MISCELLANEOUS
Juan Bassegoda Nonell, Abbeville, USA, 2000, 144pp, 185 colour illus, cloth
A concise text by the director of the Catedra Gaudí at the University of Barcelona, plus striking images by Melba Levick, a leading architectural photographer combine to produce a new perspective on Gaudí’s remarkable career. Tiles and Mosaics galore!
01033 ALLA LUCE DEL MOSAICO £7.50
B Bandini, Angelo Longo, Italy, 1987, 72pp, 11 b&w illus, paperback
A study of the connections between mosaics and light, both in subject and format.
01109 THE ALHAMBRA OF GRANADA £22.95
Félix Bayón & Lluis Casals, Triangle Postals, Spain, 2006, English text, 192pp, 137 colour illustrations, 27 x 25 cm, hardback, dustwrapper
The best illustrated guide to this fabulous building that we have yet seen. Contains superb colour photographs of the building including many featuring the cut-tilework mosaics and relief plasterwork dating from the time of the Moors. Recommended.
01108 THE ALHAMBRA OF GRANADA £7.95
Félix Bayón & Lluis Casals, Triangle Postals, Spain, 2006, English text, 192pp, 137 colour illustrations, 16 x 15.5 cm, paperback
A bargain priced, reduced size version of the above. Identical contents.
03107 LA COLÒNIA GÜELL: Photographs £6.50
Various authors, Triangle Postals, Spain, 2003, Parallel English, French, Catalan and Spanish texts, 96pp, 8 b & w + 106 colour illus, paperback
This industrial village was the Spanish equivalent of Portmeirion consisting of textile factories, housing and social buildings constructed by the entrepreneur, Eusebi Güell and partly designed by Antoni Gaudí. The buildings utilise brick, tile and mosaic in fascinating ways, all illustrated in this excellent little book.
04064 DECO LAndmarks (sic) £13.99
Arnold Schwartzman, Chronicle Books, USA, 2005, 156pp, 277 colour illustrations, paperback, 20.4 x 22.3cm
Los Angeles has a large number of superb Art Deco buildings and this wonderful volume illustrates many of the architectural details that have survived to the present day. There are sections on tile and terrazzo, glass and neon, stone and plaster, and metal and wood, all superbly illustrated in brilliant colour - an inspiration to all!
07008 GEOMETRIC PATTERNS FROM ROMAN MOSAICS £3.50
Bob Field, Tarquin, 1996, 64pp, fully illus in b&w + some colour, illus card covers
An excellent little booklet concentrating on the more geometric designs of Roman mosaics and showing how they were based on mathematical ideas.
07040 GAUDÍ £37.50
Juan-Eduardo Cirlot, Pere Vivas & Ricard Pla, Triangle Postals, 2002, English edition, 424pp, illustrated throughout in colour with some b & w archive images, cloth, dustwrapper
Not another book on Gaudí, I hear you say! But this one is just superb, with excellent text and illustrations covering most of the great Catalan architect’s buildings. Lots of brick, tiles and mosaics as well as stained glass, ironwork and even furniture. If you have all the other books on Gaudí, you must have this one too!
20060 TILE GAZETTEER £25.00
Dr Lynn F Pearson, TACS/Richard Dennis Pubns, 2005, 512pp, 363 b & w illustrations + 32 plates with 68 colour illustrations, A5 paperback
The long-awaited Tile Society Gazetteer is here at last and what a superb production it is! Although this is the definitive gazetteer of publicly accessible tiles and architectural ceramics sites in the UK, it also includes quite a number of mosaic sites. Arranged by county, the text is written in narrative form with the highlights of each area described, dated and attributed wherever possible. This should be in every tile and mosaic enthusiast’s library - never miss an interesting site again!
12015 LABYRINTHS AND MAZES £35.00
Jürgen Hohmuth, Prestel, Germany, 2003, English version, 176pp, 160 full colour illus, cloth, dustwrapper
This book takes a unique look at mazes and labyrinths from the air, courtesy of a small ‘zeppelin’ equipped with a camera. Concentrating on European sites, the book includes grass, corn, stone, brick, tile and mosaic mazes of all periods.
13052 MAZES, ANCIENT AND MODERN £3.20
Bob Field, Tarquin Pubns, 1999, 64pp, fully illus in colour and b&w, booklet
This excellent book features mazes in a wide variety of materials including brick, tile and mosaics! An absorbing and informative study of mazes and labyrinths.
16077 PARC GÜELL, Gaudi’s Utopia £9.95
Josep M Carandell & Pere Vivas, Triangle Postals, Spain, 2006, English text, 240pp, 263 colour illustrations, 16 x 15.5 cm, paperback
Another excellent book from this Spanish publisher, featuring Gaudi’s amazing tiled edifice, the Parc Güell in Barcelona. This book has the most wonderful photographs of the tile mosaics showing many of the close-up details not seen in other books.
19037 SHELL HOUSES AND GROTTOES £4.50
Hazelle Jackson, Shire Publications, 2002, 40pp, 93 colour illus, booklet
We have added this excellent little booklet to our mosaic list because most of the shell houses and grottoes mentioned are effectively ‘shell mosaics’. A fascinating study!
19053 SUBWAY STYLE £25.00
Joseph Giovannini et al, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, USA, 2004, 242pp, 270 colour + numerous b & w historic images and drawings, cloth, dustwrapper
Subtitled ‘100 Years of architecture & design in the New York City subway’. This is a fascinating history of the New York Subway system, much of which has tile and mosaic decoration. The book features these extensively as well as metalwork, the trains themselves and even the maps and advertising. It makes an interesting comparison with London’s Underground!
20036 THROUGH THE LABYRINTH £50.00
Hermann Kern, Prestel, Germany, 2000, English text, 360pp, 732 b & w + 17 colour illus, cloth
This is the definitive work on the art of the labyrinth from ancient times to the present day. It is an up-dated version of the author’s seminal work first published in German in 1982 and contains much to interest mosaicists, including as it does, all the main mosaic labyrinths. A fascinating study.
21006 JUJOL’S UNIVERSE £19.95
Various authors, Col-legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, 1998, parallel English and Catalan texts, 192pp, illustrated throughout in colour and b & w
Jujol has been eclipsed somewhat as an architect by his more famous contemporary Gaudi, but this book should help to re-establish him as a major architect of the turn of the 19th/20th century. This book features some superb examples of his work, including tile, mosaic and brick architecture.
23027 WHILE STOCKS LAST, Vol 2: Bars and Coffee Shops of Madrid £19.95
Leandro Lattes, Ediciones Aldeasa, Spain, 2004, short English and Spanish texts, 256pp, well over 1000 colour photos, landscape paperback
The title of this fascinating book refers to the fact that many of Madrid’s famous bars and coffee shops have closed in recent years. This book seeks to record the best before they disappear for all time. There are images of everything contained herein: signs, bar stools, furniture etc, but best of all, there are hundreds of photographs of tiles, terrazzo and mosaics, mostly dating from the 1950s-70s. PS Don’t complain about the cover - it’s deliberate!
23028 WHILE STOCKS LAST, Vol 1: Urban Details from Madrid £23.50
Leandro Lattes, Aldeasa, Spain, 2003, Spanish, English, German and French text, 220pp, 370 colour illustrations, landscape paperback
Following the success of Vol 2, which has featured in our most recent lists, we have managed to get a few copies of the first volume of this intriguing mini-series recording the rapidly disappearing architectural features of Madrid’s city centre. This one doesn’t have so many tile and mosaic sights as volume 2, but is filled with fascinating photos of details such as handles, shop displays, grilles, signs etc. Wonderful images of a fast-changing world.