Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Some tanning and marking due to age. Year 1951. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> Since the publication of A Handbook of English Medieval Sculpture in 1935 various things have occurred which add to our knowledge of the subject and a number of new publications have thrown light on some of the problems or revealed the results of patient research. Perhaps the most important event has been the ex- hibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum of the sculptures from Westminster Abbey which had been temporarily removed from their places for security reasons during the war. Close examination of these has helped to increase our knowledge and appreciation of the work of the last period of medieval sculpture. Dr Hildburgh’s donation of his great collection of alabaster carvings to the Museum also enables us to study another remarkable phase of the later developments of the subject. A few early carvings of Saxon date have also come to light and there seems therefore to be room for a new edition including some 180 fresh illustra- tions which will enable a more up-to-date and comprehensive view of the subject to be obtained. In view of the availability of such works as Mr Cave’s Roof Bosses Mr Crossley’s English Church Monuments and Mr Bond’s Fonts and Misericords as well as my own Alabaster Tombs I have not felt it necessary to go into these subjects in quite such full detail as in some others and have been content to include only such outstanding or typical examples as are required for them to take their proper place in a general account of medieval sculpture. Finally I have to thank the clergy vergers and curators of our churches and museums for giving facilities for the collection of the vast amount of photographic material from which the illustrations have been selected. (MP)