Antique and twentieth century jewellery: A guide for collectors [Hardcover]

Vivienne Becker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1982

Aiming to spotlight areas of collectability—mainly from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries—which are available to enthusiasts today, this is an important study of both well-known and forgotten jewelry fashions and trends. Each chapter—there are 22 in this second edition—concentrates on a specific topic, but there is a comprehensive cross-referencing to other chapters. Almost every item shown has been on the market in recent years. No other jewelry book reflects the antique jewelry market or collectors’ enthusiasms in quite the same way. Among the types of jewelry covered are diamond brooches, coral 19th-century gold work, piqué, silver jewels, cameos and intaglios, mosaics, Edwardian pendants, and unusual materials. "Theme" jewelry is another area described with an amazing variety of representations of animals or flowers, as well as Victorian Scottish jewelry and 19th-century archaeological revival jewels inspired by the goldwork of the Greeks, Etruscans, or ancient Egyptians. The work of individual artist-jewelers, who played such an important part in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements, is documented, along with the glamorous, highly sought after jewels created by the great jewel houses like Cartier, Tiffany, Falize, and Van Cleef & Arpels. Finally the important "movements"—Arts and Crafts; Art Nouveau, including Liberty’s huge output; and Art Deco—are assessed. Newly added is a chapter on Retro Modern—the cocktail jewelry for the 1940s—the best of which has become eminently collectable.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Vivienne Becker is a freelance journalist and jewellery historian living in London. She began her career working in the antique jewellery trade, initially as a hobby, but found the business so fascinating that she stayed for two years to learn more. After embarking on a career in journalism, she moved to Antique Collector where she began to write regularly about jewellery and develop her speciality. She has written extensively on jewellery both antique and modern, on the decorative arts and style in general, for a wide range of newspapers and magazines in the UK and the United States. She has written six books, contributed chapters to a number of jewellery books, essays for exhibition catalogues and for major sale-room catalogues. She is the jewellery editor of Harpers & Queen; she has a regular sale room column in the leading British trade paper, Retail Jeweller, and writes a style column for Jewellery International, a glossy international trade magazine. In 1987 she organized and wrote the catalogue for the first major exhibition of the jewellery of Rene Lalique, at the Goldsmiths' Hall and she was curator of Jewels of Fantasy, a travelling exhibition of twentieth-century costume jewellery. Her work keeps her in close contact with the antique jewellery trade, and she lectures, teaches and broadcasts extensively on her subject. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 301 pages
• Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold; First Printing edition (1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0442214006
• ISBN-13: 978-0442214005
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #710,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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