Here’s a trio of new books the collector and design-oriented will want to consider for their home and garden library
This is the 33rd year that “Kovels’ Antiques & Collectibles Price List” (Three Rivers Press, $15.95) has been published, still written by the original authors, Ralph and Terry Kovel.
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The guide is the outcome of yearlong visits by the Kovels to antiques shops and shows, constant checking of online services and the Internet. After their research, they decide which antiques and collectibles are currently of most interest to list. For example, the most active area of collecting this year should be Arts & Crafts, they say, while there is continuing interest in garden antiques, art pottery, tiles and toys. The authors acknowledge the wide-ranging interests of collectors, however, listing everything from the weird to the wonderful–a jail door ($225) to a Handel lamp ($88,000).
The 2001 edition is 878 pages and contains about 50,000 new appraiser-approved prices, plus hundreds of tiny pictures and a color section on holiday and special-event collectibles.
For the average collector this is a great guide, since the items listed are sale items one is most likely to find in shops and flea markets. The pages also are dotted with tips in an easy-to-read typeface. Here’s one example: “If your wicker furniture is very dusty, take it to the gas station and blow the dust away with the air hose.”
“Mexican Tiles” by Masako Takahasi (Chronicle Books, $18.95) celebrates the wonderful tile-making traditions of Mexico. The first tile artisans arrived in Mexico from Spain in the 16th Century, setting up workshops in the town of Puebla, south of Mexico City. Their tile work came to be called Talavera, after the Spanish town of Talavera de las Reina, whose ceramic-making techniques they were copying. They began producing the heat-hardened, hand-cut and hand-painted clay squares with a glazed surface.
Designs range from charmingly na (bull) ve animals and flowers to the elegant and Islamically-influenced abstract. Some of the original Puebla workshops still operate today, while a new tile center has grown up in the town of Dolores Hidalgo, four hours north of Mexico City.
The book, in 175 color photographs taken by the author, takes readers on a tour of kitchens, bathrooms, patios and gardens.
A highlight of the bathroom chapter is the custom-made Talavera sinks matching the adjacent tiled walls and countertops to perfection. Additional chapters offer ideas on how to use the tiles. Installation tips, plus a resource guide for tile showrooms are added bonuses.
Nina Campbell is one of England’s most renowned interior designers. Her fabrics, carpets, paint and wallpaper collections are distributed worldwide. In between her decorating jobs, some of them for royalty, and her product design, Campbell has found time to write her third decorating book, “Nina Campbell’s Decorating Secrets” (Clarkson Potter/Publishers, $40).
Her purpose in this is to promote a desire in people to opt for ease and comfort over rigid perfection, she writes. The accompanying photographs of her own residence, decorated in classic English style, reveal it to be stunningly perfect. Nevertheless, “Decorating Secrets” is an excellent resource for any homeowner.
Each page is replete with useful tips on how to keep one’s mind open to the different possibilities a room offers. But here’s the main one:
“The trick is not to think about these things (fabrics, furniture, carpets, paint and wallpaper, etc.) in isolation, but to consider how each ingredient works with the others to build up a look that is both visually stunning and absolutely practical. Think of a room as having many layers, each of which needs to play its part in the overall effect, from the large elements, such as sofas and windows, to the smallest candle shade and cushion.”
Campbell’s touch is deft and sure, both at decorating and revealing her unerring instincts.