Pattern: A Historical Panorama by William Justema, and: Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Painting: Book Illumination in the British Isles 600–800 by Carl Nordenfalk (review)

342 Books possible.’ I find it a useful dictionary-type book from which one can obtain quickly certain precise information. The initial general discussion is enriched with a tasteful selection of fine photographs of sculptural art. The different techniques are well illustrated. But the brief texts for each of the many techniques limits theusefulnessof the book, for it cannot serve as a guide for making an artwork. The book clearly indicates that the author is an experienced artist, a seasoned craftsman and a good teacher. One can almost hear him conveying advice and suggestions to attentive students. However, I find it is a hybrid of the ‘how to do’ and the‘how to appreciate’ type of text. Although it offers quite a lot of information on new techniques and new materials, not enough is provided for beginners. The chapter on bronze casting has good illustrations, but the text is much too brief. More can be learned about this semiindustrial technique during a visit to a foundry. The chapter on plaster casting is rather confusing, but the treatment of traditional techniques is, on the whole, more satisfactory. A glossary of terms and an index are provided. The excellent choice of recommended books will be helpful to beginners who wish to learn more about the various techniques mentioned. I have found especially useful his other books: Sfudio Bronze Casting (with Michael Gillespie), The Technique of Casfirrgin Bronze and Sculpture in Cirnenf Fondu. Transpolyhedra: Dual Transformations by Explosion-Implosion (Vol. I in the series Papers in Theoretical Morphology). Haresh Lalvani. Haresh Lalvani, P.O. Box 1538, New York, NY 10001, U.S.A., 1977. 84 pp., illus. Paper. Reviewed by Arthur Loeb* This is a very beautiful book, painstakingly produced. It is also very useful. The author takes a number of processes that gradually transform a polyhedron into its dual; the intermediate stages in this process are called ‘transpolyhedra’. Lalvani acknowledges indebtedness for these transformations to a number of previous authors, from Alicia Book Stott (1910) to H. S. M. Coxeter. The merit of the book liesin his illustrated concise but clear summary of the processes and, especially, in the photographs of the various series of transpolyhedra. The processes used include various edge truncations, explosions keeping the orientation of the original faces constant, implosions in which some faces degenerate into vertices and jitterbug-like transformations in which faces may rotate around an axis normal to themselves, keeping the orientation of such an axis constant. Lalvani classifles ‘semi-regular’ polyhedra as facially regular (all faces mutually congruent) and vertically regular (all vertices mutually regular). In itself this nomenclature is a welcome change from the ambiguous ‘semiregular’ term, which is sometimes applied to only one and sometimes to both classes. It is unfortunate, however, that the adjective ‘vertical’ is more commonly used to denote ‘perpendicular to horizontal’. Crystallographers will find this book especially useful if they realize that the explosion transformation produces a series of polyhedra whose vertices correspond to the special and general sets of equipoints, listed as a given page in the International Tables of Crystallography, corresponding to a given symmetry group. The book will serve as a very useful illustrative companion to almost any book published in the rapidly developing domain of the design sciences. A Book of Art Nouveau Alphabets and Ornamental Designs. Frank H. Atkinson. Universe Books, New York, 1977. I12 pp.. illus. Paper, $4.50. Reviewed by Nancy Hubbe** The debonair Art Nouveau style, which originated in Paris in 1890,proved socongenial for hand lettering that its influence has *Dept. of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. **288 Katahdin Ave., Millinocket, ME 04462. U.S.A. been visible on many signs ever since. This book presents designs not from Paris but from Chicago. With a pragmatic eye for ease, sign painter Atkinson adapted the style to the U.S.A. of 1908. His alphabets are decorative modifications of classical types, including lower case letters. The alphabets are still considered to be in good taste. Occasional excessive scrollwork does show the Art Nouveau obsession with the curling of the vine, and the examples of italics are heavily slanted. Some of the sign layouts are...