"Henry Dunay: A Precious Life" is both a lavish album of Dunay's finest designs and a biography that tells the amazing story of his rise from an immigrant family to the heights of the jewellery world. A contemporary American jeweller, Henry Dunay single-handedly built a business to fit the luxurious mould of the great jewellery houses of all time: Faberge, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. This is a world where superb craftsmen master arcane knowledge of precious and semiprecious stones, where jewellers compete for newly discovered gemstones and where glamorous women vie to own one-of-a-kind pieces. What separates Dunay from the rest, however, is his ability to design and create fabulous jewels with his own hands. Dunay's innovative one-of-a-kind and limited edition creations have broken long tradition in the world of fine jewellery, introducing new ideas of form and texture and exploring non-western design concepts.Meanwhile, Dunay has reached a wide audience of women with his themed collections of earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings.The book includes a biographical essay by Penny Proddow and Marion Fasel, an essay on Dunay's use of colour stones by mineralogist George Harlow a