The history of jewelry has closely paralleled the history of mankind.
Used as amulets to protect against harm and worn for ceremonial
occasions, jewels also signaled wealth, power, and position. This
engrossing scholarly study by a noted English antiquarian offers a
splendid account of jewelry styles over a 700-year period -- from the
early Middle Ages and Gothic period, through the Renaissance as well as
the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Drawing on a
number of vital sources -- museums and private collections, evidence
given by portrait painters, surviving designs for jewels and others --
the author gives us not only a comprehensive chronicle of the jewels
themselves but also their relation to costume and fashion and their
reflection of changing social values.
Enhancing the meticulously detailed narrative are 400 photographs and
illustrations depicting, among scores of other pieces, a gold
heart-shaped brooch inscribed with You are my earthly joy, dating from
the fifteenth century; a gold brooch set with sapphires, emeralds, and
pearls; a diamond and topaz necklace (c. 1760); a gold padlock, set with
cornelian and pearls (c. 1800); a gilt bronze clasp (c. 1200); the
silver Loch Buy Brooch, set with rock crystals and pearls (sixteenth
century), and a thirteenth-century reliquary pendant of the Holy
Thorn.
For anyone interested in the long and fascinating history of handcrafted
jewelry, here is a superb sourcebook of extremely rare ornamentation, a
rich and detailed study that will also appeal to fashion and costume
historians, collectors, and lovers of antiques.
