A Beautiful Tool Book-

We just got a great new publisher's overstock title in on tools- "Tools. Rare and Ingenious. Celebrating the World’s Most Amazing Tools" by Sandor Nagyszalanczy was published in Newtown by The Taunton Press in 2004.

Over the centuries craftsmen have transformed inherently humble objects- drills, saws, planes and levels, into works of art. This beautiful book offers a breathtaking tour of antique tools that rarely leave the jealous hands of their owners. In more than 375 color photographs we see tools ranging from calipers in the shape of ballerinas to a drill shaped like a violin. The old, hand-polished woods gleam, the antique brass shines, and the dedication and imagination of hundreds of anonymous craftsmen from other times is evident on every page.

This book is a hardcover. 9.5”x10”, 210 pages, packed with color illustrations, dj. New. Published for $37.00.

Available for a very limited time for $20.00

Keep Digging!

This classic letter has been around the internet for a few years so some of you may have read it already, but I always get a chuckle out of it.

- - -

Smithsonian Institute
207 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20078

Dear Mr. Williams:

Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labeled "93211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post...Hominid skull."

We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago.

Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety that one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be "Malibu Barbie."

It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradiction with your findings. However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to its modern origin:

1. The material is molded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilized bone.

2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimeters, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-homonids.

3. The dentition pattern evident on the skull is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time.

This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us say that:

A. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.

B. Clams don't have teeth.

It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon-dated. This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in its normal operation, and partly due to carbon-dating's notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic record. To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon-dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results.

Sadly, we must also deny your request that we approach the National Science Foundation Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name Australopithecus spiff-arino.

Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really sound like it might be Latin.

However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a Hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your Newport back yard.

We eagerly anticipate your trip to our nation's capital that you proposed in your last letter, and several of us are pressing the Director to pay for it. We are particularly interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the trans-positating fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix that makes the excellent juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive crescent wrench.

Yours in Science,

Harvey Rowe
Chief Curator- Antiquities

Drama in a Print-

We had a copy of Phillip Barraud's 1782 book "A New Book of Single Cyphers, Comprising Six Hundred Invented and Engraved by Ph. D. Barraud" in our March catalog. We sold the book, but I wanted to share one of the engraved frontispiece plates at the front-



I just love dramatic copper-plate engravings like this.

Odd Jobs-

It's Monday, everyone's least-favorite day of the week. But today we have an illustration for the pleasure of our office-bound comrades showing that, no matter how bad your job is, there are people out there who have it worse. You could, for instance, have been a model in the Middle Ages...

Winter Loses Its Grip-

Somebody stole an hour's worth of sleep from me last night, but that's ok, because I was about done with Winter anyway. I'm not big into wintertime sports, and I very much do not ski. My one experience skiing was about 20 years ago when a "friend" who was also a ski instructor decided that the quickest way to teach me was to strap a pair of skis on my feet, drag me to the top of a local mountain only slightly smaller than the Matterhorn, point me down over the edge of a 80-degree downhill slope and push me off.

Well, perhaps I exaggerate a bit. But I'm no fan of heights, and it looked to me as if we were high enough up to be in danger of getting whacked by a passing Space Shuttle. And then there was my question of "once you get going, how do you stop?" to which my helpful friend replied that usually you hit something.

I have not been near a ski slope since. My wife used to cross-country ski, and if we had had snow for more than a few weeks this year I might have tried it. Maybe next year. But downhill skiing, no way. While I was frantically tobaggoning down that slope on my keister those many years ago, I thought I saw Death ski past me, and I know he's still out there on a slope someplace, lurking...

A Poetic Silkworm?

We have an interesting 18th century silk-related title in our current catalog-

"The Silkworm: A Poem. In Two Books. Written by Marcus Hieronymus Vida, and translated into English Verse by the Reverend Samuel Pullein, of Trinity College, Dublin" Published in Dublin; printed by S. Powell, for the author: 1750.

This is quite a remarkable piece of poetry- both the original and the translation. Marcus Hieronymus Vida [1470-1566] of Cremona was a gifted poet who was patronized by the Pope and did quite a remarkable job of, as Pullein notes, making a detailed poem about the raising of silk worms interesting.

Pullein [b.1713] was himself no slouch, and won the Royal Dublin Society’s Madden Prize for this work. In the same year that he published this poem, Pullein wrote an essay to promote the culture of silkworms in Ireland, and several years later he wrote his influential book “The culture of silk, or an Essay on Its Rational Practice and Improvement for the Use of the American Colonies”.

The engraved frontispiece shows the interior of a silkworm room-



The engraving has many interesting details, including the trays on which mulberry leaves and stems are kept-



The fancy ceiling with medallions-



And a Classical doorway; we can also see potted plants in the yard ourside-



The Classical theme continues as the worms are tended by several women in robes vaguely resembling those of ancient Greece-



This is a hardcover. 6.25”x10”, x, 141 pages, engraved frontispiece; with the final errata and “Observations” sheet, which is often lacking. Newly rebound in green “silked” cloth with paper spine label; new endpapers; title page repaired at the top, not affecting the text; text with light toning and a few spots, but overall nice. [30745] $500.00

Our New March Catalog-

It’s going to be Saint Patrick’s Day soon, and since it involves food and beer, it’s one of the Book Elves favorite holidays. They’ve always thrown a big party to celebrate, but after last year’s “mishap”, and the ensuing court costs, they decided to do a dry run a few weeks ahead of time this year.

Now here’s the thing- it’s never a good idea to pair the phrases “Book Elves’ party preparations” and “30,000 gallons of green, vegetable-based food coloring”, especially if you live within a quarter mile of the Connecticut River...

But before the squadron of helicopters from the EPA Rapid Response SWAT Team descended and started fingerprinting everyone, the Book Elves finished this new catalog of books-

"RECENT ACQUISITIONS for March, 2007" is now available on our website or in printed format. It features 201 books and catalogs on furniture, silver, ceramics, glass, textiles, art, architecture and related fields, with highlights including-

-A nice 1782 book of decorative cyphers for silversmiths & engravers.

-Several important 19th century color books by George Field.

-A lovely Victorian facsimile of a 1677 London Merchant directory.

-A 1698 catalog of ancient Egyptian amulets.

-A 1750 poem about raising silkworms, with a marvelous engraved frontispiece.

-An important 1837 book of designs for gate houses and lodges, owned by a founder of
the Boston Society of Arts & Crafts (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's nephew!).

-An uncommon 1862 collection of Renaissance silver designs.

-A fascinating and detailed 1840s survey of trades and manufactures in Britain.

-and much, much more!

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

- - -

This month's catalog also has a special feature on fakes, forgeries and frauds, a topic which has always fascinated me.

- - -

We’ve finally begun to get some Winter weather here at Foggygates, with several snow storms in the last three weeks. As soon as it gets cold enough for the local bears to start hibernating, we put bird feeders out in the side yard and by the back deck. (We know it’s time to take them away in the Spring when we find one of the pole feeders flattened and ripped up by the bear, but that’s another story).

At this time of year we have a huge crowd of birds at the feeders, from early in the morning until dusk. But the three pairs of cardinals, several woodpeckers, bunches of wrens, finches, doves and other assorted little birds (plus half a dozen fat squirrels) are now being joined on a regular basis by a young red-tailed hawk. He first showed up a week or so ago, sitting in the tall tree behind the carriage house, and has lately taken to sitting on the railing of the deck, or in the small fruit tree we hang the feeders on just beside it. I am afraid he may not be here for the seeds...

Gargoyles & Grotesques-

Someone was writing about gargoyles the other day, and that made me think of a passage in Robert Williams' 1835 book "An Historical Sketch of the Art of Sculpture in Wood" which is not precisely about gargoyles, but about such grotesque carvings in general, and what their inspirations often were-

"There are many bas-reliefs, particularly those carved underneath the seats of the choirs of different religious structures, that represent grotesque , and even obscene subjects, altogether at variance with the sacred character of the buildings in which they are placed. Something of this kind may be observed in Worcester cathedral, in Ely cathedral, in the priory church of Great Malvern, and in many other ecclesiastical edifices.

"What may be thought most singular, is, that these sculptures sometimes represent priests and other religious persons, engaged in actions of a very profane description. For a satisfactory reason for this, I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Cottingham. The sculptors who executed those carvings were the caricaturists of the time and, as different religious communities were frequently at variance with each other, they employed these artists to satirize their mutual follies and vices.

"Under their seats they concealed from the public eye, but exposed for their own private gratification, a series of pictorial libels. In one place, the monks of a certain order are represented as licentious, ridiculous, and depraved: -in the building belonging to these holy fathers, will, probably, be found a similar series of bas-reliefs, exposing the secret debaucheries of the sacred brotherhood by whom they have been libelled- but never, in any church, will a priest of that order be represented in an unholy character. He will very likely be discovered thus pictured in the church of the Franciscan, while the follower of St. Francis receives the same treatment from the Carthusian brethren in their own buildings.

"The various monastic establishments, which at one time were exceedingly numerous in England, generally regarded each other with considerable jealousy and, more than once, their animosities and squabbles have disturbed the peace of the kingdom, and brought disgrace upon the un-reformed religion. This occasioned some of our most ancient ecclesiastical edifices to be disfigured with grotesque and offensive designs"

Cat Cam-

I've managed to get myself a bit behind the 8-ball today, with the new March catalog due to be shipped to the printer tomorrow by 5, and me still cataloging books this morning, with set-up, cut & paste, cover design, & proofing all still to be done (well, I can always say I proofed it, and the Book Elves snuck in later and retyped that entry to read "dust jacket lightly oiled".

Anyway, the point of this all is that I'm going to let one of our hardworking book cats, Pyewackett, entertain you. So I've set up a web-camera, and you can just keep checking back, because she does all sorts of interesting things.

Really.

I know it may look like this is just a .jpeg, not a live webcam, but I assure you, it's refreshed every 1/10th of a second.



Just look at her go.

How George Washington's Candlesticks Killed G.D. Smith

Reposted from last President's Day, but still a good tale.

On this President's Day we turn to the tale of a pair of "George Washington's" candlesticks which killed a leading rare book dealer.

In early 1917 a man named William Lanier Washington showed up at the doors of Mitchell Kennerly's Anderson Galleries, a leading New York auction firm. A “direct descendant of two of George Washington’s brothers”, William Lanier Washington arrived with cartloads of Washington-family memorabilia at an opportune time.

The craze for all things Colonial-related was reaching new heights, and in the first auction of this material, held in April, 1917, he offered many interesting and rare Washington busts, portraits, mourning items and other Washington-related memorabilia. He also offered personal relics, including George Washington’s shoe and sword buckles, wine glasses, snuff boxes, coat buttons, pants, a pair of Sheffield candlesticks from Washington’s Mt. Vernon desk, and many more items.

These relics were eagerly snapped up by the preeminent collectors of the day, including William Randolph Hearst and G.D. Smith, the man who single-handedly helped Henry Huntington assemble the famous Huntington Library and one of the greatest American book dealers of all time.

All seemed well until William Lanier Washington showed up at the Anderson Galleries with yet another cartload of Washington relics, at which point Mitchell Kennerly had the sense to send him packing. Not to be so easily discouraged, William simply switched venues and took his “relics” to the American Art Association, through which he held another sale in February, 1920.

He also sold his offerings door-to-door, and it was this which brought about the premature demise of G.D. Smith. On March 4th, 1920, William Lanier Washington arrived at Smith’s door, attempting to sell him yet another set of Sheffield candlesticks used by George Washington on his desk at Mt. Vernon. Smith, who had already bought “the” pair at the 1917 auction (lot 27), questioned just how many candlesticks George Washington kept on his desk, got into a heated argument with Washington, and dropped dead on the spot.

Thus ended the career of one of America’s greatest booksellers. William Lanier Washington would hold one more Washington-relic sale at the AAA, in February, 1922, which finally seemed to exhaust his supply. He died in 1933, but the legacy of his auctions, which contained at least some authentic memorabilia, and a whole lot else, continues on through the auction catalogs and an interesting tale.

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.