This sumptuous treasury-covering furniture and other luxury objets d'art from India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), and Nepal-focuses on highlights from the outstanding collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. With a lively text that will be indispensable to collectors, dealers, and scholars, and of considerable appeal to anyone with an interest in Indian culture, Luxury Goods from India contains specially commissioned color photographs of exquisite pieces, many of which are embellished with ivory or mother of pearl or inlaid with precious stones. 
Arranged chronologically from the 12th to the 19th centuries, these beautifully crafted objects-from tables and cabinets to thrones-tell the fascinating story of the fusion between indigenous furniture production and Western aesthetics, and the cultural and historical climate that brought these dazzling objects into existence.

Luxury Goods from India: The Art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker

Arts & Photography

Jaffer, Amin

History & Criticism

Victoria & Albert Museum

The Indian princes of the British Raj lived lives of unparalleled opulence and luxury. Made for Maharajas returns readers to that resplendent era, presenting a selection of one-of-a-kind objects crafted to order by the outstanding European luxury goods manufacturers, fashion houses, and decorators of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Here are the custom-designed cars, jewelry, and extraordinary objéts d’art commissioned by maharajas, nawabs, nizams, and sultans from Cartier, Van Cleef &amp; Arpels, Boucheron, Harry Winston, and others, accompanied by anecdotes that illuminate this sumptuous way of life. Many of the illustrations in this book have never been previously reproduced outside of India, making this not only the first volume of its kind, but a remarkable keepsake that may never be duplicated in our lifetime.

Made for Maharajas: A Design Diary of Princely India

Vendome Press

This is the first book to deal in depth with the subject of colonial Indian furniture. It is illustrated throughout with the finest pieces from the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum,, London, and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, the two most important repositories of such furniture in the world. Furniture from British India and Ceylon is divided into two sections. The introductory chapters provide contextual background and discuss subjects such as the British response to things Indian, the domestic interior and factors which shaped its appearance, and the sources of furniture. Amin Jaffer provides a reconstruction of the complex furniture trade between East and West, offering new insights into the relationship between European, Chinese and Indian craftsmen which shed light on the difficulty of correctly attributing colonial furniture. The second section is an extensive catalogue of two hundred pieces from the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum. Each piece of furniture is illustrated, often with more than one view, and contextual illustrations, including many unusual and evocative images of domestic interiors and craftsmen at work, are provided throughout the book. The scope of the material covered and the accompanying illustrations, many of which are published for the first time, make this volume a definitive reference work for collectors, dealers and scholars interested in furniture and the material culture of British India.

Furniture from British India and Ceylon: A Catalogue of the Collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Corrigan, Karina

Jones, Robin D.

Antiques & Collectibles

Peabody Essex Museum

This spectacular volume reveals for the first time an exceptional private collection of the most beautiful royal Indian jewels from the Mughal Empire to the British Raj to today. Written by renowned jewelry experts and featuring magnificent original photography by Laziz Hamani, Beyond Extravagance explores the centuries-long tradition of fine jewelry and art objects in India, to contemporary interpretations that continue to evolve today.

Beyond Extravagance: A Royal Collection of Gems and Jewels

Assouline Publishing

The V&amp;A's collection of furniture and woodwork from India and Sri Lanka is unrivalled, reflecting a tradition every bit as rich as that of sculpture, painting and textiles, and Amin Jaffer has selected for this volume 50 of the very finest examples of the genre. Masterpieces such as these were made to satisfy the demand of the colonial powers: the Portuguese, Dutch and British settlers who arrived on Indian shores from the late fifteenth century. They discovered, to their surprise, rare articles of courtly furniture richly worked and inlaid with precious stones and gold. However there was no local furniture that suited the settlers' manner of living, so they commissioned extravagant pieces along European lines from native craftsmen, allowing them free rein with local materials. The resulting fusion of Western furniture forms with Indian materials and decorative techniques gave rise to a wide range of luxury goods - cabinets, games-tables, painted boxes, ceremonial arms - that were breathtaking in their craftsmanship and widely prized in Europe, where they found their way into royal collections, ecclesiastical treasuries and stately houses. The 50 pieces in this volume, dating from the fifteenth to the late nineteenth century, demonstrate all the diversity and skill of Indian craftsmanship and tell a fascinating story about the changing role of domestic objects and their use in the subcontinent. They illustrate the subtle interaction between European and Indian tastes and sensibilities, and chart the course of colonial patronage. Many pieces illustrated here have never been published before, and Amin Jaffer's scholarly yet accessible text throws new light on an astonishingly rich yet largely unexplored tradition.

Luxury Goods from India: The Art of the Indian Cabinet-maker

This book accompanies a major V&amp;A exhibition that explores three hundred years of mutual fascination between East and West, a period of discoveries, encounters and exchanges initiated by the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama's discovery of a sea route to India in 1498. This established, for the first time, direct relations between Europe and maritime Asia and ushered in a dynamic period of commercial, artistic and technological exchange. This story is presented through wide-ranging essays by leading international scholars, including specialists from the V&amp;A. The text is complemented by a sumptuous range of images, many of these remarkable and luxurious pieces being published for the first time. In its close examination of the relationships - diplomatic, religious and personal - between East and West, this book provides both an important scholarly record of this vibrant period in world history and a document of the works of art and industry that it produced.

Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500 - 1800

Jackson, Anna

This stunning book focuses on four centuries of magnificent jewelry that resulted from the cultural exchange between India and Europe. From the dawn of the Mughal Empire through the end of the British Raj, exquisite pieces of jewelry from or inspired by India traveled between Europe and Asia. This book features more than 150 objects, including jewel-encrusted jades, famous gemstones, enameled gold, and other precious works of art that range in date from the 17th century to the 1930s, along with exquisite contemporary examples by JAR and Baghat that draw from earlier motifs. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Indian jewelry and works of art developed Persian and Muslim influences brought over by the Mughal Empire while European styles and craftsmanship traveled to India via the British Raj. As illustrated in this elegant book, 20th-century influences flowed in the opposite direction when Indian jewelry inspired European designers to make pieces in the Indian style. East Meets West also showcases the significant role that gender played, as Indian men adorned themselves with treasures worn exclusively by women in Europe. With fascinating essays and beautiful photographs, this book illustrates the cultural and artistic conversations that resulted in some of the most gorgeous jewelry ever created. Copublished by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and DelMonico Books

East Meets West: Jewels of the Maharajas from the Al Thani Collection

Chapman, Martin

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Prestel

• Brings together a range of works made for Indian princes by western artistsIndian royalty's passion for western luxury goods reached its peak at the height of the British Raj (1857-1947) as Indian rulers traveled to Europe and began to model their lives along western lines. Commissioning architects to design palaces in modern or historic styles, purchasing fleets of cars, and ordering their family jewels to be reset by the most skilled European goldsmiths, Indian princes established themselves as the new creative patrons of European high design. Based equally in the archives of firms such as Louis Vuitton, Boucheron, Chaumet and Hermès, and in palaces and private collections, this book examines the role of maharajas in an age of high spending and fashion. It brings together original designs with surviving objects, and, for the first time, looks at the creative dialogue between Indian princes and the skilled tradesmen who satisfied their desires. Paired with the objects themselves are absorbing and often humourous accounts of how maharajas indulged their tastes with unparalleled extravagance and aplomb. Rich in anecdotes and visually splendid, Made for Maharajas brings alive the extraordinary lavish, varied and sometimes implausible works commissioned by princes whose wealth knew no bounds and whose eccentricities were legend.Contents: The Royal Image;Jewels; Dress and Accessories; Royal Living; Royal Pursuits; Palaces.

Photography & Video

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See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jaffer, Amin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Jaffer, Amin

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jaffer, Amin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Luxury Goods from India: The Art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker

Made for Maharajas: A Design Diary of Princely India

Furniture from British India and Ceylon: A Catalogue of the Collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum

Beyond Extravagance: A Royal Collection of Gems and Jewels

Luxury Goods from India: The Art of the Indian Cabinet-maker

Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500 - 1800

East Meets West: Jewels of the Maharajas from the Al Thani Collection

Made for Maharajas: A Design Diary of Princely India