elite’ five, his name comparable to that of McKnight Kauffer for work for London Transport, and a contributor to Post Office posters for some ten years. He was to become the Principal of the distinguished Reimann School for its short life in London just prior to WWII. He then virtually disappeared from the commercial art world, leading a reclusive life in a frustrated attempt to build a belated career as a ‘fine’ artist. His ‘Making a Poster’ book is as valid in its advice now as when it was written in 1938.

The mid-20th century brought about an advertising renaissance in the western world. Technology boomed. Standards of living increased, innovation abounded, and ‘luxury’ consumer products such as TVs, fridges and gas heating became readily available to the public. In order to sell them, ads needed to be as quirky and appealing as the new commodities themselves. This compact yet comprehensive book, written by an experienced design historian, explores the hand-in-hand development of advertisement and the many household amenities that we take for granted today. This book began its life as an offshoot of another, also written by Ruth Artmonsky, but focusing on the advertising of furniture. Her research led her to discover the expansive genre of domestic appliance advertising – not relevant to her book, but more than interesting enough to merit a new text in its own right. Adverts that caught Ruth’s eye include “an advertisement for a gas iron, and a rare one of a man admitting he might be able to do the laundry when the house purchased a washing machine.” Discover all this and more in Powering the Home.

Weimin He’s 324 ink drawings, pen sketches and woodblock prints comprise an intimate record of the progress of construction in the newly designed Ashmolean Museum that opened late last year. An unusual approach to documentation in the age of digital photography, the catalogue provides a delightful art experience for readers who will never set foot in the Ashmolean, which is the museum for the University of Oxford.

Weimin has drawn workers lifting roof beams, welding metal rods and pouring cement into the mixer. He gives us behind-the-scenes portraits of museum personnel, making each individual come alive, for example, an objects conservator at her work and a researcher in the prints room at his. An artist-in-residence at the museum and an art scholar, Weimin employed Chinese drawing and woodblock printmaking methods. His portraits were drawn on pi, xuan papers or album leaves, with Chinese brushes and inks that have been used for over a millennium. Seven of the prints and the catalogue were presented to Queen Elizabeth for the museum’s opening.

The Jewish Journey tells the history of the Jewish people from antiquity to modern times through 22 objects from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, brought together here for the first time. Many of the objects are little-known treasures and all 22 have remarkable stories. Spanning 4000 years of history and covering 14 different countries, the objects trace the evolution of Jewish life and culture from its earliest beginnings in Ancient Mesopotamia through time and space to the modern day.

History Today carried a feature in 2015, describing The Origin of Museums as “a cult book [that] spawned a new discipline in the history of collecting”. Indeed, the first publication of this book in 1985 undoubtedly marked a propitious moment in the development of interest, in what has since grown to be a dynamic subject-area in its own right. That an appetite for such matters was already there is confirmed by the fact that the first impression sold out within a few months, a second impression a year or two later, and the third in 1989. There was to be no further printing by the original publishers, Oxford University Press. However in 2001 a new edition appeared with a new publisher. Demand again proved buoyant, but within a few months the company failed; having operated on a print-on-demand basis, it left behind it no unsold stock. The Origins of Museums reverted to a scarce (though much sought-after) volume. With original copies now selling for hundreds, if not thousands of pounds, the Ashmolean is proud to make this important volume readily available again.

These essays by Hahn and West will deal respectively with the formation of the collection and the figure of Bent Juel-Jensen, the seminal Aksumite coin collector in Oxford (as well as a medical doctor, academic, and traveller). They will also discuss recent problems that have emerged regarding the study of this coinage. In its entirety, this publication will make a fundamental contribution to this area of research and be an indispensable acquisition for many institutions and individuals.

This volume contains nearly 1600 coins of the 9th-16th centuries from North Africa to Great Syria. The collections included in the catalogue are those of the Heberden Coin Room and the Shamma Collection. Unlike previous SICA volumes, the coins are arranged by dynasty and ruler because of the large number of distinctive types belonging to each dynasty’s coinage.

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

The collections of twentieth-century paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, have developed largely through the generosity of individuals. Notable among these in the early decades of the century were Frank Hindley Smith and Mrs W F R Weldon, while since the Second World War the Museum’s collections have been enriched through gifts and requests from Thomas Balston, R A P Bevan, Molly Freeman, Christopher Hewett and others. This book gives the reader a taste of the wide range of the collection, with its representative group of Camden Town and Euston Road School pictures, and important early works by Bonnard, Picasso and Matisse.

Patrick Van der Stricht, author of this book, is an architect, illustrator and Belgian. He began drawing when he was a boy and has never stopped. This book is a collection of his best automobile illustrations, from the most realistic and romantic to the zaniest. His love of drawing and cars is nourished by his equally extensive knowledge of the history and technique of the automobile, spiced up with his boundless imagination and humour. Most of the drawings are accompanied by a short explanatory text or narrative.

Text in English, French and Dutch.

Surmount and Dilute (2) features examples of brilliant and beautiful buildings that challenge boundaries and perception, they are daring in their design; twisting, turning, wildly spiralling creations that belong to the future, that pull our gaze and our imagination skywards. Using almost impossible mirrored walls of glass and metal, to reflect the cloud- worlds they inhabit back to the weary and the earth-bound, in the grey confines of the urban landscape they become awe-inspiring, exciting possibilities for who we might be; their function is both practical and escapist, re-defining our social identity and built environment. Interiors are designed to offer maximum use of natural light and materials, swimming pools and green-tree growing spaces create a newly addictive way to live in close proximity to others, while maintaining a personal sense of distance and freedom.