Jeweled Splendors of the art deco era: the prince and princess sadruddin aga khan collection
On view
Through August 27, 2017.
About Jeweled Splendors of the art deco era
As a related exhibition to The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s, an installation of more than 100 extraordinary examples of luxury cigarette and vanity cases, compacts, clocks, and other objects of the era are now on view in the Carnegie Mansion’s Teak Room. The collection includes exquisite work from the premier jewelry houses of Europe and America—among them Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Lacloche Frères, Boucheron, and Bulgari—dating from 1910 to 1938. Personal gifts from Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (1933–2003) to his wife, Catherine (b. 1938), the collection was amassed over three decades and displays the excitement, innovation, and creativity of the art deco era at its most luxurious.
Exhibition Catalog
Detailed descriptions of over one hundred objects from the collection photographed for this publication, as well as essays from Sarah D. Coffin and Stephen Harrison, who also curated The Jazz Age, and Evelyne Possemé. Available from SHOP Cooper Hewitt.
Highlights
Explore all the objects in the exhibition online.
The Teak Room
One of Cooper Hewitt’s greatest treasures, the Teak Room represents the most complete existing Lockwood de Forest architectural interior in America still situated in the its original site. Its style is notably different from the rest of the house except for the trim of Andrew Carnegie’s bedroom, now a gallery in the Hewitt Sisters Collect exhibition next door. In the Teak Room, the Indian influence is evident in the patterned wall stenciling lacquered in yellow. It creates a golden light that is reminiscent of Indian latticed screens. Although the walls and ceilings were painted on canvas on site, the carved teak, including that of the built-in cabinet, came from de Forest’s studio in India, using primarily native designs that he adapted.
Featured Image: Photo by Matt Flynn © 2017 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
