10 Products

Following George V’s request for modern Ascot trophies, the government began encouraging British design in the 1930s, their plans coming to fruition post-war. This compendium features photographic samples from and biographies of the 50 most influential modern British designer silversmiths, based on one-to-one interviews and family records. Shorter entries are included for a further 170 designer silversmiths, enamellers and engravers, providing a unique, comprehensive record of their craft through to the present day. Slipcased.

Drawing on the magnificent collection of over 200 Chinese jades and other hardstones in The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, this volume traces the history of jade carving in China and discusses topics such as geological sources and the social significance of jade. Lin provides photographs and detailed commentaries for 105 objects ranging from humanoid figures dated c.3500–2500 BCE to 18th-century carved vessels and sculptures. The remainder of the museum’s collection is illustrated and briefly described in an appendix.

Soon after St Petersburg was established in 1703, jewellers began setting up workshops, and the art flourished further under the reigns of successive queens later that century. In this highly illustrated and informative volume, the author, herself born into a family of St Petersburg goldsmiths, uses letters, portraits, diaries, anecdotes and personal documents to trace the history of individual brooches, bracelets, rings and other items of jewellery – items that often passed through generations of the same families.

Pewter objects were indispensable in Scottish homes and churches for 350 years, though due to the metal’s recyclability, few artefacts from this period survive. Pewter-makers’ records, however, provide details of the material and the culture that surrounded production. This thoroughly researched guide includes a short history of pewter in Scotland, information on how objects were produced, the pewterers, their markings, and a photographic catalogue of pewter plates, tankards and measures.

The House of Habsburg was one of the wealthiest and most powerful dynasties in Europe, and many of its members were great patrons and collectors of art. This stunning book, with more than 300 colour photographs, presents about 150 examples of the Kunstkammer – or cabinet of curiosities – where wonders of art, science and nature were brought together, ranging from pieces of sculpture and metalwork to exotic objects fashioned from ostrich eggs, nautilus shells, rhinoceros horns and sharks' teeth.

The jewellery photographed for this magnificent book is the collection belonging to the women of one Russian family, with pieces ranging from traditional Azerbaijani earrings owned by the present collector's grandmother in the late 19th century to modern pieces by jewellers such as Cartier and Bulgari. Although there are breathtaking precious stones, not all the pieces are very valuable; beauty has been the collectors' criterion. The book is handsomely bound, with gilt-edged pages, a silk marker and slipcase. Off-mint.