400 Wood Boxes: The Fine Art of Containment & Concealment (500 Series)

By Veronika Alice Gunter

Book Overview

Featuring 400 outstanding works that range from traditional to wildly contemporary, this superb gallery celebrates the art of the wooden box. The wonderfully wide variety of styles includes traditional jewelry and keepsake, turned, and tool boxes; miniature treasure chests; and sculptural work. Each one has been personally chosen by renowned boxmaker Tony Lydgate, and appears in an exquisite color plate; many of the boxes also come with detailed images that reveal important construction secrets. The selection includes pieces by a distinguished group of artists.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1579904599
• ISBN13: 9781579904593
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Union Square & Co.
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 2.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Highly Recommended

This is a wonderful book. I bought a couple of how-to books awhile back and was disappointed that those books didn't offer more inspiration photographs. This book fits satisfies that need exceptionally well. Just page and after page of beautiful woodwork. When I first got the book, I started reading it page-by-page. It took at least an hour to get through the first half. All of the boxes are wonderful to look at and contemplate. There is no style depicted. It covers everything from the small trinket holder, to jewelry boxes to turned boxes to the "Well, I guess someone would like that". All of the photos are in color and are captioned with the artist's name, dimensions of the object and types of wood used to create it. An index is in the back of the book that provides the city and state of each artist. There is absolutely no discussion of technique. Time to head back to the shop...I've got a couple of board feet of absolutely stunning bastogne walnut that needs my attention.

Lots of quality photos

Very nice book, lots of great looking boxes. Great for new ideas (woodworker) or if you are looking for something special. Only downfall, is most do not offer a picture of the inside of box.

A beautiful book

What a wonderful and varied collection of boxes! This is a treasure for wood-lovers or for anyone who loves beauty. As with 400 Polymer Clay Designs, it has so many beautiful images, I was not able to view it in one setting. The pictures made me smile and "wow," and made me want to pick up, feel and explore the boxes. Don't expect box-making instructions - this book is a gallery only, but of the highest order. I can't recommend it too highly.

Little boxes, little boxes...

Whether woodworker or collector you be, this is a must book. It displays some of the finest examples of modern box making I've seen under one cover. It is in artist by artist order. The photography and reproduction is professional, and the work represented covers the range from the traditional jewelry boxes of Roy Tsumoto to the incredible concoctions of Po Shun Leong. I like this heterogeneous approach because each time I start looking through the book I find that my tastes and understanding get a bit broader. This is a tremendous source of ideas. Being a maker, I wish there were more technical details. On several occasions I found myself struggling to see how the artist created the box. In other words this is more about design than it is about engineering. But there is no curse without its blessing - making myself think of a way to carry out a design is good exercise. In any case, this book is invaluable for understanding the fine line between craft and art, one enclosed space after another.

Creativity abounds

I bought this book because I appreciate the creative talents of others. I was totally surprised and fascinated by the wide variety of design and innovative expression from so many artists. From the simple, but elegant, (pg 46) to the imagative,(pg 202) you will be tempted to take up this art form yourself!