NEW BOOKS
Heracles to Alexander the Great
Treasures from the Royal Capital of Macedon, a Hellenic Kingdom in the Age of Democracy
By Anjeliki Kottaridi with contributors
Philip II of Macedonia and his son, Alexander, were the stuff of myths - myths they created and perpetuated through their conquests, buildings and art works. Nearly 600 objects of gold, silver, bronze and other materials demonstrate the extent of their power as well as their patronage of the arts. This material is contained in the catalog of a groundbreaking Ashmolean Museum exhibition, "Heracles to Alexander the Great."
The catalogue was written by archaeologist Angeliki Kottaridi and 13 contributors. The finds are from Aegae, the ancient capital of Macedonia, birthplace of Philip and Alexander, now the modern city of Verginia) during 30 years of excavations. Apart from a few items in New York in 2006, these pieces have never been seen anywhere.
Softcover,
Life Everlasting
National Museums Scotland Collection of Ancient Egyptian Coffins
By Bill Manley and Aidan Dodson
This collection from the National Museums Scotland represents the cumulative work of pioneers in the understanding of Ancient Egypt and archeology.
Sixty-five funerary items are illustrated and annotated, including the royal burial group from Qurna, the coffin of the priest Iufenamun and the double mummies of half-brothers, Petamun and Penhorpabik. There are splendid coffins, mummy cases, masks, portraits and other exterior adornments of the well-equipped mummy.
Annotations provide item owner, dating, dimensions, materials, description, provenance and mode of acquisition. Organized sequentially, the expert authors explain styles and techniques and the changes in each epoch - taking their story from the Middle Kingdom to the time of Roman Rule ending in the third century AD. Concordances, chronology of Egypt, and a glossary are included.
Hardcover,$29.95 $26.95
Sixty-five funerary items are illustrated and annotated, including the royal burial group from Qurna, the coffin of the priest Iufenamun and the double mummies of half-brothers, Petamun and Penhorpabik. There are splendid coffins, mummy cases, masks, portraits and other exterior adornments of the well-equipped mummy.
Annotations provide item owner, dating, dimensions, materials, description, provenance and mode of acquisition. Organized sequentially, the expert authors explain styles and techniques and the changes in each epoch - taking their story from the Middle Kingdom to the time of Roman Rule ending in the third century AD. Concordances, chronology of Egypt, and a glossary are included.
Hardcover,
Lucien Pissarro in England
The Eragny Press 1895-1914
By Victor Benjamin, Colin Harrison, Jon Whiteley
This catalogue looks at the origins and achievements of the Eragny Press, the seminal press founded in London by Lucien Pissarro, eldest son of the “father” of Impressionism, Camille Pissarro. Eragny played a pivotal role in the development of European book art.
Introductory essays describe its history and aesthetic aims, as well as background on Lucien. Lucien, intimate with Cezanne, Manet and Monet, his father’s friends, became interested in the techniques of woodprinting and woodcutting when he moved to London. A successful painter and graphic artist, he exhibited as part of the Neoimpressionist movement and was a founder of the Camden Town Group.
The correspondences between Lucien and Camille serve as important documents for the Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist movements, and the Ashmolean’s Pissarro Archive is the largest single resource for the study of Impressionism in the world. Presented to the Museum by the family, it numbers several thousand items, including a dozen oil paintings by Camille covering the whole range of his output, several hundred drawings and an important group of prints.
Softcover,$25.00 $22.50
Introductory essays describe its history and aesthetic aims, as well as background on Lucien. Lucien, intimate with Cezanne, Manet and Monet, his father’s friends, became interested in the techniques of woodprinting and woodcutting when he moved to London. A successful painter and graphic artist, he exhibited as part of the Neoimpressionist movement and was a founder of the Camden Town Group.
The correspondences between Lucien and Camille serve as important documents for the Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist movements, and the Ashmolean’s Pissarro Archive is the largest single resource for the study of Impressionism in the world. Presented to the Museum by the family, it numbers several thousand items, including a dozen oil paintings by Camille covering the whole range of his output, several hundred drawings and an important group of prints.
Softcover,
The Lewis Chessmen
Unmasked
Edited by David Caldwell
The “Lewis Chessmen” are 78 12th century chess pieces of mainly walrus ivory- with some of whale teeth- from a spectacular archeological discovery on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. One of the few complete sets surviving of the medieval game popular among the aristocracy of the Middle Ages, it is believed the detailed and often humorous sculptures of human figures were made by Norse craftsmen from Trondheim, the city where similar pieces have been found.
The Chessmen come from the British Museum and the National Museums of Scotland, and looks at the mystery and intrigue surrounding the figures, explores their discovery and shows how the characters reflected society of their time.
Hardcover,$15.95 $14.35
The Chessmen come from the British Museum and the National Museums of Scotland, and looks at the mystery and intrigue surrounding the figures, explores their discovery and shows how the characters reflected society of their time.
Hardcover,
Scotland's Land Girls
Breeches, Bombers and Backaches
Edited by Elaine Edwards
There were women's 'armies'- women who worked the farms (and factories) during both World Wars. During World War II a Women's Land Army was formed in the United States as part of the Emergency Farm Labor Service, lasting from 1943 to 1947,and various ‘Women's Land Armies’ were established in other countries, including Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
This is the story of women’s farm work in Scotland in a time when agriculture was the backbone of the economy. When men were called to military service during World War I the farms would have been left fallow if it were not for the ‘land girls,’ many who volunteered and came from the industrial cities. By 1918, there were 23,000 women milking cows, plowing fields and herding animals on Scottish farms. When the WLA was called into action again in World War II, the women not only farmed but also did the back-breaking jobs of cutting down trees and working in sawmills.
The book includes rare photographs from the National Museum of Scotland’s Scottish Life Archive.
$14.95 $13.45
This is the story of women’s farm work in Scotland in a time when agriculture was the backbone of the economy. When men were called to military service during World War I the farms would have been left fallow if it were not for the ‘land girls,’ many who volunteered and came from the industrial cities. By 1918, there were 23,000 women milking cows, plowing fields and herding animals on Scottish farms. When the WLA was called into action again in World War II, the women not only farmed but also did the back-breaking jobs of cutting down trees and working in sawmills.
The book includes rare photographs from the National Museum of Scotland’s Scottish Life Archive.
An Orkney Boyhood
By Duncan Cameron Mackenzie, Edited by Mark A. Mulhern
Many visitors come to Orkney, a group of islands lying off Scotland’s northern tip, where the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean meet, to find their family roots, as well as to see some of Europe’s most fabulous archaeological sites and Viking structures. For Duncan Cameron Mackenzie, who grew up in Burray, one of the smallest of the islands, childhood was full of unusual adventures and traditional customs unknown in many other parts of the world.
Reading this delightful memoir reminds us of the way things used to be, when life was simpler and joys were perhaps richer. This is his story of town hall movies, of turnip hoeing competitions, of making an electric blanket and collecting scrap metal on the beach to sell; of fishing off the end of the pier; of encountering jelly fish at Scapa Flow, of being lowered into the well to sort out the family’s water supply, of fights and looking after hens; of cutting peats and making wooden boats with sails. A highlight of the Orkney year was the traditional New Year’s Day Ba’ Game which could have from 200 to 600 players and last up to nine hours.
$14.95 $13.45
Reading this delightful memoir reminds us of the way things used to be, when life was simpler and joys were perhaps richer. This is his story of town hall movies, of turnip hoeing competitions, of making an electric blanket and collecting scrap metal on the beach to sell; of fishing off the end of the pier; of encountering jelly fish at Scapa Flow, of being lowered into the well to sort out the family’s water supply, of fights and looking after hens; of cutting peats and making wooden boats with sails. A highlight of the Orkney year was the traditional New Year’s Day Ba’ Game which could have from 200 to 600 players and last up to nine hours.
Showfolk
An Oral History of a Scottish Fairground Dynasty
By Frank Bruce
No matter your language or cultural persuasion, the magic draw of the circus and fair we felt when we were children stays with us well into adulthood. For buffs of the subject, this book will not only prove delightful but it fills in important gaps in the history of the theme.
It is the personal story of the family fortunes of the Frank Codona family, celebrated Scottish fair and circus performers – whose feats made them beloved from the British Isles to Hawaii. How they reached the top of their profession is told mostly in their own words.
This oral history includes the familiar faces found at fairs; the pleasures of the circus city; the ‘geggies’ (canvas and wood circus tents); gallopers (carousel horses); and, ‘ghost’ shows (developed from magic lantern shows and precursors of moving pictures on big screens at fairgrounds). Included are a family tree of the Codonas, glossary and bibliography. Many of the photos have not been seen before.
$14.95 $13.45
It is the personal story of the family fortunes of the Frank Codona family, celebrated Scottish fair and circus performers – whose feats made them beloved from the British Isles to Hawaii. How they reached the top of their profession is told mostly in their own words.
This oral history includes the familiar faces found at fairs; the pleasures of the circus city; the ‘geggies’ (canvas and wood circus tents); gallopers (carousel horses); and, ‘ghost’ shows (developed from magic lantern shows and precursors of moving pictures on big screens at fairgrounds). Included are a family tree of the Codonas, glossary and bibliography. Many of the photos have not been seen before.
A Geological Excursion Guide to the North-West Highlands of Scotland
Edited By Kathryn M. Goodenough and Maarten Krabbendam
This is an up-to-date geological excursion guide to the dramatic landscape of the North-West Highlands of Scotland. For the serious hiker, geologist, and perhaps even the enthusiastic tourist, the Northern and Western Highlands of Scotland offer some of the most varied geology and spectacular scenery in Scotland – and all of Europe.
This well illustrated guide describes a zone formed 430 million years ago, when England and Scandinavia collided with Scotland, This was during the mountain-building event known as the Caledonian Orogeny that produced the Caledonian Mountain chain. The rock sequences that were faulted and disrupted are along the Moine Thrust Belt.
Here are up-to-date interpretations of the structural relationships, sedimentology, and igneous and metamorphic features of this spectacular and remote area. There are some new roads and bridges and the 16 excursions described vary from roadside stops to full-day mountain walks over very rough terrain, with its abrupt weather changes.
$22.95 $20.65
This well illustrated guide describes a zone formed 430 million years ago, when England and Scandinavia collided with Scotland, This was during the mountain-building event known as the Caledonian Orogeny that produced the Caledonian Mountain chain. The rock sequences that were faulted and disrupted are along the Moine Thrust Belt.
Here are up-to-date interpretations of the structural relationships, sedimentology, and igneous and metamorphic features of this spectacular and remote area. There are some new roads and bridges and the 16 excursions described vary from roadside stops to full-day mountain walks over very rough terrain, with its abrupt weather changes.
Northern Lights
The Age of Scottish Lighthouses
By Alison Morrison-Low
This fully-illustrated book will add to the treasure trove of information collected by lighthouse aficionados, of which there are many in the West, wherever there are seacoasts and searfaring folk.
It tells the story of Scotland's lighthouses through objects, charts and photographs and has been published to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the world's oldest rock lighthouse, on the Bell Rock or Inchcape Reef, off the east coast of Scotland. It shows the National Museums Scotland's pre-eminent collection of sea-marking material drawn from the Northern Lighthouse Board, the authority that maintains seamarks in Scotland and the Isle of Man. However, this is only part of the story.
The family of Engineers to the Board, the family of Robert Louis Stevenson (his father and grandfather were lighthouse builders) has also ensured that many items have been placed in the care of the Museum, and thus are accessible to the public. Historic items relating to the building of the earlier Eddystone Lighthouse, located in the English Channel, are also held by the museum.
$24.95 $22.45
It tells the story of Scotland's lighthouses through objects, charts and photographs and has been published to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the world's oldest rock lighthouse, on the Bell Rock or Inchcape Reef, off the east coast of Scotland. It shows the National Museums Scotland's pre-eminent collection of sea-marking material drawn from the Northern Lighthouse Board, the authority that maintains seamarks in Scotland and the Isle of Man. However, this is only part of the story.
The family of Engineers to the Board, the family of Robert Louis Stevenson (his father and grandfather were lighthouse builders) has also ensured that many items have been placed in the care of the Museum, and thus are accessible to the public. Historic items relating to the building of the earlier Eddystone Lighthouse, located in the English Channel, are also held by the museum.