JUNE 2012
300 x 240 mm, paperback, 352 pages, 400 colour illustrations
PRICE: £100.00
ISBN: 978 0 900785 94 8
Of exquisite workmanship, the Wallace gold boxes share the elaborate richness of the larger-scale French 18th-century art in the collection, but on an intimate and jewel-like scale. Most of the boxes were made in Paris during the 18th century and were used as snuff containers. Whilst there were boxes of this kind made in gold before 1700, it was the popularity of snuff-taking that necessitated the development of a container, which came to be of such luxurious nature that it became the most significant royal gift and the ultimate fashion accessory across the whole of 18th century Europe.
Here Charles Truman, former curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, discusses the history of snuff and snuff-taking as well as the development, manufacture, decoration and collecting of gold boxes. Highlights in the collection include the Romainville box by Pierre-François Drais; a French chinoiserie box by Hubert Cheval after drawings by Boucher; and a superb box shaped like a scallop shell and enamelled as a peacock's tail by perhaps the finest snuff-box maker of his time, Jean Ducrollay.
The entire collection is catalogued and accompanied by beautiful images.
Marquetry – creating patterns and pictures through inlaid veneers – has long been recognised as one of the most attractive and sophisticated methods of decoration fine furniture. Illuminating the marvellous world of beauty conjured up by superlative French craftsmen, including André-Charles Boulle, Jean-François Oeben and Jean-Henri Riesener, this book also reveals the technical secrets of this special art form, its sources and history. More
Accompanying an exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, this catalogue explores one of the most important and historically neglected art forms of Renaissance Florence: cassoni – pairs of chests that were lavishly decorated with precious metals and elaborate paintings and were often the most expensive of a whole suite of decorative objects commissioned to celebrate marriage alliances between powerful families. More
The remarkable collection of eighteenth-century Sèvres porcelain acquired by the Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace between c. 1802 and c. 1875 now forms a distinguished part of The Wallace Collection.It is here catalogued as a set of three volumes - Volume One: Vases, Volume Two: Tea wares, useful wares, biscuit figures and plaques, Volume Three: References, appendices and index. More
This beautifully designed and illustrated book celebrates the career of Jonathan Horne FSA, international authority on English pottery and for forty years a London dealer at the top of his field. Encompassing a broad range of new research this book is a lasting tribute to Jonathan Horne’s many services to English pottery, a subject to which his insight, warmth and scholarship has contributed so much. More
Few realise that gold can be found in Great Britain, and that attempts to exploit native sources have drawn prospectors from ancient Rome to Elizabethan adventurers and current commercial projects in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In Gold: Power and Allure, 11 essays by distinguished specialists tell of the rich and previously untold story of Britain and its relationship with gold, demonstrating the country's unique golden heritage. More
Johann Christian Neuber (1736–1808) was a goldsmith and mineralogist at the Saxon Court. In 1769 he became director of the Grünes Gewölbe, the magnificent State Treasury, and was appointed court jeweler in 1775. This lavishly illustrated book will give readers their first comprehensive introduction to the master craftsman's oeuvre presenting boxes and other decorative objects from the Grünes Gewölbe, the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as public and private collections in Germany, France and New York. More
WINNER of The Art Newspaper / AXA Exhibition Catalogue Award 2007. Francesco Xanto Avelli da Rovigo was an intriguing artist who painted some of the most beautiful and fascinating ceramics produced in Renaissance Italy. With surfaces entirely painted with scenes from classical literature, Roman history or the Bible, his dishes were much sought after by the educated elite of his time, and continue to fascinate ceramics enthusiasts today... More
Silver, porcelain and ruby glass seem unlikely bedfellows, yet the objects in the Zilkha Collection are all united by the medium of silver or luxury metalwork. The objects were also made, for the most part, over about a century and a half. All of them tell a fascinating story of the particular circumstances that produced them: a maker, a workshop, a patron. They also tell the wider story of the society that made them necessary or desirable; the science that made them possible; and of their survival down the centuries. More
The Wallace Collection has the finest collection of eighteenth-century furniture outside France. Numbering over five hundred pieces, it includes furniture by the greatest Parisian cabinet makers, beginning with André-Charles Boulle and continuing through the major craftsmen of the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. More
All the exquisite glasses and Limoges painted enamels in the Wallace Collection are published together for the first time as part of a new series of catalogues raisonnés. Approximately sixty glasses and thirty painted enamels are showcased within the catalogue, demonstrating both the delicacy of colour and technical superiority of Venetian and Venetian-style glass, as well as the vibrancy and relflective character of Limoges enamels. Of particular significance among the glassware are a calcedonio goblet, a trick-glass tazza and a chalice-shaped goblet enamelled with the Crucifixtion, whilst the finest Limoges enamels are lavishly embellished with religious and secular iconography. More