Luxury Goods

This project focuses on the luxury goods market of United Arab Emirates and its growth factors. A growing economy, high consumption rates, a large, urban population, reduced financial risk, excellent infrastructure, and emerging stylish youth market is driving the luxury goods sector in the region. The Arab Spring has forced many tourists to change their travel plans and the UAE’s political stability coupled with its highly developed retail and hospitality sectors have made it a very attractive destination.
One of the prime factors for the UAE’s emergence as a retail hub is its ‘open for business’ culture, which encourages businesses to set up shop and reap the rewards of a growing economy, High consumption rates, a large, urban population, and reduced political and financial risk are the economical factors that have contributed towards the growth of the luxury goods market of united Arab emirates.
The U.A.E has a strong Tourism industry and excellent infrastructure which has served has strong factors for the growth of the luxury goods market of United Arab Emirates.
There is a huge growth potential for luxury goods in the Middle Eastern region. The most dynamic segments are hard luxury items like real jewellery, watches, handbags and sunglasses.
In the UAE both Men and Women are indulging in luxury purchases. According to Euromonitor Research, The total UAE luxury market was expected to grow more than nine per cent year-on-year in 2012 to total Dhs7.1 billion. Consumers across the globe are increasingly eager to spend money on high quality things which last longer, while UAE residents continue to indulge in luxury gadgets, spirits and jewellery items. Because of high rents in the high-end malls in UAE, retailers are looking forward to set up future ventures in second- and third-tier malls.

The objective of this research is to gain better understanding on the role of the concept stores as a strategic brand management instrument of the luxury and premium fashion firms in the European context. The research objective is approached first from a theoretical perspective by reviewing the existing academic literature on the subject. The empirical primary data was mainly collected through interviewing the key informants on the case study of Hanna Sarèn/Ultimate Design Oy. The analysis unit is the company-owned, European mono brand store.
The research findings confirm that the concept store of the luxury fashion firm has a powerful role as an enhancer of the brand image by building credibility and prestige to the brand. The use of the concept stores for regulating the cash flows and gaining better margins in relation to the other distribution channels is not acknowledged on the current academic literature on subject, while this was the case in regard to the case brand. Furthermore, the research aims to explain the use of the concept store as developing the brand experience. In addition, the research aim to contribute to the conceptualisation of the luxury and the luxury fashion brands.

This study aims to investigate common electronic commerce (e-commerce) models and strategies
for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in luxury goods, to offer best-practice strategies
for luxury goods SMEs entering the Chinese e-commerce market. Because the Chinese ecommerce
market is dominated for 80 percent of its share by Alibaba and Jingdong Mall, this study
explores the extent to which common e-commerce models and strategies hold for entering online
markets, which are dominated by online marketplaces.
Due to specific needs and characteristics of luxury goods SMEs to gain a sustainable competitive
advantage, they may especially need to strategize differently when entering the Chinese ecommerce
market. Therefore, this study poses the hypothesis that common e-commerce models
and strategies hold to a limited extent when considering luxury goods SMEs, and need to be updated
in order for retailers to enter, compete and grow successfully in the Chinese e-commerce market.
To find support for this hypothesis, secondary data is collected through a literature review of the
Rise of the Global Market Places study (Ecommerce Foundation, 2015). Furthermore, primary
qualitative data was gained through interviews with specialists in (Chinese) e-commerce and case
studies of Burberry, a large international luxury brand, and Flinders, a Dutch luxury SME retailer of
European designer furniture. Analysis and alignment of secondary and primary data resulted in bestpractice
strategies for Dutch luxury goods SMEs entering the Chinese e-commerce market, which are
presented in a roadmap called ‘The Yellow Click Road to China for Dutch Luxury Goods SMEs’.

This study aims to explore the main reasons of consumption of luxury branded goods. The research also gives an insight upon the main motivational values towards purchasing luxury branded products. The method chosen for analyzing the raw data collected through offline and online questionnaire survey, through snowball sampling technique, was quantitative models namely descriptive statistics and one way ANOVA, that was run through the help of SPSS. The study analyzes the four major motivational values, which motivate people to purchase and consume luxury branded goods, namely; personal values, functional values, individual values and social values. As a result, we find out that functional values were the most significant motivator in purchase decision-making followed by personal values, individual values and social values respectively. One-way ANOVA analysis interprets that four of these values are significant in term of decision-making process while purchasing luxury branded goods. Po...

Luxury consumption and the desire for luxury are well-accepted phenomena. Myriad studies have
documented the pervasiveness of the luxury market in the West and the high growth and strong
potential of Asian luxury markets. It is also evident that as resources have grown in a region, luxury
consumption and the desire for luxury products have followed. Nevertheless, the need for more farreaching
studies that explore emerging markets are important to understand the differences in how
luxury may penetrate these markets, given variations in resources and culture. This paper
investigates a number of factors that may contribute to the emergence of new luxury markets.
Specifically, the authors focus on the psychology of luxury consumption in the post-revolution
Tunisian market. In particular, this research attempts to understand the psychology behind the
consumption of luxury items in Tunisia and provide managerial insights into strategies for entry
into such emerging markets. The empirical data was collected using online surveys of participants
from French-speaking Tunisia. Overall, this analysis of the Tunisian market for branded products
and services informs international luxury managers in developing their strategies to penetrate
emerging markets. Besides the managerial insights that the results provide, the hypotheses tested
in this paper relating luxury consumption to the variables of age, income, and education within the
framework of national culture are important contributions from the theoretical standpoint.

The aim of this article is to introduce and examine the concept of the “spirit of luxury.” Accordingly, we commence by delineating the philosophical idea of luxury, emphasizing its discursive meaning, and contemplating its earliest historical and etymological origins. We continue through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by means of a discussion of the philosophical, political, and economic writings of David Hume, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, Émile Louis Victor de Laveleye, and Werner Sombart. Employing Sombart’s sociological work on the spirit of capitalism, we advance and elaborate on the notion of the spirit of luxury. Offering a “Sombartian” account of recent luxury research, specifically the core contributions to this special issue of Cultural Politics, we conclude by critically assessing the concepts of luxury, spirit, and capitalism.

Structured abstract
Purpose – The market for luxury is growing rapidly. While there is a significant body of literature on luxury goods, academic research has largely ignored luxury services. The purpose of this article is to open luxury services as a new field of investigation by developing the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings to build the luxury services literature and show how luxury services differ from both luxury goods and from ordinary (i.e. non-luxury) services.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a conceptual approach drawing upon and synthesizing the luxury goods and services marketing literature.
Findings – This article makes three contributions. First, it shows that services are largely missing from the luxury literature, just as the field of luxury is mostly missing from the service literature. Second, it contrasts the key characteristics of services and related consumer behaviors with luxury goods. The service characteristics examined are nonownership, IHIP (i.e. intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability), the three additional Ps of services marketing (i.e. people, processes, and physical facilities) and the three-stage service consumption model. This article derives implications these characteristics have on luxury. For example, nonownership increases the importance of psychological ownership, reduces the importance of conspicuous consumption and the risk of counterfeiting. Third, this article defines luxury services as extraordinary hedonic experiences that are exclusive whereby exclusivity can be monetary, social and hedonic in nature, and luxuriousness is jointly determined by objective service features and subjective customer perceptions. Together, these characteristics place a service on a continuum ranging from everyday luxury to elite luxury.
Practical implications – This article provides suggestions on how firms can enhance psychological ownership of luxury services, manage conspicuous consumption, and use more effectively luxury services’ additional types of exclusivity (i.e. social and hedonic exclusivity).
Originality/value – This is the first paper to define luxury services and their characteristics, apply and link frameworks from the service literature to luxury, and to derive consumer insights from these for research and practice.
Keywords: luxury, luxury services, luxury experiences, hedonic experiences, exclusivity, conspicuous consumption
Paper type: Conceptual paper

Luxury good is a product for which demand increases more than proportionally as the income rises, and is a contrast to a "necessity good", for which demand increases proportionally less than income. Luxury goods are often synonymous with superior goods and Veblen goods. In India , Luxury is defined by 1)Prices and perception of Product Quality 2) Co-branding Pricing Strategy 3) Perceived Value of brand's product should be coherent with its price point. (Uggla, 2017) .The reason which drives customer satisfaction in Luxury is Price, heritage and Brand Value. (Jain, 2013). However due to current economical rationalization in infrastructure issues , and other new taxes which are good in long run and would also be beneficial in long run , this would still increase in coming years with the same pace what they are increasing now .

The ‘Amphitrite’ Fan: A Masterpiece in the FIDM Museum Collection

Today's post is an in-depth look at a very special new acquisition, written by French scholar Georgina Letourmy-Bordier.

Most antique fans still in existence today have lost their history. Their origins, their context, and the various stages of their making escape us. There is one principle reason for this. Since their introduction into Europe in the 16th century, fans have generally been made anonymously – there are only rare exceptions to this.  There are no signatures on the leaves or on the montures.  It wasn’t until the second half of the 19th century that painters began to sign their work. When the sticks are signed, which is very rare, it is a sign that the work is of exceptional quality.

Translated from French by Mary Kitson, Secretary of the Fan Circle International

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The ‘Amphitrite’ Fan: A Masterpiece in the FIDM Museum Collection

Most antique fans still in existence today have lost their history. Their origins, their context, and the various stages of their making escape us. There is one principle reason for this. Since their introduction into Europe in the 16th century, fans have generally been made anonymously – there are only rare exceptions to this.  There are no signatures on the leaves or on the montures.  It wasn’t until the second half of the 19th century that painters began to sign their work. When the sticks are signed, which is very rare, it is a sign that the work is of exceptional quality.

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.

Vertu is an organization that was initially founded in 1998 by Nokia and Frank Nuovo that focuses on making luxury cellular mobile phones. Like the luxury timepiece business, Vertu focused on quality over quantity and creating a distinct, bold looking mobile handset with premium materials that would appeal to high net worth individuals. The store design, handcrafted nature of the devices, to the very packaging design was done with a focus on creating a premium experience. Prices could easily exceed €300,000.00 and were customizable entirely to the needs of the customer. Device features like a ruby red concierge button reinforced a product positioned towards a specific clientele looking for unique experiences and solutions without a concern of the financial cost. The organization would suffer a series of setbacks after several acquisitions and an inability to adjust to the growing shifts in the technology market, forcing bankruptcy. Like a phoenix from the ashes, Vertu would reemerge in China and Vietnam and is slowly making a comeback, providing a glimpse into the expansion opportunities that are within the strength and emergence of the APAC market. The paper aims to study if an overreliance on Nokia technology and the failure to radically innovate through pivoting the business model was related to the collapse of Vertu.

The world of luxury is undergoing rapid changes as many classic luxury brands embark on markedly different strategies to deal with an increasingly digital economy. Some luxury brands such as Chanel and Bottega Veneta have deliberately chosen to minimize the impact of digitization and instead focus even more heavily on the traditional service encounter in their boutiques. Other luxury brands like Dior, Saint Laurent, and Hermès follow a different strategy as they push innovative new digital services, which led to rapidly growing online sales. At their core, all these brands continue to sell luxury fashion, yet their approach to digitization of the service encounter could not be more different while they all wish to remain exclusive. How can luxury fashion brands develop their digital service strategy and at the same time retain the exclusive and personalized service their customers expect?

This study aims to survey the perceptions, behaviors, behavioral intentions, knowledgeability, experiences, and attitudes of consumers and/or potential consumers of private jet travel and/or ownership regarding the private jet industry. This study is unprecedented and unique because it is the first scholarly literature to date on the private aviation industry with a luxury framework. It also is the first to address the phenomenon of the democratization of luxury in the private aviation industry. This study is of significance in the United States, as the United States is the largest private aviation market and the largest luxury market in the world. It employs a quantitative research method involving a design in the form of a survey questionnaire of 150 respondents to obtain data regarding the private aviation industry. It also conducts qualitative research through four industry expert interviews. The extensive findings of the empirical data are presented by summarizing the results of each question, and conclusions are drawn. This study benefits the industry and the academia of luxury and of private aviation.

In this article, we are concerned with how the contemporary cultural-theoretical concept of luxury, an idea of deep-seated importance for Christopher J. Berry (1994), can be considered as a good or service that is effortlessly substitutable since the desire for it lacks passion. Against Berry, we argue that, in the present period, any deliberation on luxury must entail a multifaceted engagement with the intensification of our sense of alienation intertwined with our fervent sense of an existence governed by outside powers, which apparently establish new modes of social control together with new modes of inauthenticity that disaffect “us” from “our” “selves.” To theorize these outside powers, and reintroducing the somewhat neglected critical theory of the Marxian philosopher Herbert Marcuse (1964), we identify the ongoing cultural form of what we conceptualize as “luxury new media.” We argue that luxury new media is a novel type of luxury, one that is not interpersonally relative, as Berry proposes, but relationally dubious, which is creating innovative varieties of luxury new media goods and services. We subsequently investigate how the luxury new media of what we, extending Marcuse, call “euphoria in unhappiness” nurtures the contemporary development of “false social needs.” Lastly, we question the growth in importance of luxury new media as a form of managed choice today when such luxurious choice is, counter to Berry, not simple or lacking in intensity but in fact problematic and steeped in economic desire.

L’attuale contesto macroeconomico vede in forte crescita a livello mondiale il mercato del lusso in generale e tra l’altro degli accessori (cravatte, foulard, sciarpe), trainato dalla domanda di paesi emergenti.

I Gruppi francesi (detentori dei principali brand) giocano un ruolo chiave, posizionandosi tra i leader per il valore percepito dai clienti.

Il panorama produttivo, industriale e manifatturiero europeo, che si posiziona a servizio dei Gruppi del lusso, vede contendersi il mercato da alcuni fornitori italiani che si sono strutturati per offrire un servizio completo.
In Francia, esiste una unica struttura organizzata in filiera (controllato da Hermès/HTH). Gli altri fornitori francesi posizionandosi come ‘terzisti’, gestendo solo il proprio know-how.

Al fine di competere su qualità, creatività, confidenzialità, rapidità d’azione e velocità al cambiamento, gli altri Gruppi del Lusso possono ispirarsi da l’approccio d’Hermès/HTH costituendo o consolidando una filiera produttiva, con partnership forti, orientati verso monte della filiera, con implicazione su tutta la filiera upstream.

Il mercato offre ad oggi la possibilità di costituire una filiera per la produzione e il confezionamento degli accessori, operando investimenti mirati, ed integrando o controllando i processi a monte della catena di valore.

Lo studio vuole illustrare le possibilità d’un tale lavoro, mettendo a disposizione le proprie competenze ed esperienze nel settore Luxury.

Through 2 studies, this research examined consumer responses to empowerment hashtags in social media-based fashion advertising. The findings of Study 1 indicated that consumers showed more favorable attitudes towards empowerment campaign hashtags than brand name hashtags, and that perceived information value of hashtags meditated the relationship between hashtag type and attitudes toward the hashtags. Furthermore, consumer responses to the two hashtag types
varied depending on the “sophistication” dimension of brand personality. Study 2 extended Study 1 by further examining the effects of empowerment hashtags on consumers’ attitudes toward ads and consumer-brand identification. Participants perceived greater information value from empowerment hashtags, showed more favorable attitudes toward the ads with empowerment hashtags, and identified more strongly with advertised brands. Theoretical and practical
implications are discussed.

The fashion industry is often cited as one of the worst polluters, but destroying perfectly usable merchandise in an effort to maintain prestige is perhaps the dirtiest secret of them all. With Burberry coming out in 2018 about refraining from this practice anymore says more than enough about its existence in the fashion industry as a whole and not just luxury brands. Besides brands like Louis Vuitton, Cartier and Mont Blanc, fast fashion brands like H&M are also prominent practitioners of this. Luxury brands cite exclusivity and reduction in brand value as some of the reasons for doing this however with the increasing environmental deterioration luxury as a concept cannot exist without environmentally safe and sustainable practices. The objective of the research is to find out why this practice is so widespread yet not focused upon in an era where protection and conservation of natural resources is the need of the hour. The author also touches upon how this burning is being carried out, to what extent it is being followed globally and what conservation-minded shoppers can do to fight back as well as what alternatives can luxury brands seek to admit, in addition to those already in existence.
Key Words: Destruction, Usable merchandise, Environmental deterioration, Luxury brands, Sustainability

09/2014; DOI: 10.13140/2.1.4214.2086

As Gabrielle Coco Chanel once mentioned: “Luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends” This study concentrates on the integrated marketing communications plan of the Greek company Folli Follie (personal luxury products retailer) and how it is implemented across international culture: the expansion in China.

This report was created to point out the mixed marketing communications plan for Folli Follie, in order to strengthen the FF Group reputation and motivate the end-user confidence. Key factors for this communication are International Culture and Access to Global Market. We choose to focus on these two topics, because international employees and customers need more guidelines on these specifics.  International Culture: raise awareness upon cultural differences and increase diversification rates.  Access to Global Market: to expand the awareness of the impact of the Global Environment in new emerging markets. The guidelines include: - Branding: create & use consistent message and image - Efficiency: create re-usable content & high impact channels, such as a multimedia website and social media - Data metrics: plan activity measurements & future decision making data. The Goals of this plan form from three levels: 1) Strengthen the reputation of Folli Follie 2) Attract new customers and enhance satisfaction 3) Create engagement and positive industry buzz (word of mouth) The purpose of this plan is to support the practices, policies and the action plan of the Folly Follies Group and relate them with the business goals and vision, in order to raise awareness, loyalty and customer relationship. This report strongly recommends the enhance of the company’s recent global campaign theme “ What are you crazy for? ”, based on the results of the situation analysis (see below). The primary targets of this communications are the Chinese youth, the international employees of the group and the Chinese post-modern woman & man. Secondary targets are China’s major cities, fashion shows, local agencies. We have investigated the possible launch of the Folli Follie in China, where we will try to combine the Folli Follie’s “way of doing” with the local Chinese market. Our mission therefore, is to successfully introduce the brand, while paying attention to the Chinese needs and expectations.

Luxury is a very ambiguous term. An attempt to define the concept of luxury, poses in front of theorists in this area a major challenge. The problem is an indication of a clear and distinct boundary between what is necessary and what is already a luxury. Luxury is being discussed by economists, sociologists, psychologists, as well as sciences such as management. Definitions created on the canvas of these considerations stress the different criteria of luxurious nature of goods important in the point of view these sciences. Therefore, it is very difficult to create a clear, comprehensive instrumentation of luxury brand management from the point of view of theoretical considerations. The only possible solution becomes therefore a combination of scientific achievements and practical experience in this field and on this basis to create an effective set of tools to manage a luxury brand. Marketing management of luxury brands requires specific tools, different from those used on the mass market. The basic principles of traditional marketing do not apply in this area. D. Dubois describes the marketing of luxury brands as paradoxical. Author recognizes the fact that its basic principles stand in complete contradiction with the principles of mass products marketing. This considerations, however, oscillate around a basic set of tools of the marketing mix, such as: product, price, distribution and promotion. Practical experiences in marketing of luxury goods result in increasingly look at this problem in the literature. According to R. Aurora efficient management of the luxury brand requires the involvment of 8Ps, including tools such as performance, pedigree, paucity, persona, public figures, placement, PR and pricing. Luxury brand management requires therefore broadening the scope of marketing tools to 8Ps, as well as outside the box, almost paradoxical approach to them.

As the luxury market is permanently changing, becomes essential for luxury researchers and marketers to better understand how consumers perceive luxury and which are the drivers behind their buying behavior. This study proposed an integrated conceptual framework regarding status seeking or consumption of Romanian luxury consumers, for future measurements which may be used as basis for marketing strategies. Our model indicated the existence of relationships between some individual, product or social related aspects and the social status wanted and perceived by luxury consumers.

El conocimiento de las creaciones suntuarias romanas resulta fundamental para comprender la relevancia de estas artes en la época imperial, y su profunda huella en la moda y joyería de toda Europa hasta finales del Renacimiento. A pesar de que técnicamente los orfebres romanos no superaron a los etruscos y que su principal fuente de inspiración fueron las creaciones helenísticas, la asimilación y reinterpretación del fasto y lujo romanos siguen inspirando y desafiando a los más selectos orfebres y joyeros de la actualidad.

Cette thèse est la première thèse consacrée à l'éventail en France.

Elle porte sur l’étude du décor de la feuille d’éventail produite dans les ateliers parisiens depuis la fin du XVIIe siècle jusqu’au début de la Révolution.

La première partie a pour ambition de présenter succinctement le contexte artisanal en s’intéressant d’une part à la corporation et d’autre part aux conditions de fabrication de l’objet. La place des éventaillistes parmi les artisans parisiens du luxe est abordée ainsi que la valeur de ce commerce tant du point de vue du volume que de la reconnaissance de ce savoir-faire parmi les autres productions européennes.
Dans un second temps, la présentation de l’iconographie de la feuille permet de souligner la grande variété des thèmes, leur fréquence et leur variation sur la période. En complément de décors inspirés par l’histoire antique et la mythologie, d’autres sujets, marqués par une forte corrélation avec l’actualité et la vie politique du royaume, sont identifiés. Les thèmes liés au divertissement, la pastorale, les jeux, la musique ou encore le théâtre constituent un dernier pôle très représentatif.

Cette approche conduit à s’interroger sur les influences subies par les peintres ou les graveurs et à comprendre les caractères et les spécificités des décors. Des parallèles sont effectués afin de les replacer dans le contexte artistique par des comparaisons avec la gravure, la peinture, les arts décoratifs et la littérature de colportage notamment. Il apparaît que l’ambition décorative, qui se manifeste par la place de l‘anecdote et le goût du pittoresque, n’amoindrit pas la valeur didactique de l’objet comme le démontre l’importance accordée aux textes et aux chansons notamment.
La dernière partie ouvre l’étude sur une réflexion autour de l’éventail et de son appréciation par les contemporains. L’enthousiasme exprimé par les femmes s’oppose à la virulence des écrits de certains critiques et de peintres. Cette confrontation permet de mettre en exergue la reconnaissance de l’objet comme expression de la société féminine mais aussi comme reflet de l’expansion des arts décoratifs au XVIIIe siècle.

Mots clés : éventail, mode, accessoire de mode, artisanat du luxe.

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This thesis is the first thesis about antique fans in France.
This thesis concerned with the decoration of fan leaves produced in Parisian workshops between the end of the XVIIth century and the beginning of the French Revolution.
The first part attempts to present succinctly the conditions in which fan leaves were manufactured, namely the place of fan-makers among Parisian artisans of luxury goods and the value of this business compared to that of other European producers.
Following in the second section is the presentation of the iconography of the fan leaf, stressing the wide variety of themes, their frequency and variation in this period. Apart from subjects from ancient history and mythology, a strong correlation between everyday events and the political life of the kingdom emerges. Entertainments, country pursuits, games, music and theatre are also topics widely represented.
This approach leads to a discussion on the conditions imposed on the painters and engravers and an examination of the characteristics and details of the chosen decorations. Parallels are drawn so that the fan leaves can be given an artistic context alongside engraving, painting, the decorative arts and relevant literature. As demonstrated in texts and, particularly, in songs, it seems that anecdotal decoration and the taste for the picturesque does not diminish the didactic value of the object.
Finally, the concluding part of the thesis reflects on the fan leaf as it was considered by contemporary writers. Feminine enthusiasm against the attacks of certain male writers reveals that the value of the object was principally an expression of female society but also that it was an object with a significant place in the expansion of the decorative arts in the XVIIIth century.

Key words : fan, fashion, fashion accessory, luxury goods.

THIS IS A PROMO-FILE INCLUDING ONLY A FEW PAGES AS A SAMPLE OF THE BOOK.
Title: Metal Vases & Utensils in the Vassil Bojkov Collection, vol.2.
Author: Athanasios Sideris.
Publisher: Thrace Foundation.
Editor: Ruja Popova.
ISBN: 978-954-92384-8-8.
Sofia 2021.
Pp. 428.
This is the second volume dedicated to the metal vases in the Vassil Bojkov Collection in Sofia (see herein vol. 1, 2016). It comprises 152 entries (cat. 147-298) of vases and utensils issued from the Thracian, Achaemenid, Greek and Hellenistic cultural domains, 105 of which have never been published previously. They are illustrated by 403 colour pictures and 195 drawings, complemented by 193 b&w pictures of parallels in other museums and collections. The time-span covered in this volume extends from the 11th to the 1st centuries BC. The volume comprises as well an extensive bibliography, three indexes, various lists and a map. It includes several unique or very rare pieces, such as a prehistoric gold kantharos, gold and silver phialae, several vases bearing dedicatory and other inscriptions, a new silver kantharos with figurative scenes, a bronze calyx crater, several silver rhyta with some outstanding exemplars decorated with a silenus figure and caracal protomes, as well as a unique silver plate with the representation of Aphrodite's birth from the ocean. The book will be soon available in Amazon.com or by addressing directly the Thrace Foundation.

Le superflu, chose très nécessaire”, wrote Voltaire 1736 in
his poem Le mondain. Needless to say that luxury is much
more than merely materialised/solidified redundancy.
Offering a first panoramic view on various manifestations of
conspicuous material culture in a Netherlandish context from
1500 until the present, this study – rather than investigating selfevident
cases of luxury – aims to explore its boundaries and the
different stages in which luxury is fabricated or sometimes only
simulated. Thematically, the volume focuses on two major issues,
i.e. collections and foodways as means of expression of prosperity
and splendour, which will be discussed by an international group of
scholars, emanating from disciplines such as archaeology, history,
book and media studies, art history, linguistics, and historical
ethnology.

With an afterword by Maxine Berg.

La conquista romana del Mediterráneo oriental y de Egipto amplió los horizontes de los mercaderes ítalo-romanos como nunca antes. A los pocos años de ocupar el territorio, eran cientos las caravanas y barcos que partían anualmente hacia la India y el lejano Oriente desde las ciudades y puertos ubicados en los límites del Imperio romano. Será con Augusto cuando se sienten las bases de un mercado cada vez más globalizado, permitiendo la libre circulación de los productos más deseados por las élites urbanas de la metrópolis romana.
Esta investigación aborda mediante el análisis epigráfico de más de doscientas inscripciones funerarias quienes fueron los personajes ligados al comercio y fabricación de joyas, vestidos, tintes y ungüentos en la ciudad de Roma. Estos productos se comercializaron entre la élite de la capital y entre los consumidores selectivos que emulaban la conducta de la aristocracia romana. El marco cronológico de estudio comprende la etapa que va desde finales del periodo republicano a finales del siglo tercero d.C. Y es precisamente el momento
relacionado con el cambio de era y el primer siglo d.C. cuando se ha podido relacionar cronológicamente un mayor número de inscripciones. A su vez, poder identificar la localización de sus tiendas o talleres nos ha permitido conocer de primera mano los diversos cambios en la topografía urbana de la ciudad.
Asimismo, con el objetivo de conocer los lugares de producción o extracción de estos bienes de carácter suntuarios se han descrito las diferentes rutas intercontinentales de aprovisionamiento de estos productos. En este punto, el análisis de los diferentes agentes
implicados en este comercio permite conocer las diferentes áreas de actuación, cuáles fueron los mercados más visitados y cuál fue el rol que jugó cada una de las potencias implicadas en este intercambio. Para ello se ha estudiado cuál fue el marco común de entendimiento para establecer estas relaciones.
Los resultados obtenidos han permitido ampliar la descripción tenida hasta ahora sobre un comercio tan selecto, así como proponer nuevas hipótesis interpretativas del tema.

English:
nunc patimur longae pacis mala, saevior armis
luxuria incubuit victumque ulciscitur orbem
(JUVENAL. SAT. II, 6, 292-297)

With these words the Roman author Juvenal evokes the evils associated with unbridled lust which had pushed Rome after the conquest of the so far known world. In this sense, the conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean and the annexation of Egypt under direct control by Rome resulted in the restoration and improvement of trade routes to the East, place of origin of most luxury goods markets as valued in Rome.
As part of our thesis about the luxury trade in the city of Rome during the Early Roman Empire, where we look specifically at luxury products, we wish to introduce how new access to these goods sparked a change in Roman society. In this respect, thanks to the study of lapidary inscriptions related with actors linked to the development and sale of
exotic products can be examined a series of changes that occurred from the new Roman state-run establishment under the principality of Augustus. The classical tradition will oppose a new order marked by the Roman elites demand for expensive products, creating fashions and customs unexplored to date, trying to slow it down with the
enactment of laws against excess and access.
These changes will be accompanied by other observable also in this work, highlighting, the emergence of new commercial characters and their existential increase in Rome: margaritarii, coronarii, vascularii, vestiarii, etc. In this process, indirectly new terms will be minted for defining new jobs and others will vary depending on use. Also, there
is a growing desire to show the life and personal work on the tombstones, making clear a new cultural fashion. Finally, this cultural transformation will extend to an urban modification of the Urbs, lifting exclusive spaces for the purchase and sale of these products

Abstract: The article examines a homogeneous group of 22 choir–books (corali) executed for Ferrara Cathedral between 1477 and 1535. The volumes were funded in part by the Cathedral Chapter and in part by the bishop, Bartolomeo della Rovere. Their execution is documented by the account books of the Fabbriceria (cathedral works), in which the various craftsmen who alternated in the work (copiers, miniaturists, paper makers, goldsmiths) are mentioned. Three of them were the real protagonists of the enterprise: the copier Fra Evangelista Tedesco and the two miniaturists Fra Evangelista da Reggio and Jacopo Filippo Medici d’Argenta. The Ferrarese choir–books have been studied in the past, but not in relation to their cost. The aim of this paper is to determine how much, and according to what procedures, the craftsmen were paid. The documentary evidence shows, for example, that the miniaturists — like all the other ‘artisans of the book’ employed in the production of the Ferrarese liturgical series — were paid in a precise way, on the basis of the quantity of the work they produced, rather than on the basis of their reputation. A first result that emerged from the analysis of the rich archival documentation was that it permitted the cost of ornamentation to be defined. There were seven types of decoration, ranging from the tiny illuminated initial with floral motifs to the folio entirely illuminated in all its parts. A well–defined price corresponded to each of these types. It remained constant over the years. These prices were then compared with those of the miniatures of the choir books in the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, executed during the same years. A second result enabled the overall cost of a choir–book to be defined, by analysing each individual item of expenditure (purchase of the parchment, writing of the text, decoration of the volume and its binding). Lastly, having succeeded for the first time to determine the total cost of a choir–book, the author compares it with that of other kinds of contemporary art in Ferrara, such as paintings, tapestries and pieces of goldsmith's work.

Of all the fashionable 'corrections' of Marx's Capital, none has been performed so often as the transformation of values into prices. From Bortkiewicz (1907) [3] to Samuelson (1971) [4], bourgeois 'science' has felt itself impelled to improve, correct or revise Marx on this question. With Sweezy's introduction of the Bortkiewicz 'correction' of Marx to the English speaking world in 1946 [5], another round of 'solutions' began. Although many differ in form from the Bortkiewicz/Sweezy contribution, and some avoid the more obvious errors, they treat the problem in a more or less similar way.