The Ancient Art of Transformation: Case Studies from Mediterranean Contexts examines instances of human transformation in the ancient and early Christian Mediterranean world by exploring the ways in which art impacts, aids, or provides evidence for physical, spiritual, personal, and social transitions. Building on Arnold van Gennep’s notion of universal rites of passage, papers in this volume expand the definition of “transformation” to include widespread transitions such as shifts in political establishments and changes in cultural identity. In considering these broadly defined “passages,” authors have observed particular changes in the visual record, whether they be manifest, enigmatic, or symbolic. While several papers address transitions that are incomplete, resulting in intermediary, hybrid states, others suggest that the medium itself can be integral to interpreting a transition, and in some cases, be itself transformed. Together, the volume covers not only a broad chronological span (c. 5th century BC to 4th century AD), but also an expansive geographical range (Egypt, Greece, and Italy). Reflecting upon issues central to a variety of Mediterranean cultures (Egyptians, Etruscans, Greeks, Romans, and early Christians), The Ancient Art of Transformation documents how personal, societal, and historical changes become permanently fixed in the material record.​ The Ancient Art of Transformation examines the visual manifestation of human transformation in the ancient and early medieval Mediterranean world, exploring the role of art and visual culture in enabling, hindering, or documenting physical, spiritual, personal, and social transitions such as pregnancy and birth, initiations, marriage, death and funerals. The definition of “transformation” is also expanded to address instances of less personal and more widespread transitions such as shifts in political establishments and changes in cultural identity in geographic locations. Additionally, although the ancient material record documents certain rites of passage such as marriage and death extensively, artifacts and their accompanying images are often studied simply to reconstruct these social processes. Authors here suggest that material evidence itself can be integral to interpreting a transition, and in some cases, be itself transformed. Further, several papers address transitions that are incomplete, resulting in intermediary, hybrid states that are very often reflected in the visual record such as Athenian vase-painting imagery forecasting the bride as a mother, displays of nudity that reflect intermediate life stages in Etruscan art and Octavian’s visual transformation into Pharaoh and Augustus in Egyptian architecture and material culture. At its core the volume establishes current methods for understanding how ancient visual culture shaped, informed, and was affected by processes of transformation. Together, these papers offer a close examination of various types of visual evidence from several cultures and periods (e.g., Etruscan, Greek, Roman, early Christian), and document how personal, societal, historical changes become permanently fixed in the material record.

Acknowledged as the journal of record in its field, American Furniture presents new research on furniture design, use, production, and appreciation. Begun in 1993, this award-winning annual provides a comprehensive forum on furniture history, technology, connoisseurship, and conservation by the foremost scholars in the field. It is the only interdisciplinary journal devoted exclusively to furniture made or used in the Americas from the seventeenth century to the present.

Jewellery is often viewed as a feminine preoccupation, but in Tudor and Jacobean England men wore just as much (if not more) jewellery as their female counterparts. Jewels themselves were valued not merely for their intrinsic monetary worth, but also for their ability to reflect status and lineage, as well as sustain social bonds and networks of reciprocity. Bejewelled offers an in-depth discussion of the contexts in which jewellery in Tudor and Jacobean England was circulated from a male perspective, considering the jewels as valid items of material culture worthy of study and attention, rather than as mere trifles of adornment. Amongst other subjects, the book analyses the social and historical contexts in which jewellery was acquired, owned and circulated, interrogating the meanings that these jewels had for their male owners. The publication will highlight artefacts from the British Museum’s collection, such as the magnificent Lyte Jewel from the Waddesdon Bequest and the sealing devices of Sir Thomas Smith and Sir Walter Ralegh, as well as lesser-known objects such as the rings of the serjeants-at-law and a group of bronze plaquettes. By including material that has been discovered in archaeological contexts, along with evidence from inventories and wills as well as portraits showing these jewels being worn, this publication seeks to reposition jewellery, presenting it not merely as a concern of the elite but as something that was owned, worn and valued by a range of men across English society.

Beads, beadwork, and personal ornaments are made of diverse materials such as shell, bone, stones, minerals, and composite materials. Their exploration from geographical and chronological settings around the world offers a glimpse at some of the cutting edge research within the fast growing field of personal ornaments in humanities’ past. Recent studies are based on a variety of analytical procedures that highlight humankind’s technological advances, exchange networks, mortuary practices, and symbol-laden beliefs. Papers discuss the social narratives behind bead and beadwork manufacture, use and disposal; the way beads work visually, audibly and even tactilely to cue wearers and audience to their social message(s). Understanding the entangled social and technical aspects of beads require a broad spectrum of technical and methodological approaches including the identification of the sources for the raw material of beads. These scientific approaches are also combined in some instances with experimentation to clarify the manner in which beads were produced and used in past societies.

Acknowledged as the journal of record in its field, American Furniture presents new research on furniture design, use, production, and appreciation. Begun in 1993, this award-winning annual provides a comprehensive forum on furniture history, technology, connoisseurship, and conservation by the foremost scholars in the field. It is the only interdisciplinary journal devoted exclusively to furniture made or used in the Americas from the seventeenth century to the present.

In 1898, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bequeathed to the British Museum the contents from the New Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor, a collection of nearly 300 objects to be known as the Waddesdon Bequest. The Bequest contains some of the most beautiful examples of medieval and Renaissance craftsmanship, including exquisite pieces of jewellery, silver plate, painted enamels of Limoges, glass and microcarvings in boxwood. It is the only permanent collection to have a gallery to itself in the British Museum, one that has been redesigned for the 21st century which opened to great acclaim in 2015. To coincide with the new gallery supported by the Rothschild Foundation, a conference was held that opened up this remarkable collection to leading specialists who spoke on all areas of the Bequest. Subjects included new attributions for sculptures, a detailed discussion of the making and marketing of forgeries by Salomon Weininger, Frédéric Spitzer and Alfred André as well as new research on jewellery and its presentation both at Waddesdon Manor and in the new gallery at the BM. The collecting tastes of French and English Rothschilds were compared and contrasted, and a line of Arabic poetry enamelled on the Palmer Cup newly identified. This book presents these findings and positions the Waddesdon Bequest within a wider intellectual and historical context for the first time.

Acknowledged as the journal of record in its field, American Furniture presents new research on furniture design, use, production, and appreciation. Begun in 1993, this award-winning annual provides a comprehensive forum on furniture history, technology, connoisseurship, and conservation by the foremost scholars in the field. It is the only interdisciplinary journal devoted exclusively to furniture made or used in the Americas from the seventeenth century to the present.

A diverse range of essays, new discoveries and book reviews on the latest research of interest to ceramics scholarsNow in its thirteenth year of publication, Ceramics in America is considered the journal of record for historical ceramics scholarship in the American context and is intended for collectors, historical archaeologists, curators, decorative arts students, social historians, and contemporary potters.“This year’s Ceramics in America is on the cutting edge of Southern material-culture scholarship and ceramics studies. It weaves the sherds of pots past with surviving vessels and documentary evidence to enrich our understanding of the field. ”—Daniel K. Ackermann, Associate Curator, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts at Old Salem Museums & Gardens“Ceramics in America opens a window into most aspects of American life: public and private, imported and native, industrial and aesthetic, social and economic—and on all cultures betwixt and between.”—Philip Zea, President, Historic Deerfield, Inc.

Acknowledged as the journal of record in its field, American Furniture presents new research on furniture design, use, production, and appreciation. Begun in 1993, this award-winning annual provides a comprehensive forum on furniture history, technology, connoisseurship, and conservation by the foremost scholars in the field. It is the only interdisciplinary journal devoted exclusively to furniture made or used in the Americas from the seventeenth century to the present.

Now in its eleventh year of publication, Ceramics in America is considered the journal of record for historical ceramic scholarship in the American context.Included in 2011 edition:• The Chinese Scholar Pattern: Style, Merchant Identity, and the English Imagination-Sarah Fayen Scarlett• Digging Up Salem's Golden Age: Ceramic Use among the Merchant Class-George Schwartz• Ceramic Treasures among Seventeenth-Century Trash: A 1660s Cellar Deposit-Al Luckenbach and John E. Kille• The Stoneware Years of the Thompson Potters of Morgantown, West Virginia, 1854-1890-Richard Duez and Don Horvath with Brenda Hornsby Heindl• Cap-Hole Oyster Jars: A Racial Message In The Mud; or Shipping Crassostrea Virginica-Ivor Noël Hume• Mind Mud: Ai Weiwei's Conceptual Ceramics-Garth ClarkPlus ten New Discoveries and six new book reviews

Acknowledged as the journal of record in its field, American Furniture presents new research on furniture design, use, production, and appreciation. Begun in 1993, this award-winning annual provides a comprehensive forum on furniture history, technology, connoisseurship, and conservation by the foremost scholars in the field. It is the only interdisciplinary journal devoted exclusively to furniture made or used in the Americas from the seventeenth century to the present.

Acknowledged as the journal of record in its field, American Furniture presents new research on furniture design, use, production, and appreciation. Begun in 1993, this award-winning annual provides a comprehensive forum on furniture history, technology, connoisseurship, and conservation by the foremost scholars in the field. It is the only interdisciplinary journal devoted exclusively to furniture made or used in the Americas from the seventeenth century to the present.

Now in its ninth year of publication, Ceramics in America is considered the journal of record for historical ceramic scholarship in the American context. The 2009 volume presents new research related to the rich and varied earthenware production in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Moravian settlements of Bethabara and Salem, North Carolina. Setting a new standard for American ceramic studies, this transdisciplinary effort draws on archaeology, art history, social history, religion, ceramic technology, and many other areas of inquiry resulting in a substantively revised history of this much-admired North Carolina pottery tradition. Many examples of highly decorative slipware and intriguing figural bottles are illustrated for the first time with color photography by Gavin Ashworth.Art in Clay: Masterworks of North Carolina Earthenware Exhibition Schedule: The Milwaukee Art Museum: September 2, 2010 - January 17, 2011; Old Salem Museums & Gardens: March 2011 - August 2011; Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: September 26, 2011 - June 24, 2012

Acknowledged as the journal of record in its field, American Furniture presents new research on furniture design, use, production, and appreciation. Begun in 1993, this award-winning annual provides a comprehensive forum on furniture history, technology, connoisseurship, and conservation by the foremost scholars in the field. It is the only interdisciplinary journal devoted exclusively to furniture made or used in the Americas from the seventeenth century to the present.

Now in its eight year of publication, Ceramics in America is considered the journal of record for historical ceramics scholarship in the American context and is intended for collectors, historical archaeologists, curators, decorative arts students, social historians, and contemporary potters. This volume of Ceramics in America features articles on eighteenth-century New York and New Jersey salt-glazed stoneware, a fascinating ceramic cargo from the "Blue China" wreck, nineteenth-century ceramic consumption patterns in the Anglo-American merchant trade, and commemorative ceramics made for the 1907, 1957, and 2007 anniversaries of the founding off Jamestown, Virginia. Included are many additional articles detailing important new discoveries in the ceramic field and scholarly reviews of recently published ceramic books.