No comments about Intaglio Printmaking (Printmaking Handbooks).

5 comments about Complete Encyclopedia Of Illustration.

1. This book contains a seemingly endless supply of exactly what you need when you are looking for detailed visual reference, drawn, displayed and categorized in that compulsive Victorian manner. A very handy book to have.



2. A quality sample of a thousand, or so, engraved pictures. With computer graphics, many facets of this art will become lost, because this book represents the best reproductions of tedious, labor-intensive 'photography' in the era before film photography and computer imagery. All of the illustrations here probably started out as simple sketches that were turned over to a plate engraver for inclusion in a magazine or book, many in reference books for engineers and scientists, in order that the reader could follow along with the author's 'pictorial' narrative. Were it not for the meticulous detail and precision of the enscriber, many accounts of historical value would be forever lost as many of the drawings in the book depict machinery, architecture, archaeological wonders and detail that are no longer used, made, or found in existence or in the Modern World. Simply put, this is a phenomenal Book!



3. This book offers large old engravings, with exquisite detail. That's nice if it's what you're after. You'll have page after page of scenes from old books: battles, gods, animals, stories, and more.

   But most of the engravings are large, detailed, and highly specific. And most are quite strange, as if awkwardly removed from their original places. Plus, they are somewhat limited to the 18th and 19th centuries.

   For my purposes--clip art--this book didn't really help very much. I did wind up finding one illustration for my wedding invitation, but not much more. For those interested in a much wider array of illustrations, and those who wish to use illustration for clip art, I would instead recommend _The Clip Art Book_ by Gerard Quinn. In the latter book you'll find machines, animals, people, letters, and more. All done in a great variety of styles. Even those who aren't interested in "clip art" will find Quinn's book to be a more encyclopedic array of illustration. It's the diversely illustrated book which this "encyclopedia" fails to be.




4. This is not a complete clip-art book. It is not a composite out of many sources, even in the 19th C, with different styles.
   
   This is the complete collection of b&w engraved plates from a single German encyclopedia, 1851, but only the plates and their captions. Subject areas include mathematics & astronomy (sky charts); physics & meteorology; chemistry, minerology & geology; botany; zoology; anthropology & surgery (anatomical); geography & planology (maps of continents, countries, and select cities); history & ethnology; military science; naval science; architecture (w/plans of famous buildings); mythology & religious rites (as understood in 1851); the fine arts; & technology.
   
   So illustrations range from complex pulleys and horse skulls to knights in battle and how they built the Thames Tunnel. "Alphabets of Various Languages for the Use of Engravers" includes even samples of cuneiform. Two plates are on theatre architecture. Among the least satisfying may be the engravings of famous works of art for the Fine Arts section.
   
   At nearly 600 pages, landscape, the book is difficult to manage on a scanner. I just use a sharp craft blade and cut out close to the binding the pages I need to scan. Then I stick them back in the space. Bit by bit, they are becoming what the originals were, a portfolio of loose pieces. The maps went first: scanned at 400 dpi, they became readable on screen, where the print on the page was too small. I suspect the original plates were larger and were shrunk when photographed for reproduction.



5. This book is the Bible for anyone looking for a large collection and variety of quality engravings. I use this thing constantly and wouldn't mind seeing a vol. 2. seriously.
   
   FOR ARTISTS: To make this book more compatible with a scanner go to Kinko's and have them cut the spine off. Then have them 3-hole drill it. Then put the whole thing in a large 3-ring binder. Now each page can be easily removed and placed on a scanner.
   
   Seriously. How about a vol. 2?

No comments about A Guide Book of United States Type Coins (The Official Red Book).

2 comments about The Great Book of Currier and Ives' America (Tiny Folios).

1. This is apparently a condensation of and paperback release of a book published by the same author and press in 1979. The original is one of the most mind-boggling and gorgeous books ever published in the United States of America. I'm not overstating the case.

   A limited edition of 1500 hand numbered volumes were published in mission leather by Abbeville Press with gold stenciling on the huge spine and a four color lithograph embossed on the high quality leather cover! Wow! At what seems like 8 or 9 pounds it's enormous. The paper quality and print reproduction are of the highest order. And the large number of lithos, especially in color, make this a must have for anyone interested in lithography. The Peters collection, from which this was drawn (with assistance from the Museum of New York), is the finest collection of Currier and Ives in the world.

   The insights are excellent and provide interesting background on some of Curriers artists and competitors. Currier's work itself gives a terrific peek at 19th century America... The vast majority of the leather edition must be in archival collections by now.




2. I purchased this book for a Christmas present but didn't realize how small it was. My wife has a full size book and I thought it was closer to that size. It is great though for what it is and has the most pictures available by Currier and Ives. It is my fault though that it wasn't what I expected. I didn't pay attention to "Tiny Folios". The recipient liked it though even if it was a little small. I recommend it to true fans of Currier and Ives and art lovers.

1 comments about Color Woodcut International: Japan, Britain, and America in the Early Twentieth Century (Chazen Museum of Art Catalogs).

1. In his seminal 1915 work, "Chats on Japanese Prints", Arthur Davison Ficke lists five periods of development in Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints starting from roughly 1500 and ending at approximately 1850, just before the arrival of the Peary expedition in 1850. He then proclaims the end of the tradition of the classical Japanese woodblock print. This volume essentally corrects Mr. Ficke and tells the fascinating story of the Japanese woodblock after it left its homeland. It can very much be described as a sequel to Mr. Ficke's work, but it is better seen as a major advance in art history on its own merits.
   
   In December of 2006, the Chazen Art Museum of the University of Madison-Wisconsin held an exhibition of the Van Vleck print collection. This collection documents the renaissance of woodblock printmaking in the West around the turn of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This volume is the print guide to that showing and most of the works contained are from the Van Vleck collection. There are also important essays on this period by renowned art authorities.
   
   Following the Peary expedition, there was an outpouring of trade and information exchange between Japan and the West. This allowed Western artists and collectors to see and study Japanese artforms and creative techniques for the first time. The result was an explosion of interest in and influence by Japanese art on the West. The resulting cross-currents of influences on the Japanese print from English-speaking, Continental and indigenous sources resulted in an International Style of color print that was a tremendous influence on the art and aesthetics of the twentieth century that continues into the twenty-first.
   
   In common with Japan, traditional woodblock printing in the late nineteenth century was on the wane, ill-suited as it was to modern print technology. It was William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement he helped found that revived woodblock printing as a means of creative expression. Perhaps the greatest English woodblock printer is Frank Morley Fletcher, whose synthesis of Japanese influence and the traditional English landscape can be best seen in such prints as his "Mt. Shasta, California". Among the other fascinating artist personalities profiled in Nancy Green's essay is that of Mokuchu Urushibahara, who was trained in printmaking in Japan, emigrated to Great Britain and subsequently trained British artists, becoming an important link in the cultural interchange between East and West as well as an accomplished artist in his own right.
   
   In America, the American Arts and Crafts movement was largely led by Arthur Wesley Dow. Here, the traditional woodblock met American innovation in the Provincetown or white line print that revolutionized modern art printing. Andrew Stevens' essay reflects on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the American print, introducing us to such topics as the Provincetown artists' colony in Massachusetts and the Printmakers' Society of Los Angeles (later the Print Makers Society of California).
   
   The massive reception of Japanese prints and print-making rebounded back to its country of origin in the form of the soseku hanga (art print) and shin hanga (new print) styles that tried to re-introduce the print. Many of the artists cited are obscure and hopefully more attention will be given to them in future. Kendall H. Brown's essay tells the fascinating story of these movements and their efforts to gain recognition both in their homeland and abroad.
   
   Among the British artists whose works are presented are Frank Morley Fletcher, Ethel Kirkpatrick and William Nicholson. American artists include Arthur Wesley Dow, Bertha Lum and Frances Gearhart. Japanese artists include Yoshida Hiroshi who later immigrated to the USA and Tsuguharu Foujita who later was a prominent part of the Paris art scene in the '20's.
   
   Finally, attention is also paid to Continental, particularly French, artists such as Henri Riviere, Gustave Baumann and Paul Jacoulet.
   
   For those persistent students of art who aren't satisfied with textbook descriptions of 'Japanese influences on modern art', who would rather see, touch and feel the passion, the personalities and the hard work that made these trends possible, then this volume is a worthwhile investment. No doubt, the modern viewer and reader will also be taken aback by how views on inter-cultural relationships expressed today echo those of a century ago.

2 comments about Matchibako: Japanese Matchbox Art Of The 20s & 30s.

1. This tiny little book is a perfect gift for any Japanophile or matchbox collector. Built like an accordian, its pages exhibit gorgeous Japanese matchbox covers from the 20's and 30's, images like I've never seen before, accompanied by explanations chronicalling why the covers are so unique: they were manufactured during a time when Japan was transforming from traditonal to modern, from culturally-singular to Western-influenced. One panel, for example, shows a Japanese girl depicted in a strikingly untraditional manner, not simply because of the flapper haircut she sports or the cigarette hanging from her mouth, but because of the decidedly cubism-influenced illustration style.



2. The most commonplace items of the past occasionally become treasured collectibles today. But miniature advertising graphics that adorned Japanese matchboxes were more striking (forgive the pun) than common as one discovers in this delightful introduction to Matchibako by Maggie Kinser Hohle.
   
   The matchbox labels depicted in forty-two full-color plates are from the collection of designer Naomichi Kawahata. The collection itself spans the 1920s and 30s and provides snapshots of a country in transition and internal turmoil, both embracing and decrying modernist influence of industrialist nations.
   
   Above all, the images in this micro gallery had one intent, to advertise anything from sox to sex. These palm held billboards enticed the holder with promises of "modern" life, euro-hairstyles, jazz cafés with sexy moga (modern girls) or pitched the entaku (yen-taxi) delivering fares anywhere in Tokyo for only one yen.
   
   It is said that "good things come in small packages" as does this superb gallery of 42 plates, with one matchbox label to a page, perfectly frames the near-actual sized labels so that each reproduction appear larger than life.
   
   Another highly unique aspect of Matchibako is the accordion page format, which if you were to unfold would stretch over fourteen feet from cover to cover. Hohle's 4.75 x 4.75 inch art book was not meant for the bookshelf, but to be left in plain view to entice closer inspection in the same way the original matchbox labels delivered their messages over seventy years ago.

3 comments about Hands: A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth-Century Sources (Dover Pictorial Archive Series).

1. An excellent sourcebook for illustrations of hands. Hands doing anything and everything. Keep in mind when the title says 19th century, it literally means 1800-1899, so there will be no modern subjects in the illustrations. No phones, computers, remote controls, etc., but there are hundreds of hands performing 19th century tasks. Also included are prosthetics, a sign language alphabet, palmistry illustrations, medical illustrations and even hands performing shadow puppets. All in all you get a lot of drawings of hands. I found this book better than most clip art books in the fact that the style of the illustrations varies more. There are pen and ink using crosshatching technique and solid, bold line art, so the feel of the illustrations varies more and you are more likely to find what you are looking for. Great Book.



2. This book must have taken a while to research as it has the most wonderful illustrations of hands. Being an artist I really appreciate this book. The illustrations are perfect for photo- copying and can be used for photo transfer.



3. I love these pictures for use in all types of collage work. The "hands" come in a variety of sizes, shapes and actions.

1 comments about Edna Boies Hopkins: Strong in Character, Colorful in Expression.

1. Edna Boies Hopkins was a part of the art colony in Provincetown, Massachusetts during the early part of the 20th Century. After traveling in Europe and Asia she was part of the group experimenting with innovations in woodblock printing, in her case, with stunning results. This books brings to life her work, done in many parts of the United States and adds mightily to the biographical information available which had not been examined in depth until now. Mr. Vasseur is to be commended for his superlative effort.
   
   Stephen Borkowski, Chairman, Provincetown Art Commission

5 comments about Photo Transfer Handbook: Snap it, Print it, Stitch it!.

1. This is a wonderful book for anyone who has ever wanted to transfer a photo. The book is in full-color with many photos. Clear step-by-step instructions are included for both the transfer process & projects.

   Instructions for both creating & applying a transfer using either a laser copier or computer printer are covered. Tips on choosing images, troubleshooting, adding & removing color are also included.

   Next, there are inspirational galleries of beautiful family quilts, studio quilts, & creative clothing. Captions below each piece describe the creation process. One of my favorites is a Tuscany castle scene.

   A few projects follow, including a photo pillow & three quilts. There is also a great resource list that includes many places to buy the transfer paper, as well as mail order photo transfer & film services.




2. I purchased this book in the hope that I would discover a new way of transferring computer-generated line drawings or pictures to cloth in order to then embroider the images. I had experimented with two types of computer transfer papers and found them totally unsatisfactory for my needs. Stitching on rubberized fabric is not my idea of fine art. This book simply offered previously unimaginable things I could do with this type of unsatisfactorily transferred image ... something even worse than T-shirts. I think the rag dolls with photographs of people's faces said it all. Yuck! If I could have given it 0 stars, I would have!



3. I purchased this book in the hope of discovering a new way of transferring computer-generated line drawings or pictures onto cloth in order to then embroider the images. I had experimented with two types of computer transfer papers and found them totally unsatisfactory for my needs (stitching on rubberized fabric is not my idea of fine art). This book was simply filled with crafty ideas about what could be done with these unsatisfactorily transferred images ... something even worse than T-shirts. I think the rag dolls with photographs of people's faces said it all.



4. I found this book was not as advertised. I expected a variety of methods and products. Perhaps this is all that was available in 1999. There are a great number of products and techniques currently available that are not mentioned in this supposed "handbook" It containes the same info transfer paper packages contain, a gallery of projects and some bad quilting advice. I was very disappointed.



5. In that this was written in 1999, and this is now 2003 - this
   book IS well written for anyone that wants to attempt photo
   transfer. I've done considerable research on this, read far too
   many articles with conflicting information on the process, attempted too many techniques with poor results.
   This is exactly as intended - a handbook, it compares the various techniques with results.
   Many resources now have websites and there are more products on the market. The biggest hurdle between 1999 and 2003 is the digital camera and the advancement of computers and printers. So with today's technology and computer saavy, photo transfer can easily be done and this book is a useful tool for reference and guidelines.

2 comments about Full-Color Victorian Vignettes and Illustrations for Artists and Craftsmen: 344 Antique Chromolithographs, Printed One Side Only (Dover Pictorial Archive Series).

1. These quaint old victorian vignettes in bright colors are perfect for collages and scrap books. Victorian era lovers, this is for you!



2. This is one of the best books by Ms Grafton. The images are colorful, sharp, and clear. Ms Grafton provides authentic advertisements from the turn-of-the-century, as well as furniture, cars, luggage, and cigar ads. Many of the graphics are old photographs. This decoupage book is simply beautiful and very useful, also containing the old stand-bys such as holidays,butterflies and flowers. Highly recommended!