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Model wearing green spider in hair, cloudy blue sky behind, on cover of 'Lydia Courteille Extraordinary Jewellery of Imagination and Dreams, by ACC Art Books.

Lydia Courteille

Extraordinary Jewellery of Imagination and Dreams

By (author) Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld

£40.00

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  • A stunning monograph on Lydia Courteille, a French-born gemologist and antique-jewellery expert
  • Inspired by the past and the present, Lydia Courteille's jewellery pieces are the heirlooms of the future to be fought over by collectors for many generations to come
Full Description
Parisian jeweller Lydia Courteille has been making a very special name for herself over the past thirty years; with her avant-garde and unusual jewellery designs, she has been keeping the Place Vendôme Jewellery Houses on their toes. She is always two to three steps ahead of the fashion world and her inventiveness and daring in the world of high jewellery is legendary. Taking her inspiration from cultural landmarks in France and from numerous historical and literary sources including film, she has combined her love of unusual gemstones with colour combinations that speak to the senses: her chlorophyll green in the Amazonia collection, the sunny bright vitamin C oranges of her Xochimilco collection and the azure blues in the Abysse collection all tease our imagination. Famous for her memento mori and vanity rings, she combines symbols of faith with reminders of mortality to create a juxtaposition of meanings for the wearer to ponder upon. Never macabre and always witty, her edgy jewels recount tales and cultural differences from every part of the globe. She deliberately combines symbols to create a duality in her jewels, marrying the sickle and hammer of the Soviet period with the ultra-femininity of eighteenth century jewellery design to impose contrast and debate on her Scarlet Empress collection. To see, to touch and to wear Courteille’s jewels is to travel to rarely visited spots in the world, from the sulphurous volcanic landscape of the Danakil desert to the remote tribes of the Omo Valley and the Bontoc people of the Philippines. Her jewels have a presence, a femininity. They demand respect; they are for strong, confident, women.
About the Author
A Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain (Gem A), Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld began her career at Sotheby's & Co., London. Based in France, she is also the author of 21st-Century Jewellry Designers: An Inspired Style (Antique Collectors' Club, 2013). Juliet's great-grandfather, Thomas Weir, founded the jewellers Weir & Sons in Dublin in 1869, a company that is still run by members of the family.
Specifications
Publisher
ACC Art Books
ISBN
9781851498376
Published
21st Nov 2016
Binding
Hardback
Territory
World
Size
290 mm x 245 mm
Pages
240 Pages
Illustrations
360 colour
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