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| to select author names starting with A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z back to page 1 of full catalog (starting with NO authornames) | This selection contains 404 title(s) on 17 pages. This is page 1 with nrs. 1 to 25 |
| Abrams Art Book 17 Volume Set: Rembrandt; Renoir; Van Gogh; the Late Works of Van Gogh; Bruegel; Utrillo; Gauguin; Manet; El Greco; Goya; Michelangelo: The Last Judgment; Picasso: Cubism to the Present; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Great Landscape Harry N. Abrams, 1957. Large Softcover. Good. Some volumes have water exposure along the base. Prints and pages in nice condition. 17 volume collection of color fine art prints, 16 prints per volume. USD 107.95 [Appr.: EURO 72.25 | £UK 65 | JP 9527] Book number: 1503180 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| Archer Semiconductor Reference Guide Radio Shack, 1991. Trade Paperback. Good. Heavy fading on front cover, small ink markings, pages heavily toned. "This is a reference handbook -- a compilation of data on Radio Shack's line of Archer semiconductors with known JEDEC, EIA, or manufacturer's numbers. This listing includes a cross-referenced listing for replacement of Transistors, Diodes and other interchangeable semiconductor devices.". USD 4.70 [Appr.: EURO 3.25 | £UK 3 | JP 415] Book number: 1510175 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| I Can Draw Dinosaurs Walter Foster Publishing, Inc. 2001. Large Softcover. Ill.: Daily, Renee; Salzman, Yuri. Good. "Aimed at children aged six and upwards, this book uses the grid-art method to teach children to draw, by copying the lines in each square. Easy-to-follow instructions combined with step-by-step illustrations explain how to draw the dinosaurs featured. Grid paper is provided.". USD 2.65 [Appr.: EURO 2 | £UK 1.75 | JP 234] Book number: 1503627 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| Christmas with Martha Stewart Living Clarkson Potter, 1997. Large Softcover. Good. Front cover corner lightly creased. 144 pages. Color photographs. "A holiday grab bag of party recipes, entertaining ideas, table settings, decorations, gifts, and wrappings, complemented by step-by-step instructions and how-to color photographs, includes a Christmas calendar for planning ahead.". USD 4.45 [Appr.: EURO 3 | £UK 2.75 | JP 393] Book number: 1506224 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| The Exhibition of Archeological Finds of the People's Republic of China The Organization Committee of the Exhibition of Archeological Finds of the People's Republic of China, 1974. Soft Cover. Very Good. Bright copy with corner edge wear. 69 pp. This catalog contains several color plates of various archeological finds in China, plus 64 pages of explanatory text & a diagram of the various dynasties. USD 3.45 [Appr.: EURO 2.5 | £UK 2.25 | JP 304] Book number: 1515193 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| Heartwarming Plastic Canvas The Needlecraft Shop, LLC, 1996. Large Hardcover. Like New/No Jacket - Pictorial Cover. Minimal shelf wear. Binding tight, pages clean & bright. 160 pages. Color illustrations throughout text. "Plastic canvas is a craft material of lightweight plastic with regularly spaced holes in imitation of embroidery canvas. It is also commonly known as vinyl weave. Plastic canvas is typically used as a foundation for needlepoint or other canvas work embroidery, usually in acrylic or wool knitting yarn. Due to its rigidity, it is useful for creating 3-dimensional objects such as tissue box covers, small jewelry boxes, handbags, and other decorative objects. Plastic canvas is manufactured in many colors and with various size holes for different thicknesses of yarn. As with textile canvas, these are described in count – that is, 10-count plastic canvas has 10 holes per linear inch. Typical sizes are 7-, 10-, and 14 count. It is most readily available in A4 size sheets but pre-made shapes such as circles, triangles as well as novelty shapes (e.g. dinosaur, bird, cross) are also available. Plastic canvas is also employed in teaching needlepoint and cross stitch to children, since its rigid structure does not require the use of a hoop or frame." -- Wikipedia. USD 4.45 [Appr.: EURO 3 | £UK 2.75 | JP 393] Book number: 1503542 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| How to Do Christmas Florals If You Think You Can't Leisure Arts, Inc. 1997. Large Hardcover. Like New/No Jacket - Pictorial Cover. An excellent copy - binding tight, pages clean, bright, unmarked. 144 pages. Color illustrations throughout text. USD 4.45 [Appr.: EURO 3 | £UK 2.75 | JP 393] Book number: 1503594 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| Masterpieces in Colour 10 Volume Set: Rembrandt; Carlo Dolci; Tintoretto; Perugino; Constable; Rossetti; Luini; Bellini; Hogarth; Millet T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1907. Hard Cover. Good. USD 13.45 [Appr.: EURO 9 | £UK 8.25 | JP 1187] Book number: 1502203 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| The Photography of Colored Objects Eastman Kodak Company, 1935. Thirteenth Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. No dust jacket, very good bright copy with extremely light corner edge wear, pages clean & binding tight, gilt lettering on front boards & spine. 127 pp. Early Eastman Kodak publication. "George Eastman (July 12, 1854 – March 14, 1932) founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream. Roll film was also the basis for the invention of motion picture film in 1888 by the world's first filmmaker and precedent inventor to the digital camera, Louis Le Prince, and a decade later by his followers Léon Bouly, Thomas Edison, the Lumière Brothers and Georges Méliès." - Wikipedia. USD 8.95 [Appr.: EURO 6 | £UK 5.5 | JP 790] Book number: 1515883 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| Wratten Light Filters Eastman Kodak Company, 1936. Fourteenth Edition. Soft Cover. Good. Good copy with some corner edge wear, pages clean, binding tight. 93 pp. Early Eastman Kodak publication. "Wratten numbers are a labeling system for optical filters, usually for photographic use. They are named for the man who founded the first company, Frederick Wratten, a British inventor. Wratten and partner C. E. K. Mees sold their company to Eastman Kodak in 1912, and Kodak continued to produce Wratten filters for decades. Even now, as of 2006, Wratten filters are still produced by Kodak, and sold under license through the Tiffen corporation." - Wikipedia. USD 7.45 [Appr.: EURO 5 | £UK 4.5 | JP 658] Book number: 1515885 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| ADAMS, BEN Q.; NEWLIN, RICHARD; GORMAN, R.C. [RUDOLPH CARL]; REDHOUSE, JOHN (FOREWORD); STEEN, NANCY (CATALOGUE RAISONNE); TOHE, ROBERT & HAZEL (COMMENTARY) R.C. Gorman: The Graphic Works -- Signed Taos Editions, Ltd. / Western Graphics Workshop, Inc. / Houston Fine Art Press, 1987. Large Hardcover. Ill.: Gorman, R.C. Very Good/Very Good. SIGNED BY GORMAN in black Sharpie on half-title page. Very good in very good dust jacket. Jacket edge wear, but looks nice under fresh mylar. Binding tight, interior clean & unmarked. 254 pages. 14 3/4" x 11 1/2". Color reproductions of Gorman's works throughout, with two fold-outs near center. "Rudolph Carl Gorman (July 26, 1931 - November 3, 2005), born to Carl Nelson Gorman and Adelle Katherine Brown, was a Native American artist of the Navajo nation. Referred to as "the Picasso of American art" by the New York Times, his paintings are primarily of Native American women and characterized by fluid forms and vibrant colors, though he also worked in sculpture, ceramics, and stone lithography. He was also an avid lover of cuisine, authoring four cookbooks, (with accompanying drawings) called Nudes and Food." -- Wikipedia. USD 208.95 [Appr.: EURO 139.5 | £UK 125.75 | JP 18441] Book number: 1510754 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| ADAMS, WILLIAM HOWARD Jefferson's Monticello Abbeville Press, New York, 1983. Large Softcover. Ill.: Clay, Langdon (photographs). Very Good. Sticker on back cover, shallow 2" razor cut on front cover. x, 276 pages. "An architectural study of Thomas Jefferson's house, exploring in detail its design and construction.". USD 10.75 [Appr.: EURO 7.25 | £UK 6.5 | JP 949] Book number: 1503228 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| ALDRED, CYRIL New Kingdom Art in Ancient Egypt During the Eighteenth Dynasty: 1570 to 1320 B.C. Alec Tiranti, 1961. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. Bright copy with minor corner edge bump in a lightly edge worn dust jacket. 93 pp. with 175 photos following text. "The Eighteenth Dynasty (1550-1292 BC) is perhaps the best known of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt. As well as boasting a number of Egypt's most powerful pharaohs, it included Tutankhamun, the finding of whose tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 was a sensational archaeological discovery despite its having been twice disturbed by tomb robbers. The dynasty is sometimes known as the 'Thutmosid Dynasty' because four of the pharaohs had the name Thutmosis, which means "(The God) Thoth (Appears as a) Child." Hatshepsut and perhaps two others of a handful of native women known to be crowned king of Egypt, ruled during this dynasty, as did Akhenaten (also known as Amenhotep IV), the "heretic Pharaoh" who with his wife, Nefertiti, instituted what many identify as the first recorded monotheistic state religion." - Wikipedia. USD 8.95 [Appr.: EURO 6 | £UK 5.5 | JP 790] Book number: 1514598 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| ALEXANDER, EUGENIE Fabric Pictures Mills & Boon Limited, 1967. Hard Cover. Good/Good. Pages unmarked but lightly toned, spotting on end page, dust jacket is toned along edges, binding beginning to loosen. "Fabric Pictures, as their name indicates, are pictures made of pieces of fabric which are attached to each other and to a mount, by needle-work or adhesives or a mixture of both. The art is an age-old one, and has recently had a marked increase in popularity; perhaps because many of us never quite lose our love of playing about brightly coloured scraps, perhaps because of the scope it gives to the woman who has a good sense to colour, texture and design but who does not draw or paint with confidence.". USD 6.95 [Appr.: EURO 4.75 | £UK 4.25 | JP 613] Book number: 1512112 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| ALLANE, LEE Oriental Rugs: A Buyer's Guide Thames and Hudson, 1990. Trade Paperback. Very Good. Minimal shelf wear. "Most of the oriental rugs bought worldwide have been made recently; yet most of the information available is on antique rugs. Here is the only comprehensive guide to modern rugs that gives all the help a buyer needs to find the right rug at the right price. 80 illustrations, 40 in color.". USD 3.51 [Appr.: EURO 2.5 | £UK 2.25 | JP 310] Book number: 1510708 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| ALLEN, SAM Making Workbenches: Planning, Building, Outfitting Sterling, 1995. Trade Paperback. Very Good. Heavily creased near spine edge, cover edge wear, some shelf wear. oeExplore the common materials used to make workben-ches, [find] basic construction methods, and traditional bench designs, including a joiner's bench and a classic Scandinavian-style cabinetmaker's bench. A useful primer.”—Woodshop News. oeA a very fine reference source..A wide variety of design options..valuable.”—Fine Tool Journal. USD 6.13 [Appr.: EURO 4.25 | £UK 3.75 | JP 541] Book number: 1510328 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| ALLEN, WARREN DWIGHT Philosophies of Music History Dover Publications, 1962. Trade Paperback. Good. Pages lightly toned, top page edge of cover stained, moderate shelf wear. "This is the only thorough survey of the entire field of historical research in music, and is unquestionably one of the most significant documents that have yet appeard in musicology. Professor Allen's work has played an important part in the writing of music history; it has had a marked effect on the formulation and establishment of foundational philosophy and methodology of the science of musicology in America; and it has had a salutary effect on the teaching of music history in schools and colleges.". USD 6.45 [Appr.: EURO 4.5 | £UK 4 | JP 569] Book number: 1511439 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| AMBUTER, CAROLYN The Open Canvas: An Instructional Encyclopedia of Openwork Techniques Workman Publishing, 1982. Large Hardcover. Ill.: Russell, Patti Baker - illustrations / Darvin, Jerry - photographs. Very Good/Good. Nice copy with slight shelf wear. inked name & address on front end page. some foxing to page edges. 267 pp. Comprehensive instructional book illustrated with copious diagrams, drawings & photographs. some different needlepoints include: pulled canvas, needleweaving, hemstitching, filet, hardanger, reticello & hedebo, etc. USD 14.95 [Appr.: EURO 10 | £UK 9 | JP 1319] Book number: 1512605 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| ROADSIDE AMERICA Roadside America: Shartlesville, Pa Roadside America. Soft Cover. Very Good. Stapled binding. Sticker remnant on front cover, otherwise in nice condition. Binding tight, pages clean. "Roadside America is a boyhood dream realized. The idea was born in June of 1903 and has, from day to day and almost without interruption, grown to be the largest and most beautiful indoor miniature village of its type. It is housed in a new, modern, comfortable air conditioned building, deisgned especially for the display, and covers over 8000 square feet of space. There is an unusually large free parking lot, and gift shop featuring the products of this celebrated Pennsylvania Dutch country. Noted for its historic surroundings, this entire area is a natural beauty spot outdoors, and Roadside America continues these beauties with man-made creations of a half-century of tireless productive labor. The customs of our forefathers and the trends of architecture from the most primitive American to present day are accurately depicted in this mammoth display, built so strong that each of the miniature structures can bear the weight of a man, yet nothing has been sacrificed in detail, no matter how minute. None of the miniatures has been built from expensive materials, yet arduous workmanship over the years has produced an incomparable display which is truly the marvel of craftsmanship, research and study. Newspapers and magazines the world over have given their unanimous verdict and now people from all over the nation come to see this fantastic, educations and appealing display, which has been called a museum both historical and religious. There is nothing lie it in all the country and it is truly, in its new setting, well worth your visit - a boyhood dream realized.". USD 4.70 [Appr.: EURO 3.25 | £UK 3 | JP 415] Book number: 1508376 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| AMES, LEE J. Draw 50 Horses Doubleday, 1984. Large Softcover. Good. Pages lightly toned, corner of front cover folded, general shelf wear. "Step-by-step instructions for drawing different breeds of horses in a variety of poses. ". USD 3.75 [Appr.: EURO 2.75 | £UK 2.5 | JP 331] Book number: 1510319 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| AMES, LEE J. Draw 50 Buildings and Other Structures Double Day, 1980. Large Softcover. Good. Pages slightly toned, moderate shelf wear. "From the Eiffel Tower to the Taj Mahal -- 50 man-made and natural structures from around the world are drawn here.". USD 3.75 [Appr.: EURO 2.75 | £UK 2.5 | JP 331] Book number: 1510320 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| AMORY, MARTHA BABCOCK The Domestic and Artistic Life of John Singleton Copley, with Notices of His Works, and Reminiscences of His Son, Lord Lyndhurst, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (Library of American Art) Kennedy Galleries, Inc. / Da Capo Press, 1969. Hard Cover. Good/No Jacket. 2" chip from top spine edge, shallow razor cut down front cover, otherwise looks well cared for. Binding tight, pages clean & bright. Frontispiece of author after a portrait by himself. "John Singleton Copley (1738 - 1815) was an American painter, born presumably in Boston, Massachusetts and a son of Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Irish. He is famous for his portrait paintings of important figures in colonial New England, depicting in particular middle-class subjects. His paintings were innovative in their tendency to depict artifacts relating to these individuals' lives. Copley was fourteen or so and his step-father had recently died, when he made the earliest of his portraits now preserved, a likeness of his half-brother Charles Pelham, good in color and characterization though it has in its background accessories which are somewhat out of drawing. It is a remarkable work to have come from so young a hand. The artist was only fifteen when (it is believed) he painted the portrait of the Rev. William Welsteed, minister of the Brick Church in Long Lane, a work which, following Peter Pelham's practise, Copley personally engraved to get the benefit from the sale of prints. No other engraving has been attributed to Copley. A self-portrait, undated, depicting a boy of about seventeen in broken straw hat, and a painting of Mars, Venus and Vulcan, signed and dated 1754, disclose crudities of execution which do not obscure the decorative intent and documentary value of the works. Such painting would obviously advertise itself anywhere. Without going after business, for his letters do not indicate that he was ever aggressive or pushy, Copley was started as a professional portrait-painter long before he was of age. In October 1757, Capt. Thomas Ainslie, collector of the port of Quebec, acknowledged from Halifax the receipt of his portrait, which 'gives me great Satisfaction', and advised the artist to visit Nova Scotia 'where there are several people who would be glad to employ You.' This request to paint in Canada was later repeated from Quebec, Copley replying: 'I should receive a singular pleasure in excepting, if my Business was anyways slack, but it is so far otherwise that I have a large Room full of Pictures unfinished, which would ingage me these twelve months if I did not begin any others.' Besides painting portraits in oil, doubtless after a formula learned from Peter Pelham, Copley was a pioneer American pastellist. He wrote, on September 30, 1762, to the Swiss painter Jean-Étienne Liotard, asking him for 'a sett of the best Swiss Crayons for drawing of Portraits.' The young American anticipated Liotard's surprise 'that so remote a corner of the Globe as New England should have any demand for the necessary eutensils for practiceing the fine Arts' by assuring him that 'America which has been the seat of war and desolation, I would fain hope will one Day become the School of fine Arts.' The requested pastels were duly received and used by Copley in making many portraits in a medium suited to his talent. By this time he had begun to demonstrate his genius for rendering surface textures and capturing emotional immediacy. Copley's fame was established in England by the exhibition, in 1766, of The Boy with the Squirrel, which depicted his half-brother, Henry Pelham, seated at a table and playing with a pet squirrel. This picture, which made the young Boston painter a Fellow of the Society of Artists of Great Britain, by vote of September 3, 1766, had been painted the preceding year. Copley's letter of September 3, 1765, to Capt. R. G. Bruce, of the John and Sukey, reveals that it was taken to England as a personal favor in the luggage of Roger Hale, surveyor of the port of London. An anecdote relates that the painting, unaccompanied by name or letter of instructions, was delivered to Benjamin West (whom Mrs. Amory describes as then 'a member of the Royal Academy,' though the Academy was not yet in existence). West is said to have 'exclaimed with a warmth and enthusiasm of which those who knew him best could scarcely believe him capable, 'What delicious coloring worthy of Titian himself!'' The American squirrel, it is said, disclosed the colonial origin of the picture to the Pennsylvania-born Quaker artist. A letter from Copley was subsequently delivered to him. West got the canvas into the Exhibition of the year and wrote, on August 4, 1766, a letter to Copley in which he referred to Sir Joshua Reynolds's interest in the work and advised the artist to follow his example by making 'a viset to Europe for this porpase (of self-improvement) for three or four years.' West's subsequent letters were considerably responsible for making Copley discontented with his situation and prospects in a colonial town. Copley in his letters to West of October 13 and November 12, 1766 gleefully accepted the invitation to send other pictures to the Exhibition and mournfully referred to himself as 'peculiarly unlucky in Liveing in a place into which there has not been one portrait brought that is worthy to be call'd a Picture within my memory.' In a later letter to West, of June 17, 1768, he displayed a cautious person's reasons for not rashly giving up the good living which his art gave him. He wrote: 'I should be glad to go to Europe, but cannot think of it without a very good prospect of doing as well there as I can here. You are sensable that 300 Guineas a Year, which is my present income, is a pretty living in America.. And what ever my ambition may be to excel in our noble Art, I cannot think of doing it at the expence of not only my own happyness, but that of a tender Mother and a Young Brother whose dependance is intirely upon me'. West replied on September 20, 1768, saying that he had talked over Copley's prospects with other artists of London 'and find that by their Candid approbation you have nothing to Hazard in Comeing to this Place.' The income which Copley earned by painting in the 1760s was extraordinary for his town and time. It had promoted the son of a needy tobacconist into the local aristocracy. The foremost personages of New England came to his painting-room as sitters. He married, on November 16, 1769, Sussannah Farnum Clarke, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth (Winslow) Clarke, the former being the very wealthy agent of the Honourable East India Company in Boston; the latter, a New England woman of Mayflower ancestry. The union was a happy one, and socially notable. Mrs. Copley was a beautiful woman of poise and serenity whose features are familiar through several of her husband's paintings. Copley had already bought land on the west side of Beacon Hill extending down to the Charles River. The newly-married Copleys, who would have six children, moved into 'a solitary house in Boston, on Beacon Hill, chosen with his keen perception of picturesque beauty'. It was on the approximately site of the present Boston Women's City Club. Here were painted the portraits of dignitaries of state and church, graceful women and charming children, in the mode of faithful and painstaking verisimilitude which Copley had made his own. The family's style of living at this period was that of people of wealth. John Trumbull told Dunlap that in 1771, being then a student at Harvard College, he called on Copley, who 'was dressed on the occasion in a suit of crimson velvet with gold buttons, and the elegance displayed by Copley in his style of living, added to his high repute as an artist, made a permanent impression on Trumbull in favor of the life of a painter.' In town and church affairs Copley took almost no part. He referred to himself as 'desireous of avoideing every imputation of party spirit. Political contests being neighther pleasing to an artist or advantageous to the Art itself.' His name appeared on January 29, 1771, on a petition of freeholders and inhabitants to have the powder house removed from the town whose existence it imperiled. Records of the Church in Brattle Square disclose that in 1772 Copley was asked to submit plans for a rebuilt meeting-house, and that he proposed an ambitious plan and elevation 'which was much admired for its Elegance and Grandure,' but which on account of probable expensiveness was not accepted by the society. Copley's sympathy with the politicians who were working toward American independence appears to have been genuine but not so vigorous as to lead him to participate in any of their plans. It was known to earlier biographers that Copley at one time painted portraits in New York City. The circumstances of this visit, which was supplemented by a few days in Philadelphia, were first disclosed through Prof. Guernsey Jones's discovery of many previously unpublished Copley and Pelham documents in the Public Record Office, London. From these letters and papers, published by the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1914, it appears that in 1768 Copley painted in Boston a portrait of Myles Cooper, president of King's College, who then urged his visiting New York. Accepting the invitation later, Copley, between June 1771 and January 1772, painted thirty-seven portraits in New York, setting up his easel 'in Broadway, on the west side, in a house which was burned in the great conflagration on the night the British army entered the city as enemies.' Copley's letters to Henry Pelham, whom he left in charge of his affairs in Boston, describe minutely the journey across New England, his first impressions of New York, which 'has more Grand Buildings than Boston, the streets much cleaner and some much broader,' and the successful search for suitable lodgings and a painting-room; thereafter they give detailed accounts of sitters and social happenings. The correspondence also contains Copley's careful instructions to Pelham concerning the features of a new house then being built on his Beacon Hill 'farm,' giving elevations and specifications of the addition of 'peazas' which the artist saw for the first time in New York. Copley at the time had a lawsuit respecting title to some of his lands. His letters reveal a man who allowed such disputes to worry him considerably. In September 1771, Mr. and Mrs. Copley visited Philadelphia, where, at the home of Chief Justice William Allen, they 'saw a fine Coppy of the Titian Venus and Holy Family at whole length as large as life from Coregio'. On their return journey they viewed at New Brunswick, New Jersey several pictures attributed to van Dyck. 'The date is 1628 on one of them,' wrote Copley; 'it is without dout I think Vandyck did them before he came to England.' Back in New York Copley wrote, on October 17, requesting that a certain black dress of Mrs. Copley's be sent over at once. 'As we are much in company,' he said, 'we think it necessary Sukey [his wife] should have it, as her other Cloaths are mostly improper for her to wear'. On December 15 Copley informed Pelham that 'this Week finishes all my Business, no less than 37 Busts; so the weather permitting by Christmas we hope to be on the road.' Thus ended Copley's only American tour away from Boston. Accounts of his having painted in the South are without foundation. Most of the Southern portraits that have been popularly attributed to him were made by Henry Benbridge. His correspondents in England continued to urge Copley to undertake European studies. He saved an undated and unsigned letter from some one who wrote: 'Our people here are enrapture'd with him, he is compared to Vandyck, Reubens and all the great painters of Old.' His brother-in-law Jonathan Clarke, already in London, advised his 'comeing this way.' West wrote, on January 6, 1773: 'My Advice is, Mrs. Copley to remain in Boston till you have made this Tour [to Italy], After which, if you fix your place of reasidanc in London, Mrs. Copley to come over.' Political and economic conditions in Boston were increasingly turbulent. Copley's father-in-law, Mr. Clarke, was the merchant to whom was consigned the tea that provoked the Boston Tea Party. Copley's family connections were all Loyalists. He defended his wife's relatives at a meeting described in his letter of December 1, 1773. He wrote on April 26, 1774, of an unpleasant experience when a mob visited his house demanding the person of Col. George Watson, a Loyalist mandamus counselor who had gone elsewhere. The patriots having threatened to have his blood if he 'entertained any such Villain for the future,' Copley exclaimed: 'What a spirit! What if Mr. Watson had stayed (as I pressed him to) to spend the night. I must either have given up a friend to the insult of a Mob or had my house pulled down and perhaps my family murthered.' With many letters of introduction, all of which are published in the Copley-Pelham correspondence, Copley sailed from Boston in June 1774, leaving his mother, wife, and children in Henry Pelham's charge. He wrote on July 11 from London 'after a most easy and safe passage.' An early call was upon West, to 'find in him those amiable qualitys that makes his friendship boath desireable as an artist and as a Gentleman.' The American was duly introduced to Sir Joshua Reynolds and was taken to 'the Royal Academy where the Students had a naked model from which they were Drawing.' In London Copley took no sitters at this time though urged to do so. Shortly before leaving for Italy he 'dined with Gov'r Hutchinson, and I think there was 12 of us altogether, and all Bostonians, and we had Choice Salt Fish for Dinner.' On September 2, 1774, Copley chronicled his arrival at Paris (the beginning of a nine-month European tour), where he saw and painstakingly described many paintings and sculptures. His journey toward Rome was made in company of an artist named Carter, described as 'a captious, cross-grained and self conceited person who kept a regular journal of his tour in which he set down the smallest trifle that could bear a construction unfavorable to the American's character.' Carter was undoubtedly an uncongenial companion. Copley, however, may at times have been both depressing and bumptious. He found fault, according to Carter, with the French firewood because it gave out less heat than American wood, and he bragged of the art which America would produce when 'they shall have an independent government.' Copley's personal appearance was thus described by his uncharitable comrade: 'Very thin, a little pock-marked [presumably a souvenir of the Boston smallpox epidemic described by Copley in a letter of January 24, 1764], prominent eyebrows, small eyes, which after fatigue seemed a day's march in his head.' Copley afterward wrote of Carter: 'He was a sort of snail which crawled over a man in his sleep and left its slime, and no more.' Mrs. Amory relates that 'both parties were undoubtedly glad to separate on their arrival at their destination.' October 8, 1774 found Copley at Genoa, where he wrote to his wife describing, among other things, the cheapness of the silks: 'The velvet and satin for which I gave seven guineas would have cost fourteen in London.' He reached Rome on October 26. 'I am very fortunate,' he wrote, 'in my time of being here, as I shall see the magnificance of the rejoicing on the election of the Pope; it is also the year of jubilee, or Holy Year.' Copley's plan of study and mode of living at Rome are described in several letters. He found time for excursions. He visited Naples in January 1775, writing to his wife: 'The city is very large and delightfully situated but you have no idea of the dirt.. and the people are as dirty as the streets — indeed, they are offensive to such a degree as to make me ill'. The excavations at Pompeii greatly interested him and in company with Ralph Izard of South Carolina (whose family portrait he later painted) he extended his journey to Paestum. At Rome early in 1775 he copied Correggio's St. Jerome on commission from Lord Grosvenor, and other works for Mr. and Mrs. Izard. About May 20 he started on a tour northward through Florence, Parma, Mantua, Venice, Trieste, Stuttgart, Mainz, Cologne, and the Low Countries. From Parma he wrote to Henry Pelham urging that the whole family leave America at once since, 'if the Frost should be severe and the Harbour frozen, the Town of Boston will be exposed to an attack; and if it should be taken all that have remained in the town will be considered as enimys to the Country and ill treated or exposed to great distress.' This anxiety was groundless, for Mrs. Copley and the children had already sailed on May 27, 1775 from Marblehead in a ship crowded with refugees. She arrived in London some weeks before Copley returned from the Continent, making her home with her brother-in-law, Henry Bromfield. Her father, Richard Clarke, and her brothers came soon after. Copley happily rejoined his family and set up his easel, at first in Leicester Fields and later at 25 George St. Hanover Square, in a house built by a wealthy Italian and admirably adapted to an artist's requirements. Here Mr. and Mrs. Copley and their son Lord Lyndhurst lived and died. As an English painter Copley began in 1775 a career promising at the outset and destined from personal and political causes to end in gloom and adversity. His technique was so well established, his habits of industry so well confirmed, and the reputation that had preceded him from America was so extraordinary, that he could hardly fail to make a place for himself among British artists. He himself, however, 'often said, after his arrival in England, that he could not surpass some of his early works'. The deterioration of his talent was gradual, however, so some of the 'English Copleys' are superb paintings. Following a fashion set by West and others, Copley began to paint historical pieces as well as portraits. His first foray into this genre was A Youth Rescued from a Shark, its subject based on an incident related to the artist by Brook Watson, who had been attacked by a shark while swimming in Havana harbour as a 14-year-old boy. It is likely that Watson, who went on to a successful career despite the attack and the loss of his leg below the knee, commissioned the painting as a lesson for other unfortunates, including orphans like himself, in the fact that even the severest adversity can be overcome. Engravings from this work achieved an enduring popularity. For a place over the fireplace of the George St. dining room was painted the great family picture now at Boston, which, when first publicly shown by Lord Lyndhurst at the Manchester exhibition, 1862, was 'pronounced by competent critics to be equal to any, in the same style, by Vandyck'. But the artist's fame as a historical painter was made by The Death of Lord Chatham. The painting, however, brought him denunciation from Sir William Chambers, president of the Royal Academy, who objected to its being exhibited privately in advance of the Academy's exhibition. In an open letter Chambers accused Copley of purveying his picture like a 'raree-show' and of aiming for 'either the sale of prints or the raffle of the picture.' To this censure, obviously unfair to one newly-arrived in London and uninformed as to the professional ethics of exhibiting, Copley one morning wrote a caustic reply, and in the evening wisely threw it into the fire. Engravings from the Chatham picture later sold well in England and America. Copley's adventures in historical painting were the more successful because of his painstaking efforts to obtain good likenesses of personages and correct accessories of their periods. He traveled much in England to make studies of old portraits and actual localities. At intervals came from his studio such pieces as The Red Cross Knight, Abraham Offering up Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness, The Death of Major Pierson, The Arrest of Five Members of the Commons by Charles the First, The Siege of Gibraltar, The Surrender of Admiral DeWindt to Lord Camperdown, The Offer of the Crown to Lady Jane Grey by the Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolk, The Resurrection, and others. He continued to paint portraits, among them those of several members of the royal family and numerous British and American celebrities. Between 1776 and 1815 he sent forty-three paintings to exhibitions of the Royal Academy, of which he was elected an associate member in the former year. His election to full membership occurred in 1783. The effort with which Copley labored over his compositions was exemplary, but at times it may have injured his health and disposition. 'He has been represented to me by some,' wrote Cunningham, 'as a peevish and peremptory man while others describe him as mild and unassuming.' Both descriptions probably fitted Copley depending on his mood: he might be nervous from overwork and worry or in a normal condition. His granddaughter, Mrs. Amory, recalls that he usually painted continuously from early morning until twilight. In the evening his wife or a daughter read English literature for his benefit. He took but little exercise – probably not enough for health. He would have liked to return to America but his professional routine prevented this. He was politically more liberal than were his relatives. He painted the Stars and Stripes over a ship in the background of Elkanah Watson's portrait on December 5, 1782, after listening to George III's speech formally acknowledging American independence. 'He invited me into the studio,' wrote Watson in his Journal, 'and there, with a bold hand, a master's touch, and I believe an American heart, attached to the ship the Stars and Stripes; this was, I imagine, the first American flag hoisted in Old England.' Copley's contacts with New England people continued to be many. He painted portraits of John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and other Bostonians who visited England. His daughter Elizabeth was married in August 1800 to Gardiner Greene of Boston, a wealthy gentleman whose descendants preserved much of the correspondence of the Copley family. Prior to this marriage of his daughter, Copley had sold his Beacon Hill estate to a syndicate of speculators headed by Dr. Benjamin Joy. He felt himself victimized when he learned that the purchasers knew of a project of building the Massachusetts State House at the top of the hill, and he sent his son John Singleton Copley, Jr. then at the beginning of his brilliant legal career, to Boston in 1796 seeking to annul the arrangement. The letters which the future Lord Chancellor wrote during his visit to the United States are interesting reading but his quest was unsuccessful. 'I do not believe,' he wrote to his father, 'that any person could have obtained from them one shilling more.' Despite this report the artist made further efforts to recover his "farm." The subject of his grievance frequently recurs in the family correspondence, but it is not certain that Copley had any reason to feel himself defrauded. A memorandum prepared for him by Gardiner Greene stated that long after the land 'had passed out of Copley's possession it, or a part of it, was offered at no higher price than was paid to his son.' Allen Chamberlain, whose Beacon Hill gives a detailed summary of the complicated negotiations surrounding this purchase, holds that Copley was fairly compensated at a price three times what he had paid for property from which he had had rents of considerable amount. In his last fifteen years, though painting persistently, Copley experienced much depression and disappointment. The Napoleonic Wars brought hard times. The household at 25 George St. was expensive to maintain. The education of a talented son was costly. It grieved the father that after the young barrister began to earn his way it became necessary to accept his help in supporting the home. Lord Campbell quotes the jurist as saying that 'his father, having lived rather expensively, accumulated little for him.' Mrs. Amory makes out a case for Mrs. Copley's admirable management, but it appears that a standard of living difficult to maintain in the changed circumstances made much borrowing inevitable. Copley was chagrined by the failure of his Equestrian Portrait of the Prince Regent to 'bring a financial return.' Cunningham says, 'No customer made his appearance for Charles and the impeached members.' Other canvases involving years of labor were unsold. Troubles with engravers were many, whether the fault was theirs or the painter's. Copley's letters to his son-in-law in Boston usually concerned loans made to him and frequently extended. The aging artist's physical and mental health produced anxiety. In 1810 he had a bad fall which kept him from painting for a month. He incessantly bewailed the loss of his Boston property. Mrs. Copley wrote on December 11, 1810: 'Your father has been led to feel this affair [his unsuccessful litigation to recover the 'farm'] more sensibly from the present state of things in this country where every difficulty of living is increasing and the advantages arising from his profession are decreasing'. In October 1811, Copley wrote to Greene in distress, craving an additional loan of £600. And on March 4, 1812 he wrote: 'I am still pursuing my profession in the hope that, at a future time, a proper amount will be realized from my works, either to myself or family, but at this moment all pursuits which are not among the essentials of life are at a stand'. In August 1813, Mrs. Copley wrote that, although her husband was still painting, "he cannot apply himself as closely as he used to do." She reported in April 1814: 'Your father enjoys his health but grows rather feeble, dislikes more and more to walk; but it is still pleasant for him to go on with his painting.' In June 1815, the Copleys entertained as visitor John Quincy Adams, with whom they jubilantly discussed the new terms of peace between the United States and the United Kingdom. In the letter describing this visit the painter's infirmities are said to have been increased by 'his cares and disappointments.' A note of August 18, 1815, informed the Greenes that Copley while at dinner had had a paralytic stroke. He seemed at first to recover. Late in August his prognosis was favorable to his painting again. A second shock occurred, however, and he died on September 9, 1815. 'He was perfectly resigned,' wrote his daughter Mary, 'and willing to die, and expressed his firm trust in God, through the merits of our Redeemer.' He was buried in Highgate Cemetery in a tomb belonging to the Hutchinson family. How deep into debt Copley had fallen in his latest years was hinted at in Mrs. Copley's letter of February 1, 1816, to Gardiner Greene in which she gave details of his assets and borrowings and predicted: 'When the whole property is disposed of and applied toward the discharge of the debts a large deficiency must, it is feared, remain.' The estate was settled by Copley's son, later Lord Lyndhurst, who maintained the establishment in George St. supported his mother down to her death in 1836, and kept the ownership of many of the artist's unsold pictures until March 5, 1864, when they were sold at auction in London. Several of the works then dispersed are now in American collections. Copley was the greatest and most influential painter in colonial America, producing about 350 works of art. With his startling likenesses of persons and things, he came to define a realist art tradition in America. His visual legacy extended throughout the nineteenth century in the American taste for the work of artists as diverse as Fitz Henry Lane and William Harnett. In Britain, while he continued to paint portraits for the élite, his great achievement was the development of contemporary history painting, which was a combination of reportage, idealism, and theatre. He was also one of the pioneers of the private exhibition, orchestrating shows and marketing prints of his own work to mass audiences that might otherwise attend exhibitions only at the Royal Academy, or who previously had not gone to exhibitions at all. Boston's Copley Square, Copley Square Hotel and Copley Plaza bear his name, as does Copley Township, Summit County, Ohio." -- Wikipedia. USD 17.95 [Appr.: EURO 12 | £UK 11 | JP 1584] Book number: 1500225 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| ANDERSON, CLARITA S. Figured & Fancy: Weavers of Wayne County, New York Wayne County Historical Society / Seeco Printing, 1996. Large Softcover. Very Good. BOOKPLATE SIGNED BY AUTHOR LAID IN. Light shelf wear. 93 pages. 12 plates. A historical survey of handweavers from Wayne County, New York, with biographical information on notable persons, discussion of historical significance, and examples of weaving designs. USD 13.45 [Appr.: EURO 9 | £UK 8.25 | JP 1187] Book number: 1501295 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| ANDERSON, ALEX Hand Quilting with Alex Anderson: Six Projects for Hand Quilters C & T Publishing, 1998. Large Softcover. Very Good. Bright copy with minor corner edge wear, otherwise like new, pages clean & binding tight. 40 pp. "Anderson, host of HGTV's "Simply Quilts", offers quick and easy projects that will appeal to beginning stitchers and seasoned quilters alike. 73 color illustrations & 11 patterns.". USD 6.45 [Appr.: EURO 4.5 | £UK 4 | JP 569] Book number: 1515371 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. | ||
| APPELBAUM, STANLEY; KELLY, RICHARD Great Drawings and Illustrations from Punch, 1841-1901: 192 Works by Leech, Keene, Du Maurier, May and 21 Others Dover Publications, Inc. 1981. Large Softcover. Ill.: Phiz (Browne, Hablot Knight); Keene, Charles Samuel; Leech, John; Tenniel, John; et al. Good. Light stain along base, light 1" stain on page ridge, a few light cover creases, shelf wear. 133 pages. "Punch was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire published from 1841 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2002. Punch material was also collected in book formats as early as the 1800s, including Pick of the Punch annuals with cartoons and text features, Punch and the War a 1941 collection of WWII-related cartoons, and A Big Bowl of Punch which was republished a number of times. Many Punch cartoonists of the late 20th century published collections of their own work partly based on Punch contributions." -- Wikipedia. USD 6.60 [Appr.: EURO 4.5 | £UK 4 | JP 582] Book number: 1508922 Click here to order or inquire at Yesterday's Muse Books. |
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