TRAVELS WITH JEWELRY HISTORIANS

In deep midwinter, Miami is Mecca for dealers and aficionados of pre-owned baubles with impressive age, heritage, and/or beauty. For five days in late January exhibitors and a few thousand jewelry enthusiasts take up the lion's share of booths at the Original Miami Beach Antique Show (OMBAS). Two days prior to this year's OMBAS, U.S. Antiques Show hosted its second annual Jewelry History Series. The brainchild of Elyse Karlin (author/curator/co-director of ASJRA) and Gail Brett Levine (gemologist and current head of the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers), the conference is open to "retailers, wholesalers, appraisers, new collectors, old collectors or anyone with an interest in learning about the history of antique jewelry." 

                       

Scheduled to give our talk on the second day, we boarded our flight to Miami/Fort Lauderdale seconds before winter storm Juno closed airports, and spent our first hours in South Beach acclimating to al fresco dining in January. Unseasonably cool daytime temperatures (60s-70s) discouraged donning monokinis, but most outdoor cafes are equipped with braziers large enough to melt an iceberg. The neighborhood looks like a giant stack of deco trinket boxes, making it the perfect venue for a gathering of jewelry geeks. On the sidewalk outside the Convention Center dealers hoisted blue plastic tubs filled with treasure under a matching sapphire sky. 

Our slideshow followed Manz's trajectory from artist-goldsmith in the early 1900s to "jeweler's jeweler" in the 1920s and 30s. Other talks covered designers who drive the auction market today, historical interpretations of recurring motifs like the Medusa or bow-knot brooches, and the evolution of costume jewelry in the 20s and 30s. A panel of four experts—a dealer, a historian, an appraiser, and a curator—offered different points of view on the technical merits, collector appeal, and market value of various designer and period pieces. 

                      

            

The final day included a walkabout tour of four exhibitor booths and a closing "networking" reception attended by several dealers and an Antiques Roadshow appraiser. As one conferee summed up: "How lovely to spend 2 days in Miami Beach and talk non-stop about jewelry." 

              

                     

A GIFT FOR GOOD

Looking for that perfect gift for someone you love? 

By purchasing any of these sterling and gold accessories, you'll also be giving a gift to a group working to protect elephants and other endangered species. 

For over two decades Tusk has worked to promote and fund conservation, community development, and environmental programs across Africa. 

Each piece, inspired by the designs of early 20th century craftsman Gustav Manz, is hand-crafted in sterling or gold and from every sale a portion goes to support Tusk’s programs and help turn the tide on wildlife crime.

For current price list, or to place an order, please contact gustavmanz@gmail.com.

NEO-GOTHIC GEMS

Ring design by Gustav Manz shown with Charles Negre's famous image of Henri Le Secq next to "Le Stryge" at Notre Dame de Paris (Negre photo courtesy NYPL Digital Collection; drawing from Manz family collection)

Quand on sait voir, on retrouve l'esprit d'un siècle et la physionomie d'un roi jusque dans un marteau de porte. 
—Victor Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris

What a banquet of visual inspiration lay in store for a young jewelry designer and metal sculptor wandering around Paris in the late 1880s as the city prepared to host L'Exposition Universelle. An early Gustav Manz trade brochure, circa 1910, advertises a dozen revivalist motifs—Greek, Heraldic, Empire, and Gothic—absorbed from his journeyman years working there and in other jewelry centers. 

The mounting for this circa 1880s gold, citrine, and ruby ring by an unknown maker mimics the same architectural tracery as Manz's neo-gothic design shown above

 (image Tadema Gallery)

Sketches pasted into business ledgers and a scrapbook of gouache and ink design drawings dating from the late 1900s and early 20th century reveal Manz's expertise in capturing the tracery, gargoyles, and other embellishments borrowed from Medieval and Renaissance architecture on a miniature scale. 

           Hammered sterling salt dishes signed by Manz                                         Mathews family collection

As Manz's career trajectory shifted from Europe to New York, and progressed into the mid-20th century, he carried forward the strong historicism and metallurgic techniques passed down (or imitated) from old-world masters such as Jules Wiese, Louis Aucoc, and the Castellani, who were at the top of their game when he began as an apprentice in Baden in the early 1880s. 

Gold and diamond ring carved in shape of a Wyvern 

Gustav Manz, circa 1895-1920 

Private Collection

[Translation for Hugo citation: "When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door."] 

                           

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 GUSTAV MANZ LLC

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ROLLING STONES

 

Circa 1920s deco dress clip. Photo in Gustav Manz archive, Winterthur Library, Joseph Downs Collection

"Kissing your hand may make you feel 
very very good, but a diamond and 
safire (sic) bracelet lasts forever." 

—Anita Loos

A diamond clip with Greek Key motif identical to the one shown above appears in a circa 1932 sales catalog for liquidation of jewels formerly owned by the elder son of Thomas Kirkpatrick, founder of the old New York firm T. Kirkpatrick & Co. Two hundred and ten round and 18 baguette stones radiate from a pair of stylized banded fleur de lys where the two halves meet (raising the total by an additional 2 baguettes and 12 rounds). The maker, Gustav Manz, was a long-time supplier to Kirkpatrick, and other Gilded-to-Deco era retailers.

Greek key ring mounting designed by Gustav Manz 

circa 1905-1920

Manz's father-in-law and business partner Charles (Carl) Bachem was a manufacturing jeweler who'd emigrated from Pforzheim to open a diamond ring factory in Newark in 1892. For "convenience of the trade," Bachem distributed his cluster heads through Maiden Lane diamond setters John C. Nordt and Gottfried Heppdin. (To this day, descendants of Nordt fabricate ring blanks for the trade.) 

"Superior to Anything Ever Shown" 
(Jewelers' Circular, February 1897)

Shortly after moving the factory to Maiden Lane in 1899, Bachem retired for health reasons, turning the reins over to his son-in-law and his own wife, Sophie, who soon after reincorporated as Manz & Co. The pair were soon joined by Walter P. McTeigue (another manufacturing jeweler who'd recently split from his partner), producing "fine diamond and carved jewelry" that was carried by premier merchants in Philadelphia, Palm Beach, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., as well as elite retailers along Ladies' Mile. Six years later, Manz split off from McTeigue to set up on his own account. 

1920s diamond ring, marked Gillot & Co, engraved with stylized fleur de lys along shank and laurel leaves on prongs. Paul Gillot—a former design associate with Marcus &amp—frequently purchased mountings from Manz's studio

 (Photo courtesy Erie Basin)

By 1925, the same year Harper's Bazaar serialized Anita Loos' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Manz had moved his business to its final location in Manhattan's new jewelry district above 42nd Street, a convenience for his best clients—Tiffany, Black Starr & Frost, Marcus, Kirkpatrick, and Pickslay & Co—who'd followed their affluent customers from lower to upper Fifth Avenue in much the same spirit as Loos' practical-minded heroine Lorelei Lee.

"Any girl who was a lady would not even think 

of having such a good time that she did 

not remember to hang on to her jewelry." 

—Anita Loos

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                                             GUSTAV MANZ LLC

THE JEWELRY WHISPERER

This weekend we made a quick pilgrimage to Ogunquit, Maine hoping to find traces of Angela Vedder, a self-taught jeweler and gem collector who lived there during the 1920s and whose father-in-law, Elihu Vedder, was one of the early members of the art colony. 

Art Colony, Perkins Cove, Ogunquit Maine, circa 1930s 

Boston Public Library

With husband Enoch Rosecrans Vedder, Angela designed clasps for brocade purses and carved wooden chests that married well with the hand-wrought jewelry the couple exhibited at Chicago Art Institute shows and other venues. The Craftsman noted that Mrs. Vedder not only executed her designs but forged her own tools.

Handbags and other accessories by Angela Vedder 
The Craftsman, January 1916

Enoch's main profession was designing villas for expats like his parents, who owned a compound on the Isle of Capri. The younger Vedders' city residence was a Manhattan penthouse in the East 20s, where they kept a collection of historical jewelry picked up from trips abroad. After burglars fleeced the apartment during a daylight robbery in 1910, The New York Times reported: "There is only one clue to the identity of the robbers. Two of the most valuable necklaces in Mrs. Vedder's collection were not taken. At first Mrs. Vedder could not understand this. Later an idea came to her. These were the only jewels in her collection which contained opals. The burglars were superstitious, she thinks." 

The Times picked up on the inference—that opals had a reputation in certain immigrant communities for bringing bad luck, so might be difficult to fence—and concluded jingoistically that "American burglars are usually of stiffer mold." Enoch managed to recover some of the stolen articles, tracing them to local pawn shops.* 

Elihu Vedder design for mermaid window (detail), 
A.H. Barney residence NY, 1882 
Cooper Hewitt Museum

Following Enoch's death in 1916—from a fever he contracted while convalescing from a "nervous collapse" at his parents' home in Italy—Angela kept their studio on Bleecker Street going, running advertisements in Vanity Fair (under her married name) for customized purse clasps that coordinated with her hand-made jewelry. After America entered the first world war, Vedder's career took an unexpected turn. Hearing of the challenges facing amputees and shell-shocked American soldiers sent home from the battlefields in France, she established and taught the first "occupational therapy" jewelry classes for injured veterans at Walter Reed Army Hospital (midcentury silversmith Margaret Craver filled a similar role during WWII).  

In 1924, having resumed her career as "Society's 'Personality Jeweler'" Vedder shared her Walter Reed experience with a reporter for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle: "You know, a good many of the boys—the ones that had lost arms or hands or legs—didn't much care what became of them. They thought nobody wanted them around because they were crippled. So they didn't make the slightest effort towards getting well. The doctors and nurses didn't know what to do with them. They couldn't be stirred out of their despondency. Then I came along with my jewelry—with its message of love and beauty and humanity—and almost at once things began to change... It was something to make you want to be ten people, to make a hundred more boys see things rationally. And a the same time it was fitting some of them for good jobs later on." 

Vedder, at left, teaching soldiers at Walter Reed hospital 
Jewelers' Circular, April 19, 1919

Over the next decade Vedder traveled to Havana, the UK, Scandinavia, and the European continent, returning to Ogunquit each summer with fresh treasures to share with customers who visited her 18th-century rose-trellised cottage on Oar Weed Lane, overlooking Perkins Cove. Her shop, adjacent to a popular tearoom called the Whistling Oyster, offered hand-made jewelry, carved jade and Chinese enamels, antique caskets, and other objets for customers seeking a touch of global chic.

1923 passport photo of Angela Vedder, 
then in her late 40s
National Archives

During her marriage to Enoch, Vedder lived at 50 East 29th Street, just one block north of Gustav Manz's jewelry studio at 37 East 28th. Combining the roles of manufacturing jeweler and metal craftsman, Manz exhibited his sculpture and jewelry at the National Arts Club, the Metropolitan Museum's annual industrial arts exhibition, and other venues for fine handicraft. Like Vedder and others creating custom accessories for the well-heeled, he borrowed palettes and motifs from the Far East for his high-end customers, such as a series of gold and enamel brooches and pendants featuring apple-colored colored jades cut in circular and marquise shapes for Tiffany & Company.

In the 1920s leisure-class American women were infatuated by mahjong and fashions inspired by Chinese dress; this carved jade and enamel "broche" created in Gustav Manz's studio for Tiffany & Company answered the call

In fall of 1931, Vedder's annual pilgrimage to Europe ended tragically when she contracted a severe case of chicken pox. She died at the hospital in Marseille on October 13, two weeks shy of her 55th birthday. Her remains were interred at Saint-Pierre Cemetery. Survivors included her younger sister, Clara Reston Myron, a summer resident of Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, and three nephews.

From Lost York County by Steven A. Burr, The History Press, Copyright 2009

No designs attributed to Vedder or part of her private jewelry collection (even the mysteriously passed-over opals) appear to have surfaced at jewelry auctions or exhibits. But her conviction that craftwork can be restorative for both maker and collector certainly lives on—as we learned on our stroll through Perkins Cove. Though the tearoom and cottage that housed Vedder's gallery were lost to fire in the 1970s, shops featuring local artisans (including one named for the original Whistling Oyster) now crowd Oar Weed Lane like wildflowers sown by the town's original bohemians. 

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Thanks to Jane Shapleigh Edgecomb, administrator at the Historical Society of Wells and Ogunquit, for information about the art colony, and to the University of Wisconsin Digital Library of the Decorative Arts and Material Culture for image from The Craftsman.

* For more on the theft of the Vedders' jewels see "Artistic Thieves Rob the Vedders: Rare Discrimination Shown by Men Who Devastate the Home of Antique Workers" (New York Times, July 6, 1910) and "On the Trail of Thieves with Art Training: Rare Objects Stolen from E.R. Vedder a Year Ago Appear Here in Pawnshop" (New York Times, July 25, 1911). 

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Copyright © 2017 | All Rights Reserved 

 GUSTAV MANZ LLC

NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS

Almost famous: A friend spotted the gold version of our Gustav Manz elephant bracelet in the trailer for the new Keira Knightly film "Begin Again"—worn by her co-star (and Tusk Trust patron) Catherine Keener. Manz's pieces were sold by Cartier, Tiffany,  Black Starr & Frost, and many other firms. His signature cuff was reintroduced to help local communities protect threatened African herds.  

Can't wait to see our little ellies on the big screen — and a concerted effort to avert the wanton destruction of wildlife with whom we share this planet.

About the Elephant Bracelet 
In partnership with the artist's descendants, Tusk is offering a limited edition of the Elephant Bracelet, from which one third of the proceeds goes directly into the field to support an end to the illegal ivory trade. The bracelet, handmade in sterling or gilt silver, signed and numbered. For current price and ordering details please contact gustavmanz@gmail.com. 

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Copyright © 2014 
All Rights Reserved 

 GUSTAV MANZ LLC

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THE 3650 CAMPAIGN

The African Elephant is in a race against time. With as many as 35,000 being poached each year—ten percent of the total population of elephants on the continent of Africa–this magnificent species may only have ten years (3650 days) left. In partnership with the artist’s descendants, Tusk USA is offering a limited edition of Gustav Manz's Elephant Bracelet, from which one third of proceeds goes directly into the field to support an end to the ivory trade. 

                                                              

GUSTAV MANZ was born in Stockach, Germany in 1865. Following apprenticeship with a master goldsmith in Baden, he boarded the fast mail-boat to Cape Town, South Africa, and found work in the area’s diamond and gold mines. He reemerged in Paris in time for the Exposition Universelle of 1889 and absorbed the unique designs of Rene Lalique and other Art Nouveau artists who would inspire his own jewelry obsession: fauna and flora in their natural habitat. After further travel, including an extended trip to Cairo, Egypt, and the Nile Valley to sketch and assist at tomb excavations, he settled permanently in New York City. In the early 1920s he moved his workshop to West 48th Street, opposite today’s Rockefeller Center, remaining at that location until shortly before his death at 81. 

An early member of the New York Zoological Society (now World Conservation Society), Manz befriended the keepers and spent hours observing and drawing his favorite animals—tigers, panthers, bears, and other large mammals. His familiarity with their individual physiques and personalities is evident in his hinged silver cuff depicting elephant mothers and calves walking through a leafy setting. A jeweler’s jeweler, Manz gained a reputation for his remarkably lifelike botanical and animal figures carved in precious metal, attracting orders from Tiffany & Co, Black Starr & Frost, Cartier, Raymond Yard, and Shreve Crump & Low, as well as commissions for noted artists of the day, among them Sarah Bernhardt and Enrico Caruso. His pieces were exhibited at international expositions and arts and crafts shows, and examples of his metal work are in the collections of the Cleveland Museum, Newark Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For details on pricing and how to place an order, please contact gustavmanz@gmail.com

 * Bracelet will ship within 4-6 weeks upon receipt of payment.

For more information please visit:  www.gustavmanz.com

To read more about the artist please visit the New York Times article:
'Giving a Craftsman His Due'

 PHOTO: JOE GOLD