Kolekcjonerstwo

Road signs have never attracted the interest that railway signs have, perhaps because they are so commonplace. There have been direction signs ever since man began to travel, and boundary signs, too, have a long history. Warning signs, however, did not become necessary until cycling and motoring became established at the end of the nineteenth century. Since then the British government has sought to regulate all aspects of traffic signage, and signs are often altered to keep abreast of developments, but nevertheless signs from bygone days can still be observed along Britain's highways...

ABOUT THE BOOK
Josiah Wedgwood I was born into a family of potters; his pioneering spirit built up the most important English pottery business of the eighteenth century so that the name Wedgwood became a generic word for fine earthenware. He is justly famous for perfecting the Black Basalt and Jasper stoneware bodies and for producing many designs based on the antique artefacts excavated at Pompeii and Herculaneum. This book also reviews and illustrates the firm's products through the nineteenth century, the designs of Lessore, Dresser, Crane and Barnard, the resurgence after 1904 when...

ABOUT THE BOOK
From the elegant to the quirky, teapots and coffee pots come in a range of styles and designs and are among the most familiar household items. Both decorative and easily displayed, they are very collectable and can be relatively inexpensive. In this book, Steven Goss charts their development over a period of three hundred years, providing information on the materials used in their manufacture, influential factories and designers, and a guide to dating the many different styles.
* In the eighteenth century a pound of tea could cost more than a week's wages for a...

For a generation or more, white on white embroidery, a symbol of purity and elegance, once so desirable, has been neglected by needlewoman and collector alike. The growing importance of antique costume, in the saleroom and among serious students, has aroused interest in the embroidered accessories that were an indispensible part of the whole ensemble. This book gives a concise summary of the various types of white needlework likely to be encountered. It shows details of the techniques and gives a readable and authoritative account of such diverse types as Dresden work, tamboured muslin,...

This book considers one of the liveliest areas of the decorative arts to emerge during the second half of the twentieth century. The new approaches to glassmaking that evolved during the 1960s liberated glassmaking from the factory and placed it in the hands of individual glassmakers. The result has been a glassmaking movement that has produced colourful, innovative and exciting work. Concentrating on the British context, this book provides an introduction to the work of significant contemporary makers along with the themes and ideas that have shaped their work.
About the author
Dr...

This book traces the history of the scent bottle from the alabaster containers of ancient Egypt to mass-produced commercial bottles. Perfume has been used in religious ceremony and also in medicine, for it was believed to have the power to ward off illness. Elaborately chased silver pomanders were carried during times of plague. The frivolity and luxury of scent were reflected in eighteenth-century 'toys', bottles in the form of fruit and figures in porcelain or enamel. The Victorian lady had a wide choice of scent bottles, including dual-purpose bottles which also held smelling salts or...

Harvest, the most critical phase of the farming year, has always required full mobilisation of resources for maximum effort during the short period when crop ripeness and suitable weather conditions coincide. Mechanical means of assistance were first used, as far as we know, in Roman times but the story of harvesting machinery really belongs to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
About the author
Roy Brigden is Keeper of the Museum of English Rural Life at the University of Reading. Other Shire titles by this author:
Agricultural Hand Tools
Ploughs and Ploughing

This book provides a general summary of the history of European firearms, from the earliest designs which appeared during the Middle Ages through to the mechanized weapon production of the Industrial Revolution. Covering the dual inventions of gunpowder and the gun, the development of reliable firing mechanisms, improvements in accuracy and rate of fire and the revolutionary changes brought about by the application of scientific and industrial processes, Michael Spencer explains the technical evolution of the firearm and analyzes what drove these changes.

Built around an accurate...