18th Century English Furniture - The Norman Adams Collection

1 lingua: inglese Legat. edit. in tela con sovrac. illustrata, cm 28x22, pag. 489, con 475 illustraz. in b / n e circa 50 tavole a colori - a cura di Christopher Claxton Stevens e Stewart Whittington - Revised edition - Monografia illustrata sul mobile inglese del Settecento - Monographie illustrée sur le mobilier anglais du 18e siècle. Cet ouvrage est réalisé à partir de la Collection Norman Adams (mort en 1979) - The pieces in this book have passed through the hands of one of Britain's leading furniture dealers, Norman Adams, during their first sixty years in business. But it is far from being just a series of fine photographs for it concentrates principally on the British mahogany furniture of the eighteenth century, a period when British design and craftsmanship reached its pinnacle, a fact amply verified by the sustained demand for these fine pieces. Yet it is a period which curiously enough has, apart from some specialist work, been largely neglected by serious writers on the subject for many years. The illustration of so many fine pieces, as well as unusual items, superbly photographed, would in itself have earned this book a place on the shelves of anyone seriously interested in the subject. But there is an added bonus. A firm like Norman Adams prospers by the skill of the selection in buying - a 'good eye' - and it is this essential facility, succinctly expressed in the captions to the pieces in this book, which will ensure its lasting reputation as an important work of reference.