SKU: 57947026328

"Munnu Irresistible Jewels" 2011 DEROO, Eric (SOLD)

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"Munnu Irresistible Jewels" 2011 DEROO, Eric (SOLD)DEROO, Eric[175] pp. 201111 1 2" x 9 3 4" Fine Fine Scroll Down for (9) Additional Scans: One doesnt make a quick trip to the Gem Palace. A maze of rooms filled with mounds of precious baubles casually strewn across cloth covered tables, the jewelry emporium in Jaipur, India, is a menagerie of exquisite bling where the hours pass unnoticed. Awestruck shoppers have been known to miss flights to prolong their sprees there, and company lore has it that

DEROO, Eric

[175] pp.

2011

11 1/2" x 9 3/4"

Fine/ Fine

Scroll Down for (9) Additional Scans:

One doesn’t make a quick trip to the Gem Palace. A maze of rooms filled with mounds of precious baubles casually strewn across cloth-­covered tables, the jewelry emporium in Jaipur, India, is a menagerie of exquisite bling where the hours pass unnoticed. Awestruck shoppers have been known to miss flights to prolong their sprees there, and company lore has it that both Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton made just two stops when they came to town: the airport and the Gem Palace. A veritable who’s who of international royals, aristocrats, fashion designers, and celebrities—among them Princess Diana, Mick Jagger, Loulou de la Falaise, and Angelina Jolie—has also dropped by. “Spend an afternoon at the Gem Palace and half the world would come through,” says Madeline Weinrib, whose vibrant rugs decorate its floors.

What drew these heavy hitters, beyond the place’s treasures, was the man who had presided over it all for the past two decades: Munnu Kasliwal, a Willy Wonka–esque character in a white linen kurta, whose family has served as the crown jewelers to the country’s maharajas since the mid-18th century. A small man with a childlike demeanor, Kasliwal, who died in August of brain cancer at age 54, could often be found in his second-floor atelier excitedly draping unsuspecting visitors with his opulent bijoux as though they were Mardi Gras beads. “I love seeing how our creations come alive when worn,” he said in Eric Deroo’s 2011 book Munnu: Irresistible Jewels. To that end, he would encourage clients to sport his jewels on the subway: “No one will ever think they’re real,” he’d reason. He called his knockout pieces “T-shirt necklaces,” believing they looked best when paired with one.

Inspired by Indian architecture, Imperial Russian jewels, flora, fauna, and “anything with a certain fluidity,” Kasliwal’s one-of-a-kind pieces were the fanciful designs of an artist, not of a businessman. He was among the few in an increasingly mechanized industry to do everything by hand. And when it came to stones, he preferred old ones, flaws and all, which he sourced from around the globe—rubies from Mozambique, emeralds from Colombia, rare diamonds from the depths of India’s fabled Golconda mines. He’d often gamble on their worth, buying them for millions in their rough rocks-in-a-sack state. (Having been given boxes of them by his father to grade since he was a child, he knew intuitively what was of good quality.) Then, under Kasliwal’s guidance, his small army of skilled craftsmen, seated barefoot and cross-legged on the floor, would cut the dusty gems with electric machines and mount them into one of the immensely elaborate designs he was constantly sketching on scraps of paper. “They realized the unimaginable—from a hunk of rock,” says Jana Pasquel, the president of the company.


Among his many showstoppers: a cuff made from 170 carats of rubies, so seamlessly inlaid with diamonds that it resembles enamel; a flower ring pieced together from delicately sliced diamond petals; and his final creation, a branch necklace fashioned from emerald dew drops and diamond leaves that dance in the breeze. Dotted with diamonds or pierced like lace, the backs of his designs were as outstanding as the fronts. “Why should I pay for this?” a customer once asked Kasliwal, figuring what wasn’t readily visible wasn’t all that important. “Why do you buy expensive underwear?” he retorted.

But customers need not have purchased anything for ­Kasliwal to like them. Their delight in the beauty of his gems was enough to earn them an invitation to the back terrace for a cappuccino—or to his country house for a dinner. “The food would always be served around midnight in these big, beautiful bowls,” recalls the interior designer Muriel ­Brandolini. “We would all gather around a fire pit, seated on pillows, with blankets wrapped around us. And there was Munnu, with an enormous smile, making sure everyone was happy and everything was perfect.”

Kasliwal advanced contemporary design in the family business with that same sense of perfectionism. Before Kasliwal, jewels of the subcontinent consisted almost entirely of diamonds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds. He brought semiprecious stones like tourmaline, amethyst, and peridot into the picture, shaping them into the briolette and rose cuts ordinarily reserved for finer gems. “Most Indian jewelers would reproduce what their grandfather had done,” says Marie-Hélène de Taillac, who began working with Kasliwal on her own jewelry line in 1996 (her first New York shop just opened on the Upper East Side). “He wanted to change, to move forward.”

“I never thought of it as Indian jewelry,” says Julie Gilhart, the former fashion director of Barneys New York, which began selling Kasliwal’s designs in 2002. “The store was looking for something exquisite and high level—that’s where he came in.”

Among Kasliwal’s proudest achievements was creating a collection to complement the exhibition of Mughal art at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2001. Despite the economic standstill following September 11, his pieces flew off the gift shop’s shelves. Three years later, Nicole Kidman appeared on the cover of Vogue wearing a double-strand diamond necklace of his confection—a coup for any designer, let alone one based in India.

“My father had a huge role in changing American opinions of Indian jewelry—he was really the first to give it international recognition,” says Kasliwal’s elder son, Siddharth, who now helms the business. “He took it to another level.” Adds Brandolini: “The thing about jewelry in India is that it’s elaborate and colorful, and it mesmerizes you while you’re there. But once you get home, it’s too ethnic and you can’t really wear it. Munnu modernized Indian jewelry—you can wear his pieces every day and everywhere, and they always look stunning.”

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Ringo
Louisville, US
★★★★★ 5
A Baby Boomer dream come true!
Format: Hardcover
I love the Golden Age omnibus Batman series. However, for many of us baby boomers the Silver Age is what we’ve been craving. Those were exciting days back then, looking for the new issue of Batman or Detective Comics on the newsstand. One of the previous reviewers is correct, though, there are some missing issues between the last golden age omnibus and this, the first silver age omnibus, that need to be put into book form at some point. I certainly hope we get them. But more than anything I am really hoping that this will not be the first and last silver age omnibus. By my count, there are almost exactly the issues needed to make three more silver age volumes before we get to the “new look Batman,” which started in mid 1964. And frankly, I hope they continue on with a “new look” omnibus series as well. This first volume, though, was absolutely beautiful! The re-creation of these old panels is breathtaking. When you go back and look at the old dot matrix original issues and compare them to the re-printings contained within this omnibus…well…there simply is no comparison. Batman, the Silver Age Omnibus Volume One is practically as good as it gets. The only thing more I could have wished for would have been the inclusion of the old advertisements that decorated the pages of the original issues. Other than that, this book is perfect. Wow!
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Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2022
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Amazon Customer
Grantham, US
★★★★★ 5
Quality Reproduction of Artwork
Format: Hardcover
The book looks great and includes a massive amount of content; however, this is DC Batman Silver Age stories verses Marvel Silver Age stories. It was hard getting through some of the stories and did not make it through the entire book. I think I would have enjoyed the stories that came before this collection and/or the great Neal Adams Batman content. This era of batman stories was just silly and boring. But just my opinion.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2024
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Morgan Painter
Waukegan, US
★★★★★ 5
Terrific buy for old time Batman comics.
Format: Hardcover
These Batman Omnibus collections are great for compiling these still amazing comics in an inexpensive way. Much cheaper than trying to get the original comics.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2025
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Derek Allen
Massapequa, US
★★★★★ 4
This era of Batman is well-written and beautifully drawn
Format: Hardcover
This era of Batman is well-written and beautifully drawn. But that consistency is also its weakness. These are mostly detective stories, hardly any super villains, mostly gangsters and corrupt businessman. Batwoman is introduced here, and Bat-hound is featured in certain stories. Even Superman and the Joker appear briefly. Someone commits a crime, Batman figures out who did it, and the story ends in 12 pages. The Batman team was a well-oiled machine in the 1950s Still I recommend it. Worth it for the art alone and some great novelty stories.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2025
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Bat Brain
New York, US
★★★★★ 5
Good for depression.
Format: Hardcover, Format: Hardcover
A lot of modern day comics have a drab flat look to them, the tales are typically high stakes crossover events that require lots of in depth reading with low pay off. These take me back to a less complicated time, without being constantly reminded of how dire the world is today. This book is full of fun one off events, that keep you hooked. Also, while I enjoy a lone brooding Batman, I am also a big fan of friendly easy going Batman and Robin, Robin is the reader inserted, asking all the right questions. All in all this book is worth every penny, and I look forward to sharing it with future generations.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2023

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