An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Famous Collection of Antique Gems Possessed by the Late Prince Poniatowski

An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Famous Collection of Antique Gems Possessed by the Late Prince Poniatowski PDF Author: James Prendeville
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gems
Languages : en
Pages : 854

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An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Famous Collection of Antique Gems Possessed by the Late Prince Poniatowski

An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Famous Collection of Antique Gems Possessed by the Late Prince Poniatowski PDF Author: James Prendeville
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gems
Languages : en
Pages : 854

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The International Library of Famous Literature

The International Library of Famous Literature PDF Author: Andrew Lang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literature
Languages : en
Pages : 570

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The International Library of Famous Literature

The International Library of Famous Literature PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anthologies
Languages : en
Pages : 568

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Library Catalog

Library Catalog PDF Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.). Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 1060

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The Sphinx

The Sphinx PDF Author: Hugo Vickers
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1529390753
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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**The Times and Sunday Times Books of the Year 2020** **The Times Best Biography Audiobook of the Year 2021** 'Vickers gives breathing, alarming life to a woman who puzzled and thrilled her contemporaries' SUNDAY TIMES 'Best Paperbacks of 2021' 'A continuously astonishing and ultimately moving account of a unique figure, the stuff of great literature' Simon Callow, SUNDAY TIMES 'Gripping . . . jaw-dropping story, brilliantly told' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, THE TIMES 'Mr. Vickers, with his sharp eye for detail, splendidly captures the drama of Gladys's life and the amazing cast of characters she encountered' WALL STREET JOURNAL 'This biography is truly wonderful - a masterclass in storytelling' SUNDAY TIMES 'The most extraordinary, rackety life' William Boyd, DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Richly anecdotal and oddly captivating' Miranda Seymour, FINANCIAL TIMES 'At the end of the book the reader can only say, "Whew! What a story!"' Anne de Courcy, SPECTATOR 'Hugo Vickers's life of Gladys Marlborough is an extraordinary and tragic story, with special resonance today' EVENING STANDARD ******************* One of the most beautiful and brilliant women of her time, Gladys Deacon dazzled and puzzled the glittering social circles in which she moved. Born in Paris to American parents in 1881, Gladys emerged from a traumatic childhood - her father having shot her mother's lover dead when Gladys was only eleven - to captivate and inspire some of the greatest literary and artistic names of the Belle Epoque. Marcel Proust wrote of her, 'I never saw a girl with such beauty, such magnificent intelligence, such goodness and charm.' Berenson considered marrying her, Rodin and Monet befriended her, Boldini painted her and Epstein sculpted her. She inspired love from diverse Dukes and Princes, and the interest of women such as the Comtesse Greffulhe and Gertrude Stein. In 1921, when Gladys was forty, she achieved the wish she had held since the age of fourteen to marry the 9th Duke of Marlborough, then freshly divorced from fellow American Consuelo Vanderbilt. Gladys's circle now included Lady Ottoline Morrell, Lytton Strachey and Winston Churchill, who described her as 'a strange, glittering being'. But life at Blenheim was not a success: when the Duke evicted her in 1933, the only remaining signs of Gladys were two sphinxes bearing her features on the west terraces and mysterious blue eyes in the grand portico. She became a recluse, and the wax injections she'd had to straighten her nose when she was 22 had by now ravaged her beauty. Gladys was to spend her last years in the psycho-geriatric ward of a mental hospital, where she was discovered by a young Hugo Vickers. Intrigued and compelled to unmask the truth of her mysterious life, Vickers visited her over the course of two years, eventually publishing Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough, a biography of her life - and his first book - in 1979, two years after Gladys's death. Forty years on, Vickers has now completely rewritten and revised his original biography, updating it with previously unavailable material and drawing on his own personal research all over Europe and America. He once asked Gladys, 'Where is Gladys Deacon?' She answered him slowly, 'Gladys Deacon? . . . She never existed.' The Sphinx is a fascinating portrait of this elusive but brilliant woman who was at the centre of a now bygone era of wealth and privilege - and a tribute to one of the brightest stars of her age.

Jewels

Jewels PDF Author: Victoria Finlay
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0345466950
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Throughout history, precious stones have inspired passions and poetry, quests and curses, sacred writings and unsacred actions. In this scintillating book, journalist Victoria Finlay embarks on her own globe-circling search for the real stories behind some of the gems we prize most. Blending adventure travel, geology, exciting new research, and her own irresistible charm, Finlay has fashioned a treasure hunt for some of the most valuable, glamorous, and mysterious substances on earth. With the same intense curiosity and narrative flair she displayed in her widely-praised book Color, Finlay journeys from the underground opal churches of outback Australia to the once pearl-rich rivers of Scotland; from the peridot mines on an Apache reservation in Arizona to the remote ruby mines in the mountains of northern Burma. She risks confronting scorpions to crawl through Cleopatra’s long-deserted emerald mines, tries her hand at gem cutting in the dusty Sri Lankan city where Marco Polo bartered for sapphires, and investigates a rumor that fifty years ago most of the world’s amber was mined by prisoners in a Soviet gulag. Jewels is a unique and often exhilarating voyage through history, across cultures, deep into the earth’s mantle, and up to the glittering heights of fame, power, and wealth. From the fabled curse of the Hope Diamond, to the disturbing truths about how pearls are cultured, to the peasants who were once executed for carrying amber to the centuries-old quest by magicians and scientists to make a perfect diamond, Jewels tells dazzling stories with a wonderment and brilliance truly worthy of its subjects.

The Statist

The Statist PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Commerce
Languages : en
Pages : 1522

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Library Catalog of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Library Catalog of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York PDF Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.). Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 1060

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Journal of the Society of Arts

Journal of the Society of Arts PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 1082

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Journal of the Royal Society of Arts

Journal of the Royal Society of Arts PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1080

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