Jewelry of Southeast Asia

Book excerpt: Southeast Asian jewelry is eagerly sought by collectors around the globe. Once prized largely for its ethnographic interest, today it is recognized as a high art form. In a tour de force of original research and synthesis, involving years of study and extensive travel throughout the region, Anne Richter gives us the first comprehensive account of a jewelry tradition that stretches across millennia from the vigor of Neolithic and Bronze Age art to the present day.Magnificent gold jewelry of classical Cambodia and Java, a man's ruby-eyed dragon ring from Thailand, silver work of the Vietnamese court, filigree bridal necklaces of Sumatra, jeweled belt buckles and tobacco boxes of Malaysia, royal gold sashes of the pre-Hispanic Philippines, adornment for remote hill peoples -- the more than 300 pieces seen here, many previously unpublished, reveal a jewelry notable for its beauty and rich significance. The analyses of the symbolism shed new light on Asian cultures, while the aesthetic appeal of the items makes this volume irresistible for all jewelry lovers.