Exquisitely illustrated book presents a wonderful selection of jewelry, snuffboxes, portrait miniatures and other small treasures dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many shown in detail.

The third volume in The Walters Art Museum Collection Focus Series is a jewel-box of a book that explores the world of miniature masterpieces, luxury objects worn and used in Europe and Americas between around 1700 and 1900. Despite their small size, they are enduring testaments to the largest of human preoccupations: love, death, and pleasure.

Highlights include a snuffbox decorated with portraits of Louis XV’s grandchildren; a watch studded with pearls and diamonds made for Napoleon Bonaparte's mother that allowed her to tell the time by touch alone; a mourning ring containing the hair of two young sisters buried thousands of miles apart; two exquisite Fabergé eggs made as royal Easter gifts: the Gatchina Palace Egg and Rose Trellis Egg; and a tiny charm depicting a single eye gifted by a secret lover.

Often books on these kinds of objects look at one category of thing—mourning jewellery, portrait or eye miniatures—this book takes a broader approach and is written for a general audience.