The fascination of jewels is rooted not only in their ability to please the eye but also in their power to express the range of human emotions and ambitionslove, friendship, religious devotion, superstition, dynastic pride. Renaissance jewels are among the most alluring manifestations of an age that experienced the widening of old-established horizons, from the Old World to the New. Dr. Yvonne Hackenbrochs seminal and comprehensive work, Renaissance Jewellery, originally published in 1979, established her reputation as the worlds foremost expert in the field.
