ANCIENT EGYPT TRANSFORMED: The Middle Kingdom

EDIT. BY ADELA OPPENHEIM ET AL    Book Number: 93891    Product format: Hardback

A rewarding view of more than five millennia of artistic achievements, this stunningly beautiful Metropolitan Museum of Art publication has been specially imported by Bibliophile. The Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030-1650 B.C.), the second great era of ancient Egyptian culture following the great "Pyramid Age" of the Old Kingdom, was a transformational period during which the artistic conventions, cultural principles, religious beliefs, and political systems formed during earlier dynasties were developed and reimagined. This comprehensive volume presents a detailed picture of the least known of Egypt's three kingdoms yet a time of remarkable prosperity and unprecedented change. International specialists present new insights into how Middle Kingdom artists refined existing forms and iconography to make strikingly original architecture, statuary, tomb and temple relief decoration, and stele. Thematic sections explore art produced for different strata of Egyptian society, including the pharaoh, royal women, the elite, and the family, while other chapters provide insight into Egypt's expanding relations with foreign lands and the themes of Middle Kingdom literature. Statues in their settings, artists and workshops, elite tombs connecting the living and the dead, Thebes during the Eleventh Dynasty, the Pharoah, Royal Women, Courts and Provinces, conquest and colonisation, the supernatural, Abydos and Osiris, excavations and selected archaeological sites, more than 250 objects from major collections around the world are sumptuously illustrated, many with new photography undertaken specifically for this exhibition catalogue publication. Dripping in 365 colour and 42 mono illus, heavyweight quality, six maps, chronology. 24.13 x 3.18 x 30.48cm. 400 pages.

Published price: £50

Bibliophile price: £30

DEATH ON THE NILE: Uncovering the Afterlife of Ancient Egypt

HELEN STRUDWICK & JULIE DAWSON    Book Number: 93911    Product format: Hardback

A brightly coloured scene from the tomb of Ipuy at Thebes dating to about 1280 to 1215 BC shows the preparation of items of burial equipment such as furniture, ritual objects and a funerary mask and it's a glimpse into the world of the people who worked in the industry. Here are coffins and the cartonnage mummy case of Nakhtermuf, and even fingerprints left behind by people moving a coffin lid before the varnish had dried. Close up we see the fascinating world of ancient Egyptian burial customs and practises with four essays by leading academics. Choices of materials and methods used to create coffins add to the human story and the colour catalogue examines and displays over 50 objects and there's an illustrated glossary and index. Old Kingdom to early Middle Kingdom, the dead become serious business with decorated anthropoid coffins, objects buried with the bodies and later nested coffins right up to the Roman period. Building on the growing trend in Egyptology to use scientific analysis and imaging to examine artefacts, this glamorous heavy volume focusses on 100 objects from the Fitzwilliam Museum's renowned Egyptian collection. In addition to shedding new light on the workshops of ancient Egypt, it traces the religious beliefs, economic concerns and political allegiance of the people for whom the coffins were created. Behind these remarkable objects is a human story of daily concerns, aspirations and practical realities. 256 pages, 23 x 29cm, hundreds of colour photos and illus.

Published price: £45

Bibliophile price: £28

PHARAOH: King of Ancient Egypt

MARIE VANDENBEUSCH ET AL    Book Number: 93947    Product format: Hardback

A fresh look at 3000 years of Egypt's ancient history by unveiling its famous rulers - the pharaohs - using some of the finest objects from the vast holdings of the British Museum, along with masterworks from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. In an introductory essay, Margaret Maitland looks at Egyptian kingship in terms of both ideology and practicality. Then Aude Semat considers the Egyptian image of kingship, its roles and its uses. In 10 additional sections, Marie Vandenbeusch delves into themes related to the land of ancient Egypt, conceptions of kingship, the exercise of power, royal daily life, war and diplomacy, and death and afterlife. Objects, beautifully illustrated in 180 photographs, include monumental sculpture, architectural pieces, funerary objects, exquisite jewellery, and papyri. "This sumptuous publication, produced for an exhibition in Cleveland in the summer of 2016 in collaboration with the British Museum, is a combination of exhibition catalogue and study of kingship in ancient Egypt. The statues of Senusret II with their apparent realism, for example, are not intended as portraits but rather symbolise the role of the pharaoh and his responsibilities. A stela depicting Rameses II as a child sitting on a throne shaped like the akhet or horizon sign does not represent the living king but his symbolic role as a manifestation of the sun god, reborn every morning, emphasising the divine connections of the king. An ostracon showing Rameses II being suckled by a goddess serves the same purpose. Others illus are of uncommon or unique items such as a colour palette used by an official, and a flask in the shape of a scribe which may have had magical properties or may have been simply used as an ink pot. A rare papyrus from Old Kingdom Abusir, two of the famous Amarna letters and part of a king list from Abydos provide written material." Review by ancientegyptmagazine.com. 27.94 x 29.97 x 2.29cm, 176 pages.

Published price: £40

Bibliophile price: £28

JEWELS OF THE NILE: Ancient Egyptian Treasures

P. LACOVARA & Y. J. MARKOWITZ    Book Number: 93937    Product format: Hardback

Jewels of the Nile celebrates the very first time that the Worcester Art Museum's internationally important collection of Egyptian jewellery - which has undergone conservation and cleaning - has been shown together. This strikingly illustrated book introduces the reader to the collection of an early 20th century Boston couple with a passion for ancient Egypt. The collectors, Laura and Kingsmill Marrs, were guided in their acquisitions by Howard Carter, the archaeologist who would later achieve world-wide recognition for his discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (1922). Under his guidance, the Marrs's purchased an outstanding selection of scarabs, amulets, jewellery and cosmetic-related articles, including rare, blue-toned stone vessels. They also acquired a group of Carter's watercolour renditions of important Egyptian sites and royal figures. These artifacts, as well as objects from Worcester's stellar collection of Egyptian antiquities, are included in the publication. Colour illus. 24.13 x 2.54 x 29.21cm. 216 pages.

Published price: £34.95

Bibliophile price: £22

GUSTAV KLIMT by A. N. HODGE

GUSTAV KLIMT

A. N. HODGE    Book Number: 94134    Product format: Hardback

The exotic, sensuous paintings of Gustav Klimt recall the art of ancient civilisations - their patterns and ornamentation reminiscent of Byzantine mosaics and Egyptian murals with their gold leaf and shimmering colours. This beautifully illustrated book on the life and work of Klimt, one of the most influential artists of the Art Nouveau movement, describes how he first achieved fame as a decorative painter before turning to portraiture and erotic art. Chapters cover The Secession Years, Femmes Fatale, Landscapes and the Later Works and of course his abstract compositions with flattened, glowing surfaces embellished with gold and silver leaf. This technique is perhaps best identified in his two portraits of Adele Bloch Bauer. With features on key works and an easy-to-read timeline, 96 large quality pages, 23.5 x 28.8cm, glowing colour throughout. New full price.

Bibliophile price: £12.99

WILLIAM POWELL FRITH: The People's Painter by RICHARD GREEN AND JANE SEL...

WILLIAM POWELL FRITH: The People's Painter

RICHARD GREEN AND JANE SELLARS    Book Number: 93367    Product format: Hardback

Large, glamorous art publication by Philip Wilson Publishers of Bloomsbury, the topic is William Powell Frith (1819-1909), one of the most successful painters of the Victorian age, celebrated for his highly original depictions of modern life subjects in the 1850s and 1860s. He was virtually a household name due to the widespread dissemination of reproductive engravings which made his images familiar throughout the world. His three great panoramas of the contemporary world, Life at the Seaside (Ramsgate Sands), The Derby Day and The Railway Station depicted Victorians at leisure and are scrutinised in depth. Similarly covered is Frith's later and more exclusive panorama reconstructing the Private View of 1881 at the Royal Academy, where Oscar Wilde has centre stage. Essays explore important and hitherto neglected areas of his personal life and professional activity, of significant biographical interest are studies of his connections with Yorkshire, the county of his birth and also his first wife Isabelle's, and his friendships with the contemporary writers notably the sensation novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and his historical genre pictures focussing on the early success of 'An English Merry-Making, A Hundred Years Ago.' An intriguing angle is the recreation of certain of his famous compositions as Tableaux on the London Stage, yet another fresh topic in this presentation of 'The People's Painter'. So lifelike are the eyes and skin in page after page of gorgeous colour images on these heavy glossy white pages - Poor Maria, The Beautiful Grisette, Vanessa who was a longtime lover and correspondent of Jonathan Swift. It was well known that Frith was a friend as well as a devotee of Charles Dickens and his paintings are brimming with life and incident such as Alexander Pope's vain declaration of love to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. The courtyard of Millbank Prison provides a unique view of life in disgrace wearing shaming uniform dotted with arrow motifs. Another favourite of ours is Frith being buttonholed by a flower seller as they stand against a backdrop of the Bay of Naples. 192 glamorous pages, 22.9 x 27.6cm.

Published price: £24.99

Bibliophile price: £18.50

KEW GARDENS BOTANICAL ARTIST

FRANCOISE BALSAN    Book Number: 94123    Product format: Paperback

Pierre-Joseph Redouté was one of the world's most influential botanical artists who worked as the official court artist to Queen Marie Antoinette and then to Empress Josephine, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. Published in association with the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, we are introduced to his techniques and then a series of exercises - the Japanese anemone, daffodils, roses, rosebuds, simple roses, intricate roses, yellow roses, blue flowers like crocuses, copying a Redouté watercolour, mauve flowers like campanulas, yellow and violet pansies, narcissi, copying a watercolour by Antoine Pascal, red roses, a cactus flower on vellum, butterflies and drops of water, bouquets and additional techniques for creating botanical plates and observations on perspective and composition. Exquisite full page large and close up colour illustrations fill every page together with step-by-step and technique drawings so that you too can master botanical art. 22.5 x 28cm large softback, 192pp. New full price.

Bibliophile price: £14.99

BARBOSA: The Man Who Drew Flashman by LAWRENCE BLACKMORE

A lavishly illustrated art compendium and biography of Arthur Barbosa, the artist who, over more than 60 years, provided dust jackets for some of the 20th century's most famous authors of fiction, including Georgette Heyer, Doris Leslie, C. S. Forester, Patrick O'Brian, Joanna Trollope, Graham Greene, Sax Rohmer, Jules Verne, Anthony Powell, Lytton Strachey and, of course, George MacDonald Fraser. Born in Liverpool, he moved to London at the end of the 1920s where he became a noted and respected illustrator and commercial artist. A lifelong friend of Rex Harrison, he also numbered among his friends and acquaintances Cecil Beaton, Frederick Ashton, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Living in London during the Jazz Age and WWII, he grew old in a small Kentish village. He married three times and moved with the movers and shakers in '30s London. An accomplished interior designer, he was also an expert in the esoterica of military uniforms which shows in his splendid colourful artworks, posters for example Scott & Bailey 1922 Diamond Jubilee, murals and adverts as well as prized book jackets for romances and children's books, diversions of young and old on cycling, duelling, Brighton Regent's Resort and page after page of glamorously decorated military men and more recently on bottles of port and sherry from Tescos! Heavyweight tome, 23 x 30cm packed with colour illus. and hundreds of line artworks and engravings on glossy paper. Collector's item. 350 pages.

Published price: £80

Bibliophile price: £46

ANIMAL: The Definitive Visual Guide New Edition by DAVID BURNIE

Researched and written by a team of 70 academics, this is pure gold as we watch hares leaping, spiders jumping, bright patterns, serrated teeth of the white shark, meet the helmeted iguana, the laughing kookaburra, the penguin family, hoofed mammals, the sun bear and monkeys like the lemurine night monkey and the red bellied titi, boxing kangaroos and filter feeding manta rays. Specialist zoologists, palaeontologists, ecologists and photographers have collaborated for this super heavyweight visual compendium, first time discounted. It looks at the animal kingdom, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates and their habitats, showcasing more than 2,000 incredible species in stunning detail. Unrivalled in its scope and now fully revised and updated, it is an essential home reference and an introduction to evolution, animal anatomy, life cycles, classification and behaviour as well as the impact from habitats lost, climate change and other conservation issues. Each animal species comes with a description, photo, distribution map and statistics and organised into taxa (the groups of related species that scientists use to classify animals). With beautiful coloured detailed maps and striking photography, 632pp, 24 x 28.8cm.

Published price: £40

Bibliophile price: £25

GREAT NAVAL BATTLES: From Medieval Wars to The Present Day by Dr. HELEN DOE

This richly illustrated book steers a course through some of history's most epic engagements on the high seas, written by the renowned naval historian Dr Helen Doe. From the medieval to modern times, this fascinating guide recalls over 50 naval battles which have changed the course of history as ships evolved from simple battering tams to sophisticated war machines. Arranged chronologically, two double pages spreads are dedicated to a different battle - including why they took place, who was in command, the technologies available to them and the battle tactics they used. Includes among many more: Battle of Sandwich (1217), the Battles of Winchelsea, Lepanto, Cadiz, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Cape Passaro, Flamborough Head, Chesapeake Bay, the Nile, Tripoli and the First Barbary War, Navarino, The Battle of Trafalgar (1805), The Battle of Jutland (1916), Pearl Harbor (1941) the Battle of the Java Sea, the Battle of Midway, the battles for Guadalcanal right up to the Falklands War (1982). Featuring dramatic paintings, detailed battle plans, incredible full-colour photography and fascinating objects and artifacts like medals and charts, this intriguing book charts the key role of naval warfare through this and explores how technology, leadership, luck, and even the weather, have played their part in defining the world we live in today. Lampooning cartoons, glorious colour artworks of sailing ships by Garneray, and the Battle of Finisterre by Samuel Scoot are among page after page images. Glamorous large 30.2 x 2.7 x 25.3cm 256 pages.

Published price: £24.99

Bibliophile price: £12

ROCK CHRONICLES by DAVID ROBERTS

'A Visual History of the World's Greatest 250 Rock Acts' with striking, colour-coded infographics, the book provides an overview of every aspect of each band's story. See at a glance which musicians featured when, what instruments they played, which label the act was with and when, the album release dates and who played on which album. Photographs of key members past and present supplement the engaging text, and founder and current members are highlighted for immediate recognition in this masterful book which is arranged alphabetically. For more than 50 of the biggest acts there is a stunning display of iconic photographs charting their dramatic changes in appearance, and relating each iconic look to albums of the same period. The Animals 1962-1969, Anthrax 1981-present, Arcade Fire 2001-present, Arctic Monkeys 2002-present, the Bee Gees 1960-2011, Buffalo Springfield 1966-2011, Bob Dylan 1959, Emmerson Lake & Palmer 1970-2010, Jefferson Airplane/Starship 1965-present, The Triffids 1978-1989, U2 1978-present to ZZ Top 1969-present etc etc. With label abbreviations, websites, Grammy Award winners, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees and performer directory, this is the ultimate peerless rock encyclopaedia, era by glorious era. Super weighty softback, packed with colour photos, 24.6 x 17.6 x 4.3cm.

Published price: £20

Bibliophile price: £11

CHINESE CHARACTERS

DR JUSTIN WINSLETT    Book Number: 94127    Product format: Hardback

Hanzi or Chinese characters form one of the oldest writing systems in the world used in a variety of East Asian languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese. At the heart of China's cultural heritage, their elegant design has spawned a tradition of calligraphy that is as much an art form as a means of communication. This luxurious silk bound hardback is an expert introduction to Chinese characters, presented with delightful full colour illustrations. The front cover is gold embossed. The 200 characters each has an explanation of their meaning, history and composition, there is a glamorous scarlet red pagemarker, thick quality dark cream paper has been used and a good number of ancient Chinese artworks reproduced, some double page of Chinese life, trees and nature, cranes and birds, mountains and ponds. A beautiful design and layout gift edition. New full price publication.

Bibliophile price: £14.99

BEAUTIFUL NEWS: Positive Trends, Uplifting Stats by DAVID MCCANDLESS

Published price: £25

Bibliophile price: £8