More than other painters, the Impressionists wanted to shake off the dust of the studio, and swarmed the noisy streets of Paris, filling the cafés and living in garrets and humble little dwellings on the hill of Montmartre, which still seemed like the countryside at the time, its slopes covered with vineyards and vegetable gardens. Nor did they limit themselves to the city, planting their easels in the clearings of the forest of Fontainebleau, on the coast of Normandy, in the rustic villages in the Oise Valley and in Bougival and Argenteuil on the banks of the Seine. Like their Naturalist friends Zola and Maupassant, they liked to mix with the locals so they could experience the places directly, painting everywhere, even on a boat, like the one where Monet had his floating studio.
This Boston guide is the newest addition to the internationally successful series The 500 Hidden Secrets. Like the other city guides in the series, it contains 500 places to visit or things to know. All of them are addresses or activities the author, savvy Boston local Natalia Ivanytsky, would recommend to friends visiting her hometown. A new feature are the two city walks included in the book, leading past a selection of the 500 secrets: a great way for first-time visitors to get to know the city.
This bulky selection of Boston tips is based only on the author’s personal opinions after thorough research: Natalia wandered through the many Boston streets and neighborhoods accompanied by her dog, looking for the best places to eat, drink, shop, visit, dive into the cultural scene, … She drank and ate her way through the best brunch spots, cocktail bars, and restaurants with family and friends, looking for the five best on-the-go sandwiches, the five tastiest street food trucks, the nicest shops for New England-inspired home décor or five urban oasis garden escapes. She also tells you which unofficial stops along the Freedom Trail are worthwhile, or where to find cool outdoor art installations. Her aim is to showcase Boston’s strong culture beyond sports and history, and to help you discover new, unexplored places.
Also available: The 500 Hidden Secrets of Chicago, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Seattle, The 500 Hidden Secrets of New York, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Tokyo, and many more. Discover the series at the500hiddensecrets.com
The Ruskin Society Book of The Year. Who was John Ruskin? What did he achieve – and how? Where is he today? One possible answer: almost everywhere. John Ruskin was the Victorian age’s best-known and most controversial intellectual. He was an art critic, a social activist, an early environmentalist; he was also a painter, writer, and a determined tastemaker in the fields of architecture and design. His ideas, which poured from his pen in the second half of the 19th century, sowed the seeds of the modern welfare state, universal state education and healthcare free at the point of delivery. His acute appreciation of natural beauty underpinned the National Trust, while his sensitivity to environmental change, decades before it was considered other than a local phenomenon, fuelled the modern green movement. His violent critique of free market economics, Unto This Last, has a claim to be the most influential political pamphlet ever written. Ruskin laid into the smug champions of Victorian capitalism, prefigured the current debate about inequality, executive pay, ethical business and automation. Gandhi is just one of the many whose lives were changed radically by reading Ruskin, and who went on to change the world. This book, timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of John Ruskin’s birth in 2019, will retrace Ruskin’s steps, telling his life story and visiting the places and talking to the people who – perhaps unknowingly – were influenced by Ruskin himself or by his profoundly important ideas. What, if anything, do they know about him? How is what they do or think linked to the vivid, difficult but often prophetic pronouncements he made about the way our modern world should look, live, work and think? As important, where – and why – have his ideas been swept away or displaced, sometimes by buildings, developments and practices that Ruskin himself would have abhorred? Part travelog, part quest, part unconventional biography, this book will attempt to map Ruskinland: a place where, two centuries after John Ruskin’s birth, more of us live than we know.
Quartier Brugmann – L’Art de Vivre in Brussels’ Most Stylish Area translates the unique atmosphere of this neighborhood, compared to London’s Notting Hill and Paris’ Saint-Germain, into a book of three parts:
I. A short architectural introduction through the Brugmann district, explaining the origins of the place and the important houses and buildings of the Brugmann square, the Avenue Lepoutre, the Avenue Molière…
II. Interviews with 30 Ambassadors who talk about their interest in the neighborhood: why they live and/or work there, which are the addresses they can recommend…
III. A walk along the best addresses (galleries, boutiques, restaurants…) of the place Georges Brugmann, the Rue Franz Merjay and the surrounding avenues and streets.
Text in English and French.
“With his legendary swag, Norman Anderson, aka Normski, hip-hop ambassador in the United Kingdom since its emergence in the 1980s, is the great archivist of these glory days he captured London to Detroit.” — Rolling Stone France
“The difference between Normski’s photograph of me and any other is that it captures my soul.” — Goldie
“He was a larger-than-life character, full of energy and totally motivating. He really was the hip hop photographer of the day in the UK.” — Stereo MC’s
“This book contains a striking catalogue of images, many of which have been exhibited by establishments such as Tate Britain, the V&A, Somerset House and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.” — Marcus Barnes
“On the heels of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary, Man with the Golden Shutter is a celebratory record of hip-hop as much as it is a definitive collection of Normski’s incredible photographs.” — GQ Middle East
Normski was a vital witness to the period known as the Golden Age of Rap, when big US artists like Run DMC, LL Cool J and Public Enemy started to play in the UK. At the same time, a British music scene born of Black music and myriad multicultural influence was developing, giving birth to Jungle, Garage and Techno.
The author, who describes himself as having been a “young Black British homeboy photographer”, was in the right place at the right time to document the emergent music, community and social movements of hip hop and rap in the UK. Normski: Man with the Golden Shutter presents Normski’s personal journey through that world from the mid-1980s to early 1990s.
The book includes Normski’s often previously unseen photographs of Public Enemy, N.W.A., Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Goldie, Ice-T, Run DMC, Wu-Tang Clan and many others, alongside the photographer’s stories and anecdotes from the center of what would become a hugely influential cultural movement.
Manish Pushkale, born in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, is an autodidact who honed his artistic style and sensibility at Bharat Bhavan’s fertile and creativity-filled ambience of the time. His engagement at the art center cemented Pushkale’s deep engagement with indigenous folk and tribal traditions. The installation To Whom the Bird Should Speak? is a visual enquiry into the significance of language as a medium of communication. Pushkale’s artistic research into indigenous cultures was inspired by the story of the Aka-Bo tribe in the Andaman Islands and their oral tradition of communicating with birds that was lost to the world after the death of its last speaker, Boa Sr.
As a contemporary artist and an abstract painter, Pushkale works at the intersection of linguistics and archaeology in an immersive 125 square meters of hand-painted installation, as he imagines a visual ‘script’ of a lost history that we would like to recover, or should it be allowed to fade inexorably into oblivion?
With contributions by Claire Bettinelli, Yannick Lintz, Ganesh Devy and Devika Singh, and a poem by Ashok Vajpeyi.
Text in English and French.
Please Look in the Basement is a quirky collection of posters of lost cats, dogs, birds and other pets, carefully curated from the collection of Maarten Inghels, Jan Lemaire, Jean-Michel Meyers, Denis Meyers and Nicolas Marichal from Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent. Fellow collector and writer Maarten Inghels took the posters as the starting point for conversations with the owners. Apart from the posters, this maverick collectible bundles whimsical anecdotes about loneliness and friendship in the big city. How do you find an escaped animal? Does a cat survive a fall from the fourth floor? And did the fortune-teller really see the location of the lost dog in her crystal ball? Please Look in the Basement is an ode to the bizarre occurrences of our four-legged friends and the doltish typography of homemade posters. Inghels tells the stories of pets who one day decide to go their own way.
Text in English, French and Dutch.
The famed Bengal textiles which once ‘clothed the world’ have received little scholarly attention. With the systemic destruction of Bengal’s textile industry, prompted by the Industrial Revolution in Europe, the muslins and Balucharis of Bengal were lost in obscurity. The partition of the Indian subcontinent and the consequent varieties of cultural and social identity in present-day India and Bangladesh have contributed to this neglect. This pioneering publication explores in depth the lost textile traditions of Bengal from the 16th to the 20th century and traces its impact on the historical and cultural aspects of the region.
Supported by superb illustrations of textiles, maps and trade documents from the past, most of which have never been published before, the book serves as a public history, with engaging chapters presenting a unique perspective on the textiles of wider Bengal. This volume will inspire the reader, reorient scholarly attention and provoke a rethinking of the nature and history of Bengal textiles.
Mudlarking’ is the act of searching the riverbed for historical treasures. Mudlarks comb the river’s foreshore, which is only accessible for a few hours a day at low tide, in their hunt for objects, untouched since they were lost hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Jutten is about men in boots mudlarking the bank of the Scheldt river in Antwerp, in search of shards of the past, the larking, the scouring, the scavenging. One tea towel after another filled with coins, marbles, pipes.
“Finds have a strange hold over us. There’s a magic to them that shines on a lot longer than the soon fading glimmer of things we intentionally choose. That purposefulness is probably what kills our enthusiasm after a week or so. Because when we make a choice, there’s too much of ourselves in the object already. We don’t deem a consciously picked item deserving of a tea towel display. The more trash we’ve dug through to get to our treasure, the more it becomes. Hence the mud-crusted trouvailles. So we go hunting for crap that’s out of place. Crap that becomes a find, simply because it was lost.” – extract from a text by Annelies Desmet & Jill Mathieu
This love letter in photographs to the unique beauty and mystery of Venice is an evocative compilation of vintage photographs, prints, and ephemera. It is a tactile ode to the sensuality of the city, filled to the brim with all manner of Venetian memorabilia: 19th century photographs, engravings, hand-colored magic lantern slides, vintage postcards, old luggage labels, keys from long-lost luxury hotels, golden ducats from the 18th century, Carnival ball invitations. With gilt-edged pages and antique Venetian lettering, it is not a travel or walking guide, but an atmospheric pilgrimage that pays homage to this ever-fascinating city. Serge Simonat’s engaging commentary on Venetian history and culture introduces each subject with affection and insight.
“Every day, a nervous traveller visiting the City of Doges for the first time asks the best way to get to their hotel. ‘The shortest or the most beautiful?’, I once heard the concierge at Hotel Des Bains ask. The tourist who opted for the most beautiful route is still wandering around the city. This is a unique photobook in which to wander and lose oneself.” – Serge Simonart
The ancient treasures collected over the past 20 years by Ludovic Donnadieu, hail from a myriad of ancient cultures, famous or obscure, across all five continents. The selection maintains a balanced representation of different geographical areas, ensuring that all regions of the world and all historical or prehistoric periods are accounted for. Through this comprehensive panorama, the viewer is invited on a cultural and anthropological journey through time and space.
The showcased artworks are “miniatures”; few exceed a size of 20 centimeters. Indeed, an artwork doesn’t need to be monumental to evoke profound emotional impact and fascination! Fragility can endure, the minuscule can embody grandeur, and singular detail can convey a universal message.
This selection of 99 works, forming a unique ensemble worldwide, adheres to a triple criterion: authenticity, aesthetic quality, and balance, both among the represented subjects and across different forms, materials, or functions. The period covered spans from 6,000 BC to the early 20th century. Presenting this collection to the public holds a dual significance: in a world threatened by uniformity, it celebrates the richness and diversity of human cultures while also highlighting the beauty and grandeur of small-scale formats and the need to protect what is fragile.
The Donnadieu Foundation was established in 2023, under the aegis of the Foundation for Childhood, by Ludovic Donnadieu, art collector, certified public accountant, and founder of the firm Donnadieu & Associates, which specialized in securing funds entrusted to NGOs. The Foundation aims to enable young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to broaden their horizons and engage in civic activism, while also raising awareness among the general public and policymakers about the importance of culture for the world’s youth.
Text in English and French.
The ultimate volume on Ferrari production enhanced by the artistic photos of Christian Martin. Immerse yourself in a visual journey through legendary Ferrari models: 250 GTO, Testarossa, F40 and more.
This exceptional work on Ferrari fuses art, automobile photography and a catalogue raisonné. It offers a captivating journey through legendary Ferrari models, such as the 250 GTO, the Testarossa, the F40, the Enzo, and the 458 Italia. You will also discover rare treasures, including the Ferrari P4/5, a unique creation by Battista Pininfarina.
Christian Martin sublimates each model with photos that capture speed, elegance and sensuality. His photos pay homage to the vision of Enzo Ferrari, where each curve of the bodywork evokes movement and power. The legendary Ferrari models appear here in their best light, revealing a timeless aesthetic.
This book goes beyond a simple automobile collection. It is a visual and emotional immersion in the world of the prancing horse. Page after page, it celebrates the mechanical treasures that continue to fascinate generations of enthusiasts. A unique experience where art and speed meet to offer a vibrant tribute to Ferrari.
Text in English and French.
Visions in Silk presents the first comprehensive exploration of exquisite Japanese fine art textiles from the Meiji era (1868-1912), showcasing the unparalleled treasures from the Khalili Collection of Japanese Art.
This beautifully illustrated volume reveals how Japanese artists and craftsmen ingeniously adapted centuries-old textile traditions to create innovative art textiles that captivated international audiences, won exhibition awards, and served as prestigious diplomatic gifts.
Featuring over 300 spectacular examples, the book examines dazzling works of embroidery, yuzen resist-dyed silk and cut velvet, tapestry, and oshi-e raised silk, ranging from elegant panels, hangings and screens to grand exhibition showpieces. Each represents the pinnacle of artistic collaboration and hitherto unsurpassed technical mastery.
Written by leading international experts, this landmark publication provides unprecedented insight into these remarkable yet understudied treasures. Visions in Silk will enchant anyone interested in Japanese art, textile design, Japonisme, and the cultural transformations that occurred during the Meiji era, when Japan opened to the outside world.
Effie Gray was an innocent victim of a male-dominated society, repressed and mistreated. Or was she? John Ruskin, the greatest art critic and social reformer of his time, was a callous misogynist and upholder of the patriarchy. Or was he? John Everett Millais, boy genius, rescued the heroine from the tyrannical clutches of the husband who left his wedding unconsummated for six years. Or did he? What really happened in the most scandalous love triangle of the 19th century? Was it all about impotence and pubic hair? Or was it about money, power and freedom? If so, whose? And what possibilities were there for these young people caught in a world racked by social, financial and political turmoil? The accepted story of the Ruskin marriage has never lost its fascination. History books, novels, television series, operas and now a star-filled film by Emma Thompson have all followed this standard line. It seems to offer an easy take on the Victorians and how we have moved on. But the story isn’t true.
In Marriage of Inconvenience Robert Brownell uses extensive documentary evidence – much of it never seen before, and much of it hitherto suppressed – to reveal a story no less fascinating and human, no less illuminating about the Victorians and far more instructive about our own times, than the myths that have grown up about the most notorious marriage of the 19th century.
“A page turner, even for those familiar with the subject…The surprising truth that emerges is no less human, and no less revealing about the Victorians than the myths; on the contrary it gives a far more compelling insight into what relationships, family and money really mean.” — Country Life
“Ruskin’s marriage was doomed from the start, but not for the reason most people think, argues this well-researched book.” — The Times
Effie Gray was an innocent victim of a male-dominated society, repressed and mistreated. Or was she? John Ruskin, the greatest art critic and social reformer of his time, was a callous misogynist and upholder of the patriarchy. Or was he? John Everett Millais, boy genius, rescued the heroine from the tyrannical clutches of the husband who left his wedding unconsummated for six years. Or did he? What really happened in the most scandalous love triangle of the 19th century? Was it all about impotence and pubic hair? Or was it about money, power and freedom? If so, whose? And what possibilities were there for these young people caught in a world racked by social, financial and political turmoil? The accepted story of the Ruskin marriage has never lost its fascination. History books, novels, television series, operas and now a star-filled film by Emma Thompson (to be released in 2013) have all followed this standard line. It seems to offer an easy take on the Victorians and how we have moved on. But the story isn’t true.
In Marriage of Inconvenience Robert Brownell uses extensive documentary evidence – much of it never seen before, and much of it hitherto suppressed – to reveal a story no less fascinating and human, no less illuminating about the Victorians and far more instructive about our own times, than the myths that have grown up about the most notorious marriage of the 19th century.
In 1975 Abram Games, one of Britain’s greatest graphic designers, was commissioned to make a fund-raising poster for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His brilliant solution was to become iconic: the face of Shakespeare built up from the titles of all the plays as they appear in the First Folio.
The poster has been seen all over the world; but Abram Games intended much more. After his death, his daughter Naomi discovered a mock up he had made of a flick book. As the reader flicked the pages, Games planned to make Shakespeare’s face gradually emerge.
Now at last Games’ original project is coming to life. All 37 plays are included, in the order they are printed in the First Folio of 1623, ending with Pericles, Prince of Tyre, added to the collection in the Third Folio of 1664. At the end, the playwright makes a graceful exit, marked by the poems and the lost or doubtful plays. The book is completed with some favorite quotations, and the date of each work. Naomi Games has written a brief introduction about the history of Games’ image.
The history of wine production in Greece dates back more than four millennia, yet for many consumers and aficionados Greek wine is still synonymous with the retsina they drank in tavernas as tourists. Here, Master of Wine Konstantinos Lazarakis argues that to dismiss Greek wine in this way today is to miss out on an array of varied and vibrant wines – even retsina, in the hands of boutique producers, has become a drink worthy of a second chance.
From the foothills of Mount Olympus to the plain of Thessaly in Central Greece and scattered across the vast number of islands, each of Greece’s vineyards has its own challenges, history and varieties. Yet terroir, in Greece, goes far beyond soil-types and weather conditions – it emanates from the culture of the country and the spirit of a people whose ancestors even had a god for wine.
The wines of Greece begins with a summary of Greece’s wine history, geography and grape varieties. The many responses of vine growers and winemakers to the land have created a host of different wines – sweet wines from Samos, the famed Malvasia from the Peloponnese and new, surprising wines from oenological innovators throughout the country. It is to the work of these winemakers that the bulk of the book is dedicated; Lazarakis has tirelessly explored Greece’s 700 wineries and here focuses on some of the most inventive producers and interesting wines available.
Greek wine is on the brink of a new era; anybody curious to rediscover a lost gem of winemaking will have their enthusiasm charged by this lovingly written book.
Georgia has for the last 25 years been resurrecting its unique winemaking tradition and rediscovering the distinctiveness of its native varieties. A handful of producers in 1997 has now exploded to more than 1,300. Wine is arguably more important to Georgia than to any other country and its people firmly believe their country to be the birthplace of wine. Yet Georgian wines are still largely unknown in the West.
Lisa Granik, who began visiting Georgia 30 years ago, starts The Wines of Georgia with a brisk tour through the history of the country and analysis of its complex geology, before moving on to consider Georgian wine culture. She explains not only winemaking methods and viticulture but also the centrality of wine to Georgian culture. Georgia can claim more than 400 native Vitis vinifera varieties; here Granik profiles the most commonly planted grapes, as well as the many ‘lost’ varieties being revived. The second half of the book details each of the major regions. Of Georgia’s 20 PDOs, 15 are in the east, in Kakheti. With a history of wine education dating back 900 years, this prolific winemaking region is home to the qvevri, the conical clay vessel that for many represents Georgian winemaking. Stretching west, the regions become more sparsely populated; some places are still pioneer wine territory, with more amateur and self-taught winemakers. Granik provides details on the most significant producers, along with tips on sites of interest and places to eat and stay, for those visiting the country. This definitive book on Georgian wine is an essential text for anybody studying or making wine today.
Sculptures of Stones by Ronny Delrue depict female statues that are either made of bricks or covered with masonry-like patterns. They form a critical riposte to the heroic male statues of former leaders that are scattered around our cities. Furthermore, the forms also broaden our prior knowledge of the depiction of figures in the public sphere. Sculptures of Stones shows drawing to be a form of spontaneous expression. It offers an alternative to the all-pervasive means of instant communication that govern the world today, namely digital tools and social media systems. Delrue’s drawings are both action and representation. Unlike the electronic devices, a drawing redeems the option of an unmediated, direct action and reflection in and on the world. It re-positions the function of the artist as a free, sovereign subject, who touches the world and is ready to participate and influence history.
English, Dutch and French.
From Nigel Grierson, (photographer/sleeve designer and joint creator of the 4AD visual identity), and with an essay by esteemed photography writer, Gerry Badger, comes the first volume of his street photography from the early 1980s – created while studying at The Royal College of Art in London. Here ‘the decisive moment’ combined with Grierson’s uniquely minimalist eye, are employed to create images of great power, humor and poignancy. Pioneering ‘flash in daylight’ within British documentary photography from the late 1970s, onward (‘a time when natural light was almost a creed’ – Badger), this award winning work, is finally published. In his brief introduction, Grierson speaks of his fascination for the ‘paradoxical’ nature of the medium, being both documentation and self expression simultaneously. He states, ‘It seemed to me, that through photography and observation, there was the possibility, for the two great arcs of life; one of the outer world of reality / documentation, and the other of the inner world of fiction and dream, to come together with the single click of a shutter’.
The monumental complex of St Agnes is located on the Via Nomentana in the north-east of Rome. The site consists of an underground cemetery (catacombs), the remains of the ancient circiform sepulchral basilica, commissioned by the imperial family of emperor Constantine, the mausoleum dedicated to St Constance and the basilica of St Agnes Outside the Walls, built by Pope Honorius I (625-638) on the small room with an altar, venerated as the burial place of the martyr Agnes.
The mausoleum dedicated to St Constance, which houses the remains of the imperial princess Constantine, is a splendid example of late antique architecture. The deambulatory is covered by a sumptuous mosaic decoration with Hellenised geometric motifs and cosmic-seasonal phytomorphic and zoomorphic elements, symbolic scenes such as the harvest and portraits of historical figures.
The basilica of St Agnes, until the beginning of the 17th century, was below ground and to reach the ground floor a staircase was used. The basilica still retains many elements unchanged from the time of Pope Honorius: the splendid reused roman columns, the famous mosaic showing Agnes between Honorius I and Pope Symmachus, and the Proconnesian marble and porphyry facing of the apse… Above the high altar is the statue of St. Agnes, made by Nicolas Cordier from gilded metal, using an ancient oriental alabaster for the bust.
Jason Chen, the owner of this collection, is a man with a passion for life, of which much time is devoted to collecting snuff bottles, although he runs a thriving business. His collection houses over 2,000 bottles, with a select portion shown in these two volumes. Volume I illustrates bottles from varying materials, while the second, slimmer volume shows part of Jason’s collection of miniature snuff bottles. While the whole collection is a work of art in itself, Jason, like other passionate collectors, has a story for every bottle, often the story of acquisition. He is a collector who enjoys both the thrill of the chase and the pleasure of ownership. When other collectors think of Jason Chen and his collection, they often speak of his love of great agate bottles.
Few collectors have dedicated themselves to forming a collection of miniature snuff bottles in the way that Jason has. For the most part, although collectors have affection for the smallest of the small, Jason has applied himself to hunting down and acquiring these minute treasures.
Text in English and Chinese.
The Italian region of Piemonte is rightly famed for the denominations of Barolo and Barbaresco. The area of vineyard given over to Nebbiolo, the sole grape variety of both DOCGs, has increased dramatically in the last half century (as plantings of other varieties have fallen). However, there is much to enjoy beyond the headline wines of the region. With a vast array of local varieties at the disposal of winemakers, no fewer than 60 denominations and a range of wine styles, Piemonte is a wine explorer’s dream.
In The wines of Piemonte, expert wine educator David Way challenges readers to deepen their understanding of the Piemontese wines they already love, such as Barolo and Barbaresco, and experience more of Piemonte’s lesser-known treasures. He begins by setting the wines in their context, giving an outline of the history, geography and climate of the region. He then introduces readers to the native varieties that make the distinctive wines in this region – including less familiar grapes such as Brachetto, Freisa and Grignolino. After a brief discussion of Italian wine law, he leads us in an exploration of the denominations themselves with a selection of producers.
We begin in the Langhe and Roero, where we find denominations centered on the varieties of Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, Barbera and Arneis. The gentle hills of Monferrato are Barbera heartland but also yield wines made from interesting local varieties. Heading west, we visit the valleys of the western Alps, where producers are smaller and the varieties they grow more obscure. After exploring Colli Tortonesi and the white wines of its neighbor, Gavi, in the east, we look to the cooler regions of northern Piemonte. Finally, we are treated to Piemonte’s sparkling wines, made in a range of styles. Complete with color photos and regional maps, whether you are looking for an interesting everyday wine or something to treasure and age, The wines of Piemonte will enhance your enjoyment of the region.
Thanks to its location between two continents, Georgia has traditionally formed a bridge between East and West. A Story of Encounters reflects the exceptional art, culture, and history of the country from the Neolithic to the 18th century. Especially in the “golden age” of united Georgia, between the 11th and 13th centuries, the country experienced an unprecedented cultural and economic boom.
This book shows how the turbulent history and the many exchanges along the major trade and silk routes at this crossroads of Europe and Asia resulted in an unimaginably rich heritage, which has remained largely unexposed until now. Refined goldsmith’s art from the Bronze Age, wine – the country’s oldest cultural asset – and original visual arts: Georgia offers many unexpected treasures, which are shown in detail for the first time.