gems, glyptic, antique gems, engraved gems, rings, agate, shell, cameo, intaglio, ancient jewelry, royal jewels, crown jewels

Complete illustrated catalogue of the 325 engraved gems and intaglios, jewels and Orders, together with a full account of the formation of the collection. The appearance of this catalogue brings to a conclusion a magnificent collaborative venture, first conceived in the late 1960s as part of a wide-ranging programme to publish all the major holdings of the Royal Collection in scholarly form. In the intervening years a very substantial amount of archival and historical research has been undertaken on almost all aspects of the Collection – not least, as may readily be judged from the bibliography of this catalogue – on the gems and jewels which it encompasses. With great dedication and single-mindedness Dr Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti has striven to bring to completion her work on the modern gems and jewels – by some considerable way the largest part of the collection – while maintaining important positions in Florence, at the Museo degli Argenti at the Palazzo Pitti and, more recently, at the Museo Stibbert. Sir John Boardman has meanwhile kindly undertaken the task of cataloguing the ancient gems, and to this joint work has been added the significant contributions of Beatriz Chadour-Sampson and Martin Henig, together with those of several past and present members of the curatorial staff of the Royal Collection. The result, therefore, is a far more comprehensive and substantial catalogue than was first conceived, when the parameters were confined solely to the gems and jewels kept at Windsor Castle.