Bon Apetit!

Yes, that's Julia Child and her kitchen in corn! This year's "Mike's Corn Maze" at Warner Farm in Sunderland, Massachusetts, features Julia Child, "The French Chef", a graduate of nearby Smith College. Mike has a complete website devoted to this year's maze, past mazes, and other interesting stuff. The designers have even added some "additions" this year to keep things interesting, including a potato bazooka and tomato trebuchet (a sort of catapult). The maze opens this coming weekend, and stays open through October. Amy and I will be mosying over and will have a full report...

Giant Thistle-

We had the world's tallest thistle growing behind the garage this summer. We never measured it, but Amy is about 5'3"...

Fire & Ice

It's funny- some catalogs put themselves together with very little interference from me, and others have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, all the way to the printer. Our new "Fire & Ice" catalog is behaving like that. I'm finally into final paste-up, and it will go the the printer in a few days, to be sent out sometime in early September. It's an interesting catalog, one I've been getting together for at least two years, but kept putting off. One part of it is fire-making devices, fire-powered lighting, fireplaces & fireplace accessories, and so on, and the other is ice-harvesting, ice-deserts, ice-sports, you name it. There are some very cool items included. One of my favorites is a nice copy of Marshall's 1885 book "Ices, Plain and Fancy", which includes some mouth-watering colored illustrations of iced deserts-

Stay tuned for more information!

When Irish Eyes are Smiling...

We just got a great book on Irish arts and their history, at a bargain price!

"Making the Grand Figure. Lives and Possessions in Ireland, 1641-1770" by Toby Barnard. Published by Yale University Press in 2004.

”In this pioneering study of the material culture of Stuart and Hanoverian Ireland, Toby Barnard reveals a hitherto unsuspected richness and diversity of lifestyle, habitat and mentality. The compass of the book is impressively wide, from the governing elite of Dublin Castle to provincial towns and the countryside beyond. Looking yet further, it follows the Irish overseas to Britain and the continent of Europe. Through such everyday articles as linen shirts, wigs, silver teaspoons, pottery plates and engravings, Barnard evokes a striking variety of lives and attitudes. Possessions, he shows, highlighted and widened divisions, not only between the rich and poor, women and men, but also between Irish Catholics and the Protestant settlers.”

There are chapters focusing on the house, interiors, goods, pictures, the park & garden, sport, dress, Dublin, going abroad, and Society.

Hardcover. 8”x9.5”, xxii + 497 pages, b/w and some color illustrations, dj. Published at $50.00. We have a limited number in stock for $25.00.

Going Once! Going Twice!

Our newest printed catalog of vintage auction catalogs is now available- it features 182 auction catalogs on a variety of topics- Great & Notable Collections; Furniture & Americana; French Furniture & Decorations; Bronzes; Ceramics & Glass; China Trade; Orientalia; Clock & Watches; Jewelry; Garden Statuary & Furniture; Arms & Armor; Fine Arts; Antiquities; Books & Manuscripts, and 'Varia', which includes catalogs featuring antique autos, aviation, canes, carpets, cat art, chess sets, cutlery, dolls, interiors, Ireland, the Queen's Jubilee, magic, Medieval arts, movie memorabilia, needlework, tapetsry, textiles, and wine.

The catalog is also viewable on our website.

If you'd like a printed copy, please let us know!

A Beautiful Publisher's Overstock-

Have we got a great book about Egyptian arts!

"Gifts of the Nile. Ancient Egyptian Faience", edited by Florence Dunn Friedman, and published by Thames & Hudson in 1998.

”This catalog, from the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design's international traveling exhibition, is an in-depth study of ancient Egyptian faience—figures, jewelry, and objects made from a non-clay ceramic material with a bright blue or polychrome glazed surface. More than 200 pieces spanning 3,000 years are displayed here in 224 color plates, with an additional 250 black and white photos and drawings, depicting a variety of small domestic items: lidded jars and pots; a portable, partitioned inkwell with a rotating top; a royal cosmetic jar; inlay tiles; goblets; scarabs; and amulets. Illustrated essays explore the meaning of faience within Egyptian culture, discussing its uses, symbolism, and technology.”

This is a hardcover. 9.5”x12”, 288 pages, color and b/w illustrations. New.

Published at $75.00, and a bargain at that price, we are offering a limited number of copies for $40.00 each.

Our New Summer Catalog-

It's Summertime, and the living is muggy at Foggygates. The Book Elves knock off work in the Cataloging Cave early every afternoon and spend the rest of the day lounging in beach chairs on the lawn, under the apple and cherry trees. They've hooked up some old plumbing stuff we had in the carriage house, along with some old concrete garden gnomes, into a sort of fountain which seems to be shooting out lemonade.

However, before they violated at least 3 town ordinances and attracted every bee in Western Massachusetts to the backyard, they finished work on a new printed catalog-

"SUMMER, 2006" is now available either in printed format, or here, on our website. It features almost 150 books, a mix of recent acquisitions and other books from our stock on the decorative and fine arts, as well as other odd material that just happened to slip by.

If you'd like a printed copy, please let us know.