No comments about Glass of Frederick Carder.

No comments about 20th Century Decorative British Tiles: Commercial Manufacturers, J-w.

1 comments about Beadwork (Shire Library).

1. i have several of the booklets in the shire series, and all are fascinating. most of the titles i have are entirely or primarily concerned with british history.
   
   these are not heavy tomes. i think the best description is 'overview.' still, the various authors manage to included a remarkable amount of information in each volume.
   
   the information in this volume was interesting to me, even though i own many larger beading books that include history. there are many photos in this booklet, but, disappointingly, most are black and white--but they are still informative and useful for designing.
   
   i would recommend this book to beginning or advanced beaders, and to those interested in british craft and social history. this and the other titles are worth seeking out.

1 comments about The Intelligent Layman's Book of Stained & Art Glass: A Unique History of Glass Design & Making (The Intelligent Layman's series).

1. If you have any interest in the beauty of glass, you should have this book. With over 800 images in full color, this richly illustrated volume could be savored only as a visual experience, while at the same time it has been written with intelligence, style and grace for anyone with an interest in glass. That includes the casual browser of art books (like me) and also, I believe, professional scholars and serious collectors. As beautifully produced as any coffee table book, it also is an engaging and important study of a largely neglected aesthetic medium.
   
   People who consider themselves part of the art glass world will find much that is new here, while the superb writing has a wit and sparkle that is largely foreign to strictly academic treatments. It is the writing that sets this book apart and gives it its appeal across the spectrum of readers. Rarely do you find a big book that you can actually read. The authors have a real talent for setting the stage of each chapter, describing the people and the art works, and especially the artistic challenges of each period, with an eye for apt details and description.
   
   The success of this work may be due to the unusual collaboration of two authors, each noted in her own field: a British artist in stained glass and an American decorative arts scholar, researcher, and curator. The result is a thoughtful balance of perceptions, informed by history while grounded in the immediate response to the work of art.
   
   The book has several key themes. It is first a review of the roots of contemporary art glass from the revival, in the late nineteenth century, of medieval techniques for making stained glass windows, then tracing an arc to the world-wide popularity of glass art today as an abstract expression of form, color, and emotion. The interconnection between flat stained glass and `studio' glass (blown, cold worked, etc.) has rarely been acknowledged and has never been explored within the same volume, to my knowledge. Secondly, the book celebrates and documents art glass as a globally evolving aesthetic medium, providing substantive examples from Japan and Australia along with the UK, Europe, and the US. A chapter devoted to Dale Chihuly's international influence calls him a "rock star" of glass; since I suppose more has been written about Chihuly than all other glass artists combined, this label is presumably an example of British restraint. It is, however, in the section on those artists who studied under Chihuly that the authors reveal the wider connections within the glass world. This perspective, which might be considered the third theme of the book, is that glass art coexists with architecture and the `fine arts' (sculpture and painting) within an intellectual framework of theories about art. Not just a craft driven by incremental improvements in, say, kiln technology, for at least the last 150 years glass art has been a medium of ideas. Those ideas and their evolution are the real subject of this book.
   
   Like most people, I am more likely to buy a reproduction in a museum store and to display it on the kitchen table with apples in it, than to own a Chihuly. This book fed my amateur's appetite for substantive big-picture understanding of the evolution of glass art, without bogging me down in minutiae of how scholarship itself evolved. It seems most critics are more interested in dissecting each other's tiny theories than in helping people see with clarity the work in front of them. That is why this book is such a breath of fresh air. It is written both for people who slept through art history classes in college and for the museum curator with specialized expertise but a willingness to think of glass in a new way.
   
   The only thing I can suggest if the book is reprinted, is to include indications of size of some of the pieces. I found myself wondering sometimes if an illustration represented a six-inch or six-foot piece. While I missed seeing some of the best-known monuments of art glass, these are available elsewhere and I appreciated that the illustrations are generally perfect and convincing in support of the text. In fact, it is refreshing to see a book of this beauty that is specifically NOT a bunch of best hits cobbled together around an unconvincing narrative. Instead, I find this an absorbing and thoughtful argument that engages the mind, challenges the eye to see more deeply, and offers new insights that I will be thinking about whenever I look at the windows in a church, glass objects in a museum or antique store, or at the paperweight in front of me (my one piece of truly legitimate art glass, its mysteries will never stop unfolding no matter how often I look at it, and it is the reason I bought this book). This book offers far more than I expected, more illustrations, more ideas, and better writing. It deserves serious attention.

3 comments about Very Rare Glassware of the Depression Years: Identification and Values (Fifth Series).

1. I was not expecting this book to be what it is and still am surprised.It is a collection of photos with some details about the author's and other's private collections of rare collectibles(vases,bowls,lamps,etc).All are beautiful photographs and amazing peices!A totally wonderful book for anyone who loves collectible glass!!!



2. It is not likely you will ever encounter any of the glass shown in this book but the book is worth buying anyway for anyone who enjoys collecting depression glass. The photos in this book will have you drooling for hours. And who knows? You might actually find one of these beauties one day and buy it because you remember seeing it in the book and knowing that the $50 asking price was well worth it since Gene says its worth $2000!



3. Excellent and informative detail. I strongly suggest adding this book to your library.

1 comments about Contemporary International Glass.

1. Contemporary International Glass: 60 Artists In The V&A by Jennifer Hawkins Opie (V&A's curator of contemporary glass and a leading expert in this specialized field) is an impressively beautiful introduction and survey of the V&A's outstanding collection of glass art. Each showcased piece is presented in a full-color photograph, along with a statement (if any) by the artist, information concerning its composition, the training, professional, and teaching experience of the artist, and notable critical commentary. A wide variety of modern images, colors, suggestions and themes from classical design to abstract sculpture fill this remarkable display of uniquely modern art.

No comments about Miller's: Bottles & Pot Lids: A Collector's Guide (Miller's Collector's Guides).

2 comments about A Field Guide to Carnival Glass.

1. As a collector of carnival glass, I'm always looking for as much information about my hobby as possible. One of the most frustrating things I encounter as a collector is that I often don't have enough information, or worse yet, wrong information. Dave Doty's book is an invaluable resource that clearly and concisely presents information on carnival glass - from the mundane to the extremely rare. Price lists are usually a nightmare for authors writing about collectibles, since most quoted prices are often a reflection of the purchaser's and seller's moods at the time of sale. Dave Doty has gracefully dealt with this sticky area by quoting actual auction and sale prices in a range format, and giving extra information and explanations for those items which brought a price outside of the range. This very well presented book is a definite Must-Have for every carnival glass collector!



2. I found the book notes rareties by color as well as pattern. If you want just one book to carry on your hunting trips for Carnival Glass you can not do better! The prices are realistic. Only thing is it is geared more for the advanced collector when looking at detailed pictures. There is an excellent color section by a top-notched photographer.

No comments about Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass.

No comments about Baccarat (Universe of Design).