a well-written, well-referenced and well-illustrated book. It provides a valuable addition to the literature and our understanding of a previously little-researched facet of the industrial midlands" British Art Journal"Cataloguers now have an impressive volume of new information to draw on when describing anything from a simple tea tray to those suites of papier mch furniture which remain as impressive today as when they dazzled visitors at the great international exhibitions of the 19th century" Antiques Trade GazetteAs one of the few decorative arts about which little has been written, japanning is today fraught with misunderstandings. And yet, in its heyday, the japanning industry attracted important commissions from prestigious designers such as Robert Adam, and orders from fashionable society across Europe and beyond. This book is a long overdue history of the industry which centred on three towns in the English midlands: Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Bilston. It is as much about