Kirk self-identified as Armenian despite being born in Los Angeles and raised in New England. One of his Armenian ancestors, Vemian, was a jeweller to the Turkish court. Some of his works are on display at Istanbul’s Topkapi Museum. His grandfather worked for Lalique Glass in Paris as a chief artist.Read More →
Gijs Bakker is a jeweller, sculptor, furniture designer, and, to a lesser extent, industrial designer who studied gold and silversmithing at the Amsterdam Art Academy. READ MORERead More →
She used coloured ivory in her early work. In 1977, she started producing necklaces with bound thread. In 1978, she designed a wood- or silver-framed bracelet with tufts of nylon through which the hand could be squeezed; she was a leader in the new jewellery movement that began in 1968, and she used plastic, cloth, paper, and rubber instead of precious metal.Read More →
Jean Schlumberger (1907–1987), one of the most accomplished artists of the twentieth century, produced objects of unrivalled beauty. He was a man of exquisite taste, a jeweller who created extraordinary jewelled statements with a feeling of depth and life. Read More →
The better-known makers offer better quality. “Gold” that comes off on the skin or with a fingernail is painted, and “crystal” that shatter at a touch is glass, and not very good quality.Read More →
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 one of the American crafts-revival leaders in jewellery, related more to French than English styles.Read More →
Carlo Guiliano was an Italian jeweller and goldsmith who was born in Naples and worked in London. In 1860, Guiliano settled in London and worked for Harry Emanuel. He collaborated with Castellani Italian Jewellers on at least one piece of jewellery. In the archaeological or Etruscan style, he was a talented jeweller. He developed his distinctive style, which was copied a lot in the 1880s and 1890s. The Italian-born Pasquale Novissimo, Guiliano’s assistant, created such delicate enamel decoration on Guillano ‘s pieces that they were difficult to copy.Read More →
Suzanne Belporren was a French jewellery designer. Her career flourished in the 1920s and 1930s. Belperron produced numerous designs of sculptured jewellery for René Boivin’s Paris shop. She subsequently opened her own Paris shop called Herz-Belperron. Her designs often featured glass encrusted with gemstones.Read More →
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, Leiber preferred the word “artisan” to “artist.”Read More →
When Harry Bertoia was 15, he was given the choice of staying in drought-stricken Italy or moving to Detroit to live with his older brother, Oreste. Read More →
What is a cabochon, exactly? What are the different kinds of gilding? What exactly is vermeil? This user-friendly book, which is the first of its kind, provides succinct definitions of key jewellery words. Personal adornment is a shared obsession. It’s a primitive, instinctive, and distinctly human preoccupation.Read More →
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 →
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 →
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. Read More →
With more than 80 stunning photographs, Masterpieces of French Jewelry offers a fascinating look at the most remarkable pieces that found their way into prominent American collections. Like all art, this delightful array of jewelry mirrors the evolving culture of its time. Chapters in this book explore jewelry of the Victorian Era and the Art Nouveau period of the early twentieth century; Art Deco; 1940s retro; up through the 1960s and more contemporary styles.Read More →
Maubossin is a jewellery company in France. The original company was established in 1827 in Paris, on Rue Grenata, where it manufactured jewellery. Starting in 1903, M.B. Noury was the owner and nephew of Georges Maubossin, who had been the director of the company since 1877. Mauboussin succeeded Noury in 1923, changing the firm’s name to Maubossin. At the intersection of rue Saint-Augustin, rue de Choiseul, and rue Monsigny in Paris, at address 3 rue de Choseul, he bought two connecting houses.Read More →
Edward Spenser (1872 – 1938) was a British metalworker, silversmith, and jeweller. He was professionally active in London. Spencer was a junior designer at the Artificers’ Guild. When Montague Fordham took over the Guild in 1903, Spenser became chief designer. Read More →
Lucien Falize (1838- 1897) was French goldsmith and jeweller. He was active in Paris and son of Alexis Falize, father of Andre Falize. When his father retired in 1876, Lucien assumed directorship of the family business. He attempted to expand the business by showing at 1878 Paris ‘Exposition Universelle’ and becoming partners with Germain Bapst. In 1892, the partnership was dissolved. Read More →
Van Cleef et Arpels is a French Jeweller located in Paris. Brothers Julien, Louis, and Charles Arpels and brother-in-law Alfred Van Cleef transformed a small store on place Vendôme, Paris in 1904 or 1906 into Van Cleef et Arpels.Read More →
Georg Jensen was a Danish metalworker. He was born in Faavad. He was apprenticed as a goldsmith. cl895-1901, he studied sculpture, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, Copenhagen. Read More →