THE MASTER JEWELERS

Towards the end of the 19th century, the master jewelers of the Western world began to shed the 18th-century anonymity under which such artist-craftsmen had generally worked. They emerged as individual voices, discarding the bland, predictable standards of the earlier era in jewelry design in favour of evocative new creations. The renowned designers whose work is featured in this book can be instantly identified by their particular interests and discoveries. Carl Faberge emphasized originality of design and the quality of craftsmanship, rather than the intrinsic value of the materials used. ...