5 New Books for Jewelry Lovers

“A menagerie of jewels and family businesses are among the topics of these recent and upcoming releases.

 

Within the pages of this season’s jewelry books are quirky designs, overlooked topics and glimpses behind the glittering scenes. Even Cartier opens its studios to reveal how its En Équilibre high jewelry collection is made. Here is a selection.

 

“Jewelry on the Wild Side” by Elena Agostinis

 

A choker adorned with yak teeth, an oversize red eel-skin ring and a blue ostrich feather brooch are just a few of the unusual jewels owned by the graphic designer Elena Agostinis, who has turned her collection into a lively, color-drenched 335-page book. Publishing on Sept. 1 in the United States ($80) and a month later in Britain, “Jewelry on the Wild Side” showcases over 250 of the most peculiar pieces in her collection, which are “made from nontraditional materials so they are a little bit wild,” she said in a phone interview. (Her collection tops 750 pieces, she said.)

 

“The Secret Language of Jewellery in Art” by Stella Grace Lyons

 

After giving a lecture on how to decode jewelry in art at the Goldsmiths’ Fair in 2022, Stella Grace Lyons, an art historian, discovered “there was not much research out there,” so she started to develop her initial research for a book.

 

Four years later, her book, “The Secret Language of Jewellery in Art,” will be published on Sept. 30 (20 euros, or about $23). In it, Ms. Lyons explores the symbolism of jewelry and gemstones in artworks, from “status and power to eroticism and desire,” she said in a video call.

 

Paintings from around 1450 to 1750 are the focus of the book. “Lots of these Renaissance artists were trained as goldsmiths,” Ms. Lyons said, citing Sandro Botticelli as an example. “So they had this appreciation of jewelry that previously wasn’t there,” she said, adding that they had “a real interest in conveying the jewels accurately.”

 

“Jewelry Creators: Dynamic Duos and Generational Gems” by Beth Bernstein and Sonia Esther Soltani

 

Running a family jewelry business is the theme of a new anthology comprising 22 jewelry brands by the journalists Beth Bernstein and Sonia Esther Soltani. “Jewelry Creators” will publish on May 26 in Britain (£45) and June 23 in the United States ($52).

 

The book is split into 15 duos of “siblings, parents and children, husbands and wives and close friends that launched their collections together,” Ms. Bernstein said, and seven generational jewelers. It includes Jade Trau of New York, who is the fourth generation of her family to be in the diamond business, and Selim Mouzannar, whose children have joined his business in Beirut. Each brand answered a series of questions, like, “What is the first piece of jewelry you ever bought for yourself?” The idea, Ms. Bernstein said, was for readers to “hear their voice,” and “get a better sense of the story behind their jewels.”

 

“Cartier: En Équilibre: High Jewelry and Precious Objects” by Mathieu Deldicque and Valentin Pérez

 

Cartier’s En Équilibre high jewelry collection, unveiled in April last year, with more pieces added six months later, is packed into a new 240-page book. The book, “Cartier: En Équilibre,” by Mathieu Deldicque, the director of Musée Condé at the Château de Chantilly, and the journalist Valentin Pérez, was published in February in the United States and Britain ($115).

 

Developing the book at the same time as the collection was tough, said Suzanne Tise-Isoré, the editorial director of style and design at the French publishing house Flammarion, by video call, as “you never know what the photographed piece is going to look like.” So the Flammarion team relied on drawings, which were then used throughout the book.

 

“Collecting Jewellery” by John Benjamin

 

Last month, ACC Art Books released an updated version of its 2003 book, “Starting to Collect Antique Jewellery” by John Benjamin, a former international director of jewelry at Phillips auction house.

 

Now called “Collecting Jewellery” ($35), the 208-page book has expanded its history of jewelry to include modern styles from the 1940s through the 1990s, as “there’s a far greater emphasis on 20th-century jewelry, so it needed to be examined,” said Mr. Benjamin. Mr. Benjamin’s top tips remain useful. Take the glossary of stones, which introduces the fundamentals of jewelry, he said. “It’s no good me talking about the fact that there’s a spinel or a topaz in this Georgian brooch,” he said, if the reader is thinking, “What the hell is a spinel or a topaz?”” [1]

 

1. 5 New Books for Jewelry Lovers. Abrams, Melanie.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. May 10, 2026.