house

If You Want to Build a House

A book that accompanied the 1946 exhibit "If You Want To Build A House" exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art. The book highlights mid-century modern architects such as Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, and Richard Neutra as well as Prairie School architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The book describes the concepts of modern architecture from the prospective of a potential home builder.

Meissner Tapeten

A 1930 modern wallpaper sample book, highlighting Bauhaus and Art Deco style patterns. These designs have bold, intense colors, and very subtle patterns, some with gold and silver elevations or highlights.

The Skillful Housewife's Book

This book was designed to guide and educate women about how to run what was then her main domain: the home. Discussing politeness and temper, bathing and exercise, simple house cures for ailments, how to preserve eggs and how to make “Splendid Johnny Cake,” this elegant small volume gives advice about everything and anything that exists and happens around a fashionable house. There are instructions even about how to remove grease from books!

The Godey's Lady's Book Receipts and Household Hints

The Godey’s Lady’s Book was a widely read journal that pioneered the field of women’s magazines. When first published in 1830, it included mainly images of the current fashions, but later it expanded to include fiction, essays, and recipes. In 1870, the magazine published its first cookbook, The Godey’s Lady’s Book Receipts and Household Hints. The book is a compilation of featured recipes along with a chapter of household and cooking advice. The chapter ends on a playful note with a poem —each couplet is a cooking tip or proverb.

Pressed Glass Salt Dishes of the Lacy Period, 1825-1850

Any glass collector worth their salt should consider adopting this charming book on pressed glass salt dishes. “Lacy glass” is the term given to the first glass products pressed in America and on the European Continent, from about 1825-1850. This volume contains actual-size drawings of each salt dish described. Glass is often difficult to photograph accurately due to the refraction of light by facets on the pieces. But even producing these drawings required the making of molds and castings of each and every lacy salt dish to capture the intricate details.

Wallpapers by Edward Bawden Printed at the Curwen Press

For a few years after 1926, the Curwen Press produced a series of wallpapers. They were designed principally by Edward Bawden, whose linocuts were transferred to lithographic plates for printing. Unlike most modern wallpapers, printed on long rolls of paper, these were printed in the traditional manner as sheets. Very This limited edition contains some of the surviving wallpaper design sheets, none of which have been reprinted in modern times.

Architectural Designs for Model Country Residences

A book published to sell his designs to prospective clients and illustrated with twenty lithographs in full color, Architectural Designs for Model Country Residences is one of the handsomest American books of architecture published in the 19th century. It includes designs for villas, cottages, and mansions in the Italian and Gothic styles, along with Greek Revival. John Riddell advocated the use of cast ironwork on porches (for columns) and other decoration, and often employed towers and belvederes in his Italian Villa and Italianate plans.

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