Fine Jewelry Couture: Contemporary Heirlooms / by Olivier Dupon

Thames & Hudson, 2016. Large hardcover. Extensively-illustrated. Lightly-bumped corners. 

Fine Jewelry Couture features the work of over 35 of the most exciting jewelry designers working across the globe today. Whether up-and-coming practitioners or established names, these artists are creating fine jewelry of a couture standard, showcasing prodigious skill and individuality. In the construction of theirpieces, priceless gemstones may be used, but so may semiprecious stones and non-precious materials such as mammoth tusks and bird feathers. This is the first book to celebrate this growing segment of the jewelry industry: high-end luxe pieces, boasting experimental approaches, exquisite craftsmanship and extraordinary attention to detail. These are the new contemporary heirlooms.

Hundreds of images showcase a broad range of designs and styles, whether Aida Bergsen's flora and fauna-inspired pieces featuring emerald-studded frogs and diamond-encrusted salamanders, Elie Top's ingenious talismans of celestially pivoting yellow gold spheres that are a feat of mathematical precision, Katherine Jetter's creations with bravura use of glowing opals, or Autore's works displaying signature South Sea pearls. All share a dedication to the highest caliber materials, the most artful construction and a highly attuned sense of aesthetics.