Kolekcjonerstwo

"Neat Pieces" is a detailed, extensively illustrated survey of the major forms and makers of the "plain style" of furniture made and used by Georgians in the 1800s. Simply designed, solidly constructed of local woods, and usually unadorned, such pieces were used daily by their owners for storage, sleeping, eating, and more. Today, this furniture is read by historians, folklorists, and other experts for clues into a past way of life. It is also prized by museums, antiques dealers and auction houses, and furniture appraisers, collectors, and makers.

"Neat Pieces" first appeared as the...

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