Furniture, Bronzes, Works of Art, Miniatures, Fans, Vertu, Jewellery, Watches, Clocks, Silver PDF Download

Author: Sotheby's (Firm)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art objects
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588393666
Category : Decoration and ornament
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
The authors, Danielle Kisluk-Grosheide and Jeffrey Munger, are curators in the Metropolitan Museum's Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts. They oversaw the recent reinstallation of the Wrightsman Galleries --Book Jacket.

Author: Richard Holmes
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307908704
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 567

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**Kirkus Best Books of the Year (2013)** **Time Magazine 10 Top Nonfiction Books of 2013** **The New Republic Best Books of 2013** In this heart-lifting chronicle, Richard Holmes, author of the best-selling The Age of Wonder, follows the pioneer generation of balloon aeronauts, the daring and enigmatic men and women who risked their lives to take to the air (or fall into the sky). Why they did it, what their contemporaries thought of them, and how their flights revealed the secrets of our planet is a compelling adventure that only Holmes could tell. His accounts of the early Anglo-French balloon rivalries, the crazy firework flights of the beautiful Sophie Blanchard, the long-distance voyages of the American entrepreneur John Wise and French photographer Felix Nadar are dramatic and exhilarating. Holmes documents as well the balloons used to observe the horrors of modern battle during the Civil War (including a flight taken by George Armstrong Custer); the legendary tale of at least sixty-seven manned balloons that escaped from Paris (the first successful civilian airlift in history) during the Prussian siege of 1870-71; the high-altitude exploits of James Glaisher (who rose) seven miles above the earth without oxygen, helping to establish the new science of meteorology); and how Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and Jules Verne felt the imaginative impact of flight and allowed it to soar in their work. A seamless fusion of history, art, science, biography, and the metaphysics of flights, Falling Upwards explores the interplay between technology and imagination. And through the strange allure of these great balloonists, it offers a masterly portrait of human endeavor, recklessness, and vision. (With 24 pages of color illustrations, and black-and-white illustrations throughout.)

Author: Teresa Canepa
Publisher: Ad Ilissvm
ISBN: 9781912168163
Category : Porcelain, Chinese
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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This book celebrates the most important collection of 17th-century Chinese porcelain in the world, assembled by the distinguished British diplomat Sir Michael Butler. His passion for porcelain is clearly reflected in the over eight hundred pieces he collected and lived with at his home and private museum in Dorset. The pots (as Sir Michael called them), many of extreme rarity or exquisite quality, give testimony to the incredible depth of knowledge he acquired over five decades and his outstanding contribution to research and education in this previously neglected field of study. This lavish and comprehensive collection covers most types of porcelain produced at Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi province, during the 17th century. The variety of the pieces carefully acquired by Sir Michael reflects the great innovative spirit of the highly skilled Jingdezhen potters and painters at a time when they were released from the controls of Imperial patronage, between the end of the reign of the Ming Emperor Wanli in 1620 and the re-establishment of the Imperial kilns by the Qing Emperor Kangxi in 1683. It is a study collection of porcelain unrivalled in its breath and rarity that demonstrates the stylistic and qualitative evolution which occurred in Chinese porcelain production during the 17th century. An introduction written by Katharine Butler tells the fascinating story of the circumstances that encouraged her father to acquire, collect and passionately study Chinese porcelain of the 17th century; how he found rare pieces with dates, interesting inscriptions, seal marksor narrative scenes; and how the collection and his scholarly publications came to be internationally renowned. The core of the book is composed of nine sections presenting the main categories of porcelains in the collection: Late Ming, High Transitional, Shunzhi, Early Kangxi, Mid-Late Kangxi, Monochromes and Famille Verte, as well as disputed pieces. Some of the highlights are the extremely rare High Transitional pieces painted only in overglaze enamels dating to the Chongzhen reign, c.1640-43; the first piece acquired by Sir Michael, a green enamel winepot, dating to the early Kangxi reign, c.1665-70; a group of rare dated Zhonghe Tang pieces painted in underglaze blue and red, and an early Kangxi basin finely painted in underglaze blue and red with a Master of the Rocks landscape, dating to c.1670-75. Leaping the Dragon Gate refers to the symbolic metamorphosis from a humble carp to a mighty dragon - the most powerful of the Four Divine Creatures - that a student would undergo on succeeding in the Jinshi or Imperial civil service examinations. Passing these examinations required years, sometimes decades, of enormous effort to acquire the requisite educational merit and success was very rare. It is a worthy metaphor for Sir Michael's scholarly achievement. This 384-page book with over 600 colour illustrations is a catalogue raisonné of almost his entire 17th century porcelain collection, including many previously unpublished pieces. In the spirit of keeping the family legacy of acquisition and scholarship alive, the authors have included a few important, recently purchased pieces and also have revised and expanded the list of all known dated pieces of 17th Century Chinese porcelain in the world that Sir Michael compiled in his 1992 USA exhibition catalogue.

Author: Steuben Glass (Firm)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Crystal glass
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Author: Marmaduke Stephenson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Christian life
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Author: John Sills
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780956688934
Category : Coins
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Author: Frederick Forsyth
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101602163
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 469

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Book Description
#1 New York Times bestselling author Frederick Forsyth delivers a frighteningly possible novel of international terrorism and impending war… As the Russian people face starvation, the Politburo is faced with a hard choice: negotiate with America for food, go to war for national survival, or deal with an uprising in the motherland. Through an informant, British Agent Adam Munro learns that the situation is growing dangerously tense, with powerful forces in the USSR maneuvering for supremacy. But even as East and West conduct delicate talks, events spiral out of control and threaten to undo every step taken. The world’s largest oil tanker is hijacked by terrorists, and a Ukrainian “freedom fighter” is rescued in a bloody catastrophe on the Black Sea. From Moscow to Washington, the stakes grow ever more perilous as the mad actions of a few threaten to engulf the entire world in nuclear war—unless Munro can stop them.

Author: Nicholas Sinclair
Publisher: Ben Uri Gallery & Museum
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
Kyffin Williams RA (b.1918) is the central figure in contemporary Welsh painting and this book, the first monograph to be published on the artist, examines the full range of his work from the mid-1940s to the present day.From the outset of his career, Kyffin Williams took both the landscape and the people of North Wales as his subjects, and he has remained faithful to them for almost sixty years. He has realised, through his oil paintings, his watercolours and his drawings, the spirit of a mountainous landscape and its inhabitants that now form the cornerstone upon which we understand and visualise the essence of North Wales.Including an authoritative introductory essay by Ian Jeffrey, one of Britain's leading art historians, the book also profiles ten sites in North Wales where the artist has worked throughout his career. The inclusion of a range of location photographs by Nicholas Sinclair helps to explain both Williams' inspiration and how he interprets the world around him.Kyffin Williams encapsulates all aspects of Wales' most famous living artist and is consequently an invaluable resource for both scholars and art collectors.

Author: Charles J. Archard
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 73

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Book Description
This is a biography focused on the Bentinck family, holders of the Portland Peerage in Great Britain at the time the biography was written (1907). The book begins with a chapter about the first Bentinck, whom the author regards as a hero. At the time of writing, there was a claim on the peerage by the Druce family, but this was several generations after the first Bentinck, Hans William, a Dutch citizen.