Böcker i Shire Collections-serien

For the British army, the cap badge is the most easily identifiable form of insignia. It represents a distillation of the pride of the regiment, its various battle honours and symbols borne proudly on the metallic emblem that was worn on all head dress, even within the trenches. Identification of the cap badge on old photographs is the first, important step in unravelling the military service of an individual. Cap badge collecting is as popular now as it has ever been; yet with a growing number of fakes and forgeries, there is a need for a book that illustrates clearly the main types, and allows the collector and family historian alike to understand their meaning.

The story of English furniture begins in the sixteenth century, when crude medieval tables and stools gave way to more sophisticated, jointed designs. This book reveals that the Tudor furniture is the earliest to survive. It concludes with a masterclass in detecting the alterations and fakery that can affect the value of a piece of furniture.

Rene Lalique was one of the giants of twentieth century decorative arts and a master of the Art Deco idiom. Born in 1860, early artistic talent led to an apprenticeship with Paris goldsmith Louis Aucoc. By 1885 Rene had established his own workshop, and for the next twenty years he designed and made jewellery of great originality and beauty. Though this became famous worldwide, before the turn of the century he began experimenting with glass, and it is for this that Lalique is today most famous: for the fine art perfume bottles he produced for Francois Coty and for a vast repertoire besides, including vases, lighting, clocks, car mascots and architectural commissions. This lavishly illustrated history celebrates the extraordinary jewellery and glass of Rene Lalique, and the glass of the Lalique company up to the present day.

Although usually associated with the 1920s and '30s, the Art Deco style had already begun to emerge in France prior to the First World War. Art Deco design is redolent of the Jazz Age, conjuring images of society cocktail parties, the Charleston and Hollywood in this great but doomed era of excess. This book deals with Art Deco.