The Gem Book. An Art in Jewellery: Hints and Sketches by Rudolf Steiner. Imparted to and worked out by Bertha Meyer-Jacobs. The seals of the Mystery Plays.
London: H. Collison, 1932. First Edition. Octavo, 64, [1] pages, publisher's original gilt-lettered and decorated blue cloth covered boards. Lacking the frontispiece portrait, with four original card front covers from Steiner publications; five plates illustrating jewelry pieces, two of them are printed in color; one plate containing three design sketches, and four designs printed in the text. Rudolf Steiner’s The Gem Book: An Art in Jewellery is a scarce and unusual anthroposophical work devoted to the spiritual, symbolic, and artistic dimensions of jewelry design. Rather than a conventional book on gems or ornament, the volume presents jewelry as an esoteric art form, rooted in Steiner’s ideas about color, form, inner development, and spiritual symbolism. The designs and indications were imparted by Steiner and worked out by Bertha Meyer-Jacobs, a goldsmith closely associated with the realization of Steiner’s jewelry concepts. The inclusion of material relating to the seals of the Mystery Plays further connects the work to the dramatic, ritual, and symbolic world of Anthroposophy, where visual forms were understood as expressions of deeper spiritual realities. Published in 1932, The Gem Book occupies a distinctive place within the artistic legacy of Steiner and the Goetheanum movement, appealing not only to collectors of Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy, but also to those interested in esoteric art, sacred geometry, jewelry design, symbolism, and early 20th-century alternative spiritual aesthetics. Scarce, with no copies located for sale at the time of cataloging and only three institutional holdings traced. Spine sunned, slight rubbing and wear, corner bumped, else in very good + condition. Item #390
Price: $1,250.00