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Gilded Canopy

Reveals one of London’s best kept secrets - the ceiling panels of the Natural History Museum.

ISBN: 0565091980

Author: Sandra Knapp and Bob Press

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Gilded Canopy: Botanical ceiling panels of the Natural History Museum

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How can a major art collection be on full display to the public, yet never be noticed? The answer is that it is on the ceiling. These painted panels were a key part of the Natural History Museum’s original design and are covered in plants of all descriptions, painted in rich colours and finely gilded.

With specially commissioned photographs showing every single panel and full of intriguing plant histories, this book is a fascinating insight into one of London’s best kept secrets.

‘...each one tells a story – plants that have made and broken Empires, been the cause for terrible human suffering, or have brought joy through their beauty. ... the plants themselves tell stories that bring to life the times in which the Museum was conceived and built - the Victorian age.’
From the Preface to The Gilded Canopy

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Product information

Hardback with jacket, 171 x 216 mm, 168 pp, November 2005, colour throughout, 0 565 09198 0/978 0 565 091 98 9. Published by the Natural History Museum.