- Unusual approach to Cameos and Intaglios - Highly visual with archive material, preparatory drawings, photos and paintings - Includes 10 gate-fold pages This book is designed for the exhibition of the collection of Mr. Guy Ladrière, which will be presented by the School of Jewelery Arts in October 2021, under the commission of Mr. Philippe Malgouyres, chief curator of heritage in the art department of the Louvre. Widely illustrated and documented, this book will constitute a genuine introductory manual to the art of glyptics, thanks to its chrono-thematic approach to the history of engraved stones in the West. The author reveals a whole world in miniature, fascinating kings and emperors as much as collectors and art lovers. With materials with subtle engraved effects, cameos (relief engraving) and intaglios (intaglio engraving) have come down to us as jewels or relics, thus following all the themes of the History of Art: mythologies, symbols, portraits, allegories, etc.

The subject of this study is a collection of over one hundred intaglios, cameos, seals and rings acquired by Tom and Danielle White during a diplomatic posting in Burma (Myanmar) between 1985 and 1989. (Another private collection of intaglios, seals, sealings and other objects from Burma is described briefly in the Appendix.) Twenty rings from Java, also from the White collection, have been added at the end of the catalogue. Until now the few engraved gems from Burma which have been published are scattered through periodicals or only briefly mentioned in larger works. The opportunity has been taken in the present catalogue to compare, where possible, this collection from Burma with intaglios, sealings, coins and other objects from India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and elsewhere which may help to set this collection in its regional context. In Part B of the introduction brief descriptions are given of the main Pyu sites in Burma; and of the other 'Indianised' sites in Arakan and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, where engraved gems have been found. Photographs of the White Collection by Robert Wilkins

967 objects from a private collection formed between 1921 and 1970 ranging from 3rd-millennium BC cylinder seals of Mesopotamia to Neoclassical engravings of the 19th century AD and including prime specimens also of Greek, Roman and Sasanian glyptic.