The book was compiled and edited by the World Diamond Museum’s chief curator and world-renowned jewelry expert Dr. Usha R Balakrishnan. She and nine other distinguished authors wrote ten monographs written in the order in appearance: Introduction;  The Nizam Diamond: Bala Koh-i-Noor, in the Sacred Trust of the Nizam of Hyderabad – Usha R. Balakrishnan;  Diamonds of the French Crown Jewels: Between East and West – François Farges;  A Concise History of Diamonds from Borneo – Derek J. Content;  Indian Diamonds and the Portuguese Duriing the Rise of the Mughal Empire – Hugo Miguel Crespo;  Two Large Diamonds from India – Jack Ogden;  The Romanov Diamonds: History of Splendour – Stefano Papi;  The Londonderry Jewels, 1819-1959 – Diana Scarisbrick;  Dress to Impress in Southeast Asia – René Brus;  Powerful Women, Important Diamonds – Ruth Peltason;  One in Ten Thousand: The Unique World of Coloured Diamonds – John M. King.

The works in porcelain and colorful shades of stoneware by Doris Banks might be modest and reduced in form, color, and decoration yet they still possess a remarkable impact and presence. All the objects are one-offs – modeled, formed, pressed, folded, glazed, and decorated by hand. As a result, the natural character of the material remains vivid. With a minimalist aesthetic beholden to Asia, the ceramic artist’s works are characterized by a virtuoso play of form and surface that allows a tactile experience of textures on the exterior surface. This monograph is an in-depth appraisal not only of these works but also of an artist who despite her early death achieved remarkable things in studio ceramics.

Text in English and German.

Nathdwara, located in the Aravalli Hills of Rajasthan, is home to Shrinathji, a 15th-century manifestation of the child-god Krishna holding up Mount Govardhan. Since the establishment of the haveli (temple mansion) in 1671, artists have flocked to the sacred town to adorn the walls where Shrinathji dwells with painted cloth hangings as well as to provide painted icons for the pilgrimage trade. At one time there were hundreds of artists in the service of Shrinathji.

This catalog explores Anil Relia’s comprehensive collection of Nathdwara paintings and sketches, celebrating the wide-ranging talents of various artists. The painters are creators of icons and storytellers of Krishna’s exploits. Krishna lives in their everyday lives permeating their thoughts and guiding their brushes. At the same time, they record important events in temple history and portraits of the people who participated in these affairs.

The paintings that document festivals adhere to a traditional hieratic style, but the artist displays a freer hand in telling the exploits of Krishna. A prominent artist showcased in this collection is Ghasiram Hardev Sharma, a master draughtsman with a penchant for naturalism. He influenced a whole generation of 20th-century artists and is still held in high esteem.

A new edition of the bestselling Every Picture Tells a Story from one of the greatest photographers of the last 60 years, Terry O’Neill.  This updated edition includes 32 additional pages of new stories behind some of the O’Neill’s most iconic images.

From the morning he spent with Faye Dunaway at the pool in Beverly Hills, to walking around Vegas with Sean Connery dressed as James Bond, a chance encounter with Bruce Springsteen on the Sunset Strip, to taking Jean Shrimpton to a doll hospital – these are the stories behind the images as only Terry O’Neill can reveal.

“I was walking up the Miami Beach boardwalk to the Fontainebleau Hotel where Sinatra was staying… I just reached out with the letter in my hand and he took it. He opened it, read it… turned to his security men and said, “this kid’s with me.” I never found out what Ava said to him in that letter. From that moment on, I was part of his inner circle.” – Terry O’Neill

From The Beatles to the Rolling Stones, Terry O’Neill fast became the photographer of the 1960s. Having an eye – and ear – for music and musicians, he instinctively knew what bands to focus on. And they in turn trusted him. “I remember sitting in a pub with the Beatles and the Stones. We were just hanging-out and talking about what we’d do next, after all of this was over. By this, we meant the fame, being the ‘new kids of the moment’. Usually, this sort of celebrity doesn’t last. Little did we know that 60 years later, we’d still be at it.” Music led O’Neill to Hollywood and working with stars resulted not only in to memorable moments but long-lasting friendships. He traveled with Frank Sinatra. Took Raquel Welch to the beach. Went in the ring with Ali. Put The Who in a cage.

O’Neill captured many of the most unforgettable faces from the frontline of fame, and his photographs exude his own brand of serene simplicity, intimate behind-the-scene moments and the rare quality of trust between photographer and subject. The list of people Terry O’Neill has worked with over the past 60 years is a Who’s Who in celebrity; from film to music, sports to politics. Terry O’Neill: Every Picture Tells a Story is like going through a walking tour of memory by a man who has seen, met and photographed them all.

WHAT’S FOR DESSERT?

Are you a dessert lover? Are you curious, adventurous and ready to start a magical baking journey? This recipe book will give you the key to put together basic ingredients like butter, sugar, eggs, flour, chocolates and fruit in various proportions to create an unbelievable array of desserts. This book will also show you how to use unusual and exotic ingredients and make complex desserts with easy-to-understand terms. With an eclectic collection of recipes along with accompanying photographs, here is a treasure trove of irresistible delights.

Cooking is as much a visual art as fashion, graphic design or interior design.

Now, in collaboration with Italy’s premiere cookbook publisher, Pantone brings its expertise on eye-appeal into the kitchen. Fifty-six step-by-step recipes are gathered around eight colors and their variations, including: Yellow (Tarte Citron); Magenta (Sea Bream Tartar with Rose Petals); Green (Savory Asparagus Tart); Blue (Salad with Borage Flowers); Purple (Fox Grape Pudding); Orange (Tandoori Chicken with Basmati Rice); Red (Round Meringue with Wild Strawberries); and Brown (Coffee Semifreddo). Each recipe collection is introduced with an essay by a Pantone color expert, and each is styled to perfection and photographed in Pantone’s full-color glory.

Added features include 40 suggested menus combining colors for occasions (brunch, a children’s party, happy hour, a dessert buffet); cuisines (Italian, Mediterranean, Japanese, French); meals for every season; and many other themes. Also included is an extensive guide to necessary equipment, utensils and ingredients. Fifty hand-drawn color how-to sketches demonstrate styling and presentation techniques for creating delicious feasts for the eyes

With a sleek modern layout and design, Pantone Foodmood is perfect for gift-giving. It will be coveted by cooks, food-lovers, Pantone devotees, and all those who love books beautifully made.

Multidisciplinary designer and passionate world traveler Jiun Ho looks back on a life of global exploration, inspiration, determination, and boundless creativity in Jiun Ho: Experience, the first monograph from a creative force who has gained international attention for his harmonious, well-balanced interiors and innovative furniture, lighting, and textile designs. Jiun’s body of work, informed by elements observed in the world around him, draws deeply on the colors, textures, and shapes of nature, the designer’s greatest inspiration.

When Jiun was eight years old, his mother took him aside and gave him a single sentence of advice: “You can be poor in life, but Jiun, you should never be poor in experiences.” Those words have gone on to influence all the decisions he has made from that day forward. Born in Malaysia, Jiun moved from his home in Kuala Lumpur in the early 1990s to study interior design and architecture in Chicago. At the age of 26—after a successful but emotionally unfulfilling career with a prestigious international architecture and design firm—he boldly launched his eponymous design company and set out to achieve his personal goal of visiting more than 100 countries by the time he turned 40 and, most important, living a life rich in experiences. Tracing his journeys across the continents with camera and sketchbook in hand, Jiun Ho: Experience is spectacular photographic travelogue as well as a document of the designer’s best work, including luxury hotels, resorts, restaurants, and private residences around the world.

Forgotten in Thailand’s troubled Deep South, stands a dilapidated wooden palace once home to a Malay ruler, the last of his dynasty. Locals call it the “House of the Raja,” a place suffused with loss and solitude, laden with the region’s glorious past and tragic present. Intrigued by this demonized, little-known borderland, photographer Xavier Comas chanced upon this mysterious house and felt compelled to delve into its past. The caretaker, a Muslim shaman who held rituals inside, invited the author to stay and initiated him into its hidden dimensions. As Comas builds a bond of trust with the inhabitants of the house, the missing pieces of its history gently fall into place, revealing an ancient culture long hidden and the building’s ties to the centuries-old struggles in this contested region.
 
Comas’ evocative black-and-white photographs take us into a realm of hauntings, mystic powers and fading memories. His first-hand account enthralls the reader with vivid descriptions in which the real and the magical entwine. The House of the Raja provides a missing key to controversial issues of legacy, belief and identity in Thailand’s Muslim South.

Manfred Bischoff (1947–2015) was one of the most innovative jewelry artists of our time. He designed items of jewelry that tell stories and enriched his language of forms through references to contemporary art, quotations from art history and philosophy, and inspiration from his bountiful world of ideas. Through this, he developed his own particular way of mounting his jewelry pieces on drawings, on which messages and titles appear in his own characteristic hand.

In this book, his work is showcased in its entirety for the very first time, including early works, which attracted little attention in previous publications. The publication is oriented on the sequence of places that each had a major influence on his works: first Berlin, followed by further locations in Italy. The book not only documents Manfred Bischoff’s multifaceted oeuvre with numerous illustrations and preliminary sketches; it also provides insights, via additional private photos and notes, into a remarkable artistic universe.

Text in English and German.

Ring Redux presents more than a hundred avant-garde rings by renowned international artists who explore this age-old jewelry form with great vitality and relevance to society today. In the essay “Riffs on Rings“, Ursula Ilse-Neuman provides valuable insights into the astonishing variations on one of the most intimate and enduring forms of body adornment, revealing the profound and subtle differences in how these artists evoke the ring’s potential to express ideas that extend beyond its ornamental role. The skill and audacity infused in these intimate sculptural forms is captured in stunning new color photographs. In the “Artists’ Voices” section, the jewelers provide valuable perspectives on the conception and execution of their works. The collection of rings presented here has been acquired over five decades by Susan Grant Lewin and will be exhibited at the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia.

“It is fortunate that a scholar with Professor Abbi’s tenacity, as well as her scientific credentials, was available and willing to conduct this work… The volume is a superb introduction for the layperson to the wonderful world that Professor Abbi has opened up for us.” – Bernard Comrie, Santa Barbara, California.

“For two decades now, Abbi has marshalled the full intellectual and strategic weight of her training, disciplinary expertise and socio-cultural capital to document, preserve and share with the world the voices, songs, stories and laughter of the Great Andamanese.” – Mark Turin, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

The Andaman Islands — Great Andaman, Little Andaman, and North Sentinel Islands have been home for milleniums to four tribes: the Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa, and Sentinelese. Their languages are known by the same name as that of the tribes. ‘Great Andamanese’ is a generic term representing ten languages among a family of languages that were once spoken by ten different tribes living in the north, south, and middle of the Great Andaman Islands. These languages were mutually intelligible like a link in a chain.

However, today, Great Andamanese is a moribund language of the only-surviving pre-Neolithic tribe, breathing its last breath. When a language is on the verge of extinction, its history, culture, ecological base, knowledge of the biodiversity, ethno-linguistic practices, and the identity of its community — everything is endangered. This is what prompted Prof. Anvita Abbi to conduct a research study to give life to the lost oral heritage of the vanishing world of the Great Andamanese.

Voices from the Lost Horizon is a collection of a number of folk tales and songs of the Great Andamanese. These stories and songs represent the first-ever collection rendered to the Prof. Abbi and her team by the Great Andamanese people in local settings. The compilation comes with audio and video recordings of the stories and songs to retain the originality and orality of the narratives. 

“This book takes in his introduction to wine – at the age of three! – through his continued travels and championing of New World wines when they were less fashionable.” – Matthew Nugent, The Irish Sun

“You can feel Oz Clarke’s expansive, chatty presence in every sentence” – Telegraph

“Reading Clarke may be the closest we’ll come to sharing a glass of sack with the Bard himself.” —David McIntyre, Washington Post
“Frankly, it’s the best and most entertaining wine read I’ve had in years.” —Tom Doorley, The Irish Mail

“You can never have too much of his captivating enthusiasm and rich knowledge and this is him at his best.” — Waitrose magazine

“A rollicking good read.” — Sommelier India

There have never been so many delicious and original wines in the world, and to discover them, all you need is a glass in your hand and Oz Clarke – the ideal wine companion. With his inimitable sense of adventure and fun, Oz explains how his fascination with flavor led him to abandon a promising acting career and follow his heart from Chablis to ‘the lost Himalayan valleys of Yunnan’ in pursuit new taste experiences and wine thrills. He found them! Oz Clarke On Wine takes us on a fast-paced, witty romp around the grape varieties key to the world’s major wine styles, then explores the vineyards and regions where a vast trove of wine treasure lies waiting for discovery. Oz’s passion for sharing, his deep wine knowledge, and his ability to conjure up the wine world’s most beautiful landscapes, make this book the most unputdownable wine read this century.

Includes:

• How Oz fell in love with wine: from his first dramatic encounter on a river-bank (aged three), to his post-performance tasting tales (after ‘governing Argentina’ as General Perón in the hit show Evita
• Oz explains how global warming affects what we drink today, and the new styles we can expect ‘tomorrow’
• Organic and Biodynamic wines, Oz’s favorite fizz
• The world’s best-tasting wines, from Aconcagua to Okanagan, from Patagonia to east Yorkshire…, and wines to enjoy, from budget to blue chip… For sipping and savoring now. Or to age and enjoy in 10, 20, 30-years’ time…

Whisky is a story. Whisky is many stories. This book brings together the most surprising anecdotes from the world of whisky and is therefore the perfect addition to other books on distilling, tasting and travelling. Enjoy heart-warming tales about secret recipes, haunted castles, hidden distilleries, generous drunks and the first whisky tourist, and discover aspects about whisky that you’ll never find in any other book. For almost 40 years, whisky enthusiast Fernand Dacquin has been traveling through this wonderful world of whisky, in search of the most striking stories and images. Now he turns those experiences into 111 stories, in his own tongue-in-cheek style. The result is a wonderfully unusual book, published in a practical format that leaves one hand free for a good glass of whisky.