Stardust

Frederic Zaavy's brilliant career as a master jeweller shone like a meteor but flamed out far too soon. Zaavy considered himself heir to the legacy of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, gem dealer to Louis XIV, and was chosen as the exclusive jeweller for the 21st century revival of Faberge. Zaavy's artistic genius lay in painting with precious stones and in engineering remarkable settings to hold those stones almost invisibly. His works achieved a preeminence in the thousand-year evolution of French jewellery. The influences on his life and work were myriad. Nature, quantum physics, art, music, spirituality, poetry, literature, and even science fiction all shaped his extraordinary world view and taste. He was a philosopher jeweller. Stardust encapsulates the last year of his life, from the moment he learned he would soon die, right through to the end, with his life still at full throttle.

With a text by acclaimed French philosophical writer Gilles Hertzog and a stunning visual narrative by celebrated photographers John Bigelow Taylor and Dianne Dubler, Zaavy's work and life are presented in a portrait of what was and of what might have been.

Text in English and Simplified Chinese.

About the Authors

Gilles Hertzog is a French writer, publisher and human rights activist who has worked alongside Bernard-Henri Lévy for 40 years. He is the author of Le Dernier Vénitien, Le Séjour des Dieux, Les Brigades de la Mer and editor of the French literary review La Règle du jeu.

John Bigelow Taylor and Dianne Dubler, developers of the Stardust project, are New York based, still-life photographers, specialising in jewellery, architecture, works of art and antiquities. Working with the world's foremost collectors, museums and publishers, they have created the photography for over 250 books.

205 colour, 1 b/w images