Designing Women

December 1, 2014
By Phyllis Schiller

Chicago Arts and Crafts carved moonstone brooch by Elinor Klapp, circa 1895 to 1914. From collection of the Bronson family. Photo by Firestone and Parson.

As society moved from the strictures of the Victorian era to a new century of technological advances and social reforms, a new aesthetic was born. A wave of artistic movements that broke with tradition was translated into art jewelry, prized for its design creativity. With women exploring new freedoms, they became more than just an audience to appreciate this forward-thinking genre. They were active participants, being either the makers of the jewelry or being depicted on the jewelry, says Elyse Zorn Karlin, curator of a new exhibition, “Maker & Muse: Women and Early Twentieth Century Art Jewelry.” The exhibition opens February 14, 2015, at The Richard H. Driehaus Museum in Chicago. More than 250 pieces of featured jewelry, as well as accessories and other adornments illustrate both the diversity and common themes of art jewelry from the turn of the century through World War I. Five areas of artistic designs are showcased: British Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Jugendstil in Germany and Austria, Louis Comfort Tiffany and American Arts and Crafts in Chicago. Many of the pieces are from the collection of the museum founder, Richard H. Driehaus, and have never before been displayed in public; others are on loan from museums and private collections. Paving the Way Prior to the late-Victorian era in England, the idea of women as jewelers was considered inappropriate. But a growing class of unmarried “destitute gentlewomen” needed a means to support themselves, points out Karlin, and making jewelry at home became acceptable. Most of them sold directly to clients, some went into business with their spouses, including such well-known Arts and Crafts husband-and-wife teams as Arthur and Georgina Gaskin and Nelson and Edith Dawson. The women were self-taught, but so, for that matter, says Karlin, were many of the men pioneering these new jewelry styles. The exhibition starts with five pieces from London jeweler Charlotte Newman. “Although she is pre-Arts and Crafts, she’s the first woman jeweler we know of in nineteenth-century England,” explains Karlin. She worked for John Brogden, a well-known English Revivalist jeweler and exhibited with him at the Paris expositions of 1867 and 1878, even winning an award as his collaborator. When he died, she continued the business on her own. “The women jewelers of the Arts and Crafts movement stood on her shoulders,” says Karlin. “She broke through the glass ceiling.” Feminine Factors Although the British Arts and Crafts movement started in the 1860s, it didn’t carry over into jewelry until the 1890s. At the time, the suffragette movement brought the discussion of women’s rights to public attention and women’s dress reforms were taking place. Gone were the corsets and in were more comfortable and flowing clothes, which necessitated a different kind of jewelry. Showcased in this area of the exhibition is a pair of hair combs by Ella Napper, who worked for London jeweler Fred Partridge and then on her own. Made of carved horn with moonstones, the hair combs look like lily pads with drops of dew. The British Arts and Crafts movement was meant for the common man who had an artistic appreciation. France’s Art Nouveau jewelry, however, was aimed at a wealthy clientele and was often made of precious materials. Although women and nature were common subjects, there was a dichotomy in how French artists saw women, Karlin says. While they often glorified the female form, they didn’t like that women’s role in society was changing. “And you can see this in the jewelry,” explains Karlin. “Some pieces have sweet women with flowing hair and others depict fantasy sylphs, fairylike creatures, and even sirens, drawing men into their lairs. Salome and Medusa are themes seen in Art Nouveau jewelry.” Along with some “wonderful Lalique pieces,” the work of Elizabeth Bonté is featured. “She is the only woman designer in French Art Nouveau jewelry of whom I’m aware,” says Karlin, pointing out highlights of that section of the exhibition. “Bonté made carved horn pendants, which are very expensive to buy now. But at the time, her pieces were the poor man’s Lalique. George Pierre made similar jewelry and at some point they became partners.” Other Accents Germany’s Jugendstil jewelers borrowed a little bit from both the English and the French movements, so sometimes the jewelry looks very much like Art Nouveau, Karlin notes. And then there are the geometric and more abstract styles of Vienna’s Wiener Werkstätte, “created by architects who started designing interiors and then clothing and jewelry to match the aesthetics of the homes they created for their wealthy clientele. These were very artistic women in a very artistic circle who were buying their jewelry.” The exhibition covers the American art jewelry movement with designs by Louis Comfort Tiffany, who had two women who ran his jewelry workshop and also designed jewelry, and the Chicago Arts and Crafts jewelers, in which women were the mainstay of the movement. Some “wonderful Chicago pieces that are really never seen,” are featured, says Karlin, “including two very sculptural, signed pieces — a brooch and a ring — by Florence Koehler and never-before-seen necklaces by Frances Glessner, an affluent Chicago woman who made beautiful jewelry. One of the necklaces is yellow gold with yellow stones, probably citrines, and the other, gold with black opals.” Another important Chicago jeweler, Elinor Klapp, who exhibited her jewelry at the Paris exposition in 1900, is represented with a carved moonstone brooch, shown above, on loan from her family. The specifics of early-twentieth-century art jewelry in both Europe and America changed with the individual regions. But there was a shared impetus of breaking with the past and looking toward a new enlightened future to create an alternative to mainstream designs. What this exhibition brings to light, sums up Karlin, “is the changing role of women and the part they played as both inspiration and creators, makers and muse, in these varied art jewelry movements.”