American Art Deco
Alastair Duncan
Thames & Hudson 1st 1986

The explosion of Modernist art and design which made its original impact at the Paris Exposition Internationale of 1925 was quick to find an echo in the United States. Art Nouveau, a sensation in its time, had become tired and jaded, and the joyous exuberance of the Art Deco style was just what was needed to take its place. Exhibitions of decorative arts were mounted in American museums, and the department stores competed with each other to introduce the new aesthetic to the American public. The artists at the forefront of this surge of creativity were at first European and predominantly French, but American designers were soon making their own contribution to the Deco style. As the dazzling illustrations in this book demonstrate, in sculpture, furniture, ceramics, architectural decoration, graphics, and virtually all the applied arts, American designers developed a dynamic, indigenous tradition.
Most of the important buildings of the 1930s, in all parts of the country, were embellished with Art Deco ornamentation — from the Oviatt Building in Los Angeles, decorated by Lalique, to New York's romantic Chrysler Building. Cinema-goers found the style adopted in films of the period, and Art Deco became part of the background of ordinary people. Yet, by the onset of World War II, Art Deco was almost played out and in a very short time it was completely out of fashion. Only in recent years has it become the target of enthusiastic collectors.
Alastair Duncan here explores in depth for the first time the wide and neglected subject of American Art Deco. With a wonderful array of more than 500 illustrations, including 233 in full colour, he reassesses and puts into perspective the work of such gifted artists as Donald Deskey, Joseph Urban, Paul Manship, Gilbert Rohde, Walter von Nessen, and many others — artists whose vision helped to transform American art and design.

Large 4to. Blue cloth-covered boards with gold titling to the spine and gold Thames & Hudson logo to the front board. Fine in a Fine wrapper. Over 2kgs £60.00

Inuit Art - An Anthology
Alma Houston
Watson & Dwyer 1st 1988

The past four decades have been years of revelation and acclaim for Inuit art. Prior to 1948, only the rare arctic traveller, trader or missionary knew of and collected the very small magical figures carved in ivory or soapstone by Inuit hunters.
Recognition came when the first exhibition and sale of carvings at the Handicrafts Guild in Montreal captured the attention of the press and of Montreal's art patrons.
Then followed the introduction of the stone-cut and stencil prints, the whale bone art, the woven tapestries, and the wall hangings.
Highlights of these remarkable events are described in this volume by involved and fluent writers: some are eye-witnesses to the unfolding of creative gifts; others are researchers detailing the history and the prehistory of the Inuit people and their art.
Three Inuit artists speak frankly about their art, and their hopes for the future—a viewpoint seldom expressed in print.
This selection of articles and illustrations will serve the newcomer well in providing a solid introduction to Inuit art; collectors and researchers will appreciate the gathering together of expert knowledge in one volume.

Large 4to. Very, very minor creasing to the top edge of the dustwrapper, otherwise the book is in Fine condition in a VG++ wrapper. 810 gms £35.00

On Decoration
David Brett
Lutterworth Press 1st 1992

This absorbing study surveys the developments in decorative design from the 1830s to the 1950s, showing how the modem age has affected the status of decoration and examining the role of ornament in a rapidly changing industrial society.
Arranged in three sections, the book opens with an introductory essay which looks at the cultural background of the discourse of decoration, bringing into play two major strands of decorative theory, and looking at the changing natures of modernism and traditionalism. The central section of this book is composed of pictorial examples, arranged in order of chronological development, from the most significant trends in taste and fashion. The concluding postscript expands on the origins and development of the two opposing strands identified, which the author defines as normative and critical `schools'. The first takes its foundation from the `Philosophical Radicals' and their programme of industrialisation and social reform, and is exemplified by Owen Jones and the Department of Science and Art; the second is the critical reaction led by Ruskin and the Arts and Crafts Movement. The one led toward the abandonment of decoration, the other toward its pastiche. The author concludes with a critical summary of the present sorry state of decoration. However, decoration is seen as a natural attribute of our species, and the discourse that has built up around it is by no means closed.

4to. Very minor indent to front board, slight creasing to dustwrapper edges, tiny split to dustwrapper at front hinge, inscribed to previous owner by author on front free endpaper, very slight tanning to page edges, otherwise the book is in VG+ condition in a VG+ wrapper. 820 gms £55.00

Maps and Mapmakers
R V Tooley
B T Batsford 6th edn 1978

This standard work gives full information and illustrations of the principal map-makers and map publishers and their work from the earliest times to the nineteenth century, combining an appreciation of the popular decorative side of early maps with historical and bibliographical notes. For this new edition a fresh general introduction has been provided, and the lists of authorities at the ends of chapters have been brought up to date.
“... a magnificently illustrated study of map-making from the earliest times to the mid-nineteenth century.”— The Daily Telegraph
“It is the first really extensive catalogue raisonne on its subject.”— New Statesman
“No book quite like Maps and Map-Makers, nor so useful in its way, has ever been published in England. Nor have we any work on this subject so well or so generously illustrated, for it contains nearly a hundred large plates, several of them in colour. It has come very opportunely.”— Dr Edward Lynam in The Spectator
“This is the most comprehensive book on maps yet published in England.”—The Times
“Amateur collectors will find this book most useful; experts, librarians and booksellers will hardly be able to dispense with it as a reference book.”— The American Geographical Magazine
The jacket illustration, of De Jode's map of Alaska, Antwerp 1593 is from a transparency by S. Gooders.

4to. Fine in a VG++ wrapper. 865 gms £15.00

The Cult of Art
Jean Gimpel
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1st 1969

Nowadays art has attained the status of a quasi-religion and the artist has come to be regarded as a kind of high priest, a being who possesses a special sort of perception and understanding. In The Cult of Art Jean Gimpel launches a frontal assault on these concepts, attacking the idea that art has to be esoteric and mystical and the artist a superman.
Beginning in the Middle Ages — when the artist was little more than an artisan, someone to be classed alongside carpenters and masons — and working through the Renaissance — when an artist of the stature of Michaelangelo could consider himself exalted enough to flaunt the authority of the Pope — up to the present tune when the art cult flourishes throughout the world, Jean Gimpel's thesis not only punctures the myth of the artist as a special being but strikes hard and perceptively at the bastions of art itself.
Iconoclastic, brilliantly argued, as thoroughly documented as any history of art, The Cult of Art is a book with profound consequences for Western culture.
When this book was first published in France it provoked an outraged leading article in The Times Literary Supplement, which found the author's views `thoroughly disturbing'.

8vo. Printed ex libris plate to front pastedown, dustwrapper in protective wrapper. Fine in a Fine wrapper. 386 gms £30.00