A Token of Elegance Cigarette... | Buy

Summary

At once an important social history of tobacco and smoking and a beautiful coffee table book, A Token of Elegance is ideal for art and design historians, history students, museum professionals, and collectors
Of great interest to jewelry historians as many cigarette holders were made for their international clientele by the major jewelry firms and this is the first book where so many cigarette holders are catalogued and photographed

The book offers an unprecedented look at cigarette holders through a selection of approximately 125 pieces from the collection of Carolyn Hsu-Balcer. Its introductory essay is both a social history of that world-changing leaf, tobacco, and a design history of its accoutrements. It examines the history of smoking from its pre-Columbian roots in the Americas through to the present-day worldwide e-cigarette craze, taking the reader on a journey from tobacco smoking as a sacred ritual, through the controversies of its worldwide spread, and the machine-rolled cigarette's role in the world wars and as a tool for European and American women's equality.

Following the illustrated essay is a luxurious catalogue of newly commissioned photography that makes these diminutive objects pop off the pages with brilliant color and form. The collection includes cigarette holders in their simplest incarnations - the disposable promotional holders given away at trendy New York nightclubs - to their most exquisite - the work of Fabergé, Cartier, Tiffany, Van Cleef & Arpels and other renowned jewelers of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Contents:
Foreword by Carolyn Hsu-Balcer; Introduction; Chapter 1: Tobacco's Journey from the New World to the Old: Medicine and Pleasure; Chapter 2: The Rise of Cigarette Culture: The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries; Chapter 3: Smoking, Sociability, and a New Modern Era: From the First World War to the Second; Chapter 4: The Cigarette Holder's Peak and Fall: A New Culture of Smoking; Catalog; Appendix: Materials Used in Cigarette Holders; Acknowledgments; Photo Credits.

Author Biography

Martin Barnes Lorber has had a distinguished decades-long career in the fine arts. He was the founder and head of the Japanese Department that included the arts of Korea, Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Himalayas at Sotheby's New York. He is the principal American Contributor to the Asian Art Newspaper, London. Rebecca McNamara earned her Master's in the History of Decorative Arts and Design from Parsons the New School for Design/Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in 2014. She is a writer and editor on arts and design and burgeoning museum professional, having worked in the curatorial departments of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. John Bigelow Taylor and Dianne Dubler are New York-based, still-life photographers, specializing in architecture, works of art, antiquities and jewelry. Working with the world's foremost collectors, museums and publishers, they have created the photography for over 200 books. Currently, they are producing bespoke, limited edition books on estates and collections for private clients around the world. Carolyn Hsu-Balcer is a designer, philanthropist and art collector based in Los Angeles and New York. She has organized ground-breaking art exhibits including Xu Bing Tobacco Project (VMFA), "Light Before Dawn" (Asia Society Hong Kong), "Blooming in the Shadows" (China Institute), and "Oil and Water" (MOCA NY).

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.