Design

Edward Bawden (1903–1989) was one of the most innovative graphic designers of the 20th century, whose work included covers and designs for the Curwen Press, illustrations for the Ambrose Bierce cookery books published by Faber & Faber, ceramic designs, advertising artworks, particularly for London Transport and Fortnum & Mason, and murals. In this volume from the Design series, Peyton Skipwith’s succinct account of Bawden’s career accompanies reproductions of a wide selection of his work.

This handsome, lavishly illustrated volume charts the production and use of ceramics in architecture and interior decoration from the Middle Ages to the present. Drawing on the rich collection of London’s V&A, the book discusses different traditions and techniques, from the encaustic tiles of the Gothic era through Dutch Delftware to the lively, inventive work of Duncan Grant, while the influence of the Islamic world is shown in the tiles of Moorish Spain and Victorian England.

Elizabeth Wilhide begins this study of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928) and his achievements in architecture and design by looking at how influences such as the Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic movements were forged into a new style and a ‘unique vocabulary of design and decoration’. The book goes on to give a detailed and richly illustrated account of buildings and interiors by Mackintosh, including The Glasgow School of Art, Windyhill, The Hill House and the Willow Tea Rooms.

A teacher at Glasgow School of art, an exhibitor at the 1951 Festival of Britain and a textile designer for Liberty’s, Robert Stewart (1924–1995) dazzled the design world of the 1950s and 1960s. His passion was for surface design on textiles, tapestries, ceramics and paintings. This celebration of his life and achievements is richly illustrated with photographs that demonstrate the breadth of his work and provides a fascinating insight into British post-war design.

The 'king of kitsch' Mitch O'Connell and the illustrator of children's books Brooke Boynton Hughes are interviewed in issue 13, and painter and illustrator Sep E Scott (1879–1965) is celebrated.

Perhaps best known for his comics work, fantasy painter Joe Jusko is profiled in issue 14 together with the idiosyncratic Tara McPherson, while Adam Stower, who writes and illustrates children's books, is interviewed.

From the world's first postage stamp, the 1840 Penny Black, to the First Class stamp 2012, Chris West's selection of 36 stamps – 'some beautiful, some quirky, some baffling, some stained with blood' – are the inspiration for his idiosyncratic and entertaining history of Britain. Among his collection are the 1881 Penny Lilac (33 billion printed); the first decimal set (1971); and a single foreign stamp telling a story of reparations and hyperinflation: a 1923 German 200 mark stamp, overprinted 2 million.

At the end of the 19th century, advertising and Art Nouveau joined forces in a new and vibrant art form – the poster. Created to promote everything from absinthe to bicycle chains, posters by artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha have outlived the products they so vividly advertise. After an introduction to their origins and cultural context, this book presents 100 posters, many of them now, like Steinlen's Cabaret du Chat Noir, iconic images.

With contributions from 31 art and design historians, this richly illustrated volume surveys changing representations of domestic interiors and discusses the meanings ascribed to them in Europe and North America over time. The essays explore key issues through subjects ranging from the interior settings of the birth of the Virgin in 15th-century painting to television ‘make-over’ shows today; while short, illustrated features look at ways of interior image-making including Renaissance prints, inventories and photography.

Carved in wood, painted and gilded, winged altar retables were by far the most elaborate works of art of the Gothic period, and most churches in the pre-Reformation period were richly decorated with them - the cathedral in Ulm had 50. Following his detailed introduction, Professor Kahsnitz presents 22 of the most outstanding examples of winged altarpieces, photographed in great detail by Achim Bunz, with analysis of their architecture, iconography and art historical context. Translation by Russell Stockman. Slip-cased.

Manipulated, fetishized and strangely transmogrified, the representation of the female body was a common thread in the work of the early Surrealists such as Salvador Dali and Man Ray, and swiftly spilled over into the world of fashion. Published to accompany a major exhibition at the V&A, this stylish and lavishly illustrated book shows how Surrealist ideas gained general currency, whether in the collections of Elsa Schiaparelli and Meret Oppenheim, or in advertising, film, photography and ballet.

Within China's Forbidden City, and not yet open to the public, is the elegant, intimate Qianlong Garden, built as a retirement retreat for the Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century. A visionary patron of the arts, Qianlong designed the garden to reflect a perfect union of art, architecture and nature. This lavishly illustrated volume gives an in-depth analysis of that design and also interprets 90 of the superlative artworks commissioned by the Emperor for his garden.

In the early 1920s, a group of Dutch artists and architects, among them Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, Gerrit Rietveld and César Domela, formed the profoundly influential De Stijl (‘The Style’) movement. Illustrated with reproductions and photographs of their works in a variety of media, this innovative volume profiles the artists and collaborators of De Stijl and describes how they ‘built bridges between art, design, architecture and society’.

This survey of commercial art and design created by the electronics industry between 1917 and 1965 to promote its products, traces the development of new components, including valves, transistors and circuit boards, from ‘laboratory to tabletop’. Slightly off-mint.

Best known as a furniture designer and architect, Irish-born Eileen Gray was a pioneer of Art Deco in the Paris of the 1920s and a follower and associate of Le Corbusier, among other luminaries of the period. This collection of her private and essentially unknown artworks was assembled for an exhibition at London’s Osborne Samuel Gallery in 2015 and comprises drawings, paintings, collages and photographs made between the 1920s and the 1950s.

Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Off-mint.