Diana Scarisbrick (born 1928) is an English art historian specialising in the history of engraved gems and jewellery.[1]
Scarisbrick was born in
Echuca, Victoria, Australia. She worked with the antique jewellery traders S. J. Philips in London, catalogued several significant collections, published scholarly articles and books, and was elected a Fellow of the
London Society of Antiquaries in 1987.[2]
Scarisbrick memorably described
Queen Victoria's collections of
Scottish jewellery, which include polished pebbles and semi-precious stones reflecting
Highland geology, as "mute travel diaries".[3]
Selected publications
Diamond jewelry : 700 years of glory and glamour (London : Thames and Hudson, 2019).
(with John Boardman and Claudia Wagner), The Guy Ladrière Collection of Gems and Rings (London : Philip Wilson, 2016).
'Gem Connoisseurship: the 4th Earl of Carlisle's correspondence with Francesco de Ficoroni and Antonio Maria Zanetti', Burlington Magazine, 129:1007 (February 1987), pp. 90–104.
'Forever Adamant: A Renaissance Diamond Ring', Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 40 (1982), pp. 57–64.
(with John Boardman), The Ralph Harari collection of finger rings (London : Thames and Hudson, 1977).