Booklist
What would anyone expect from Tiffany's design director but a series of essays on the firm and its artists? Loring's third photographic panoply focuses on a little-known turn-of-the-century star, Farnham, now considered one of America's best native-born jewelers. Surrounded by some of the most exquisite, lifelike creations--such as a carnation corsage featuring diamonds, pink tourmalines, and green garnets--the book unfolds to show both drawings and actual designs from Farnham's very short career. The pinnacle is the enameled orchids that drew kudos from crowds at the 1889 Paris^B exposition--and catapulted Farnham into celebrity. Other designs are just as faithful to his talent. Once Louis Comfort took over the firm in 1902, Farnham lasted only another six years--then emigrated to the West Coast, divorced his wife, and transformed himself into a sculptor and painter.
Barbara JacobsCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Paulding Farnham (1859-1927), one of America's most talented jewelry designers, rose to fame in the final years of the 19th century, winning gold medal after gold medal at the era's great world's fairs. This stunning book is the first devoted to Farnham and his too-brief career, spent entirely at Tiffany & Co., where his dazzling, highly original jewels and silverware brought the firm-and America as well-worldwide recognition.
Tiffany design director John Loring, author also of Abrams' Tiffany Jewels and Tiffany's 20th Century, here revives the reputation of this long-neglected genius. Reproduced here are watercolor-and-ink drawings from Farnham's sketchbooks, period photographs of his creations, and new, specially commissioned photographs of Farnham's exquisite jewels, including the 24 gold-and-enamel orchid brooches that were the sensation of the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition. Sumptuous and surprising, this volume will bring Farnham's work, until now solely known to connoisseurs, scholars, and savvy collectors, to a wider audience.
JOHN LORING, design director of Tiffany & Co., writes on art and design and is the author of Abrams' Tiffany Jewels and Tiffany's 20th Century, and seven other books on Tiffany style and entertaining. He lives in New York City.
184 illustrations, 147 in full color, 815/16 x 1115/16"
