Watercolour Challenge by Diana Vowles

Watercolour Challenge by Diana Vowles lands on the |> SALE <| shelves in my shop.

Channel 4, 1999, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Colour Photographs; Colour Drawings;

From the cover: "Watercolour Challenge is the highly successful Channel 4 series in which actress Hannah Gordon and her team of experts set out on the road to meet hundreds of budding artists. Their destinations are in all four corners of the British Isles, from Armagh in Northern Ireland to Goudhurst in Kent, and the subjects range from rugged coastlines and ancient abbeys to a tramway museum and a kite festival.

Each artist in the competition is required to paint a scene in four hours. For some this is a terrible rush; for others it is just too long. All have their own distinctive style — some representational, some expressionist, some abstract — and with such a range of subjects, Diana Vowles has the opportunity to discuss different aspects of watercolour as she meets so many painters.

Watercolour Challenge aims to inspire other would-be artists to pick up their paintbrushes. But Watercolour Challenge is more than simply inspirational, this book is an accessible, practical guide to watercolour painting, including guidance on how to get started, descriptions of the major techniques, hints and tips from the Watercolour Challenge experts and detailed descriptions of the styles and techniques employed by the competitors.

Watercolour Challenge is beautifully illustrated with Brian Rybolt's photographs of the locations, the artists and their work as it progresses."

Introduction by: Hannah Gordon

Very Good — in Very Good Dust Wrapper. Price Clipped.

Blue boards with Silver titling to the Spine. 160 pages. Index. 10" x 7¾".

Of course, if you don't like this one there are plenty more available here!

Natural Collage: The Making of Pictures with Seeds, Leaves and Grasses by Sally Miles

Natural Collage: The Making of Pictures with Seeds, Leaves and Grasses by Sally Miles lands on the |> SALE <| shelves in my shop.

Lutterworth Press, 1973, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs [19]; Colour Plates [12]; Black & White Drawings [30];

From the cover: "Sally Miles created her first picture quite by chance. She had glycerined some willow leaves and spread them out to dry; glancing at them, she was struck by their lively flourishing look — like a bird's tail-feathers. And that was what they became, for with those leaves and some silvery honesty discs she created a small gay bird, later mounted on black velvet and set in a junk-yard frame. She has had offer after offer for that picture, but could not bring herself to sell it; it marked the beginning of her craft.

There have been many pictures since then — sold, given away, specially commissioned. Some are heraldic, with formal emblematic designs; some realistic portraiture; some abstract open-work patterns; some created in minute detail, each tiny seed used like a stitch in a superb medieval cope; some small, like the miniatures set in locket frames; some vast, like the display panels for a London store.

From two-dimensional work, she moved into three-, being invited by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral, London, to create a Christmas Crib, its figures larger than life-size, a heavenly host of angels hovering above, all in natural materials — leaves, grasses, reeds, seeds, seed-pods.

This book describes how to collect and preserve and store your materials, how to sketch your initial designs, how to create and mount and frame your pictures. It is full of delight in the natural world: the intricate designs and subtle colours of seed-heads dried by sun and wind, of tiny stripy seeds, of brittle elegant stalks, of autumn leaves and marshland grasses. The only limit is that set by one's own imagination: the materials, renewed every year, always unique, cost nothing; it isn't even necessary to be able to draw; all you need is the desire to try."

Very Good — in Good Dust Wrapper. Small puncture, untidy, to the slightly faded spine of the dust wrapper. Text complete, clean and tight.

Brown boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 127 pages. Index. 10¼" x 8¼".

Of course, if you don't like this one there are plenty more available here!

Behind the Scenes: Domestic Arrangements in Historic Houses by Christina Hardyment

Behind the Scenes: Domestic Arrangements in Historic Houses by Christina Hardyment lands on the |> SALE <| shelves in my shop.

The National Trust, 1997, Hardback in dust wrapper.

First in this edition. [First: Penguin, 1992] Jacket illustration: Detail of the nineteenth-century bell-pull system in the Servants' Passage at Erddig, Clwyd. Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Facsimiles; Colour Photographs; Black & White Drawings; Plans;

From the cover: "No man need ever have an ill-provisioned house if there be but attached to it a dovecot, a warren and a fishpond, wrote Olivier de Serres in 1603.

In today's world, with the supermarket down the street and a host of modern domestic appliances in the kitchen, it has never been easier to feed, bathe, and pamper ourselves — and never harder to imagine how our ancestors managed to run a household in the days before gas, electricity, central heating, and running water. How did they cook meals, bake bread, and launder clothes? And how did they keep their houses clean?

To answer these and other questions, Christina Hardyment conducted a fascinating quest into the history of housekeeping through the well-preserved properties of Britain's National Trust, among them Petworth, Uppark, Shugborough, and Lanhydrock. To reconstruct the ingenious methods used by earlier generations to make a house a home and to keep themselves warm and well-fed, she squirmed through drains, poked around sculleries and cellars, and clambered into icehouses and up chimneys. The result of her explorations is an informative, amusing text that recounts not only the history of the kitchen, the bathroom, and the laundry, but also investigates bakehouses and breweries, dairies and dovecotes, the lamp room and the larder.

Accompanying Hardyment's descriptions of what she found in great mansions, humble cottages, medieval castles and Victorian town-houses are archival documents and accounts and a wealth of color photographs, many taken especially for this book. Together, text and illustrations reveal the domestic world of days gone by in extraordinarily intimate, often touching, and even surprising detail."

Very Good — in Very Good Dust Wrapper.

Grey boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 256 pages. Index. Bibliography. 10" x 9".

Of course, if you don't like this one there are plenty more available here!

Cricket from the Grandstand by Keith Miller

Cricket from the Grandstand by Keith Miller lands on the |> SALE <| shelves in my shop.

Oldbourne, 1959, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black and White Photographs;

From the cover: "Keith Miller, the great all-rounder, after an unprecedented career in first-class cricket, is in the grandstand. Always unpredictable, this is the man who would bowl a leg-break with the new ball or hit sixes when his side was pottering to a draw. He retired at a time when he was at the peak of his ability.

Even though he now watches from the grandstand, he is still the same Keith Miller. His opinions are open and hard-hitting, but as honest as they arc outspoken.

Why did he quit cricket in his prime? Here is the answer — and there can be little doubt as to what Miller means by his remarks. He castigates gamesmanship — suggesting that Trevor Bailey should be fined a run for every minute he wastes. He focuses a critical spotlight on his friends Bill Edrich and Denis Compton, and has much to say about the legend of the Middlesex twins.

He says, frankly: The fate of English County cricket is of common interest to all cricket-playing nations. And I don't like the way English County cricket is ticking over.

He tackles the Wardle affair, the position of Peter May, snobbishness in cricket, shamateurism, and many other topics. But even at his most controversial his ideas arc all directed to one target: the betterment of the game he loves so well.

To round off this new book he has provided his own highly personal account of the Test matches played during 1958-9, when England surrendered the Ashes. He brings the games, day by day, to life on the page — and says precisely what he thinks on such matters as umpiring, doubtful catches and the chuckers union. Raciness, hard-hitting, controversy — these are the qualities we expect from Keith Miller. Here we get them in full measure in a grand book."

Very Good — in Good Dust Wrapper. A little rubbing to the edges of the dust wrapper which is a little faded. Gently bruised at the head, tail and corners of the binding. Pages lightly age-tanned.

Blue boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 165 pages. 8¾" x 5¾".

Of course, if you don't like this one there are plenty more available here!

The Art and Technique of Oil Painting: A Discussion of Traditional Oil Techniques For Use by the Contemporary Painter by Frederic Taubes

The Art and Technique of Oil Painting: A Discussion of Traditional Oil Techniques For Use by the Contemporary Painter by Frederic Taubes lands on the |> SALE <| shelves in my shop.

Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1948, Hardback in dust wrapper.

8th edition, 1st printing, [First Published: 1940] Illustrated by way of: Black & White Plates [8]; Black & White Drawings;

Poor - in Poor Dust Wrapper. Unlaminated dust wrapper a little edgeworn and faded with heavy spotting to both panels and loss at the head of the spine. Boards damp marked and spotted. Pages lightly age-tanned.

Red boards with Black titling to the Spine. 82 pages. Index. 8¾" x 5½".

Of course, if you don't like this one there are plenty more available here!

The Voyage of the Mir-El-Lah by Lorenzo Ricciardi

The Voyage of the Mir-El-Lah by Lorenzo Ricciardi lands on the |> SALE <| shelves in my shop.

Collins, 1980, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Colour Photographs; Diagrams [2]; Maps [2];

From the cover: "Lorenzo Ricciardi tells with panache the story of his dream of sailing in a dhow, of how his dream came true and of his voyage from the head of the Arabian Gulf to the coast of East Africa. He travelled in the company of his photographer wife, Mirella. Her spectacular photographs and his text are a record of a rapidly disappearing world, the world of the dhows.

Since childhood when he ran away from his home, Lorenzo Ricciardi has been an incurable romantic. The overriding passion of his life has been the sea: as a small boy he watched the fishing vessels in the harbour in Genoa but later in his life it was the dhows he gazed at in Mombasa harbour which really caught his imagination. Lorenzo Ricciardi had a dream: he would acquire a dhow, the mysterious craft with lateen sails, as old as Solomon, and would sail on the ancient route down the Arabian Gulf to the coast of East Africa. With the backing of a film company and a reckless night in a Swiss casino he managed to get enough money to purchase the vessel of his dream and finally to set sail.

The story of the journey of the dhow, the Mir-El-Lah, with her quixotic nakhoda (captain) is told in this remarkable book. With his wife, Mirella, and their crew, this intrepid traveller sailed from the Shatt Al Arab on the Iran/Iraq border to East Africa on the classic monsoon route which Arab sailors have travelled for thousands of years. Political turmoil, shark spearing, earthquakes, erupting volcanoes and cyclones all form part of the saga, as does the unwelcome intrusion of the Iranian secret police (Savak), Yemeni guerrillas and Somali commissars The crew was motley, and his wife Mirella, renowned photographer and author of Vanishing Africa, contributed the pictures for this story. It is the tale of a modern Sinbad, the tale of a man whose dream came true."

Very Good — in Good+ Dust Wrapper. A little rubbing to the edges of the dust wrapper, pulled slightly at the head of the upper panel. Price Clipped. Text complete, clean and tight.

Blue boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 256 pages. Index. 9¾" x 7".

Of course, if you don't like this one there are plenty more available here!

Castles from the Air: An Aerial Portrait of Britain's Finest Castles by Paul Johnson

Castles from the Air: An Aerial Portrait of Britain's Finest Castles by Paul Johnson lands on the |> SALE <| shelves in my shop.

Bloomsbury, 2006, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Contains a glossary. Contains a glossary of terms. Jacket illustration: Ludlow Castle, Shropshire. Illustrated by way of: Colour Photographs;

From the cover: "The castles of Britain are icons of history. They were built to mark the domains of the powerful, and stood as symbols of authority. Their structures reflect the highest technology of the day — solid against battering rams, siege and cannon fire. And their locations identify the prevailing understanding of how the lie of the land could be turned to advantage. But imposing as the view from the ground can be, nothing shows their form and purpose better than the view from above.

Castles from the Air traces the origin and evolution of British castles from their Norman and earlier beginnings, through the great age of castle building in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries to the slow decline of castles as an architectural form in the fifteenth century. Through the Civil War in the seventeenth century, and the Napoleonic wars at the turn of the nineteenth century, although no longer the imposing bulwarks of earlier times, castles continued their important defensive role.

In Castles from the Air, hundreds of years of history are captured at a glance in more than 150 photographs of outstanding quality, revealing the past in a new and illuminating way. No better, nor more beautiful portrait of the castles of England, Scotland and Wales has ever been published before."

Very Good — in Good+ Dust Wrapper. Dust wrapper faded at the top edge with a little rubbing to the edges. Small gift sticker covering the price. Text complete, clean and tight otherwise.

Green boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 216 pages. Index. 14" x 10½".

Of course, if you don't like this one there are plenty more available here!