20th Century Jewelry & the Icons of Style (Revised Edition, Reduced Format)

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Description

“Worthwhile, both for the sumptuous jewelry and for the stunning way of life photographs.” ―Society of Jewelry Historians

For many centuries, collecting precious jewels used to be the province of kings and queens, emperors, and maharajas. But in the aftermath of the First World War, royal gems passed into the hands of a different roughly elite that included celebrities and a coterie that reveled in a nouveau riche whirl. Changes in fashion and the upward thrust of Art Deco style led them to reset pieces or commission exquisite recent designs.

Authors Stefano Papi and Alexandra Rhodes explore this dazzling era by the use of profiles of eleven glamorous women who built up astonishing jewelry collections in the mid-twentieth century. This revised and up to date edition includes two new chapters that explore the lives and jewels of Ganna Walska and Hélene Rochas.

The authors reveal the remarkable stories in the back of the jewels and their collectors. Not only do they bring to life the worlds through which these women moved, but they also describe the gems in detail and chronicle the work of the leading jewelers of the day, including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Harry Winston. The book is illustrated with gorgeous close-up photography of the jewels in addition to drawings of the original designs, and includes portraits of the collectors by Beaton, Horst, and other leading photographers of the time.

470 illustration in color and black-and-white

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