Turkmen Jewelry: Silver Ornaments from the Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf Collection

Dr. Layla S. Diba

Metropolitan Museum of Art

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 jewellery 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.

Characterised by elegant form, geometric shapes, and delicate openwork, Turkmen jewellery 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, one of the New York Times’ five best books in the collectors’ genre in 2011, elevates the vibrant, monumental pieces from folk art to fine art.

Dr. Layla S. Diba, an established independent scholar, is an Islamic art expert who was Director and Chief Curator of the Negarestan Museum, Tehran and Hagop Kevorkian Curator of Islamic Art, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.

Price:
Hardback - £42.75

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