Jessica's TOP 5 in 25 | Precious - Helen Molesworth

Jessica Says... Selecting ten of nature's most dazzling jewels, Helen Molesworth makes journeys across the world to trace stones from their discovery to the moment a glimmering cut and polished masterpiece is traded, and then fought over, adorns emperors and kings, falls out of favour, and then raises eye-watering sums in another age. This is a well crafted volume, easy to read, touching on history and politics, archaeology and engineering, geography and geology, chemistry and physics, psychology and romance, fine art and high finance. It is rich with great stories and has something for everyone.

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Travelling through moments in history and layers of soil and sediment, this is world history as you have never seen it before. This is the story of precious gems, from emeralds and rubies, to sapphires and pearls.

Explore their history and geology, as well as their famous owners, from Elizabeth 1 to Elizabeth Taylor, Marie Antoinette to Marilyn Monroe, Coco Chanel to Beyonce. Discover the fragile emerald watch that survived cross-continental journeys and centuries under the floorboards of a London house. Journey back through the generations of women who wore pearls as a signifier of femininity and marvel at the role these glistening objects have played in changing depictions of feminism.

Learn of the Burmese warriors who believed so strongly in the connection between rubies and lifeblood that they embedded them into their skin before battle to protect them from harm. In this sumptuous and sweeping history of humanity's love affair with jewels, the V&A’s Senior Jewellery Curator, Helen Molesworth, takes you behind the curtain of museums and auction houses, showcasing some of history's most incredible and iconic jewels and the deeply human stories that lie behind them.