Argenti antichi italiani

Evelyne Posseme, Stephen Harrison, Sarah Davis
Thames & Hudson

A visual celebration of jeweled masterworks from Paris in the Art Deco era

One Christmas Eve, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan gave his wife, Princess Catherine, an exquisite jeweled box made by Cartier in the 1920s, thus starting the most magnificent collection of objects created in the Art Deco era by jewelers, at a time when the jeweler's art was at the height of beauty and creativity.

In the 1920s, rapid changes in society and technology were rejected in art through striking contrasts of line, color, and material. The innovative luxuries in this book—breathtaking bejeweled vanity and cigarette cases, timepieces, jewelry, and a photograph frame—take their inspiration from varied sources, including the natural world, exotic locations, and industrial design. Chinese dragons, Persian birds, and Japanese plum blossoms appear on boxes created with an explosion of colored gemstones and enamel juxtaposed with boxes in black, white, and gold stripped of excessive ornamentation. The exuberance of the boldest pieces contrasts with the starkly elegant machine-inspired designs, but both are equally considered and iconic of this era of excitement, change, and creativity.

Smoky nightclubs, with flappers drinking cocktails, and exotically decorated apartments, resplendent for chic dinner parties, provided a new landscape for the designs of the great jewelry houses of Europe and America, with Paris as the undisputed center. In Jeweled Splendors of the Art Deco Era, published to coincide with an exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Museum, New York., expert authors explore the development of this new artistic world by considering the exotic influences of the important jewelers—including Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, Boucheron, Lacloche Freres, and, above all, Cartier—as well as the process of design and making, and the impact of changing femininity. Well over 100 pieces are accompanied by detailed descriptions and were specially photographed for this publication by the renowned photographer Doug Rosa. This collection from the most important period in the history of jewelry and the decorative arts is unsurpassed in quality and is beautifully shown here with a wealth of context and detail.

Claude Mazloum
Gremese International

Daniele Baroni
Gruppo Editoriale Electa

Renata Bonfanti
Nicola Zanichelli

Robert Shaw
Hugh Lauter Levin Associates

Hawaii's quilts reflect one of the world's most unusual and exotic cultures. Bringing elements of their Polynesian heritage to the American quilt, nineteenth-century Hawaiians created a distinctive and beautiful art form that is still actively practiced throughout the islands. Hawaiian Quilt Masterpieces presents forty-eight remarkable historic and contemporary quilts, all reproduced in full color, that trace the history of the islands: from the early influences of missionaries and traders, to annexation by the United States and subsequent statehood, to the current concerns of today's quilt masters. Hawaii's stunning quilts capture the essence of the islands' overwhelming natural beauty as well as its people's legendary grace and charm. Early quilters developed the beloved Hawaiian applique quilt, its lovely floral designs cut like giant snowflakes from a single piece of cloth. They also created the unique tradition of the flag quilt, made to memorialize the glorious past of the Hawaiian kingdom that fell when the United States annexed the islands in 1898. This volume offers some of the finest examples of the islands' fabric art, highlighted by works of such masterful island quiltmakers as Elizabeth Akana, Sharon Balai, and Junedale Lauwaeomakana Quinories, whose clever variations on classic designs and techniques, spiced with subtle twists of modernity, keep these quilting traditions alive. Hawaiian Quilt Masterpieces is the first new book on the subject in many years and is sure to become a standard reference in the field. If you are a lover of quilts, and if the idyllic geography and fascinating lore of the Hawaiian Islands lures you, then this is the perfect guide to the exotic andbeautiful world of Hawaiian quilts.

Diana Scarisbrick
Alain de Gourcuff Éditeur

Natalia Aspesi
Rizzoli Editore

Alessandro Calligaris
Grafiche Antiga

François Baudot
Universe / Vendome

A classic reference for 19th century collectors and antique merchants.

Erté
Dover Publications

The Russian-born, Paris-based artist Erte (Romain de Tirtoff) is best known for his incomparably styled fashion and theater designs of the 1910s and 1920s. From 1915 to 1936 Erte was associated with "Harper's Bazar, "furnishing readers with fashion designs, cover art, and word-pictures of the European fashion scenes. This book is a selection of Erte's remarkable work for "Harper's Bazar, " including 310 of his line drawings and 8 full-color images as well as selections from his letters for the magazine. Of these drawings, 12 have been reproduced directly from the original pen drawings at original size for this edition.
In the illustrations, Erte shows gowns, coats, pajamas, hats, and accessories of all sorts and for each season. Tassels, fur muffs, capes, hair stylings, and other extravagant flourishes are second nature to Erte in these designs. The drawings themselves are striking evocations of the "temptress" type of feminine allure, and are works of art in their own right whose exotic styles are inseparable from the style of the fashions they depict. The original "Harper's" captions have been reprinted with each illustration.
This selection from Erte's work has been made by Stella Blum, Curator of the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute, who has chosen the illustrations both for their interest as art and for their importance in the development of fashion. Copies of "Harper's Bazar" from the years of Erte's great work are very hard to find today, and students of fashion, fashion illustration, and others interested in Erte will find this a most welcome collection.
Dover (1976) original publication.

Doug Nye, Pietro Carrieri
Cavalleria S.A.

Adrian Sasson
The Metropolitan Museum of Art