Product Description

Masterpieces of French Jewelry is a delightful testament to the power of jewelry—like all true art—to mirror changes in America’s evolving social milieu. It offers an enchanting lens through which to view America’s rise from frontier nation to an industrial superpower, with a new moneyed class hungry for recognition and status. French jewelry provided that and more. This sumptuously-designed full color book—the first and only one on this subject—features over 80 photographs of the most remarkable pieces that found their way into prominent American collections. It also showcases a brilliant array of styles. There are chapters devoted to jewelry characteristic of the Art Nouveau period, along with Art Deco, the Victorian Era, 1940s retro, and the 1960s through more contemporary styles. An added bonus: one-of-a-kind jewelry creations from notable artists such as Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, Matta, and Arman. The publication of Masterpieces of French Jewelry coincides with the National Jewelry Institute’s exhibition, "Masterpieces of French Jewelry from Twentieth-Century American Collections," which will begin at The Forbes Galleries in New York in September 2006.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #437703 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Price's whirlwind tour of French jewelry since the late 19th century coincides with an exhibit that opens in New York in September and moves to San Francisco in February 2007). But the book, peppered with vapid commentary from high-profile collectors, acts not so much as a useful guide to French jewelry but as a record of who has spent fortunes on gorgeous (and sometime tacky) gems. Still, Price, president of the nonprofit National Jewelry Institute, does exhibit a wealth of knowledge on the development of French jewelry. From the dawn of art nouveau (which she describes repeatedly as "sensual") to pieces that are clumped together as "Contemporary," the information is presented too quickly for the reader to absorb. The impact on art deco of the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb, for example, is entirely lost when a paragraph later Price has moved on to influences from Indian, Latin American and Chinese design. Sometimes insubstantial captions fail to explain much more than the materials used in a given piece, and the quality of the images varies; while most are crystal clear, some appear somewhat grainy. Overall, though, for its price, the book provides a primer on a sufficiently wide selection of French jewelry. (Sept. 22)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Judith Price is the president of the National Jewelry Institute, a highly-regarded non-profit organization established to create and support exhibitions of the most important jewelry of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The institute, located on Fifth Avenue, New York, also endorses the education of those studying the jewelry trade in order to perpetuate and maintain the integrity of artistic tradition. Ms Price is the founder of Avenue magazine, and the author of Masterpieces of American Jewelry. She lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Reads like a (super-swanky) in-flight magazine article
You might purchase this book for the tolerably decent photos of French jewelry, but don't expect a scholarly, in-depth discussion of the subject. Price's writing is almost laughably bad, consisting as it does of pointless, unhelpful captions ("The engraved goldwork on the front of the owl signals its use as an accessory of a refined lady.") and smarmy, gushing intros for a bunch of B- and C-list socialite collectors, including such luminaries as Actress, Producer, and One of America's Leading Motion Picture Executives Dina Merrill Hartley (daughter of Marjorie Merriweather Post--"one of the richest women in the world," we're told) and "the First Lady of Fiction" ...Barbara Taylor Bradford. When Price gets around to discussing French jewelry, the result is much like a high school report cobbled together from material cribbed from an encyclopedia entry--an effect weirdly reinforced by the publisher's decision to print the text in double-spaced format. Her observations are trite, obvious or altogether incorrect (and sometimes all three). Apparently, Price's presidency of the National Jewelry Institute (founded...oh, about last week) is qualification enough to write on the subject. Or maybe it's the fact (see dustjacket flap) that she lives in New York and "Paris, France."

The publisher should be embarassed!
As a previous reviewer stated, I also saw the "Masterpieces" exhibit at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco last month, and it was one of the most beautiful shows I've seen at any museum in some time. As with numerous other exhibits I've had the good fortune to see over the years, I expected a good-quality book or catalogue for purchase. Was I in for a surprise with this book! It is JUST AWFUL!

The book gets it's one-star rating because the text is interesting enough, and the typeface is legible. But why does someone buy a book on jewelry in the first place? For the pictures of course, and the pictures in this book are amateurish (the most polite word I could come up with). Most of the photographs appear to have been shot straight on with a flash, no side or backlighting. The jewelry looks flat, one-dimensional, and washed out. Basically, it all looks like cheap costume jewelry. Many photos are printed against a bright, white background. They look like they were cut and pasted in low-grade photo editing software. But worst of all are the numerous shots that are out of focus. There's no excuse for this.

It's disappointing to go to such a nice exhibit and have nothing to remember it by. It amazes me that the National Jewelry Institute approved this publication. The Institute and Running Press really blew this one.

A vanity press production-
Not much jewelry and the gold Sterle' evening bag (the same one which our company owned and recently sold) is photographed upside down! I gave this book as a gift after one quick flip through. Should cost $5.00 (incl shipping)