Who he, John Wainwright? He Judith Miller’s husband is who, costume jewellery collector and her co-author on this shiny-bright and glittery dazzle of a book, the first in DK’s Collector’s Guides series.
The subject lends itself to wild, wacky and bold images and the photography in this book, by Graham Rae, is like being at a fashion shoot, so sharp and fabulous are the shots. The book’s design uses to very full effect the jewellery’s high visual impact and it will sell, if for nothing else, on that impact alone.
There are a few books on costume jewellery but now is the time to publish, as collecting costume jewellery is a hot ticket, along with the vintage clothes to go with it all.
So, what we have is a history of costume jewellery, 20 designer profiles, including Chanel, Hattie Carnegie, Joseff of Hollywood and the incomparable Fahrner, an A-Z of designers and makers, including Andrew Logan and Zandra Rhodes and with some lovely pieces by Dinny Hall – for whose earrings I might just have to have my ears pierced. There are inserts in this section for Hot Collecting Fields, ie Austrian fruits, Bakelite (yes) Christmas Tree pins, Coro Duettes (no), Plastic Jewellery and Scottish agate jewellery. There’s a gallery of 100 unsigned pieces and the book is full of prices on the jewellery that says, quite simply, look at me, look at me NOW.
…but all that glisters is not necessarily gilt
Costume Jewellery by Judith Miller with John Wainwright, published by Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 1405300140 £20hb (pub. date October 2).
