Customer Reviews

Traditional Jewelry of India

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Oppi's thoroughness and attention to the detail in this book is amazing. Pictures and illustrations are just magnificent. Oppi covers the jewelry of maharajas to jewelry of tribal people. The jewelry descriptions in this book include every region and every style there is in India. I bought this book when I was asked to talk about India's jewelry at an art museum. This book definitely improved my knowledge about the subject.

Oppi's book is magnificent. It is a culmination of over thirty years of Oppi's research. His book covers more than just Indian jewelry, but forehead marks and henna mendhi.

Inspired by trips to New York's museums when he was young, Oppi crafts a anthropological journey through a fascinating history of human ornamentation, beginning with wood ash and mud. Oppi traveled extensively to personally research his subject in association with scholarships he won, including a Fulbright scholarship and funding from John D Rockefeller III.

He shows the use of natural items in jewelry, such as leaves, flowers, seeds, vines and wood. Unusual jewelry materials like anteater claws are pictured. Of course, gemstones and precious metals are included. There are photos of elegant gold filigree and fist-sized gemstones.

My favorite part of the book is called "Typology from Head to Toe" in which Oppi takes you on a journey in pictures of people wearing ornaments in their hair to those worn on the toes. The book includes an extensive index and bibliography. It is a very human book, showing how ornaments are worn by people, not just showing photos of the ornaments alone as many other ethnic jewelry books do.

Although you might think the subject of Indian jewelry is narrow before you see the book, a glance through the book will make you want to own it even though the sticker price is high.

An excellent and well researched study with extraordinary photographs by a well known scholar of Indian art. 430 interesting pages that are very well presented to the reader. You'll find possibly more detail than you may need, but you can return later for the items you missed.

The photographs and information in this book are lovely, astonishing, and intriguing. I have been told that the author was the absolute authority on traditional Indian jewelry. Although it is paperback, the quality of each page is very good.

This is a book that educates the collector as well as jewelry making individuals to show a more interesting design. The techniques of making jewelry is also helpful in determining how complicated is the process. The photography is excellent and this book helps to identify jewelry of the different regions of India as well as tribal groups.

The book is especially helpful because the author takes you on a journey in pictures showing how the people wear ornaments in their hair, bangles and necklaces. This book helped me determine that the recent ethnic necklace that I purchased is probably from Gujarat, since the style is wrapped silver. I definitely would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Indian culture and jewelry.

Bought this book for my wife few years ago. She loves it. It would have been better to show some of the lighter jewellery most folks wear, in color. There are many pictures of tribal style jewellery though which is lighter type.Urban designs also are very beautiful but not many shown in the book. Many pictures are in black and white,would be better to show them in color. However that would probably increase the price of this already very expensive book.
Good details on technique are available in book. I also wish there was more on the enameled jewellery which was hugely popular in old days.
Book is priced too high in my opinion.