Date: Fri 07-May-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: CURT

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BookReviews

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AA BOOK REVIEWS: The Bullfinch Anatomy of Antique China & Silver; Clarice

Cliff & Her Contemporaries; Fans

The Bulfinch Anatomy Of Antique China & Silver , by Tim Forrest (consulting

editor Paul Atterbury); A Bulfinch Press Book, Little Brown and Company, New

York, N.Y., 1998, pp 160, $35, hardcover.

By Amy D'Orio

Warning: Picking up this book is bound to make you unhappy with your dinner

service. With more than 400 color photographs and black and white

illustrations of china and silver, it serves up the best artisans had to offer

from the 1600s to the postwar era.

With china and silver this beautiful, readers are bound to start daydreaming.

Sipping steaming hot chocolate (not of the just-add-hot-water variety) from

the blue and white German chocolate pot on page 67 is a nice place to begin.

Featuring copper-gilt mounts, a simple design of butterflies and flowers, and

the spout molded like a tree branch, it's obvious any old tea or coffee pot

would just not do.

A bowl of Cheerios in your Pfaltzcraft bowl seems a cold way to begin the day

when you could be eating poached eggs out of a Parisian silver-gilt breakfast

service shown on page 109. The covered dishes have dog-shaped handles and

revolving stand; a similar service was given to Napoleon I.

And well... don't look at page 106 if you like sweets. The 1839 silver-gilt

bonbon dish with an agate bowl resting on a kneeling winged putti standing on

an engraved base with inset semiprecious stones makes you yearn for afternoon

of sumptuous treats on a fluffy bed, not a muscle moving, except perhaps for

the occasional finger flicking the page of a magazine.

While the guide offers plenty of good, general information, its photographs

are what will draw the reader: It is just too much fun to look at gorgeous

pickle bowls and silver cheese toast dishes. It might be worth the cost of the

book for some just to get a gander at the Minton majolica centerpiece complete

with stags, garland and foxes.

The book provides 275 color photographs with close-ups on specific features

such as glazes, patterns, and rims. It is divided into nine periods: pre-1700,

1700-1750, 1750-1800, 1800-1840, 1840-1900, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, "The Mass

Market" and the postwar era, and serves as an excellent guide for novice

collectors. At the beginning of each chapter, a breakout of terms that will be

used is provided, as well as an annotated photograph to show how wares

discussed in that section were used on the table.

Tim Forrest has the necessary background to cover such a large span of time.

He is an art historian who has published The Bonhams Directory (1991-95) ; The

Which? Guide To Buying Antiques ; and The Bullfinch Anatomy of Antique

Furniture . Paul Atterbury is also a veteran author and editor who has put out

Pottery of William and Walter Moorcroft and The Dictionary of Minton , and was

the consulting editor of the Bullfinch Anatomy of Antique Furniture .

Clarice Cliff & Her Contemporaries: Susie Cooper, Keith Murray, Charlotte

Rhead, and the Carlton Designers , by Helen C. Cunningham; Schiffer Publishing

Ltd, 4880 Lower Valley Road, Atglen, Pa., 19310, 1999, pp 192, hardcover.

By Amy D'Orio

Bold and creative, Clarice Cliff's works and those of her peers certainly can

fill a book, and they have. This latest guide zooms in on a few choice

artisans but also offers a wide angle look on how their style related and fit

into the one of great innovative periods of art.

As Cunningham writes, "This book is intended as an introduction to several

noteworthy pottery designers and manufacturers whose work establishes the

parameters for twentieth-century pottery, beginning with the late 1920s."

The author acknowledges there are books already on the market that cover the

subject of Art Deco pottery and these particular artisans. She explains in the

preface, "I do not intend for this book to compete with those already in

print, but rather to complement them."

She said she "attacked" the subject from an artistic angle, "hoping to give

the reader insight into why designers such as Clarice Cliff, Susie Cooper,

Keith Murray, Charlotte Rhead and those at Carlton have had a resurgence in

popularity."

She also provides art history relating to the period, discussing everything

from the Industrial Age explosion of mass manufacturing and the influence of

the Japanese, to Dadaism, Impressionism, Art Deco and Art Nouveau periods,

Expressionism, Cubism and even Futurism.

There is a chapter on each of the artists mentioned above providing a

biography, as well as information on design, forgeries and specialties. A

price guide is included and the book also offers color photographs. In fact,

the book provides extensive visual aide, with more than 420 color photographs

to help the reader.

As Ms Cunningham notes in her preface, the photographs and texts work in

tandem to explore artistic achievements. Clarice Cliff, she writes, "wanted

her designs to have visible brushstrokes, so it is essential that the reader

be provided with detailed photos to understand the intricate patterns."

With its large print (including the captions for photographs), Schiffer has

produced an easy-to-read guide good for the novice collector as well as the

dealer seeking a book to aid in sales.

Fans , by Alexander F. Tcherviakov; Parkstone Press, Bournemouth, England,

1998, pp 216, 250 color illustrations, 20 black and white, $55 hardcover.

By Amy D'Orio

The era of the elegant lady's fan has passed -- pepper spray is more popular.

So in order to see the truly remarkable examples of this craft, one must now

go to a museum, perhaps the Ostankino Palace Museum near Moscow, reputed to

have one of the most important collection of fans in the world.

Well, if a trip to the palace is not possible, perhaps this book will do.

Fans is the first in a series of publications dedicated to museum collections

concentrated today in the former palaces of the Moscow region. The Ostankino

Palace Museum has some 200 Russian and European fans, a collection that has

grown quickly from only eight examples in 1956.

Most of the fans in the collection date from the second half of the Eighteenth

Century, when the art of making fans reached its pinnacle.

This book by Tcherviakov, an art historian at the museum, uses 250 color

illustrations, detailed captions, and an introductory essay by Karl Lagerfeld

to highlight the beauty of this fashion accessory and its interesting history.

Dating back at least to the Tenth Century BC in China, the fan was used in

many different cultures throughout the world and has been a "fly chaser" as

well as the Eighteenth Century woman's instrument of secret code.

While there are many amusing tidbits in this book, there is a serious,

scholarly goal behind the publication.

"Unfortunately, until now, the collections of fans that are in the possession

of museums, among which one often finds veritable masterpieces, have not been

the object of any detailed study. They have not been recognized for their true

value and their place in the national culture has not been defined,"

Tcherviakov writes.

Due to a lack of information and interest, mis information has abounded, he

says, and notes that the book is meant to provide "the essentials of the

collection, a first attempt, following the example of the collection

Ostankino, to present the history of fans in Russia from the 18th century to

the beginning of the 20th century."