Customer Reviews

Royal Jewels: From Charlemagne to the Romanovs

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Compiled and co-edited by the team of art historian and fine jewelry historian Diana Scarisbrick, curator and specialist in royal European jewel collections Christophe Vachaudez and jewelry curator Jan Walgrave (who is also Honorary Director of the Diamond Museum in Antwer), "Royal Jewels: From Charlemagne To The Romanovs" surveys and showcases more than 800 years of jewelry associated with European monarchs. The informed and informative text is superbly enhanced with the inclusion of 290 full color and 25 black-and-white illustrations that include period paintings and photographs of bedecked royalty ranging from Louis XV, Napoleon, Empress Eugenie, Mary Queen of Scots, an Infanta of Spain, and members of the Medici family. Symbols of wealth, cultural status, and political power, jewels hung from necks and fingers, decorated clothing, enhanced the crowns of kings and the tiaras of queens. A beautiful book for browsing by the non-specialist general reader, "Royal Jewels" is a model of painstaking scholarship that makes it an impressive addition to academic and community library collections.

This book is very well written and researched, I might even say exhaustively researched.
Whether just looking at the myriad of photos or reading the informative text the book gives insight into the world of royal jewels.
It's focus is on northern Europe branching out to include Russia and Greece.
The photos of the jewels are clear and large enough to be studied at length. From a jeweler's point of view I'd like to see more backs and insides of jewelry to understand the construction but it's the rare book that goes that in depth.
The writing is easy to read and not bound up in the formalized art speak that renders some jewelry history books indecipherable. Although the product of different authors it reads as a cohesive whole and will no doubt provide hours of enlightenment for both the serious student and someone who just likes to look at stunning jewelry photos.
Woven into the text are stories of the jewels and the wearers along with royal portraits showing them in context.
While not a must have in the collection of jewelry books, it brings with it a certain panache, welcome in any collection, much like that tiara that you only wear on certain occasions.

While the photos of the jewelry are wonderful, up close and in color, I was still a bit disappointed in this book. The choices of jewelry seem a bit random. In some cases, the item photographed is not the one being described. Items are also described that are not photographed; such as an entire parure might be described, but only one item shown. It's nice that there are a few pictures of people wearing items, but sometimes those items aren't shown either. And some of the people in the photographs are not mentioned in captions, so you're not entirely sure who they are as several people may be mentioned in the accompaning text. Still, if you have every tiara book out there, this has a few I haven't seen before.

A great book and a companion to "Ancestral Jewels" by the same author. If you miss the first don't miss this one. Illustrations great but leave you with a desire for more (the only flaw).

This text covers essentially all the Royal Houses. It has great information about both the families and the regalia. Highly recommended reference.