Erte: Art to Wear: The Complete Jewelery

Throughout his 97-year life Erté never ceased to astonish. After dramatic success in several careers, he began, in his mid-80's, a whole new career in jewelry design - without ever diminishing his extensive creation of graphics, sculpture, and objets d'art, or his work in theatre and industrial design. Erté was born Romain de Tirtoff, scion of an aristocratic Russian family. Considered the father of Art Deco, from 1916 to 1937 he contributed to Harper's Bazaar 250 cover designs as well as some 2500 other drawings. He was active also in fashion design and the design of sets and costumes for stage productions ranging from the Folies Bergère to the Paris Opéra. At 76 he began creating lithographs and serigraphs, whose popularity boosted him into an even higher orbit of fame and appreciation. Incredibly, a decade later he launched a program of sculpture that proved equally successful. This experience gave Erté the confidence to go forward with his longtime desire to create wearable art jewelry at a relatively modest price. It was not until 1979 that Circle Fine Art assembled the people and facilities needed to carry out his intricate and complex ideas and a major program of jewelry creation was undertaken. Once again, Erté's instinct proved correct; the jewelry was received enthusiastically. ERTÉ: ART TO WEAR/THE COMPLETE JEWELRY contains superb color photographs, all but a few made specially for this book, of 328 pieces of Erté jewelry, plus 179 additional jewelry design drawings he made or approved. The photographs are accompanied by commentaries, as well as by design drawings and technical diagrams, some with comments in Erté's own hand. The introduction by Louis Zara gives an overview of Erté's life and career, a survey of jewelry design by other artists, and critiques of many of the jewels in the book. Included are photographs with captions explaining the technique of jewelry making. 414 illustrations: 201 color, 17 duotone, 196 monochrome