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 Vernacular: New Discoveries in Folk, Self-Taught, and Outsider Sculptures by Frank Maresca, Roger Ricco The rise of interest in "outsider" art over the past decade is now largely a fait accompli, in part due to Maresca and Ricco, the authors of American Primitive and American Self-Taught, and now, a follow-up survey of under-recognized vernacular objects. This classy, beautifully designed catalogue reinforces the seriousness and value of the outsider tradition; it features 450 color illustrations of angels, birdbaths, carousel swans, phrenology heads and gospel organs that together constitute the true handmade visual inheritance of American history. Addressed largely to the educated art viewer, the book makes a good argument for expanding the bounds of serious art to include the sheet metal cutouts, weird figurines and duck decoys that it documents, in the end telling us something we might have guessed-namely, that artists have been drawing from these unrecognized traditions for many years. With magazines and museums now devoted to outsider art, and traces of outsider greats such as Henry Darger and Thornton Dial showing up in the work of young artists, future generations will no doubt need to look for other artistic genres to plumb; in the meantime, this gorgeous volume will prove popular to artists, collectors and art appreciaters alike. -- Publishers Weekly
		Lions and Eagles and Bulls: Early American Tavern & Inn Signs by Susan P. Schoelwer Proud lions, patriotic eagles, and solemn bulls--not to mention prancing horses, majestic oak trees, and festive table settings--graced the roadsides of colonial America. Painted onto wooden signboards and hung above the heads of passers-by, these colorful images communicated critical information, enabling local residents and travelers to find their way to commercial enterprises and civic gatherings. These signs, as they evolved from the eighteenth through the mid-nineteenth century, documented the radical shift from a premodern agricultural society to the entrepreneurial, market-driven, and increasingly urban economy of the early Republic. Handsomely illustrated with over seventy color plates, this catalogue--published in collaboration with a major traveling exhibition--features works from the Connecticut Historical Society, which houses the nation's preeminent collection of early American painted signs. Eight essays, written by prominent scholars of American art and cultural history, explore the medium and discuss why these signs are much more than picturesque relics of bygone times. Indeed, this volume reconnects sign paintings to the broad continuum of artistic genres and practices within which they were produced, displayed, and viewed. An accessible text, illustrated generously throughout, includes an introduction that encourages the reader to engage with sign paintings from a variety of artistic and cultural perspectives including those of vernacular art, commercial art, and visual and material culture. Other essays examine specific aspects of sign paintings: the creative processes of the individual makers, the distinctive techniques and materials used, the development of the profession, the iconography and sources, and the consequences of outdoor installation on aesthetic and cultural meanings. The volume also features a detailed catalogue of the sign paintings in the exhibition and brief biographies of those sign painters that have been documented in Connecticut.
		American Signs: Form and Meaning on Route 66 by Lisa Mahar, Lisa Mahar-Keplinger The roadside sign has become an American icon: a glowing neon symbol of the golden age of the open road. Yet signs are complex pieces of design, serving not only as physical markers but also cultural, political and economic ones. This book reveals the rich vernacular traditions of motel sign making in five eras, spanning from the late 1930s through the 1970s. The motel signs of the early 1940s, for instance, reflect vernacular traditions dating back at least a century, while examples from the later years of the decade reveal a culture newly obsessed with themes. America's fascination with newness and technological progress is maifested in 1950s motel signs. Finally, in the 1960s, a turn toward simplicity and the use of new, modular technologies allowed motel signs to address the needs of a mass society and the begennings of a national, rather than regional, aesthetic for motel signs.

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