Overview
Join Christie’s and Bella Neyman on 5 weeks of jewelry adventures around New York City. Familiarize yourself with some of the most beautiful and unusual jewels crafted over the last two centuries by seeing them in-person. This course is an incredible opportunity to experience jewelry history firsthand in important public and private collections, as well as see some of the most incredible designers in their private salons. Each visit will explore a particular period as told by museum curators, gallerists, dealers, collectors, and jewelers. The students will also get to visit the Why rely on images when some of the world's best jewels can come to life in front of your very eyes?
Academic Profile
Bella Neyman is the co-founder of New York City Jewelry Week, a city-wide celebration of jewelry held annually in November. She is also an independent curator and writer specializing in contemporary art jewelry. She has organized multiple exhibitions in the United States and Europe including most recently, 45 Stories in Jewelry at the Museum of Arts and Design. Bella’s articles on decorative arts, fashion and jewelry have appeared in the New York Times, Metalsmith, American Craft and The Magazine Antiques amongst others. From 2014-2018, she was the director of the Gallery at Reinstein|Ross, a New York-based gallery specializing in contemporary jewelry. Bella has been on the Board of the Art Jewelry Forum since 2013. She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, NY.
Image: Citrine Peridot and Diamond Necklace and Bracelet Flower Suite, ca. 1940s Courtesy of Macklowe Gallery.
Schedule
Sep 23- Icons by Era with Macklowe Gallery
We will kick off our 5-week session with a visit to New York’s Macklowe Gallery on Park Avenue. Since its inception in 1971, and now under the directorship of Benjamin and Hillary Macklowe, the gallery has been the premier destination for the best in 20th century design, decorative arts, and jewelry. Utilizing the gallery’s collection of jewelry from Art Nouveau to mid-century and beyond, we will learn about important names and styles from each decade – this visit will be a real lesson in “icons by era.”
Sep 30- Pearl Education with Assael
Founded by the legendary “Pearl King” Salvador Assael in the 1950s, the company that bears his name remains the leading pearl supplier around the world. Assael was the first to introduce South Sea and Tahitian pearls to a US market forming a partnership with Harry Winston that led to the sale of the first ever Tahitian pearl strand. Soon after, Van Cleef & Arpels and Tiffany & Co. followed suit and as Assael proclaimed, “ A new gem is born”. To this day, Assael still holds the record for the highest price ever paid for a strand of South Sea pearls at auction- $2.3million. During our visit to Assael’s private salon on Fifth Avenue, we will learn about the different types of pearls on the market today- including Fiji, Akoya, Melo Melo and Conch pearls.
Oct 7- A Visit to Jeweler and Sculptor’s Jill Platner Historic Downtown Studio
Jeweler and sculptor Jill Platner has called New York home since the early 1990s when she graduated from Parsons School of Design with a BFA. Her jewelry has sold at Barneys New York, Twist, Portland, Oregon and other retailers worldwide as well as in her eponymous boutique in Soho. In recent years she has taken inspiration from her wearable sculptures to create large-scale sculptures both for indoors and outdoors using the same process - casting and forging. In addition to learning about her work, we will tour her newly restored Nolita studio and gallery, in a building that was once the home of the Roosevelt family in 1823, later becoming the residence of Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell’s New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children — the first hospital staffed by women — in 1857. This Blackwell sisters were recently the subject of Janice P. Nimura’s Pulitzer Prize Nominated book “The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women — and Women to Medicine” (2021), and the book’s first chapter was written in Platner’s studio.
Oct 14 - Looking at Victorian and Georgian Jewelry with Dana Kiyomura of Keyamour
Something old and something new, that is what it’s all about at the atelier of antique jewelry dealer Dana Kiyomura. A former Director of Acquisitions at Fred Leighton, Kiyomura has a great eye and expertise knowledge when it comes to Victorian and Georgian jewelry (as well as modern and contemporary) and she will show us not only the most special pieces from her highly curated collection but also educate us about these two popular styles and give us tips for wearing Victorian and Georgian jewelry with more modern pieces.
Oct 21- A Visit with Jewelry Designer Malyia McNaughton in her New Brooklyn-based Studio
Jewelry designer Malyia McNaughton’s brand Made by Malyia is on every celebrity stylist’s lips right now. The designer, who launched her jewelry and lifestyle brand in 2014, is known for her easy-to wear and gorgeous pieces, most recently creating a collection of jaw-dropping diamond jewelry as part of the Emerging Designers Design Initiative, a platform formulated by the Natural Diamond Council and the jeweler Lorraine Schwartz and worn by the actress Ana de Armas in its campaign. Inspired by nature as well as the city around her, the self-taught McNaughton designed her first piece – a body chain- for herself. Fast forward to today, Made by Malyia has partnered with some of the biggest brands in names in fashion and entertainment, including, most recently, Lizzo.
Additional Information
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Contact Us
For any queries about this course please contact
New York Courses Department
+1 212 355 1501
shortcoursesUS@christies.com
