As design element, ode to passion, big books are great gifts
NEW YORK >> Whether as a design element or an ode to a passion or hobby, coffee table books have it covered, especially as holiday gifts.
Splashy, special interest books are in abundance this time of year and may seem extravagant when self-purchased. That’s exactly why wrapping them up and handing them over to a loved one can strike just the right tone.
Some suggestions: Great, Rare and Almost Forgotten Vegetables,” by Peter Gilmore. Hardie Grant Books. With hundreds of varieties to choose from, Australian chef Gilmore has selected 50 heirloom vegetables and plants. In the process, he delves into the history of both common varieties and rare or nearly extinct ones. Interviews with farmers. Recipes on how to cook up his discoveries. $60.
“Tony Duquette’s Dawndridge,” by Hutton Wilkinson. Abrams. Wilkinson bought designer Duquette’s Beverly Hills home after Duquette’s death in 1999, chronicling its expansion from a tiny box house into an expansive estate still filled with items picked by and created by Duquette and his wife, Elizabeth. It’s quirky and chic and comfy all at the same time. Have a look at the Monkey Room, a glassed-in porch overlooking the garden. Duquette used it as storage and Wilkinson brought it to life. There’s the signature Duquette leopard-print carpet on the staircase leading down to the summer and guest bedrooms. $75. Moon has paired 52 gorgeous black-and-white portraits of heritagebreed chickens with literary excerpts. The beadyeyed gazes of every last one of the birds are fixed on Moon’s lens. Consider the Silver Phoenix female paired with this from Virginia Woolf’s “Night and Day”: “I’ve done my best to see you as you are, without any of this damned romantic nonsense.” $35.
“Trees: Between Earth and Heaven,” photographs by Art Wolfe, text by Gregory McNamee. Earth Aware Editions. Wolfe is a landscape photographer who has worked on every continent. Here, he puts us up close with a leopard lounging in a thorn tree in Botswana. He shares the colorful giant sequoias of California. Light dances through his images, as does the icy Moreno Glacier that serves as backdrop to the tops of Southern beech in Argentina. $75. color plates hand-tipped on art quality paper. The luxury time pieces are shown off on the wrists of everybody from Picasso to Pope John Paul II. $845.