Rings of the 20th and 21st Centuries: The Alice and Louis Koch Collection

A bilinigual (English and German) documentation of 600 rings by international artist jewellers, depicting how these miniature works of art have become modern sculptures showcasing new materials and techniques, daring designs and current themes.

The Alice and Louis Koch Collection of finger rings was originally collated by a jeweller from Frankfurt am Main, once described as the German ‘Cartier and Faberge’. By 1909 the collection comprised 1,722 rings from Antiquity to 1900. Rene Lalique, a contemporary of the time, was included, undoubtedly as a moderniser of the ring form. In the past twenty-five years the fourth generation of the family continued where Louis Koch and his wife Alice left off and expanded the collection to include rings from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This publication will present the complete collection of contemporary rings, now kept in the Swiss National Museum, Zurich.