The cat­a­log, Enam­els of the World, is for any­one who has admired the textile-like and gem­stone effects recre­ated in the enam­eled jew­els and objet d’art of  Peter Carl Fabergé, Rene Lalique, and Cartier, and of course, the pan­theon of enam­elist– jew­el­ers who fol­lowed in their foot­steps.  The New York Times’ Vic­to­ria Gomel­sky wrote a superb […]

Below is an excerpt from a story in the The New York Times, Novem­ber, 30, 1913, enti­tled, “Hints On Wear­ing Of Jew­els”
“Josephine never wore but one jewel at a time, although she loved them and had so many that they would not all get into the large jewel cab­i­net which belonged to Marie Antoinette. But […]

There is some­thing to be said for ver­sa­til­ity in jew­elry. The dress clip makes this case. Pop­u­lar from the 1920s through the 1950s, these prac­ti­cal sparklers could be found in almost any metal and motif and were com­monly designed in two parts so that they could be worn as a sin­gle orna­ment, or sep­a­rate, mirror-image […]

Not sure if Luca Luca designer Raul Mel­goza intended this col­lier to be worn slightly off-center, still the hint of imbal­ance adds a note of spon­tane­ity to sym­me­try of the dress.
Here igno­rance is bliss. Com­pletely over­look­ing the shape or sil­hou­ette of a neck­line can work when the chain is just long enough to relate yet not […]

Before I visit NY Fash­ion Week I want to men­tion the Anto­nio Pineda ret­ro­spec­tive enti­tled, Sil­ver Seduc­tion, that will show at the Museum of New Mex­ico from June 4, 2010 through Jan­u­ary 2, 2011. If you aren’t famil­iar with Pineda’s immac­u­lately exe­cuted work,  then per­mit me to intro­duce you to a bril­liant Taxco designer whose […]

To see my Roman­tic Jew­elry seg­ment on MARTHA, please click here.
You may also watch any of the other seg­ments and/or view the show in its entirety (FYI: all of Martha’s guests, myself included, share a spe­cial Valentine’s Day mem­ory at the very top of the hour)

The copy and image above are from Christie’s Octo­ber 2006 cat­a­log. The ham­mer price for this win­ter won­der­land was $216,000.
We’re deep into the white stuff here in New York. Lalique cel­e­brated nature’s power to blan­ket an earthy land­scape with snow, and inform us of its magic.

Please note: The jew­elry that was part of my seg­ment on MARTHA is for sale at the fol­low­ing gal­leries in New York:
–Pri­mav­era Gallery
–Kentshire Gal­leries
–Doyle and Doyle
Con­tact infor­ma­tion for these anti­quar­ian retail­ers is listed here.

Tiffany & Co. (Amer­i­can, 1837-present), Pauld­ing Farn­ham (Amer­i­can, 1859–1927), designer.
Iris Brooch, (Pink tour­ma­lines, green gar­net, plat­inum, c.1900–1901). Pri­mav­era Gallery, NY
Photo: Howard Agriesti, […]

Nineteeth-century cameo cuf­flinks of labrador dogs carved in Labradorite. Image from www.vicmart.com
Labradorite is one of my favorite min­er­als used in jew­elry. I was first intro­duced to it many years ago, while work­ing at Edith Weber & Asso­ciates. As Edith and I were pack­ing jew­elry for an upcom­ing show, she handed me an antique ring set […]