** SPECIAL CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS PULL-OUT SECTION ** A TOUCH OF LUXURY


70864 VANISHING ANIMALS by Gianfranco Bologna et al


Published by Italian luxury book publishers White Star in partnership with the Italian World Wildlife Fund, this is an absolutely stunning book. Our royal patron, Prince Philip, when he was president of the WWF, pointed out that if, say, the Coliseum was to be destroyed, it could be rebuilt from photos and drawings. However, if the Indian rhino became extinct nothing in the world could ever bring it back. Habitats the world over, and not just the well-known ones like the rainforests and coral reefs, are progressively losing their biodiversity to demographic movement, alteration and destruction of environments, deforestation and spread of intensive agriculture, pollution, hunting and poaching, road kills and, most recently, climate change. Then there is the trade in animals and their body parts, particularly in traditional Asian medicine, which poses further unsustainable pressures on populations of already endangered species. Put simply, the purpose of the book is to show us exactly what we will be losing if we do not act, and soon. It does so by taking the continents - Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania - plus the world’s seas and oceans, then examines the plight of the most endangered species in each. The standard of photography is quite breathtaking. Brown and polar bear cubs at play, a wolf sinking its bloodied maw into its unfortunate prey, a mother and baby gorilla in the pouring rain, indescribably cute snow leopard cubs, young Indian elephants at their ablutions, almost prehistoric-looking Indian rhinos, red and giant pandas, the awesome blue whale and other threatened cetaceans and a particularly terrifying shot of a great white shark in full-on attack mode are just a few of the highlights of the amazing gallery on show, accompanied by the latest data and research. Both object of beauty and source of invaluable information. 304pp, top quality paper, over 250 colour photos, many full or double page spreads, 11" × 13½”. £30 NOW £15


69208 IMPRESSIONS OF THE SAHARA


by Jean-Loic le Quellec Although the Sahara evokes images of endless shifting sand dunes resembling a raging sea frozen in time, a solid ocean with surging peaks and deep troughs, in reality only one fifth of the Sahara desert is


covered in these remarkable dunes. The rest is dominated by stony, arid stretches of land, rocks, blocks of sandstone, cliffs, hills, precipices, mountains and bizarrely shaped sculptures eroded over the centuries by fierce sand-laden winds, and the occasional outposts of human civilisation scattered across this unforgiving landscape, huddled up against the elements in an apparently doomed, but nevertheless continuous, struggle for survival. This magnificent, visually jaw- dropping book sets out to study the cultural heritage of this ethnically diverse and little-studied region. The book follows the caravan routes across the desert, stopping to celebrate local traditions, art, architecture, markets, oases, manuscripts, raw-earth mosques and much more that is man-made, as well as the otherworldly natural landscape. Colour. 192pp, 11¼” square. £29.95 NOW £11


70748 VALENTINA: American Couture


and the Cult of Celebrity by Kohle Yohannan


Talented, beautiful and entirely self-created, Valentina (1899-1990) was one of the most intriguing fashion designers of the 20th century. She emigrated to New York in the early 1920s from Russia with her husband and business manager George Schlee. Her early career as an actress brought her into collaboration with some of the great names and talents of the stage and screen including Leon Bakst and Michel Fokime of the Ballets Russes and screen goddess Greta Garbo with whom Valentina and George shared a much-talked-about lifelong liaison. Valentina lived on equal social footing with the high society and movie star clients she dressed. A formidable claim when one considers that Norma Shearer, Marlene Dietrich, Katherine Hepburn, Gloria Swanson as well as generations of Vanderbilts and Witneys were all loyal Valentina customers. Presciently aware of the power of the media, her meteoric rise to fame and fortune in the 1940s helped to elevate the social status of the American fashion designer. Here are many never-before-seen masterworks of photography including platinum prints by Horst P. Horst, George Hoyningen-Huene and Cecil Beaton, as well as original sketches, letters, snapshots and ephemera from private collections around the world and her estate. According to Greta Garbo, she walked into the lives of George and Valentina Schlee completely naked, standing in the dressing room of Valentina’s Fifth Avenue salon! ‘Garbo wasn’t a fashion plate by choice, only by trade.’ Packed with well known names and personalities, stunning gowns and


eveningwear, tiaras, high fashion and beauty, this is an irresistible coffee table book of the highest quality. 2009 Rizzoli publication, 280pp, 10" x 12".


£40 NOW £16.50


68984 NO.1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE AGENCY:


Signed Collectors’ Edition by Alexander McCall Smith A captivating portrait of an exotic world. Wayward daughters, missing husbands, philandering partners. If you have a problem and no one else can help you, then pay a visit to Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s only female private detective. Precious sets out on the trail of a


missing child, in a case that tumbles our heroine into a hotbed of strange situations and more than a little danger. Full of sly humour and set in a place of breathtaking beauty, this is a rare pleasure. 224 page two-colour hardback. Collectable and SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, each copy is numbered and bound in ochre, sun-burnt ‘hide’ suede slipcase with gold tooling. Reduced.


£50 NOW £12


64639 HISTORY OF THE BEANO: The Story So Far


by D. C. Thomson & Co. The official Beano history in one magnificent black and red tome measuring 12" square. On 30th July 1938, a rainbow of colour emerged into the lives of children in bleak, pre-war Britain. The Beano was born. To celebrate its 70th


year and as a tribute to yesterdays fans and today’s enthusiasts, the publisher D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd themselves proudly present this lavishly illustrated history. Characters like Dennis the Menace, Roger the Dodger and Minnie the Minx were introduced to universal acclaim. And what was the name of the spotty kid? Ping the Elastic Man, Pansy Potter and Lord Snooty, how Edric won a dragon’s tooth - to save the magic sword, Little Plum, the Laughing Pirate, Billy the Cat and Katie and the Bash Street Kids are among the cast on parade. Also covers the Dandy comic with Korky the Cat, the ‘big brother’ edition called the BeanoMax and the third series of Dennis and Gnasher animations in production. Beautifully reproduced archival artworks. 352pp. Still full price, we have permission to retail at a discount!


£25 NOW £15


69239 VENICE: Three Volumes Slipcased Set


edited by Alain Vircondelet The three volumes in this exquisitely presented set comprise Venice Lifestyle, Venice Art and Architecture and Venice History, each volume 160 pages measuring over 9" x 12" and packed with


colour artworks. The history volume covers the legendary origins of Venice, the lingering death of the eternal city, from Marco Polo to the tourist city and the challenge of the third millennium. The second volume looks at art and architecture. St. Mark’s Basilica, through its lustre and oft-renovated golden exterior, polychrome marble and vibrant mosaics, exemplifies this zeal. Painters, sculptors and architects have united in an effort to adorn the city. From Bellini’s serene Madonna to Tiepolo’s and Guardi’s mirthful carnivals, from the gothic palaces of the Grand Canal to the elaborate baroque church of the Gesuiti, Venice amazes and astounds. Wagner was inspired by the gondoliers’ songs, Vivaldi was a professor there, and numerous operas were created in the theatres and churches of the city. In the third and final volume we see the market at Rialto with its barges bursting with fruits and vegetables, the trattoria and their displays of spaghetti alla vongole and risotto al nero di seppie, strolls along the alleys overlooked by tourists. Culminating in the carnivale, much colour and glamour is to be seen in this third and final volume in this fabulous box set. £80 NOW £30


69547 ANGUS MCBEAN PORTRAITS


by Terence Pepper


Many of the greatest stars of stage, screen and the music scene eagerly grasped the privilege of being shot by one of the most revolutionary, avant-garde and influential portrait photographers of the 1930s to the 1950s. As they did for Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and


Marlene Dietrich, McBean’s images could make a star’s career. Only Angus would think of photographing Vivien Leigh as Aurora, Goddess of Dawn by fastening tufts of wired cotton clouds directly to her dress, or show Frances Day in a lobster pot washed up on a rock, juxtaposed with a disembodied hand holding up a mirror. David Ball, who became McBean’s partner and life-time companion, and whose physique and young athletic build made him a perfect model, appeared in several of his most memorable Christmas cards, reproduced here, in the playful guise of putto or angel. Mae West, Maria Callas, Shirley Bassey, Gielgud, Olivier and the Beatles all feature. 172 pages 24 x 29mm, bursting with photos in colour and b/w with chronology. First edition. ONLY £17


69616 ANGELS: A Pop-Up Book by Chuck Fischer and Curtis Flowers


!


A combination of Chuck Fischer’s beautifully detailed coloured paintings and paper engineering by Bruce Foster make this a highly collectable pop-up book for all ages. Arranged in three sections: Messengers, a Hierarchy of Angels and Secular Angels, we explore the function of angels as couriers between the heavens and humanity, the hierarchy and the structured order of their divine servitude and finally look at those supernatural entities who exist alongside their religious counterparts. The narratives and imagery in the book draw on a rich history of angelic lore from artists, authors and philosophers both biblical and secular who have been simply curious about angels. Throughout history, practitioners of traditional religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Zoroastrianism have embraced the thought of angelic beings existing in their midst. Gold lettering and twine. £25 NOW £11


Bibliophile Books Unit 5 Datapoint, 6 South Crescent, London E16 4TL TEL: 020 74 74 24 74


70546 LITHOGRAPHS OF JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER: Two Volumes Slipcased


by Katherine Lochnan, Harriet


Stratis and Martha Tedeschi The catalogue raisonné is one of the essential tools of art-historical scholarship, a resource packed with


more critical for the study of prints than for works of art in any other medium. It identifies the corpus of an artist’s work and provides an overall achievement of an artist. This rare collection of museum prints have been compiled by the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Prints and Drawings. It is a new catalogue raisonné of the lithographs of James McNeill Whistler. Beginning with his first experiments in the medium in 1878, Whistler developed a growing enthusiasm to lithography over the next two decades. He challenged himself to create the most distilled images of his career at a period when lithography was generally associated with industrial printing. His ‘airy drawings’ as he thought of them were as innovative as his nearly abstract painted Nocturnes. Since his day, the 179 lithographs he created have continued to be overlooked and largely misunderstood and here a team of scholars have corrected this situation by providing the best possible reproductions of these hauntingly beautiful works. Listed marginally alongside the main body of text are the Chicago numbers according to their chronological order, title, date, Way number from T. R. Way’s catalogue raisonné 1896, 1905, Levi number, medium, ink colour, signature, number of dates exhibited in, image size, number of impressions, printer watermarks, published edition, legend/blind stamp, full sheet size, stone indicating when or if the lithographic stone was erased, lifetime exhibitions and collections such as Glasgow, London and Washington and physical descriptions. See La Jolie New Yorkaise of 1894, Draped Model Standing by a Sofa, Drury Lane Rags of 1888 and hundreds of others, maybe for the first time. The second volume is subtitled Correspondence and Technical Studies and has contributions by Kevin Sharp and Harriet Stratis. It includes most of the Whistler-Way correspondence, his techniques covering beauty and business, a selected chronology of exhibitions, publications and sales, notes on important individuals, publications and galleries, watermarks in Whistler’s papers including Posthumous Lithographs, bibliographies and photography credits. Very collectable US first edition, both volumes are illustrated, 34 x 24 x 10cm, 992 pages in two volumes slipcased. Published by Yale University Press, May 1998, and specially imported to the U.K. by Bibliophile. £250 NOW £70


70941 ART OF AFRICA by the Scala Group


A tremendously heavy 574 page 11" square tome featuring thousands of colour images and full page colour plates on quality paper. It provides a comprehensive outline of Sub- Saharan African art which can be a


real challenge. The reason is simple - most pieces of African art have failed to reach us intact due to the fragility of the materials used - wood and clay. Also there is very little archaeological research dedicated to this subject. There has been a spread of common characteristics throughout all African art - one recurring theme is the family and divinity and the relationship between them, which is favoured through the offering of sacrifices. The masks used during initiation ceremonies play the role of guaranteeing regularity in their lives and relationships, passing down the foundations of their culture, including the role of executioner for anyone found to be disobeying their laws. They particularly worried about agricultural and female fertility, and within societies which do not possess a form of writing, art assumes an even more important role. Despite the careful workmanship of each piece, we know that the aim was not to create a beautiful object - these pieces of art strived for social reconstitution, man’s happiness and the survival of the natural world. Beautiful wood masks from the Ivory Coast, anthropomorphic funeral figures in terracotta, horse mounted figures, a mask used to invoke the god Do from Burkino Faso, beautiful gold jewellery from Ghana, flags, statues, elephants’ heads, plaques, delicately crafted figurines in brass from the Yoruba,


70952 ANDREA PALLADIO by Christoph Ulmer


A stunning volume measuring 11½” across by just over 16" tall devoted to the foremost architect of all time, Andrea Palladio. Neo-Palladian buildings are found on every continent yet during his lifetime, Palladio’s fame was limited and substantial parts of his plans were not executed. Here are city residences like the Palazzos Civena, stunning villas, churches and religious buildings, palaces and theatres and other public places. In Villa Godi, amongst one of his first creations, he is still rather caught up in local tradition. There followed five stays in Rome during which he contemplated and studied the great works of the classical era and the modern architecture of the time, the late Renaissance and Mannerism. It was these 15 years of intensely comparing such models that forged his personal style, a synthesis of ancient monuments, contemporary Roman architecture and a strong local Venetian tradition. Truly classic villas such as Villa Emo and La Rotonda, the palaces of Vicenza and the ecclesiastical buildings of Venice sprang up in quick succession. His final masterpiece was the Tempietto in Maser but he did not see it completed as death overtook him in 1580. With superb drawings and plans, elevations and floor plans, rusticated façades and entrance atriums, set in-between full page detailed coloured photographs of each master work featured on heavy quality art paper. A truly magisterial tome as befitting this grand architect and La Serenissima. 446pp in an unsurpassed photographic volume. New publication. ONLY £49


e-mail: orders@bibliophilebooks.com


70951 PHOTOGRAPHY: The Masters by Carolina Orlandini


Stieglitz, Sander, Lange, Muybridge, Brassaï, Magritte, Vogel, Modotti, Cunningham, de Meyer, Warhol, Brandt, Blumenfeld, Shad, Nadar, Weston, Cartier- Bresson, Mapplethorpe, Freund, Man Ray, Rodchenko and Capa are among the star-studded names whose work are afforded a full page superb reproduction in this glorious coffee table heavyweight volume. A symbiosis between technical-scientific component and an artistic one, photography binds two aspects to form independent art. From the portrait to the still life, the nude to the fashion photograph, the scenery shot to photojournalism, each photograph is unique in its immediacy, flexibility and versatility. Covering a whole history from the birth of photography, development in the 19th and 20th centuries, the protagonists of the 30s, here are portraits and landscapes, the Brooklyn Bridge, a night scene in Budapest 1917, the Jewel of Montmartre by Brassaï and of Salvador Dalí, a blonde male German gymnast photographed on the pommel horse by Leni Riefenstahl, a traditional dance of Scottish fishermen 1936 captured by German photographer Bernd Lohse, the Steps in Montmartre Paris and sun inside the New York train station by the same German photographer, Fleet Street and Cheapside in London in the 1920s, worker’s hands (Mexico 1930s), the Death of Ghosts by Magritte 1928 and photography as it appeared in


contemporary posters and advertising. There are


unforgettable, iconic images. Over 600 images in 510 truly mesmerising pages. 11½” square. New publication.


ONLY £29.50


Nigeria, marionettes with moveable jaws, decorated village houses of chiefs, copper and brass reliquary guardian figures, female masks, wooden thrones, initiation masks and helmets and thousands more examples. Here is art from the West Coast, Western Savannah, Akan art from the Gulf Coast and Nigeria, the Grasslands and Gabon, the Congo, and from East and South Asia. Approximately 300 illus, mostly in colour in a heavyweight coffee table tome. ONLY £29.50


70949 MAPPING THE CITY: From Antiquity to the 20th Century


by C. J. Schüler


Ever since its emergence in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley around 10,000 years ago, the city has had many personalities, and today accommodates half of


humanity. These 200 or so maps, the most significant and beautiful in the Royal Geographical Society’s superb collection, show us how Man conceived and designed the town, chronicling both a crescendo of expansion and improvement and an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the urban environment. From the clay tablets of the Babylonians through the magnificent bird’s eye perspectives of the Renaissance, to the precise scale maps of the 20th century, these examples record ownership, glorify achievement, help people find their way around, chart poverty and wealth, help to plan social improvements, or simply entertain and amuse. We are whisked on a journey to capital cities, princely residences, manufacturing centres and market towns across the globe from Jerusalem, Istanbul, Jakarta, Edinburgh and New York in great detail, each map a window on the world. Covers Ancient and Medieval Cities 1500BC-1550AD, The Renaissance City 1550-1662 including Byzantium, The World Detailed 1660-1750, The Age of Revolution and The Enlightenment 1750-1830 and The Industrial City 1830-45 including urban transport. Truly a spectacular in the quality of reproduction and detail, the text is in three languages, and many of the examples in glorious colour. 320 heavyweight massive pages measuring 13" x 16" tall. In protective cardboard wrapping for safe mailing and great value. ONLY £49


YULETIDE BOOKS


71112 SNOWMAN 3D ADVENT CALENDAR by Xavi Re


Glistening with silver glitter, just slide the parts together and count down the days until Christmas with this enchanting large advent


calendar. The snowman across his girth is approximately 11" and quite tall at approximately 16". For wall hanging. The colourful toys and


wrapped presents are scattered at his feet. £7 NOW £3


70996 BEST LOVED HYMNS, POEMS AND READINGS by Martin H. Manser


A reference book for every bookshelf and a resource for personal devotions, this collection will also be useful for making selections for weddings, Christenings or funerals. Each hymn, reading or poem is given an introduction which sets the background or gives interesting information. Did you know, for instance, that O, Little Town of Bethlehem was written by an American preacher inspired after attending a Christmas Eve service at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem itself, or that in the Christmas of 1914 British and German forces in the trenches famously joined in singing Silent Night in their different languages? The readings are arranged in alphabetical order. Indices at the end of the book to enable readers to find a particular item by looking up its first line, its author, its overall theme or, where appropriate, its Bible reference. 281 pages. £12.99 NOW £5


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