Anna Hu: Symphony of Jewels · Opus 1 - Tapa dura

Inspired by Chinese art and lore, Western art and music, and the natural world, Anna Hu’s exquisitely designed and executed pieces have catapulted her to the top of the jewelry firmament in a few short years. This luxurious volume celebrates the completion of Anna Hu’s first 100 works, or ‘Opus 1’, as she calls the collection. Its texts address various aspects of Anna Hu’s work, including the relationship between her jewelry and fashion, the impact that her passionate study of the cello has had on her jewelry design, and the remarkable gemstones that inspired her to make some of her most virtuosic pieces. But the pièces de résistance of the book are the pieces themselves, many of them exquisitely photographed by master jewelry photographer David Behl. Some are as intricate as Chinese embroidery; others are as ethereal and delicate as butterflies; still others are jeweled reinterpretations of timeless works of music and art, from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Puccini’s Turandot to Monet’s Water Lilies and Van Gogh’s Irises. All in all: a Symphony of Jewels.

Janet Zapata is a renowned historian of decorative arts and jewelry, and is also the author of The Jewelry and Enamels of Louis Comfort Tiffany, Anna Hu-Symphony of Jewels and Jeweled Garden. Carol Woolton is Jewelry Editor of British Vogue.