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The Cartier Collection reflects the evolution of Cartier's artistic and stylistic creation. This volume traces 160 years in the jeweler's glorious history. Three hundred and sixty-two pieces from the Cartier Collection--accessories, masterpieces of jewelry and watchmaking from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day--and four exceptional pieces from the Prince's Palace of Monaco are featured. These exceptional items offer insight into the royal jeweler's treasures and the sources of...

The history of great diamonds is intimately interwoven with the lives of emperors and conquerors, great kings and queens, with statesmen and soldiers, the rich and famous - but also, inevitably, with those who lead more shadowy lives. Diamonds have been objects of passion, sometimes of war, violence and theft. As well as being objects of exceptional beauty and rarity, they were once thought to possess magical properties that protected their owners from enemies. Initially a male prerogative refle...

This lavishly illustrated volume explores the fascinating and little-known subject of "lover's eyes," hand-painted miniatures of single human eyes set in jewellery and given as tokens of affection, or created to memorialise a deceased loved one. According to popular lore, the phenomenon began in 1785, when the Prince of Wales secretly proposed to Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert with a miniature of his own eye. This romantic gesture inspired a fad among the aristocracy for exchanging eye portraits mounted...

The first volume dedicated to the most complete and outstanding collection of Piqué objects ever assembled, a number of which have never been published before. The volume is dedicated to the art of "Piqué," created in Naples during the first half of the eighteenth century, a technique that combines remarkable inventiveness, virtuoso skill, and astonishing opulence. These extraordinary objects are made of three precious materials: tortoiseshell, gold, and mother-of-pearl. These pieces were made...

Mexico's streams give forth cool green jade and rich gold; her shores provide coral and dainty pearls. Her brown hills yield silver and copper and gems whose colors form a dazzling palette for the jeweler. And Mexico has never lacked the artists to mold her abundant jewels into finished pieces of beauty. In this enjoyable volume, Mary L. Davis and Greta Pack introduce us to the splendors of Mexican jewelry. First published nearly four decades ago, Mexican Jewelry has become a classic introductio...

Arnoldsche published "Art Deco Jewelry, Jakob Bengel, Idar-Oberstein" in 2002. Until then entirely unknown, the costume-jewellery maker Jakob Bengel was thus introduced to the annals of jewellery history. The discovery of this Art Deco collection, that is unique in 1930s European jewellery, focused public attention on the business (est 1873). Comprising a factory, with a villa for the proprietor and housing for the workforce, it had been preserved in its building, replete with machinery and tool...

'I imagine its being rediscovered with delight in some dusty book case a century hence and hailed as a classic' Spectator'A wonderful book, a hymn to the pleasurable process of making things' The TimesTwo Turtle Doves is the story of a life spent making things.Growing up in 1970s Suffolk in a crumbling giant of a house with wild, tangled gardens, Alex Monroe was left to wreak havoc by invention. Without visible parental influence, but with sisters to love him and brothers to fight for him, he ma...

Sought after, fought over, hoarded, hidden and stolen; diamonds remain one of mankind's greatest obsessions. Diamond represents the most concentrated form of wealth on the planet and the hardest known natural substance. Covering everything from the origin of diamonds and their properties, through mining, the four Cs of grading and marketing, to modern high-tech treatments, fancy coloured diamonds and synthetics, "The Diamond Compendium" presents the body of diamond knowledge in a simple and unde...

Famed for his appreciation of rare and unusual gemstones, Michele della Valle is unquestionably one of the leading jewellers at work in the world today. His idiosyncratic style pays tribute to his greatest inspiration, nature, which continues to influence his displays of bravura. Celebrated among the elite, Della Valle's autobiography, Jewels and Myths beautifully displays the jeweller's wealth of exquisite and alluring work through a series of photographs that perfectly capture his talent for...

In his work, Reinhold Ziegler (born in 1965) explores the meaning of jewelry. Through the reduction of visual forms of expression, his works go beyond the purely decorative. His jewelry is not intended to reflect the individual personality of the wearer, but to link the individual with the universal. Gravity was the theme of an earlier series of works, the universal and all-embracing natural force that exists independently of the will of an individual. His current works are inspired by meteorite...

The house of Falize opened in Paris in 1840. Eventually closing in 1936, the jeweller's and goldsmith's story unfolds over three generations of the family. Falize jewels often have interesting histories, once owned by such illustrious personages as Empress Eugenie, the imperial Russian family, Sarah Bernhardt, and more. In researching this story, Katherine Purcell met a surviving member of the family, Robert Falize, who shared his memories and allowed access to the Falize archive of historical d...