500 Brooches


Book Description

This outstanding collection of 500 contemporary brooches showcases the inventive design and technical virtuosity of artists from around the world. It features both traditional and avantgarde approaches to the art of jewelry making. Some pieces are formed from precious metals and gemstones while others are fabricated from found objects. Some are simple and practical while others are elaborate and eccentric. This diverse and beautifully presented collection will inspire jewelers, collectors, and art enthusiasts alike. Book jacket.




New Brooches


Book Description

Edited by Nicolás Estrada, New Brooches, now in paperback, focuses on brooches within an exploration of current trends in contemporary jewelry. With a selection of over 400 jewelry artists' creations from all over the world, this volume is the most comprehensive compilation on this subject and an important step in Nicolás Estrada's exploration of current trends in contemporary jewellery. A must-have for any professional or student of jewelry or fashion design, this work shows the versatile and dynamic nature of brooches and the many and varied materials and forms that they involve. Needing only a pin to secure it to the wearer's garment, this ornament is essentially a jewelry artist's blank canvas that invites endless creativity and offers more freedom of expression than any other form of jewelry. The brooch has continued to evolve and be reinterpreted over time, and it is playing a critical role in the development of new jewelry as a platform for artistic expression. Following the success of Estrada's New Rings, New Earrings, New Necklaces, New Brooches represents a valuable contribution to this series. It is an inspirational compendium of the most innovative creations in today's jewelry design. Jewelers born or working in the US: Angela Bubash (Rice, Virginia); Aurélie Guillaume (Chicago, IL); Biba Schutz (New York, NY); Charity Hall (Blacksburg, VA); Curtis H. Arima (Berkeley, CA); Donald Friedlich (Madison, WI); Dongyi Wu (Rochester, NY); Edna Madera (Kansas City, MO); Emily Cobb (Northern California, USA); Emily Pellini (Lancaster, PA); Emily Watson (Rochester, NY) Liaung Chung Yen (Henrietta, NY); Luci Jockel (Indiana, PA); Melissa Cameron (Seattle, WA); Robert Thomas Mullen (St. Louis, MO); Samuel Guillén (New York, NY); Sharon Massey (Pittsburgh, PA); Sondra Sherman (San Diego (CA); Susanne Matsché (born in Anderson, USA / Residence in Berlin, Germany).




Read My Pins


Book Description

“Jewelry isn’t ordinarily a tool of political persuasion, but in this beautiful book, Madeleine Albright, American ambassador to the United Nations and then the nation’s first female secretary of state, tells the compelling story of how these small objects became part of her ‘personal diplomatic arsenal.’” — The Chicago Tribune From New York Times bestselling author and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, Read My Pins is a story and celebration of how one woman’s jewelry collection was used to make diplomatic history. Part illustrated memoir, part social history, Read My Pins provides an intimate look at Albright's life through the brooches she wore. Her collection is both international and democratic—dime-store pins share pride of place with designer creations and family heirlooms. Included are the antique eagle purchased to celebrate Albright's appointment as secretary of state, the zebra pin she wore when meeting Nelson Mandela, and the Valentine's Day heart forged by Albright's five-year-old daughter. Read My Pins features more than 200 photographs, along with compelling and often humorous stories about jewelry, global politics, and the life of one of America's most accomplished and fascinating diplomats.




50s Popular Fashions for Men, Women, Boys & Girls


Book Description

Those swinging Fifties are fondly remembered in this bright, eye-catching book of everyday fashions for men, women, boys and girls. Color photos illustrate hundreds of examples, most of them never worn and retaining their original colors and freshness. A glossary, index and price guide make this a very useful book for collectors.




Schreiner


Book Description

Schreiner is a luxurious book offering a first concise history of one of North America's foremost designers of high-end costume jewelry, a genre of jewelry popularized by Coco Chanel and today one of the most collectible. Created in New York City by founder Henry Schreiner in 1932, the eponymous company flourished during the early 1940s. During the 1950s under the leadership of Henry's daughter, the company's unusual color combinations, hand-made settings, and use of custom-made stones set them apart from their contemporaries, leaving behind a legacy for jewelry experts and admirers to study, covet, and collect to this day. For thousands of collectors of Schreiner worldwide, Schreiner provides valuable insight into their collections from the family itself. With hundreds of breathtaking photographs, the breadth of the Schreiner oeuvre is explicated, from the somber years of the Great Depression through the rise of the American ready-to-wear industry. Through the optimistic yet conforming 1950s, the youthful antiestablishment of the 1960s, and the feminist movement of the 1970s, the designs and materials of these pieces reflect the moods and mores of the decades in which they were made. And for the very serious Schreiner collector, the book explores common characteristics employed in the construction of Schreiner designs aiding collectors in the task of identifying unsigned Schreiner jewelry. This volume examines not only the cultural context and significance of Schreiner jewelry but also offers object-based analyses and archival documentation of various Schreiner pieces.




The Napier Co


Book Description

The Napier Jewelry book is a visual encyclopedia of Napier Costume Jewelry. It tells the heretofore untold and phenomenal story of The Napier Co. inception, development, flowering, and ultimate success. It chronicles the history of its management, manufacturing, marketing, and most importantly, the unparalleled beauty of Napier fashion jewelry. With approximately 4000 pictures of Napier jewelry history and over 250,000 words of text and descriptions, you will be taken step-by-step, decade by decade, through the development of the Napier style. As a collector, you will learn to recognize the findings, materials, and designs to appropriately circa-date the Napier jewelry in which you are investing. As a lover of vintage costume jewelry, you will enjoy the drama and excitement of the trials, tribulations, and breakthroughs at each stage of the Napier journey. In the end, you will have a deep and lasting appreciation of the romantic story infused into the metal, gemstones, crystals, cabochons, and elegance of each piece of Napier jewelry that you own or are considering owning




Vintage Costume Jewellery


Book Description

The ultimate vintage costume jewellery collectors' guide, written by the ultimate collector.




New Rings


Book Description

A stunning collection of contemporary custom-made rings that have been meticulously designed and crafted by artisans from around the world.




Designing Jewelry


Book Description

The process of designing brooches, bracelets, necklaces and accessories is carefully explained, illustrated and explored in this volume. Their beautiful and practical step-by-step format clearly demonstrates the jewelry designing process.




Beyond Fabergé


Book Description

A rare look at the exquisite world of Russian treasures that lies beyond Fabergé. Imperial Russia evokes images of a vanished courts unparalleled splendor: magnificent tiaras, gem-encrusted necklaces, snuff boxes and other diamond-studded baubles of the tsars and tsarinas. During that time, jewelry symbolized power and wealth, and no one knew this better than the Romanovs. The era marked the high point of the Russian jewelers' art. Beginning with Catherine I's reign in 1725, in the century when women ruled Russia, until the Russian Revolution of 1917, the imperial capital's goldsmiths perfected their craft, and soon the quality of Russias jewelry equaled, if not surpassed, the best that Europes capitals could offer. Who created these jewels that helped make the Russian Court the richest in Europe? Hint: it wasn't Carl Fabergé. This is the first systematic survey in any language of all the leading jewelers and silver masters of Imperial Russia. The authors skillfully unfold for us the lives, histories, creations, and makers marks of the artisans whose jewels and silver masterworks bedazzled the tsars. The previously unheralded names include Pauzié, Bolin, Hahn, Koechli, Seftigen, Marshak, Morozov, Nicholls & Plincke, Grachev, Sazikov, and many others. The market for these exquisite masterworks is also explored, from its beginnings to today's auction world and collector demand. More than 600 stunning photos reacquaint the world with the master artisans and their creations.




Recent Books