Books published by Ad Ilissum

A catalog raisonné of the world's most complete collection of seventeenth-century Chinese porcelain. With six hundred stunning full-color illustrations, this book celebrates the most important collection of seventeenth-century Chinese porcelain in the world, assembled by the distinguished British diplomat Sir Michael Butler (1927-2013). Butler's lavish collection covers most types of porcelain produced at Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi province, during the seventeenth century. This comprehensive volume features nearly all of the pieces in the collection, presented in sections featuring the main categories of porcelains in the collection: Late Ming, High Transitional, Shunzhi, Early Kangxi, Mid-Late Kangxi, Monochromes, and Famille Verte, as well as disputed pieces. An introduction by Katharine Butler tells the fascinating story of the circumstances that encouraged her father to acquire, collect, and passionately study Chinese porcelain of the seventeenth century; how he found rare pieces with dates, interesting inscriptions, seal marks, or narrative scenes; and how the collection and his scholarly publications came to be internationally renowned.

The distinguished private collection, known as the Griffin Collection, comprises in its entirety examples of every category of ring -- signet, devotional, memorial, decorative -- dating from antiquity to modern times. This catalogue, focusing on about 150 rings in the collection, is concerned with perhaps the most personal rings of all, those associated with love and marriage. Some can be recognised by the figure of Cupid armed with his quiver of golden arrows, others by the symbols of heart and clasped hands. However, the majority are gold bands, sometimes plain and occasionally decorated, that are inscribed with mottoes in English expressing the admiration, affection, and pledges of fidelity which bind humankind together. Known as posies or little poems because they often rhyme, these mottoes were current on rings from the late Middle Ages until the middle of the 19th century. Through these rings, Ms. Scarisbrick engagingly tells the long story of the relations between the sexes from the fifteenth century, when the cult of courtly love was superseded by an idealization of monogamous marriage, to an end in the twentieth century as a result of a different moral outlook.

This stunning two-volume publication introduces readers to one of the largest private collections of architectural drawings in the world. Showcasing drawings and related models and artifacts dating from 1691 to the mid-twentieth century, this lavish tome provides a fascinating look at these often beautiful byproducts of architectural training and practice. The collection, assembled over a thirty-year period by investor and philanthropist Peter May, comprises more than six hundred architectural sheets, all carefully preserved and handsomely framed. Arranged by category, the sheets are primarily nineteenth and early twentieth-century competition or certification drawings by design students, as well as presentation drawings for public commissions, reconstruction studies, and interior designs. An introduction by the collector Peter May, afterwords by Mark Ferguson and Bunny Williams, and essays by leading authorities in the field--including Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, Charles Hind, Basile Baudez, Matthew Wells, and more--provide historical context for the drawings.

This new edition publishes the letters adressed by Édouard Manet (1832-1883) to his friend, the artist Félix Bracquemond (1833-1914).

The destruction on the morning of All Saints Day 1755 of the heart of the city of Lisbon by an earthquake, tidal wave and the urban fires that followed was a tragedy that divides the 18th century in Portugal. One casualty on that fatal morning was the Royal Library, one of the most magnificent libraries in Europe at the time. The Lost Library of the King of Portugal tells the story of the lost library ¿ its creation, collection and significance. This 18th-century library was founded by the Bragan¿monarch Dom Jo¿V shortly after he came to the throne in 1706, and was housed at the heart of the royal palace, the Pa¿da Ribeira in Lisbon. The king¿s abiding ambition was to create one of Europe¿s great court libraries and, at the time of his death in 1750, it was reputed to be one of the most magnificent libraries in Europe. The Royal Library was also composed of a Cabinet of Prints and Drawings, medals and scientific instruments as well as a Cabinet of Natural History with specimens from across Portugal¿s global empire. This documented study describes the creation of the library, its cultural significance in 18th-century Portugal, the acquisition of single volumes as well as entire libraries from across Europe and the role in this of Portugal¿s most talented diplomats. It include the collection of manuscripts from the celebrated library of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland and the unpublished correspondence that was exchanged during the negotiations between London and Lisbon. Throughout his reign, the devout Dom Jo¿V set out to conjure up his own vision of Rome and the papal court he never saw. Two chapters are devoted to Italy ¿ one to the talented archaeologist Francesco Bianchini at the papal court, including the unpublished correspondence between him and his royal patron Dom Jo¿V, as well as the guides to Rome and art and architecture at the ducal courts of northern Italy, both commissioned by the king. When the library was destroyed in 1 November 1755 by the earthquake, tidal wave and the fires that followed, only a few books, manuscripts and albums of prints were saved, and the author traces their final journey with the royal family and court to Brazil on the eve of the invasion by Napoleon¿s army in November 1806.

This lavishly illustrated book celebrates one of the most comprehensive and meticulously assembled private collections of Chinese export porcelain from the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644) made at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province. The Lurie Collection, comprising about 170 porcelain pieces, contains examples that are exceptional not only for their aesthetic beauty and quality but also for their rarity or historical importance. This book makes a significant contribution to several fields of study, most notably those related to the production, design and trade of Jingdezhen export porcelain in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. An introduction places the diverse porcelains of the Lurie Collection in their historical context. It offers new insight into the European expansion to Asia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, via both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which ultimately led to an unprecedented large-scale trade, transport and consumption of various types of Jingdezhen export porcelain throughout the world until the collapse of the Ming dynasty in 1644. The core of the book is the catalogue section, which is composed of 127 entries with comprehensive discussions and images of a selection of the Lurie porcelains. Whenever possible they are accompanied by images of excavated shards that originally formed part of similar porcelain pieces, establishing direct links to the Jingdezhen kilns where such pieces were produced. Multiple sources of evidence (textual, material and visual) shed light on the trading networks through which these Jingdezhen porcelains circulated, as well as the way in which they were acquired, used and appreciated by the different societies in Europe, the New World, Asia and the Middle East. Highlights include six kraak plates made during the Wanli reign (1573¿1620) with the egret mark, which is found on a small number of pieces usually of very high quality, and the only known kraak armorial specifically ordered for the Spanish market in the 16th century. This finely potted plate, also dating to the Wanli reign, bears the impaled arms of Garc¿Hurtado de Mendoza, 4th Marquis of Ca¿ete, and his wife, Teresa de Castro y de la Cueva. It was most probably ordered via Manila during the time Hurtado de Mendoza was Viceroy of Peru, between 1589 and 1596. This plate, together with a kraak plate bearing a pseudo-armorial, and a few pieces decorated in the so-called Transitional style and one other recovered from the Hatcher Junk (c.1643) made after European shapes, attest to the influence that the European merchants exerted on the porcelain production at Jingdezhen at the time.

Recently discovered documents show that Giambologna, the great sculptor at the court of the Medici whose bronzes delighted all Europe, made six large garden sculptures for King Henri IV of France, otherwise unknown. This book describes the garden project and discusses three bronzes identified as from the project, in particular a hitherto unknown Venus. Ferdinando I de¿ Medici, Grand Duke of Florence, built up his relationship with the French crown with numerous diplomatic gifts, including the creation of new gardens at St-German-en-Laye laid out for the King of France by the engineer and designer Tommaso Francini, who had designed and built Ferdinando¿s own Pratolino gardens, and sculptures by Giambologna that would adorn them. This was in the years 1597¿1600, and preparatory to the marriage of his daughter Maria to Henri IV in 1600 in the most spectacular wedding celebrations ever seen in Europe. Blanca Troyols describes the nature of Henri IV¿s beauitiful gardens ¿ in the latest Mannerist style, using a host of materials (stone, shell, crystal) and rare plants, the extravagant water features in which Francini was a specialist, and an array of statuary. She places this important garden in context and also discusses the diplomatic manoeuvring between the respectively larger and poorer and smaller and richer states of France and Tuscany. Alexander Rudigier examines the surviving works by Giambologna associated with the gardens, including a hitherto unknown Venus in a private collection that has been the object of some controversy. He compares this to the Mercury in the Louvre and the Triton in the Metropolitan Museum in New York also originally for the gardens, as well as with Giambologna¿s work as a whole. He shows that probably Giambologna¿s pupil Hans Reichle was his major assistant, and traces the career of the German founder, Gerhard Meyer, working in Florence, who signed the Venus. This leads to an important discussion of Gimabologna¿s late work in general. Lars Olof Larson provides a technical report on the new Venus. The distinguished bronze specialist Bertrand Jestaz provides an introduction and overview.

Kokusai lived in a time of immense social, cultural and artistic change, and his work ¿ and indeed his own person ¿ captures its contradictions. The Edo period was ending, the last breath of feudal Japan, and the Meiji Restoration launched the new nation into a dramatic, Westernized and industrialized modernity. Kokusai was a radical interpreter of this world, holding up a mirror to the rich culture vanishing before his eyes. A modernist who yet stubbornly adhered to ancient, simple values, he carved humble, personal truths into the most intractable of materials while simultaneously enjoying a life of wild excess and lavish beauty. This beautifully illustrated set of three volumes ¿ titled Precursors, Kokusai and Followers ¿ includes catalogue entires for 608 objects as well as a number of sub-entries. Also included are essays on Kokusai¿s life, carving techniques, materials and followers ¿ the latter of which demonstrates his extraordinary and lasting influence. Most objects are illustrated at size and are augmented by additional and lavish detail photography. Many of the larger objects, such as staffs and sceptres, are illustrated with luxurious fold-out pages.