Who needs fertility treatments when you can wear jewelry instead – particularly, jewelry like this? Among the earliest treasures on display right now at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts is this Nubian pendant of gold and rock crystal made around 740 B.C. with the golden head of Hathor, a goddess beloved in ancient...
Most of us know by now that Dali, Calder, even Picasso designed jewelry at some point. But Yoko Ono, Frank Stella, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons? Before Picasso to Koons went up at the Museum of Arts and Design last month, I didn’t know they designed jewelry. Most of it is from the collection of...
Continued from Jewelry by Picasso: the secret stash of Dora Maar, part 2 Gloria Lieberman, director of fine jewelry at Skinners in Boston, had not seen the jewelry Picasso made for Dora Maar when we spoke before the 1998 auction, though she has sold plenty of the jewelry he designed with François Hugo in...
Continued from Jewelry by Picasso: the secret stash of Dora Maar, part 1: At the auction, a chrome-metal watch with a brass plaque engraved with a portrait of Maar sold for about $63,000 – 19 times its estimated value of $3,300. A portrait ring in a metal frame of lattice flower work, estimated at...
In case you were wondering, the Picasso in Picasso to Koons: Artist as Jeweler, opening next month at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC, is Pablo, not his daughter Paloma, who designed jewelry for Tiffany. Among the 135 pieces of jewelry by famous 20th century artists, you’ll find five by Pablo Picasso,...
Inspired by a Victorian bicycle brooch in an exhibit opening next month: a look back at the revolution in women's fashion brought about by the bicycle craze of the 1890s.
Ralph Esmerian, former owner of Fred Leighton, pleaded guilty last week to bankruptcy fraud, a tragic turn in a respected family business that took a century to build. The Esmerians began like many jewelry businesses that relocated to New York in the early twentieth century, bringing their expertise in the old world European jewelry...
Yes, $10,000 worth of designer gems around your throat make a statement, but these hand-crafted works of art will get you noticed too. They may say something a little different though: You prefer art over status symbols. You’re more interested in design than intrinsic value. Maybe even that there’s irony in your sense of...
Nothing is more captivating than the glow of ancient gold under museum lights, except maybe for ancient gold in an auction showroom – that is, ancient jewels you could, conceivably, own. Or at least hold, however briefly. Gold jewelry from the ancient Mediterranean has a particular thrill that carries through the millenia, capturing the...
With the death of Elizabeth Taylor today, we lost not only a Hollywood icon and often-amazing actress, but one of the world’s most famous jewelry collectors. Her vivid, colorful life went on for decades longer than Taylor had expected it to, given her history of life-threatening injuries and illnesses – not to mention five...
