For 500 years, the world's greatest makers of costume jewelry have hidden, anonymous, in the heart of Europe: Gablonz, Bohemia. This groundbreaking, beautiful book exposes the jewels, craftsmanship, technological development, and history of Bohemia. Almost 400 gorgeous color photographs illustrate the area's artistry, its most significant designers and manufacturers and their contributions to the art of jewelry, button, and bead making. Bohemian glass dynasties lasted for centuries, until the middle of the 20th century, when the entire community of German-stock craftsmen was expelled from the area in the turbulence of World War II. Though Gablonz will forever feel the loss of these great craftsmen, their artistry has been meticulously researched and documented by Sibylle Jargstorf for this book.

The various worldwide uses of glass beads, from antiquity to the modern time, are presented in this new book, along with the fascinating evolution of the beadmaking industry. From roots in Asian and African glassmaking, the European beadmaking industry is shown to have developed in response to political and economic factors of international trade and keen businessmen who saw potential profits, 475 color photographs, illustrate the different styles uses, and patterns of glass beads that originated from or influenced the European industry. Phoenician, Celtic, Viking, Venetian, African, Bavarian, Bohemian, Dutch, French, and Russian styles that were made for symbolic, fashion, magic, and controversial uses are shown. Even today's foiled, flower, mosaic, pearl, bronze, and fancy beads are discussed and shown. As beads play an important role in ornamentation today, this book will be of interest to a wide circle of creative people. The price guide reveals the current collector's market for popular bead types.

This new study presents striking parallels in both ethnic (non-European) and folk (European) traditional costumes and ornaments made with silver and glass. African ornaments include Zulu beads, Maghreb necklaces, the Oba's crown, and Massai headpieces. European ornaments extend from the Baltic to the Alps and from Russia, Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. Asian jewelry comes from the Fertile Crescent, the Silk Route, and the foothills of the Himalaya. Each example exquisitely displays a common sense of beauty among many distant peoples.

Glass in Jewelry enables glass and jewelry lovers alike to enjoy the obvious glamour of such jewelry and for the first time to understand and appreciate the hidden brilliance of these little treasures in glass. Illustrated with over 400 full color photographs of examples, the text explains the origins of filigree and alabaster glass, the lovely variety of bead types, artificial gems, glass cameos and incrustations, millefiori, mosaic and aventurine jewelry, and even applications in modern jewelry designs.

Old books on glass paperweights are shattered by this beautiful new presentation of previously unknown facts! Hundreds of beautiful old and new paperweights are displayed in over 450 color photographs. This meticulously researched book presents a new historical view of French, Italian, Bohemian, Czechoslovakian, Scandinavian, British, and American examples and their talented makers. Millefiori, lampworked, overlay, Baccarat, Clichy, studio weights, and more are explained with documented facts which dispel some myths and give credit where it is due. With this book, the many collectors of paperweights world-wide have a factual reference to help correctly identify and interpret their collections.