BOOKS

BY ADRIENNE L. CHILDS

The new book “Ornamental Blackness: The Black Figure in European Decorative Arts” addresses the implications of the depiction of Black bodies in luxury objects from the Baroque period through the 19th century.

BY LAUREN BRINCAT AND PETER FEDORYK

In February of 1893, Edward Lange (1846–1912) penned a four-page letter from Olympia, WA—one of the few extant documents by his hand—to his longtime friend on Long Island, Carll S. Burr (1831–1916), offering an odd reflection on the nearly 20 years he spent in New York.

BY JESSIE DEAN

‘Ceramic Art’ is the first volume in Princeton University Press’s ART/WORK series, which invites readers to reconsider a section of art history through the lens of materials and conservation. The eight essays in this anthology, edited by Caroline Fowler and Ittai Weinryb, demonstrate the enchanting and elusive nature of ceramics across time and cultures.

BY CHARLES DAWSON

There is no greater name in the history of English Regency porcelain painters than that of Thomas Baxter. His whole life was given to the art of porcelain painting, and his work at the Worcester Flight & Barr factory, the subject of a new book, is among the choicest of the era.

BY PHILIP D. ZIMMERMAN

One hundred of the objects in the Delaware’s Historic Odessa Foundation’s Wilson-Warner House and the Corbit-Sharp House are addressed in detail in the new book 𝘈 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘵: 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘖𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢, with four chapters exploring the town’s early settlement, families, craftsmen, and preservation.

BY JESSIE DEAN

The concepts of material, function, and meaning guide a thorough and nuanced review of the world of decorative arts in ‘Global Objects: Toward a Connected Art History’ by Edward S. Cooke, Jr.

BY CAITLIN MEEHYE BEACH

A new book interrogates how a wide range of objects—from antislavery medallions to statues of bondspeople bearing broken chains—gave visual form to narratives about abolition in the 18th and 19th centuries.

BY J. THOMAS SAVAGE, JR.

With the publication of The Material World of Eyre Hall: Four Centuries of Chesapeake History, Eyre Hall on Virginia’s Eastern Shore steps to the front of the line as one of America’s best-documented historic properties.

BY IRIS MOON

Luxury After the Terror explores the production, circulation, and survival of French luxury after the death of Louis XVI by focusing on decorative arts makers with strong ties to the monarchy and how they navigated the Terror and the world that it remade.

BY JESSIE DEAN

From its charming cover alone, this recent publication from Yale University Press caught our eye, but when multiple members recommended it, we knew The Story of the Country House: A History of Places & People by Clive Aslet was worthy of your attention.