Antiques & Collectables

Breathe new life into old furniture and thrift store finds

Upcycling Furniture For Dummies shows you how to revitalize old furniture, with just a little effort and imagination, and maybe a few coats of fresh paint. Upcycling furniture is affordable, good for the environment, and a whole lot of fun! This easy, step-by-step guide shows you how to get creative and put your own unique flair on your designs. You’ll gain the knowledge and confidence you need to select items that are worth transforming or restoring and learn specific techniques to give old pieces a new lease on life.

• Learn the process of upcycling dressers, tables, chairs, and other furniture
• Enjoy the fun of sourcing items and increasing their value with your creativity!
• Update your décor with gorgeous, upcycled furniture
• Express yourself and find out how to flip your creations for a profit!

This Dummies reference is great for anyone with an interest in turning trash into treasure.

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‘What defines the car-saddo condition is not being able to recall a time when the toy-car-era of your life actually ended. Because for us sufferers, it never does.’

Nobody knows cars like Chris Harris does. He calls it ‘unhinged geekery’, but the rest of the world call it infectious enthusiasm, adrenalin fuelled escapism and rigorous journalistic integrity.

And then there are his famous skills at the wheel, from city cars to rally cars, not forgetting the Guinness World Record 3.4km sideways in an electric car.

And now for the first time, Harris takes us down the road of his life-long obssession with the automobile – along surprising diversions, around hazards and obstructions, down the fast lane collecting Gs and back to the lock-up to prep the stock.

From the six-year-old who could recite the stats from What Car? magazine to the YouTube car guru whose honest reviews got him banned by Ferrari. From the Scalextric track of his childhood, to podiums as a racing driver out in the world. From behind his garage doors to the floodlit Top Gear studio.

Variable Valve Timings brings you an incredibly engaging story of adventure and petrolhead joy, told with wit, warmth and disarming honesty. This book is a true one-off, just like Chris.

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Joanne Condon takes you step-by-step through the process of furniture flipping, from choosing the right piece to using colour, pattern and detail to bring new life to an item.

The perfect antidote to unsustainable, mass-produced ‘fast furniture’, flipping can take many forms: applying paint or wallpaper, replacing handles and hardware, experimenting with colour and adding pattern and texture. First of all, Joanne explains everything you need to get started, including essential equipment and how to prepare old furniture for painting. Next, you will find 25 projects, organized by difficulty level. Beginners can start out with simple stencils and colour blocking. Intermediate upcyclers can try their hand at cross stitch on a cane-backed chair. And confident furniture flippers can take on more advanced projects, such as transforming a wardrobe into a pantry or creating a distressed paint effect. Throughout the book, Joanne presents easy-to-follow instructions with photographs to guide you at every step of the way.

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Winner of the Holyer an Gof Award 2023

In 1997 sixty-two containers fell off the cargo ship Tokio Express after it was hit by a rogue wave off the coast of Cornwall, including one container filled with nearly five million pieces of Lego, much of it sea themed. In the months that followed, beachcombers started to find Lego washed up on beaches across the south west coast. Among the pieces they discovered were octopuses, sea grass, spear guns, life rafts, scuba tanks, cutlasses, flippers and dragons. The pieces are still washing up today.

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Pottery tells us about religion, daily life, humour, trade, sex, folklore and creativity.

Bearing the imprint of their maker more than any other crafted object, ceramics give us a unique physical link to the past, often the only evidence of long-forgotten civilizations that have otherwise crumbled to dust.

From ancient Egyptian canopic death jars to ethereally beautiful porcelain, and from lewd Renaissance novelties to sleek contemporary vessels, Around the World in 80 Pots is an eclectic journey across time and cultures. Expertly selected from the unrivalled collection of the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, this compendium shows that humankind’s oldest craft is the perfect prism through which to view human history.

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Guaranteed to rev the engines of car fans everywhere.

Supercars are the purest and most extreme expression of automotive performance there is – and no one knows the territory better than the TopGear team. With ever-increasing power outputs, radical new designs, and eye-popping price tags, this book is a celebration of the supercar in all its fabulous glory.

Supercars also brings this incredibly fast-moving, hi-octane world bang up to date. The world’s best writers and photographers explore the latest developments in thrilling style – from the new generation of pure-electric cars that have raised the bar for zero emissions performance, to the crazy machines hell-bent on breaking the 300mph barrier … this is TopGear Supercars. Buckle up. Are you ready?

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Three textile roads tangle their way through Central Asia. The famous Silk Road united east and west through trade. Older still was the Wool Road, of critical importance when houses made from wool enabled nomads to traverse the inhospitable winter steppes. Then there was the Cotton Road, marked by greed, colonialism and environmental disaster.

At this intersection of human history, fortunes were made and lost through shimmering silks, life-giving felts and gossamer cottons. Chris Aslan, who has spent fifteen years living and working in the region, expertly unravels the strands of this tangled history and embroiders them with his own experiences of life in the heart of Asia.

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Produced in conjunction with the Bentley Drivers Club and the W.O. Bentley Memorial Foundation,100 Years of Bentley is a lavish celebration of one of the most recognised and revered car brands in history, from its earliest models right up to the modern day cars.

A six-times winner in the gruelling Le Mans 24-hour race, Bentley is also the brand behind iconic cars such as the 41/2-Litre ‘Blower’, the R-type Continental, and modern classics such as the Continental GT and Mulsanne.

Featuring more than 200 pictures, many from the club’s archives and some never seen in print before, this beautiful book details the whole history of Bentley. From W.O. Bentley’s early days as a railway engineer along with his first attempts at modifying French DFP cars, to the company’s earlyracing exploits, including its victories in the early Le Mans races.

Covering the Bentley brand’s revival in the 1980s and renewed impetus when it was acquired by the Volkswagen group, the story is brought up to date with the awesome new Bentleys built for the 21st century and the new era of electrification just around the corner.

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Explore the 100 greatest cars of all time, with every single one tried, tested, argued over and chosen by the respected experts at evo and Octane magazines.

Covering an entire century, from legendary classics to the latest supercars, cult heroes to landmark designs, the 100 cars in this book represent the absolute pinnacle of driving history.

With stunning imagery from the world-renowned evo and Octane photographers alongside key performance figures and first-hand reports from behind the wheel, The Dream 100 is the final word in automotive excellence.

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The textiles featured include men’s, women’s and children’s garments, hats and headdresses, mosque curtains and prayer mats, floor coverings, tent hangings, hand towels and cushions, storage sacks, purses and cosmetic pouches, dolls and souvenirs, animal trappings and amulets. Focusing on the British Museum’s remarkable collection, this book offers a wealth of creative inspiration and will be essential reading for anyone interested in textiles and the cultures of the Middle East and Central Asia.

Table of Contents

Introduction • 1. Childhood • 2. Status and Identity • 3. Marriage and Ceremony • 4. Religion and Belief • 5. House and Homestead • 6. Politics and Conflict

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‘Magisterial’ Kathryn Hughes, The Sunday Times (A Sunday Times Book of the Week)

‘Rich, authoritative and highly readable, Andrew Pettegree’s tour de force will appeal to anyone for whom, whatever the circumstances, books are an abiding, indispensable part of life.’ David Kynaston

Chairman Mao was a librarian. Stalin was a published poet. Evelyn Waugh served as a commando – before leaving to write Brideshead Revisited. Since the advent of modern warfare, books have all too often found themselves on the frontline.

In The Book at War, acclaimed historian Andrew Pettegree traces the surprising ways in which written culture – from travel guides and scientific papers to Biggles and Anne Frank – has shaped, and been shaped, by the conflicts of the modern age.

From the American Civil War to the invasion of Ukraine, books, authors and readers have gone to war – and in the process become both deadly weapons and our most persuasive arguments for peace.

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From the Chevrolet Bel Air to the Ferrari Testarossa, this stunning book showcases the most iconic and important classic cars from every decade since the 1940s.

Few things ignite such reverence as a classic car. With more than 250 iconic models from the 1940s to the early 1990s, photographed from every angle, this title is a glorious celebration of the stars in the classic car firmament.

The Classic Car Book brings you the story of more than 20 great marques, including household names Bentley, Mercedes, Ferrari, Cadillac and Aston Martin. Its lavish photography reveals every detail in close-up of models that range from the 1940s giant two-ton Daimler DE36, which ferried royals about in style, through to sleek Ferraris from the 1980s capable of smashing the 200mph barrier. It puts you in the driving seat of such icons as the Chevrolet Corvette, the Ford Thunderbird, and the Mercedes 300SL, and brings you the designers of these amazing machines and the story of their manufacturers.

This ultimate guide to classic cars further features:

– A comprehensive catalogue that draw out the key features of each important model, with detailed profiles and specification.
– Feature pages broaden the scope of the book, covering everything from the designers and manufacturers who created them to their evolution over the decades.
– Stunningly shot DPS images add an extra layer of colour and flavour to the book.
– Written by award-winning author and expert on all aspects of motoring, Giles Chapman, Editor-in-Chief of DK’s The Car Book, which has sold over 550,000 copies worldwide to date.
– Updates will include the key models that have grown in popularity since the last edition.

Whether you dream of owning one of these super-cool cars, or you are a collector already, The Classic Car Book is set to become a treasured favourite.

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The definitive photographic celebration of 70 years of Ferrari’s production cars, by the world’s foremost Ferrari photography archive. Also including the key stats and stories behind more than 150 cars.

Celebrate the performance, design and beauty of the prancing horse in these breathtaking photographs, captured by specialist Ferrari photographers, Maggi & Maggi. More than 300 jaw-dropping images covering over 150 cars from across Ferrari’s history – from the 125 S of 1947 and the era-defining 250 GTO to the notorious F40 and the Enzo – sit alongside detailed technical specifications and fascinating text telling the story behind each model by renowned Ferrari expert Stuart Codling.

With some of the most beautiful, powerful and expensive cars in the world, this elegant collection is a stunning reminder of the enduring appeal of Ferrari.

The MAGGI & MAGGI archive is the world’s foremost collection of Ferrari photography. The culmination of a forty-year project to photograph every Ferrari model, it houses close to 100,000 images. This book showcases the very best of the archive.

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A Handheld History is a unique celebration of portable platforms and their iconic games.

Forty years ago, businessmen fiddling with calculators inspired Gunpei Yokoi to create the Game & Watch. Ever since then, handheld gaming has been hugely influential, spawning communities who trade Pokémon in the playground and share Miis on the subway. This introspective adventure will delve into decades of gaming memories and reconnect you to that long car journey full of discarded AA batteries before speeding ahead to the contemporary days of blockbusters in your backpack.

Handheld gaming is celebrated loudly, proudly, and across hundreds of beautifully assembled pages of art and essays. Featuring words from many incredible voices, this is an unmissable ode to the gaming device that you keep close to your heart – right in your jacket pocket.

Words and art by:
Alex Olney
Ashens
Bob Wulff
Brandon Saltalamacchia
Brian Crecente
Hannah Kwan Cosselmon
Janet Garcia
Jason Bradbury
Jeff Grubb
Jonathan Traynor
Kevin Kenson
Larry Bundy Jr.
Mike Diver
Raul Higuera
Stephen Maurice Graham
Plus many more!

Made in collaboration with Retro Dodo. This edition published in partnership with Expanse, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.

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First produced in Oxford, England, in 1924, MG cars proved instantly appealing, with a cheeky spirit that would win the hearts of millions around the globe, not least of all in the United States. This was due in no small part to the fact that the price was as attractive as the styling and the performance. Inexpensive and fun became quintessential MG traits. In this installment of Motorbooks’ Complete Book series, author Ross Alkureishi offers a chronological model-by-model marque history. Narratives discuss design, production, and technology, while specification tables highlight key technical and performance data. Hundreds of photos illustrate the vehicles and even include detail shots of engine bays and interiors.

Originally formed as a side business, MG became one of the world’s most recognized car brands. From prewar saloons to fast and affordable two-seat sports cars in the pre- and postwar periods, MG has exuded fun, thanks to models like the Midgets and Magnettes, the traditionally styled T-Types, and the vehicles that would become the marque’s most recognizable: the MGA, MGB, and MGC. MG would undergo several ownership changes throughout the years, and Alkureishi expertly shows how different ownership groups affected MG cars, good or bad. Along the way, the company competed on racetracks around the world, and Alkureishi describes the most successful of these exploits in complementary sidebars.

The Complete Book of Classic MG Cars is the essential guide to this important chapter in the history of motoring.

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