This is a book to be cherished by everyone with an interest in society, collecting and the very best of jewelry art. The authors, both international jewelry experts, not only offer a rare opportunity to view a fabulous treasure trove of jewels, but also reveal the stories behind the jewels and their collectors.

For many centuries the collecting of precious gems and the jewelry fashioned from them was the exclusive prerogative of kings and queens, emperors, popes and maharajahs. But in the last hundred years movie goddesses, opera singers, industrialists and rock stars have joined those with the means to deck themselves in glittering bracelets, necklaces and earrings.

Most of what we know about the jewelry collections of recent times has been revealed through the auctions that have taken place after the collectors’ deaths. The famous sale of 1987 uncovered the full extent of the dazzling designs which belonged to the Duchess of Windsor. By the same token, as this book so handsomely shows, the collections of such society women as Daisy Fellowes, Mona Bismarck and Barbara Hutton can now be appreciated and described in detail. And among the royals and aristocrats are HRH the Princess Royal (Princess Mary) of Great Britain and the noble German family of Thurn und Taxis; from the world of film and entertainment stars like Merle Oberon, Joan Crawford and Ava Gardner.