A lavishly illustrated, in-depth early history covering two thousand years of diamond jewelry and commerce, from the Indian mines to European merchants, courts, and workshops This richly illustrated history of diamonds illuminates myriad facets of the “king of gems,” including a cast of larger-than-life characters such as Alexander the Great, the Mughal emperor Jahangir, and East India Company adventurers. It’s an in-depth study tracing the story of diamonds from their early mining and trade more than two thousand years ago to the 1700s, when Brazil displaced India as the world’s primary diamond supplier. Jack Ogden, a historian and gemologist specializing in ancient gems and jewelry, describes the early history of diamond jewelry, the development of diamond cutting, and how diamonds were assessed and valued. The book includes more than one hundred captivating images, from close-up full-color photographs of historic diamond-set jewelry (some previously unpublished), to photomicrographs of individual gems and illustrations of medieval manuscripts, as well as diagrams depicting historical methods of cutting and polishing diamonds.

Diamonds: An Early History of the King of Gems

History

OGDEN, Jack

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Yale University Press

Jewellery has a rare power to communicate, even across millennia, the feelings, beliefs, and aspirations of the people who wore it. Jewellery also contributes to the study of ancient art and metalworking techniques, for great skill was required to create what are often small-scale works of art. But the importance of surviving artifacts of the jeweller's craft—quite apart from the inherent attraction of individual pieces—is now increasing as the number of new scientific techniques available to archaeologists expands, complementing the more traditional methods of analysis. This book shows how important ancient jewellery is to interpreting the past.

Ancient Jewellery (Interpreting the Past)

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

University of California Press

Greek Gold: Jewellery of the Classical World

Williams, Dyfri

British Museum Press

During the classical period in ancient Greece, the skill of Greek jewellers and the beauty of the designs they created raised their craft to a miniature art. Published to accompany an exhibition, this catalogue describes and illustrates 200 of the finest surviving pieces of Greek jewellery dating from the 5th to 3rd century BC. Drawn from the collections of the Hermitage, St Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the British Museum, many of the pieces are being exhibited for the first time. Jewellery from all over the Greek world, from Greece itself, from the rich Greek cities of Asia Minor, the Crimea and South Italy, and from areas such as Cyprus, are brought together in the catalogue. It describes the goldsmiths' techniques in detail, with the aid of specially taken scanning electron microphotographs, and discusses how the jewellery was worn, its iconography and how it relates to other arts, such as drawing and sculpture. Illustrations and numerous details accompany each piece, showing the intricacy and subtlety of these works of Greek craftsmanship.

British Museum Pubns Ltd

Surveys the exhibition of Greek gold jewelry held in 1994 at the British Museum and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Greek Gold: Jewelry of the Classical World

Metropolitan Museum Of Art (new York, N.y.)

British Museum

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Harry N.Abrams, Inc.

Jewellery of the Ancient World

Trefoil

Presents 5000 years of jewellery from around the world.

The Intelligent Layman's Book of Jewellery

Reference

Il Pub

An unparalleled collection of rings dating from the 3rd to the 19th century, presented not chronologically but rather grouped into timeless themes - birth, love, betrothal, marriage, mourning and death - thereby achieving greater insight about the beliefs , sentiments, status, and practices of their former owners.Since his first purchase in 1970, Benjamin Zucker has assembled one of the largest collections of Jewish marriage rings in private hands and a collection of diamond jewelry that is unrivaled, even by De Beers. With each ring selected for its exceptional quality of stones, rarity, and level of artistry, the collection features many fine examples of signet rings ranging from the 3rd to the 17th century; ancient Roman friendship and engagement rings; medieval posy rings; Renaissance and Baroque wedding rings; Jewish marriage rings, and memorial and death’s head memento mori rings from the 17th to the 19th century. They include a significant grouping of precious diamond-set rings. Many boast provenances dating back generations to Europe’s most prominent collecting families, including the de Clercqs and the Rothschilds. In this remarkable book, these rings are newly studied by experts, including an essay by Zucker himself.Ultimately, these exquisite jewels – many of which have been the subject of national and international museum exhibitions, loans, and publications – form a remarkable testament to the discerning eye of Benjamin Zucker.

Cycles of Life: Rings From The Benjamin Zucker Family Collection (Les Enluminures)

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Chadour-Sampson, Beatriz

HINDMAN, Sandra

Hadjadj, Reine

Antiques & Collectibles

Paul Holberton Publishing

The Collection provides an unrivalled resource for the study of Islamic jewellery, with nearly 600 catalogued pieces in gold, silver and copper alloys, of all periods from the 7th to the 20th centuries and from throughout the Islamic world – Spain to Malaysia, and Africa to the Eurasian steppes. Various sectors of production and clienteles are represented, from the court to bespoke jewellery to the urban marketplace. The jewellery also illustrates a correspondingly wide range of techniques and materials, including all the main methods of working gold, silver and copper alloys and their decoration – especially filigree, niello, enamel and the setting of gems. Inevitably some periods, areas and techniques are better represented than others, but overall the Collection is remarkably comprehensive and in some areas, such as the Fatimid filigree, is among the finest in the world. This two-part volume includes virtually every form of personal adornment – head, hair and headdress ornaments; earrings; nose rings; finger rings; pendants; beads; necklaces; bracelets, armlets and anklets; armband elements; amulets and amulet cases; pins and brooches; buttons; belts and belt fittings – as well as harness fittings. Separate volumes in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art series have been devoted to rings (vol. XVI) and the jewellery from Mughal India (vol. XVIII); more of the belt and harness fittings were included in the study of arms and armour (vol. XXI). Outstanding among the Khalili Collection jewellery are the Fatimid pieces, which include a pair of gold pins with extraordinarily fine vegetal designs rendered in the characteristic rope-and-grain filigree of Egypt or Syria; the many bracelets of the 10th–early 13th centuries, including exceptional ones of gold sheet set with gems and decorated with inlaid niello and granulation made in Iran; the gold and silver repoussé huntsmen’s belt fittings from the Golden Horde Central Asia or the Qipchaq steppe, with clear Khitan or Jin influence; a larger number of enamelled and gilded copper-alloy belt and harness fittings from Nasrid Spain than in most other collections; an exquisite two-headed eagle in gold filigree set with emeralds from 18th-century Morocco; and a large group of Iranian enamelled jewellery of the Qajar period, including excellent enamelled pendants with portraits of the Qajar Shahs. In addition to Michael Spink’s expertise in Islamic art and jewellery across its full geographical range brought to bear throughout the catalogue, Jack Ogden’s comprehensive knowledge of ancient jewellery and jewellery technology is reflected in two important surveys of techniques and materials. Mark G. Kramarovksy contributed an important discussion of the origins of the ‘spiral filigree’ style. Pedro Moura Carvalho reviewed the evidence for enamelling in Iran under the Safavid and Zand dynasties. J.M. Rogers made numerous additions, most notably his survey of the documentation of Ottoman jewellery, and with Manijeh Bayani have made the text of Nishaburi on medieval enamelling accessible to a wider audience.

The Art of Adornment: Jewellery of the Islamic Lands, Parts 1 and 2, 2013 (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art)

Carvalho, Pedro Moura

Spink, Michael

Bayani, Manijeh

Rogers, J.M.

Kramarovsky, Mark G.

Religion & Spirituality

Khalili Collections

The Yevdayev Collection of ancient rings comprises 59 superb examples from Egypt, Phoenicia, Persia, Greece, Etruria, and Rome, dating from the second millennium BC to the fourth century AD. The rings are of many different shapes, most made of gold or silver and often set with gems, but some are carved from semiprecious stone, amber and shell. The collection begins with four Egyptian rings of the New Kingdom period of various types and materials, including an amethyst scarab set in a gold swivel-ring, a ring carved from cornelian with the cartouche of Pharaoh Thutmose III, and a silver ring with the name of Amenhotep II. These are followed by rare examples of a Hittite gold ring and a Persian ring carved from shell. There is a good selection of Phoenician rings dating from the seventh to fifth century BC, including rings in gold and stone scarabs set in rings. Other unusual rings include Persian examples of the Achaemenid and Sasanian period, a unique diamond ring that is likely Kushan, a Central Asian ring in Scythian style, and a gold ring with South Arabian inscription. Greek and Roman rings are particularly well represented. Classical Greek rings dating from the fifth and fourth centuries BC include examples in gold with engraved bezels, bezels decorated with filigree and granulation, and a rare ring with a swivel bezel decorated with figures in gold foil under glass. Hellenistic rings, dating from the third to first centuries BC are often set with large and fine gems, often engraved, and hoops carved in architectural style. There is also a Hellenistic ring carved from black glass and a fine example of a gold snake ring decorated with an emerald. The Roman rings date from the time of Augustus in the late 1st century BC to the fourth century AD. Many of the rings are gold set with finely engraved gems in amethyst, cornelian, green chalcedony, red jasper, and nicolo and include important portraits of Agrippina Senior in cameo and Septimius Severus in chalcedony. Other rings are set with rare gems, including an aquamarine and a diamond. There are also rings carved from other materials, including rock crystal and amber. The catalogue concludes with gold rings of the later empire (third-fourth century AD), typically with large, carved gold hoops and unengraved gems. The rings in the Yevdayev collection are notable not only for their exceptional design and craftsmanship, but for their rich imagery engraved on the rings and gems. The publication will appeal to both students of ancient art and history and to collectors and lovers of jewelry and fine art. The accompanying text places the rings in their historical and artistic context and provides valuable technical observations.

Rings of the Ancient World: Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman Rings from the Slava Yevdayev Collection

Spier, Jeffrey

Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag

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