Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The design and architectural legacy of the lost world of the Shakers has found favour of almost cult proportions in the very different world of the 1990s. In the nineteenth century the Shakers were famous as the most successful utopian communal society in America. Social reformers from Emerson to Tolstoy hailed their progressive attitudes on such issues as equality of the sexes care of children and the aged and pacifism. They loved God and each other and worked devotedly to build a physical and spiritual haven distanced from the complications of the real world creating a network of eighteen principal villages from Maine to Kentucky Today the Shakers are nearly gone. Only a few members remain in a single community at Sabbathday Lake Maine. But their buildings and villages survive as a testimony to their dedication and their unique architectural style reveals much about how they lived and how they designed their communities. They shunned what they judged wasteful and unnecessary including ornament focusing their creativity on what was useful and well made. Within the discipline of simplicity Shaker artisans expressed genius in proportion line pattern form and colour. In stone wood and brick Shaker buildings embody an amazing elegance and grace and their design has become a source of inspiration throughout the world. The first book on Shaker architecture for many years this is a stunning visual record of Shaker meeting houses dwelling places workshops and barns from villages all over America. Magnificent colour photography by Paul Rocheleau who has photographed the Shaker legacy for more than twenty years allows us to view these buildings and examine closely the colours textures and atmosphere of each one while the text provides an informative commentary on the architecture and interiors. David Larkin’s masterful design produces a photographic book as elegantly simple as Shaker buildings themselves. (OS)