The first complete monograph of the extraordinarily inventive work of Luigi Valadier, arguably the greatest silver- and goldsmith in eighteenth-century Italy. Luigi Valadier (1726 1785) was an extraordinarily inventive Roman metalsmith, talented draughtsman, and maker of both table decorations and objects in gilt bronze, marble, and hard stone. His exquisite table centrepieces - produced for popes, royalty, and aristocrats, in Rome, as well as in France, England, Spain and Portugal - were considered the height of luxury in the eighteenth-century, and his fame spread far and wide. This new volume highlights fifty works produced by the Valadier workshop with comparative objects, designs and transcripts. Lavishly illustrated, this volume is the first complete monograph on Luigi Valadier and the only comprehensive publication on Valadier in English. Shedding new light on the provenance and dating of some work, the volume further identifies the exact roles performed inside the workshop by the celebrated dynasty of craftsmen that included Luigi's French-born father Andrea and his son Giuseppe, as well as detailing the Valadier family's collaborations with other workshops and artists. Luigi Valadier provides an indispensable resource for future scholarship and is a must-have for collectors, dealers, and scholars. AUTHOR: Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios is an internationally recognized art historian. In 1997 he was awarded the Legion of Honour. He has authored many books on Italian and French decorative arts, including catalogues for the Louvre, the Prado, the Quirinal, and the Vatican Museums. He taught art history at the University of Bologna and has lectured at numerous American museums, among them, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Getty Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as in England, France, Spain, and Italy. SELLING POINTS: . The first complete monograph on Luigi Valadier and the only comprehensive publication on Valadier in English . Provides an indispensible resource for future scholarship and is a must-have for collectors, dealers and scholars . Highlights fifty works produced by the Valadier workshop and comparative objects, designs and transcripts 368 colour images