Jewelry That Speaks of Love

In every artistic expression from paintings to poetry, from music to literature, from film to stage, love is the emotion that overrides all others In A new book, The Power of Love: Jewels, Romance and Eternity Dr Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, an international jewelry author, historian, lecturer and curator of the Alice and Louis Koch Collection in Zurich Switzerland and the in-house Jewelry specialist for Les Enluminures explores the jewelry that expresses the universal sentiment of love, from the ancient world to current times and illustrates through text and photos how passion, desire and enduring love remain constant but the jewelry that evokes these feelings has evolved over time.

In her introduction, she writes, "Love is as old as civilization, It transcends boundaries and is universally understood." Chadour-Sampson also speaks to the various types of love from infatuation to unconditional love to illicit love and the love of family, friends and love in mourning for someone close that has passed on Throughout the book, she reveals the different traditions and styles of betrothal and marriage bands, the symbolism of gemstones and a variety of meaningful motifs that jewelers of each time period turned into wearable symbols of all types of love One of the rings depicts two alters of love with flaming hearts linked by garlands for an arch and held by to doves in flight with the French inscription 'Nous sommes unis'(We are united by love).

Cupid played a large role in the sentimental jewelry of love The daisies conceal four compartments bearing French inscriptions-which translate into "I love you a little I love you a lot, I love you passionately, I love you not" Circa 1830-1840. Source