An updated and revised edition of this practical guide--the book the author wished he had on hand at the start of his 20 years cleaning and repairing pocket watches Using as examples six of the most typical types of watch from a period spanning the late 18th century to the early 20th century, the author takes the intelligent enthusiast through the cleaning and repair process, step by careful step, using photographs of excellent clarity, and in lucid language, characterized by his own friendly and helpful tone. He aims to equip the reader with a sound basic knowledge not just of the process but also all the tools and materials as well as their sources.

Dinky Toys must be one of the most successful and collectable toys ever made. These delightfully stylish photographs feature models from the golden age of the Dinky toy - an era that will be remembered fondly by every post-war baby-boomer, both men and women. Now the subject of serious interest from collectors worldwide many of these models have re-emerged as highly collectable, often selling at very high prices. But the toys that feature here are neither pristine or shiny. Collected over the years by photographer Kim Sayer, their charm is in the chips, dents and worn paint work - toys that have been played with and loved. His affection for them is obvious, as each model is given its own delightful setting, reflecting a more gentle and innocent era.Visual puns abound - the Landrover, "a fine model of a vehicle designed to go anywhere and do anything" climbs its way up a staircase, whilst the Avro York Airliner takes off from the ironing board, and an open-top sports car zooms along fighting the gale force winds of an electric fan. Many of the photographs also play off against the original marketing tagline used to sell the models: 'Just look at the remarkable detail on this exciting model of Britain's famous centurion tank. It is a welcome reinforcement for the playroom army.' 'Here is a fine new model, the Humber Police Patrol Car containing uniformed driver and patrolman.' These are wonderful photographs that will appeal to all ages - particularly to those who will remember their days of short trousered bliss crawling about on the floor for hours on end, their imaginations fired by the splendour of their Dinky toys.

The articles republished in this volume are ground-breaking studies that employ a large body of religious figural imagery of Byzantine lead seals ranging from the 6th to the 15th century. A number of the studies present tables, charts and graphs in their analysis of iconographic trends and changing popularity of saintly figures over time. And since many of the seals bear inscriptions that include the names, titles or offices of their owners, information often not given for the patrons of sacred images in other media, these diminutive objects permit an investigation into the social use of sacred imagery through the various sectors of Byzantine culture: the civil, ecclesiastical and military administrations. The religious figural imagery of the lead seals, accompanied by their owners' identifying inscriptions, offers a means of investigating both the broader visual piety of the Byzantine world and the intimate realm of their owners' personal devotions. Other studies in the volume are devoted to rare or previously unknown sacred images that demonstrate the value of the iconography of Byzantine lead seals for Byzantine studies in general. This volume includes various articles focusing on sphragistic images of saints and on the religious imagery of Byzantine seals as a means of investigating the personal piety of seal owners, as well as the wider realm of the visual piety and religious devotions of Byzantine culture at all levels. A companion volume includes studies dedicated to the image of Christ, primarily found on imperial seals, various images of the Virgin, and narrative or Christological scenes. (CS1086).

The Ambassadeur 2500C, a small casting reel capable of handling fine lines and light baits, was first produced in 1975. This book provides a comprehensive history and taxonomy of this legendary family of fishing reels, which is cherished and admired by anglers, collectors, and tournament casters alike. Find information on variations from 1975 to the present, Ambassadeur De Luxe versions and other special editions, fakes, tournament modifications, and market prices, as well as detailed tables and charts with exhaustive technical information. Since its invention, the 2500C has been followed by 60 further types, all crafted around the same general principles. The current casting world record for 5/8-ounce plugs was set with an original Ambassadeur 2500C, and the reel has acquired such a trusted reputation that many anglers refuse to fish with any other type of reel.

This book not only tabulates the hallmarks that enable the identification of silver items but also traces the history of English silver, describing some famous makers and provides hints on spotting fakes.' There is a helpful chapter on Sheffield plate.

The Byzantines used imagery to communicate a wide range of issues. In the context of Iconoclasm - the debate about the legitimacy of religious art conducted between c. AD 730 and 843 - Byzantine authors themselves claimed that visual images could express certain ideas better than words. Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium deals with how such visual communication worked and examines the types of messages that pictures could convey in the aftermath of Iconoclasm. Its focus is on a deluxe manuscript commissioned around 880, a copy of the fourth-century sermons of the Cappadocian church father Gregory of Nazianzus which presented to the Emperor Basil I, founder of the Macedonian dynasty, by one of the greatest scholars Byzantium ever produced, the patriarch Photios. The manuscript was lavishly decorated with gilded initials, elaborate headpieces and a full-page miniature before each of Gregory's sermons. Forty-six of these, including over 200 distinct scenes, survive. Fewer than half however were directly inspired by the homily that they accompany. Instead most function as commentaries on the ninth-century court and carefully deconstructed both provide us with information not available from preserved written sources and perhaps more important show us how visual images communicate differently from words.

Coins are one of the most abundant sources for our study of the past, yet their value as historical evidence is relatively neglected because of a general lack of knowledge of numismatic techniques. This volume of essays, offered by a circle of friends, colleagues and pupils working in Britain, Europe and North America, is intended to pay tribute to Philip Grierson's unique contribution to the study of numismatic method. A medievalist by training, through his wide-ranging interests in coins and coinage Grierson has commanded the respect of historians and numismatists of all periods for the originality and good sense of his prolific scholarship. More than any other living scholar, he has been responsible for making available an understanding of numismatic expertise to specialist and non-specialist audiences.

The effective preparation of garments for display is essential for exhibitions of contemporary and historical dress. Costumes not only need to be visually appealing but also fully supported and historically accurate. This book provides a comprehensive guide to mounting costumes from the eighteenth century to the present day. It includes methods for adapting and shaping figures to create historical silhouettes, constructing underpinnings and making replicas and toiles using inexpensive and simple techniques. A Practical Guide to Costume Mounting is an invaluable resource for conservators, historians and all those working with clothing in museums, private collections and throughout the fashion and theatre industries. Trained as a historical costume maker, author Lara Flecker is the textile display specialist at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. She has worked extensively with the museum's world-class costume collection, preparing garments for display. Her simple mounting methods are clearly explained and can be used by people with a wide range of experience, including those with few sewing skills.

Vices or virtues: drinking and smoking provided marketers with products to be forged into visual feasts. In this lush compendium of advertisements, we explore how depictions of these commodities spanned from the elegant to the offbeat, revealing how manufacturers prodded their customers throughout the 20th century to imbibe and inhale. Each era's alcohol and tobacco trends are exuberantly captured page after page, with brand images woven into American popular culture so effectively that almost anyone could identify such icons as the Marlboro Man or Spuds MacKenzie, figures so familiar they could appear in ads without the product itself. Other advertisers devised clever and subliminal approaches to selling their wares, as the wildly successful Absolut campaign confirmed. Even doctors contributed to a perverse version of propaganda, testifying that smoking could calm your nerves and soothe your throat, while hailing liquor as an elixir capable of bringing social success. Whether you savor these visual delights, or enjoy inhaling and wallowing in forbidden pleasures, you will certainly be thrilled by this exploration of a decidedly vibrant-and sometimes controversial-chapter of advertising history. About the series TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program-now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.

Every picture tells a story-even one on a postage stamp. Presented hugely enlarged, the 144 stamps in this book chronicle a stylish era of design: mid-20th-century America. Spanning the late 1950s to the early 1970s, these mini-masterpieces were created when the US post office started to lavish color on its stamps and to hire the best midcentury talents to design them. The roster includes Japanese American children's book illustrator Gyo Fujikawa, barrier-busting Black graphic artist Georg Olden, industrial design legend Raymond Loewy, and sultan of psychedelia Peter Max. Photographed at five, ten, and even fifteen times actual size, each stamp is presented with a morsel of fun info that will broadly appeal to stamp collectors, history and nostalgia buffs, midcentury design fans, and everyone who likes to geek out on magnified views of tiny, beautiful images.

This, the first volume of Medieval European Coinage, surveys the coinage of Western Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West in the fifth century to the emergence of recognizable 'national' political units in the tenth. It starts with the Vandals, Visigoths, Burgundians and other Germanic invaders of the Empire, whose coins were modelled on contemporary issues of the Western or Eastern emperors. The coinage of the Franks is followed from early Merovingian times through to the establishment and subsequent fragmentation of the Carolingian empire. Italy is represented by the coinages of the Ostrogoths, Lombards, Carolingians and popes down to the Ottoman conquest in the mid-tenth century. The coinage of the Anglo-Saxons is traced from the introduction of minting in the early seventh century to the emergence of a united kingdom during the first half of the tenth century, including the aberrant coinages of Northumbria and the Anglo-Viking coinages of the Danelaw.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a time of elegance and extravagance for Russia's ruling tsars and the wealthy families with whom they were linked by marriage, and nowhere are these tastes more apparent than in the imperial jewels. Stefano Papi uncovers the fascinating stories behind the jewels and the people who wore them. The revised edition has 48 more pages than the first and includes some 50 additional images of jewels as well as contextual photographs.

Lorenzo de' Medici was a key figure in the creation of the Renaissance. An important patron of the arts in fifteenth century Florence, he was also a passionate collector of objects from antiquity and the post-antique period. His activities as a collector are documented in a group of 173 letters, previously unknown and published here for the first time, which provide the most complete picture of a well-known and historically important collector. As revealed in these letters, Lorenzo acquired sculpture to embellish his palace, but his real predilection was for small objects: coins, hardstone vases, and gems. His main source was the Roman dealer Giovanni Ciampolini, whose scandalous behavior demonstrates the gamesmanship of the art market. This book reveals how objects were studied, where they were displayed, the criteria for their selection, and their monetary worth.

This is a price-guide reference book containing up-to-date values, and lots of historical information on all campaign medals and related items awarded to British and their colonial and local allies from 1793 to 1902. Every significant campaign is covered, including details of the various clasps awarded. The images of medals and maps are full colour, and are often full page sized.

This collection of rare and vintage postcards offers a unique look at a vanished China and its storied capital. Comprising 355 black-and-white and hand-tinted Beijing photography postcards that span the period from the last years of Imperial China to the Japanese invasion of 1937, it is a treasure trove for buffs of Beijing history, collectors, Sinophiles, and anyone fascinated by people and cultures from times past. Readers will enjoy the wide selection of images showing different aspects of the life of old Peking from the arrival of a camel train at a city gate to hand-coloured views of the Forbidden City and an array of vendors, street performers, officials, gentry, commoners, and foreign tourists. Several chapters present the city's distinctive Beijing architecture its walls and gates, towers, fountains, temples, pagodas, memorial arches, and public or imperial buildings, including the Summer and Winter Palaces and the Ming Tombs. Other chapters of Chinese photography look at the Manchu rulers, street life, the Legation Quarter and Western presence, and the Great Wall. Included are some rare scenes depicting the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion and 1911 revolution Manchu fashion, colourful means of transportation, and the coming of the railroad. Of particular note are images of the Empress Dowager, the child emperor Puyi, and other personalities at the Manchu Court. The book also includes eight colour postcards of paintings by the famous artist Carl Wuttke and rare cards showing etched drawings of the Old Summer Palace now only a field of ruins. The author, who was born and lived in China before 1949, has written an informative introduction to each chapter as well as a general introduction to classical Beijing. A foreword by historian and Beijing expert Susan Naquin situates this collection at once as a precious record of old Peking and a revealing snapshot of Western views of China in the first golden age of tourism. Old Beijing: Postcards from the Imperial City offers a visual time capsule of both Beijing's history and traditional Chinese culture in a unique and revealing postcard format.

This book is an edited record of the papers given at the two-day symposium 'Italian Maiolica and Europe' held in Oxford on 22 and 23 September 2017. It is, in effect, a celebration of his long service in the Ashmolean Museum as the Keeper of Western Art. Museum collections develop their great strengths in one of two ways: through gifts of private collections and through the knowledge and enthusiasm of curators. The Ashmolean's renowned and important collection of Italian Maiolica owes its foundation to the former and the bequest of C.D.E. Fortnum. But it has grown and developed in remarkable ways over the last three decades thanks to the energy and expertise of Professor Timothy Wilson. During his 27 years as Keeper of Western Art, Tim was responsible for a truly extraordinary range and number of important acquisitions across the fine and decorative arts. As one of the world's leading scholars of Italian Maiolica, it was only natural that he would continue to build on Fortnum's legacy.

Jewels and Jewellery surveys splendid early medieval pieces and superb examples of Renaissance, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau and 21st-century jewellery. Exquisitely detailed photography reveals both rare and precious stones as well as the elaborate techniques of the jeweller's craft such as chasing, enamelling and cameo. Claire Phillips considers the history of Western jewellery in three parts, first exploring the materials used by jewellers, then turning to the development of styles in jewellery from the Middle Ages to today, before exploring the ways in which jewellery has been hallmarked, distributed and worn over recent centuries. The book concludes with a glossary, bibliography and list of key designers. Showcasing pieces by Cartier, Tiffany and Liberty, this beautiful volume is the ultimate guide to the history of Western jewellery.

This is the first study of its kind, focusing on toys made for girls, including the spin-off accessories and comics. Renowned toy expert Susan Brewer explores the world of toys, divided into sections to encompass dolls, cuddly toys and 'families (e.g. Sylvanian Forest and Fisher Price's Little People), amongst others. She includes brief biographies of some of the best known firms, such as Mattel, Pedigree and Fisher Price but the main focus is on the toys themselves, many of which readers will remember from their own childhood. Includes fascinating factboxes with quirky facts - did you know. Angela Rippon created the best-selling Victoria Plum toys based on a plum tree in her back garden - she has written the foreword for this book.