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Versailles: Science and Splendour

Anna Ferrari

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781785515828

Hardback publication date: 16 January 2025

Category:

Hardback price:

£ 30.00

A richly illustrated book that breaks new ground in exploring the relationship between science and power at the French court of Versailles – published to accompany the exhibition at London’s Science Museum.

Between the 1660s and the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789, the royal palace of Versailles – commonly associated with its architecture, gardens and courtly splendour – was also a place of serious scientific enquiry. This engaging book reveals how the French monarchy harnessed science to enhance its prestige and extend its global influence.
 
Versailles: Science and Splendour explores the relationship between science and power during the reigns of kings Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI, a period when the practice of what we now call ‘science’ changed significantly, and highlights how science and empire were connected at Versailles.
 
This book, which accompanies a temporary exhibition at the Science Museum in London, features 16 chapters by experts from Britain, France and America. Each chapter is inspired by fascinating objects, from a stuffed rhinoceros to an exquisite astronomical clock. The stories covered range from the early days of the French Royal Academy of Sciences and the engineering behind Versailles’s fountains, to the menagerie of rare animals that lived in the grounds and the first hot-air balloon flight at the palace.

ABOUT THE Editor

Anna Ferrari is Curator of Art and Visual Culture at the Science Museum and lead curator of the exhibition Versailles: Science and Splendour (2024–25). Trained as an art historian, she has previously curated and co-curated exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.

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REVIEWS

‘Rich with historic and aesthetic background and photos’

Dallas News

‘A celebration of French Stories, art, exploration and intellectual curiosity’

Dan Snow

‘A glittering science history blockbuster.’

 

The Guardian

The Legacy of Vesuvius

Bourbon Discoveries on the Bay of Naples

Michael L. Thomas

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781785515736

Hardback publication date: 5 December 2024

Category: Heritage

Hardback price:

£

This sumptuous book reveals how discoveries of classical sculptures and frescoes in Pompeii and Herculaneum inspired artistic masterpieces created for the Spanish Bourbon Court in Naples during the eighteenth century. 

Ancient sculptures, frescoes and other archaeological finds discovered at the foot of Mount Vesuvius helped shape the artistic expression in Europe, particularly landscape paintings, sculpture, ceramics, furniture and portraits. These include images of the Bourbon royal family, and also detailed landscapes and cityscapes giving a glimpse into Naples at the time. Sculptures and frescoes from the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, the villas at Stabiae and Cicero and the Temple of Isis at Pompeii are examined alongside the art by well-known eighteenth-century artists they influenced, including Angelica Kauffman, Anton Rafael Mengs and Antonio Joli.

ABOUT THE Author

Michael L. Thomas is an Associate Provost, Director of the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, and a Professor of Arts and Humanities and the University of Texas, Dallas.

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REVIEWS

'A real treasure’ 

 

The Critic

Natural Homemade Beauty

90 Recipes for Skin, Hair and Home

Leoniek Bontje

Batsford

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781849948760

Hardback publication date: 14 March 2024

Category: Lifestyle

Hardback price:

£ 14.99

eBook ISBN: 9781849949330

eBook publication date: 14 March 2024

Category: Lifestyle

eBook price: £ 9.99

  Our price: £

A beautifully designed instructive guide to creating luxurious, safe and effective beauty products using ingredients from nature. 

In this charming book you’ll discover how to prepare an abundant range of products using plants and flowers, many of which you’ll be able to find around you or grow yourself. It includes comprehensive, easy-to-follow recipes for: 

  • Rich moisturising cream with daisy extract
  • Camomile based shampoo for glossy hair
  • Sugar and honey body scrub
  • Ginger oil for blemish control

You will find a wealth of other delights such as body butter, hair conditioner, lip balm, deodorant, bath oil and even toothpaste. Also included is a selection of fragrance products for your home, such as a lavender and pine room spray made with vodka.

Each easy-to-follow recipe gives a complete description of the product-making process so you can’t go wrong. There are handy visual guides to the plants you’ll be using, accompanied by ravishing photography. Armed with this book you’ll be able to create a whole beauty counter of products, both for yourself and for gifting, and you’ll save money too!

ABOUT THE Author

Leoniek Bontje grew up in a green environment in North Holland with a forest and beach within walking distance and is now a herbalist and wild forager who is passionate about sharing her extensive knowledge of plants and their uses. Leoniek spent 4 years training to become a herbalist following the publication of her first book, Foraging. She has since authored books on using plants as medicine, creating a herbarium, and using plants for cosmetics. She currently works as an herbalist, teaches workshops, writes books about herbalism and offers advice on how to create edible and medicinal gardens. She lives in The Netherlands.

 

 

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REVIEWS

'Save money and the planet with this charming guide to creating luxurious beauty products.’


The Bookseller

‘Natural Homemade Beauty exemplifies the beauty of simplicity, urging us to reconsider our approach to self-care and embrace the treasures that nature provides.’ 

Wellbeing Magazine

‘ A colourful read.’ 

The Chatty Gardener

‘Armed with this book, you can create a whole beauty counter of products in no time, both for yourself and for gifting.’

Blumenhaus Magazine

This book is a must for those who would like to use clean ingredients on their skin and enjoy the process of making your own products’

The Herb Society

Anyone who loves natural skincare {…} will find true love with this beautiful yet very practical book.’

Psychologies Magazine

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Treasures of Westminster Abbey

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Format:

Paperback ISBN: 9781857596601

Paperback publication date: 26 January 2015

Category: Architecture

Paperback price:

£ 16.95

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Hardback publication date: 11 May 2020

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The Treasures of Westminster Abbey celebrates an iconic building and its rich artistic heritage. The Abbey, one of Britain’s greatest medieval buildings and among the best-known churches in the world, has a history stretching back over a thousand years. Founded as a Benedictine monastery in the mid-tenth century and with the shrine of its principal royal founder, St Edward the Confessor, at its heart, it is also the coronation church where monarchs have been crowned amid great splendour since 1066. The present church, begun by Henry III in 1245, was planned with that in mind and is a treasure house of architectural and artistic achievement on which each succeeding century has left its mark.Seventeen out of the thirty-nine sovereigns crowned in Westminster Abbey also lie buried within its walls. Their medieval and Renaissance tombs, though among the most important in Europe, form only a small part of the extraordinary collection of gravestones, memorials and monumental sculpture for which the Abbey has long been famous and which is comprehensively surveyed in this lavishly illustrated book. Many of the most significant individuals in British history are remembered here: royalty and aristocracy, clergy and politicians, writers, scientists and musicians.Ranging from the thirteenth-century shrine of St Edward and the Renaissance splendour of Henry VII’s Lady Chapel, to the literary memorials of Poets’ Corner and the statues of Twentieth Century Martyrs on the Abbey’s west front, The Treasures of Westminster Abbey describes the stained glass, furniture, sculpture, textiles, wall paintings and many other historic artefacts found within this remarkable church.

Stained Glass at Canterbury Cathedral

Michael Michael

Sebastian Strobl

Format:

Paperback ISBN: 9781857599664

Paperback publication date: 14 April 2015

Category: Practical Art

Paperback price:

£ 19.95

The newly-cleaned stained glass of Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England is a revelation – the vibrant colour and breathtaking detail are newly visible to today’s visitors. The finest of this glass has been reproduced within a lavishly designed book to be enjoyed by tourists and general readers alike.

In this book, Michael Michael has the pleasure of selecting the most beautiful and important pieces of glass on display at the Cathedral. His text sets these within the context of the biblical stories they depict. Communicating his passion for the glass and his understanding of its art and historical context, this book will appeal to non-specialists who are interested in the meanings behind single images and narrative sequences of glass.

An additional chapter written by Sebastian Strobl outlines the fascinating history of changing methods of restoration and conservation, as well as the work carried out today by the Cathedral’s expert team.

ABOUT THE Author

Dr Sebastian Strobl trained as a Master Glazier and later at the University of Cologne wrote his doctoral thesis on medieval stained-glass techniques. From 1990 to 2005 he directed the stained-glass conservation programme at Canterbury Cathedral, before becoming Professor of Stained Glass Conservation at the University of Applied Sciences, Erfurt.

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St Paul’s Cathedral

1,400 Years at the Heart of London

Ann Saunders

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781857598025

Hardback publication date: 20 February 2017

Category: Architecture

Hardback price:

£ 25.00

Sir Christopher Wren’s St Paul’s, built after the Fire of London of 1666, has become the City’s most familiar landmark, its dome with the ball and cross above it symbolic of London’s steadfastness down the centuries and its endurance during the Second World War. When it was newly completed, in the early eighteenth century, it seemed breathtaking and unlike any other cathedral or church in Britain. Today’s building is not the first to occupy the site, for this has been a place of Christian worship for 1,400 years. The medieval Cathedral, with a tower and spire soaring above the city, was at the time one of the wonders of Europe. Beautifully illustrated with rare items from city and cathedral archives, and glorious colour photography of today’s building and its treasures, St Paul’s Cathedral: 1,400 Years at the Heart of London tells of St Paul’s fascinating history.

Red Dean of Canterbury

John Butler

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781857597363

Hardback publication date: 25 August 2017

Category:

Hardback price:

£ 16.95

"An excellent biography" – London Review of Books
"A first-class biography" – Rowan Williams
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Hewlett Johnson, the Red Dean of Canterbury Cathedral from 1931 to 1963, was one of the most complex and intriguing public figures in 20th-century Britain. Converted to communism in the 1890s, he spent more than half a century as a priest in the Church of England. At the heart of Johnson s Christian faith was his unshakeable conviction that the principles of communism were all but indistinguishable from Jesus’s teaching about the Kingdom of God on earth. For those who heard his sermons on Christianity and politics, Hewlett Johnson was either adored as a Christian visionary or hated as a mouthpiece of Soviet propaganda. There was little middle ground.Despised by the senior ranks of the Church of England, Hewlett Johnson was welcomed in high political places throughout the world. He had audiences with Stalin, Khrushchev, Molotov and Malenkov, Mao Tse-Tung and Chou En-Lai, Castro and Che Guevara. He also talked with Truman in the White House. He was tracked by MI5 for 35 years, was awarded the Soviet equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize, twice spoke to huge audiences in Madison Square Garden, and was condemned by an Archbishop of Canterbury as blind, unreasonable and stupid. He was a prolific writer and a gifted orator, had two long marriages each of nearly 30 years, and became a father for the first time at the age of 66.This biography, which draws on his unpublished personal letters and papers, neither lauds nor condemns him, but re-examines his extraordinary life and career on the 80th anniversary of his appointment as Dean of Canterbury.

Canterbury Cathedral

Jonathan Keates

Angelo Hornak

Format:

Paperback ISBN: 9781857590272

Paperback publication date:

Category: Architecture

Paperback price:

£ 9.95

Canterbury Cathedral is a major centre of Christianity and a place of pilgrimage to the shrine of one of England’s most important saints, Thomas Becket. This publication incorporates a radically new presentation of the cathedral and its history. By means of a careful interaction of text and images, the guide conveys the sense of the Cathedral as a working institution and brings to life dynamically the history of the Cathedral. This is reinforced by highlighted text and illustration spreads on historic figures associated with the Cathedral, such as The Black Prince, Chaucer and Saint Augustine.
The guide presents accessible information about the Cathedral, by means of a walking guide divided into small sections, which highlight such features as the West Door, the Nave and Crypt. The use of plans and colour coding also helps orientate the visitor easily through the Cathedral complex. Images of special events and processions, as well as architectural details, reinforce the notion of the Cathedral as a living community and evoke the essential spirit of this magnificent building.

ABOUT THE Author

Jonathan Keates is a prolific author in genres including biography, fiction, music, travel writing, critical essays and architectural and historical heritage. His books include Stendhal, Handel: The Man and His Music, Purcell: A Biography and The Siege of Venice, and he contributes regularly to a number of newspapers and journals. A former winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and teaches English at the City of London School.

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ABOUT THE Author

Angelo Hornak studied architectural history at Oxford University, then took up architectural photography, which has kept him busy for the last 35 years. He has illustrated numerous publications, including guidebooks to Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral.

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Bermuda National Gallery

An Introduction

Lisa Howie

Sophie Cressall

Format:

Hardback ISBN: 9781857598179

Hardback publication date: 4 December 2013

Category: Lifestyle & Gardening

Hardback price:

£ 25.00

Seven hundred miles at sea, Bermuda is a unique island with a complex history and a strong identity. The island’s earliest art forms are architecture and decorative arts, with topographical military drawings and portraiture arriving with itinerant artists. The swift evolution to modern expressions, catalysed by economic forces and the rise of international tourism, saw considerable artistic attention to the landscape. Only later do artists address socio-political issues in their artworks.

Published in celebration of the Museum’s 20th anniversary, this lively, beautifully illustrated volume provides an introduction to the Bermuda National Gallery which houses Bermuda’s unique national art collection. Reflecting the island’s mixed heritage of cultures including European, African, and Caribbean influence, the book reflects Bermuda’s art history and the diversity of the island’s fascinating culture.

Contents: Bermuda National Gallery: An Introduction; Director’s Note; Curator’s Note: Contextualising Bermuda and the BNG Collections; The Bermuda Collection; The African Collection; The European Collection.

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Brett Dolman

Format:

Paperback ISBN: 9781857597561

Paperback publication date: 6 March 2012

Category: Heritage

Paperback price:

£ 16.95

Charles II’s reign was a period of revolutionary experimentation: in science, art and sexual etiquette. For the first time in British history, Royal mistresses – such as Nell Gwyn – played an active, public role in court life. Women sensed new possibilities and freedoms, appearing on stage, managing their own financial, matrimonial – and extra-marital – affairs. Encouraged by a licentious King, ‘being beautiful’ could get you what you wanted.

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The American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Format:

Paperback ISBN: 9781857597424

Paperback publication date: 18 April 2012

Category: Art & Illustration

Paperback price:

£ 6.50

Published to celebrate the grand reopening of the American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this handy, beautifully illustrated book will be your personal tour guide through the galleries. Four visits planned by the museum’s curators are presented, including Architecture, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts in Visit One, Historic Interiors and Decorative Arts in Visit Two, Paintings and Sculpture in Visit Three, and the visible-storage facility in Visit Four. Each tour is presented using maps, room numbers, descriptions and useful landmarks to help orient you through the galleries, pointing out iconic highlights of American art such as Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s gilt-bronze Diana, the Frank Lloyd Wright Room, Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware, and John Singer Sargent’s Madame X along the way.Featuring more than 100 exquisite works of American art and historic interiors, this cleverly designed companion will be essential for all visitors to the wing – whether you have only an hour to spend, or time for a more in-depth exploration.

Wordsworth Grasmere

The loveliest spot that man hath ever found…

Jeff Cowton

Format:

Paperback ISBN: 9781785515675

Paperback publication date: 1 August 2024

Category: Lifestyle & Gardening

Paperback price:

£ 9.95

‘Here should be my home, this Valley be my World’ wrote the great Romantic poet William Wordsworth. This beautiful, richly illustrated guidebook reveals how Dove Cottage has been brought restored to evoke the Wordsworths’ lives over 200 years ago.

Born in 1770 in the English Lake District, William Wordsworth settled in Dove Cottage, Grasmere, with his sister Dorothy in 1799. Drawing on excerpts from the Wordsworths’ poems, journals and letters, this engaging book recreates their life at Dove Cottage. In this time of ‘plain living and high thinking’, the everyday mixed with the extraordinary. It was whilst living here, amongst the hustle and bustle of daily life, that Wordsworth wrote many of his greatest poems and his sister Dorothy kept her fascinating Grasmere journal.

ABOUT THE Author

Jeff Cowton MBE is Principal Curator and Head of Learning at Wordsworth Grasmere.

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