280 x 240 mm, paperback, 176 pages, 75 illustrations in colour
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ISBN: 978 0 900785 96 2
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The Schroder Collection of Renaissance Silver is among the most important to remain in private hands. Formed between about 1870 and 1930 over two generations of the Anglo-German banking family, it includes outstanding historic objects from England, Germany, Italy and elsewhere. Some of these formally belonged to princely collections such as the royal house of Hanover, the renowned Green Vault from Dresden or the Hollenzohen family. Others came from famous church treasuries, dispersed at the time of the French Revolution or the early 19th-century secularisation in Germany.
Intended as works of art rather than practical objects, many incrporate rare or exotic materials. Polished nautilus shells from the Pacific, early Chinese porcelain or skilfully carved rock-crystal were all regarded as desirable materials for mounting into precious cups or vases. They also reflect, through their complex designs and dense programmes of ornament, the intellectual preoccupations of the 16th-century mind.The effect of this ensemble is to give a rare sense of the diversity and virtuosity of the Renaissance goldsmith and a hint of the world of the Renaissance treasury which today only survives in such places as Dresden, Munich and Vienna.
There has never been a display like it. This is the catalogue to an ambitious exhibition at the Goldsmiths’ Hall, London, which will comprise 250 gold and silver objects and sets of objects spanning the history of the Church from the earliest possible times to the present day. More
Silver, porcelain and ruby glass seem unlikely bedfellows, yet the objects in the Zilkha Collection are all united by the medium of silver or luxury metalwork. The objects were also made, for the most part, over about a century and a half. All of them tell a fascinating story of the particular circumstances that produced them: a maker, a workshop, a patron. They also tell the wider story of the society that made them necessary or desirable; the science that made them possible; and of their survival down the centuries. More
Few realise that gold can be found in Great Britain, and that attempts to exploit native sources have drawn prospectors from ancient Rome to Elizabethan adventurers and current commercial projects in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In Gold: Power and Allure, 11 essays by distinguished specialists tell of the rich and previously untold story of Britain and its relationship with gold, demonstrating the country's unique golden heritage. More
Johann Christian Neuber (1736–1808) was a goldsmith and mineralogist at the Saxon Court. In 1769 he became director of the Grünes Gewölbe, the magnificent State Treasury, and was appointed court jeweler in 1775. This lavishly illustrated book will give readers their first comprehensive introduction to the master craftsman's oeuvre presenting boxes and other decorative objects from the Grünes Gewölbe, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and private collections from Germany, France and New York. More
This book presents magnificent artefacts collected by an aristocratic family of fabulous wealth. It shows goldsmith’s work and jewellery of extraordinary quality, and a number of decorations and commemorative medals, dating mostly from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These include some of the finest creations of their time, by artists such as Hans Petzolt of Nuremberg and Augsburg’s Drentwett family, as well as renowned Hungarian goldsmiths of the Mannerist and Baroque era. More
The group of about one hundred French bronzes in the Wallace Collection is justly considered one of the finest such collections in the world. Fifty-one of the best are featured in this book, the first in-depth study of the subject in English. More
In the middle of the fourteenth century, Europe was devastated by an appalling epidemic which killed a third of its population. Accused of having spread the disease, Jewish communities faced terrible persecutions, which often led them to bury their most valuable goods. Two of these hoards, discovered at Colmar in 1863 and at Erfurt in 1998, are discussed and illustrated in this splendid catalogue, published to accompany an exhibition at the Wallace Collection London. More
Toward an Art History of Medieval Rings gives a full survey of Merovingian, Byzantine, Medieval and Renaissance rings, building on the basis of a private collection of 35 rings assembled over nearly two decades. These rings range in date from around 300 to 1600 AD and are fine examples of most of the major types of ring created during this period. They include marriage rings, seal rings, stirrup rings, tart mould rings, iconographic rings, merchant rings and gemstone rings and are arranged chronologically. More
Of exquisite workmanship, the Wallace gold boxes share the elaborate richness of the larger-scale French 18th-century art in the collection, but on an intimate and jewel-like scale. Most of the boxes were made in Paris during the 18th century and were used as snuff containers. More
This book accompanies the new display of the Courtauld family silver collection in the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, which opened in June 2003. All the silver presented in the book was produced or hallmarked by three generations of the Courtauld family of goldsmiths. More