Balkan Books

A beautifully produced book by Franco Maria Ricci, one of a limited edition of 3,000 numbered copies, this being 388. 175 pages with tipped in color plates with additional drawings and sketches, the text is in English. Arcimboldo has become best known for his portraits of human heads made up from vegetables, plants, fruits, sea creatures and tree roots, which were greatly admired by his contemporaries and remain of great fascination to this day. each was carefully constructed and as can be seen with the main image, the Librarian...

Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry 1st Edition Hardcover Book. Edited by Ruth A. Peltason. 280 illustrations, including 175 color photographs by John Bigelow Taylor. DIMEN...

Faberge Eggs Imperial Russian Fantasies Softcover Book. Near Fine-very. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,1995. 'Fabergé Eggs - Imperial Russian Fantasies'. Elephant Folio, illustrated perfect-bound wraps, 68 pp. A visually sumptuous presentation of the famous - and very rare Fabergé Eggs...

Beautiful Prada Book, saffiano textured faux leather slip case and book cover, this book is filled with hundreds of beautiful photos chronicling Prada’s history, ideas development, p...

This is number 111 from the limited edition of 1,000 copies. The first 25 are special leather bound copies, a further 25 were for collaborators on the publication, the next 350 were reserved for subscribers and 650 were for general sale. Therefore we know that this was one of the subscribers copies. With green cloth covers in a green slipcase with an embossed frog motif to the front. 424 pages with over 350 large detailed illustrations, 60 color plates and more than 1000 reference illustrations. This magnificent dinner and dessert service was the crowning achievement of the great English potter Josiah Wedgwood who made it between 1773-1774 as a commission from the Empress Catherine...

Impressionism and Post-impressionism: The Hermitage, Leningrad, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Vintage 1986...

"Pucci - A Renaissance in Fashion" by Shirley Kennedy, 1st edition, printed in Japan in 1991. All excellent near perfect condition. Cloth cover. First white page...

Sotheby's Catalog, An Important Russian Imperial Jewel. Geneva 17 November 2005. 1st Ed hardcover. "An impressive and highly important diamond ornament from the collection of the Russian Imperial Family, Russia, second half of the 18th century. This diamond necklace with bowknot clasp is not only a remarkable jewel in itself, but its Russian royal provenance puts it in a class of its own. It evokes the blinding splendour of Catherine II, Empress of Russia: the magnificence of her court, her parks, her palaces, her art collections, and monuments. The most striking and colourful figure on the stage of European political life, for thirty four years she ruled a mighty empire which stretched from Siberia to Poland and left it stronger, larger and richer than when she came to the throne in 1762. After her death in 1796, her friend the Prince de Ligne, who had named her Catherine the Great, declared that this title- which has never been lost- resumed all her genius, courage, sense of justice, and force of character. Using her court as a stage, she played the part of an autocratic but enlightened ruler to perfection, imposing in her public appearances, kind and charming in private. The French ambassador, the Comte de Ségur who noticed how “her majestic head and brow, proud look and dignified deportment made her seem taller than she was”, was also impressed by her feminine grace “ her aquiline nose, well shaped mouth, Saxe blue eyes beneath dark lashes, gentle glance and seductive smile”. In spite of her success, she once confided to the Prince de Ligne that she could have served Russia better if she had been born a man. Ever the courtier, he assured her that being a woman was a positive advantage. “Believe me, you are so much more impressive in your beautiful embroidered orange red velvet dolman or tunic than a man decked out in boots and shoulder sash can ever be. In addition the five huge diamonds blazing out from your hair are far more effective than a man’s hat which is either ridiculously small or ridiculously big”. He was right. Her diamond jewellery proclaimed her power and her rank as Empress and appealed to the Russian taste for sumptuous goods. It impressed the Rev. William Coxe, visiting St. Petersburg in 1778: “the glory and the splendor of the clothing of the court and abundance of precious stones leave the opulence of other European courts far behind” and his opinion was shared by the acute Madame de Stael...

The Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright. by Thomas A. Heinz large heavy hardcover coffee table book. A Complete Guide To The Designs Of An Architectural Genius. Frank Lloyd Wright's career, sometimes tragic, sometimes tempestuous - at all times creative - has been examined and reexamined in numerous studies and articles both during his lifetime and since his death in 1959, which occurred shortly before the completion of his most famous project, New York's Guggenheim Museum. Virtually every structure that Wright built is represented in this extensive survey of his life's work. His genius at architectural design enable him to work out extremely complex buildings in his head and translate them on to paper in a matter of hours, as the famous story of his design presentation of Falling Water illustrates. His work continues to draw great admiration and interest to this day. His often tempestuous and sometimes tragic life and career are given full coverage in this book. Hundreds of photos, both archival and recent chart his amazing work and influence on all who followed. This concise consideration of Wright's life and work not only offers new insights into the character of this complex, powerful and at all times confident personality, but also the architectural legacy he left behind and which exists to this day in the vast number of homes and public buildings photographed...

Mediterranean Design hardcover – August 17, 2006. by Mary Whitesides (Author). Title: Mediterranean Design Publisher: brand: Gibbs Smith Publication date: 2006 Binding: Hardcover Great hardcover coffee table book. Mediterranean Design reveals the vibrant color, outdoor-living emphasis, and diverse cultural influences that have created this unique style. Defined by an eclectic mix of natural elements: sunlight bouncing across textured walls, rooms arranged around porch-lined courtyards, terra-cotta tile roofs covering wood-beam ceilings, arched passages and porticos, vibrantly colored interiors, and courtyards and fountains that take advantage of the temperate climate. Mediterranean Design brings home the romantic and worldly appeal of a style that finds its heritage in the diverse lands of Morocco, Spain, Greece, Turkey, France, and Croatia. Mediterranean Design highlights the unique aspects of the style, such as spatial orientation of the rooms is defining and private vestibules and porches rather than hallways connecting functional spaces, bedrooms as suites rather than lonely rooms, bathrooms as spas rather than generic or merely functional rooms. Details such as arches, pillars, high ceilings, fountains, gardens, pergolas, lime-washed walls, stone façades...

Temptations of San Antonio Abad. Oil on canvas. 17th century, following the model of David Teniers II (Antwerp, 1610-Brussels, 1690). Oil on canvas showing a figurative scene located inside a cave. To the right, you can see a cross standing, supported; to the left, a hut; and in the center of the painting appears an elderly, bearded man, leaning on a table on which there is a ceramic jug and a skull, with an open book at the foot of it. The man looks towards a woman, who points to something outside, and appears accompanied by a large frog and a series of ghostly beings or monsters dressed in brightly colored cloth and clothing. San Antonio Abad or Antonio Magno (251-356) was a Christian monk, considered the founder of the eremitical movement. He was tempted numerous times by the devil while he was in the desert, becoming a subject frequently represented in art (as can be seen in this oil painting). He is represented in a black habit because the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of San Antonio (Hospitals) was placed under his patronage, being the color of the habits of the members of this order (the tau or Egyptian cross was also the symbol chosen by they). David Teniers II or El Joven was a prominent Flemish painter and engraver, son of David Teniers El Viejo or I and father of David Teniers III, much appreciated at the time for his scenes of villagers and common people, his paintings of monkey painters, etc. . He dealt with the theme of the Temptations of Saint Anthony...

A CAROLINA RICE PLANTATION OF THE FIFTIES: Narrative By Herbert Ravenel Sass, With Chapters From The Unpublished Memoirs Of D.E. Huger Smith. Publisher, New York: William Morrow, 1936. Signed 1st Ed hardcover with book plate of Ellen Doubleday, publishers personal copy. Illustrated with reproductions of 30 paintings in watercolor by and signed by Alice R. Huger Smith. The magic of the Low Country, the rice coast of South Carolina and Georgia has been captured with rare beauty and fidelity in the paintings of Alice R. Huger Smith. Her water-colors of sea-island beaches, of sea marshes, of black waters in cypress swamps...