Seals and Society arises from a major project investigating seals and their use in medieval Wales, the Welsh March and neighbouring counties in England. The first major study of seals in the context of one part of medieval Western European society, the volume also offers a new perspective on the history of medieval Wales and its periphery by addressing a variety of themes in terms of the insight that seals can offer the historian. Though the present study suggests important regional distinctions in the take-up of seals in medieval Wales, it is also clear that seal usage increased from the later twelfth century and spread widely in Welsh society, especially in those parts of Wales neighbouring England or where there had been an early English incursion. Through a series of chapters, the authors examine the ways in which seals can shed light on the legal, administrative, social and economic history of the period in Wales and its border region. Seals provide unique insights into the choices individuals, men and women, made in representing themselves to the wider world, and this issue is examined closely. Supported by almost 100 images gathered by the project team, the volume is of great interest to those working on seals, their motifs, their use and developments in their usage over the high and later Middle Ages.

This monograph is based on a symposium held in the National Gallery, London which showed how Richard II's beliefs may have been expressed in the highly religious work, the Wilton Diptych, and how he aspired to equal in magnificence the royal figures of Europe, in particular Bohemia and France. Richard's love of material splendour from the rebuilding of Westminster Hall to his lavish expenditure on dress and gifts is argued in these essays. All the facets of the regal image are underpinned by experts in the history, sociology and artefacts of the period, who in their studies aim to bring out the political difficulties under which Richard was operating.

More than two hundred years ago, Russian Empress Catherine the Great and some of her courtiers developed a taste for British art and collected some spectacular items including paintings, drawings, sculpture, silver, and Wedgwood ceramics. This sumptuously illustrated book tells the story of the acquisition of these treasures and of the cultural relations between Britain and Russia in the eighteenth century. Distinguished critic John Russell provides the introduction for this book, and eminent British and Russian scholars offer chapters on such topics as British gardeners and the vogue of the English Garden, the Houghton sale, British architects in Russia, and English porcelain and the Russian court. The book includes color illustrations of 164 items from the Hermitage collections of British art, including such highlights as full-length portraits by Van Dyck painted in England, assorted pieces of the celebrated Green Frog dinner service commissioned from Josiah Wedgwood for the Chesmensky Palace, Charles Kandler's huge Rococo silver "Jerningham" wine cooler, other silver items by Augustine Courtauld and Paul de Lamerie, and some furniture and important architectural drawings by Charles Cameron. The collection also includes sculpture, jewelry, watches, clocks, medals, cameos, and gems. Published for the Yale Center for British Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Saint Louis Art Museum,

Gov. Thomas Welles came to New England in 1635, settling in Hartford in 1636 and moving to Wethersfield in 1646. The Welles Family Association presents in Volume 2 the fifth-generation descendants of Gov. Thomas Welles and his first wife, Alice Tomes. The genealogy includes descendants in both the male and female lines. Part B covers those descended from Thomas Welles, Samuel Welles, and Sarah (Welles) Chester. This generation fought in the French & Indian and Revolutionary Wars. It included farmers, generals, judges, government leaders, college presidents, silversmiths, housewives, poets, ministers, deacons, and medical doctors. Family names include Baldwin, Bostwick, Chester, Curtis(s), Clarke, Hawley, Judson, Lewis, Nichols, Shelton, Walker, Welles, and Wells. From Hartford, Wethersfield, Milford, Farmington, and Stratford, families spread to new towns in the Connecticut Hills, and to Massachusetts and upstate New York.

After the Civil War (1860-1865), many new areas of the country were opened up for settlement. The Stambaugh family, and various allied famiies, were among the ones who migrated West between 1865 and 1870. John George Snyder and his wife, Sarah Stambaugh, were among the new settlers who arrived in Callaway County, Missouri. The migrants prospered, and their children married and raised families of their own. Over the passage of time, the ties to family back in Pennsylvania became blurred and often forgotten. Such was the case with Sarah Stambaugh Snyder. The information remembered about her by later generations was confused and often misleading. This book is an attempt to clarify the family ties and to show just where Sarah belonged within the Stambaugh family tree. In addition, a brief outline of her children and their marriages and descendants has also been presented.