The House of Boucheron represents one of the great Parisian jewellers of the last 150 years. Founder, Frederic Boucheron opened his first shop in 1858. Many of his clients were not women of society, but femmes fatales of the demi-monde. Nonetheless, his skill with precious stones and his absolute discretion made him a favourite of both courtesans and princes. In turn his business flourished allowing him to move to the famous Place Vendome in 1892. Having been given unprecedented access to the Boucheron vaults, the book's author, Vincent Meylan, made some remarkable discoveries. Perhaps the most significant was a register labelled 'Book of Stones'. It is a record of all the precious stones that have entered Boucheron's stock; diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies and pearls are all indexed according to weight, price and, most importantly, who bought and sold them. Meylan also uncovered almost 200 order books and 150 letters. It is these 'Secret Archives' that have enabled him to reveal the fascinating history of Boucheron and his extraordinary, colourful clientele. From the 'Ladies of Sin' to the 'King and Queens of the World' Meylan reveals the riveting stories behind the jewels that the Parisian jeweller sold; the desires they aroused, the madness they provoked, the love they formalised, and the deaths they caused. Boucheron's clients included Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, La Belle Otero, King Farouk of Egypt, and the Shah of Iran. The demands of these wealthy individuals led to the sensational orders that elevated Boucheron to highest level of creativity. This captivating and revealing publication includes original design sketches, black and white archive images and sumptuous colour photographs of the exquisite Boucheron creations, including Tsarina Alexandra's pearl and diamond coronet and The Queen Mother's tiara.

Through a series of candid photographs taken over the last 7 years and covering all the different elements that make up the catwalk shows — Backstage, Front Row, Catwalk and Street Style — the more casual viewer will get an insight into the chaotic world that makes up the apparently glamorous fashion shows! Unlike many shots from the shows published in women's fashion magazines the book will have a much more documentary style feel to it. Quotes from different people from the industry will be mixed in and printed next to the images. For example make up artists, hair stylists, models, editors, designers and finally Bloggers who are the newest kids on the block bringing the book right up to the present day in the way fashion is being reported on with the birth of the internet. Firmly in tune with the current vibe and with a definite London edginess this book will be a sensational design statement. The book will be launched in November 2011 alongside an Exhibition at The Fashion and Textile Museum.

Max Dudler's architecture stands for a rationalistic language which combines basic modernistic ideas with normative aesthetic and contextual overall concepts in a large city architecture. This also includes high-rise buildings in Frankfurt am Main: the residential and commercial high-rise Romeo and Julia as well as the Westend First High-Rise. Both buildings are located next to each other in Frankfurt's best neighbourhood, in the immediate vicinity of the downtown, the Alte Oper and the banking district. The building task consisted of refurbishing, modernizing and fusing the building shells into a satisfying unified figure. The result is an urban ensemble whose components play off each other which are able to make their own contribution to the whole through their mutual reference to the unity and quiet elegance of the district. This publication documents in word and image Dudler's two Frankfurt high-rises, and in addition compares them to his high-rise projects in Zurich: The Sunrise Tower (the former IBM high-rise) and the Hagenholzstrasse high-rise ensemble.

This is the only western study of the renowned Russian landscape painter, Isaak Levitan (1860-1900). This third, expanded edition is further enhanced by new images and extra chapters about his portraits, still lifes and cityscapes; it also discusses his working methods and assesses the influence of his output on later artists. Born into a poor Jewish family in Lithuania, Levitan was able to enrol at the Moscow School of Painting aged only thirteen. He made rapid progress, the great merchant collector Pavel Tretyakov buying one of his early paintings. In 1886 he sketched in the Crimea and from 1887 spent several summers painting in the Volga region. Levitan's paintings commemorate the arrival of the Russian spring and celebrate the quiet beauty of her lakes and rivers, fields and forests, often pictured at twilight. In doing this he sought simple, well-loved motifs of the countryside, using an increasingly refined and laconic technique. His work was greatly admired by Diaghilev, while his lifelong friend Anton Chekhov spoke of its 'astonishing simplicity and clarity'. Levitan's later compositions have a mystical quality achieved by few other artists. Before illness claimed him at the age of 39, Levitan was able to travel briefly, but extensively, to Berlin, Paris, the Alps, north Italy, Munich and Vienna. His awareness of painterly developments in Europe was to some extent reflected in his own art. Towards the end of his life he was responsible for revitalising the teaching of landscape painting in Moscow and exhibited regularly with the Munich Secession.

'Impressionists in their Gardens' explores gardens through the senses of the Impressionists from three continents — Europe, North America and Australia — enjoying the essentially similar pleasures of the garden, but engaging with the light from their skies in order to create very different sensations. The enclosure of the garden acts like a picture frame showcasing a living canvas that exudes the individuality, vision and taste of its tenants, their family, friends, lifestyles and, in the simple words of the greatest Impressionist and gardener Monet, providing motifs to paint. The first section uses contemporary paintings and photographs to see the who, what and where of Impressionist gardens — planting, eating, loving, sleeping, children, animals, working and painting. The second section, illustrated with paintings, old photographs and modern images, starts at the horticultural source — the nurseryman Latour-Marliac at Temple sur Lot, then Monet at Giverny; American Impressionists at Old Lyme, Cos Cob and Appledore in the USA; Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood and beyond; the Heidelburg School and Frederick McCubbin at Fontainebleau; and, chronologically last but not least, Renoir at Les Colettes. Caroline Holmes' travels have enabled her to take this unique approach, as a garden historian and gardener she understands how weather has shaped and formed the earth's sublime topography and how the control of the human hand is beautifully displayed in its fine crafted gardens, observed and colourfully captured by these artists. Join her in the garden for the great pleasures of solitude and sociability; food and friendship; sound and scent; cool shade and balmy warmth, not forgetting glorious colour.

Claude Monet spent the last 43 years of his long life at Giverny, creating the paintings and gardens for which he is now revered. From the standpoint of his garden this book considers the controlling intelligence behind both landscape and art, and the influences that shaped Monet's life and vision. The artist is shown as a consummate plantsman who composed his gardens with an Impressionist's care for colour and form, re-interpreting its motifs in paintings of power and abstraction. Drawing upon the voices of Monet and his contemporaries and offering a wealth of horticultural detail, this is a fascinating celebration of a unique artistic mind. Using contemporary correspondence and plant catalogues, with over 150 illustrations including paintings, engravings and garden views from Monet's lifetime and today's magnificent recreation, this book provides a visual exploration of the gardens at Giverny where Monet celebrated his passion for painting and plants.

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida owns one of the finest and most comprehensive Meissen collections in the world, outside those of the Porzellansammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden and the Arnhold Collection in New York. Donated to the Museum by Ralph H. and Constance I. Wark in 1965, it features nearly 700 pieces of Meissen porcelain, including rare pieces from the earliest years of the royal factory, established in 1710. Author Ulrich Pietsch uses the fascinating history of the foundation of the Meissen factory in order to set the background for his essay on Wark's collection, and the surprising story of how it survived the Second World War in a Hamburg cellar before being shipped to America. The catalogue features notable examples by the leading sculptors and painters of early Meissen production including Bottger, Johann Joachim Kandler, and Johann Gregor Horoldt.

«Whether highly bred canines or loveable mixed breeds, America has fallen in love with the dog, and who better than Christine Merrill, America's premier pet portraitist, to chronicle this long term relationship. As best selling author Barbara Taylor Bradford exclaims, «She has caught my Jemmy exactly; the portrait is perfect in every way.» While grounded in the traditions of 18th and 19th century England, this Baltimore artist has over the past 20 years created a body of work, which depicts the American dog in its own especially American environment. Each chapter of this book features an American dog owner who has commissioned Merrill to capture their dog in oils, and answer the «who, what, where and why's» of each collector's story, and how they came to seek out Merrill to portray their dogs — members of the family whose portraits often supplant the portraits of their human relatives. Each chapter is lavishly illustrated, not only with Merrill's paintings, but also with colour photographs of the pet owner with their «American dog at home.» Merrill's paintings, executed in the centuries old style of the great English masters of animal painting, are timeless testaments to our love for the dog, and Americans all over the country have chosen her to create portraits in oil of their beloved pets. Merrill counts movie stars, authors, socialites and captains of industry among her clients, each with one thing in common: their love for their pets. This book provides a glimpse into these worlds, but more importantly something which each of the 40 million dog owners in America can identify with — their pet's unconditional love. Some thirty-five different dog breeds are represented, from fifteen different states. The first part of the book includes 33 essays on Merrill's clients, illustrated with her paintings, but also photographs of the collectors with their dogs, their collections and their homes, personally photographed by the author, William Secord. Each essay has six colour photographs. It is exceptional in its access to the largely private lives of these collectors, providing a unique insight into Americans' relationship with their dogs. The second part of the book traces Merrill's career, with over 50 colour illustrations of her paintings.»

A contemporary of Picasso, Matisse and Kandinsky, Goncharova is now recognised as one of the leading Russian artists of the Twentieth Century. This book traces the development of her art from its impressionist origins, through a provocative phase of 'primitive' style paintings on peasant themes to highly innovative abstract works that rivalled the most daring experiments of the Cubists and Futurists. As a woman artist she was galvanized by gender issues and addressed these directly in her work. In both her paintings and her behaviour she questioned accepted conventions and scandalised Russian society. Arrested in 1909 on the grounds of the 'pornographic' content of her paintings, accused of heresy against the Orthodox Church in 1914 because of her religious work and branded a Futurist because she walked about in public with a painted face, her large-scale retrospective in Moscow in 1913, in which she exhibited over 700 works, demonstrated to public and critics alike that she was, unquestionably, one of the greatest painterly talents that Russia had ever produced. In 1914 Diaghilev, the director of the famous 'Ballets Russes' invited Goncharova to make designs for The Golden Cockerel which was staged at the Paris Opera. The staggering success of this production opened up new creative horizons for her and she remained in Paris to become one of Diaghilev's 'resident' designers. Her work of this period reveals her gifts not only as a superb stage designer but also as a designer of women's fashions for the haute-couture industry of Art Deco Paris. Her work is now in the collections of museums and galleries across the world and is so highly sought that she has achieved the highest sale price ever recorded at auction for a woman artist.

A comprehensive study of the Japanese Okimono's history during the Meiji Era ( 1868-1912).

A new title in the Design series and an excellent introduction to the life and work of this versatile Russian artist. Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1891-1953) was a central figure in the Russian Constructivist art movement; a radical activist, a pioneer of photomontage, a theorist, and a teacher. He was an active force in the organization of the first museums of modern art that arose in Russia in the first years after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Attending art school in 1914 in Kazan was to be a defining influence: that year Russian Futurists performed in the town, and Rodchenko saw their leading figures in action. It transformed his vision and he was still working with Futurist artists and their ideas twenty-five years later. And it was at art school where Rodchenko first met the artist Varvara Stepanova, with whom he collaborated extensively, and who would become his life-long partner. Central in the re-examination of art and its place in society after the Revolution, and in the search for a new culture without the class implications of the past, Rodchenko's radical approach proposed a new understanding of a constructed, rather than a tastefully composed, culture. This concise, comprehensive and informative work focuses largely on Rodchenko's graphic work in the form of book jackets, posters and advertising. Abbemuseumr is Visiting Professor at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Tutor, painter, writer, and exhibition organizer, John Milner specialises in nineteenth and twentieth century art in France and in Russia. He is currently preparing a re-presentation of the extensive collection of works by El Lissitzky at the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands. He has lectured at the National Gallery, Tate, and Royal Academy of Arts in London, at the Henry Moore Institute, and at many other universities and museums.

Iain R Webb's 'Postcards from the Edge of the Catwalk' is a personal photographic portfolio spanning three decades that documents the glittering brouhaha surrounding the ready-to-wear and haute couture fashion collections in New York, London, Milan and Paris. The photographs, snapped by the award-winning fashion journalist from the insider vantage point of his front row seat and invite-only parties, capture a world of show-stopping creativity and inspirational individual style. Features supermodels and style icons that include Linda Evangelista, Catherine Deneuve, Isabella Blow, Naomi Campbell, Natalia Vodianova, Erin O'Connor, Kate Moss, Anna Piaggi, Anna Wintour, Shalom Harlow and Bjork. Celebrity front row faces include Gwyneth Paltrow, Grace Jones, George Michael, Kate Winslet, Sean Combs, Liz Hurley, Tilda Swinton, Paris Hilton, Bernadette Peters, Nick Cave, Ivana Trump, Roman Polanski and RuPaul.

El (Eleazar) Lissitzky (1890-1941) was a vital force in the revolutionary period in Russia. Having first trained in engineering and architecture and later becoming a painter and illustrator, his creative activity ranged across disciplines. This he called 'the interchange station between painting and architecture', and it made him enormously influential — as a painter, graphic designer, teacher, propagandist, exhibition designer, and also as an architectural theorist. Lissitzky had studied in Germany before the Russian Revolution, and after it he became a vital link between Soviet culture and Western art groups, travelling officially to present Soviet art in the West, but at the same time contacting many leading figures in Western art, including the De Stilj group in Holland, Dadaists in Switzerland and Germany, and artists and designers at the Bauhaus, as well as architects with international aims. He was a tireless creative force, and a determined traveller who brought many collaborative projects to a fruitful conclusion that involved connections across the political East-West division of Europe. Yet this determined and dynamic man suffered grievously from tuberculosis. From the sanatorium he still sent witty letters and drawings to his wife Sophie Lissitzky-Kuppers in Russia. In his last year he turned his abilities to designing Soviet trade fairs and, briefly, to propagandist war posters.

'John Bates came onto the London Fashion scene like a bolt of blue light, trailing sparks of excitement, designing the shortest skirts, the swiftest shapes, the surest colours. He had an unswerving instinct for what was new, modern, cutting edge' — Marit Allen. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, John Bates dominated the British fashion scene with a unique brand of style and innovation. No other designer had such a comprehensive influence on what the UK wore. Diana Rigg wore his designs in The Avengers , and the press went wild.Cilla Black and Dusty Springfield sang in them; Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy and Penelope Tree modelled; David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Helmut Newton photographed. At every level, from shop girl to pop star, debutante and banker's wife, his label Jean Varon offered a must-have dress for a party, short or long, empire line or mini. He gave fashion-conscious women the chance to wear dresses featured extensively in the pages of Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, and Queen Magazine and bridged the gap between High Street retailing and couture like no other. Richard Lester's text is based on detailed interviews with John Bates, covering his entire career in fashion. In addition the book features contributions from Felicity Green, Deidre McSharry, Brigid Keenan, Barbara Griggs, Sian Phillips and other key figures from the fashion industry, cultural scene and media of the time.

The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851 was the first of a series of international exhibitions that have continued, in one form or another, to the present day. The content of these exhibitions gave nations and individual companies of the world the opportunity to display their specialised skills and present new ideas and products to a much wider public. In this book, Jonathan Meyer looks at major international exhibitions held during the nineteenth century and focuses on the important changes taking place at this time, in both society and design. He examines the enormous impact of the Industrial Revolution and how it came to influence the decorative arts, through changes in machinery and scientific methods. This book contains a wide-ranging and striking collection of illustrations, mostly from contemporary sources, providing the reader with a very good idea of the exceptionally high quality of inventiveness and workmanship displayed by the manufacturers and their exhibits.

«British flower painting has its own unique, if relatively recent, history, but it can only be judged in the light of the wider history of the subject and by comparison with other, particularly European, countries. The first chapter of «A History and Dictionary of British Flower Painters», therefore, sets the scene with a brief introduction to floral art world wide before the next four chapters concentrate on British flower painting in the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Over ninety colour plates illustrate these five chapters. The Dictionary gives the biographical details of more than 970 British flower painters from 1650-1950 including their specialities, awards, exhibitions an bibliographical details. The work of many is illustrated in black and white.»

This book, with 400 colour and almost 100 black and white illustrations, is the result of years of research. It is the first published history of the tools and accessories used by needlewomen in Holland, from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, describing how they were used and also who would have used them. Many of these tools were beautifully made by craftsmen from precious metals, treasured by their owners and handed down through generations. Others were very simply crafted out of wood, individually carved and decorated by the artisan. Thimble collectors will be delighted with the abundance of illustrations of thimbles, from those simply made of brass, to gold ones decorated with gemstones. Collectors of other sewing tools will welcome the inclusion of chapters on sewing sets, chatelaines, scissors, needle cases, pin-cushions, tape measures, thread holders and winders, tambour tools and knitting accessories. The final chapter is particularly useful for collectors, as it contains a unique list of the makers of Dutch silver and gold needlework tools, with drawings of their marks to aid identification. The book will be especially interesting to collectors outside Holland, as many of the beautiful sewing tools made there have found their way to other parts of the world. They were exported to the Dutch colonies in America and South Africa, and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries families took all their household chattels with them, including family heirlooms, when they emigrated to America, Canada or Australasia. Overseas collectors may well discover that some of their treasures were in fact made in Holland. This comprehensive book will be an indispensable addition to the library of the needlework tool enthusiast, as all other books on this subject are lacking in this particular area. It contains much new information encompassing the breadth of her expertise, and most of the illustrations are published here for the first time.

Based on contemporary documents and modern scholarship, this highly illustrated comprehensive review provides a closely-reasoned analysis of changing furniture styles from 1660 to 1714, together with much technical information on materials and processes.

This work provides a comprehensive listing of all known Chester marks in easy-to-use format with photographs of the actual marks.

This book acts as a practical introduction to the subject of collecting British watercolour paintings. There is a lot more to collecting than noting just the price, the name of the artist and deciding whether or not one likes the subject. Many watercolours are either not signed or bear false signatures, or perhaps have been saddled with misleading attributions. The text and carefully chosen illustrations take collectors behind the formal signature on the picture and show them what to look for in it, the idiosyncrasies of the artist, his style and his individual methods of working. Yet even when all the technical points are understood there remains the whim of fashion which varies over long periods and has moved round, ignoring or praising each artist in turn. Without an understanding of the movement of fashion, past collections and ideas on collecting, it would be hard to understand the subject.