December 6, 2019 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — 53
Books
Books
Steve Woit, Fly Fishing Treasures:
The World of Fly Fishers and Collec-
tion; printed by Pureprints, Ickfield,
Sussex, U.K.; www.flyfishingtrea-
sures.com; 2019; hardcover; 348
pages; Standard Edition $80;
Author’s Limited Edition, $175.
Did you know there is more equipment
associated with fishing than any other
sport? And fly fishing gear is the ulti-
mate example of innovation and evolu-
tion in craftsmanship and design.
Fly Fishing Treasures is a colorful
review of the world of fly fishers and col-
lecting, including 30 interviews with
leading collectors, experts, museum and
club curators, tackle manufacturers, auc-
tioneers and dealers of antique, vintage
and collectible fly fishing tackle.
The heavily illustrated book captures
the beauty of the bamboo fly rod, the flies
tied with exotic materials, fly reels,
accessories, ephemera and books. With
entertaining stories from the worldwide
community of fly tackle experts and
enthusiasts, this book reveals the
author’s love of fly angling, past, present
and future.
Author Steve Woit has been fly fishing
for more than 40 years and is an avid col-
lector of antique fly fishing tackle. He
spent seven years meeting and inter-
viewing leading collectors, experts,
craftsmen and others; they provided him
with access to private collections and
told stories Woit passes along with their
knowledge making this the definitive
book on fly fishing treasures.
For the fisher or collector, dealer, stu-
dent of fly fishing or interested observer,
this niche publication appeals to a broad-
er audience due to its style and fascinat-
ing stories and photos. —AK
Milk Cans: A Celebration of their
History, Use, and Design by Ian
Spellerberg; Northern Hemisphere
Edition by Astragal Press, www.
astragalpress.com; 2018; 261 pages;
softcover; $35.
Who would think of writing an ode to
the humble milk can, ubiquitous around
the world, but hardly a collectible item,
one would think. But Ian Spellerberg,
emeritus professor of nature conserva-
tion at Lincoln University, New Zealand,
thought it was a worthy topic and wrote
this volume dedicated to the history, use
and design of the milk can, churn, pail or
whatever the local people called this type
of container. Milk containers come in a
diversity of sizes, shapes and designs; the
iconic shape of the “typical” milk can has
inspired toymakers, artists, playwrights,
novelty manufacturers and sports-mind-
ed people, according to Spellerberg.
Milk cans, milk churns or milk pails
have been used for centuries across cul-
tures and geography, which is why they
are some of the most photographed of all
farmyard objects. Here, for the first time,
the diversity in size, shape and design of
milk cans is presented in a comprehen-
sive and full-color publication. Through
historic photographs the varied methods
of transporting milk and the vehicles
used are presented demonstrating the
complexity of delivering milk and how it
was adapted over time. The history of the
dairy industry is touched upon, as are
the cultural moves that affected the pro-
duction of milk.
Milk cans often become family trea-
sures handed down through the genera-
tions; insights about these and other
social aspects of the milk can are included
in the heavily and artfully illustrated vol-
ume. A foreword by Marc Allum, frequent
specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Road
Show and a listing of resources round out
this fascinating and eclectic book. —AK
Kovel’s Antiques & Collectibles
Price Guide 2020 by Terry Kovel and
Kim Kovel; Black Dog & Leventhal,
www.blackdogandleventhal.com;
2019; 568 pages, softcover; $30
This is the 52nd edition of an annual
guidebook popular among both casual
and expert collectors. With 16,000 sale
prices and 2,500 color photographs, this
book includes more tips, marks, logos
and photographs than any other antiques
price guide. Unlike other price guides,
which typically focus on high-priced
items, Kovel’s 2020 prices a broader
value spectrum of items used and col-
lected in homes in the United States. The
book is organized by categories popular
with collectors, including toys, glass,
advertising, furniture, silver, pictures,
sports, jewelry, ceramics and more. The
prices cited are based on auction sales
during the year, rather than the esti-
mates many other price guides focus on.
The most expensive item was $500,000
for a Star Wars prop, the least expensive
was a Howdy-Doody keepsake Christ-
mas ornament for $1. A new feature for
this edition, Kovel’s 2020 also includes a
special illustrated section, “Collecting
Trends: Iconic Designers of Twentieth
Century Furniture.”
Terry Kovel has been a lifelong collec-
tor and is an expert on collecting
antiques. She has written more than 100
books on antiques and collectibles. She
writes a nationally syndicated newspa-
per column, a subscriber newsletter, an
e-newsletter, and a popular website,
www.kovels.com. Kim Kovel, daughter of
Terry and Ralph Kovel, caught the col-
lecting bug as a child, growing up in a
house filled with antiques and traveling
regularly to antique shows and flea mar-
kets all over the United States. She runs
the Kovels’ website and has spent the
last ten years as an author on the Kovels’
price guides and other Kovel projects.
—MHR
Savage Tales, The Writings of Paul
Gauguin by Linda Goddard; Yale
University Press, www.yalebooks.
com; 2019; 208 pages; hardcover; $40
As a French artist who lived in Polyne-
sia, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) is an
important figure in the histories of
European primitivism. According to the
publisher, this is the first book devoted
to his wide-ranging literary output,
which included journalism, travel writ-
ing, art criticism, and essays on aesthet-
ics, religion and politics.
The book analyzes his original manu-
scripts, some of which are richly illus-
trated, reinstating them as an integral
component of his art. The collage-like
structure of Gauguin’s manuscripts
enabled him to evoke the “primitive” cul-
ture that he celebrated, while rejecting
the style of establishment critics.
Gauguin’s writing was also a strategy for
articulating a position on the margins of
both the colonial and the indigenous
communities in Polynesia; he sought to
protect Polynesian society from “civiliza-
tion” but remained implicated in the
imperialist culture that he denounced.
This book will appeal to both the seri-
ous academic and the more casual aficio-
nado of Gauguin’s works. —MHR
Everything for the Garden by
Judith B. Tankard, Richard C. Nyl-
ander, Alan Emmet and Virginia
Lopez Begg; Historic New England
and distributed by Casemate Pub-
lishers, www.historicnewengland.
org or www.casementpublishers.
com; 2019; 144 pages; softcover; $30.
This is the latest volume in Historic
New England’s pictorial history series.
The book follows the process of home
gardening in America and its depen-
dence upon a myriad of how-to books,
catalogs and advertising material that
promise to provide “everything for the
garden,” from information on design and
plant selection to tools, clothing and pink
flamingos.
This book is for anyone who enjoys gar-
dening at home, visiting historic land-
scapes or admiring plants and flowers in
art and culture. Colorfully illustrated
using material with Historic New Eng-
land’s extensive collection, the book cele-
brates the objects and literature that
people used to make and enjoy these out-
door spaces from the mid-Nineteenth
Century to today.
The bold color and graphics of this
book will appeal to a myriad readership
of all ages, while the brief essays are
insightful without being overly academ-
ic. It is a must-have for every garden
lover’s bookshelf. —MHR
Restoring Williamsburg by George
Humphrey Yetter and Carl R. Loun-
sbury; Colonial Williamsburg and
distributed by Yale University Press,
www.yalebooks.com and www.colo-
nialwilliamsburg.org; 2019; 290
pages; hardcover; $50.
This is a revised and expanded version
of a book that was originally published in
1988 as Williamsburg Before and After. It
updates the story of how Reverend
W.A.R. Goodwin and John D. Rockefeller
Jr undertook a major restoration of the
Eighteenth Century colonial capital in
the 1920s-30s. This version sheds new
light on the original restoration and on
the research that continues to reshape
the town and our understanding of its
history; it also includes aspects of Wil-
liamsburg’s history that were not
explored in the original edition.
Illustrated with more than 350 photo-
graphs, watercolors, sketches, maps and
Books
other illustrations, Restoring Williams-
burg features new images from both
before and after the restoration.
Yetter, who wrote Williamsburg Before
and After, was associate curator of archi-
tectural drawings for the Colonial Wil-
liamsburg Foundation until he retired in
2013. Lounsbury, who revised and
expanded the original work, was senior
architectural historian for Colonial Wil-
liamsburg until he retired in 2016. He is
the author of a number of books and is
coeditor of The Chesapeake House: Archi-
tectural Investigation by Colonial Wil-
liamsburg.
This coffee-table format book is an ideal
gift for lovers of historic architecture and
historic preservation, while the many
interior views will appeal to lovers of
antiques and material culture. —MHR
American Silver in the Philadel-
phia Museum of Art, Volume 1, A–F
by Beatrice B. Garvan and David L.
Barquist; Philadelphia Museum of
Art, www.philamuseum.org in asso-
ciation with Yale University Press,
www.yalebooks.com; 2018; 464
pages; hardcover; $150.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has
one of the most comprehensive and
extraordinary collection of American sil-
ver in the United States. This book (vol-
ume 1 of what will be four volumes even-
tually) showcases the museum’s
collection from the earliest makers 100
years before the American Revolution
through groundbreaking contemporary
designs.
Beginning with Cesar Ghiselin in 1681,
Philadelphia has a long and storied his-
tory of silversmithing that includes nota-
ble artists such as Joseph Richardson Sr
and Jr, Philip Syng Jr, and Olaf Skoog-
fors. Celebrating this legacy, this gener-
ously illustrated book features a broad
array of objects that range from colonial-
era tableware to original contemporary
designs.
Arranged alphabetically by makers and
retailers, this deeply researched, and lav-
ishly illustrated exploration contains
extensive biographies of makers, accom-
panied by detailed entries on individual
pieces that are full of new discoveries
related to artist marks, heraldic engrav-
ings and provenance histories.
An introduction by Beatrice B. Garvan,
curator emerita of American decorative
arts at the Philadelphia Museum, and
notes to the catalog are followed by the
heart of the book: the catalog of the col-
lection. Each entry is accompanied by
extensive photographs of the object or
maker, its dates, marks, dimensions and
provenance, including exhibitions or
inclusion in books. Each entry is followed
by extensive scholarly notes.
Rounding out the book are a concor-
dance, references an index of markers,
retailers and original owners and an
index of forms.
A formidable first of four volumes, co-
author David L. Barquist is the H. Rich-
ard Dietrich Jr curator of American deco-
rative arts at the Philadelphia Museum
of Art.
54 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — December 6, 2019
Books
Well beyond a coffee-table book, this is a
massive scholarly undertaking that
should be in the library of any collector,
dealer or library of silver, as well as its
being a remarkable keyhole view into
early colonial times and modern-day cre-
ators of objects of silver. Fascinating and
engrossing, it is well-written as well as
deeply researched. —AK
Let’s Fake A Deal by Sherry Harris;
Kensington Publishing Corp., www.
kensingtonbooks.com; 2019; 292
pages; softcover; $7.99.
Antiques Ravin’ by Barbara Allan;
Kensington Publishing Corp., www.
kensingtonbooks.com; 2019; 232
pages; softcover; $26.
Thread on Arrival by Lea Wait,
Kensington Publishing Corp., www.
kensingtonbooks.com; 2019; 310
pages; softcover; $7.99.
It is not often that the antiques world
finds relief in fiction. Indeed those sto-
ries — anything to do with non-truth, in
fact — often arouse suspicion. But what
about actual fiction, where you sit back,
kick your legs up and relax a little. Three
2019 releases have you covered: Thread
on Arrival, Antiques Ravin’ and Let’s
Fake A Deal.
Feline memorabilia, murder and millen-
nials — all hot topics in the industry —
are found in Sherry Harris’ Let’s Fake A
Deal, another edition in the author’s
series focused on protagonist Sarah Win-
ston, who runs garage and estate sales.
Set in small-town Massachusetts, this
story focuses on Sarah’s current and past
life, as well as a young couple trying to
sell a trove of stolen merchandise.
The eighth story in Lea Wait’s Mainely
Needlepoint mystery series, Thread on
Arrival whisks readers away as they try
to solve the murder of a veteran in a quiet
town in Maine. Needlepoint friends Angie
and Sarah set out to solve this crime,
while also working to exonerate a suspect
they believe is innocent.
The travels of antiques dealers Brandy
Borne and her mother Vivian come into
focus when a murder rocks an Edgar
Allen Poe festival in Antiques Ravin’ by
Barbara Allen, the latest installment of
the author’s Trash N’ Treasures series. If
there is one thing that binds antiques lov-
ers, it’s the thrill of the hunt, the sleuth-
ing and making a find. This book has all
of that and more. —GS
30 For 30: Thirty Years On The Hunt
by Glenn Adamson, Jonathan Clancy,
Garth Clark, Rachel Delphia, Chris-
tine Gervais, Eve M Kahn, Grace
Nkem, Etienne Tornier, Anna Walker;
The Jason Jacques Gallery Press,
www.jasonjacques.com; 2018; 283
pages; hardcover.
In celebration of the gallery’s 30th year
in business, Jason Jacques launched the
exhibition “30 for 30,” a selection of 30
Art Nouveau and contemporary works
that ran January through March, 2019.
Ceramics from Art Nouveau artists
included Jean-Joseph Carriès, Ernest
Chaplet and Hector Guimard, as well as
contemporary design by Kim Simonsson,
Gareth Mason and Aneta Regel. All art-
Books
ists received the treatment in this exhi-
bition/catalog.
With some as early as 2006, a timeline
of graphic advertisements displayed on
the back pages charts the evolution of the
gallery’s exhibitions at its 73rd Street
location, where Jacques presented works
from Amphora, Clément Massier, Zsolnay,
Georges Hoentschel, among many others,
and as they built upon the market for
European pottery created between 1875-
1925 and augmented it with contempo-
rary offerings.
This book, the exhibition’s accompany-
ing illustrated hardcover catalog, fea-
tures essays from nine writers, many of
them established authors on the decora-
tive arts and curators in their field. It is
an enjoyable read for anyone who wants
to read a compendium of the great ceram-
icists in fin de siècle Europe, and to be
exposed to new work from masters of the
present day.
The catalog also serves to solidify the
story of Jason Jacques the dealer, who
transformed from a young man in the
rows of flea markets into a New York City
gallerist. In the first chapter by Garth
Clark, the author notes that Jacques
“may be the most unconventional dealer
in New York, regularly disobeying all the
rules. He is undoubtedly one of the most
fascinating.” Of Jacque’s gallery space,
Clark writes “Its present incarnation,
eschewing the uniformity of the white
cube, is a cross between the bat cave, an
S+M dungeon and the interior of a tank.
The walls, floors and ceiling are entirely
surfaced in large dark steel sheets. It is
surprising how well this works for most
of his exhibitions.” —GS
Ernest Gimson: Arts & Crafts
Designer and Architect by Annette
Carruthers, Mary Greensted and
Barley Roscoe; Yale University Press,
www.yalebooks.com; 372 pages; hard-
cover; $65.
A survey of the Arts and Crafts move-
ment is incomplete without a thorough
look at one of its main figureheads, Eng-
lish architect-designer Ernest Gimson.
Released just in the nick of time for the
holiday season, Ernest Gimson: Arts &
Crafts Designer and Architect is an
authoritative visual and factual compen-
dium of this craftsman’s output.
Gimson was a renaissance man and a
believer in total design, the art of design-
ing architecture and interiors down to the
minute details, which is evident in his
broad range of skills in furniture design,
metalwork, plaster decoration, embroi-
dery and more.
This book builds upon the knowledge of
others, even Gimson’s contemporaries,
who understood his importance in the
moment. In his 1924 work Ernest Gimson,
his life and work, W.R. Lethaby described
him as a man of action, saying “Work not
words, things not designs, life not rewards
were his aims.”
Gimson’s foundation was laid when he
joined the circle around William Morris
in 1880s London. Though his reputation
was solidified when he moved to English
countryside, the Cotswolds, where he
opened workshops and established a rep-
utation for his distinct style and superb
craftsmanship.
Speaking to his talent, art critic Niko-
laus Pevsner called Gimson “the greatest
of the English architect-designers.”
This book combines new research and
archival material not previously pub-
lished, including letters and documents in
the hands of the Gimson family, 1950s
scrapbooks by early Gimson enthusiast
Charles Bramley, as well as the designs
and archival materials in the hands of
The Wilson, Cheltenham’s museum. —GS
The Renaissance of Etching by
Catherine Jenkins, Nadine M. Oren-
stein and Freyda Spira; published by
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York; distributed by Yale Uni-
versity Press, www.yalebooks.com;
2019; 308 pages; hardcover; $65.
In the age of technology, as the range of
techniques used by artists increases every
day, there are precious few that have
remained unchanged: one of them is etch-
ing. In The Renaissance of Etching,
authors Catherine Jenkins, Nadine M
Orenstein and Freyda Spira chart this
medium’s genesis back to Germany, the
Netherlands, Italy and France, exploring
its foundations and why it remains
unchanged after 500 years of use.
The catalog was produced to accompany
the exhibition of the same name at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is on
view through January 20. It features con-
tributions from an additional eight other
authors and curators.
Back to this idea of technology — the
footsoldier in the advance of civilization.
Etching was indeed one of the most
remarkable technological advancements
of the Sixteenth Century. It came at a
time, as Met director Max Hollein writes
in his foreword, when “the limited range
of media that existed for widely sharing a
single image — mainly two, woodcut and
engraving — could be practiced only by
artists and craftsmen who had undergone
years of training.”
The versatile, adaptable and easily
learned process of etching was a game-
changer, and the artists of the time —
from Parmigianino to Pieter Bruegel the
Elder and Frans Floris — who did not
have a background in printmaking, now
did not need it. They were now able to
make prints. Add Albrecht Dürer into the
mix and this retrospective on the medium
begins to take shape with some of the ear-
liest and widely reaching printed works
on paper of the time.
Organized by age and country, this book
offers a comprehensive overview that
illustrates the contemporaneous environ-
ment across Europe surrounding this
medium’s birth and the foundation laid
for future artists, from Rembrandt to
Goya, to expand upon. —GS
Antiques Handbook & Price Guide
2020~2021 by Judith Miller; Miller’s,
www.millersguides.com, a division of
Mitchell Beazley, www.octopusbooks.
co.uk; 2019; 600 pages; hardcover;
$45.
Forty years on, Miller’s Antiques Hand-
book & Price Guide remains the essential
Books
and trusted guide to the antiques market.
It has earned the reputation of being the
book no dealer, collector or auctioneer
should be without. Compiled by Judith
Miller, world-renowned antiques expert
and co-founder of the book, the guide fea-
tures more than 8,000 items with full
color photographs, making it informative,
up-to-date and invaluable.
This volume, the 40th anniversary edi-
tion, continues the tradition with compre-
hensive sections that cover ceramics, fur-
niture, glass, silver and metalwares,
jewelry and objets de vertu, clocks and
watches, books, Oriental antiques, tex-
tiles, toys, decorative arts and Modern
classics.
Special features explain why one piece
is worth more than another, show how to
value an item and instruct readers on
how to value their collection. Biographies
of designers and factories give the back-
ground information needed to help date
and value objects, while special “Judith
Picks” sections give fascinating back-
ground and valuation details for particu-
larly interesting or unusual objects.
Miller began collecting in the 1960s
while a student at Edinburgh University
in Scotland. She has since extended and
reinforced her knowledge of antiques and
design through international research,
becoming one of the world’s leading
experts in the field. In 1979 she co-found-
ed the international bestseller Miller’s
Antiques Price Guide and has since writ-
ten more than 100 books, which are held
in high regard by collectors and dealers.
Miller appears regularly on TV and
radio. She is an expert on the BBC’s
Antiques Roadshow and co-hosts the pop-
ular BBC TV series The House Detectives,
ITV’s Antiques Trail and Discovery’s It’s
Your Bid. She has appeared on The Mar-
tha Stewart Show and CNN. She is a reg-
ular lecturer and contributor to numer-
ous newspapers and magazines, and has
lectured extensively, including at the
V&A in London and the Smithsonian in
Washington.
If you want to know the value of your
antiques, or find out how the antiques
market is faring, the world’s bestselling
antiques price guide is the place to look.
—AK
For America: Paintings from the
National Academy of Design; edited
by Jeremiah William McCarthy and
Diana Thompson, Yale University
Press, www.yalebooks.com; 2019, 304
pages; hardcover; $60
Here is a mirror — or perhaps in this
decade, the metaphor might better be lik-
ened to the function on one’s smartphone
camera that changes the outside view into
“selfie” mode. Characterized by the pub-
lisher as “a sweeping look at the ways
American artists have viewed themselves,
their peers and their painted worlds over
two centuries,” For America has as its
premise self-portraiture —although not of
the mundane kind but rather taken
through the lens of the artist’s sensibili-
ties, vision and world view.
From the book’s cover, a brooding self-
portrait by American artist Andrew
Wyeth done in 1945, through hundreds of

Books
pages that trace the past two centuries of
American art and in homage to the artis-
tic tradition at the National Academy of
Design, we see a parade of artists and
some of their key works. It’s because, the
academy, the nation’s oldest artist honor-
ary society has since its Nineteenth Cen-
tury founding, maintained a unique col-
lecting principle: each member gives a
self-portrait (or, until 1994, a portrait by a
contemporary Academician) as well as an
example of their work. Thus, the artist as
he or she imagines themselves — or is
imagined by a peer — and his or her
selected vision of their world are present-
ed in tandem.
Of course, with two centuries to cover,
the book’s diverse selection showcases a
multitude, including Wyeth, Frederic
Edwin Church, Eastman Johnson, Win-
slow Homer, John Singer Sargent,
Thomas Eakins, Cecilia Beaux, Isabel
Bishop, Charles White, Wayne Thiebaud,
Louisa Matthíasdóttir, David Diao,
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Peter
Saul, among others.
Editors McCarthy and Thompson have
expertly wrangled essays pairing artists
and their landscapes or figurative visions
contributed by a roster of distinguished
historians and art historians, curators,
artists and architects. McCarthy is associ-
ate curator at the American Federation of
Arts. Thompson is director of collections
and curatorial affairs at the National
Academy of Design.
And because it’s a catalog for a traveling
exhibition, the book is a must-read for
anyone contemplating seeing the show on
its remaining national tour: New Britain
Museum of American Art (Conn.)
11/07/19–02/02/20; Society of the Four
Arts, Palm Beach, Fla. 02/22/20–04/26/20;
the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Mem-
phis, Tenn. 07/02/20–09/27/20; New Mexi-
co Museum of Art, Santa Fe, N.M/
(10/22/20–01/17/21); Figge Art Museum,
Davenport, Iowa 02/20/21–05/09/21; and
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, Calif.
06/06/21–09/12/21. —WD
The Power of Color: Five Centuries
of European Painting by Marcia B.
Hall; Yale University Press, www.
yalebooks.com; 2019, 304 pages; hard-
cover; $45
It has taken two years of writing and a
scholarly lifetime to conceive, but Marcia
Hall’s expansive study of how color has
been a key through-line over five centu-
ries of European painting is well worth
the Herculean effort. Hall is professor of
art history at the Tyler School of Art at
Temple University. In this book she takes
insights gleaned from recent conservation
studies to examine both artists’ tech-
niques and materials to convey an under-
standing of how images come to look the
way they do, why artists chose what
materials to use and how those choices
influenced the resulting works.
For example, Hall explores how Michel-
angelo radically broke with his contempo-
raries’ harmonizing use of color in favor of
a highly saturated approach evident in
the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel of
Rome’s Vatican. Here, special conditions
of his project — the Sistine vault is more
than 60 feet above the head of the viewer
and not brilliantly lit — were a key factor
in his inventing a new coloring system
that diverged from what his contempo-
raries were using.
Similarly, market demand for affordable
pictures in Seventeenth Century Nether-
lands is examined for the popularization
of subtly colored landscape paintings.
Throughout, Hall’s examination of techni-
cal discoveries and how they launched
new visual effects, political conditions and
how they prompted innovations and eco-
nomic changes that shaped artists’ strate-
gies as trade became global, paints an
expansive story.
It’s a sprawling survey and Hall pres-
ents her observations in a densely techni-
cal style that may challenge an average
reader not steeped in the technical termi-
nology. However, there are many fascinat-
ing details and insights revealed in the
journey from Botticelli and Titian to Van
Gogh, Munch and Kandinsky that are
engaging. It is quite likely that even a
casual reader will acquire some tools to
look at paintings with fresh eyes. — WD
Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock &
Roll by Jayson Kerr Dobney and
Craig J. Inciardi with essays by
Anthony DeCurtis, Aslan di Perna,
David Fricke, Holly George-Warren
and Matthew W. Hill; 2019; 236 pages;
hardcover; $50.
Okay, so you missed the exhibition at
the Met Fifth Avenue that closed this past
October. Fear not rock fans, for much less
than the cost of a nose-bleed seat in the
balcony for an average “guitar gods” con-
cert, you can revel in the images and lore
presented in this brash and dazzling cele-
bration of the instruments that created
the sounds of rock and roll from the 1940s
to the present day.
The dynamic duo of Jayson Kerr Dob-
ney, the Met’s curator in its department of
musical instruments, and Craig Inciardi,
curator and director of acquisitions at the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, have put
together a must-have addition to any rock
fan’s collection documenting the musical
instruments that gave rock and roll its
signature sound. Generously illustrated
with photos of the genre’s iconic instru-
ments — from Jerry Lee Lewis’s baby
grand piano, Chuck Berry’s Gibson ES-
350T guitar, to John Lennon’s Ricken-
backer 12-string and Hendrix’s white
Fender Stratocaster — and orchestrated
in seven essays by veteran music journal-
ists and scholars, this book traces how
technological innovation married with
artistic expression and consumer prefer-
ences propelled both the sonic and visual
impact of the “holy triad” — guitar, bass
and drums.
The objects are not only extraordinary
in themselves — for example, Keith Rich-
ards’s hand painted 1957 Les Paul Cus-
tom electric guitar shown opposite the
foreword — but the stories that accompa-
ny them disturb the institutional quiet of
the museum and inform us of an ephem-
eral artform that has spiraled out of
garages, basements, clubs and gigantic
concert venues.
Produced in collaboration with the Rock
December 6, 2019 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly — 55
Books
Books
& Roll Hall of Fame, this book goes behind
the music to offer a rare and in-depth look
at the instruments that inspired the
musicians and made possible the songs
we know and love.
Oh, and if you missed the Met’s show,
it’s currently playing at Cleveland’s Rock
& Roll Hall of Fame through September
13, 2020. —WD
Graphic Design: A New History, the
third edition by Stephen J. Eskilson;
Yale University Press, www.yale-
books.com; 2019; 464 pages; hardcov-
er; $65.
Now in its third edition, this innovative
look at the history of graphic design
explores its evolution from the Nine-
teenth Century to the present day. Author
Stephen J. Eskilson, associate professor of
art at Eastern Illinois University, demon-
strates how a new era began for design
arts under the influence of Victorian
reformers, tracing the emergence of Mod-
ernist design styles in the early Twenti-
eth Century, and examining the wartime
politicization of regional styles. Organized
by chapter, the book chronicles the history
of the Bauhaus and the rise of the inter-
national style in the 1950s-60s, and the
postmodern movement of the 1970s-80s.
In the last chapter, readers learn about
current trends in graphic design, with in-
depth discussions of grunge, comic book
and graffiti aesthetics; historicism and
appropriation; and the influence of tech-
nology, web design and motion graphics.
Conceived, written and designed as a
textbook for students of graphic design,
this third edition includes contemporary
considerations with discussions of app
design, social media, emojis, big data visu-
alization and the use of animated graph-
ics in film and television. —WD
Off the Wall, American Art to Wear;
edited by Dilys E. Blum; Yale Univer-
sity Press, www.yalebooks.com; 2019;
216 pages; hardcover; $45.
This catalog accompanies an exhibition
by the same name, which is on view at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art through May
17. It is the first publication to consider
art to wear, also known as wearable art,
as a discrete American movement that
mirrored the cultural, political, social and
spiritual concerns of a generation that
came of age in the late 1960s-70s. Trained
primarily in the fine arts, they adopted
nontraditional forms, materials and tech-
niques to create works using the body as
support, as well as the canvas for tattoos
and body-painting.
Collectively, these artists have had a sig-
nificant but underrecognized impact on
art making and education. Their legacy
continues today among younger artists
who have embraced multimedia forms of
expression. The work of more than 75 art-
ists is vibrantly depicted in archival and
newly commissioned photographs. Off the
Wall provides a detailed introduction to
art to wear between 1967 and 1997 and
delineates the origins of the movement by
linking it to developments in the arts of
the period, from fiber art to painting. The
vibrancy and richly textured field of wear-
able art is immediately apparent with
even a quick read of this fascinating book
that not only dispel any attempt to
pigeonhole wearable art but will appeal to
everyone from serious scholars of costume
and couture history to fashionistas.
—MHR
The Beverly Pottery: The Wares of
Charles A. Lawrence by Justin W.
Thomas; Historic Beverly, www.his-
toricbeverly.net; 2019; 108 pages; soft-
cover; $12
Charles Lawrence’s Beverly Pottery
Company played an important role in late
Nineteenth Century Beverly, Mass.; piec-
es produced in Beverly can be found in
museums across the nation. Justin Thom-
as, a scholar of Charles Lawrence and
Beverly Pottery Company, has written a
biography and historical exploration of
C.A. Lawrence and his pottery. Thomas’
research and persistence has resulted in
this first of its kind book and the culmina-
tion of ten years’ worth of research,
exploring the life of Lawrence, the history
of the Beverly Pottery, and the totality of
the company’s production.
Born in Danvers, Mass., Charles Albert
(Solares) Lawrence (1829-1904) learned
about household red earthenware produc-
tion as an apprentice at Joseph Reed’s
pottery in Peabody, Mass., in the 1850s
and early 1860s. He later established his
own pottery in Beverly, around the end of
the Civil War. This aspect of Lawrence’s
career has been well documented,
although it only represents a small per-
centage of his output as a career potter.
Thomas said, “I knew this was a signifi-
cant company based on some of the known
early production, but there was very little
documented information. I began my
search by speaking to some local longtime
collectors and historians, visiting other
private collections and museums all over
the United States. I learned about a hand-
painted ancient formed jug owned by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
City, made in Beverly in the 1870s. This
was the only documented object in this
style, which was a major area of produc-
tion, beginning in 1872.”
Thus began Thomas’ research into the
puzzle of Lawrence’s pottery. By the early
1870s, Lawrence introduced a new line of
artware to the marketplace, which at the
time was unique for American production.
American consumers were infatuated
with the decorative wares made by manu-
facturers in Europe and China at the
1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition
which triggered the American art pottery
movement.
For about 40 years, the wares made at
the C.A. Lawrence Pottery were among
the most innovative products made in
America, bringing together household
pottery, artware and commemorative
objects.
The book includes well over 100 illustra-
tions, advertising, business cards, exports,
paperwork and most of the major pieces of
documented Beverly pottery known to
exist today. A fascinating read for both
collectors and art pottery lovers; the book
is well researched and fully documents
the history of the C.A. Lawrence and his
unique pottery. —AK