Jewels are wearable stories. But what are the stories…about the storytellers?
Below, a selection of visually generous hardcover books from late 2024 recounting the jewelry magic-makers: the personalities, the families, the art and the spiritual intentions, even, of an extraordinary collector.
Written by Jill Newman and Jackie Caradonio
Quel mensch. William Goldberg was a larger-than-life personality, a veritable legend in the New York diamond district. At a time when it was a secretive industry, his charisma, passion and integrity let in more light.
Between 5th and Madison, on 48th Street, is ‘William Goldberg Way’, recognizing the diamantaire who started his business here 75 years ago. Goldberg is also renowned for the proprietary ASHOKA diamond cut, featuring a spectacular 62-facets.
“Diamonds are like God’s smiles,” he would say, or, “The diamond has to talk to you.” Goldberg’s family pays homage with this anniversary edition including archival visuals and inside stories about diamonds, from pursuit to perfection through one man’s way.
Written by Jill Newman and Jackie Caradonio
Quel mensch. William Goldberg was a larger-than-life personality, a veritable legend in the New York diamond district. At a time when it was a secretive industry, his charisma, passion and integrity let in more light.
Between 5th and Madison, on 48th Street, is ‘William Goldberg Way’, recognizing the diamantaire who started his business here 75 years ago. Goldberg is also renowned for the proprietary ASHOKA diamond cut, featuring a spectacular 62-facets.
“Diamonds are like God’s smiles,” he would say, or, “The diamond has to talk to you.” Goldberg’s family pays homage with this anniversary edition including archival visuals and inside stories about diamonds, from pursuit to perfection through one man’s way.
Text by Annabel Davidson, Published by Rizzoli
A London mainstay, David Morris is one of the largest family-owned luxury jewelers, always stone-obsessed and always incredibly discreet with its clients.
Leaving school at age fifteen, the young David Morris apprenticed as a jeweler in London’s Hatton Garden. Winning the De Beers Diamonds International Award in 1963, and again the following year, David Morris rose swiftly in renown: his creations are featured in four James Bond films, and were ordered to adorn the bonnet of the Aston Martin given to Prince Charles by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton became regular clients, as well as Liza Minnelli and half of Europe’s royal families.
A book for colored stones lovers—from mesmerizingly liquid-looking opals to Burmese rubies—this jeweler’s story always returns to family: featuring a foreward by his daughters, and with his son Jeremy Morris well-anchored in the business since the 1980s, the David Morris design passion endures.
SYBIL AND DAVID YURMAN: ARTISTS AND JEWELERS
Published by Phaidon
Sybil and David Yurman consider themselves, before all, to be artists—painter and sculptor, respectively. Key figures in the American Craft movement of the 1960s, they joined in marriage and creative collaboration, forming the David Yurman brand, making “wearable art”.
Their creative output gets full exposition in this mix of intimate biography and artistic retrospective, featuring original artworks, family photographs (their son Evan now leads), and archival images, from their first NYC boutique opening in 1999 to The David & Sybil Yurman Humanitarian and Arts Foundation established in 2001.
A love, an artistic partnership, a lifetime achievement.
SYBIL AND DAVID YURMAN: ARTISTS AND JEWELERS
Published by Phaidon
Sybil and David Yurman consider themselves, before all, to be artists—painter and sculptor, respectively. Key figures in the American Craft movement of the 1960s, they joined in marriage and creative collaboration, forming the David Yurman brand, making “wearable art”.
Their creative output gets full exposition in this mix of intimate biography and artistic retrospective, featuring original artworks, family photographs (their son Evan now leads), and archival images, from their first NYC boutique opening in 1999 to The David & Sybil Yurman Humanitarian and Arts Foundation established in 2001.
A love, an artistic partnership, a lifetime achievement.
DIVINE JEWELS: THE PURSUIT OF BEAUTY
Authorship Kazumi Arikawa, Contributions by Diana Scarisbrick, Photographs by Nils Herrmann, Edited by Flammarion
Breathtaking. Prepare to purify.
“Beauty and the heart-stirring emotion inspired by jewelry is the subject I have been pursuing for more than forty years. What resides strictly behind them are prayer and truth,” writes collector and founder of Albion Art, Kazumi Arikawa, who also spent several years as a Buddhist monk.
Jewelry art and the veneration of beauty is closely linked to the purity of the soul in his belief and life’s work. His exceptional collection includes rare pieces from all eras with incomparable artistic and historical value, including an important number of royal jewels from across Europe and the largest collection of historical tiaras. A selection was on display at the Ecole Van Cleef & Arpels in Paris in September 2024 in honor of the book launch.
Forbes describes Arikawa as “the man with the most valuable jewelry collection you never knew existed.” Now you do. Prepare to purify.