jewelry

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Image features a bronze brooch in the realistic form of a decayed and torn dried leaf, in tones of ochre to golden brown. Please scroll down to read the blog post about the object.
Capturing a Bit of Autumn
This bronze brooch by John Iversen, in the form of a delicate decaying leaf with all its ripples and tears, celebrates the variety, cycles, and even decline found in nature. Variations in the metal’s color and finish meticulously capture a dry leaf’s faded hues and brittle textures, heightening a sense of nature’s unpredictability and randomness....
Image features a small copper brooch in the form of a lobster, the patinated surface in tones of bright copper to warm brown. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Rebajes: A Life Made of Copper
In recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15, 2019), this week’s Object Of The Day posts celebrate Latinx designers’ works in the collection. This post was originally published on July 6, 2017. In 1922, Francisco Torres arrived in New York on a steam ship from his hometown of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, at...
Image features a gold-toned ring with the capital letters L and O (on angle), stacked over the letters V and E, spelling out the word love. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
L-O-V-E
In celebration of World Pride, June Object of the Day posts highlight LGBTQ+ designers and design in the collection. This gilded metal ring bears the motif of one of pop art’s most recognizable artworks. Modeled after Robert Indiana’s LOVE graphics and sculptures, the ring represents an element of popular design that reveals the relationship between...
Image features a cuff bracelet of roughly circular form composed of two intertwined curved strands of silver containing a central irregular triangular panel. The silver surface has passages of dark patination. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Art in Metal: The Modernist Jewelry of Greenwich Village’s Art Smith
From the archives, an Object of the Day post on the jewelry of Art Smith, one of the designers featured in Jewelry of Ideas.
Image features a ring composed of an wide adjustable silver band featuring a large piece of iridescent abalone shell with a lustrous baroque pearl. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Find a Treasure at the End of the Rainbow
The colors of the rainbow are captured in this ring by Francisco Rebajes, highlighting the luminescence that naturally occurs in abalone shell and pearls. This adornment for the hand  is composed of an adjustable silver band featuring a lustrous mass of shell from the abalone, a type of sea snail, combined with a baroque pearl...
Image features brooch of inverted ovoid form composed of various media and costume jewelry fragments: colorful cast metal fringe-like surround, small red figure of Venus, plastic globes suggesting oranges, colored beads and glass pastes, central metal fleur-de-lys, plastic white pineapples, and glass leaves. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Fruit-topped Hats and Mixed Media Jewelry
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. The Venus brooch by Judy Onofrio radiates with a splash of color and a sense of humor. Reminiscent of fruit-topped headdresses seen in old movie musicals, the form is decorated with tiny found fragments–plastic beads suggesting oranges,...
Image features matte gold brooch with coral accents in the form of an abstracted female torso. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Golden Imperfections
Confrontational, playful, and even cartoonish are some of the adjectives that describe Manfred Bischoff’s style.  Born in the Black Forest town of Schömberg, Bischoff began his training as a goldsmith’s apprentice and went on to study with Reinhold Reiling and Hermann Junger, both trailblazers in the modern art jewelry movement in Germany. Bischoff’s style was...
Image features pair of bracelets, each a wide, flexible, linked band comprising three black-toned openwork segments with a quatrefoil-and-foliate pattern alternating with rosettes, all in Gothic Revival style. Please scroll down to read the blog post about these objects.
Iron Jewelry: Grace from the Most Basic of Elements
Each of these iron fretwork bracelets is a wide, flexible, linked band comprised of three segments with a quatrefoil-and-foliate pattern alternating with rosettes, all rendered in the Gothic Revival style. Each large ornamental clasp, which is similar in design to the smaller elements, yet more detailed, serves as a focal point when the bracelet is...
Image features brooch of long organic shape, the irregular edges bordered in gold, surrounding abstract decoration of gold strips enclosing cloisonné enamel in tones of white, yellow-green, gold and black; baroque pearl and faceted square citrine at bottom. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Jeweler’s Magic; The Sorcerer’s Stone
To celebrate the opening of Iridescence, on view through March 24, 2019, Object of the Day this week will feature iridescent objects in the collection. William Harper’s hand-crafted jewelry includes brooches, pendants, and necklaces, each telling a story of their own. Harper specializes in cloisonné enameling, an ancient decorative technique that has remained virtually unchanged...
Image features a gold brooch of symmetrical geometric form reminiscent of a machine part; composed of a central shaft with two sets of ten small cylinders bundled around the center, encircled by a large beaded band at the center; conical terminals situated at each end of the central shaft with small beaded bands just inside. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Industrialization and Jewelry, Influences of the Machine
This very modern looking gold brooch dates to the 1870s. Its geometric form is comprised of cylindrical elements and tiny rivet-like bosses (round knobs, studs, or other protuberances). The symmetrical structure features a central shaft with two sets of ten small cylinders bundled around the center. Encircling these is a large beaded band at the...
Image features gold toned metal brooch with red white and blue enamel and glass paste decoration depicting the great seal of the United States: a shield supported by a bald eagle, wings and legs outstretched, holding a scroll in its beak with the motto “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” and grasping an olive branch in its right talon and a bundle of arrows in its left talon; above its head a scalloped blue circle with 6 glass pastes and gold toned surround. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Celebration of Unity, Sweetheart Jewelry from the World War II Era
This U.S. insignia brooch by Trifari dates back to 1945, and is made from gilded metal and glass. Wearing a pin designed after the country’s seal was an opportunity for women to express their patriotism, especially in 1945, a time marked by victory in Europe and Japan. This brooch is part of a wider trend...
Image features suit of necklace, brooch, earrings, bracelets and bodice ornament with sead pearl decoration in floral forms. Please scroll down to read th blog post about this object.
Pearls for the Bride, a Lasting Tradition
This set of seed pearl jewelry from the 1830s is referred to as a parure, essentially a matching suite of jewelry comprising interchangle pieces that expand the wearability of the set. A parure has three or more pieces: typically, a necklace, at least one pair of earrings, a brooch, bracelet, and in larger sets, a...
Image features a circular silver form covered in bright green flocking with decoration of pink, red, and orange balls of various sizes scattered on its surface. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Pops of Color and Texture
In celebration of The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, this Object of the Day post takes a multisensory approach to an object in Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. This whimsical bracelet from Daniel Jocz’s Candy Wear series reminds us that one of the most important aspects of jewelry is the joy it brings to both the wearer...
Image features brooch in butterfly shape made of thin gold wire, with face of woman and hair coiled into butterfly’s wings; small diamonds and emeralds throughout. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Two Creative Eras, One Design Aesthetic
This brooch, entitled Melusine, was designed by Marie-Claude Lalique and dates to about 1965. Made of thin gold wire, the brooch features the face of a woman whose hair swirls and coils into the wings of a butterfly. The piece is enhanced with a scattering of diamonds and emeralds. The date of 1965 may be...
Image features a C-shaped bracelet with large oval crystal stone clasp. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
The First Lady of Scandinavian Design
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. This cuff-like bracelet with large oval stone clasp was designed by Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe in 1968. It is made of silver and rutilated smoky quartz. The bracelet’s simple form is emblematic of Torun’s philosophy that jewelry should...