The sparkling ornaments on view, many which have famous provenances, include surviving artifacts from ancient civilizations, 19th-century jewels inspired by history and foreign lands, innovative 20th-century designs, costume jewelry, and contemporary jewelry that combines traditional subjects with the latest materials.
Ancient and Modern Jewels
Jewelry is the world’s oldest art form. The earliest examples of adornment, a universal human inclination, date back over 100,000 years. Beads played a prominent role. While this exhibition is organized thematically, it begins with the oldest piece—the beaded ancient Egyptian Wesekh broadcollar from 2246 to 2152 B.C.
The collar’s components are gold, rare turquoise (potentially mined in the Sinai Peninsula), costly lapis lazuli (likely from Afghanistan), and steatite (a metamorphic rock). The outer gold row features pieces fashioned in the form of scarab beetles. They were important cultural symbols of rebirth, protection, and luck. The dead were often buried with items featuring beetles. This broadcollar was excavated from the tomb of a court official, whose name is inscribed on the gold terminals.
The piece depicts the goddess of victory, Nike, and consists of over 100 parts soldered together. Nike wears a “chiton,” a belted tunic, and is portrayed with a focused expression as she holds the reins of rearing horses. Her wings convey movement and are finely chased. Above this vignette is a tear-shaped fruit at the center of a honeysuckle palmette.
The MFA has a particularly rich 19th- and 20th-century jewelry collection. A piece with royal connections is the Coburg Eagle brooch from 1840. This sentimental brooch was one of 12 designed by Prince Consort Albert as a gift from Queen Victoria to the train-bearers at their wedding. It’s the first piece to be acquired by an American museum. Royal bridesmaids traditionally received a dove-themed gift. In this instance, the eagle was an appropriate symbol of Albert’s German family, the House of Coburg. The materials used are symbolic of the occasion: turquoise for forget-me-nots, diamonds expressing eternity, rubies representing passion, and pearls signifying true love.
A contemporary German design in the exhibition is Hemmerle’s large pair of tassel earrings from 2018. They were made for the firm’s 125th anniversary. Containing over 200 carats of sapphires, the beaded tassels are suspended from an iron Bavarian crown, a nod to the firm’s Munich heritage.
Revivalist Jewelry
Historical revivalist jewelry was prominent in the 19th century. Contemporaneous excavations of ancient sites inspired the Archeological Revival movement. The Italian firm Castellani is considered one of the greatest jewelers of this style. The goldsmith family business specialized in micromosaics, which are assembled from tesserae, tiny fragments of glass. An example in the exhibit is a lion brooch from about 1870. The soulful lion head may have been inspired by Pompeiian floor mosaics, a then-recent discovery. Lions were symbols of strength and bravery in ancient Rome.
The Renaissance revival was another popular movement in this period. The exhibit’s Jewish marriage ring was made in Central Europe during the 19th century, but in a 16th-century style. Jewish wedding rings are traditionally simple bands, but elaborate examples were sometimes used during the ceremony. These architectural rings are in the form of the Temple of Jerusalem. In the MFA’s version, the roof opens. While it lacks gemstones, it is superbly chased and enameled. The jewel’s maker was likely influenced by treasure hoards discovered in the 1800s.
A classic high society jewel from the late 19th century is the exhibit’s natural pearl and diamond necklace hailing from the Rothschild family’s Austrian branch. The beautiful piece features 10 perfectly matched natural pearls—an astounding assemblage. These natural pearls were considered more precious than diamonds until, at the turn of the 20th century, people mastered the process of creating cultured pearls. This necklace was in the collection of Baroness Clarice de Rothschild.
When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, the baroness was abroad in London, traveling with most of her jewelry collection; this necklace escaped Nazis plunder. The necklace is representative of the Belle Époque movement, specifically the era’s “garland” style, characterized by the swag design of drooping curved lines. The piece is set in silver-topped gold: Silver was considered more becoming for colorless diamonds to maintain a white-on-white effect. The gold backing was necessary so that the wearer’s skin or clothing would avoid tarnish. At the time this necklace was made, platinum was too difficult to handle to use as a jewelry setting. Scientific innovations eventually allowed this metal to replace the historic silver topped gold setting.
A patriotic example of platinum is an American flag brooch by Black, Starr and Frost, one of the United States’ oldest jewelry houses.
The most famous American jewelry brand, Tiffany & Co., is represented in the show. One of their pieces is an exotic hand ornament from around 1893. The company’s chief designer, G. Paulding Farnham, conceptualized it. He looked to an Indian hathpal, a traditional wedding ornament, for inspiration. Colorful semiprecious stones are set in gold that encircle the wrist, lay on the back of the hand, and go over four fingers. To help the viewer understand the piece’s complexity, it is displayed on a meticulously crafted model of a hand.
Art Nouveau and Deco Designs
The end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century were marked by two of the most celebrated jewelry movements: Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The Spanish pendant by Fuset y Grau showing a girl blowing pearl bubbles from circa 1910 is a delightful illustration of the former, marked by flowing lines, nature motifs, female figuration, and the use of pliqué-à-jour enamel. This enamel technique is backless and simulates the look of stained glass to stunning effect.
Art Deco embraced bold, geometric shapes, novel cuts of stones, and new materials. A spectacular object presented by the MFA is the Marjorie Merriweather Post brooch from 1929, made by Oscar Heyman Bros. for Marcus & Co., an important American jeweler in New York. This au courant platinum brooch utilizes a historic object—a 17th-century 60-carat carved emerald. This emerald was mined in South America, traveled to Europe, was then taken by Portuguese ship to India, and finally carved with images of iris blossoms by a master craftsman. Emeralds are notoriously difficult to carve, and Indian artisans during the Mughal dynasty became expert in the art. Post assembled a historic jewelry collection, and this brooch was one of her prized pieces.
Post’s former possession is presented next to a contemporary Indian brooch by BHAGAT. This jewel resembles a “jali,” an ornamental window screen found in a number of different types of buildings in the region. Emeralds were used to mimic the moss that grows on much of Mumbai’s architecture. The piece was made with Colombian emeralds and combines Mughal and Art Deco designs. It left the workshop in February 2024 and arrived at the MFA in April—making it the newest acquisition.
A star of the show is Boivin’s starfish brooch from 1937, one of the most famous 20th-century jewels. Designed by an important French female designer Juliette Moutard, the brooch was owned by Hollywood actress Claudette Colbert. This large brooch is four inches long, and made of gold, 71 rubies, and 665 amethysts. It is believed that only four examples in this stone combination were made in the 1930s. The brooch is fully articulated, composed of joints that move and drape like a real marine creature. Despite the complicated construction, the resulting brooch appears seamlessly elegant.
The natural world of fauna and flora has traditionally served as fertile inspiration for jewelry. There are a handful of flower and butterfly examples in the exhibit, including two contemporary pieces by Chinese jewelers, who renewed the form through their use of titanium settings. Luxury jewelers prefer the metal because it can be anodized to create a rich range of colors. In addition, its lightness facilitates the creation of large but wearable jewels.
Wallace Chan’s magnificently sculptural Forever Dancing–Bright Star butterfly brooch is made of colored diamonds and real butterfly wing specimens. Chan is one of the most important jewelers today. The brooch is the first Chan work to enter an American museum collection. In Chinese culture, the butterfly is symbolic of eternal love and features in an historic Romeo and Juliet-esque legend called the Butterfly Lovers.
“Beyond Brilliance” celebrates the creativity and technical genius of the many people involved in the production of each jewel. It invites the viewer to be captivated by the beauty of the objects and the stories they tell, compellingly facilitated by the curation. The exhibit successfully makes the case that jewelry is art, belongs in museums, and is an educational delight.
