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Overview
Buttons presents more than 1,000 examples of the fine art of buttonmaking from Europe, the Far East, and America. Included are buttons made of glass, porcelain, pearl, shell, horn, and plastic, as well as gold, silver, brass, and copper; carved from ivory, jade, wood, and mother-of-pearl; adorned with jewels and paste; framing tintypes, intarsia, stone or glass mosaics; painted with intricate scenes or simple motifs; and shaped and painted to resemble fruit, fish, and fowl.Presenting more than 1,000 examples of the fine art of button-making--from the private collection of the proprietors of Tender Buttons in New York City--this beautifully illustrated compendium offers a history of button design as well as carefully researched scholarly information for the serious collector. 208 full-color illustrations.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Three centuries and myriad styles of buttons are represented in this prepossessing volume by Epstein and Safro, owners of a Manhattan button shop. They travel worldwide to augment their formidable collection and offer here a curious history lesson complete with bejeweled French rococo creations, tiny 18th-century British sporting scenes, Italian mosaics, late 19th-century American tintypes and delicate portraits painted on porcelain and ivory. Other buttons shown are made of wood, mother-of-pearl, silver or enamel and are attractively presented against neutral backgrounds; captions list dates, materials used and unusual button trivia. Also included in this surprisingly captivating book are painter Dine's eloquent foreword attesting to the buttons' charm and author Wolfe's recollection of a screening at which a designer's wife was moved more by an actor's gold buttons than by the film's climactic moment. (Oct.)Book Details
Published
October 22, 2001
Publisher
Harry N Abrams
Pages
176
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780810990593