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( March 9, 2008 )
“A World of Head Ornaments: Africa, Asia, Oceania, America” is part of a 6 volume series. “A World of…” necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, and belts.
This is my first and only so far, book of the series. I choose the Head Ornaments mostly because it’s something we don’t seems to wear as much as before. It’s become much more discreet and functional, traditionally speaking, to wear these days.
The book is divided by the four major regions provided in the title. Each one starts with an introduction to the continent. Africa and Asia are further divided into areas. The text refers the symbology and use of jewelry, more specifically head ornaments. The history and culture is put into context.
Then follow full pages of beautiful photography. This book is somewhat big in dimensions, ideal to to admire the details in each piece.
In order not to clutter the amazing photos through out the book, there’s a section at the end named “captions”. Here you find every photo smaller and in black and white, with page number, country, materials, size and a description of the pieces. How those were used, their place it in the history and culture of the region.
I think it’s a great history source and very visual inspiring, it takes us back to the roots of jewelry.
I would love to get the rest of the volumes.
Africa
- North Africa
- The Sahara
- West Africa
- East Africa
- Central Africa
- Southern Africa
Asian
-The Levant
- Turkestan
- India
- The Himalayas
- Mongolia
- The Middle Kingdom
- The Land of the Rising Sun
- Indonesia
Oceania & America.
View book details on Amazon: UK.
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| [ tags ] books • history • inspiration |


