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Purchase
America's Traditional Crafts
by Robert Shaw
-from Publishers Weekly
This astonishing survey of American crafts from the early 1800s
to the present reveals that craft objects often achieve fine-art
levels of beauty, sophistication and originality. The focus is
on functional objects, including intricate works in wrought iron,
shorebird decoys, furniture, musical instruments, pantry boxes,
rugs, stoneware, scrimshaw, leatherwork, Shaker tools and baskets,
Amish quilts and Native American moccasins, dresses and quillwork.
In his engaging text, Shaw, curator at the Shelburne Museum in
Vermont, provides valuable historical perspective by showing,
for example, how craft co-operatives during the Depression revived
and modified 19th-century rug-making techniques, or how African
Americans and Native Americans adapted the European-American
tradition of hand-carved walking sticks, adding features derived
from their own iconographic customs. Anyone interested in crafts
will want to own this extraordinary showcase of living traditions,
illustrated with 310 color photographs."
-from Booklist
"Probably the information source on major U.S. crafts.
Shelbourne Museum (Vermont) curator Shaw has compiled treasures
of U.S. folk art, displayed them in a panoply of stunning color
photographs, and surrounded them with a scholarly yet down-to-earth
text, including providing an acquaintance with the provenance
of each object. Here, we learn that redware should more appropriately
be labeled earthenware, that scrimshaw was not just decorative
scribblings on whalebone, and that the popular faux finishes
of today actually began in the 1800s. Featured among the hundreds
of photographs are cameos of individual crafters--an Illinois
decoy and bird carver, a southern mother and daughter specializing
in splint baskets, a New England native renowned for her quilts,
for instance--bringing a sense of ownership and pride to these
objects. From necessity to luxury, American crafts have evolved
in an interesting way, and Shaw captures that history and spirit
well. Glossary appended. "
-Barbara Jacobs
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