RING IN THE NEW YEAR

"Only connect...."
—E. M. Forster

Gustav Manz design for "Diana" ring mounting  Sold to George Bell, December 1919 Winterthur Museum Archives         NEW YEAR'S EVE By D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) [From Look! We Have Come Through! 1918] THERE are only two things now, The great black night scooped out And this fire-glow. This fire-glow, the core, And we the two ripe pips That are held in store. Listen, the darkness rings As it circulates round our fire. Take off your things. Your shoulders, your bruised throat!          Your breasts, your nakedness! This fiery coat! As the darkness flickers and dips, As the firelight falls and leaps From your feet to your lips! T. R. Smith, comp.  Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious  Amatory Verse.  1921–22. ____________________________________________________________________ We welcome comments, and invite you to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and gustavmanz.com Copyright © 2015 All Rights Reserved  GUSTAV MANZ LLC

TURN HEADS THIS HOLIDAY

STILL DECIDING ON THAT 

PERFECT GIFT?

Our double-sided Elephant Pendant is cast in sterling silver from an original design by Gustav Manz. We share a percentage of proceeds on every purchase with TUSK to help turn the tide on wildlife crime. 
So whether you call "heads" or "tails" the elephants win. 

For our current price list, or to place an order, visit gustavmanz.com.

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A FORGOTTEN TIFFANY DESIGNER

According to records in the Tiffany & Co archives, Izabel M. Coles joined the jewelry design department 1917, and remained with the company into the early 1930s. She was one of a handful of women trained in the applied arts to work on Louis Comfort Tiffany's jewelry, as well as one of a small band of designing women (including Sally James Farnham, wife of Tiffany designer Paulding Farnham) who purchased jewelry directly from Gustav Manz, who created numerous mountings for Tiffany & Co. during the same period.

But there's another side to Coles' career, as described in our guest post for Cooper Hewitt's Object of the Day. For more on Coles' relationship to Manz and his circle, check out Moonstruck Over Moonstone.

Above: A press photo of Coles on the keyboard with screen image of one of her drawings in the collection of Cooper Hewitt Museum 

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GUSTAV MANZ'S "MIDDLE KINGDOM"

Over the holidays we plan to trek over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a look at the 230 objects on loan for its current show "Ancient Egypt Transformed" (through January 24, 2016). Meantime, here's a throwback glimpse of Manz's long flirtation with ancient Egyptian motifs...

Gustav Manz pendant, above, photographed for The Jewelers' Circular review of his work at the MMA eighth industrial art exhibition in 1924 

Other examples of Manz's Egyptian-inspired work can be found here: Scarab Fever

HONEY BEARS

Sketch of gold bear ring mounting set with a star sapphire designed by Gustav Manz, purchased in 1918 by an executive from Walter P. McTeigue & Co.

(Gustav Manz archive, Winterthur)

Ah, November. Before you and your honeybunch hibernate, have a look at these Manz bears 

GILDED MAIDS: ST. LOUIS, SAINT JOAN, AND GUSTAV MANZ

Opal and gold brooch, Gustav Manz (attrib.) for F. Walter Lawrence, circa 1900. Image from "All That Glitters" by Jeannine Falino, Antiques & Fine Art (Autumn 2015)

The halo and fleur-de-lis tipped tresses suggest the Maid of Orleans; the gold-work and other provenance point to Gustav Manz as maker. The opal and gold brooch shown above is currently on view at the Museum of the City of New York, and may in fact be one of the jewels exhibited by F. Walter Lawrence at The Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904. Formerly associated with Jaques & Marcus (and later a director at Marcus & Co.), Lawrence sold art objects, silver, imported goods, and jewelry from his upstairs salon on Union Square. According to entry forms submitted by Lawrence (now archived at St. Louis Museum of Art), his case—one of the largest at the fair—included an opal matrix brooch labeled "Jean D'Arc" executed by Manz. Like most items for this and other arts and crafts exhibits, the gold surrounding the gem was entirely hand-wrought. Lawrence took design credit, although Manz's output as a designing jeweler suggests he probably collaborated there as well. 

Born into a devout German-Catholic family (his younger sister became a nun), Manz built his reputation carving naturalistic motifs in fine metal, as well as heroic figures from classical mythology and history; he produced more than a few ecclesiastical commissions during his long career, while fabricating jewelry for Tiffany, Marcus & Co, Dreicer & Co, Theo. B. Starr, Black Starr & Frost, and many other retailers during the Gilded Age. Joan of Arc was hardly a new subject in jewelry or any other art medium. Mark Twain, a huge fan, published a volume of his "personal recollections" of Joan in 1895. In early 1900, French filmmaker Georges Méliès directed a popular silent movie based on the life of the Maid that added fuel to the centuries-long fervor to canonize her (it finally happened in 1920). In short order, Edison Studios got hold of a pirated print and distributed dupes in the States. By the time their "Jean" appeared at the fair, Manz and Lawrence were simply riding the wave.

We can't know for certain if the gold and opal brooch in the Museum of the City of New York show is the same piece, but we'd love to see it next to the ornamental comb (below) from the permanent collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art, thought to be another one of Lawrence's entries at the 1904 exposition ("Cyprian glass fragment and gold Lotus and Dragon-Fly Com") also executed by Manz. 

Gold, ancient glass, tortoiseshell lotus and dragon-fly comb. Design attributed to F. Walter Lawrence; maker Gustav Manz. Image courtesy Cleveland Museum of Art

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FLIP A COIN

Cast from the original by Gustav Manz, our two-sided e-coin could be worn as a pendant, charm, earring—or the last chip wagered after a long poker night. Availaible in sterling silver or gold. We share proceeds with Tusk Trust. Inquire at gustavmanz@gmail.com

MOONSTRUCK OVER MOONSTONE: IZABEL COLES AND BETH S...

The little known collaboration between Tiffany designer Izabel M. Coles and intaglio artist Beth Benton Sutherland (click title below to read full post)

MOONSTRUCK OVER MOONSTONE

ALL THE PRETTY HORSES

In anticipation of this year's Belmont Stakes—where American Pharoah and his rider Victor Espinoza will race to end a 37-year drought on Triple Crown winners—we offer a collage of spirited stallions by Gustav Manz and others. 

From top left: detail from manufacturing order for a Manz horse brooch and other jewelry, c. 1911 (Ferdinand Hotz stock book, courtesy Hotz family archives); yellow-gold and water-green tourmaline ring from F. Walter Lawrence's atelier, most likely carved by Manz (The Keystone, July 1905); Rosa Bonheur's iconic painting of the horse market held in Paris on the trued-lined Boulevard de l’Hôpital, completed in 1855 and given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1897. According to the Met's website, Bonheur sketched there twice a week for a year and a half, "dressing as a man to discourage attention."

Buyers for this and other equestrian motifs included Tiffany, Cartier, Shreve Crump & Low, T.B. Starr, F. Walter Lawrence, Udall & Ballou, Marcus & Company, Black, Starr & Frost, Bailey, Banks & Biddle

Image from "A Master Sculptor in Precious Metals" 

Arts & Decoration, January 1926

 

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THE UNSINKABLE ELINOR EVANS KLAPP

Brooch designed by Mrs. W. H. Klapp, with moonstone intaglio depicting Nike holding a laurel wreath, circa 1890-1910. Currently part of 

The Driehaus Museum exhibit "Maker and Muse" 

(Bronson Family Collection)

Read full post here: 

SAPPHIRES AND SUFFRAGETTES

GILLOT, MARCUS & COMPANY AND GUSTAV MANZ

FRENCH CONNECTION

Hand-carved in gold by Gustav Manz, circa 1920s 

shown with Gillot & Co jewelry box (Private Collection)

See original post here: French Connection

SAY MY NAME... FORGING A REPUTATION AT THE 1901 ARTS & CRAFTS EXHIBITION

Mermaid Ring by Gustav Manz for F. Walter Lawrence, circa 1900. 

Lawrence and Manz exhibited a Mermaid scarf pin with a baroque pearl at the Providence Art Club Arts & Crafts Exhibition in March-April 1901

Mark: 'F. LAWR.' Private Collection 

Early in 1901, the Providence Art Club issued a circular soliciting entries for an exhibition of arts and crafts. We recently unearthed a copy of the original catalog at the NYPL and rifled through in search of the usual suspects. 

And there it was: the earliest reference we've found of Gustav Manz's output as an artist and jeweler's jeweler. The typesetter's misspelling of the craftsman's first and last name are unfortunate, but close enough: shown here with a detail from a Manz drawing in a private collection and the brass doorknocker on the club's entrance on Thomas Street, at the base of college hill....

                

Left clockwise: cover from Arts & Crafts exhibition catalog; door of the Providence Art Club; Manz's gouache design of a dryad holding grape cluster; list of pieces in F. Walter Lawrence's display—all made by Manz

The show's run was only 3 weeks — from March 19 - April 9 — but it featured over 600 objects: an impressive array not only of jewelry but art works in wood, glass, pottery by noted ceramicists such as William Grueby, textiles and furniture, leatherwork, bookbinding. At the center of the hall's upper tier was a display of favrile glass lent by Tiffany Studios. 

Tiffany glass at the 1901 Providence Art Club Exhibition

Courtesy of Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Museum Archives

via Antiquesandfineare.com

According to a circa 1901 review in THE ARTIST magazine, the organizers' main objectives were to give individual craftsmen credit for their work, and "the excluding of works which could not, strictly speaking come under the head of art..." More impressive still, the club "even succeeded in enforcing the mention of the designer's and artisan's names in the case of objects exhibited by commercial firms." In 2001, the Providence Art Club celebrated the centennial of that influential exhibit with a show celebrating work of contemporary artisans.

Despite campaigning by arts associations, crediting individual makers for "added value" was a short-lived experiment. Branding with small plaques, stamps, or boxes bearing the retailer's name remained the norm, and still does. 

Even so, we're keeping an eye out for a grasshopper with baroque pearl and heart-shaped peridot brooch...

Front view of the Manz mermaid ring 

Image Tadema Gallery, London

Special thanks to the Librarians of Room 300 at the Main Branch of New York Public Library 

for assistance in accessing the Providence Art Club exhibition catalog 

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All Rights Reserved 

 GUSTAV MANZ LLC

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