BUSTING FREE OF GILDED CAGES

Two women born in the early 1880s. Both possessing good jewelry. And some nerve. One entered into an arranged marriage and founded a community newspaper; the other inspired headlines like this 1918 blurb in the Iron County Register: "Notorious Bandit Escapes Most Famous Detectives of Four Continents..." 

To find out their identities, click here.
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ARCTIC GEMS: GUSTAV MANZ'S POLAR BEAR EXPRESS

Anticipating "The Revenant"—a hundred years before the DiCaprio film—an ornament for a circa 1900s sterling card or accessories tray set with rock crystal. Marked F. Walter Lawrence Inc. 
Image Dale Howell Antiques

On March 6, 1912, a decade after establishing himself as a designing jeweler and fabricator in New York City, Gustav Manz registered copyright for a sculptured group of polar bears on a hill of ice, staking his claim on the motif when icicles were hot thanks to the expeditions of Peary, Shackleton and Cook. The arctic fantasy shown above carries the hallmark of F. Walter Lawrence Inc. and is most likely also the work of Manz, who created other animal-themed accessories and silver novelties for Lawrence and others through the ensuing decades until Manz's retirement in the early 1940s.

Ink and gouache rendering of ring design by Gustav Manz, circa 1910. Mathews family collection

A scrap of inked parchment pasted in Manz's mountings book. Obscured by ancient glue, but unmistakably arctic. We're guessing 1909-11, when sales of polar bear items to Black, Starr & Frost, Tiffany & Co, Cartier and others are recorded in Manz's costbooks. A popular postcard issued by the New York Zoological Park from the same era shows a probable live model for the jeweler, who often made use of the zoo's caged studios for artists.

New York Zoological Park postcard showing one of two 800-pound polar bears captured at Kane Basin in July 1910. The pair, a male and female known as Silver King and Silver Queen, resided with their offspring at the Zoological Park into the 1920s

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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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We welcome comments, and invite you 

to follow us on Facebook, Instagram 

and gustavmanz.com

Copyright © 2015 All Rights Reserved 

GUSTAV MANZ LLC

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 LLC

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