Verdura: The Life and Work of a Master Jeweler by Corbett, Patricia and Amy Fine Collins - 2002

New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 2002. Hardbound. VG (Light wear to edges of dj, otherwise nice and clean.). Black cloth, dark purple and illus. dust jacket. 224 pp. 238 illustrations of jewelry, sketches, advertisements, and photographs of Verdura's life, 182 of the plates in color. "The exquisite creations of Fulco di Verdura (1898-1978) stand out from the designs of other twentieth century jewelers for their glorious exuberance and refined glamour. Born into the Sicilian nobility, Verdura showed a precocious talent for drawing and an insatiable curiosity about the natural world as well as art. He left his ancestral home in Palermo in the mid-1920s and moved to Paris where he hoped to be a painter; his true vocation was revealed once he began designing jewelry for the discriminating customers of Coco Chanel. Patricia Corbett documents Verdura's fascinating career, which took him from Paris to Los Angeles and eventually New York, where he was patronized by the rich and famous, who found his sophisticated and flamboyant neo-Baroque style perfectly complemented their tastes." (dj) With many large, exquisite illustrations.