Description: Information on the "flap" of the book cover: "Legions of books exist on ethnic jewelery , but few focus on the Arabian Gulf and those that pay scant attention to the Sultanate of Oman. Omani silversmiths were renowned for their skill but, since oil brought prosperity to Oman in the early 1970´s , gold became affordable to more and more Omani women. They traded in their old silver jewellery, silver smiths became antique dealers and Oman´silver heritage dispersed virtually overnight. Rashid Abdullah Richmond and Ian McLeish between them have a unique collection totalling more than several thousand pieces of Omani silver jewellery. Apex Publishing took this collection to all corners of the Sultanate to photograph it on Omani women as it was worn , and Miranda Morris and Pauline Shelton have interviewed the women who remember wearing the silver and the smiths who remember making it. The resulting book is a unique publishing event. One that quite simply not be repeated. This portrait of Omani silver heritage is a collector´s item, a cultural achievement and, it is hoped a record that may inspire the renaissance of a traditional craft" |