Deco jewelry delights

A first-class survey of Art Deco Galalith jewelry which focuses on the output of the German watch-chain and jewelry manufacturer Bengel. The first ninety-seven pages look at thirties fashion, jewelry and the art movements that created such a vibrant look to pendants, bracelets, earrings and brooches. Clearly Christine Weber-Stober has done a lot of research into European Art Deco jewelry and the items made by Bengel from Galalith (from the Greek 'gala', milk and 'lithos', stone)

It was made from milk protein and formaldehyde and was one of the new synthetic products developed in the middle and latter part of the nineteenth century. The beauty of it was that it could be made cheaply, was heat resistant and easy to color, so makers of buttons, belt-buckles, knitting needles and similar small items were able to churn them out by the millions. It did have one drawback though: it couldn't be cast like plastic but was made in slabs, tubes and rods then cut and worked into whatever simple shape was required.

The various new materials developed in the early years of the twentieth century were ideally suited to designers and creative folk influenced by the new 'isms' of the age: cubism, futurism, vorticism and especially modernism via the Bauhaus. The second part of the book has 253 photos of mass produced jewelry from the Bengel company. Their expertise in metalwork combined with the simple colorful shapes of Galalith makes all of these pieces look quite stunning. Strangely, despite the author's research, there seems to be no real explanation as to why this German metal working factory made such remarkable work. None of it was stamped with the company name, their Galalith jewelry output went to wholesalers who sold it on to retailers who added their brand names.

The book's production is as gorgeous as the jewelry. Printed on matt art paper with a 175 screen, the elegant layout throws up the excellent photography. The text is in German and English but the designers have avoided any potential reader confusion by splitting the text pages horizontally with German occupying the top section. In comparison the books for collectors from the main American publishers in this sector look bland and visually uninspiring (expensive, too).

Art Deco Jewelry (the German title is Art Deco Schmuck) is a beautiful celebration of past jewelry style that still looks fresh and lively today.

Slick transport

Some books about streamline trains.

Reed's book was one of the first to take a backward look at streamline transport. Originally published in 1975, the same year as Donald Bush's The Streamlined Decade and in 1979 Jeffrey Meikle's book Twentieth century limited: Industrial design in America, 1925-1939 (American civilization) defined the style and I think became the standard reference books on the subject. Bush and Meikle look beyond transport to cover architecture and consumer products in a much more scholarly way than Reed and their books are much more professionally produced.

Transport in the thirties was an obvious choice for streamlining, though it's worth pointing out that the wonderfully looking sleek steamers were just the same old engine covered by a designed shroud. It wasn't until diesels were developed to finally have a completely streamlined product. Most of Reed's book looks at trains, particularly steam ones and he clearly has done a lot of research. The first chapters consider the history and then development of streamline trains in the twenties and early thirties. All the famous trains in the thirties and forties get extensive coverage in words and photos.

A chapter I found interesting was 'Streamline abroad', which looks at trains around the world. Because streamline is defined as essentially an American style the engines from elsewhere all look as if they are missing something. They look cumbersome and really lacking in pizzazz. There just weren't designers like Loewy, Dreyfuss, Kuhler, Bell Geddes in other countries. The last part of the book covers aircraft, road transport and the decline of streamline passenger trains after 1945. Aircraft seem the least likely form of transport to need streamlining; by their nature they are sleek and aerodynamically efficient. Oddly Reed doesn't cover ships (least not in my 1975 edition). Bush's 'Streamline decade' has eleven pages on this.

The streamline era is really a comprehensive text coverage of trains of the period but I thought it's a pity the book looks so amateurish. This is typical of the transport press, especially trains, there is the needless duplication of photos. Pages 199, 200 and 2001 have six photos of the Loewy designed Pennsylvania's T-1. Two photos, much larger, would have been enough for the reader. This waste of page space with photo repetition runs all through the book. The pages have no particular design, interesting photos are too small and many could well have been left out. The typography from the title page onwards is bland and was it really necessary to have a different heading type for each different named train?

The book is now more than three decades old and looks it and though it was perhaps the first to look in depth at the subject I really can't see why it should be so expensive. There are now similar streamline train books in color and better looking. Worth checking out are: The Art of the Streamliner or Classic American Streamliners and these, which despite rather unimaginative presentations have plenty of interesting images, the two-volume 'The American streamliner' by Heimburger and Byron (ISBN 0911581391 and 091158143X). Mark Wegman's stunning art of many of the trains in Reed's book can be found in his American Passenger Trains and Locomotives Illustrated (Great Passenger Trains).

The consumer packs them in

This book on packaging was one of six source books on creativity. You can see a sample of them here: Past Print: Graphic source books (westread.blogspot.com)

Roger Opie, the author founded the London based Museum of Brands, collected over 3000,000  packages and he was the obvious choice to edit a book that takes an historical look at consumer packs. The six chapters start from 1880 to 1989 with each looking at what might be found in an British house, for example 1960 to 1979, with fifty-eight packs, has convenience foods, yoghurt, chilled goods, smoking, bathroom and feminine beauty.

One reason I've enjoyed looking at these Source books is the impressive layouts. In Packaging the photos are big with comprehensive captions. Though the majority of packs originated in Britain there are several American ones included.