Care and Preservation Books

I found this book to be a very beautiful presentation of Michelangelo's fresco's inside the Sistine Chapel. The pictures are very clear and the text is good, although the fact that it is written by non-native English speakers is apparent. Anyone wanting to remember their experience of viewing the Sistine Chapel in Rome will be pleased by buying this book. At least I was.

The image quality in this book is excellent. I have never been to Vatican. So it's hard to judge whether the color is right. I just try to use this book to study anatomy after Michelangelo. For some parts of frescoes, this book provides enlarged pictures. Some images show the frescoes before restoration, although not in detail. In general, it's a great reference book for my study.

This is an absolutely superb book, largely because the reproductions of the frescoes are excellent and really capture the colors that you see when you visit the Chapel. I have found many art books disappointing, because they simply fail to capture the works they present. I first saw this book in an American bookstore after visiting the Sistine Chapel, and really thrilled to see if after looking at several other books where colors were much duller and the images simply not as sharp. In addition to its fine colors, the book provides many fine closeups of each individual section. The text is also very good, describing the subjects of the painting, the history behind the paintings, ansd also the recent restorstion. This is a must-have book!

Being an admirer of the magnificent Michelangelo I am very pleased to have acquired this book. The pictures are beautifully printed. By the end of the book I wish to revisit the Sistine Chapel to view those parts printed in the book which I have obviously missed with my naked eyes. The details of the restoration work is an added bonus. To get the most of this book, please read it together with "Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling" by Ross King. You will not regret the experience. Michelangelo's frescoes are simply sublime!

The photographs in this book are too good to be believed. I have never had an art book on the Sistine Chapel before that so moved me.
It was obviously produced with great care -- the colors look perfect, the focus is perfect. I can't rave about this book enough. And so complete! You will know every nook and cranny of the Chapel when you finish this book.
Well worth more than what you pay for it.

Thoughtful and clearly written, Appelbaum's book is an essential read for both students and practitioners of conservation. Her work is particularly useful during the planning stages of treatments.

If you don't want to have troubles with Brandi, Jukileto or Muñoz Viñas, and just want to identify the practical utility of conservation decisión and judgement process including all related with means and symbolism, this will be a totally usefull and delighful book. Highly recommended for teachers and students of conservation.

Truly, enjoyable reading if you're interested in the field of conservation. If you can see a cartoon pop-up of conservator's head, well, Barbara Appelbaum explained all. Many good stories, and some technical stuff actually add real flavors. Good stuff, indeed!!

I am delighted to have this book. Barbara Appelbaum has thought through and presented many ideas I have met over the last 30 years as a conservator, but that no one before has put into this kind of focus. She demonstrates the kind of thinking that is critical to responsible care and treatment planning. Thanks you, Barbara, for giving us the benefits of what you have been doing and teaching all these years. This is an enormous contribution to the conservation field. The content is insightful and practical. The book should be read, owned and used as reference by everyone who owns or takes care of art objects.

This information is impossible to find elsewhere, at least compiled as it is here. If you are into the history and science behing painting, this book is for you...I had to wait a long time to find this book used through Amazon, and waited even longer for vol.3 (which is still available new). I can't find any info. on vols. 1 and 4. If anyone knows if these even actually made it into print, I'd appreciate hearing any information you have.

This the second of the National Gallery's series on the history and science of pigments. The histories of each pigment are well thought out, and unlike many older books on this subject, the collective authors have not neglected the non-western world. From the perspective of someone who is active in living history groups and calligraphy societies, the lists of who used these pigments, along with when and where, is a welcome feature. As someone who hunts down minerals to make them into paint, the information on IR and X-ray diffraction data, along with color plates of the pigments examined with polarized-light and scanning electron microscopy are a welcome change compared to most other books on historical pigment use. As a scientist, the analytical info is worth the price of the book all by itself, from my point of view. Much of the discussion on the occurence and art history of the mineral pigments has found its way into geology and mineralogy classes I have taught.

Some of the material in this volume can also be found in Gettens and Stout almost word for word, though in the articles where this is most conspicuous, Gettens is always first or second author. To be fair, the editors of this series have never pretended that the articles were new material - though much of it has been new to me - but rather revised and updated material from the journal _Studies in Conservation_. Since the venerable Gettens was deceased by the time this volume was published, he may not have had the opportunity to revise his own material. Gettens was one of the instigators of the Artists' Pigment series, and since most of his research has not been superceded as far as I can tell, it's a small complaint and certainly not grounds to avoid this book. Don't avoid this book! Out of the three volumes in this series, this volume (Vol. 2) is the one I like best, probably because it covers most of the mineral pigments and some of the artificial pigments that I find or make. And unlike some other books on pigments, written by armchair scholars, it is obvious that the collective authors of this volume got down and dirty and played with the paints. The hands-on experience really shines through.

As someone who barely has time to keep up with the literature in my own field, I found the Artists' Pigments series a welcome addition to my library - a lot of well-researched and well-written material all in one place. I must admit that my favorable opinion of this series is partly based on the wealth of scientific analyses therein, which may not help a non-nerd evaluate this book, but I will point out that all my art-fiend friends, some of whom make their living in the fine arts, are constantly trying to borrow it.

This book is a treasure and a saviour. I was able to preserve my family heritage using advise and techniques I learned from this book. It describes how to salvage and protect everything from paper items to military mementos. I cannot recommend it enough for anyone who is interested in keeping their family's keepsakes in good shape. Kudos to those who put this book together. It was as if they were talking to me!

This is a most useful, new (year 2000) 164 page, fully illustrated guide to preserving your family treasures. All of the information in this lovely guidebook was approved by a panel of experts. Topics range from protecting photos, film and videos, movies, paintings, clothing, furniture, glassware and musical instruments, to dolls, toys, natural items and military things, and more. The chapters are very concise, yet complete. Instructions are complete, and simple to follow. It even covers security and insurance of items. The time to begin preserving the items is now, and this book really shows you how. Add it to your library.

This is that kind of books that tell us everything about a scientific topic that we need to learn with basic knowledge. The authors help us to understand the nature of stones and the better way to conserve its characteristics for the future, everywhere you need to apply it: museums, buildings and particular collections. Perhaps the most important contents are the necessary methods and materials you must to apply in order to conserve and/or restore the original values of different kind of stone works. It is definitively a great help for architects, conservators and owners of stone collections.

This is that kind of books that tell us everything about a scientific topic that we need to learn with basic knowledge. The authors help us to understand the nature of stones and the better way to conserve its characteristics for the future, everywhere you need to apply it: museums, buildings and particular collections. Perhaps the most important contents are the necessary methods and materials that you must to apply in order to conserve and/or restore the original values of different kind of stone works. It is definitively a great help for architects, conservators and owners of stone collections.

it's an excellent book about cultural tourism

it's an excellent book about cultural tourism!

Books: Their Care & Repair is a basic manual of virtually all the repairs that a book dealer, collector, librarian, or bibliophile is likely to encounter. Books: Their Care & Repair covers paper mending, tip-ins and pockets, various types of pamphlet binding, hinge and joint repair, protective covers (wraparounds & wrappers). Books: Their Care & Repair also provides practical information on the basic structure of bound books, how to take care of them, causes of deterioration, and the basic techniques of carrying out repairs (measuring, cutting, pasting). Also featured are a glossary of terms, a list of recommended equipment and expendable supplies, and a list of suppliers of the materials called for by the suggested and recommended book repair instructions and care strategies. No antiquarian bookshop, dedicated bibliophile, or library collection supervisor can afford to be without a copy of Books: Their Care & Repair.

I wish everybody had the enthusiasm for caring for books that Jane Greenfield does. Too many are classic, valuable tomes thrown into used bookstores and decimated over time. This book is an excellent guide to caring for your books, and making them valuable over time.

Created ideally as intended for the artist as well as the dealer and collector. Just Great !

Not a book for the light reader (principally because it weighs too much!), but nevertheless an excellent reference book on the conservation of plant materials. Good books that cover this topic are extremely difficult to find, but this one not only presents its information in a clear, easily comprehenisble style (not something always associated with conservation reference books) it also has some of the best diagrams I've ever seen in a book of this type. As with all good conservation books, it not only covers conservation methods, but also deals very thoroughly with the initial manufacture of the artifacts and how this effects the preservation and restoration of the work - the sections on weaving are particularly good. Despite the fact that it was written in 1991, this book still provides valid methods of conservation and preservation for all plant materials.