The History of Knitting in Art: A collection of paintings, drawings, and prints from Western art in the 19th century Paperback – March 2, 2013

I was hoping to find a greater variety of knitting artwork from the middle ages or earlier

Waste of money

THE HISTORY OF KNITTING IN ART isn't really a "history of knitting". The subtitle states more clearly what it is: "a collection of paintings, drawings, and prints from Western art in the 19th century". It's a booklet, not a book. The collection consists of 34 full-color and 4 black-and-white reproductions of museum-quality artists' depictions of knitters plying their needles. For the price (about $10 on Amazon), this is a pleasant enough collection, nice to page through looking at the pictures (especially if you're interested in knitting history, as I am).There is no descriptive text for the included reproductions--all you get are the color and black-and-white plates. For that reason, it isn't much of "an ideal reference . . . for handspinners, knitters, and fiber artists". However, it would make a nice gift for a knitter. The reproductions show only knitters, so if you're thinking of a gift for a spinner, I guess you would want the author's companion booklet, The History of Handspinning in Art. A much better (and more expensive) book with reproductions of knitters in art is In Praise of the Needlewoman: Embroiderers, Knitters, Lacemakers and Weavers in Art; an earlier book that does something similar is Anonymous Was a Woman.Because it's inexpensive, but has a misleading title and isn't clearly described as a booklet, I rate THE HISTORY OF KNITTING IN ART at 4 stars ("I like it" on the official Amazon scale).

Beautiful book.

Good as far as it goes-which is not far enough. Nice pictures for knitters in particular.

While I loved the pictures ... and find it amazing how often knitting specifically was the topic of a piece ... I was irritated by the errors in the introduction chapter. Some of what she wrote has been shown to be erroneous ... particularly about the focus of women doing the craft. Kntting was a trade-guild in the Middle Ages and done by the men. The women slowly took over the domestic end and it eventually evolved into a cottage industry for women to make "egg 'n' butter" money (which is why many of the women in the art pictures are working and knitting). Further, the art shown looks to be primarily knitting of a domestic nature (lots of socks/stockings) but there were also lots of ecclesial pieces done for the Clergy, with great detail and beads, etc so there was a known high level of knitting ability much further back than the author describes. But, as a lovely art ... couldn't ask for better!

This book is a help in my research, but I expected more text and information. It's just a collection of art works showing people knitting. That's what was advertised, but I was expecting more about the artists.

just really disappointed in the poor quality graphics and total lack of content, returning this 'book'.

Dieses Buch ist einfach nur schlecht.Eine willkürliche Zusammenstellung von Gemälden und Drucken, auf denen Strickerinnen und Stricker zu sehen sind,außer Datums- und Künstler-Angaben keine weiteren Informationen.Am schlimmsten ist aber, daß die Autorin / Verfasserin derart grobe Fehler bei der Zuordnung der Werke zu den Künstlern macht, wie es wohl nur Amerikaner aus der tiefsten Prärie, die noch nie ein Museum besucht haben, und die nicht einmal Wikipedia kennen, sich leisten können.Gänzlich unbeleckt von allen historischen und topographischen Kenntnissen ordnet sie den "Schäfer auf Stelzen" Goya zu, ([...]) und ein berühmtes Gemälde von Albert Anker ([...]) schreibt sie dann gerade mal Carl Spitzweg zu.Schlampig und ärgerlich. Das Buch nützt nicht, ärgert nur.

The book was very informative and good pictures nicely laid out