Jewelry of the 1940s and 1950s

Between the years of 1937 and 1961 the decorative arts underwent a period of extraordinary renewal in Europe and the United States. Art Deco, with its emphasis on geometrical simplicity and floral stylization, gave way to a new, lavishly figurative style which, by its very opulence, flouted the rigors of wartime life. In a lucid text, accompanied by hundreds of superb illustrations, Jewelry of the 1040s and 1950s offers a panoramic view of the new decorative style, from its inception at the Paris Exhibition of the Arts and Techniques in Modern Life in 1937 to its decline in the early 1960s.