Rings of the 20th and 21st Centuries: The Alice and Louis Koch Collection

• Six hundred rings by international artist jewelers give an insight into the contemporary jewelry scene
• Author Beatriz Chadour-Sampson examines how the decorative item became a miniature work of art
• Sorted by country, the publication documents international trends of the last sixty years in artist jewelry

The Alice and Louis Koch Collection of finger rings was originally collated by a jeweler from Frankfurt am Main, once described as the German 'Cartier and Fabergé'. By 1909 the collection comprised 1,722 rings from Antiquity to 1900. Rene Lalique, a contemporary of the time, was included, undoubtedly as a modernizer of the ring form. In the past twenty-five years the fourth generation of the family continued where Louis Koch and his wife Alice left off and expanded the collection to include rings from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

This publication will present the complete collection of contemporary rings, now kept in the Swiss National Museum, Zurich. Nearly 600 rings by artist jewelers from around the world document how these miniature works of art have become modern sculptures showcasing new materials and techniques, daring designs and current themes.

Text in English and German