To see my Romantic Jewelry segment on MARTHA, please click here.

You may also watch any of the other segments and/or view the show in its entirety (FYI: all of Martha’s guests, myself included, share a special Valentine’s Day memory at the very top of the hour)

If you would like to read the article please click here.

For today’s post, I’ve asked my colleague and book seller nonpareil (everyone in the industry taps into her archival stock), Judy M. Cohen of JM Cohen Rare Books to offer a few insights into gathering a library of jewelry books that will last a lifetime:

First you should read a well-written, well-illustrated general survey of jewelry. The one I always recommend is Understanding Jewelry by David Bennett and Daniela Mascetti, an aptly named book that presents a thorough, yet general overview of jewelry throughout history. Understanding Jewelry is a book that will be used over and over again throughout your collecting life; the index is exhaustive; the information is quite detailed, and the photographs are exceptional. In fact, when there is a question about buying just one book, I always suggest this one.

There is a lot to digest in this work and for those who feel it is a bit too overwhelming, there is also John Benjamin’s Starting to Collect Antique Jewellery or Clare Phillips’ Jewelry, From Antiquity to the Present.

Everyone should have Harold Newman’s An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry and Christie Romero’s Warman’s Jewelry. The dictionary is easy to use, alphabetical listing of words you might come across, as well as designers and techniques. Short entries explain the meanings of these terms and names.
Romero’s book has everything, including values. And a small book, What’s it Made Of , by Sheryl Gross Shatz is very helpful to determine the material something is made of by using simple at home methods.

Once you have the basic reference books, you will find that your library will grow. Your quest for knowledge will make sure that happens! The minute you find a piece of jewelry about which you want to know more than a general survey can teach you, you will find that you want and need books on more specific topics, a particular period, a specific designer, one type of material or another.

In order to determine what a piece of jewelry is, the date and/or the maker, you will need books of marks, both hallmarks and maker’s marks. The standard hallmark books are by Tardy, Poincons d’Or and Poincons d’Argent, one on gold and platinum and one on silver. They are in French, but everyone seems to be able to use them once taught. The marks will help you to determine the place and date of any piece. Jackson’s Silver and Gold Marks is useful for British marks. When there is a maker’s mark, you may have to search many books, as there is no one book on maker’s marks. However, there is one for American maker’s marks and that is Dorothy Rainwater’s American Jewelry Manufacturers.

After purchasing and reading the basic books, there are several that are highly recommended and referred to quite often by collectors and dealers. They include Shirley Bury’s Jewellery 1789–1910, The International Era, Joan Evans’ A History of Jewellery 1100–1870, Martha Gandy Fales’ Jewelry in America, and Penny Proddow’s American Jewelry: Glamour and Tradition.

When I am asked what books I recommend to people starting out in their quest for knowledge of jewelry, I usually begin with the books I have mentioned. Then I ask them to be more specific, about what period appeals to them or what period they are seeing and focusing on most often. For the Victorian era I recommend you start with Margaret Flower’s Victorian Jewellery; for Art Nouveau Vivienne Becker’s Art Nouveau Jewelry, Joseph Sataloff’s Art Nouveau Jewelry, and Alastair Duncan’s The Paris Salons 1895–1914; for the Arts & Crafts period Elyse Zorn Karlin’s Jewelry and Metalwork in the Arts and Crafts Tradition; for Art Deco, Art Deco Jewelry by Sylvie Raulet and Melissa Gabardi’s Art Deco Jewellery, 1920–1949; and for 20th century jewelry Graham Hughes’ Modern Jewelry: An International Survey, 1890–1967. Recommended books on costume jewelry would be Deanna Farneti Cera’s Jewels of Fantasy: Costume Jewelry of the 20th Century and Vivienne Becker’s Fabulous Costume Jewelry.

Books with good photographs of jewelry as it was worn throughout history include Boucher’s 20,000 Years of Fashion and Gregorietti’s Jewelry Through the Ages. I am always happy to discuss individual preferences with my customers.

I suggest that you pay attention to certain authors including: Joan Evans, Vivienne Becker, Daniela Mascetti, Amanda Triossi, Diana Scarisbrick, Penny Proddow, and Charlotte Gere; I also recommend that you consider the bibliography at the end of books you already find useful. The books that these authors use in their own writing will contain much more information than they are presenting to you.

Second only perhaps to the pleasure of finding and wearing beautiful jewelry is immersing one’s self in books of exquisite photographs of jewelry. Not only will you find it pleasurable, you will learn so much.
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Ok, my dears, that’s all for this week. My family is celebrating our youngest son’s milestone — we are very proud of him. So I’m off to make final preparations. I will be back next Tuesday with more. Bon weekend!! LEG

Today is the beginning of a new category of posts that will feature the voices of colleagues who I have asked to share their unique perspectives with you. I’m working to make this a regular feature on the blog. Their stories demonstrate that the jeweled arts endorse and support the many, varied talents of our culture. Adornment captures light and illuminates our world view of people, places, and ideologies.

Today’s post is by co-owner of LupRocks, Michelle Orman. Her firm helps to connect leading jewelry, fashion, and decorative arts designers to the world of television and film. Michelle interviewed Bride Wars costume designer, Karen Patch, about the process of dressing and bejeweling Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway for the movie:

Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson in Bride Wars

M.O. Karen pulled jewelry for the film through LupRocks.com so I was anxious to learn about the overall process of dressing a star cast:

M.O. In “Bride Wars” the characters really do a number on one another to try to ruin the other one’s wedding! How did that figure into your choices?

K.P. I worked with Vera Wang on the dresses, and I really had to work backwards from how they looked destroyed to how they looked in the beginning.

M.O. How do you source out the wardrobes for your casts? Do you attend fashion shows, read lots of magazines, do lots of personal shopping?

K.P. (laughs) Yes to all of those things. I’m in showrooms, and I go to retail stores, and I read tons of magazines, and I just know what’s out there so I can narrow it down to, say, the Dolce looks good, the Hugo Boss looks good, Marc Jacobs looks good, Channel looks good, Philip Lim blouses look good this season. For jewelry, I will always go to LupRocks.com first. If I can work with small places and emerging designers I definitely do. If that company is excited about working with the particular actor, it makes life easier. And everybody wants to work with Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway so that’s kind of ideal. They are both beautiful and young and at the top of their games and everything they wear is going to be seen and examined and copied.

M.O. What are some of your considerations when choosing the jewelry?

With jewelry it’s a lot more personal. I’ll put everything I’ve selected as options for them on trays and we’ll sit down and look at the jewelry together. For each costume, they have their jewelry tray with the jewelry that’s chosen for the entire film, and the tray goes into the room with the costumes and they will pick off the tray. In effect, they have their own jewelry box, and just like you probably do each morning, they tend to gravitate towards the same pieces.

M.O. So at the end of the day, are you happy with how the film turned out?

K.P. Yes, I’m very happy with how it looks. It looks kind of rich in a way but at the same time, it looks believable.