John Adamson (publisher)

John Adamson

Biography

John Adamson was born in Devon, the younger son of George Worsley Adamson, illustrator and cartoonist and Mary Marguerita Renée (née Diamond). After studying at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Geneva,^[1] he joined Cambridge University Press in 1974.

He held various functions within the marketing department of the Press: first as European sales representative (1975); then publicity manager (1977);

While at Cambridge University Press he helped mount two exhibitions of humorous art in his spare time. For the first of these, "L’Humour Actuel franco-britannique. 200 dessins" [Franco-British Humour Today: 200 drawings], hosted by the Galerie M.L.R. Genot in the Marais, Paris in 1974,[5] he "organized the British contribution",^[6] commissioning Quentin Blake to design the poster. The second exhibition "Famous British Cartoonists" was held the following year at the London Gallery, N. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, and featured only the cartoons of artists working in the British Isles. "Many [cartoons] such as those by George Adamson almost leave the field of illustrations to become technically speaking fine art," wrote Betje Howell in her review of the show in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.^[7]

In 1987 he was appointed Head of Publications and Retailing at the

In 1992 he set himself up as a publishing and picture-library consultant.[13] He advised private collectors as well as museums such as the Wallace Collection, providing them with a full editorial and production service.^[14] Soon, however, he began working as an independent publisher making available an ongoing range of illustrated books and catalogues for museums, dealers and private collectors under his own imprint, as well as translating books and exhibition catalogues on behalf of French publishers such as the Réunion des musées nationaux (RMN), Éditions Gallimard, Éditions Diane de Selliers and Éditions Faton.

Honours

• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA).^[15]
  (3 March 2019)

• Footloose in France, John Adamson and Clive Jackson
  OCLC 1391677751^[16]
• ISBN 978-1-898565-17-8 ^[17]
• ISBN 978-1-898565-16-1^[18]
• ISBN 978-1-898565-15-4^[19]
• Art in Industry: The Silver of
  ISBN 978-1-898565-14-7
• Koopmanrareart.com: Masterpieces in the Digital Age, Koopman Rare Art with photographs by Karen Bengall
  ISBN 978-1-898565-13-0
• Gilt-edged Splendour: Masterpieces of Silver Gilt, Koopman Rare Art with photographs by Guy Hills
  ISBN 978-1-898565-12-3
• A Handsome Cupboard of Plate: Early American Silver in the Cahn Collection, Deborah Dependahl Waters with foreword by Kaywin Feldman. In association with
  ISBN 978-1-898565-11-6
• In Good Hands: 250 Years of Craftsmanship at
  ISBN 978-1-898565-09-3
• ISBN 978-1-898565-10-9
• Norfolk Summer: Making
  ISBN 978-1-898565-07-9
• ISBN 978-1-898565-06-2
• The Classical Ideal: English Silver, 1760–1840, Christopher Hartop with foreword by
  ISBN 978-0-9524322-9-6
• ISBN 978-1-898565-05-5
• The
  ISBN 978-0-9524322-7-2
• Geometry and the Silversmith: The Domcha Collection, Christopher Hartop with foreword by Jonathan Norton
  ISBN 978-0-9524322-8-9
• ISBN 978-0-9524322-5-8^[20]
• Beyond the Maker's Mark:
  ISBN 978-0-9524322-6-5
• The German Ambassador's Residence in London, Regine Aldington with photographs by Fritz von der Schulenburg and
  ISBN 978-0-9524322-1-0
• Royal Goldsmiths: The Art of
  ISBN 978-0-9524322-3-4
• East Anglian Silver: 1550–1750, edited by Christopher Hartop with foreword by
  ISBN 978-0-9524322-2-7