Box office by mineralogy, Johann Christian Neuber © Fr Cochennec and C. Rabourdin / Musée Cognac-Jay / Roger-Viollet

Johann Christian Neuber (1736–1808) was one of the greatest masters of the gold objet – gold boxes, watch cases, chatelaines, etc. – which he in particular decorated to splendid effect with semiprecious stones – agate, jasper, carnelian and a host of others. In 1769 he became director of the Grünes Gewölbe, the magnificent State Treasury in Dresden, and in 1775 court jeweler to the court of Saxony. Neuber’s work features enchanting landscapes, intricate floral designs and complex geometric patterns made out of tiny cut stones, incorporating also Meissen porcelain plaques, cameos and miniatures.

Breteuil Table, Dresden, 1779–80, collection of the Marquis de Breteuil, Chäteau de Breteuil (Choisel/Chevreuse); photo: Michael Bodycomb

This collection brings together Neuber’s pieces from various galleries, private collections and museums such as Grünes Gewölbe, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum. In a NYAB article, Ian Wardropper, The Frick Collection director stated,

“These unique and inventive objects were treasured in the eighteenth century, but remarkably, have never before been shown together…We are delighted to introduce our visitors the oeuvre of this ingenious artisan through the upcoming exhibition, which will offer [a] sense of the important contributions made by those at work for the Saxon court at Dresden.”

Paul Holberton Publishing has released an accompanying volume to this exhibit also entitled Gold, Jasper and Carnelian: Johann Christian Neuber at the Saxon Court.

In addition to more than 500 color illustrations, this books also investigates the context and history of mineralogy and it’s celebration in Neuber’s art.

Available from www.casemateathena.com.

“Antico was proficient in all manner of antique art, which he studied, restored, and re-created with unparalleled skill. His gilded and silver statuettes, made for the Gonzaga rulers at the court of Mantua, pioneered the genre of bronzes made in multiples, a type in Western art for which for which the sculptor developed groundbreaking technology” – Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes

So far, the exhibit has received several positive reviews. Dan Bischoff from the Star Ledger writes,

There could not be a better venue for “Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes” than Henry Frick’s Fifth Avenue mansion…The 39 sculptures here by Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, better known by his nickname, Antico, are not the very first small bronzes of the Renaissance, but they are foundational pieces nonetheless and exhibit all the finest characteristics of their genre.”

If you are unable to see the collection, or have seen it and want to take it home with you, Paul Holberton Publishing has released an accompanying book entitled Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes.  Aside from containing 163 illustrations of Antico’s work, this volume

“provides an overview of Antico’s career and addresses topics ranging from  the chronology of his works to his understanding of the antique, his relationship with Mantuan humanism, his portraiture, aspects of his technique, and his artistic significance.”

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

That actual birthday of William Shakespeare is unknown, but experts have deemed that April 23 (three days before Shakespeare’s baptism) is the official birthday of the most influential writer in the history of the English language.

The author of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and several poems, Shakespeare is considered by many as the greatest writer of all time.  While Shakespeare was a respected writer during his life, his popularity really took off 300 years after his death (which happened to be on April 23 as well).

In honor of this great and talented man’s birthday, here are some great books on his life:

Hidden Shakespeare:

It is widely acknowledged that William Shakespeare was the greatest writer who ever lived, but what is the basis of this reputation? In Hidden Shakespeare, Nicholas Fogg examines the circumstances that made him such: his background and education, his faith and morality, the power of contemporary language and the rise of the Elizabethan theater as a vehicle for nascent genius.

The backdrop of the many stories told about him is examined for the light they might shed on his life. Did he leave school at the age of thirteen? Did he have a shotgun wedding or an arranged marriage? What do his sonnets, the only part of his works written in the first person, reveal of him? More is known of Shakespeare than almost any other Elizabethan, but there are huge gaps in the narrative. Nicholas Fogg seeks to provide reasoned answers to the many questions that continue to pervade our view of this towering figure, both a universal genius and a man of his times.

Shakespeare’s London:

Shakespeare’s London was a bustling, teeming metropolis that was growing so rapidly that the government took repeated, and ineffectual, steps to curb its expansion.

From contemporary letters, journals and diaries, a vivid picture emerges of this fascinating city, with its many opportunities and also its persistent problems. By far the largest city in the country, it was the center of government, the law and the church, the focus of politics and culture. It had a vigorous economy, with a range of industries and a lucrative trade in luxury goods for the courtiers and wealthy citizens. Growth produced overcrowding and high mortality, with shockingly high death tolls during the periodic plague epidemics, yet London attracted an endless stream of people, who were absorbed into its diverse communities and economic structures. Here the first playhouses were built, patronized by large audiences, who were treated to a rich and varied diet of plays to keep them, and the court, entertained. The London that Shakespeare knew was an expanding, changing and exciting city.

Who Wrote Shakespeare’s Plays?:

For over 150 years many intelligent, highly educated men and women have questioned whether William Shakespeare wrote the works attributed to him. From an obscure family in a small provincial town, Shakespeare had no formal education after the age of thirteen. His surviving handwriting consists of six signatures on legal documents. His will makes no mention of his books or manuscripts. His two daughters were illiterate. There is, in other words, a seemingly enormous gap between the meagerness of Shakespeare’s background and his achievements as the greatest and most famous writer in the English language. Over the years, numerous ‘candidates’ have been proposed as the true author. Often dismissed by the orthodox Shakespeare establishment in Britain and America as crackpots, the Anti-Stratfordians, as they are known, have become increasingly visible and numerous during the past thirty years.

Click on the image above to view the catalog

To request a free copy of the Athena Spring 2012 Catalog, please send your name and address to athena@casemateathena.com

The popularity of the Jour du Macaron spread to the United States when Francois Payard organized the US’ first Macaron Day in 2010 in New York.  Similarly to Paris, participants in Macaron Day can venture to participating locations to receive free Macarons.

However, if you aren’t in Paris or New York, you can attempt to make these delicious pastries with Pierre Hermé’s beautiful cookbook, Macarons.

Be sure to try out the Milena recipe featured on our blog a couple of weeks ago!

]]> http://athenabooks.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/macaron-day-2012/feed/ 3 sharoncasemate macaron jourdumacaron 9781908117236 http://athenabooks.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/st-patricks-day/ http://athenabooks.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/st-patricks-day/#comments Sat, 17 Mar 2012 14:37:06 +0000 sharoncasemate http://athenabooks.wordpress.com/?p=292 Continue reading →]]> May the luck of the Irish be with you!

St. Patrick’s Day originated as a religious holiday to commemorate St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. However, since its beginnings in AD 387-461, St. Patrick’s Day has evolved and spread throughout the world as a celebration of Irish culture.

Today, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated by Irish and non-Irish people around the world. As the beam outside of Guinness’ Storehouse states:

However, if you happen to be Irish on every day of the year, your heritage and lineage may be of great interest to yourself and your family.  In order to discover more about your Irish ancestors, we recommend two guides for the dedicated and curious family historian.

Your Irish Ancestors: A Guide for the Family Historian

Your Irish Ancestors provides an entertaining insight into everyday life in Ireland during the past four centuries. Many records, like the early twentieth century census returns and school registers will be familiar to researchers, but others have been traditionally overlooked by all but the most experienced genealogists.  Each chapter takes the form of a detailed social history showing how the lives of our ancestors changed over the centuries and how this is reflected in the records that have survived. Your Irish Ancestors will help family historians put their ancestral research in historical perspective, giving them a better understanding of the world in which their ancestors lived.

Tracing Your Northern Irish Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians

Tracing Your Northern Irish Ancestors is an expert introduction for the family historian to the wealth of material available to researchers in archives throughout Northern Ireland.  An easy-to-use, informative guide to the comprehensive collections available at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is a key feature of Ian Maxwell’s handbook. He also takes the reader through the records held in many libraries, museums and heritage centers across the province, and he provides detailed coverage of records that are available online. Unlike the rest of the British Isles, which has very extensive civil and census records, Irish ancestral research is hampered by the destruction of many of the major collections. Yet Ian Maxwell shows how family historians can make good use of church records, school registers and land and valuation records to trace their roots to the beginning of the nineteenth century and beyond.

Rose have been considered “The Queen of Flowers” and people around the world are still captivated by their beauty. In a poem entitled A Rose, Emily Dickinson writes:

A Sepal, petal, and a thorn
Upon a common summer’s morn,
A flash of dew, a bee or two,
A breeze
A caper in the trees,–
And I’m a rose!

In order to produce the perfect rose garden that everyone dreams about, we recommend The Sustainable Rose Garden: A Reader in Rose Culture, a one of a kind book about creating a beautiful garden in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.

In this book, authors Pat Shanley, Peter Kukielski, and Gene Waering provide the reader with the needed guidance to produce their own sustainable rose garden.  It covers subjects such as tea roses, rose diseases, probiotic rose growing, and personal tips from the authors such as:

“Mixing roses up with other plants like perennials, biennials or annuals will hinder the spread of pests and diseases and help to attract beneficial insects.”

In this book, the reader will learn how to make their own sustainable rose garden. With 38 lavishly illustrated articles and descriptions of the best new (as well as old) rose varieties designed for the sustainable rose garden, this is a must-have book for today’s new generation of avid but environmentally conscious gardeners.

On March 10, Pat Shanley,will be giving a lecture at the Philadelphia Flower Show entitled “Skyscrapers, Roses, & Sustainability.”  If you are around the Philadelphia area, this is one event that you do not want to miss. To find out more information, visit here.

Ben Nicholson, June 1937,Tate, London, © Angela Verren Taunt

Piet Mondrian, Composition in White, Red, and Blue, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, © 2012 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust

In a preview from Royal Academy of Arts Magazine, the author writes,

“Mondrian || Nicholson: In Parallel invites a comparison of Mondrian’s achievement with Nicholoson’s. Piet Mondrian was on of two artists who, in the years about 1915-20, took painting into the realm of pure geometric abstraction, in which there was no longer any apparent reference to observable reality.”

Piet Mondrian, Picture No.111, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Basel, © 2012 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust

Ben Nicholson, Still-Life- Greek Landscape, The British Council, © Angela Verren Taunt

If you’re unable to attend the exhibition, or if you see it and want to take it home, Paul Holberton Publishing has produced an accompanying book, similarly titled Mondrian || Nicholson: In Parrallel.

“This book accompanies an exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, London, that will be the first to offer a comprehensive account of the parallel artistic paths charted by Mondrian and Nicholson during this remarkable decade. It will bring together an extraordinary group of paintings and reliefs to show how each artist was driven by a profound belief in the potential of abstract art to attain the highest aesthetic and spiritual power.”

1. Chocolate: The Definitive Guide (only 5 copies left!)

The secret of the uniquely, irresistibly seductive quality of chocolate, according to Sara Jayne-Stanes, is that it is the only substance to melt at blood temperature.

Another view of its attraction is indicated by the scientific name accorded it by Linnaeus: Theobroma, food of the gods. Chocolate is a loving homage to this extraordinary substance by one of Britain’s finest professional chocolate makers.

2. The Maud Allan Affair

Maud Allan, the famous exotic dancer was destroyed by the infamous libel trial brought by charismatic British Member of Parliament, and pilot, Noel Pemberton-Billing.In this wonderfully written book, Russell James charts her rise and fall from the days when she saved the 1908 London Olympics from failure to the outrageous miscarriage of justice of her trial which knocked the dark days of the First World War off the front pages of the national newspapers.

3. The Six Wives of Henry VIII

The story of Henry VIII and his six wives has passed from history into legend – taught in the cradle as a cautionary tale and remembered in adulthood as an object lesson in the dangers of marrying into royalty. The true story behind the legend, however, remains obscure to most people, whose knowledge of the affair begins and ends with the aide memoir ‘Divorced, executed, died, divorce, executed, survived’.

4.  Anne Boleyn

Although Anne Boleyn is perhaps the most engaging of Henry VIII’s Queens, but biographies usually concentrate on the period after she became a lady in waiting at Henry VIII’s court. This is the only book to tell the forgotten side of Anne early life and loves, written by the author of the best-selling Mary Boleyn: Henry VIII’s Favorite Mistress. For her he would divorce his wife of some twenty years standing, he would take on the might of the Roman Church and the Holy Roman Empire; he would even alienate his own people in order to win her favor and, eventually, her hand.

COMING SOON:

In honor of Accession Day, here is traditional British recipe from The Constance Spry Cookery Book. Its new edition is expected to be released before the end of this month.

Beefsteak and Kidney Pie

675g-900g/1½  – 2lb beefsteak cut in a thick piece
salt, pepper
1 Tb chopped mixed herbs, parsley predominating
225g/8 0z Ox kidney
2 shallots, finely chopped
seasoned flour
water
flaky pastry
a little good stock

1. Slice the steak in small, even stripes about 3 inches long by 1½ – 2 inches wide.
2. Flatten them out on a wet board, season each piece with salt, pepper, chopped shallots, and herbs.
3. Cut the kidney in pieces, removing the core, and lay a piece on each slice of meat.
4. Roll up and lightly roll each piece in seasoned flour
5. Pack, not too tightly, into a pie dish. The rolls should fill the dish and rise in a slight dome above it.
6. Fill the pie dish three parts full with water and cover with flaky pastry.
7. Put into moderately hot oven to bake (425°- 450° F) until pastry is well risen and a good brown, about 30 minutes.
8. Lower the heat (375° – 400°), envelop the pie completely in a piece of wet grease-proof paper, and continue cooking gently for a further 1 – 1½ hours
9. Before serving, remove the top of pastry decoration and full up with a little good, hot stock.

If the pie is to be eaten cold, it is a good plan to use, in place of water, some good jellied stock, or alternatively a little gelatin may be dissolved in the liquid used to fill up the pie after cooking. Additions to the filling of this pie may be hard-boiled eggs, quartered, sliced, or whole, or sliced mushrooms. It is not essential to roll the steak in the way described; it may simply be sliced, rolled in flour with the sliced kidney, and put in the dish with herbs and seasoning. But whatever the method, do not pack the pie too tightly or the result will be dry.