Victorian Ornamental Carpentry: 186 Photographs

This book consists of high-quality black-and-white photographs printed in a full- or half-page size. Most of the photos concentrate on close-up details of the wooden ornamentation, and most of the photos were taken in upstate New York (truly a wonderland of gingerbread). The photos are so sharp and striking, I was reminded of the architectural photography of Walker Evans and Paul Strand. The brief text is informative and charmingly subjective. For instance, I have long admired the workmanship and beauty of this American folk art, but it had never occurred to me to see the sexual suggestiveness in some of the motifs, as pointed out by the author. The book is a revised version of "Wood Motifs in American Domestic Architecture/'Phantasy in Wood,' " first published in 1966. I hope the lovely examples shown in this book have been preserved since then. This is an important work of documentary photography.