A comprehensive catalog of the contemporary jewelry collection of the Schmuckmuseum in Pforzheim, this book, by Fritz Falk and Cornelie Holzach (who have both worked at the museum) is also a substantial introduction to the development of contemporary jewellery in Europe and, less comprehensively, the rest of the world. Falk and Holzach offer pithy surveys of the main tendencies in contemporary jewelry of the last four decades of the twentieth century, while the roll call of jewelers pauses every now and then to introduce individual practices that are, in the opinion of the authors, particularly central. While not all the images are color, this is still a well-illustrated book backed up by solid scholarship and a good introduction to a major museum of jewelry and the story it chooses to represent.
