Antique Tools and Instruments from the Nessi Collection

Milan: 5 Continents, 2004. Hardcover. VG/G (book shows very minimal signs of shelf wear, wear from water damage on back cover, all pages clear and intact - dust jacket shows water damage on the underside, not visible from the outside, general shelf wear at corners with tiny tear in top of spine). Black paper boards with gold gilt lettering on spine, illustrated flyleaves, black and color illustrated dust jacket with orange lettering, 363 pp., color illustrations. "In Europe, from the Renaissance to the middle of the nineteenth century, tools and implements used in sciences, crafts and trades, as well as in domestic and personal life, were in some cases (truncated) craft-produced with such care and attention upon their formal features that the end-product was indistinguishable from a veritable work of art. Extraordinary instruments were produced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in particular in Germany, often commissioned directly by the princes and arstocrats for inclusion in their personal 'cabinet of wonders.' Similar care could be seen in the production of scientific and surgical implements. In craft tools, of course, considerations of functions were paramount, but they went together with variation in the choice of materials and, often, highly symbolic decorative additions. Within the home, objects in wrought-iron that were used in the preparation of food were frequently linked with the main events in home life. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as urban society became ever more sophisticated, especially in France, there was an increasing production of implements of high quality for private use: utensils for neddlework, writing and smoking as well as the necessaires for travellers." - dust jacket description. (Inventory #: 182680)