Shows and describes the jewlery of the British aristocracy, explains the history behind many of the pieces, and looks at the styles popular during each period from the Tudors to the Edwardians

Ancestral jewels

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

SCARISBRICK, Diana

Antiques & Collectibles

Andre Deutsch

Rings (Spanish Edition)

Arts & Photography

Graphic Design

Thames&Hudson

A gloriously illustrated social history of diamond jewelry, told through the stories of the European rulers and socialites who commissioned and wore them.
Diamonds have long symbolized political power and authority in Europe. This book explores the individuals who commissioned and wore extraordinarily precious diamond ornaments from the mid-fourteenth century to the present day.
Exquisite paintings and breathtaking photography highlight the diamonds of figures as enduring as Louis XIV of France and Queen Elizabeth I of Great Britain, as well as screen icons such as Elizabeth Taylor. From Lisbon to London and Stockholm to St. Petersburg, these figures used diamond jewelry to reinforce their power. Like royal dress, diamonds were worn to dazzle and impress―at weddings, coronations, christenings, and state visits―and were presented as gifts, which often proved remarkably successful as instruments of diplomacy.
More than three hundred illustrations capture the changing styles of diamond jewelry that mirror the trends of the time: late Gothic naturalism, the culture of the Renaissance, Baroque splendor, Rococo elegance and the imperial grandeur of the First and Second Napoleonic Empires. This book offers a fascinating overview of one of the world’s most iconic gems. 300 illustrations

Diamond Jewelry: 700 Years of Glory and Glamour

History & Criticism

“Leaves no illustrative source unturned, embellishing . . . with portraits and oil paintings, engravings, woodcuts, old catalogues, ancient writings, inscriptions, drawings, publicity materials, and early photographs.” ―Gems and Gemology This is the first book devoted exclusively to rings to consider them thematically rather than chronologically. The author brings her rich historical and literary knowledge to bear as she considers signets; rings associated with love, marriage and friendship; devotional, protective, and ecclesiastical rings; memento mori and memorial rings; rings associated with famous people and events; decorative rings; diamond rings; and rings as accessories. She helps us delight in them as works of art, and she makes their context come alive through paintings, drawings, and vivid quotations. Rings of all periods are included―from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome through the Middle Ages and Renaissance up to the twentieth century. The rings are drawn not only from great museums but also from private collections, preeminently that of the noted gem dealer and art patron Benjamin Zucker. 483 illustrations, 455 in color

Rings: Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty

A magnificently illustrated, international survey of rings through history. With ravishing reproductions of rings from many countries, this book presents rings through major themes: signets; rings associated with love, marriage, and friendship; devotional, protective, and ecclesiastical rings; memento mori and memorial rings; rings associated with famous people and great events; decorative rings; diamond rings; and rings as accessories. Rings of all periods are covered―from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome through the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the twentieth century. The examples come from great museums and from private collections, chiefly that of the noted gem dealer Benjamin Zucker. The author, one of the world's leading jewelry historians, draws on artistic and literary sources to make the rings' contexts come alive with paintings, drawings, and vivid quotations. 479 full-color photographs and illustrations

Rings: Jewelry of Power, Love, and Loyalty

A richly illustrated and fascinating book of jewels and gems that will appeal to anyone interested in the history of jewelry, portraiture, and European culture. From the Renaissance to the end of the Belle Epoque, cameo, intaglio, and miniature portraits, prized as representations of eminent people or treasured as images of the beloved, have been enriched by jeweled frames in order to wear them or display them as precious objects. Rulers from the Medici to the Romanovs commissioned portrait jewels. Dynasties represented here include the Valois and Bourbon in France; Bavarian, Habsburg, and Hanoverian in Germany, Central Europe, and Spain; Tudor, Stuart, and Hanoverian in Britain; and the House of Orange-Nassau in the Netherlands. Men and women famous in politics, religion, history, literature, and the arts, including Queen Elizabeth I, Louis XIV, Catherine the Great, Voltaire and Madame du Châtelet, Popes Clement XII and Pius VII, and Lord Byron are featured in this exquisite miniature gallery. The author draws upon her knowledge of jewelry, painting, history, and literature to set the portrait jewels in the context of people’s lives, and shows how they were worn and what they meant to donors and recipients―tokens of allegiance to a ruler, of commitment between lovers, of affection within families. 305 color and 14 black-and-white illustrations

Portrait Jewels: Opulence and Intimacy from the Medici to the Romanovs

Reference

Original research sheds light on the fascinating biography of one of Yale University’s early supporters
Elihu Yale's name is famous for the great educational institution, Yale University, of which he was an early benefactor. He made his fortune in India, mostly through trading in diamonds. Arriving in Madras in 1672, through his outstanding abilities he rose through the hierarchy of the East India Company settlement from clerk to governor. When he returned to London in 1699 he brought with him Indian gems, furniture, and textiles, and proceeded to amass a collection of some ten thousand items, dispersed at seven auction sales after his death in 1721. The catalogs of these sales survive, providing information about the lively London art market. Hitherto neglected by historians, the Yale sales prove to be a landmark in the history both of collecting and of auctioning art in early 18th-century England.
The authors explore Elihu Yale’s life and interests, and then turn to a study of Yale as a dealer (particularly of gems) and a collector of diamonds and jewelry, works of art, furniture, books, and other objects―some of which are now at Yale University, and some in national collections around Britain. 140 illustrations

Elihu Yale: Merchant, Collector & Patron

Zucker, Benjamin

Business of Art

Accompanying an exhibition at Les Enluminures, New York, this lavish catalogue presents an extraordinary collection of diamonds from the king of gems, Benjamin Zucker, one of New York’s leading dealers in diamonds and precious stones. Benjamin Zucker’s remarkable story unfolds over three generations of diamond dealers. Arriving in New York in 1941, he had the benefit of the training of his grandfather, a leading expert in uncut diamonds in Antwerp, and his uncle, one of the foremost dealers of diamonds in the Far East. Some of the world’s most famous diamonds, such as the Wittelsbach Diamond, passed through the hands of the Zucker family. Armed with the family “know-how”, Benjamin Zucker formed a collection that “has taken a lifetime of patience, money, and unquenchable enthusiasm”, according to Diana Scarisbrick. As Mr. Zucker himself says “diamonds will always be a magical window facing the invisible world”. Put together over more than forty-five years, this truly rare and immensely valuable collection includes thirty-five precious jewels mostly made for European patrons – rings, brooches, hairpins, earrings. It tells the story of the Indian diamond over a period of nearly 600 years, ending before the discovery of mines in Brazil, a source that displaced India and inaugurated a new age of diamonds. Starting with the octahedral diamond, the collection includes outstanding examples of world-class importance showing how jewelers gradually captured more and more of the allure of these indomitable gems, evolving from point to table to rose to brilliant cuts. The success of the brilliant cut (close to our cuts today) eclipsed the earlier shapes, many of which were recut to “modernize” them, with the result that the earlier cuts of “old mine” diamonds included here are exceedingly rare. Most of these jewels are published. Many of them have been exhibited in prestigious museums such as the Walters Art Museum, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and most recently the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As assembled in the present collection they have never been displayed together and have never been offered for sale. This lavish publication by the leading scholar in the field accompanies the exhibition. It is written by Diana Scarisbrick, celebrated jewelry historian and author of Diamond Jewelry: Seven Hundred Years of Glory and Glamour (September 2019).

Diamonds: the Collection of Benjamin Zucker

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Paul Holberton Publishing

Presents 5000 years of jewellery from around the world.

Jewellery (Costume Accessories Series)

Humor & Entertainment

Drama Pub

Showcases over 480 examples of rings dating from the Middle Ages through modern times while exploring the history and symbolism of the finger ring

Rings: Symbols of Wealth, Power and Affection

Harry N.Abrams, Inc.

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