London's Lost Jewels: The Cheapside Hoard Paperback – November 26, 2013

I bought this book because I love beautiful jewelry and a book full of lovely pictures was a good thing. What I didn't expect to find was a history of jewelry crafting in Britain and how the people who made jewelry built and repaired pieces. What was especially interesting was the descriptions of how they cheated by using inferior stones, gems, and metal. Also included are the laws and regulation to which the artisans were subject. I enjoyed this book and keep it where the cover with photograph of an exquisite jeweled lizard can be seen.

I love the photos in this book. They enlarge several of the hordes peices so you can really see the detail and craftmanship. The pages covering the hordes items and their explaining what they're made of are wonderful. Most of the book though is about the history of the goldsmiths guild, with detailed photographs of the hordes items taking up pages every so often. Also portraits and town drawings take up the rest of the book. Its a pretty book, and its become one of my favorite photo books. It's just not what I thought I'd be getting.

This book does a pretty good job of connecting a lot of dots as it were. The book takes the found artifacts and builds a greater story of the jeweler and precious stone trade of England using actual records of the period.

Digging in London, workers find a box of buried jewelry probably hidden in a cellar floor before the 1666 Great Fire of London. A fascinating look at what was fashionable in 17th Century England. Most of the pearls did not survive but the gold and jewels did. Too bad that there was nothing in the pictures showing the actual size of the pieces. Book also goes into considerable detail on jewelry making in the period.

Interesting book with a fair number of good quality pictures of the Hoard. Note that this is NOT a catalog of the exhibit (although numbers of the items are given with the pictures). If you are looking for a comprehensive study of the Hoard, this book will leave you wanting more information. It's somewhere between a nice coffee table book and the type of detailed analysis presented in the most recent books on the Merry Rose.

This is a well researched book that gives me even more information than I thought I would get when ordering it. That is a good thing here. This book sets the stage for what they found when tearing down an old building from after the Great Fire of London. It paints a vivid picture of the world from which the hoard originated.

Really useful book. Probably one of the first well-illustrated (and this is a subject that requires illustrations) books on the Cheapside Hoard (or late 16th century European jewelry) that is equally useful for an expert or a passionate amateur. Well worth the money for a reference library.

Beautiful photographs and good narrative about the find of a true treasure chest of jewels.

Having read glowing reviews of the 'Cheapside Hoard' exhibition at the City of London Museum, I've already bought a timed ticket to see it on one of my rare visits to the capital. As I believe strongly that an exhibition is far more interesting if you've read the guide book before you go, I was delighted to find LONDON'S LOST JEWELS available on Amazon. It's far exceeded my expectations, however, as despite author Hazel Forsyth being curator of the exhibition this is far more than just a guide book, albeit a beautifully illustrated one.Briefly, the 'Hoard' comprises thousands of jewels and pieces of jewellery buried under Goldsmith's Row (just east of St Pauls Cathedral) sometime between 1640 and 1666. No-one knows who buried them, why, or -- perhaps most intriguingly -- why they never retrieved them. Those 26 years which saw the Civil War, the Great Plague and the Fire of London are among the most traumatic that London has ever known (only rivalled by the Blitz), and any of those -- or something entirely different -- could provide the answer. We'll probably never know. What the reader of LONDON'S LOST JEWELS will know by the time they reach page 223, however, is a great deal about the jewellery trade of Elizabethan and Jacobean England, a good deal about individual named jewellers and their wealthy patrons, and a fair bit about the political and social climate of the times.Did I already remark that the book is beautifully illustrated? Printed on high-quality paper in full colour (except for a few mono prints and cuttings) the sheer beauty of many of the jewels dominates the page. Although some of the pieces appear to have been damaged before they were hidden -- perhaps they'd been brought to a jeweller for repair? -- and most of the pearls have degraded with time, many other pieces are perfect, their 350 or so years underground having left their gold and stones unmarked. Jem cutting and setting styles have changed with time, leaving the majority of the pieces unique, though similar ones can be seen paintings of the period, many of which are reproduced here.All in all, I was left wondering who I admired the most -- the 17th century craftsmen who created such beautiful work, or the 21st century author who had made it possible for so many of us non-Londoners to admire them. Highly recommended, whether or not you have a chance to visit the exhibition before it closes in April 2014.

I have been waiting for this book to come out for years. I bought her earlier book on the Hoard, but it was only a very small book with small illustrations. Living in the depths of Northumberland I will not be able to view the exhibition, but this book brought it to my door. Wonderful photographs and great descriptions and historical information. Anybody interested in jewellery should buy this book. Anyone interested in the 17th century should also think about adding it to their library. I reenact a 17th century character with a penchant for finery and this book gives me further insight into the period. Many congratulations to the authoress on an excellent work.

For anyone who loves history, especially unusual subjects, great photos, very interesting

What a story of mystery and (possibly) skullduggery. The discovery of the Cheapside hoard is a fascinating story. The fact that its contents are so breathtaking ( and there may well be more out there in private collections) and the fact that it is now on display at the Museum of London, make this a fascinating read and a wonderful visual experience. There is a lot of detail that may "lose" some readers but you can always skip the figures and read the ascertainable facts and theories. Superb.

Firstly this book is more than just a catalog of an exhibition taking place in London.It's a book rich with historical detail on the hoard, jewellery making processes and London.Lots of pictures of the jewellery from the hoard but also, plenty of text, background info about each piece.I really can not praise this book enough. As a jewellery designer maker, with plenty of books on the subject, this one is in my top 10.The author has really done their homework in producing this great book, and I love the inclusion of original historical documents the author has been able to source and share.I would highly recommend this book.