Virginia Museum of Fine Arts – förlag

Part of the first exchange agreement between China’s Palace Museum and an American museum, Forbidden City: Imperial Treasures from Palace Museum, Beijing accompanies an exhibition of the same name at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. More than 200 works of art drawn from the collection of the Palace Museum—court paintings, furniture, costumes, sculpture, decorative objects, arms, and armor—highlight the artistic accomplishments of the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, with a focus on the mid-Qing dynasty of the 18th century. In addition, the book features a number of works selected from VMFA’s collection. These magnificent artworks, all reproduced in full color, illustrate the splendor of the Forbidden City and offer an intimate look at its rituals, religion, and daily life.

Celebrating the stunning beauty of English silver crafted over three centuries, "A Noble Feast" offers unique insight into the developments that took place in eating and drinking habits in Stuart, Hanoverian, and Victorian England. Foreign influences, not only from France, Spain, and Italy but also from the New World, figure prominently in the customs of the tabletop during this period of English history. Drawing on colorful details from menus, cookery books, and anecdotes about the owners of these magnificent silver tablewares, Christopher Hartop shows how the silver reflects burgeoning prosperity in Restoration London and global expansion of the British Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Through examples taken from the Gans Collection - one of the leading silver collections in the United States - Hartop documents the confidence in artistic endeavor as well as in trade and industry that typified the age. With works by such celebrated masters as Paul de Lamerie, Paul Storr, Robert Garrard, and Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, the collection offers a veritable feast of silver splendor, here highlighted by lush color illustrations and an updated catalogue.