Kalamazoo Book Blog: The Sears Catalog of Dutch Pottery

Gawronski, Jerzy. 2012. Amsterdam Ceramics: A city's history and an arcaheological ceramics catalogue 1175-2011. Uitgeverij Bas Lubberhuizen, Amsterdam. ISBN 978-90-5937-267-2

(Repeat after me: I do not have a pottery problem.)

I saw a copy of this book at the West Coast Historic Culinary Symposium earlier this year but barely had time to do more than drool over it. Now I own a copy.

The book starts with a review of the history of Amsterdam, covering the geographic scope of the city, relevant historic events but especially the construction of key landmarks, typical artifacts of each era (they do a series of similar objects such as a shoe, a spoon, a drinking vessel, an illumination device, for each of sections) and the location of key excavations. This takes up the first 100 pages of the book. Then we have a catalog of 1247 ceramic artifacts (of which about half fall within the SCA's period), all with color photographs, typical examples with cross-sectional drawings, with the find location, location of origin (if different), fabric, size, and type-group given. (Dates are implicit in the sectional groupings which correspond to the eras of the historic review.) I don't know if this is literally every substantially complete piece of pottery excavated out of Amsterdam (probably not0, but it's far more generous than the usual "just the pretty pieces" or "just a single example of each type". For example, the 1300-1350 section includes 13 stoneware jugs, 2 redware jugs, 6 redware tripod pipkins, 2 redware small cauldrons, etc. etc.

One fascinating result of this coverage is the ability to see the very slow rate of change in basic cookware types and shapes. For example, certain styles of tripod pipkin and frying pan continue essentially unchanged from the 12th through 18th centuries, while other specific shapes and functions of object appear for more limited terms or appear at later dates. The coverage also enables a much greater range of decorative features (when present) to be displayed so that typical versus unusual designs can be identified.

This is going to be a great source of ideas for new items to add to my open-fire cooking equipment (or for determining that I really do have almost one of everything relevant). I imagine there will be a great deal of lugging the book around to my favorite potters and asking, "Can you make me one of these?"

Kalamazoo Book Blog: Bayeux Tapestry papers

Lewis, Michael J., Gale R. Owen-Crocker & Dan Terkla. 2011. The Bayeux Tapestry: New Approaches. Oxbow Books, Oxford. ISBN 978-1-84217-976-5

This is a collection of papers on all manner of BT topics from a conference held in 2008 at the British Museum. Often a collection of this sort is inspired by a new conservation project or a renovated display, but in this case, although past conservation work is covered in some of the papers, the collection was more a case of "Hey, kids, let's put on a conference!"

The topics are various and neither systematic nor comprehensive. This isn't the "Big Book of Everything About the Bayeux Tapestry" but in many ways the ability to focus intensely on very narrow aspects is more valuable. We get both the political context of the tapestry's creation and the modern political uses it has been put to. How it has been displayed and how it has been stored away. Parallel styles of art at its creation and all the many ways the tapestry has been depicted in reproductions. Some of my favorites are focused little thematic gems like the depiction of faces, the depiction of dining scenes, and a case study evaluating the possible "from life" accuracy of the depiction of a particular church door.

The volume includes a black and white reproduction of the entire tapestry, with all the scenes, figures, and motifs labeled with index numbers for convenient common reference. Only about 7 pages have color illustrations and there is no comprehensive color reproduction of the tapestry, but other publications provide that independently and the redundancy would have added significant cost to this already-expensive book.