Charleston Style: Past and Present

Book Description

From its earliest days as a burgeoning colonial port blending European, Caribbean, and Asian influences, Charleston has maintained a unique brand of southern cosmopolitanism. Charleston Style: Past and Present traces the city's allure through its exquisite and sometimes eccentric architecture, decorative arts, and garden designs, which express a wide range of European and American styles, including Georgian, Federal, Chinese Chippendale, Gothic and Greek Revival, Queen Anne, Eastlake, and more. Author Susan Sully explores Charleston as a medium through which this spectrum of styles becomes transmuted into a distinctive regional mode.

Sully's Charleston is a place where antique and modern, fantasy and reality, playfully intersect. During its ascendance as one of America's wealthiest cities, Charleston's most privileged citizens acquired sophisticated, even decadent, tastes that continue to infuse their homes and gardens. After the Civil War, hardship, pride, and nostalgia shaped an aesthetic in which peeling gilt and tattered lace became badges of honor. Thanks to one of the earliest and most energetic American preservationist movements, the past extends into the present in Charleston, and the city's spaces reveal its complex spirit.

Charleston Style: Past and Present features nineteen residences ranging from archetypally gracious antebellum mansions to cottagelike dependencies to the iconic Charleston "single houses," with their sweeping piazzas, high ceilings, and tall windows. Also featured are some of the city's most charming gardens, inspired by the formal and picturesque landscape designs of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe as well as by the exotic gardens of Japan. With rich color photography by John Blais and a delightful foreword by acclaimed novelist, Josephine Humphreys, Charleston Style: Past and Present delivers an evocative portrait of this fascinating city.

Customer Reviews:

Rekindles Fond Memories.......2000-02-03

Susan Sully's book revived many delightful memories of my recent visit to Charleston. Her evocative prose paired with the beautiful photographs made as much of an impression on me as seeing Charleston's gracious architecture in person. It's not often that such a pretty book is also so well written, but Sully' elegant, beautifully crafted sentences do justice to the photos and the grand old homes themselves. After reading her book I wanted to book a flight back for another visit!

Charleston Captured Splendidly!.......2000-01-29

Susan Sully's Charleston Style splendidly captures the unique beauty of my city. Sully's writing is gorgeous, lush and evocative as many of the homes she shows us. Her thorough research is obvious; then she takes the facts and, with words, weaves a beautifiul gossamer fabric representing one ofAmerica's most beloved cities. As a Charlestonian, I was introduced to places I never knew existed. The detailed photographs, artistic and architectural, complement the text. I bought numerous copies to give to friends who have visited Charleston in reality or in their dreams.

finally, a beautiful book with an intelligent read!.......2000-01-29

Just named one of the ten best books of 1999 about South Carolina by "The Nation," this winner rises above the usual book of stunning photography in the quality of Sully's writing. Her thoughtful and incisive reflections upon a complex city are rendered in delightful, sensual, intelligent prose. All this is compellingly presented in a classic coffee-table stand-out!

Recent press on Charleston Style.......2000-01-29

Praised in House Beautiful (May '99) for author Susan Sully's "evocative text [that] lifts this book a notch above many similar style books," Charleston Style was listed by The State newspaper from Columbia, SC as one of the top ten books by or about South Carolinians published in 1999. The State's reviewer, William Starr praises the book's "uncommonly attractive" appearance and notes that "the author combines valuable information with an artistic sensibility.... Among the book's virtues is Sully's willingness to look beyond the obvious into homes which give us some very different views of this most traditional of historic cities."

Check out Charleston Style!.......2000-01-14

Despite author Susan Sully's grammatical errors, misspellings ("sheathes of wheat" instead of sheaves of wheat -- why, oh, why don't editors catch those anymore?), labored metaphors, and use of cliche' ("dripping with spanish moss"), I loved this book. Josephine Humphreys writes a beautiful and moving foreward. The photos (by John Blais) are literally breath-taking (to borrow another cliche'). Imperative reading for the student of architecture or design, or for those simply enamored of regional style.

Average customer rating:

Southern Charm At Its Best
A beautiful book

Charleston Interior
J. Thomas Savage , Thomas J. Savage , and N. Jane Iseley
Manufacturer: Legacy Publications (NC)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0933101163

Book Description

Interior, in its broadest sense, refers to not only the designs and dressings found inside a house, but also the inner of spiritual realm - the character, hidden constitution, or concealed nature of a place or thing.

Customer Reviews:

Southern Charm At Its Best.......2002-12-29

After having read this book, it was the perfect introduction the Southern Architecture and Decorative arts prior to actually seeing Charleston face-to-face. Mr. Savage gave lecturers on this very topic in my classes as well as site, which had been complimented by his book. It is artfully written and with care describes the details often ignored by many travel writers, art historians and even restorers! One almost feels as if they can hear the author reading it aloud. Bravo.

A beautiful book.......2001-08-08

This really is a beautiful book, especially for someone who's not familiar with Charleston. Most of the photographs are wonderful, with a lot of detail not seen in other books about Charleston. I'm probably spoiled, but I could have used about 40 more pages...but when you're talking about Charleston, a 5000 page book wouldn't be enough. Really a wonderful book to add to any Charleston collection.

Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Garden

Average customer rating:

Nice coffee table book.
About time!
living bloomsbury - the definitive book on charleston

Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Garden
Quentin Bell , and Virginia Nicholson
Manufacturer: Henry Holt & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

Pruning Shears-By-Pass, 3/4"

ASIN: 0805055851

Customer Reviews:

Nice coffee table book........2007-07-03

For this genre of books, 5 stars. A nice gift for a Bloomsbury fan, but it is only "nice-to-have," not required for one's library.

About time!.......1998-11-23

I agree with the previous reader, this is it ... the definitive book on Charleston Farmhouse. Although I think this book is more than a glimpse of the house and garden for those unable to visit, it is a surperb reference for those of us that have visited and wish to recall the house, etc. The photography is stunning, the text is informative. A worthwhile addition to any Bloomsbury book collection.

living bloomsbury - the definitive book on charleston.......1998-09-01

i stumbled across this book on a beautiful indian summer sunday afternoon....it is a treasure for those unable to physically saunter through the rooms and out to the walled garden that is charleston. all photos in colour, all rooms as they were when vanessa bell, duncan grant, family and friends lived and worked there. inspirational.

Average customer rating:

Where's Charleston?

Charleston Style, Then and Now
Susan Sully
Manufacturer: Universe Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0789308312
Release Date: 2003-02-22

Book Description

From its earliest days as a burgeoning colonial port blending European, Caribbean, and Asian influences, Charleston has maintained a unique brand of southern cosmopolitanism. Charleston Style, Then and Now, a condensed edition of the bestselling Charleston Style: Past and Present, traces the city's allure through its exquisite and sometimes eccentric architecture, decorative arts, and garden designs, which express a wide range of European and American styles, including Georgian, Federal, Chinese, Chippendale, Gothic and Greek Revival, Queen Anne, Eastlake, and more. Author Susan Sully explores Charleston as a medium through which this spectrum of styles becomes transmuted into a distinctive regional mode.

Sully's Charleston is a place where antique and modern, fantasy and reality, playfully intersect. During Charleston's ascendance as one of America's wealthiest cities, its most privileged citizens acquired sophisticated, even decadent, tastes that continue to infuse their homes and gardens. After the Civil War, hardship, pride, and nostalgia shaped an aesthetic in which peeling gilt and tattered lace became badges of honor. Thanks to one of the earliest and most energetic American preservationist movements, the past extends into the present in Charleston, and the city's spaces reveal its complex spirit.

Charleston Style, Then and Now features fourteen residences ranging from archetypally gracious antebellum mansions to cottage-like dependencies to the iconic Charleston "single houses," with their sweeping piazzas, high ceilings, and tall windows. Also featured are some of the city's most charming gardens, inspired by the formal and picturesque landscape designs of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe as well as by the exotic gardens of Japan. With rich color photography by John Blais and a delightful foreword by acclaimed novelist Josephine Humphreys, Charleston Style, Then and Now delivers an evocative portrait of this fascinating city.

Customer Reviews:

Where's Charleston?.......2005-04-30

*Chareston Style Then and Now* is, as I undertand it, an abbreviated version of a larger book. (*Charelston Style: Past and Present*.) I ordered the book sight unseen, and it is the first book that I have returned to Amazon. com.

My problems with this book are two: first, there is Susan Sully's prose style. It is, to my ear, painfully affected. And, while there is, perhaps, some useful information contained in her essays, getting through them wasn't worth the effort. Second is the selection of photographs. While technically excellent, many of the images are of rooms that have little relation to "Charleston Style". They are simply rooms--most of them tattered and run down--that happen to be in Charleston, SC. They are aesthetically of no interest to me. And that they happen to be located in Charleston is simply irrelevant.

The book is not a complete loss. Some of John Blais's photographs really do capture the glory of old Charleston. And Josephine Humprey's "Introduction" is lovely. Still, those interested in either the history or architecture of Charleston are advised to look elsewhere.

Southern interiors of Charleston, South Carolina

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Southern interiors of Charleston, South Carolina
Narcissa G. Chamberlain
Manufacturer: Hastings House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00005XXCY

Average customer rating:

Charleston Interiors
Samuel Chamberlain , and Narcissa Chamberlain
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 048641826X

Book Description

This splendid pictorial survey depicts 51 historic homes of Charleston, South Carolina. Over 300 photographs, accompanied by descriptive text, depict exquisite 18th- and 19th-century houses and their interiors. Includes illustrations of Ashley Hall, Crayton Hall, the Joseph Manigault house, as well as the homes of Colonel William Rhett, John Edwards, Charles Pinckney, and others.

Average customer rating:

Charleston interiors
Henry F Cauthen
Manufacturer: Preservation Society of Charleston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Average customer rating:

Charleston Architecture and Interiors
Susan Sully
Manufacturer: Gibbs Smith, Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0941711927

Book Description

From the stately elegance of the Georgian era to the exuberant eclecticism of the twenty-first century, the houses of Charleston, South Carolina, are defined by great architecture and elegant design. Charleston Architecture and Interiors offers an insider's view of the beautiful houses, gardens, and decorative arts that comprise this city's unique charm.
Includes:
An explanation of the elements of Charleston Style, describing the colors, textiles, decorative objects, and textures essential to the Charleston interior.
Sections on Period Charleston, Eclectic Charleston, and Quintessential Charleston.
A source guide listing interior designers, antiques stores, and manufacturers of fine reproductions.
Author's other titles have sold more than 50,000 copies.

Average customer rating:

CHARLESTON INTERIORS
Jane Iseley
Manufacturer: Preservation Society of Char
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IOBRGO

Average customer rating:

Charleston Interiors
Henry F., Jr. Cauthen
Manufacturer: Preservation Society of Charleston, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VUCUFW

Book Description

Jeff Brouws has crisscrossed the country for two decades, documenting an America that is at once quintessential and peculiar. Readymades is a quirky, multi-layered catalog of this ascendant photographer's work: partially painted pickup trucks, bowling alley signs, vibrant-hued houses that defy the monotony of the suburbs, abandoned drive-in movie theaters. Brouws treats his subjects as readymade art found in the landscape, brought together to create an idiosyncratic roadside panorama. Provocative essays by leading writers and cultural commentators such as Luc Sante, DJ Waldie, M. Mark, Diana Gaston, Bruce Caron, and Phil Patton are juxtaposed with these images of all that is unique in the uniform, and striking in the mundane.

Customer Reviews:

"Readymades: American Roadside Artifacts".......2007-05-08

A great photographer is one who sees the beauty in the banal and everyday aspects of our surroundings, and frames and shoots so that these things are brought to our attention. And so it is with Jeff Brouws. "Readymades" is a collection of subjects that are so much a part of America's cultural landscape that they are barely noticeable; 60's tract homes repainted in bright, hot colours; pick-up trucks with dents, primer touch-ups and replacement panels; ruins of the 20th century - drive-ins and gasoline stations; farmyard buildings; neglected freight cars and trailer homes in various states of abandonment, ten-pin bowling buildings and accompanying signs, roadside and inner-city signs advertising goods and services long forgotten, and even an artifact of the current age - storage units - which already have an aura of desolation.

My favorite series is of the "Partially Painted Pick-Up Trucks". Deeply American; all of these vehicles indicate a gritty, blue-collar life, yet there is something in them that is inexplicably beautiful and noble. The ghostly and forlorn aspect of the abandoned drive-ins and gasoline stations bring to mind the questions - "who worked here"? and "did this place really mean anything to anyone"?. "Do they ever think of it" and even "where are these people now"? "Dead? - and does anyone care"?

Books of this type are quite often large and unwieldy (big pictures usually equals bigger visual impact). This one is small (15cm x 23.5cm x 2.5cm) and much easier to handle, but this does not reduce the value of the photography; the power of the images has been retained. For its genre, the book is exceptionally good value (particularly for the current price on Amazon); 272 pages, including over 220 crisp, sharp images. The essays accompanying each section are short and enjoyable, being as they are personal reflections by different contributing writers who have some real connection to the subjects, and - thankfully - there is no tedious discussion of photographic technicalities or of the merits of urban photography. Overall, this is a thorough exploration of the range of Jeff Brouws' work. After this, I would strongly recommend his "Approaching Nowhere" - a much larger book in terms of size, but a closer and deeper examination of the American landscape.

Worn surfaces of America........2003-06-02

Yet another roadie book but `Readymades' is a cut above the usual photographic selection of what can be seen along the nation's back roads. For a start the book is landscape, just the right shape for images that are basically horizontal. Secondly the photos are divided into sections rather than loosely hung together by state or date order. Thirdly the choice of material is refreshing, for example, tract housing, freight cars, trailers or storage units (no kidding).

This is Jeff Brouws second road book, his first, the excellent `Highway: America's Endless Dream', was more the traditional photographic road book, a mixture of everything plus a selection of interesting black and white images from the thirties and forties. I like the formal arrangement of `Readymades'. By having each of the eleven chapters devoted to a particular theme he "presents the subject in the most factual terms possible" as Diana Gaston says in her intro. The chapters are tract housing, signs, abandoned drive-ins, farms, pickups, abandoned gas stations, boxcars, signs two, trailers, bowling and finally storage units.

Partially painted pickup trucks are just that, twenty-five of them are all taken side on and nicely framed within the image area. Twenty-six abandoned gas stations (in black and white) are one to a page and just the sort of thing Robert Frank would have stopped his car for back in the fifties. Freight cars, again one to a page and neatly framed, are an amazing colored selection of various shades of rust and railroad livery. Perhaps the most unusual chapter is storage units, hardly the sort of thing to capture the creative eye but here they are, eighteen shots including a stunning one taken in West Virginia in 2001 showing three power station cooling towers in the distance, the storage units in the middle and a parking lot in the foreground. The photos of these units remind me of Lewis Baltz and his photos of the industrial parks in Irvine, CA, simple oblongs just placed in the landscape.

`Readymades' is a refreshing look and presentation of the vernacular everyday and I think it might well turn out to be a classic photo book of the decade.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

Book Description

Three agents turn up in the small town of Salem to investigate the deaths of four people who died on the same night under strange circumstances. This is a rather unusual event for such a small town whose residents seem a bit too keen on forgetting this tragic night. It soon becomes clear that the victims are not missed, and it is in an even more charged atmosphere that the investigators slowly uncover the terrible secret that uites the population of Salem. A chilling and disturbing graphic novel thriller.

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