jewellery
A necklace for the Empress Josephine: The Glassmaker, by Tracy Chevalier, reviewed
With the family business in Murano under threat, the daughter of a Venetian glassmaker learns to craft perfect coloured beads, soon much sought after by high society
Iris Apfel’s talent to amaze
Instantly recognisable with her cascades of necklaces and startling colours (‘pastels make me nervous’), the interior decorator would achieve real fame with a Met exhibition in 2005
‘We are stuck like chicken feathers to tar’: Elizabeth Taylor’s description of the fabled romance
The Burton-Taylor relationship was either one of the greatest love stories of all time or a suicide pact carried out in relentless slow motion
The 19th century Chinese craze for all things European
By the 1800s, the mechanical clock had become a status symbol for wealthy Chinese. The first arrived with Jesuit missionaries…
A show of ample and eerie majesty: British Museum's Peru: A Journey in Time reviewed
Growing up on a farm outside Lima, I was aware that indigenous Peruvians did not understand time in the same…
The art and science of Fabergé
From quartz to quince: Daisy Dunn on the art and science of Fabergé
The toughest, smartest, strangest creatures ever to evolve are nearing the end of their continental shelf life
The rich, strange, finely balanced ecosystems of the oceans — on which our lives depend — are profoundly threatened, says Rose George
A master craftsman of the anecdote
One of the many charms of this book is its sheer unexpectedness, which makes it hard to review, for to…
