The volume presents an extraordinary collection of jewels, jewellers and international maisons which, from the start of the twentieth century to the present day, have mirrored the changing taste worldwide. It is a global journey which takes us from France to Russia, from the United States to Italy, from Britain to Germany and from the Netherlands to Scandinavia. From the Art Nouveau masterpieces of Lalique, Vever and Fouquet to Art Deco elegance and the wonders of Cartier, Boucheron, Tiffany, Mario Buccellati and Fabergé. From the inventions of Van Cleef & Arpels and Bulgari in the 1950s to the Dutch avant-garde and the artist’s jewel of the 1960s, ending with illustrations of up-to-date and contemporary jewellery design. A brilliant historical-critical essay introduces a magnificent selection of pictures, designed to be an ideal gallery of masterpieces of twentieth-century jewellery, accompanied by technical explanations and an exhaustive glossary.

The book closes with the new millennium, with the intermingling of art and design and the introduction of new goldsmithery techniques like 3D printing and wearable technologies but also new creative, production, distribution and communication processes thanks to Internet open sources which are defining new future scenarios in jewellery design. A brilliant historical-critical essay introduces a magnificent selection of pictures, designed to be an ideal gallery of jewellery masterpieces from the twentieth century to the present, accompanied by technical explanations and an exhaustive glossary.