Bryant, Julius – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk Henley-on-Thames Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:02:26 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-Bell-Background-Blue-32x32.png Bryant, Julius – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk 32 32 The Great Exhibition in Art https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-great-exhibition-in-art/ Mon, 27 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=52270 The Great Exhibition of 1851, the first World’s Fair, is generally thought of as a giant trade fair, a showcase for empires and industry. However, it was also conceived to address a deep-rooted problem with British taste, which favoured European art and design over British. Julius Bryant’s richly illustrated new book, which draws on the vast visual resources of the V&A’s collections, establishes the centrality of works of fine art amongst the objects on show at the Great Exhibition. It also highlights the ways in which contemporary artists were commissioned to depict and record the Exhibition’s building and displays for reproduction in commemorative publications.

Through reproductions of period images from definitive official publications, commercial guides, souvenirs, music scores, poems and satirical periodicals, the book brings to life the 19th-century visitor’s experience of the first World’s Fair. It documents Prince Albert’s vision for the Exhibition alongside the planned and actual routes as recorded in official engravings, maps and guidebooks; the opening and closing ceremonies as depicted in prints; the official visual record of the Exhibition; and souvenirs, popular press and ephemera. It concludes by examining the legacy of the Great Exhibition, including the founding of an institution which shared the Exhibition’s mission to educate the public about art, design and taste: the Victoria and Albert Museum.

]]> The Art of the Illustrated Book https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-art-of-the-illustrated-book/ Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-art-of-the-illustrated-book/ The story of the illustrated book from the earliest printed books to the present day, told through the collections of the V&A’s National Art Library.

This is the story of the illustrated book, from the earliest printed examples to the present day, told through the collections of the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London – a library that was created to bring together examples of superlative book-making on almost every subject.

Gathered here are some of the most influential, compelling and striking examples of the illustrated book, arranged thematically in chapters devoted to subjects such as art, literature, religion, architecture, natural history, fashion, and shopping. Brimming with innovative and beautiful examples, ranging from well-known titles, such as Owen Jones’s Grammar of Ornament and James Audubon’s Birds of America, to other wonderful but less familiar publications, this collection offers a fascinating overview of some of the finest illustrated books ever created – demonstrating their enduring appeal.

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