I Love Those Earrings

Book excerpt: Earrings can talk-of mourning a dead king, supporting a revolution, or resisting an emperor. They have carried the message that a proper Victorian believed in Darwin, and that a woman invited a lover to her bed. Raid the jewelry boxes of the glamorous, legendary, and everyday chic women alike. See what earrings they have worn, when, and why, in ways that bespeak their way of life and personality, and how jewelry carries family and cultural heritage with style. Looking at earrings as tiny sculptures, here are details about gems, settings, and fixtures. Lavishly embellished with over 300 images of jewelry ranging from the Byzantine era to the contemporary artisan, the styles of design, relationships to dress, portraiture and symbolism, and other aspects of adornment are elaborated upon. With research-based anecdotes and her own life in earrings, the author tells a story that will engage anyone interested in celebrities, monarchies, and the barely recorded lives of women of the past, and, of course, anyone who loves beautiful jewelry.