162 The Earl W. Duncan Collection of Navajo and Pueblo Silver Bridles By Earl W. Duncan Published in English by Blurb, 2014 20.3 x 25.5 cm, 74 pages, 125 illustrations, most in color ISBN: 978-0-615-84427-5 Hardcover, $65; softcover, $45 In 1953, Earl Duncan was entered in a rodeo in Grass Valley, California, where he saw that another participant, a Native American cowboy, had a magnifi cent silver bridal on his horse. He never forgot this object and, over the course of more than half a century as an Indian art dealer, he formed a small but exquisite collection of silver horse bridals and related equipment made by the peoples of the American Southwest. With photography by Neil Becker augmented by a few well-chosen historic images, this thin but beautiful book documents this collection largely through images. While the silver adornment made by Southwest artists for people is well known, this is a fascinating window into the rich and complex silver adornment created for their most important working partner, the horse. BOOKS Micromonumentality: A Tribute to Miniature Works of African Art By Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter, introduction by Pierluigi Peroni Published in a bilingual French and English edition by 5 Continents Editions, 2015 23 x 23 cm, 240 pages, 245 color illustrations ISBN: 978-88-7439-718-1 Hardbound, 48 euros / 45 dollars How many times have we been surprised at the small scale of an African object that we had envisioned as huge when seeing it in a photograph in a book or an exhibition catalog? Anyone leafi ng through this fi ne new book published by 5 Continents will experience this sensation at the turn of every page. Illustrated with beautiful photographs by Francesco Paschi, many of which are enlargements, the pieces that are the subject of this volume would each fi t neatly in a pocket. They are part of a collection of micro-objects assembled by Pierluigi Peroni, whose sensibilities for diminutive forms is rivaled only by his passion for Africa and its arts. The power that miniatures can exhibit is made apparent here, and the book proves that an object’s importance is not a function of its size but rather of the harmony of its volumes and the articulation of its forms. The works illustrated display great artistic achievement and sculptural virtuosity. The book is eminently visual but, thanks to fascinating texts by Pierluigi Peroni and Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter, Micromonumentality also is a refl ection on the passion that drives collectors and a discussion of the reasons why the creators of these prodigiously refi ned objects chose to make them as small as they did. Indeed, in African art, the small scale of an object may be a requirement imposed by its utilitarian function, but it can also demand additional refi nement in the process of creating it. African Art and Silicon Chips: A Life in Science and Art By Jay T. Last Published in English by Sierra Vista Press (www.sierravistapress.com), 2015 21.6 x 29.9 cm, 192 pages, 232 illustrations, most in color ISBN: 978-0-692-46802-9 Hardcover, 45 dollars In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jay Last, fresh from receiving his Ph.D. in physics from MIT, became involved both in participating in the startup of Silicon Valley through the development of silicon integrated circuit chips and in the formation of a substantial collection of African art. This fascinating book discusses the author’s experiences in both of these endeavors over the course of the next fi fty years. The African art market underwent marked changes during this period. In the quarter century from the late 1950s to the early 1980s, vast quantities of art objects were being sourced in Africa and brought to Europe and the United States through a system that proved to be remarkably effi cient. Large numbers of dealers, primarily in New York, Paris, and Brussels, supplied this material to an increasing number of enthusiastic collectors. Eventually the African sources dried up and the market transformed in the 1980s, when less emphasis became placed on the unknown and the different, and more on the provenance of artworks in existing collections. Having been active in the African art market and knowing most of the major dealers of this material throughout this period, the author not only discusses the evolution of the fi eld but also provides biographical information and anecdotes about the various colorful individuals who were involved in it while also relating his experiences in acquiring objects and illustrating some of his major acquisitions. This is a unique and personal view of art collecting about a relatively littledocumented time that undoubtedly will be of interest to anyone in the African art fi eld.
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