Jeweled splendours of the Art Deco era : the Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan Collection / foreword by Princess Catherine Aga Khan ; introduction by Pierre Rainero ; essays by Evelyne Posseme, Stephen Harrison and Sarah D. Coffin ; catalogue and afterword by Sarah Davis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 251) and index.
Contents:
Afterword / Sarah Davis. Introduction / Pierre Rainero -- East and West : Oriental exoticism in the decorative arts / Evelyne Posseme -- Feminine elegance : jeweled accessories for the modern woman / Stephen Harrison -- Jeweled innovation : design and manufacture in art deco masterpieces / Sarah D. Coffin -- Afterword / Sarah Davis.
Summary:
One Christmas Eve, Prince Sanruddin Aga Khan gave to his wife a magnificent jeweled box made by Cartier in the 1930s. So began the making of perhaps the most remarkable jewelry collection of a remarkable era for jewelry - and for French jewelry in particular. In the 1920s and 1930s, smoky night clubs, cocktails, a new acceptance of make up beyond the boudoir, decor for smart apartments and dinner tables, provided a new landscape for the designs of the great jewelry houses of Europe, with Paris as the superstar of cities. The gloom of war was replaced either by an explosion of coloured gemstones and enamel, with bold colour codes of blue, green and orange, or by the simplicity of black, white and gold as risque black became newly chic. Zen rock gardens, Chinese dragons, Persian birds, Japanese plum blossom or Tutankhamun motifs provided the richest source of global influences in a triumph of hedonistic creativity.
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