These lovely orna­ments are just some of the won­der­ful offer­ings we can look for­ward to this com­ing Sep­tem­ber at The Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art in New York City. The Met’s jew­elry is unique for its qual­ity and atten­tion to detail. The bril­liance behind these designs isn’t merely a mat­ter of copy­ing ancient tech­niques using today’s tech­nol­ogy. In many cases it is about search­ing the globe for crafts­men who still work these meth­ods and then sen­si­tively repro­duc­ing the pieces that have been left to us by antiq­uity. These pieces are clas­si­cal. And in every sense of that rep­re­sen­ta­tion, wear­ing them today only high­lights their design integrity and relevance.

These pieces, together with hun­dreds of oth­ers pro­duced by the Met, were dreamed up by Joanne Lyman who is the man­ager and designer of repro­duc­tion and adap­ta­tion jew­elry for the museum. She has worked for the MMA for more than 30 years and recently told me that she will be retir­ing within a few months. Over the years, Lyman trav­eled the four cor­ners of the world to find arti­sans to repli­cate tech­niques found in jew­elry in the museum’s col­lec­tions. This is not a rou­tine task but in fact is a gar­gan­tuan feat of accom­plish­ment. Most gold­smithing skills found in ancient and even in some antique jew­elry are no longer passed down from father to son as they were in days of old. Cut­ting gem­stones to resem­ble ancient exam­ples or repro­duc­ing gran­u­la­tion (tiny ball-like embell­ish­ment that char­ac­ter­ized Etr­uscan jew­elry) are just some of the intri­ca­cies that make the Met’s jew­elry as fas­ci­nat­ing as it is desirable.

From cos­tume to fine pieces set in pre­cious metal and gem­stones, the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art has been a devoted keeper of the flame that reflects so bril­liantly on jew­elry. This is a noble cause. One that I hope will remain a vital part of its mandate.

After all, what do you do when you have a yen for some­thing ancient?