Vintage Modernist Sterling buying Silver Stylized Leaf Shape Brooch Pin With Curved Wire And Ball Signed Artsilver Marked Sterling

Vintage modernist Sterling Silver Leaf Shape Brooch Pin With Curved Wire And Ball Signed STERLING BY JEWELART $66.00

This company was established in 1946, after WWII, in East Providence, R.I. Pieces are signed with the mark "JewelArt".
Beginning with the streamlining of modern art, modernist jewelers mirrored the consciousness of their age. They were free thinking artists who broke away from the mainstream of jewelry design and looked to the fine arts for inspiration. These were Surrealists, Cubists, and Abstract Expressionists functioning as sculptors in small scale, painters in enamels, and architects in miniature. The modernist metal smiths of the 1930s through 1960s laid the groundwork for the enormous expansion of metal smithing in the 1970s and '80s. These creative jewelers produced their own personal designs as they absorbed and reflected the changes happening in the world around them.

Bold shapes and simplicity of design was the new standard for modernist jewelry makers. This brooch is a classic example of that aesthetic. The simple shape of a long and slender leaf with a gentle twist to it as if it were in flight from it's branch. This stylized leaf was cut from a flat sheet of sterling silver with an extended strip left at the base to support the round wire stem. This measures about 2 1/4" in length and roughly 5/8 wide. The stem was soldered on from the tip of this base to nearly 3/4 of the way along the leaf. At that point it gracefully curves out and away making a simple arch which curves back to the leaf under the far top and terminates in a single, solid ball of about 6mm in diameter. The total weight is about 7.7 grams.

The pin stem is about 1 1/4" long and it's mechanism is fully functional. The hallmark Sterling By Jewelart is a raised oval centered under the pin stem. There are some scratches and darkening as expected with the age of the piece but I see nothing off putting.

Some might want to know "what is this, what does it represent?" If you needed that it could be said that the wire is the stem and the vein of the leaf which then evolves into the fruit or seed of the tree representing the ongoing cycle of birth, life and death.


As always,thank you for visiting my shop. I continue to list more from my gallery of nearly 20 years (www.hammerededge.com). Here is a shortcut back to my Etsy shop if you want to see more of my collection.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/HammeredEdgeStudio buying