Gilding the Phoenix: The Straits Chinese and Their Jewellery

During the hundred years between 1850 and 1950, Insular and Peninsular South East Asia was the site of the birth, growth and decline of a unique community - that of the Straits Chinese or Peranakans. During that time, this community found themselves at the nexus of the Chinese, Malay, European and Indian worlds, with Chinese migrants adapting to the cosmopolitan environment in which they found themselves. The story of the Peranakans and their art is told against an examination of their most valuable possessions - the incredible jewels which they commissioned for everyday and ceremonial use. These range from a magnificent gold belt studded with more than 75 carats of diamond, to a tiny filigree crab-shaped ornament intended To be sewn onto a purse. Whether whimsical, extravagant or delicate, the jewels are always a reflection of the complex, hybrid origins of the Peranakan people. As the first study of this subject, this book Is The permanent record of an exhibition of Straits Chinese jewels held between April and August 1993 by the National Museum, Singapore. Containing more than 300 masterpieces of the jewellers art displayed in their context of costumes, furniture and archival material, it reveals the splendour of a lost lifestyle and rediscovers a lost chapter of this region's design history.

Hardcover with dust jacket

Book condition: Good. Former owner's name to contents-page. Tape repair to spine and front end paper. Light foxing, age-toning and minor internal spots to some pages. Light dust stain to edges of page-block

Dust Jacket condition: Good. Foxing to inside of the jacket

Author: Edmond Chin

Dimensions: 28 x 28 cm

Print length: 207 Pages

Language: English

Publication date: 1991

Publisher: The National Museum, Singapore

ISBN: ‎ 9971917386