Collector Bookstore is a retailer of new books located in Leavenworth, Kansas. We specialize in price guides and reference books for the antiques and collectibles industry.

Table of Contents

This handsomely illustrated volume presents a new look at Victorian Jewelrynot the fussy, overly ornate froufrou usually associated with the Victorian era, but the bold playful, romantic, and "modern" jewelry that is increasingly prized and collected today for its beauty and workmanship. This "secondary" jewelry, as it is called, was produced by jewelers in England and Europe to satisfy the great demand for inexpensive adornment that arose during Queen Victoria's long reign (1837-1901), and was inspired, in large part, by the queen's own penchant for jewelry.

Secondary jewelry was often made of some inconceivable materials: hair, steel papier-mache, iron, and aluminum. Some of the sought-after pieces, however, are of fine silver: oversized bangle bracelets, brooches, in symbolic shapes like stars, anchors, hearts, crosses, serpents, horseshoes, and outstretched hands, and neoclassical fringe necklaces were all the rage then and are eminently wearable today. The book also explores the glorious color and style of pebble jewelryScottish agate, malachite, and granitethe amazing modernity of niello, the smooth luster of tortoiseshell, and the stark black beauty of Whitby jet and its substitutes, bog oak and gutta-percha.

With a firm grounding in the symbiosis of today's fashions and yesterday's finery, authors Ginny Redington Dawes and Corinne Davidov have selected pieces from the best collections in the United States and Great Britain, placing special emphasis on those pieces with a modern touch or a beauty too timeless ever to be left in a dusty drawer. They also provide helpful tips for the collection and care of this surprisingly affordable and wearable jewelry.