Masterpieces of European Jewellery from the 16th to 19th Centuries in the Hermitage Collection

The present art book features the Hermitage Museum collection of European and Russian jewellery dating from the 16th to early 20th centuries. All in all, it covers one hundred objects selected from the many thousands made of precious metals and stones and housed in the Hermitage nowadays. The core of the Hermitage collection was formed by the Imperial Treasure Gallery which would hold pieces of jewellery fashioned by the very best European artists and craftsmen. Some of them were produced on commissions of the Imperial family members, others donated as diplomatic gifts. The gallery used to have not only most expensive objects but also most valuable and rare ones from the artistic point of view. So today the Hermitage boasts not only jewellery notable for the quantity of gold and precious stones used in it as well as the earliest objects made of platinum but also best specimens distinguished by unsurpassed artistic craftsmanship. This art book introduces the reader into the world of jewellery masterpieces, the collecting of which has always been considered a matter of prestige and even pride.