Welcome to Our Bookstore Through our partnership with Amazon.com, you can purchase selected reference books on American Antiques, usually at discount prices. 1. Select a category by clicking on a tab. 2. Scroll up and down to view all books in that category. 3. Click on the button below a book title for the price.

		American Fancy: Exuberance in the Arts, 1790-1840 by Sumpter T. Priddy III A lavishly illustrated book published by the Chipstone Foundation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. American Fancy is more than a simple story about an influential fashion in the arts – Fancy was as much a worldview as it was a style. Literary and philosophical trends, dramatic social changes and scientific inventions all contributed to the spirit of Fancy. American Fancy explores these larger cultural manifestations and the way they mirrored the youthful optimism of the new nation. According to Jon Prown, the foundation’s executive director and chief curator, guest curator Priddy’s scholarly approach is both timely and innovative. “More than any other decorative arts work to date, American Fancy incorporates a wide range of scholarly perspectives to explain not only what things looked like, but also why these artifacts looked the way they did and how they were perceived by their original makers and users.” Employing an approach that is increasingly used in contemporary scholarship, the book integrates the research methods and analytical tools of diverse academic fields – including art history, material culture studies, literary, intellectual and scientific history, and psychology – to gain insight into Fancy and its relationship to early 19th-century American life.
		Neat and Tidy: Boxes and Their Contents Used in Early American Households by Nina Fletcher Little Before boxes were the disposable cardboard items of today, they held a special importance for their unique crafted quality and distinct suitability to the job they were assigned. The author examines the variety of boxes designed for household, artistic, and recreational purposes throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Specific descriptions of the carving, painting, and materials used for the creation of sewing, salt, paint, and snuff boxes are highlighted by over 200 illustrations. An education and a delight for the collector of antique boxes. -- Booklist
		American Painted Furniture, 1660-1880 by Dean A. Fales An out-of-print classic, Fales wrote the bible on painted surfaces on American Furniture and intensified interest in the category. A must-have for paint lovers.
		American Painted Furniture: 1790-1880 by Cynthia V. A. Schaffner, Susan Klein American Painted Furniture surveys decorative treasures from 1790 to 1880, a period when cabinetmakers, gilders, and ornamental painters aspired beyond the utilitarian to create fanciful works of art. With 350 superb photographs, the volume explores both high-style furniture from the regional design centers of Boston and Salem, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York City, and the way that style was adapted and reinterpreted in rural regions across the country. In addition to a thorough analysis of many imaginative items (faux-inlaid desks, marbleized tables, stenciled cupboards, elaborate timepieces, and much more), the authors also have much to teach about the architecture and social setting of the period. The appendices discuss the specifics of the era's painting and gilding methods, and list dealers, restoration services, and historic houses. --Amy Handy
		American Wall Stenciling, 1790-1840 by Ann Eckert Brown A generously illustrated survey of an important post-revolutionary American decorative art form. Ann Eckert Brown has been researching, executing, and teaching 18th and 19th century decorative painting techniques since the 1960s. Included in her restoration commissions is the painted interior of a Gothic Revival chapel in Newport, Rhode Island. Her ornamented furnishings have been widely exhibited, including two solo exhibitions in the 1990s. Her work has appeared in Yankee and Early American Life, which named her a craftsman of the year in 1993. She has presented numerous programs on American wall stenciling, including those at Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts and the The Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

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