Editor’s Note
This article explores how American jewelers, free from the constraints of royal courts and aristocratic traditions, forged a distinct identity that ultimately reshaped global luxury jewelry.
While European jewelry houses were shaped by royal courts, aristocratic patronage and centuries of tradition, American jewelers helped redefine luxury jewelry, creating an American tradition that eventually influenced collectors and designers around the world.
Now, cultural institutions around the country are using America’s 250th anniversary to bring attention to American artists and designers in several creative fields, including jewelry. In New York, for instance, Sotheby’s vice chairman of jewelry told Observer:
One defining factor was the focus on American materials and stones. A jeweler who focused so much attention on American materials and American stones, things like Montana sapphires that had never been used before, and then using materials in unusual combinations, was considered quite ahead of his time, kind of groundbreaking. Then fast forward to David Webb in the 1960s and ’70s, it was the same kind of thing. He was famously known to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art every Saturday, and he just combined all kinds of influences that he saw there in a kind of an unorthodox way. He just did what he wanted to do, and the boldness was beyond.
The second defining factor was that many of the major jewelry houses were run by salesmen. Everett said:
Asked about her picks for a museum exhibition that would best represent the American experience in jewelry, she said:
A representative from Joseph Saidian & Sons, a New York-based antique and vintage jewelry dealer, argued that America’s success in high jewelry design also influenced the major European houses. He told Observer:
David Webb is one of a few American jewelry houses that have remained faithful to its founding aesthetic. Although Webb died in 1975, the company continues to produce jewels based on his original designs—bold creations defined by sculptural hammered gold, oversized colored gemstones and striking enamel work. Today, the jeweler is majority owned by two investment firms.
Higgs oversees the preservation of the company’s heritage while continuing to make the brand relevant to contemporary clients. He said:
While David Webb represents a distinctly homegrown American success story, many of the nation’s greatest jewelry houses were founded by immigrants who adapted Old World craftsmanship to a rapidly changing American marketplace. The founder of Marcus & Co., a Sicilian aristocrat, founded the Verdura jewelry salon in New York. Harry Winston was the son of Ukrainian immigrants.
The story of high jewelry brand Oscar Heyman is also very much an immigrant story. The company was founded by Oscar and his brothers. When the rest of the Heyman family came to America in 1912, Oscar and his brothers founded Oscar Heyman & Bros., which quickly became a preferred workshop for many of America’s leading jewelry houses, particularly for platinum jewelry, at a time when few American craftsmen possessed that expertise. Between the company’s founding in 1912 and 1942, Oscar Heyman secured seven patents related to jewelry making, and the firm soon earned a reputation for its superb craftsmanship and creative use of exceptional colored gems. It’s one of the few important American high jewelry companies still owned by the original family and also one of the few to still have a full-service workshop on Madison Avenue.
Following World War II, Oscar Heyman was the first American jeweler to source gemstones directly from miners and cutters in Asia. Tom Heyman explained:
It is also one of the few high jewelry firms that does nearly all its business within the jewelry trade, preferring to sell through retailers, rather than directly to consumers.