William Morris was an outstanding character of many talents, being an architect, writer, social campaigner, artist and, with his Kelmscott Press, an important figure of the Arts and Crafts movement. Many of us probably know him best, however, from his superb furnishings and textile designs, intricately weaving together natural motifs in a highly stylized two-dimensional fashion influenced by medieval conventions. William Morris Masterpieces of Art offers a survey of his life and work alongside some of his finest decorative work.

Garden Cities: the phrase is redolent of Arts and Crafts values and nineteenth-century utopianism. But despite being the culmination of a range of influential movements, and their own influence, in fact there were only ever two true garden cities in England - far more numerous were garden suburbs and villages. Crystallised in England by social visionary Ebenezer Howard and designed in many cases by Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, the concept arose from industrial settlements like Port Sunlight, and also from the American City Beautiful movement. Designed to promote healthy and comfortable individual and community life, as well as commerce and industry, they remain instantly recognisable. This book is a beautifully illustrated guide to the movement and to the communities which are its legacy. Sarah Rutherford has an MA in the conservation of historic parks and gardens and a PhD. She was Head of the English Heritage Historic Parks and Gardens Register and is now a freelance consultant, creating conservation plans.

Recycle, revamp and rejuvenate; with over 50 projects Sarah covers a whole spectrum of imaginative ideas for every room of the house, from blanket curtains to patchwork wallpaper, clever storage crates to fun mobiles for children, as well as unique ideas for dining, sleeping and bathing. Interweaved throughout the book are ideas for 'one thing four ways' to show how the same piece of furniture or a room can be updated with different look, plus handy advice on essential kit and techniques. Aimed at all skill levels, the projects can be completed in a few hours or over a weekend so you can revamp and refurbish your home in no time at all.

Dating from the 1850s to the First World War, the Arts and Crafts Movement was an international phenomenon of enormous scope and influence. It encompassed everything from architecture to town planning, metalwork and embroidery, in places as diverse as California and Budapest. Born of thinkers and practitioners in Victorian England its ideological currents reflect the era's most pressing social, political and artistic concerns. Early British Arts and Crafts practitioners campaigned for a revival of old craft techniques, for the elevation of the applied arts and for honesty in design. These aims were quickly picked up and developed across Europe and the United States, with many national variants soon emerging. In this fascinating and beautifully illustrated introduction to the subject, Rosalind Blakesley explores the common ideas that give cohesion to this wide and stylistically varied movement.

Dazzling new, original collection by a master of the genre presents more than 260 high-impact, permission-free designs that exploit to their fullest the dramatic potential of squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, and other elements. Invaluable for wallpaper and textile design, packaging and computer art, these eye-catching forms provide artists and craftspeople with angular forms, pleasant symmetries, and other great images for immediate use and inspiration. More than 260 black-and-white designs.

This lavish collection of copyright-free engravings by the celebrated 19th-century artist F. Knight-reproduced directly from a rare original edition-contains elaborate wall murals with trompe-l'oeil effects; scenes of hunters, flanked by mythological figures; idealized damsels in rustic settings; and numerous other florid motifs. Designs both floral (leaves, running vines, and blossoms) and animal (realistic and grotesque) appear in a variety of sizes and styles. 700 black-and-white illustrations.

Liberty is the last word in bohemian luxury, a destination and brand celebrated for its unique blend of avant-garde design and expert craftsmanship. Liberty: The History celebrates the historic beginnings of the iconic store as well as their contemporary vision – from their 'Eastern Bazaar' of objets d'art, rugs and textiles from Japan and the East to the brand's association with the developing Art Nouveau movement, their whimsical window displays and quintessential Art Fabrics, to the innovations in design and printmaking and the savvy collaborations and creative direction that have kept Liberty at the forefront of the fashion world. With treasures from the Liberty archives including classic silk scarves, designs spanning over a century and original sketches for Liberty Art Fabrics, this is the official invitation into a London institution and a global icon. This deluxe edition features a cloth-bound hardback book, 10 exquisite art prints and a stunning collectible gift box.

A rich, authoritative look at a material that plays an essential role in human culture
Wood has been a central part of human life throughout the world for thousands of years. In an intoxicating mix of science, history, and practical information, historian and woodworker Harvey Green considers this vital material's place on the planet. What makes one wood hard and one soft? How did we find it, tame it? Where does it fit into the histories of technology, architecture, and industrialization, of empire, exploration, and settlement? Spanning the surprising histories of the log cabin and Windsor chair, the deep truth about veneer, the role of wood in the American Revolution, the disappearance of the rain forests, the botany behind the baseball bat, and much more, "Wood" is a deep and satisfying look at one of our most treasured resources.

Robert Ross was one of the first people that Aubrey Beardsley met when he arrived in London to make his name in 1892. Within six years the young artist was dead; but the work he produced in that short time revolutionized British art, and he was fixed forever in the public imagination as one of the leading spirits of the decadent era. Like many others, Ross was taken not only by the evident originality and genius of Beardsley's work, but also by his character, remembering the "delightful and engaging smile both for friends and strangers," his modesty, wit, erudition, and--contrary to popular opinion--his "briskness and virility," or, as Beerbohm put it, his "stony common sense." Beardsley's reputation, both artistic and personal, was caught up in the hurricane that overtook avant garde art after the trial of Oscar Wilde. Ross set out in his pioneering biography to redress the balance. He memorialized the worth of the man he knew, and established the seriousness of his art, its roots in the work of the Old Masters (of whom Beardsley had considerable knowledge) and tracing the dramatic transformation as Beardsley matured in the six short years of his working life in London. This combination of personal memoir and informed analysis by someone at the heart of the artistic world of the 1890s makes this biography one of the most fascinating and evocative documents of the period. This republication is a close copy of the first stand-alone edition of 1909. It comes complete with all its original illustrations (and the advertisements for Beardsley's publications) and the catalogue of Beardsley's works by Aymer Vallance, which is still the cornerstone of Beardsley studies. It is introduced by Matthew Sturgis, Beardsley's most distinguished recent biographer. Robert Ross, son of the Attorney-General of Canada, was a key figure in avant garde arts and letters of the 1890's. Very unusually for this period, he acknowledged and accepted his homosexuality. It was he who first seduced Wilde, who helped him in his imprisonment and exile, and who rescued the estate to provide for Wilde's sons. His posthumous rehabilitation of Beardsley rescued the artist's reputation for future generations.

The oldest word in politics is "new". The oldest word in the writing of history may well be "modern": it is, without doubt, one of the most overworked adjectives in the English language. But the indeterminacy is perhaps just another way of saying that the difficulties raised are of a kind which simply will not go away... This collection of eight essays on aspects of modernity and modernism takes up the challenge of examining the complex, but fascinating convergence of aesthetics, politics and a quasi-spiritual dimension which is perhaps typical of British modernist thinking about modernity. This may have produced figures whom we now dismiss as eccentrics or "aesthetes", it none the less produced figures whom many still think of as in some sense embodying the national identity: what, after all, could be more "English" than a William Morris wallpaper design? Rather than towards socialism in any of its "scientific" guises, what the British modernist approach to modernity may have been pushing at was yet another mutation of liberalism: a libertarian-humanitarian hybrid in which indigenous radical and Evangelical legacies keep scientific socialism in check, where fellowship and domesticity edge out a larger-scale, more abstract "fraternity", and where citoyennete or civisme give way to what George Orwell was later to define simply as "decency".