Art Nouveau Jewelry by Vivienne Becker.

Art Nouveau Jewelry by Vivienne Becker, published by Thames & Hudson.

The reason I chose to read this book was because, apart from being my personal favourite era, Art Nouveau serves as a starting point to my research. It was during this era that a lot of advances were made in the world of jewellery.

In her book Vivienne Becker charts the development of jewellery design from right before to right after the Art Nouveau style, making a connection with creators who inspired the jewellers in the dawn of the 20^th century and how these, in turn, inspired those who came after or how they themselves adapted their designs to fit the new style of Art Deco.

Each chapter is split into a country where the style was very dominant and took on an independence to what was being done in other countries, namely: France, Germany & Austria, Great Britain and the United States. The final chapter collects all the minimal information on Art Nouveau jewellery in other countries, information that on its own would not merit a chapter but collected together shows the diversity of the style as it travelled across the globe, while identifying key motifs and inspirational points to Art Nouveau (such as insects, reptiles, and Japonisme) in her introduction.

Becker not only comments on the style in general but also on what particular designers such as Lalique, Fouquet, Vever, and Tiffany were doing in particular. She identifies how one designer’s pieces varied from those of another even within the same country. This was particularly interesting to my research as in this manner she mentions three of the four particular designers I am currently researching (Lalique, Tiffany, and Cartier)

Throughout the course of the book, Becker also identifies world events that would have affected design, such as the opening of Japan’s art borders to the rest of the world and America, having played an instrumental role, would be the country to take the most advantage of this situation.

Helping the reader to get a clearer picture of the style are photos of the jewellery itself, some in colour, the majority in grey-scale, although this does not affect the detail which one can see in the photos of the pieces.

All in all this book is a great starting point to my research even though it does not provide all of the historical development I need for my essay. 

References

Becker, V., 1998. Art Nouveau Jewelry. 1st ed. London: Thames & Hudson.