This is my most consulted physical art book. I study it mainly for comparing materials and mediums, not so much for style and subject matter, though you do get an overall sense of high quality from the specific objects chosen. Instead of saying, They don’t make them like they used to, I go to Instagram and say, There must be a select few geniuses who are operating at this level, and I don’t stop looking until they are found, even if it takes 5-10 years:
https://archive.org/details/TheMetropolitanMuseumofArtGuide1994/
Probably not your style but I made this gryphon some 20+ years ago with inspiration from a Babylonian-Sumerian tablet. I modeled the original in clay, then created a silicon mold for tin casting. Alas the mold broke in some places and the casting didn't fill up corectly, but the result was still interesting, like an archaeological artifact.
