The Case of the Etruscan Terracotta Warriors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This is the story of a gigantic (so to speak) scholarly “oopsie”-

In late 1915 Gisela Richter, renowned expert on Greek and Roman antiquities at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, received a letter from John Marshall, the Museum’s veteran purchasing agent in Italy, describing a newly discovered life-size Etruscan warrior figure in terra-cotta which had been discovered in an Italian field.

The “old warrior” (he had a white beard and was emaciated, somewhat like, as one observer commented later, a Giacommetti sculpture) was soon followed by a massive four-foot tall terra cotta warrior’s head, and there was even talk of a greater treasure waiting to be found...

It was, of course, all fakery, carried out on a grand, almost “mythic” scale, a scale meant to make experts put aside all their nagging doubts and see the “Etruscans” as what they were not (namely, ancient). The white-bearded warrior and the massive head had been created by Riccardo Riccardi and Alfredo Fioravanti, two young men of skill and a certain vision. Riccardo’s father and brothers had also specialized in historic pottery, but Riccardo was the true genius of the family. With his friend Alfredo he first created the anorexic, white-bearded warrior.

The figure was modeled as one piece and then broken up into 24 fragments for firing, as the kiln was not large enough to accomodate the entire figure. The warrior is missing his right arm for the simple reason that the two forgers could not agree on how to position the arm, so they compromised by breaking it off and discarding it.

After selling the figure to the Metropolitan, the pair began work on another figure, this time a gigantic warrior's head. Working from a description by Pliny of a 25-foot tall statue of Jupiter in a Roman temple, the pair made the head four and a half feet tall. This was broken into 178 pieces, fired, and shipped off to the Met. And then Riccardo and Alfredo had to leave to serve their time in the Italian Army.

When they returned they began their most audacious project yet- a Colossal Warrior in terra cotta, standing over eight feet tall. Then tragedy struck. Riccardo was killed in a fall from his horse that winter, and his place was taken by two less-skilled cousins. As with the earlier pieces, the statue had to be fired in pieces as it was much too large for the kiln.

It proved, in fact, to even be too large for the room it was being modeled in, and by the time they had modeled up as far as the waist it was obvious that the elegant classical proportions of genuine Etruscan sculpture would have to be ignored -there simply was not enough room for the upper body without going through the ceiling. The odd result- classical legs and a stocky, disproportionate torso, troubled some scholars.

In 1921 the Met. purchased the warrior for an undisclosed price said to have approached 5 million dollars in today’s money. The statue was reconstructed from the fragments by the Met's experts with one odd exception- the genitals, which had been carefully modeled (the warrior, like many Etruscan statues, was partially nude from the waist down) were left off and apparently kept in storage. It may have been just as well. One story that came to light later related that while the body of the figure was based upon that of Riccardo's cousin and helper Teodoro, the "privates" were modeled after Riccardo's own, and had been recognized by a number of young Italian ladies of his hometown...

Attempts to erase doubts that were already being whispered in art circles in Europe, as well as the hope that the “secret” field they had been found in might be divulged by their “discoverers”, delayed the publication of a scholarly monograph on the three figures until 1937. For Richter, bringing them to the Met. and publishing them represented one of the crowning achievements of her distinguished career, and it was undoubtedly this fact that blinded her to what was becoming all too obvious to other scholars who were not emotionally or professionally attached to the warriors.

The talk about their true origins swirled quietly for the next decade or two, but after a visiting Italian scholar was offered a chance to see all three statues in 1959, and commented that he did not need to see them since he knew the man who had made them, authorities at the museum decided something had to be done. In 1960 a series of tests concluded that the glazes on all three specimens contained chemicals which had not been in use before the 17th century, and in 1961 Fioravanti signed a confession of the whole affair, and supplied a missing thumb which fit perfectly.

At that point several other “bothersome” points that had been noted over the years began to make more sense- the Colossal Warrior, for instance, could not even support its own weight, and when compared to real Etruscan statuary, simply looks crude and even modern. Today the statues are stored far away from prying eyes, but they still provide an entertaining and sobering lesson in fake busting.

A much more detailed account of the warriors was written by David Sox in his excellent book “Unmasking the Forger, The Dossena Deception” (1987), from which most of the material for this essay was taken; Thomas Hoving, the former Director of the Met., also deals with the story, and speculates on the role of John Marshall, in his book "False Impressions: The Hunt for Big-Time Art Fakes" (1996).

New Books on Ceramics Catalog-

The Book Elves have a tradition of being hard on pots and plates- there was the time they decided to "Class Up" the greenhouse by repotting all the cacti in the 18th century Sevres; there was that regrettable incident after too much eggnog last Christmas when they tried to find out how high "too high" was when it came to stacking the Wegdwood dinnerware; and we're all trying to forget last July 4th's infamous "Great Minton Shoot"...

But before they reduced 200 years worth of the potter’s art to several bucketfuls of shiny shards that are being donated to the local arts center to be made into a mosaic for the new bus station, the finished our latest catalog-

"BOOKS ON CERAMICS" is now available on our website or in printed format. It features 270 books and catalogs on pottery, porcelain and related topics, with highlights including-

-The catalog to Brother Thomas's first pottery exhibition.

-A scarce 1951 catalog of Masonic pottery.

-The uncommon original 1908 edition of Henry Mercer's guide to the mosaic tiles at the Pennsylvania State Capitol.

-A beautifully illustrated 1900 survey of Egyptian ceramics by Henry Wallis, limited to 200 copies..

-A massive biography of Lady Diana Beauclerk, 18th century Society Lady and Wedgwood artist.

- and much, much more!

Request a printed copy, or browse the catalog on our website.

Our February Catalog-

It was an odd January here at Foggygates- lots of cold, but no snow. That, however, was not going to stop the Book Elves from enjoying themselves, so after a hard day in the Cataloging Cave they planned to hit the “slopes” in the neighbor’s field, making snow with the help of two garden hoses, 300 feet of heavy duty extension cord and a dozen old industrial fans they picked up cheap at a local farm auction.

I’m not sure how the ski areas make snow, but I’m betting it’s not like that.

However, after blowing every fuse in the house out twice, the Book Elves got everything set, started the fans, turned on the hoses, and then left for Mama Maria’s bar & grill just down the street for a quick dinner and a few beers before some late-night sledding.

If only they’d remembered to anchor the bases of the fans… But before they encased the neighbor’s house in 3 inches of solid ice, the Book Elves finished our new catalog-

"RECENT ACQUISITIONS for February, 2007" is now available on our website or in printed format. It features 231 books and catalogs on furniture, silver, ceramics, glass, textiles, art, architecture and related fields, with highlights including-

-A rare 1840s Italian woodwork design book.

-A nice 1905 auction catalog of Japanese arms & armor, featuring items collected by noted dealer Bunkio Matsuki.

-An unusual 1873 book on soluble glass.

-An uncommon 1881 exhibition catalog of modern tapestries.

-The scarce original 1908 edition of Henry Mercer's guide to the tiles of the Pennsylvania state capitol.

-A rare 1824 biography of Jacques Louis David.

-A copy of Ure's important 1821 Dictionary of Chemistry with the 1850 ownership inscription of an American dyer.

and much, much more!

Our February Catalog.

This was posted on an email list a few days ago. Apparently it has been around for a while, though I had never seen it-

Jovanovichy

'Twas potter, and the little brown
Did simon and schuster in the shaw;
All mosby were the ballantines,
And the womraths mcgraw.

Beware Jovanovich, my son!
The knopfs that crown, the platts that munk!
Beware the doubleday, and shun
The grolier wagnallfunk!

He took his putnam sword in hand,
Long time the harcourt brace he sought -
So rested he by the crowell tree
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in harper thought he stood,
Jovanovich, with eyes of flame,
Came houghton mifflin through the wood
And bowkered as it came!

Dodd mead! Dodd mead! and from his steed
His dutton sword went kennicatt!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went quadrangling back.

"And hast thou slain Jovanovich?
Come to my arms, my bantam boy!
Oh, stein and day! Giroux! McKay!"
He scribnered in his joy.

'Twas potter, and the little brown
Did simon and schuster in the shaw;
All mosby were the ballantines,
And the womraths mcgraw.

Viennese silver, antique tiles & celebrity chefs-

Work on our new February Recent Acquisitions Catalog is almost done, and it should be ready next week. In the meantime we just got three great new publisher-overstock titles in about Viennese silver, the first celebrity chef, and antique tiles-

Huey, Michael (ed.). Viennese
Silver. Modern Design 1780-1918. Hatje Cantz Verlag: 2003. Illustrated with more than 500 images, including 189 color plates, this volume presents more than 180 outstanding silver objects from Vienna, of the period from Neoclassicism to the Wiener Werkstatte. The book compares late 18th-century works with examples of early 20th-century design and architecture, offering both a detailed look at Vienna's unquestioned influence on the development of the modern decorative arts and also evidence that the roots of modernism's spare, clean lines go back further than is often assumed. Images from popular culture-airplanes, rocket ships, sleek urban structures-are compared to the tureens, tableware, and decorative items they inspired. Published in conjunction with the loan exhibition at the Neue Gallery in New York and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Hardcover. 9.5”x11.5”, 398 pages, b/w and color illustrations, dj. New. [95070]

Published at $125.00.
Available for a limited time for $60.00

Kelly, Ian. Cooking for Kings. The Life of Antonin Careme, the First Celebrity Chef. New York; Walker & Co.: 2003. “A unique feast of biography and Regency cookbook, ‘Cooking for Kings’ takes readers on a culinary tour of the palaces of Britain and Europe in the ultimate age of gastronomic indulgence, when, for the first time, chefs became celebrities and the modern restaurant was born”. Antonin Careme invented the chef’s hat and soufflé, and cooked for Romanovs, Rothschilds, Emperors and Kings. Hardcover. 5.5”x8.5”, 301 pages, several color and line illustrations, dj. New. [95069]

Published at $26.00.
Available for a limited time for $10.00

Lang, Gordon (ed.). 1000 Tiles. Ten Centuries of Decorative Ceramics. San Francisco; Chronicle Books: 2004. A colorful extravaganza of antique tiles, from antique Islamic and Dutch tiles and Italian maiolica to Medieval pavements and colorful Victorian, Arts & Crafts and Art Deco examples. The authors include Paul Atterbury, Catherine Blake and Riccardo Sorani. If you love tiles you’ll love this thick, weighty book. Softcover. 8”x9”, 320 pages, packed with color illustrations. New. [95068]

Published at $29.95.
Available for a limited time for $15.00

New Furniture Catalog-

There’s no snow so far at Foggygates, which you would think would put a slight crimp in plans for Winter sledding parties, but then you’d have thunk half a step behind the Book Elves. With a pair of ‘Blizzard-3000 Super Toboggans’, a keg of beer and a dozen pizzas on hand, they weren’t about to let a little thing like bare ground stop them this past Saturday night. So with a little help from a few cans of ‘Krazy Al’s XX-Xrta Slik Silicone Spray’ and a pair of Honeywell TFE73131 Turbojet engines they “borrowed” from a Learjet that just happened to be “sitting around” at the local airport, they piled on and were set to go-

-and boy did they. For the official record, they were last spotted by radar at 2,500 feet, heading northwest over Montpelier, Vermont. But before they reached warp speed at cruising altitude and scared the dickens out of those Canada geese, they finished our new printed catalog-

"BOOKS ON FURNITURE, CABINETMAKERS & RELATED SUBJECTS" is now available on our website or in printed format. It features 264 books and catalogs on furniture, cabinetmakers and, well... related subjects.

Request a printed copy, or browse the catalog on our website.

A Gothic Revival Survival-

Oxford's Natural History Museum remains as one of the most dramatic and handsome Gothic Revival museums in England, even after they cut all those stupid holes in the roof...

In our new January catalog we have an very interesting book on the Museum, written by John Ruskin and Henry W. Acland. "The Oxford Museum" was published by Smith, Elder and Co. in 1859. It is an interesting discourse touching on the principles of the Gothic Revival, handwork and the dignity of workmen, and the proper decoration of buildings, as they were related to the architecture of Oxford’s famous Museum of Natural History, popularly known as the Oxford Museum. Championed in the 1850s by Sir Henry Acland, who felt that Oxford was ignoring the natural sciences, the Museum brought all those disciplines, including geology, astronomy, geometry, chemistry, and zoology under one roof.

And quite a neo-Gothic roof it was... The building was designed by Deane and Woodward of Dublin, with assistance of one sort or another from Ruskin, who notes here-

“In the competition [for the design] scarce any limitation was imposed, and to style none. Thirty-two designs by anonymous contributors were sent in; the majority of the judges, after a thoroughly English battle, in which some professed advocates of Gothic architecture deprecated the application of Gothic Art to secular purposes, -thereby denying to their own style that malleability which is, perhaps, its highest prerogative, -the design, ‘Nisi Dominus oedificaverit domum,’ was accepted”.

The Museum was the scene of the famous 1860 debate during which Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, asked Thomas Huxley whether he was descended from a monkey on his grandfather’s or grandmother’s side, to which Huxley replied that he had "no need to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather, but that he would be ashamed of having for an ancestor a man of restless and versatile interest who distracts the attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digression and skilled appeals to religious prejudice."

This book is a hardcover, 4.75”x7.5”, 111 pages plus a 4-page list of other titles by the authors; steel-engraved frontispiece of a pillar with fern carvings; a full-page woodblock plate of decorative tracery; folding plan of the museum; publisher’s pebbled & embossed cloth with gilt titles; spine slightly faded, else a very nice, fresh copy.

As an added point of interest, it has the handsome engraved bookplate of Herbert John Gladstone [1854-1930]. Lord Gladstone was the son of Prime Minister William Gladstone, and after lecturing on history at Keble College, Oxford, he embarked on a long political career which culminated in his appointment as Home Secretary under Asquith from whence, after some controversy over domestic policy, he was booted “upstairs” and sent to South Africa as the first Governor-General and High Commissioner of the Union of South Africa. [30336] $350.00

See our entire January catalog here.

New January Catalog-

Well, for one brief, shining moment Spring came early to Foggygates. Yes, according to the calendar it was only January, but it was 71 degrees on Saturday and the Book Elves went into full Springtime Overdrive Frenzy, hauling out the rakes and yard tools, as well as the lawn chairs and barbecue equipment. The end result was that three of them got completely stuck in the mud in the garden and had to be rescued by the neighbor’s lawn tractor, and the barbecue was brought to an unfortunate and abrupt end by that unforeseen temperature drop and brief snow squall at dusk (around 4:30).

But before they discovered that the temperature might lie, but the calendar never does, the Book Elves finished our new catalog of books on the decorative and fine arts and architecture-

“RECENT ACQUISITIONS, BOOKS ON ANTIQUES & THE ARTS for JANUARY, 2007”, featuring 224 books and catalogs, is now available in printed format, or viewable on our website.


If you would like a printed copy, please send us your mailing address.

A Unique Cookbook-

We don't carry many cookbooks, but when this one was brought to my attention, I knew we had to add it to our stock-

"Food to Die For. A Book of Funeral Food, Tips and Tales" by Jessica Bemis Ward. Published by the Old City Cemetery and the Southern Memorial Association in 2004. A cookbook and photographic tour of Lynchburg’s historic Old City Cemetery, all in one book!

“The act of taking food to the bereaved when someone has died is a way of giving expression to sentiments that cannot always be put into words. Practically and psychologically, the edible offering provides sustenance and comfort. It is the main object of this book to gather the recipes that people present as Funeral food. This unique cookbook includes more than 100 great recipes for Central Virginia's favorite comfort foods, including Jane's Corn Pudding, Cheese Straws, Mur's Peas, Bookstore Punch, and Sweet Briar Cookies as well as lighthearted looks at funeral customs, old and new, practical advice for writing obituaries and condolence notes, and useful terminology like ‘funeral tsar’ and ‘dying order’. The cookbook contains 180 pages of recipes, etiquette, and anecdotes”.

Established in 1806, the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia is the state’s oldest continuously-operated public cemetery. This book contains not only funeral lore and recipes, but many photographs of the beautiful and historic grounds and buildings. A unique cookbook.

Spiralbound. 7.5”x9”, 180 pages, b/w illustrations. New. [90223] $25.00

Happy New Year!

Best wishes for a
Happy and Healthy New Year
to all our friends,
and see you all in 2007!

Winter Fun Safety Tips

Now that Winter is here everyone will be donning their polar fleece and rushing outside to participate in the wide variety of fun Winter games and activities we all enjoy.

But with fun comes danger.

Even as we enjoy ourselves outside this Winter, I wanted to take a moment to warn folks to remember that just because something is fun does not mean it is also safe. Thin ice on ponds, icy slopes next to busy roadways, ice-packed snowballs, and frantic squirrels on sugar highs in search of just one more piece of Christmas candy can all present dangers to the unwary at this time of year.

I know we have all downed a bottle of scotch or two before getting behind the rope on a sled, lined our front yards with anatomically correct snowmen (and women, and that one time, both...) and "ski streaked" in our day, but please remember-

there are some Wintertime activities
that are just dumb, no matter how much
fun they sounded like they were going to be-

The Hard Way to Make an Ice Cube-

As the year ends and we still have no snow in the Pioneer Valley (a situation that may be about to change) I thought we'd crank up the Wayback Machine today with an albumen print from my own collection-

A pencil notation on the back of the mounting identifies this as the Boston Ice Company's ice house in Lake Village, New Hampshire, probably around the turn of the century. If you look closely to the left side of the picture you can see that they were still building the shed there even as they were loading ice blocks via the conveyor apparatus on the right. This detail shows the men near the foot of the loading machinery-

Makes me want a cup of hot cocoa just looking at it!

Luminarium-

The weather for much of the last few weeks has been very mild, but that didn’t stop Hatfield from having its annual Luminarium Night.

The Sunday before December 24th everyone in town lines their driveways and the street in front of their house with candles in paper bags or plastic jugs, and then congregates in front of City Hall for carol singing and Santa’s arrival. The local farmers make floats from farm carts and wagons, decorate them with hay and lights and drive people around town, and I’m told that folks come from as far away as Rhode Island to see the thousands (actually, probably tens of thousands) of candles lining all the streets. We put 60 candle jugs out this year, and it always takes longer to light them than we think it will!

It was very pretty, even without snow.

A Few New Overstocks for Stocking Stuffing-

December 18, 2006.

We just got a few more boxes of some great new publisher-overstock titles on jigsaw puzzles, the art of Florence, the history of hospitality, and even a art thriller- just in time for the Holidays!

Pears, Ian. The Portrait. New York; Riverhead Books: 2005. The author of several well-known art-history crime novels turns to a tiny island off the coast of Brittany for his latest thriller. This novel is “a harrowing psychological portrait of a painter at the turn of the 20th century and the art critic who first elevated and then turned on him, revealed in the painter's rambling monologue. Having abandoned the London art scene and exiled himself to the tiny Breton island of Houat, the Scottish painter has brought the critic to his remote, ramshackle home to sit for a portrait. Reminiscing with ease and familiarity one minute, with anger and menace the next, the painter eventually reveals the depths of his resentment, and the machinations he has practiced on the critic to exact his revenge”. Hardcover. 5.5”x7.75”, 211 pages, dj. New. [95064] Published at $19.95.

Publisher's Overstock Price- $9.95

Williams, Anne D. The Jigsaw Puzzle. Piecing Together a History. New York; Berkley Books: 2004. “From chaos, beauty emerges-bit by bit. Now, a jigsaw authority with a personal collection of over 8,000 that is considered one of the largest and most diverse in the world, offers the big picture on the enduringly popular, sometimes infuriating, and deeply satisfying hobby that has enthralled puzzlers worldwide for centuries. This volume discusses the jigsaw's history, which dates back to the mid-1700s, and its cultural impact on society. It examines the minds of such famous puzzlers as Queen Elizabeth II, Bill Gates, and Stephen King, and provides a lively look at what goes into the construction of jigsaw puzzles.” Hardcover. 6”x8.25”, 250 pages, color and b/w illustrations, dj. New. [95065] Published at $22.95.

Publisher's Overstock Price- $9.95

Wirtz, Rolf C. Art & Architecture of Florence. Konemann: 2005. “Also known as Firenze, Florence in Italian is Florentia, the "flowering" city. Under the Medici family in the 15th century, such artists as Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli and Brunelleschi turned the city into an artistic center and awakened Italian humanism. Such was its status that Pope Bonifatius VIII believed the city should be considered a fifth element-water, earth, air, fire, and Florence. This guide takes modern visitors to such timeless destinations as the Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Piazza della Signora, and the treasures of the Galleria degli Uffizi”. This book is compact enough to take on a tour, but pleasingly heavy and chunky, and isn’t that what we all look for in a book? Hardcover. 6”x6.5”, 559 pages, color and b/w illustrations, dj. New. [95066]

Publisher's Promotional Price- $16.95

Brownier, Jesse. The Duchess Who Wouldn’t Sit Down. An Informal History of Hospitality. New York; Bloomsbury: 2003. “Partisan, witty, and laced with surprising historical detail, this book looks at the darker undercurrent of hospitality. Beginning with the example of his own hosting of a poker game, in which he disarms his opponents' aggression with superb refreshments, Jesse Browner travels back in time to unravel the dynamics of host and guest. He visits the summer home of staunch vegetarian Adolf Hitler, catches John James Audubon in the act of playing a cruel prank on a defenseless guest, and documents the court of Louis XIV-an elaborate etiquette machine that rendered the French nobility powerless against him.” Hardcover. 5.75”x8.5”, 198 pages, dj. New. [95067] Published at $23.95.

Publisher's Overstock Price- $9.95

Of Parties & Catalogs-

Well, we had our annual Christmas Party for the Book Elves in the Cataloging Cave at Foggygates last night and, well- let's simply say that we won't be posting pictures on the website anytime soon. To begin with, I could be wrong, but I'd always assumed (before last night) that the question "how many drunk reindeer can you stuff into the boss's office?" was rhetorical...

But before they stumbled off into the night, swathed in plastic holly and singing "Good King Sauerkraut Looked Out, On His Feets Uneven...", the book elves finished work on our new catalog-

"BOOKS ON DECORATIVE ARTS- including folk art, interiors, metalware & iron, textiles, & other Americana & related subjects", with a special section on the China Trade, features 284 books and catalogs, and is available for browsing on our website, or as a printed catalog. If you would like a printed copy, please send us your mailing address.

Going, Going, Gone!

Today we're going to crank the Wayback Machine waaaaay back, for a view of Christie's Auction Rooms in London sometime around 1820 or so, as pictured in Ackermann's Repository-

Our latest catalog is released tomorrow- stay tuned!

Three Great New Books-

We just got a few boxes of some great new publisher-overstock titles on Shaker songs, the Arts & Crafts Movement and Romantic & Neo-classic architecture and art, just in time for the Holidays!

"The Arts and Crafts Companion" by Pamela Todd. Published by the Bulfinch Press: 2004.

"As a revival of traditional craftsmanship in the wake of the sweeping shift of manufacturing toward mass production, the Arts & Crafts Movement evolved on both sides of the Atlantic, embraced by designers and architects like Edwin Lutyens, Frank Lloyd Wright, William Morris, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Louis Tiffany, and Gustave Stickley. This book, illustrated with 250 color and 50 black and white images, is a superb reference, tracing the origins of the movement; the personalities behind it and their distinctive designs; and the many aspects of the Arts & Crafts style in architecture and interiors, pottery, glass, applied arts and decoration, and the garden."

Hardcover. 10"x10.5", 320 pages, loaded with color and b/w illustrations, dj. New. Published at $45.00.

Publisher's Overstock Price- $19.95

"Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Architecture, Sculpture. Painting. Drawing" Edited by Rolf Toman. Published by Konemann: 2006.

"Illustrated with some 900 color photographs and reproductions, this volume explores the complexities of Neoclassicism and Romanticism in architecture and art through in-depth articles by eleven scholars, and reveals how these seemingly antithetical styles are in fact closely related. Looking at the period from the renewed interest in the art and architecture of classical antiquity in the mid-18th century (following the excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii and the arrival of new architectural theories), through the effusions of the mid-19th century, it includes the work of such artists as Johann Heinrich Füssli, Eugène Delacroix, J.M.W. Turner, William Blake, and Francisco de Goya."

Hardcover. 11"x12.5", 520 pages, profusely illustrated in color and b/w; dj. New.

Publisher's Special Promotional Price- $39.95

"Shaker Songs. A celebration of peace, harmony, and simplicity" Edited by Christina Goodwillie. Published by Black Dog & Leventhal: 2002.

The simple beauty of Shaker craftsmanship and architecture was also reflected in their music, which long played a central role in Shaker worship. This elegant book includes a CD of 28 traditional songs, some performed by the Boston Camerata, and features more than 200 years of Shaker music in beautifully and simply illustrated pages of scores and lyrics, as well as explanatory text. Includes such favorites as "Simple Gifts", "Mother Ann's Song", "Four Little Angels", "Consoling Dove", "Joyful Praises", "O Zion Arise".

Hardcover. 7.5"x9", 128 pages, color and b/w illustrations, dj. Music-CD in front pocket. New. Published at $15.95.

Publisher's Overstock Price- $9.95

Busy Week-

Well, it's a busy week at Foggygates, with things humming from last week's DECEMBER catalog, and preparations for next week's DECORATIVE ARTS catalog.

Meanwhile, we've opened up a new store on Ebay where we are listing some "stocking stuffer" type books for sale at fixed prices, most for less than $25.00. Please take a look when you have a chance, by clicking the Ebay Auctions link in the right-hand column, because we will be loading books there all week.

And stay tuned, there's lots more coming!

Trees-

We are surrounded by trees here- a giant, 200+ year old maple out front, and hickory, walnut, maples and pines everywhere. I love trees in summer, but there is something about winter that brings out the best in trees...



The silver setting sun hugs close
among the maples- grey-boned ghosts
march row on row against the sky,
as day gives way to silent night.
Those black-ribbed maples,
marked with scars,
reaching silent to the stars,
their grey and yellow fingers bare
against the chill night's frosty air,
which wraps our knees against our coats,
we huddle close, our breath makes ghosts,
the starlight beckons, blazes, boasts,
against the black and velvet void,
those shimmers mark
a flaming spark, to light our
ghostly breaths in grey.

Come, sit with me
'till break of day.

Our Latest Catalog-

Now that Thanksgiving is over the Book Elves are in full Christmas Mode, stringing lights, unpacking ornaments and hiding my 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' cd. In fact, after they got done stringing about 300 strands of lights the little disk on our electric meter spun so fast it tore out of its bracket, went flying off through the air and decapitated the garden gnome. But before they bought 900 life-size plastic Santas on Ebay and used them to recreate the Battle of Waterloo on the croquet court, they finished our latest catalog-

"RECENT ACQUISITIONS -Old & New Books on ANTIQUES & THE ARTS & Related Subjects for DECEMBER, 2006" is now available on our website. It features 220 titles on furniture, glass, ceramics, silver, interiors, metals, fashion, trades, color, and life in other times. We also have printed copies- please send us your mailing address if you would like one.

Emily Dickinson. Vivacious redhead.

There's an interesting pair of articles in this morning's Springfield Republican newspaper about local poet Emily Dickinson, the 'Belle of Amherst'. The main article addresses her legendary reclusiveness, which some scholars are now casting doubt on. The second article reveals that Emily, known to us only through that famous black & white photograph taken when she was 17, was actually a redhead!

No, this is not the pronouncement of some 21st century revisionist-historian scanning her work for hidden clues and reading tea leaves- Amherst College actually has a lock of her hair which she sent to a friend.

A Truly Great Silver Book-

This week we are releasing our new "Books on American Silver and Silversmiths" catalog, and have we got a bargain for you!


"COLONIAL MASSACHUSETTS SILVERSMITHS AND JEWELERS. A biographical dictionary based on the notes of Francis Hill Bigelow & John Marshall Phillips"

By Patricia Kane. Published by Yale University Art Gallery in 1998.

A book almost a hundred years in the making, and quite simply the most important book on American silversmiths since Belden’s study of the Ineson-Bissell Collection at Winterthur. Pioneering collector and scholar Francis Hill Bigelow died before his notes, for a proposed Magnum Opus on Massachusetts silversmiths, could be completed and made into book form.

John Marshall Phillips, Curator of the Garvan Collection at Yale, took over the project and added to the research, but his untimely early death once again stopped the study in its tracks. Finally, in the 1980s, Patricia Kane and her colleagues, working from the original notes, embarked on a project to complete this ultimate reference, now published here in all its massive glory.

There are biographies of 296 silversmiths and jewelers who worked in Massachusetts before the American Revolution, along with 93 craftsmen in allied trades. Kane’s preface chronicles the ninety-two years of research and scholarship that went into the book, and her essay focuses on the creative ferment in Boston. Barbara McLean Ward’s essay describes the tools of the trade. Gerald W. R. Ward discusses the differences between metropolitan and rural silversmiths.

The ‘New York Silver Society Newsletter’ called this a “masterful accomplishment … and a source book that will well serve the next generations of gold, silver, and jewelry historians.” Our Book Elves at Joslin Hall simply describe the book as “damned heavy”.

Hardcover. 8.5”x11.5”, 1,241 pages; marks, dj. New. [90139]

This book was published at $150.00 and was a bargain at that price, but for a limited time we have a carton or two of Publisher's Overstock copies to sell for only $75.00 each!

Our New Silver Catalog-

Thanksgiving is fast approaching at Foggygates, and the book elves are in a tizzy making preparations. The carriage house is piled high with pumpkins, squash, potatos, and onions, and Fedex just delivered 2 cartons of "Satan's Helper XXX Hot-Death Pepper Sauce" (you know, sometimes I just don't ask what's going on, because it usually works out better if I don't know ahead of time. I believe politicians call that "plausible deniability"). There are 24 semi-wild turkeys out back which the book elves have been raising "free range" style all year, or at least there were until somebody left the pen gate open the other day.

But before they embarked on the Great 2006 Thanksgiving Wild Turkey Roundup (we've got Arlo interested in the song rights) they finished our latest printed catalog-

"BOOKS ON AMERICAN SILVER & SILVERSMITHS" features 190 books and catalogs on, well... American silver & silversmiths. Nothing tricky here, it's all pretty straightforward.

This catalog may be browsed on our website , or if you'd like a free printed copy, please send us your mailing address.

An Interesting Shaker Image-

I came across an interesting woodcut over the weekend featuring an African-American Shaker. This is a woodcut from an 1831 issue of "Atkinson's Casket" and is titled "Shaker's Worshipping"-



It has many nice details, including hats and coats hung on pegs, a presumed “outsider” looking on, and, at the right side, an African-American Shaker. You don't hear too much about Afrian-American Shakers, or at least I never have. Here's a closer detail-



We put the print up for auction on Ebay last night -you can see the auction here, or click our Ebay Auctions link in the right-hand column.

To the Memory of What-??

Funeral cards were very popular in Victorian times- they would be sent to family and friends announcing the death, with the same sorts of particulars you might see on a tombstone; they were not invitations to a funeral, as such, but acted as an anouncement of a death and were saved as a remembrance of the deceased.

But some of them were not all that they seemed at first glance. While preparing our latest "Grave Affair" catalog I ran across a very interesting little piece (not for sale in the catalog) which appears to be a funeral card, but is not...



For a larger picture, where you can see the lettering better, go to this page on our Grave Affair website. You can see our new "Grave Affair" catalog here.

A Grave Affair-

It's Halloween and the book elves are in fine fettle, rigging Foggygates up as a Haunted House. As they pointed out, we had the advantage that the
place is a 100+ year-old Victorian that's full of spiders, squeaky doors and dark corners already, and since we never get around to dusting we don't have to buy fake cobwebs this year. And then there's the resident ghost... but before they rigged up the 1,500-watt speakers on the porch roof and put Bobby Pickett's "Monster Mash" on an endless tape loop, they finished our latest printed catalog, on an eerily relevant topic-

"A GRAVE AFFAIR", a catalog featuring 154 books and other items about gravestones, epitaphs, cemeteries, funeral and mourning customs, how Society deals with death, and related topics, is now posted on our 'A GRAVE AFFAIR' website.

The new website also features a bibliography of 500+ books on graveyards, gravestones, epitaphs, cemeteries, mourning and funeral customs, and related topics, a links page, and some surprises...

While you're there you can also sign up for our 'Grave Matters' email list, where we announce website updates, and will be running catalog-related specials this week.

Please email us if you would like a printed copy.

Have fun, and have a Happy Halloween!

oh, and um...

BOO!

Time Tunnel-

I love old postcards. We're still unpacking boxes from the move a year ago, and today I found a stash of postcards from my old office drawer. It's like looking into a Time Tunnel (remember that show?).

The Japanese Garden at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, around 1910-



"Mrs. Jack Gardner's Venetian Palace", now the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston's Back Bay, on a postcard postmarked 1908-



This card is addressed to a "Miss Anne Hitchcock" of Utica, New York and has an interesting inscription- "I still want you but am going away in July. Will write a letter soon, Love FBS". You have to wonder...

Here is the Esplanade in Boston along the Charles River on a 1923 postcard. Today Storrow Drive's ugly four concrete lanes go right through ths scene-

Did you hear a cracking noise?

Right next to the house we have two huge, 250-year old sugar maples. One of them, by far the larger, lost its main trunk some years ago, but the right half of the tree remained, with three 50+ foot long, very thick limbs/trunks going off at about a 30-degree angle from the main trunk. I had always marvlled at how the old trunk supported all that weight...


Well, on Friday afternoon a cold front came through with 50-mph winds, and right in the middle we noticed a huge crack start to open up in the main trunk, working down from the top. As the winds blew the entire remaining part of the tree went back and forth and we could see the crack get bigger and then smaller, bigger and then smaller. Suddenly several tons of sugar maple were hanging on by an increasingly small thread...

The tree guys took one look at it yesterday morning and shook their heads. So down it cames, before it came down on its own and took out (depending on which way it fell) the carriage house, the kitchen or the porte cochere, removing, whichever way it went, a nice birch which stands directly underneath it.

It's a big, complicated job to get the tree down without smashing things underneath it, and they've been hard at it for two days now.


The episode has inspired some psuedo Haiku-


Storm winds make the big tree sway
and wave -how graceful...
What was that odd cracking sound?????


Big tree falls down and goes BOOM!
uh oh... Say Goodbye to
recently re-roofed carriage house.


Storm winds crack the giant tree-
Tree surgeon tells wife-
"Christmas in Bermuda this year!"

Our New Fall Catalog-

Fall has arrived at Foggygates and the gold and red maple leaves are falling thick and fast on the lawn. The Book Elves quit work in the Cataloging Cave early every afternoon to go out and rake them into huge piles on tarps and then drag them back into the woods. That's the second way they get rid of leaves. The first involved half a dozen vacuum cleaners they picked up "cheap" on Ebay and about 3,000 feet of heavy-duty extension cord. But before they blew out every fuse in the house and got themselves featured on an upcoming installment of the cable show "Don't Try This at Home", they finished our new printed catalog-

"RECENT ACQUISITIONS AND OTHER INTERESTING BOOKS ON ANTIQUES AND THE ARTS for FALL, 2006" features more than 220 books and catalogs on furnture, glass, ceramics, silver, textiles, art, and related topics. Please let us know if you would like a copy. You can also browse it on our website.

Ceramics in America-

The latest volume in an acclaimed series of ceramics essays has just arrived from the publisher-

"Ceramics in America –2006", edited by Robert Hunter. Published in 2006 by the Chipstone Foundation.

A selection of essays on historical ceramical subjects, issued every year. This year's studies include- ceramics representations of Uncle Tom’s Cabin; commemorative wares in George Washington’s hometown; ceramics at Hampton, Maryland; dated examples of pottery by the slave-potter “Dave”; African-American face jugs; 17th –century tobacco pipe production in the Chesapeake region; J. Palin Thorley (1892-1987), potter; Dutch maritime tiles; a Yankee jug in Dixie; early examples of American architectural terracotta in Charleston, South Carolina; many more! Also contains book reviews and a checklist of recently published books and articles on ceramics in America.

This is a softcover book, 8.5”x11”, xiii + 336 pages, color and b/w illustrations. New. $60.00.

Let us know if you would like a copy!

Of Tomes & Trattorias-

A hazy reminiscence from our last Italian trip...

In Florence it always rains at night in September.

It can be cozy - or murderous. I dodged maniac scooters and cars as I ran down the narrow cobbled streets with lights glinting off them like slivers of ice and ducked in for the 8 pm seating at my favorite neighborhood trattoria. A little vino, a dish of white beans in tomato sauce, maybe try the sole, some sambuca.

A companion...

She was tall and dark and slender, her eyes flashing with centuries of Florentine pride and passion. She moved as smoothly and naturally as a river running swiftly between rocky banks, and when she walked into a room everyone would turn and gaze. It was another of her talents that she could slip out of a room without anyone noticing, just the soft scent of perfume, a swift rustle of silk and she would be gone. She was my main contact in this city of brick and stone and soot-stained art, and I had no reason not to trust her. Sure, her last contact here had come to a bad end in vat of boiling rotini, but that was five years ago.

We opened a bottle of Chianti -not the kind you buy back in the States for $5 a bottle, the good stuff. The waiter came with a plate of porcini quickly grilled and drizzled with a little olive oil. She made small talk, asked about my flight, pushed the plate toward me and I reached out with my fork...

Something about the glint in her eye set off an alarm in the back of my mind. The Chianti was working, but there was still that danger flag. I hesitated and she frowned and reached for something in her purse. I wasn't looking, not really, but I saw the cracked leather spine of a small book in there. Faded guilt lettering stamped on the red spine label told me all I needed to know -it was the mushrooms.

I reached for the purse and she struggled with me for a moment, then gave up and went limp. I took the book and handed the purse back to her. Everyone in the trattoria was frozen, watching us. I knew better than to make a move. She gave me a quick, wry smile and got up and walked quickly out the door. No point following. I knew I'd never see her again. I finished off my Chianti and left. I've kept that little 18th century book on poisonous mushrooms for a dozen years, but now I'm going to sell it.

I'm a bookseller.

That's my job.

Upcoming- A Grave Affair-

We've been hard at work cataloging material for a new edition of our "A GRAVE AFFAIR" catalog, which is devoted to gravestones, mourning cutoms, epitaphs and other death and mourning-related material. We've been putting things aside for some time now for the new edition, and have some really interesting material. The schedule at this point is to issue the catalog for Halloween Week, so if you'd like a copy, please let us know!