I hope it brings good things for every­one. For those of you who could use last minute ideas for hol­i­day gifts, I would strongly sug­gest a beau­ti­ful book. For me, there is no bet­ter way to spend an early cold or snowy morn­ing than with a cup of hot choco­late (home­made with milk, Dutch-process cocoa, a dash of vanilla, and brown sugar) and page upon page of gor­geous pho­tog­ra­phy or inspired writ­ing. Here are sev­eral considerations:

1. Geor­gian Jew­elry by Ginny Red­ing­ton Dawes and Olivia Collings—a mas­ter­work of images. This is the eigh­teenth– into early nine­teenth cen­tury jew­elry when every piece was cre­ated by hand. All of it is truly breath­tak­ing. This is the first full-length explo­ration of the sub­ject and it is done superbly.
2. The Beau­ti­ful Fall by Ali­cia Drake—A tale­bear­ing and cap­ti­vat­ing nar­ra­tive detail­ing the 1970s Paris fash­ion land­scape when Yves Saint Lau­rent and Karl Lager­feld held court. This is great for those nights when you can­not bear to watch another rerun on tv.
3. Under­stand­ing Jew­elry by David Ben­nett and Daniela Mascetti—This book is a won­der­ful sur­vey of period jew­elry and should be in every collector’s pri­vate library whether they are a novice or con­nois­seur. This is one of those indis­pens­able ref­er­ences.
4. Of course there is my book, Brooches: Time­less Adorn­ment, if your intended recip­i­ent is patient. It will be released in April and it can be pre-ordered on amazon.com . How­ever, I do under­stand that gift-giving does have an expi­ra­tion date and so there are two more I can rec­om­mend.
5. An Illus­trated Dic­tio­nary of Jew­elry by Harold New­man. This too is a won­der­ful ref­er­ence book and explains the ori­gins of dif­fer­ent types of adorn­ment and its uses.
6. Cos­tume Jew­elry for Haute Cou­ture by Flo­rence Muller. Just a fab­u­lous look at how fash­ion design­ers adapt jew­elry to their own aes­thetic and cre­ative vision. This is a good choice for those whose love of fash­ion extends to accessories.

I will be off on hol­i­day with my fam­ily until the new year and so no more posts until then. If if my college-age son will per­mit me the use of his sacred lap­top, I might take a minute or two to post a com­ment on the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art’s new exhibit, Blog­mode: Address­ing Fash­ion. This a fas­ci­nat­ing instal­la­tion and one in which every­body can par­tic­i­pate, so please, if you have a quiet moment, take the time to enjoy those glo­ri­ous images. Be sure to remark about them before you move on—the cura­tors wel­come your thoughts!

I would like to send my very best to all of you who read my blog, which is in every way, a labor of love.