Floral Jewels: From the World's Leading Designers

“an exciting, eye opening, and informative read.”

With a title like this, the reader anticipates a photocentric book filled with the most glorious examples of exquisite jewelry from heritage brands such as Cartier, Boivin, JAR, Van Cleef, Tiffany, Faberge, and many more of the usual suspects. Indeed the reader gets that and so much more, but reader beware!

In Floral Jewels: From the World's Leading Designers Ms. Woolton takes the opportunity to give the reader glorious examples, but she crosses into the pedantic with her encyclopedic and well researched knowledge of the subject.

For some, this may be everything you ever wanted to know about flowers and their relationship to great designers, jewelers, and historical figures. For others this might be a case of too much information. This is not a judgment, merely an observation depending on what your expectation is.

Without question, Ms. Woolton’s knowledge offers the reader information that he or she might never have known and certainly gives great insight into the power of flowers when it comes to fine jewelry. Visually, the photographs and sample offerings are often quite arresting since many of these are pieces that are rarely seen by most of us due to their extraordinary cost and museum quality.

Another redeeming quality of the book is that aside from the usual players, Ms. Woolton’s swings open the doors to give the reader a far wider perspective of those who create incredible jewels of this nature in contemporary times—meaning very simply there are many more new and lesser known designers who produce such haute joallier.

In the end, this is a book for those who crave to know as much as possible about the world of haute joallier and the ephemera that surrounds it as well as for those who just adore workmanship, craft, skill, and some of the most incredible jewelry in the world. There is more than just a cursory representation from the likes of JAR, Cartier, Dior High Jewellery and the most coveted brands. The reader will surely find names they may not be cognizant of alongside the familiar ones and that is an essential part of what makes this book such a great gift as well as an exciting, eye opening, and informative read.