“Maker & Muse: Women and Early Twentieth Century Art Jewelry” features more than 250 exemplary works of art jewelry between the Victorian Era and the First World War, including cloak clasps, hair ornaments, pins, brooches, rings, bracelets, pendants, necklaces, and several tiaras. This groundbreaking exhibition illuminates the international proliferation of art jewelry through the lens of woman as its maker and muse. For the first time during this period, women emerged as prominent jewelry makers in their own right, establishing independent studios amid changing social norms. In other regions, the female figure acted as a powerful muse, appearing in jewelry as audacious and novel motifs. Drawn from the Driehaus Collection’s extensive jewelry holdings and prominent national collections, many of these stunning pieces have never been seen by the public. The exhibition upholds the same ideals of beauty as did its makers, who in the early decades of the twentieth century were inspired by broader art movements of the day to create audacious pieces of jewelry with dramatic forms, intricate craftsmanship, saturated colors, and semiprecious stones. “Maker & Muse” explores five different areas of jewelry design and fabrication: the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain, Art Nouveau in France, Jugendstil in Germany and Austria, Louis Comfort Tiffany in New York, and American Arts and Crafts in Chicago. Each section explores the important female figures and historic social milieu associated with these movements, and is accompanied by historic photographs and immersive decorative arts of the period, including furnishings, posters, and stained glass.

For more informations, please visit The Driehaus Museum.

Photo: Frederick James Partridge (English, 1877-1942) for Liberty & Co. (English, established 1875), Tiara with Corn Design, c. 1900. Collection of Richard H. Driehaus. Photograph by John A. Faier, 2014, © The Richard H. Driehaus Museum.