Detailed catalogue produced for an exhibition of 126 fine Renaissance jewels at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, with detailed scholarly descriptions of each item together with provenance and related literature. As well as showing the items in the exhibition, the illustrations include jewellery designs and contemporary portraits of sitters wearing jewels.

The book also contains essays:

• The Status and Making of Jewellery, 1500-1630  A.G. Somers Cocks
• Renaissance Jewels in their Social Setting  Dr Peter Burke
• Sources of Gemstones in the Renaissance  E.A. Jobbins
• The Cutting and Setting of Gems in the 15th and 16th Centuries  Dr Fritz Falk
• Dress in Western Europe 1500-1630  John Nevinson
• Sweet England’s Jewels  Janet Arnold
• The Renaissance in the 19th Century  Shirley Bury