Books Received

Books 77 then given to the engraver who cut away all the surface of the wood except what the artist had covered with his pencil lines. Draughtsmen relied for their inspiration on drawings or photographs by the author or prints from existing books. At their best, their woodcuts were works ofart in their own right. The more they failed in a realistic portrayal of their subjects, the more they added a quaint charm to their cuts. The most popular of all woodcut subjects-animals and other living creatures-have been reproduced by the picture sourcebooks represented here in their original tone, as line drawings. without halftone screen. The authors offer their graphic zoo as a help to artists and designers. Mayflower Books gives an unrestricted permission for use of the material as illustrations; Van Nostrand Reinhold would prefer permission to be asked if more than ten illustrations are used for each graphic arts project, but add that this is not necessary. Reproduction of the originals is very clear in both books, and there is none of that filtering through of the type from the other side of the page that besets attempts to use original 19th-century woodcuts for illustrations. Mayflower Books lists 432 index references to different subjects; Van Nostrand Reinhold reproduces ‘more than 700’. There are important differencesin the sourcesof the two sets of ‘swipe files’. All the pictures in the Book ofAnimals appeared in The American Agriculturist between around 1860 and 1880. They thus have a close family resemblance and are roughly of the same period. Animals: A Picture Sourcebook, on the other hand, drawson a much wider era, from the early 1800sto the 1900s.It also reproduces illustrations by engravers whose style differs markedly. The arrangement of the two books is also quite different. Book o f Animals is divided into: Birds, Mammals, Insects. Fish, Reptiles and Amphibians, while Animals has its contents categorized by order. family and species. As both books are well indexed, however. these arrangements do not hamper either the scientist or nonscientist. Nothing dates more quickly than a drawing of an animal, while some animals and birds have either disappeared completely since these pictures were made. or radically altered their appearance. An animal picture archive is a valuable research source. I have just finished a History of the British Dog (Robert Hale, London). Apart from a few collected dog books, my principal identification aid was the chart of these animals used by the British police to show the members of the public who come to report the loss of their pets. I wish I had had the benefit of Helen Iranhi and Don Rice’s portable Ark. Colors from the Earth: The Artist’s Guide to Collecting, Preparing and Using Them. Anne Wall Thomas. Van Nostrand Reinhold, London, 1980.96 pp.. illus. €10.45. ISBN: 0-442-25786-4. Reviewed by George A. Agoston* This little well-written book is a rich collection of information on earth pigments. The author has dug into the scattered technical literature and has assembled her findings in a way accessible to artists. She describes the earth pigments (natural and synthetic) and presents illustrations of them in color. The geographical locations of the major sources of natural pigments are indicated (with maps for deposits in the U.S.A.), and the history of their use is sketched. The author’s enthusiasm about her subject will undoubtedlyspreadto many readers of her book. They will find that earth pigments abound in nature. She tells how they may be gathered and how they may be prepared with the use of a mortar and pestle, a glass muller and miscellaneous kitchen equipment. Several simple tests are described for the evaluation of the pigments. A major portion of the book is devoted to the making of a variety of artists’ materials from earth pigments. (Actually much of what is discussed can be applied to other pigments as well.) She supplies instructions (well illustrated) for making oil paint, encaustic medium, wax crayons. tempera, pastes, watercolors, gouache, pastels, inks and even hand-made paper. Some of the preparations are for use in making permanent artworks and some are not (the latter are clearly indicated...