Turkmen Jewelry Silver Ornaments from the Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf Collection Layla S. Diba

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Format:: Hardback
Publication date:: 28 Jun 2011
ISBN:: 9780300124040
Imprint:: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dimensions:: 264 pages: 305 x 229mm
Illustrations:: 265 color + 25 b-w illus.
Sales territories:: World

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The Turkmen people of Central Asia and Iran are revered for their carpets and textiles. Less well known, but equally stunning, is the extraordinary silver jewelry created by Turkmen tribal craftsmen and urban silversmiths throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. This catalogue presents nearly two hundred pieces in glorious detail, ranging from crowns and headdresses to armbands and rings, and featuring accents of carnelian, turquoise, and other stones.

Characterized by elegant form, geometric shapes, and delicate openwork, Turkmen jewelry has typically been viewed through an ethnographic rather than an aesthetic lens. By highlighting these objects—which come from one of the most significant private collections of Turkmen ornaments in the world—and placing them in the larger context of Islamic art, this groundbreaking publication elevates the vibrant, monumental pieces from folk art to fine art.

Layla S. Diba is an Islamic art expert, who was director of the Negarestan Museum, Tehran, and a curator at the Brooklyn Museum.

“[I]mpressive… weighty… captures the splendor and scale of the ornamentation.”—Huffington Post

Finalist for the 2011 ForeWord Book of the Year Award in the Art category