In tracing the history of gold through the ages, this beautiful book showcases the multifarious uses to which the precious metal has been put. Drawing on her own long experience investigating the art and science of metallurgy, Susan La Niece guides readers through the rich history of gold. In detailed images and descriptive text, her book shows us gold over the millennia as coinage, jewelry and ornamentation, high-status vessels, and grave goods; as gifts of distinction, and as radiant symbols in rituals of magic and worship. Following a glimmering trail through distant times and places, "Gold" takes us to cultures as disparate as the Mughals of India, the Anglo-Saxons of Britain, and the pre-Hispanic civilizations of the New World. It considers the work of alchemists and goldsmiths, the myths and the legends, the fakes and fine art. And, in the end, it offers a fittingly lavish and deeply informed picture of gold in all its practical, figurative, commercial, artistic, and historical facets.
- ISBN10 0674035909
- ISBN13 9780674035904
- Publish Date 1 December 2009 (first published 9 November 2009)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 20 January 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Harvard University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 128
- Language English