Books in the Shire Album S. series

British ceramics of the 1950s are highly evocative of a decade of optimism and change in British life. The austerity of war was quickly banished by a new breed of young consumer who demanded ceramics which were bright and modern. This book considers how pottery manufacturers met this challenge, producing ware which was also prized for design.

Traces the history of fans from biblical times to the present day.

This book seeks to preserve the memory of the coopers skills, tracing the history of the craft and describing and illustrating how a barrel was made.

Spectacles have been used since the thirteenth century, at first by the few people who needed to read, such as churchmen and clerks. This book traces the development and use of eyeglasses from the fourteenth century onwards. It is illustrated with many colour photographs.

Tatting is the craft of making lace with a shuttle. Its charm lies in the repetition of simple motifs. This title traces the development of tatting from the eighteenth-century pastime of knotting, through its emergence as a craft in Victorian times, to modern innovations. It is illustrated with examples from museums and private collections.

This book outlines the development and important events in the history of 500cc motor racing, and it is hoped that it will stimulate or revive interest in an important era in motor-racing evolution.

Perfume has been used in religious ceremony and also in medicine, for it was believed to have the power to ward off illness. Elaborately chased silver pomanders were carried during times of plague. This book traces the history of the scent bottle from the alabaster containers of ancient Egypt to mass-produced commercial bottles.

Walled kitchen gardens were found in the grounds of most large country houses in Britain and Ireland. They were designed to provide a continual supply of fruit, flowers and vegetables. The remains of these gardens can still be seen, some converted to other uses, some simply abandoned. This book examines the history of these old kitchen gardens.

This book provides a glimpse into the complex, multi-layered and evolving institution and offers an introduction to the uniforms, arms and services of the Indian Army at the height of the Raj.

Of the millions of enamel advertising signs produced between 1850 and 1950, only a few thousand survived and the authors describe and illustrate over 100 samples from their own collection.

This book explains why it was important to keep pigeons and describes the wide variety of buildings that were constructed to house them over the years.

This book describes how nineteenth-century decorative encaustic tiles derived from medieval church tiles, how they were made, the designers and manufacturers.

Most people born before 1950 can remember visiting or working in shops that had cash carriers - cash balls that ran on wooden rails, wire systems where the carrier was catapulted along an overhead steel wire, or pneumatic tube systems where the carrier was whisked off to the cash office. This title reveals details about these devices.

This album traces the history of the clay pipe, looking at its myriad designs and helps to identify examples.'

Mazes and labyrinths in various forms have been a preoccupation of mankind for thousands of years. This text traces the history of mazes worldwide from the earliest known examples, and then describes those which have been created in Britain's gardens, parks and landscape.

Surveys the medals awarded to British personnel for military services from the First World War to operations of British forces in the opening years of the twenty-first century. The campaign medals awarded for the military actions have become a popular field for collectors, since the majority of British awards were officially named.

During the Middle Ages decorative floor tiles were used in abbey churches, royal palaces, parish churches and the homes of wealthy citizens. Many medieval tiles disappeared during nineteenth-century restorations but the designs lived on in the copies made by Victorian tile manufacturers. The British Museum has a collection of these tiles.