Masterpieces of Ancient Jewelry - Hardcover

From the president of the National Jewelry Institute comes the largest collection of ancient jeweled objects ever assembled. 

Worn for much more than just personal adornment, jewelry has played an important role in culture and civilization since the earliest times. Travel back through more than 6,000 years of history as you explore artifacts originating from Mesopotamia, Persia, Levant, the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Middle East, from 4000 B.C.E. through 700 C.E. 

Culled from the Louvre, the Berlin Museum, the Islamic collection at the Metropolitan Musuem of Art, the Princeton Museum, and the Israel Museum, these treasures include jeweled armor, weapons, jewelry, household objects and more.

Complete with photographs on every page, Masterpieces of Ancient Jewelry details the collection’s rich history through informative captions and interviews with major scholars and curators from around the world. 

Readers interested in related titles from Judith Price will also want to see: Masterpieces of American Jewelry (ISBN: 9781635610338), Masterpieces of French Jewelry (ISBN: 9781635610369).

Ms. Price graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania. After attending the graduate Faculty of Economics at Columbia University and a term at the National Bureau of Economic Research, she joined Time Magazine as a business reporter and was active in the New York cultural world as head of the Art Lending Service and the Corporate Art Advisory Service at the Museum of Modern Art. Ms. Price founded AVENUE Magazine in 1975. AVENUE pioneered the concept of highly targeted controlled media which has subsequently become a popular phenomenon. In addition to serving affluent households in New York for 25 years, AVENUE published international foreign language editions in Europe, Japan and China. Ms. Price sold AVENUE in 2001 to Stagebill, and the magazine will celebrate its 40th Anniversary this year. Ms. Price remains active in New York City affairs as President of the Avenue Association, and founder of the Young Architects Prize at the Museum of Modern Art. She is a founding Member of the Committee of 200, a former board member of the Upper East Side Historic District, and a member of the Young Presidents Organization as well as the Chief Executives Organization. Ms. Price is currently founder and President of the National Jewelry Institute, the country's first fine jewelry museum. The National Jewelry Institute launched its first exhibition, Masterpieces of American Jewelry, in New York in 2004, before opening in London at Somerset House and in Paris at the Musée Carnavalet. Subsequent exhibitions in the US and Europe include: Treasures of the Titans; Masterpieces of French Jewelry; Lorenz Baumer: The Creative Process of a Jeweler; Olympic Gold; Designer Showcase New York; and Designer Showcase Paris. In 2009 the National Jewelry Institute exhibited Masterpieces of Ancient Jewelry: Exquisite Objects from the Cradle of Civilization, including objects from the Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Berlin Museum, in New York and Chicago. In 2010 Notorious Notable: 20th Century Women of Style was staged at the Museum of the City of New York. The Institute has established courses on The Business of Luxury, and The Fine Art of High Jewelry and Timepieces, with Parsons School of Design in New York and Paris accompanied by an annual awards ceremony at the Louvre Museum. Ms. Price is the author of Executive Style (Simon & Schuster), The Office Style Book (Crown Publishers), Masterpieces of American Jewelry (Running Press), Bijoux des Stars (Paris Musees); Masterpieces of French Jewelry (Running Press); Masterpieces of Ancient Jewelry: Exquisite Objects from the Cradle of Civilization (Running Press); LEST WE FORGET: Masterpieces in Patriotic Jewelry and Military Decorations (Taylor Trade of Rowman and Littlefield.) Ms. Price has received an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences as the Creator of the NBC series Behind the Scenes, Made in New York. Ms. Price has also received the L'Etoile Award for Franco-American cultural relations from the International Herald Tribune; and in 2006 was honored by the Mayor of Paris at the Hotel de Ville with the Medaille de Vermeil for her civic contributions and in 2011 was appointed to the rank of Chevalier in the National Order of the Legion of Honor by the President of the Republic for her "exemplary personal commitment to the culture of France." She was born in Philadelphia and is married to Peter O. Price, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Premiere Previews. They reside in New York and Paris.