In view­ing images of the new exhi­bi­tion at The Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art enti­tled, Art of the Samu­rai: Japan­ese Arms and Armor, 1156–1868, I could help but think of what is mis­tak­enly referred to as Shakudo or Shibuichi jew­elry, the Japan­ese style of work­ing in mixed-metals. In 1873, Emperor Meiji abol­ished the samurai’s right to […]

It was a cool, clear, autum­nal New York night on one at Saks Fifth. A three piece band was play­ing jazz in the back­ground. The hand­some Hut­ton Wilkin­son was sign­ing books and greet­ing all with his sig­na­ture exu­ber­ance and charm. And he kiss­ing those who have taken the time to stop by. My invi­ta­tion came […]

In this well-documented and visu­ally spec­tac­u­lar book, we learn about the birth, evo­lu­tion, and legacy of jew­elry firm we’ve come to know with rev­er­ence and not a lit­tle admi­ra­tion as CARTIER. Estab­lished in 1937 by three broth­ers, Louis, Pierre, and Jacques, the author, Nadine Coleno, does a won­der­ful job of bring­ing them and their legend […]

What does it mean when an arti­san insists he can do nature one bet­ter? It means that he should not only have the guts to ful­fill such a promise, but also do so with equal mas­tery. While many have prof­fered such puffery, Wal­lace Chan seems to have lived up to it. Even the fash­ion folk […]

Just when you thought the museum scene couldn’t get any bet­ter, or at least more beau­ti­ful than the Art Nou­veau trea­sures at The Cincin­nati Art Museum, comes along a show enti­tled The Nature of Dia­monds at The Field Museum in Chicago. The exhi­bi­tion will be on show from Octo­ber 23^rd until March 28, 2010.
The focus is […]

Brooch with an opal and pearl, about 1900
Louis Zorra (pos­si­bly born in Italy and work­ing in Paris, dates
unknown
Gold, […]

I will be attend­ing the con­fer­ence tomor­row and tweet­ing live. Come fol­low all the events at www.twitter.com/LuxArtRocks.

Art Deco Devant de cor­sage by Boucheron, designed by Lucien Hirtz. Image by Skin­ner Inc.
Dur­ing the 1920s, graphic designs de-throned the gar­land style of the courtly Edwar­dian era. Dresses with dropped waists and boy­ish sil­hou­ettes freed women from the hourglass-confines of the corset. Beaded fringe danced in jubi­la­tion at the bot­tom of a flapper’s skirt.
Diamond-cutting […]

He wraps, folds, drapes, and knots fab­ri­ca­tion around the body. He applies jew­elry to the whole by pil­ing decades worth of inspi­ra­tion that messes with this historian’s head — how can a pick­pocket mix of mid-century, the rifts on Sea­man Schepps’ wooden gems, 1960s blends of clash­ing color, David Webb-esque beasts chomp­ing at the bit, […]

This image struck a cord — the aus­tere black top, a slash of pale skin, white shorts (are those shorts?), and of course the ban­gle bracelets that look as though some­one had wrested the spikes off a Stegosaurus. Clearly, Owens woman is not to be messed with — lean the clothes may be, and in […]