Silver lacquer box, 2011, of silver, gold powder and wood by Shinya Yamamura (ippodogallery.com)

I admit it. I’m obsessed with jewelry boxes. This is partly because my own jewelry is overflowing my current jewelry box, stashed in various velvet boxes and satin bags and getting harder and harder to find.

But I also love the idea of beautiful containers for beautiful ornaments. In a perfect world, I would have a whole collection of jewelry boxes and each would hold the jewelry that belongs in it.

In this century, wood became the standard material for jewelry boxes – and there are many stunning examples. But wood is only one option. Asprey & Garrard sell suede-lined portable jewelry cases of stamped calfskin. Bronze and carved stone containers have been around since antiquity.

What would you guess this jewelry box was made from?

Always Blooming copper jewelry box, 2008, by Ryu-Hee Kim with separate containers for each season

I bet “copper” wasn’t your first guess. Ryu-Hee Kim was an art student at Indiana University when she created this wonderful box from copper, with separate containers designed to represent all four seasons. It was intended to hold “special jewelry relating to each season.”

Gemstone has a rich history as jewelry containers go. Master lapidaries during the Renaissance carved vessels called Prunkgefasse— literally, pride- or magnificence-containers—from rare crystals from the Alps. In the 1920s, Cartier made Egyptian- and Chinese-inspired vanity cases embellished with coral, lapis, diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires.

Containers carved of translucent alabaster date to antiquity. The bible even mentions them. Here’s a more recent example:

Alabaster containers designed and carved by Susan Zalkind (alabaster.net)

Can you think of a better place to store floral-theme jewelry – or a more luscious gift box to present a special piece? No one can capture the delicate beauty of a rose like Susan Zalkind, and she does it in alabaster, of all things. The containers she carves with husband Paul Hawkins come from stone they mine themselves, and range from sleek containers inlaid with fossil fish to Susan’s specialty: milky white, semi-translucent containers adorned with hand-carved flowers.

Each flower takes hundreds of hours to carve and their delicate petals look so real, the couple keeps them under glass at craftshows. “People try to smell them,” Susan says. “Old ladies come up and pinch them.”

Hexagonal intarsia box by Nicolai Medvedev of malachite, quartz, sugilite, turquoise, fossilized dinosaur bone, and cuprite. Interior of purpleheart, walnut, cherry wood, picture agate and 18kt gold (northamericangemcarvers.com)

Like the finest Fabergé objects, Nicolai Medvedev’s intarsia boxes are painstakingly handcrafted from high-karat gold, opal, amethyst, and what the Victorians referred to as hardstone: sugilite, malachite, lapis and azurite. Each 18kt gold hinge and clasp is hand-fabricated, each stone carefully shaped. Open a lid, and a jasper landscape appears beneath.

But the fascination of these boxes are their mosaic surfaces. Raised in Russia and trained at the Art Institute of Moscow, Medvedev is a master of intarsia, the labor-intensive lapidary art that flourished in western Europe during the 18th century. The geometric patterns he favors were inspired by the carpets of his homeland, Ashkhabad, Turkmenia, a Russian city near Iran, by the inlay in Middle Asian jewelry, and by the Fabergé he first saw at The Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Related posts:

Handcrafted wood jewelry boxes

Antique Chinese hair ornaments

More work by featured artists:

Shinya Yamamura

Susan Zalkind

Nicolai Medvedev

                          

Jewelry box of Olive ash burl handcrafted by John Farrar (johnfarrardesigns.com)

New jewelry is like new love. Once acquired, it’s difficult to part with. We want to take it everywhere. We struggle to keep our hands off it. Alas, the moment comes when it must be unfastened and put away.

One option is to return the beloved jewel to its velvet box and lock it in a safe. Very smart. Infinitely better than dropping it on the dresser where your cat can play hockey with it. (I speak from experience.)

My personal choice: put the treasure where it’s easily retrieved, in a container worthy of its contents. If you collect handcrafted art jewelry, it belongs in a handcrafted art jewelry box.

Jewelry chest in purpleheart wood by Mike Mikutowski ($300, mikutowskiwoodworking.com)

Wood has become the standard material for jewelry boxes, from craftshows to Target. Today, many woodworkers and furniture designers use exotic woods our grandparents never heard of, and apply aesthetics that evolved in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Tsunami jewelry box of Brazilian cherry with birdseye maple drawer pulls by John Traeger ($225, artistrycraftedinwoodworking.com)

One of the most famous contemporary wood craftsmen is Wendell Castle – and, yes, he makes jewelry boxes. These days they look something like this:

Wendell Castle standing beside his anthropomorphic jewelry case at 2010 Design Miami/Basel (photo Lindsay Pollock)

In Wendell Castle’s hands, a jewelry box becomes contemporary sculpture. A collector of cutting-edge art jewelry couldn’t ask for a more appropriate vessel. It’s also among the most accessible objects in the repertoire of Castle, one of the most inventive furniture designers alive today. His work has been in most major American art museums from the Metropolitan to the Art Institute of Chicago.

“It’s all a question of scale,” he says of his jewelry boxes. Castle’s boxes tend to reflect the aesthetic of the tables and chairs he’s designing. Thus, if you like the lacquered cone desk- and table-legs he became famous for in the early ’80s, you’ll probably go for the piece he cheekily dubbed Late Proposal for the Rochester Convention Center in the Form of a Jewelry Box. Likewise, if you prefer his metal platforms from the ’90s, you’ll covet the mahogany and ebony boxes that seem to float mid-air, carried by a wave of textured bronze.

The one pictured above is the most recent of Castle’s jewelry boxes, and it’s just exactly to my taste. This artist’s boxes may look like sculptures, but they all conceal places to hold rings, necklaces, and brooches, with various drawers and sometimes two levels of trays. “I will never know what people do with these things after they leave my studio, whether they use them or just look at them as objects,” Castle says. “But, oh yes, they’re all fully functional.”

My thanks to Lindsay Pollock for letting me use the photo of Wendell Castle. Check out Lindsay’s wonderful blog Art Market Views.

Related posts:

Thinking outside the jewelry box

Antique Chinese hair ornaments

More work by featured artists:

John Farrar

Mike Mikutowski

John Traeger

Wendell Castle

                          

Me: You’ve written books about ancient forgery and curated exhibits on Pompeii. What’s your true passion?

KL: My passion is the ancient luxury arts – what others call minor arts or decorative arts – gold work, carved gems and ivories.

Ptolemaic gold jewelry, Greek, c. 220-100 B.C., with garnet, carnelian, pearl, bone, moonstone, amethyst, emerald and glass paste (J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection)

Not the kind of antiquity the Getty is famous for. When I think of ancient art at museums, I picture vases and statues.

Most people do because that’s what they see. When most people think of the Ancient Greek and Roman world, we think of marble statues and figured pots. We don’t think of ivories, gems or gold work. Those things have become minor arts in the post-Renaissance view of art history but that doesn’t reflect ancient realities. Of course, larger work like pots and marble statues are what survive well. They’re also easier to display. It’s harder to display gems, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

How important were jewelry and carved gems in ancient times, compared to other decorative arts? How was a goldsmith or gem carver perceived, compared to a sculptor or pot maker?

Engraved amethyst, c. 40-20 B.C., set in 19th century ring (J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection)

Decorative arts is a modern concept. “ars” in Latin and “techne” in Greek mean “craft” and scholars have long debated the degree to which the ancients conceived of art in the modern sense, or artists. Certainly they valued finely made and beautiful objects and some craftsmen became famous. These Greek artists were the old masters most valued by the Romans. Among them were a few gem engravers and silversmiths, certainly not any potters or pot painters. When you hear about an important ancient pot painter, that’s a modern evaluation.

Craftsmen in general were not well thought of by the upper-class writers who are our contemporary literary sources for the ancient world. There were no muses of the visual arts, but rather literature, poetry, and music. Making what we call art was a dirty, lower-class business – you got sweaty. They admired the work, not the worker.

As to the value of the objects, those made of precious materials – gemstones, ivory, gold, silver, etc. – were intrinsically valuable, and thus were often entrusted to better artists, so their overall quality was much higher.

Gold (except in jewelry) and silver are mostly melted down, ivory and fine textiles have decomposed, but gems often survive in condition similar to that when they left the craftsman’s shop. There is quite a wide variety in quality but the best pieces certainly rival, if not surpass, what we have in other materials. Apart from their high monetary value, they were often personal possessions – intaglios as seals were closely bound up with personal identity – and thus valuable symbolically as well, displayed on significant occasions.

Roman gold rings, c. 250-400, of mother-of-pearl, carnelian, rock crystal and agate (J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection)

How valuable were these jewels when they were made?

We don’t have a lot of ancient prices, but Pliny the Elder and other ancient authors record very high amounts paid for tables of imported wood and ivory, gems, and hardstone bowls – single objects worth the equivalent of entire estates. Consider too that the most highly valued object in the inventory of possession of Lorenzo d’Medici upon his death in 1492 was an ancient cameo, valued at 10,000 florins. The next most valuable art object was a painting by Fra Angelico at 106 florins.

I think ancient values would have been similar. Painted pottery, being terra cotta, fired earth, was really cheap – which is not to say that it was not beautiful or valued aesthetically, but those who could afford it drank from finely-crafted precious metal or hard stone vessels.

Roman intaglio rings regularly sell for $2000 to $3000 at major auction houses. What should potential buyers know before they buy ancient jewelry?

Engraved dark green chalcedony set in gold ring, c. 50-40 B.C. (J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection)

As you mentioned on your blog, there are a lot of post-antique gems carved in ancient styles. Not all were made as forgeries. Many were carved all’antica, in emulation of ancient works. It’s often difficult to date them if the carver did not make some iconographical mistake, use the wrong shape of stone or material, or the like, because the techniques have not changed all that much over the centuries. On our website, you can find a video we made for last year’s Carvers and Collectors exhibit that shows Chavdar Chushev, a Los Angeles carver, replicating one of the gems. It demystifies the process in about four minutes.

If it’s that easy, how can we be sure we’re getting the real thing, even from Sotheby’s or Christie’s?

I think the experts at the major auction houses are pretty good but we’re all fallible, and not only do we sometimes think early modern items are ancient, we also sometimes condemn ancient work as early modern.

The auction houses do, I think, guarantee what they sell. What buyers should do, in my view, is what they should do in all cases of buying art – buy what they like and what makes them happy at a price they are willing to pay – and not buy for the label.

As I said, there is a wide range in quality in ancient gems. Because they were used as personal seals, people who were not super-rich had them, and the really nice items do sell for quite a lot today, though often still less than pots and other forms of ancient art, which certainly would have surprised the ancients.

I think many people (me included) are fascinated by the idea of owning a piece of the ancient world – especially something precious, hand-made and wearable. Just how wearable is ancient jewelry?

Gold is incorruptible and gemstones are pretty durable, but stones do fall out of mounts, rings can be banged up and earring hooks break, so people should be careful in checking mounts and what they do when wearing this jewelry. When they own something that is already 2,000 years old, they should also consider that it comes with a responsibility, that they should take care so that it will survive them, as it has all these years.

And, it may be something of subjective call, but the higher the quality of the object, the greater the responsibility, and thus, perhaps, the less the piece should be worn. Consider that it might be okay for me to pin a drawing by my friend up on the wall in a bright room, without any protection, but a drawing by Rembrandt should probably be under protective, anti-UV glass and not in the bright light all the time. That sort of thing.

Related:

Ask an Expert: How to buy ancient jewelry for $3,000 or less, interview with G. Max Bernheimer, head of antiquities for Christie’s New York

Holding up an Ancient Mirror, my profile of Kenneth Lapatin for California, UC Berkeley’s alumni magazine

                          

Carved jade bangle, c. 5th century B.C., sold for $266,500 on a $7000-9000 estimate at Christie's March 25 (Christie's Images Ltd.)

It’s the kind of bracelet you could wear on the subway and nobody would look twice – unless you happen to be sitting next to a museum curator or jade connoisseur. Carved from semi-translucent yellow-green jade, the bangle was created in the 5th century, B.C., during the Warring States Period.

“This period was one of almost total mastery over the jade medium,” writes Angus Forsyth in Jade (Lorenz Books, 1995). “The pinnacle of execution achieved was such that no further innovations of technique were to be necessary until the introduction of carborundum abrasives in the 19th century AD and the electrically operated drill in the 20th century.”

Carved in low relief with a perfectly-proportioned and incredibly-detailed pattern of interlocking scrolls, this bangle was the only piece of jewelry Christie’s chose to highlight on their website before the sale. Was it worth 30 times its estimated value? You’d have to ask a collector – and there were quite a few who wanted, passionately, to possess it.

Carved limestone Bodhisattva sold for $914,500 (est. $300,000-500,000) at Christie's (Christie's Images Ltd.)

“We are thrilled once again with the excellent sale of Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections,” announced Deputy Chairman of Christie’s Americas Theow H. Tow, after Thursday’s sale totaled $4,005,250, tripling pre-sale expectations.

A number of “new collectors” contributed to the feverish bidding, Tow added, ending with 99 percent sold by value, 96 percent by lot, and quite a few prices way above estimates.

Top seller of the day was this large and very rare kneeling Bodhisattva, beautifully carved from limestone some time in the 10th-12th century, right down to the last detail of his foliate crown, topknot and long beaded necklace. Christie’s Chinese art specialist Christopher Engle provides more details in this podcast. Expected to bring $300,000-500,000, the Bodhisattva sold to one of those new collectors for an astonishing $914,500.

                          

The tradition of wearing large hair ornaments in China goes way back, as does the Chinese reverence for jade.

This elegantly carved tube is more than five inches tall and believed to be a hair ornament as well – dating all the way to the Neolithic Period, circa  3500 B.C.

It’s a shape known as mati or “horse hoof” among Chinese archaeologists, who decided – after finding a few next to or under skulls in Hongshain tombs – that these carvings were probably worn on the head. Good guess, I’d say.

This rare example is expected to bring between $20,000 and $30,000 tomorrow, during the first part of the Fine Ceramics and Works of Art sale. [UPDATE: sold for $92,500 - nearly five times the low estimate]

Among the many other jade carvings in the sale are a number of white ones, a rare form of nephrite.

This pendant, probably 18th century, manages to depict “a dragon rising from waves in pursuit of a flaming pearl while being bitten by one chilong to the side, all below a tiger standing at the top peering down” – in only 2 5/8 inches! If you ever wanted something to measure the cheap knock-offs against, I suspect this would be it. But you may have to cough up $60,000 to own it. [UPDATE: Double that - this pendant sold for $134,500.]

The catalog for the sale notes that the pendant “clearly reflects the high skill of the jade carver, who has cleverly carved the details in the pure white portion of the stone, while leaving the golden russet skin and shape of the pebble on the reverse undecorated in appreciation of its natural beauty.”

Christie’s did really well with Arthur M. Sackler’s collections a year ago, so they’re playing up the fact that there are more of the famed philanthropist’s treasures in this auction. [UPDATE: Christie's scored again with the Sackler collections, which brought in $4,005,250 on Thursday - triple the pre-sale estimates.]

                          

Yellow jade bottle, 18th-19th century (est. $3000-5000, Bonhams)

Asia Week is in full swing in New York City, and galleries and auction houses are chalk-a-block  with Japanese, Chinese and Korean art, including some of the finest antique gold, jade carvings and ornament – all for sale to the highest bidders.

For those who can’t be there to admire these treasures at the pre-sale viewings, here’s a taste. Charming snuff bottles from the collection of Margaret Polak go on sale at Bonhams tomorrow, including this classic beauty of yellow jade with the figure of an official sitting under a pine tree carved into the raised, golden-brown layer of skin. The reverse is carved with a rock and waves, and the stopper is coral with a malachite collar.

19th-century pudding stone snuff bottle ($2000-3000, Bonhams)

Here’s a more flamboyant 19th-century take on the snuff theme. Maybe not with the same level of craftsmanship, but how fun – kind of the crazy polka-dot version. It’s carved from pudding stone, with a pearl atop its coral stopper.

And finally (below), a wallop of brilliant color for our winter-weary eyes, a yellow glass bottle from the Qianlong Period, carved with a mallow flower and topped with a glass coral stopper with turquoise collar.

Carved glass snuff bottle (est. $3000-5000, Bonhams)

Bonhams sale starts at 3 pm tomorrow, with viewings until 8 pm today and 10-3pm tomorrow.

Wednesday: a peek at some ancient gold and jade from Arthur M. Sackler’s world-class collections, selling at Chrstie’s on Thursday.

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Prize-winning 113.24-ct aquamarine cut by Michael M. Dyber

American gem carver Michael Dyber won the grand prize in a prestigious gemstone cutting competition in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, for this 113.24-ct aquamarine. The Annual German Award for Jewellery and Precious Stones is like the Oscar for lapidary artists because they’re competing against the world-class carvers Idar is famous for.

Dyber used his trademark optic dish effect on this lovely aquamarine, along with a new technique to reflect optical illusions in three dimensions. He’s the only American to place first twice in the 40 years of the competition. He also won the grand prize at AGTA’s Spectrum-Cutting Edge awards this year, for a similarly-cut amethyst.

One of the best-known American carvers, Dyber began as a bench jeweler and remains meticulous about making his stones easy to set – even the quirkiest shapes (see below). A stone carved by Dyber can appear in the jewelry of several different designers and look remarkably different in each, thanks to his distinctive faceting style.

Dyber’s faceting is a myriad of slashes and distorted depressions that resemble bubbles frozen in glass. His trademark is the optic dish, a concave depression carved into the backs of flawless crystalline gems like citrine, aquamarine and ametrine. Dyber’s dish acts as a spherical mirror, with the front of the stone serving as a lens that optically compresses what is carved on the back.

Ametrine cut by Michael Dyber

Nearly all his work these days is transparent and features some aspect of the optic dish. He manages to keep each piece unique, partly because he lays all facets by hand, holding the stone to a flat, rotating lap he built himself in his New Hampshire studio, and letting its shape and color dictate the carving. Like any painting or sculpture, each Dyber stone is a signed original, microscopically hallmarked to become a traceable art form.

What you can buy for…

less than $1,000 wholesale/$2,000 retail: Some of Dyber’s 15- to 30-carat carvings of citrine, amethyst or rutilated quartz can be had for $1,400 to $2,000 retail. “You probably won’t find aquamarine over 10 carats  in my inventory for that price,” he says, “but you might find ametrine.” Optical rutilated quartz carvings with contrasting matte and polished surfaces are also a good value for the dollar. Dyber bases his prices more on optical dynamics than size or material.

more than $7,500 wholesale/$15,000 retail: Dyber’s gem sculpture can retail for as much as $130,000. One example is “Eternal Flame,” pictured once on the cover of Lapidary Journal, carved from a 12-pound piece of raw Brazilian smokey and rutilated quartz. A palm-size carving of flawless amethyst might retail for $15,000.

Contact Dyber through his website.

                          

The Annenberg Diamond (Christie's Images)

Diamonds brought big prices at Christie’s New York jewelry sale today and the much publicized 32-carat Annenberg Diamond did not disappoint, selling for $7,698,500, more than twice the low estimate. At $240,000 per carat, the Annenberg sets the world record per-carat price for a colorless diamond, according to Christie’s.

“For three and a half hours, between 10 am and 1:30 pm on October 21 at Christie’s, it was as if the recession never happened,” says Rahul Kadakia, head of jewelry at Christie’s New York. “Virtually every lot exceeded its estimate and the $7.7 million Annenberg Diamond astonished even the most seasoned diamond dealer.  It was an auction to remember.” Other impressive diamonds exceeded their low estimates but sold within the expected $1 million+ range.

Taj Mahal Emerald (Christie's Images)

The sale started again at 2:30pm with the Fred Leighton collection, “Rare Jewels and Objets d’Art.” The big-ticket item of that sale, the carved Taj Mahal Emerald, sold at its low estimate, just under $800,000. Two other items from that sale were the big surprises of the evening. A Belle Epoque diamond and rock crystal bow brooch by Cartier sold for $1,082,500, blowing away its estimate of $200,000-300,000, and an emerald and diamond necklace by Harry Winston from 1956 sold for $950,000, twice its low estimate.

                          

“La Maison d'Hortense,” gold and multi-gem birdcage by Verger Frères for Van Cleef & Arpels (Christie's Images)

In the 1930s, Van Cleef & Arpels was commissioned by a Maharajah to create an aquarium for his pet tree frog. “La Maison d’Hortense” was outfitted with a tiny gold ladder for the frog to ascend or descend, according to the weather. The aquarium was later transformed into its present state, a birdcage housing two carved emerald lovebirds. Estimated at $100,000-150,000.

Antique sapphire, spinel and diamond "Blue Venus" sculpture (Christie's Images)

This ethereal creature was carved from sapphire in the mid-19th century and once owned by Prince Youssoupov, best known as “the man who killed Rasputin,” an act that helped bring down Imperial Russia. It’s estimated to sell for $300,000-500,000.

Scent bottle carved from chalcedony, by Boucheron (Christie's Images)

This charming perfume bottle, c. 1895, takes the form of a cat, carved from black chalcedony with emerald eyes, a collar made of diamonds and a gold bell. One of the treasures from Christie’s cancelled sale of April 2008, this piece has dropped from its 2008 estimate of $80,000-120,000 to a current estimate of $50,000-70,000.