Books by Elizabeth Coatsworth

The Manchester Medieval Textiles Project began in 1994, as a collaboration between Elizabeth Coatsworth of Manchester Metropolitan University and Gale Owen-Crocker of the University of Manchester. Both had specialist interests in the literary and material culture of the early medieval period, and both were conscious of a gap in general knowledge of an important and all-pervasive part of that material culture, through the relative inaccessibility of sources of information regarding medieval textiles. The Manchester Medieval Textiles Project developed with two objectives, both attempting to bring the basic materials of the subject to a wider audience. The first is to establish a catalogue of all medieval textiles in the British Isles. This starts from the needs of a seeker after specific textiles, or textile objects, who will also be interested in the context of discovery, and will be accompanied by a glossary of textile terms relevant to the finds. The catalogue will be published in due course on the internet, as a searchable database, the most useful form for those who want to devise their own, new, research questions of this material. The second objective was to produce this annotated bibliography of publications relevant to these textiles. It is intended to show the range of sources available to the historian of material culture, who wishes to consider the evidence from the surviving textiles, and whether specific publications will have the kind of information they seek. Both parts of the Project should enable those interested in this material to see what materials comparative to their object of interest exist throughout the British Isles and Ireland; and the differences between cultural areas should also be more readily apparent.

Goldsmiths' products examined, combining discussion of object with analysis of inscription and design, and literary and archaeological evidence for smiths and their work.Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, goldsmiths produced work of a high standard in both design and craftsmanship, both for personal adornment, and to embellish bookbindings, reliquaries, vessels and weapons. Some works are well known, particularly the magnificent gold and garnet regalia from Sutton Hoo, but this represents only a fraction even of the surviving work, and much more has been lost. This book is the first to look at the goldsmiths' products through the eyes of both a specialist in the period and a practical craftsman, combining close examination of the surface and structure of the objects with analysis of inscriptions and evidence for design, and with literary and visualsources of evidence for smiths and their work. Archaeological and documentary evidence for workshops, tools and working processes is also assessed, and up-to-date technical information on materials and techniques is juxtaposed with new practical research to throw light on manufacturing and decorative processes, and, more widely, to give a fresh idea of the position of the goldsmith in his society. Dr ELIZABETH COATSWORTH is Senior Lecturer inthe Department of History of Art and Design, Manchester Metropolitan University; Dr MICHAEL PINDER is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architecture, Landscape and 3DD, at the same university.