Ivan Vartanian

Cartier and America by Martin Chapman Hardcover Table Book 2009. 176 pp. 1st Edition Published in 2009. Dimensions: 11" x 10" x 1". As opulent as the treasures it celebrates, this lavish volume presents Cartier's timeless designs worn by some of the twentieth century's most legendary figures. It's been one hundred years since the House of Cartier opened its doors on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Since then the luxury jeweler has been creating exquisite brooches, bracelets, tiaras, timepieces, and other items including scent bottles, so-called mystery clocks, and handbags many of them specially commissioned by their illustrious patrons. Readers will see up close Gloria Swanson's bracelets from Sunset Boulevard, Douglas Fairbanks s elegant watch, the Duchess of Windsor s panther brooch, and Grace Kelly s 10.47-carat diamond engagement ring, as well as items owned by Marion Davies, Vivien Leigh, Barbara Hutton, and Elizabeth Taylor. Author Martin Chapman offers an in-depth exploration of how Cartier conquered America, from its European birth in 1847 to its arrival on the other side of the Atlantic, and from its whimsical Art Deco creations to the red carpet prominence that linked the name Cartier with fame, wealth, and exclusivity. In addition to stunning color images of each object, the book features photographs of stars and heiresses wearing their Cartier jewelry. A beautiful volume for fashion aficionados, this trove of jewelry is a tribute to Cartier s...

Mobilier Restauration. Paris: Èditions Ch. Massin, 1976, French text. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. 80 pp. The book illustrates the beds, seating, tables, case pieces and other ...

Treasures of Catherine the Great. Published by Hermitage Development Trust and Christie's, 2000. 1st Ed softcover. Catherine the Great, famed 18th-...

Paintings in the Uffizi and Pitti Galleries by Mina Gregori, Marco Chiarini and Antonio Paolucci. 1st American Ed hardcover with dust jacket. Little Brown & Co., Bulfinch Press Book, Boston 1994. The Uffizi and Pitti Galleries are treasure houses of the most well-known masterpieces in Italian and Northern Renaissance art including Botticelli's "Birth of Venus", Leonardo's "Annunciation", Durer's "Adoration of the Magi" and Titian's "Venus of Urbino...

Treasures of the Vatican: St. Peter's Basilica, The Vatican Museums and Galleries, The Treasure of St. Peter's, The Vatican Grottos and Necropolis, and The Vatican Palaces by Maurizi...

The Complete Work of Raphael, (1483-1520). Published in New York, Reynal & Company in association with William Morrow and Company, 1969. Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first na...

Parrots of the World by Joseph Forshaw. Published by Doubleday & Co., New York, 1973. 1st U.S. Edition hardcover. From the macaws of South America to the cockatoos of Australia, parrots are among the most beautiful and exotic birds in the world--and also among the most endangered. This stunningly illustrated, easy-to-use field guide...

The Loom of Art by Germain Bazin. Published by Simon & Schuster, New York, 1962. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. In ten chapters of text and plates, Bazin,...

The Life of Animals in Japanese Art. Published by Princeton University Press, 2019. 1st Ed hardcover exhibition catalog with dust jacket. Few coun...

Michelangelo. The Drawings of a Genius. By Achim Gnann. Preface by Klaus Albrecht Schröder. Published by the Albertina, Vienna. This catalogue is published in conjunction with the exhibition "Michelangelo: The Drawings of a Genius", Albertina, Vienna; October 8, 2010 - January 9, 2011. 478th. Published by Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, 2010. 1st Ed softcover exhibition catalog. Michelangelo's drawings endowed human physique with an expressive musculature that remains to be rivaled in its feeling for corporeal articulation. His drawings of male nudes in particular, fraught as they are with tempestuous longing, project both tension and pliancy, and a compelling sense of health in the exertions and torque of bodies. He was also readily able to bring contrary qualities of grace and swiftness to depictions of women and cherubim. With over 300 color plates and extensive contextualizing scholarship, Michelangelo: The Drawings of a Genius is the most complete treatment of his work ever published, and thus constitutes a publication of great importance. Masterpieces from the world's finest museums are gathered, from the early studies for the "Battle of Cascina" and the studies for the Sistine Chapel frescoes, to the drawings for the tomb of Julius II, the Medici tombs...

American Victorian by Lawrence Grow and Dina Von Aweck. NY: Harper and Row, publishers, 1984. First edition hardcover, no dust jacket. 223 pp. A fully-illustrated source book of the ...

Romance and Reason: Islamic Transformations of the Classical Past by Roberta Casagrande-Kim, Samuel Thrope, and Raquel Ukeles. Princeton University Press, 2018. 1st Ed softcover with gilt edged pages. Within a century of the Arab Muslim conquest of vast territories in the Middle East and North Africa, Islam became the inheritor of the intellectual legacy of classical antiquity. In an epochal cultural transformation between the 8&10th centuries CE, most of what survived in classical Greek literature and thought was translated from Greek into Arabic. This translation movement, sponsored by the ruling Abbasid dynasty, swiftly blossomed into the creative expansion and reimagining of classical ideas that were now integral parts of the Islamic tradition. Romance and Reason, a lavishly illustrated catalogue accompanying the exhibition of the same name at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, explores the breadth and depth of Islamic engagement with ancient Greek thought. Drawing on manuscripts and artifacts from the collections of the National Library of Israel and prominent American institutions, the catalogue's essays focus on the portrayal of Alexander the Great as ideal ruler, mystic, lover, and philosopher in Persian poetry...