Beyond Extravagance: A Royal Collection of Gems and Jewels Product Bundle – November 19, 2013

I ordered this book for a research project and it honestly is worth every penny. Unlike other books that are all photos, this book included indepth information of every piece at the end of every chapter. This is a must for every diamond lover. Not to spoil the book but so many photos of regal jewelry it's insane. In fact, my professor, who is a world renown expert in Indian Art, is so impressed with the book she is having the library order a copy.

I bought this as a birthday present for my girlfriend, who is in the jewelry business. She just plain flipped for it. It's incredibly beautiful and the photography (my hobby) is gorgeous.

love this booktells wonderful storiesand the photos...wow@ what amazing jewels!fabulous coffee table book to share with friends curious about anything from India

it is the most beautiful book in years! Wunderful pictures and information. A musthave for everybody who likes jewellery or specially India!

This book is incredible. Lush. Heavy. Good.It is not a coffee-table book leafed entirely with pictures. The fair amount of scholarly text is very much justified due to the nature of Indian jewelry and its history. Having said that, the pictures furnished in the volume are beautiful, as are the historical works of art that contextualize the use of such jewels throughout Indian history.Indian jewelry - especially that of royal India - is often attached to tumultuous histories that have seen most pieces destroyed, lost, broken up and sold, or utterly refashioned as to rip it out of its original context. Such a compilation of scholarship as found in this book is incredibly vital as there are only a handful of other academic sources that seriously treat the nature and history of Indian jewels.

I debated purchasing this book because of the significant price tag. I eventually ended up ordering it through an online retailer who also has physical stores near me, to make returning it easier if need be.It went back the day I received it.The good:It IS a beautiful book - large format, high quality paper, slipcover.The bad:In my opinion, it is a bit more scholarly than most people would care for. There are a lot of illustrations; however, I would say 50% of the illustrations are of old Indian paintings of people wearing jewelry - but not the jewelry that is discussed! The remaining half of the photos are of the jewels. Keep in mind, however, that "jewels" doesn't necessarily mean jewelry. There are a lot of bejeweled objects like small boxes, fly whisks, daggers, etc.When I ordered this book, I imagined something along the lines of Celebrating Jewellery by Daniela Mascetti and David Bennett. This book is very different.If you're looking for an exhaustive text on the history of a small collection of Indian Jewelry presented in a top-quality format, then this may be the book for you. Personally, for me to spend this amount on a book, it would need to be a much broader look at Indian jewelry than the Al Thani collection.

This book is so well-researched, -attributed, and -documented, it actually qualifies as a reference work. The photography is stunning, and the title sums up its contents perfectly: “Beyond Extravagant”.

Soddisfatto

Très bien documenté avec de belles photos. Livre magnifique

In all senses of the word this is a grand book - the illustrations are large scale, high quality and magnificent. It is a book to treasure - not only because of the range of jewellery that it extensively talks about and discusses but also because it is an extravagant book in all senses of the word. Just holding it and leafing through you get a real sense of a book of worth. If someone buys it for you as a present (as mine was) you do feel blessed.

amazing contents.has to be seen to be believed.there is absolutely no reason to return this item.you will love it - if you have good taste , that is.Michael