Deanna Farneti CeraAdorning Fashion: The History of Costume Jewellery to Modern Times

Very nice quality book with great photos and some interesting pieces

Amazing book , thoroughly researched , great photographs, excellent

This “tome” is a monumental treatise on an important but overlooked genre of decorative art, costume jewelry. The author, an art historian, has pioneered this subject and helped legitimize costume jewelry as an art form by organizing a museum exhibition in Italy in 1987. Until then, the prevailing view of costume jewelry was that it was “junk”, often found in nana’s old shoe box lying around a dusty attic or damp basement. The author also organized an extravagant exhibition of costume jewelry, “Jewels of Fantasy”, that was held at several museums in Europe and in the US. A lavish accompanying catalog was authored by several leading authorities on this subject.Adorning Fashion is an extravagant compendium of costume jewelry over the years. The examples illustrated are breathtaking. The text, though overshadowed by the brilliant examples of amazing jewelry, is scholarly and informative. One aspect that may serve to inhibit American readers’ interest may be the book’s focus on European jewelry. On the other hand, while a plethora of books on American costume jewelry is available, this book is the first comprehensive treatise on this topic.I commend the author for her scholarly research and her insightful text and the dazzling illustrations. This book should withstand the vagaries of time and will serve as the most important reference on costume jewelry for many years to come.Sue Y S Kimm Santa Fe, NM

The media could not be loaded. Enjoyed this book, great references about costume jewelry. Lots of French and Italian influence. Wish there was more variety. A Very niche history of jewelry. A focus on glass stones and beading. Some good enameled pieces toward the end. Would recommend!

This book by noted jewelry historian & author Deanna Farneti Cera is a beautifully photographed volume featuring a wide array of costume & silver jewelry in different styles. Unfortunately, it contains numerous incorrect attributions of makers on pieces that are not signed. I have been a vintage jewelry dealer for 20+ years and was able to spot many of these myself. I also have it on good authority from a prominent collector that many of the pieces identified as Schiaparelli are in fact not by Schiaparelli. Cera provides no supporting evidence for most of her attributions.Sadly, all of this has rendered the entire book useless to me as a research tool. If I am trying to identify an unknown piece and I see something similar in the book, I can't trust Cera's attribution, given that there are so many attributions I know to be incorrect. Cera's renown as an author and the book's high production values & $85 list price give it instant credibility which may cause misinformation to seep into the vintage jewelry market.I would give the book 5 stars on presentation, but because it is so riddled with bogus identifications, I must give it one star overall and caution anybody using it to do further research before accepting one of Cera's attributions.

Overall a good read. Not enough diversity in the jewelry shown for my taste, it seemed as though a large portion of the book was simply Chanel jewelry even though other designers and looks were mentioned. I also felt as though a few sections, namely that on the 1930s, wasn't organized well. Some of the writing was circular and not linear but I appreciated the dive into social contexts which changed trends and manufacturing.