Bejewelled: Treasures from the Al-Thani Collection

Bejewelled: Treasures from the Al-Thani Collection PDF Author: Susan Stronge
Publisher: Victoria & Albert Museum
ISBN: 9781851778577
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Published to accompany the exhibition "Bejewelled Treasures: The Al Thani Collection," held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 21 November 2015 - 28 March 2016.

Bejewelled: Treasures from the Al-Thani Collection

Bejewelled: Treasures from the Al-Thani Collection PDF Author: Susan Stronge
Publisher: Victoria & Albert Museum
ISBN: 9781851778577
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Published to accompany the exhibition "Bejewelled Treasures: The Al Thani Collection," held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 21 November 2015 - 28 March 2016.

The Cartiers

The Cartiers PDF Author: Francesca Cartier Brickell
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0525621636
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 673

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Book Description
“A dynamic group biography studded with design history and high-society dash . . . [This] elegantly wrought narrative bears the Cartier hallmark.”—The Economist The “astounding” (André Leon Talley) story of the family behind the Cartier empire and the three brothers who turned their grandfather’s humble Parisian jewelry store into a global luxury icon—as told by a great-granddaughter with exclusive access to long-lost family archives “Ms. Cartier Brickell has done her grandfather proud.”—The Wall Street Journal The Cartiers is the revealing tale of a jewelry dynasty—four generations, from revolutionary France to the 1970s. At its heart are the three Cartier brothers whose motto was “Never copy, only create” and who made their family firm internationally famous in the early days of the twentieth century, thanks to their unique and complementary talents: Louis, the visionary designer who created the first men’s wristwatch to help an aviator friend tell the time without taking his hands off the controls of his flying machine; Pierre, the master dealmaker who bought the New York headquarters on Fifth Avenue for a double-stranded natural pearl necklace; and Jacques, the globe-trotting gemstone expert whose travels to India gave Cartier access to the world’s best rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, inspiring the celebrated Tutti Frutti jewelry. Francesca Cartier Brickell, whose great-grandfather was the youngest of the brothers, has traveled the world researching her family’s history, tracking down those connected with her ancestors and discovering long-lost pieces of the puzzle along the way. Now she reveals never-before-told dramas, romances, intrigues, betrayals, and more. The Cartiers also offers a behind-the-scenes look at the firm’s most iconic jewelry—the notoriously cursed Hope Diamond, the Romanov emeralds, the classic panther pieces—and the long line of stars from the worlds of fashion, film, and royalty who wore them, from Indian maharajas and Russian grand duchesses to Wallis Simpson, Coco Chanel, and Elizabeth Taylor. Published in the two-hundredth anniversary year of the birth of the dynasty’s founder, Louis-François Cartier, this book is a magnificent, definitive, epic social history shown through the deeply personal lens of one legendary family.

Koh-i-Noor

Koh-i-Noor PDF Author: William Dalrymple
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 163557076X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
From the internationally acclaimed and bestselling historians William Dalrymple and Anita Anand, the first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, arguably the most celebrated jewel in the world. On March 29, 1849, the ten-year-old leader of the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the center of the British fort in Lahore, India. There, in a formal Act of Submission, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company swathes of the richest land in India and the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond, otherwise known as the Mountain of Light. To celebrate the acquisition, the British East India Company commissioned a history of the diamond woven together from the gossip of the Delhi Bazaars. From that moment forward, the Koh-i-Noor became the most famous and mythological diamond in history, with thousands of people coming to see it at the 1851 Great Exhibition and still more thousands repeating the largely fictitious account of its passage through history. Using original eyewitness accounts and chronicles never before translated into English, Dalrymple and Anand trace the true history of the diamond and disperse the myths and fantastic tales that have long surrounded this awe-inspiring jewel. The resulting history of south and central Asia tells a true tale of greed, conquest, murder, torture, colonialism, and appropriation that shaped a continent and the Koh-i-Noor itself.

Nelson's Lost Jewel

Nelson's Lost Jewel PDF Author: Martyn Downer
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750986115
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
Admiral Lord Nelson's diamond Chelengk is one of the most famous and iconic jewels in British history. Presented to Nelson by the Sultan Selim III of Turkey after the Battle of the Nile in 1798, the jewel had thirteen diamond rays to represent the French ships captured or destroyed at the action. A central diamond star on the jewel was powered by clockwork to rotate in wear. Nelson wore the Chelengk on his hat like a turban jewel, sparking a fashion craze for similar jewels in England. The jewel became his trademark to be endlessly copied in portraits and busts to this day. After Trafalgar, the Chelengk was inherited by Nelson's family and worn at the Court of Queen Victoria. Sold at auction in 1895 it eventually found its way to the newly opened National Maritime Museum in Greenwich where it was a star exhibit. In 1951 the jewel was stolen in a daring raid by an infamous cat-burglar and lost forever. For the first time, Martyn Downer tells the extraordinary true story of the Chelengk: from its gift to Nelson by the Sultan of Turkey to its tragic post-war theft, charting the jewel's journey through history and forging sparkling new and intimate portraits of Nelson, of his friends and rivals, and of the woman he loved.

Gems in the Early Modern World

Gems in the Early Modern World PDF Author: Michael Bycroft
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319963791
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
This edited collection is an interdisciplinary study of gems in the early modern world. It examines the relations between the art, science, and technology of gems, and it does so against the backdrop of an expanding global trade in gems. The eleven chapters are organised into three parts. The first part sets the scene by describing how gems moved around the early modern world, how they were set in motion, and how they were pulled together in the course of their travels. The second part is about value. It asks why people valued gems, how they determined the value of a given gem, and how the value of a gem was connected to its perceived place of origin. The third part deals with the skills involved in cutting, polishing, and mounting gems, and how these skills were transmitted and articulated by artisans. The common themes of all these chapters are materials, knowledge and global trade. The contributors to this volume focus on the material properties of gems such as their weight and hardness, on the knowledge involved in exchanging them and valuing them, and on the cultural consequences of the expanding trade in gems in Eurasia and the Americas.

The Jerusalem Files

The Jerusalem Files PDF Author: Corjan Mol
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
ISBN: 1786788381
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
A non-fiction Da Vinci Code for the 21st century, this thrilling treasure hunt traces the voyage of the legendary Jewish Menorah from the Jerusalem of the Knights Templar through France, Portugal and North America, providing mind-blowing history and mystery for fans of The Curse of Oak Island. The Jewish Menorah is one of the world’s most sacred artefacts, a man-size lampstand with seven arms, made from a single block of gold, that is an iconic symbol for the Jewish people. King Solomon placed it in the inner sanctum of the Temple of Jerusalem, but by the 5th century AD, all trace of it had disappeared from the official record, and it was assumed lost. Two historical researchers, Corjan Mol and Christopher Morford, now reveal the astounding secret of what happened to the Menorah. Through their meticulous research as well as a jaw-dropping stroke of luck, Mol and Morford discovered that the Menorah was dug up from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in the time of the Crusades by the Knights Templar and smuggled to France with the help of the French King Louis IX. From there it was taken to Portugal, to end up in North America after interventions by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. The secret was hidden in plain sight in both France and North America, on a scale so big that it took 800 years for it to be discovered.

Kohinoor

Kohinoor PDF Author: William Dalrymple
Publisher: Juggernaut Books
ISBN: 9386228084
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This riveting tale of the Kohinoor, the worldÕs most coveted gem, unearths fascinating new information as it moves from the Mughal court to Persia to Afghanistan; from Maharaja Ranjit Singh's durbar in Punjab to the Queen of England's Crown. A thrilling tale, full of violence, drama and intrigue.

Collectable Names and Designs in Women's Handbags

Collectable Names and Designs in Women's Handbags PDF Author: Tracy Martin
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 1526709333
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Covers the history of handbag design packed full of biographies of the major influencers of the fashion handbag industry. Vintage and future accessories expert, Tracy Martin reveals what to spot when buying both vintage and modern handbags which are already desirable with collectors or have the potential to become sought after in the future. From the Victorian miser bag to 1950s Lucite and the op-art designs of the Sixties to bang up to date modern examples such as Lulu Guinness's iconic Lips clutch, Tracy recommends the most desirable for collector's of all budgets. Throughout the pages she shares her top tips on which designers to buy from the past, present and future, how to avoid getting caught out by fake or damaged bags and where is best to invest. Together with a detailed social history on the designers and their bags, this lavishly illustrated book is a must-own for all those passionate about handbags.

Heavenly Bodies

Heavenly Bodies PDF Author: Paul Koudounaris
Publisher: Thames and Hudson
ISBN: 9780500251959
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
An intriguing visual history of the veneration in European churches and monasteries of bejeweled and decorated skeletons Death has never looked so beautiful. The fully articulated skeleton of a female saint, dressed in an intricate costume of silk brocade and gold lace, withered fingers glittering with colorful rubies, emeralds, and pearls—this is only one of the specially photographed relics featured in Heavenly Bodies. In 1578 news came of the discovery in Rome of a labyrinth of underground tombs, which were thought to hold the remains of thousands of early Christian martyrs. Skeletons of these supposed saints were subsequently sent to Catholic churches and religious houses in German-speaking Europe to replace holy relics that had been destroyed in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. The skeletons, known as “the catacomb saints,” were carefully reassembled, richly dressed in fantastic costumes, wigs, crowns, jewels, and armor, and posed in elaborate displays inside churches and shrines as reminders to the faithful of the heavenly treasures that awaited them after death. Paul Koudounaris gained unprecedented access to religious institutions to reveal these fascinating historical artifacts. Hidden for over a century as Western attitudes toward both the worship of holy relics and death itself changed, some of these ornamented skeletons appear in publication here for the first time.

The Dragon in the West

The Dragon in the West PDF Author: Daniel Ogden
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192565877
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
An exploration of how the image and idea of the dragon has evolved through history How did the dragon get its wings? Everyone in the modern West has a clear idea of what a dragon looks like and of the sorts of stories it inhabits, not least devotees of the fantasies of J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, and George R. R. Martin. A cross between a snake and some fearsome mammal, often sporting colossal wings, they live in caves, lie on treasure, maraud, and breathe fire. They are extraordinarily powerful, but even so, ultimately defeated in their battles with humans. What is the origin of this creature? The Dragon in the West is the first serious and substantial account in any language of the evolution of the modern dragon from its ancient forebears. Daniel Ogden's detailed exploration begins with the drakōn of Greek myth and the draco of the dragon-loving Romans, and a look at the ancient world's female dragons. It brings the story forwards though Christian writings, medieval illustrated manuscripts, and the lives of dragon-duelling saints, before concluding with a study of dragons found in the medieval Germanic world, including those of the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf and the Norse sagas.