Why has jewellery and body adornment often been marginalized in modernist art and design studies? This study explores the relationship between jewellery, modernism and modernity from the ‘jazz age’ to the second world war to challenge the view that these portable art forms have only a minor role to play in histories of modernism.
From the masterworks of the Parisian jewellery houses to the film and photography of Man Ray, this study seeks to present jewellery in a new light, where issues of representation and display are considered crucial in creating a modern ‘jewellery culture’ as the objects themselves.
Drawing on material from museums, archives, contemporary journals, memoirs, and literary and theoretical texts, this study shows how the emergence of modern jewellery began to question conventional notions of body adornment seriously.
More on Jewellery Design
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The Life and Legacy of Isabelle Hebey: A French Design Icon
Explore the life and legacy of Isabelle Hebey, the groundbreaking French designer known for her eclectic style and high-profile clients. Learn how she revolutionized interior design by seamlessly blending the old with the new.Read More →
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Robert Goosens (1927 – 2016), French jewellery designer
Monsieur Bijou was the moniker given to Robert Goosens, a French jeweller who lived from 1927 to 2016. He was born in Paris, France, the son of a metal foundry worker. He learned the techniques of casting, engraving, and embossing semi-precious and simulated stones into gold and silver metals during his apprenticeship in jewellery making.…
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Jewellery in the Age of Modernism 1918-1940: Adornment and Beyond
This study explores the relationship between jewellery, modernism and modernity from the ‘jazz age’ to the second world war, exploring the importance of representation and display in creating a modern ‘jewellery culture’.Read More →
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Bernard Instone: Master Silversmith and Enameller (1891-1987)
British silversmith Bernard Instone, born in 1891, revolutionized jewelry design with his enameled silver work, blending traditional techniques with individual creativity. His legacy continues to inspire artisans today.Read More →
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Imperishable Beauty: Art Nouveau Jewelry (hardcover)
Imperishable Beauty: Art Nouveau Jewelry. “A new, imperishable beauty,” was how the artist and architect Henry van de Velde described it. European Art Nouveau jewelry of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries embraced a new aesthetic characterized by sensuous forms, dramatic imagery and vivid symbolism. Read More →
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Arne Petersen (1922 – 2002) Danish Metalworker
At the Copenhagen firm C.C. Herman, Petersen learnt silver and goldsmithing methods. He joined the Georg Jensen Solvsmedie in 1948 and worked in the hollow-ware department until 1976. His 1975 Bottle Opener, made of stainless steel soldered with brass, received a lot of attention. Read More →
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Florence Koehler (1861 – 1944) American craftsperson and designer
Florence Koehler was an American artist, craftsperson, designer, and jeweller, professionally active in Chicago, London and Rome. She was one of the best-known jewellers of the Arts and Crafts movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In Chicago, Koehler’s jewellery in a crafts style was fashionable in artistic circles. Koehler became…
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Jean Fouquet (1899 – 1964), French Jewellery Designer
In 1919, he joined as a designer in the family firm, 6 rue Royale, Paris; he was a friend of Louis Aragon and Paul Eluard. Between 1920—25, he collaborated on Le Corbusier’s and Amédée Ozenfant’s review L’Esprit Nouveau: Revue International d’Esthétique. In his jewellery, he developed a liking for abstract compositions. From 1931, his jewellery…
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Ward Bennett (1917 – 2003) American Designer – Defined an Era
Ward Bennett (1917–2003) was a New York designer, sculptor, textile, jewellery, industrial, and interior designer. At the height of his career in the 1960s and 1970s, he stood for an American aesthetic against more prevalent European trends. Read More →
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Maison Gripoix costume jeweller – glass with class
Maison Gripoix, a French costume jeweller, was located in Paris. Around 1890, Maison Gripoix sold glass beads and buttons wholesale. Subsequently, specialised in handmade imitations of precious and semi-precious jewels, including parures for Sarah Bernhardt.Read More →
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Henning Koppel (1918 – 1981) Danish Designer
Koppel had his debut as a sculptor at the Artists’ Authumn Exhibition in 1935 with an expressive portrait bust. He was also represented with drawings on several exhibitions. His best works as a sculptor are the busts of Valdemar and Jytte Koppel (1938 and 1942, both in black granite) and Tora Nordstrom Bonnier and Karl-Adam…
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Louis Rault (1847 – 1903) French sculptor, engraver and jewellery designer
Louis Rault (1847 – 1903) was a French Sculptor, engraver, silversmith and jewellery designer.Between 1868 and 1875, Rault worked in the Boucheron workshop on the Place Vendôme in Paris. At the end of the nineteenth century, he set up a workshop where he produced silver and jewellery in the Art Nouveau style.Read More →
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Marcel Boucher (1898 – 1968) American costume jeweller
In 1925 Marcel Boucher arrived in New York from France and went to work for Cartier as a jeweller. Eventually, he leaves there and makes shoe buckles, possibly for Trifari. At this time, jewellery is all flat, without high modulation. Marcel started his firm in the Thirties, and his first line is an extraordinary group…
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Pennino American costume jewellery firm
In 1928, Oreste Pennino registered a series of 12 trademarks used from 1926 and illustrating signs of the Zodiac. The firm produced bracelets, rings, clips, earrings, lockets, and brooches and, from 1947, watches and watchcases. Its wares were designed in the forms of flower bouquets, fruit, leaves, and trees in rose, pale and dark blue,…
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Jean Goulden (1878 – 1946) French Artisan & Crafter
Jean Goulden was a French painter, musician, and crafter who lived from 1878 to 1946. During World War I, he found Byzantine enamels near Mount Athos in Macedonia. His Cubist pendulum clocks were some of his best pieces. Only 180 of his items are known to exist.Read More →
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Marius Hammer (1847 – 1927) Norwegian silversmith
Hammer was head of one of Norway’s largest silversmithies. He was best known for his plique-a-jour enamelled spoons popular with tourists and exported in large quantities. He produced the ‘Norwegian brilliant enamel work’ spoons offered in the 1896 and 1898 Christmas catalogues of Liberty, London. Read More →
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Harry Bertoia (1915 – 1978) Italian sculptor, furniture designer
Harry Bertoia was a sculptor, printmaker, jeweller, and furniture designer. He was born in San Lorenzo, Udine, and worked in the United States professionally. During World War Two he worked with Ray and Charles Eames on moulded-plywood technology. He worked primarily as a sculptor from the mid-1950s onwards. His sculpture was prominently featured in many…
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Judith Leiber (1921 – 2018) American designer of handbags
Judith Leiber (1921 – 2018) was a prolific designer whose fanciful minaudières had accessorised royalties, first ladies, and film stars, and entered the collections of art the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While her couture handbags—carried by celebrities such as Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Claudette Colbert, Björk, and Barbara Walters—are widely regarded as works of art,…
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Borje Rajalin (b.1933) Finnish Jewellery Designer
Borje Rajalin is a Finnish Jewellery Designer. Rajalin worked at Bertel Gardberg’s silversmith from 1952 – 1956. His design work included technical equipment, plastic fittings, cutlery, stainless steel table and cookware and with Anti Nurmesniemi in 1972 a train for the Helsinki Railway. They collaborated with station designers to make the metro stations modern and…
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Alma Eikerman (1908 – 1995) American jewellery designer and silversmith
Alma Eikerman (1908 – 1995) was an American jewellery designer and silversmith. Eikerman was born in Pratt, Kansas, and graduated from Kansas State College in Emporia with a B.Sc. in 1934 and an M.Sc. in 1942. Read More →
