Jewelry

The book explores the varied styles, techniques and materials used to make jewelry in many civilizations throughout the world and across the millennia. 7000 Years of Jewelry takes readers on an impressive tour that includes, among other times and places: The Middle East: 5000-2000 BC Egypt: 1500-900 BC Phoenician, Greek, Etruscan and Persian Lands: 850-325 BC China, Celtic Europe, Mexico and Peru: 600 BC-AD 600 The Mediterranean, India, Egypt, Roman Britain and Byzantium: 325 BC-AD 600 Europe, China, Korea and Japan: AD 300-1000 Mayan Central America: AD 600-1000 Central and South America: AD 500-1500 Europe, Islam, China, Korea and Java: AD 1000-1500 China, India, Tibet and Mongolia: AD 1500-1850 West Africa: AD 1500-1800 Europe: AD 1500-1950.

Superb sourcebook of extremely rare ornamentation provides fascinating history of jewelry styles over 700-year period. Detailed narrative enhances 400 photographs and illustrations of striking pieces: gilt bronze clasp (c. 1200); 13th-century reliquary pendant; diamond and topaz necklace (c.1760), much more.

Harold Newman, who was a famous collector and writer on the decorative arts, incorporates definitions of terms relating to the processes used in jewelry making, descriptions of the principal gemstones and their characteristics, brief histories of famous named jewels and gemstones, and biographical entries on designers and makers of jewelry from the Renaissance to modern times.

From the simple shell beads worn by Palaeolithic hunters to the splendor of Renaissance gold work and the sumptuousness of Art Nouveau enamels, here is a fascinating and informative guide to the development of Western jewelry--concluding with the radical and experimental developments in the last three decades. Offering a concise survey of the entire field, this book analyzes jewelry's changing fashions, explores its social context, and examines how it has been worn by both men and women.

Since its publication in 1987, The History of Beads has become the world's definitive guide for bead lovers, collectors, and scholars. . The latest revisions include the oldest bead ever discovered, dating to 108,000 b.c. and explain why beads worn on the human body were the original media communication system. Updates include the numerous maps scattered throughout, which have been modernized and are now in color; 72 formerly black-and-white images have been replaced with full color; and 125 new photographs were added to this edition