AVAILABLE APRIL 2013
352 pages, hardback, 300 x 240 mm, 400 colour illustrations
PRICE: £100.00
ISBN: 978 0 900785 94 8
The 18th-century gold snuffbox was the ultimate fashion assessory – beautifully made, exquisitely carved and very expensive, and, like fashion, its form and ornament changed according to the taste of the time. The skills of the goldsmith, the enameller, the lapidary and the miniaturist combined to form a piece – always different – for the most discerning clientele that Europe has ever known.
The Wallace Collection has some of the finest, and certainly some of the most famous, gold boxes in the world. Paris was the centre of taste in the 18th century and the collection contains a remarkable group of boxes by the greatest goldsmiths of the period: Jean Ducrollay, Pierre-François Drais and Louis Roucel. Somewhat surprisingly the Wallace Collection, which is noted for its French works or art, has some very important German boxes by Jean-Guillaume-Georges Kruger of Berlin, Johann Christian Neuber of Dresden and Ignatius Peter Krafft of Hanau.
Charles Truman, who has catalogued the collection of gold boxes, is one of the leading authorities on the subject. In this book he discusses the history of snuff-taking and the development, manufacture and collecting of gold boxes, with a particular emphasis on the design sources from which the craftsmen repsonsible for these wonderful works of art took their inspiration. These 99 pieces in the catalogue represent a brilliant cross-section of the products of the European goldsmith from approximately 100 years from the late 1730s. This book will prove invaluable to collectors, academics and students interested in the 18th century.
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
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
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 United States. 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
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, eleven 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. Generously illustrated, the book features objects from the Ashmolean Museum, the Louvre, British Museum and Albert and Victoria Museum, amongst others. 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
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
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
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