fashion
SPACE ODDITIES EXPLORE OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD 20TH CENTURY JEWELLERY FROM A DIVERSE RANGE OF DESIGNERS INSPIRED BY A MODERNIST VISION JEWELLERY DESIGN experienced a revolution in the 1920s and 30s, reflecting the age of machine technology and the new Bauhaus inspired Modernist movement. Postwar, a plethora of styles of costume jewellery brightened the austere 1940s but, in the 1950s, the world immersed itself in all things Atomic. The first atomic bomb, named Trinity, had been detonated in the New Mexico desert in 1945, prior to its use on Japan. And though
Soviet atomic tests from 1949 ushered in the anxious 40-year Cold War, designers seemed more inspired by the zippy graphics of whizzing sub-atomic particles than daunted by the bigger picture. A surreal and bizarre period of optimism quickly infused an entire culture with promises of the wonders of a nuclear future! This collective obsession with the alluring atom found its way into virtually every aspect of popular culture; architecture, industrial de-
sign, advertising, fine arts, film, furniture and of course fashion. As the nuclear race transitioned into the Space Race, jewellery designers such as Merry Renk, Margaret de Patta, Ed Weiner, Betty Cooke and Henning Koppel produced gems with a distinctly atomic bent, while even the heady heights of Cartier couldn’t resist the gravitational pull of Sputnik. Ground Control to Major Tom...ve
Atomic fusion
©Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
From 1939 to 1941, American Merry Renk studied painting at the Trenton New Jersey School of Industrial Design – but she soon realised she had an eye for contemporary jewellery and started making her own. Her unique sculptural pieces reminiscent of branches, roots, vines, or shells quickly became soughtafter and by mid-1950s she was exhibiting nationally. Her 1954 ‘Atoms’ necklace with 16 links separated by small circular links decorated with red enamel perfectly captures the age. Yet ironically it was Renk’s customers who first identified the design as atomic – she had been inspired by the chains worn in portraits of King Henry VIII!
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fashion The front and back of Stern’s pendant, shows the coloured gemstones off beautifully
Music of the spheres First to create a line of Sputnik jewellery was international star H. Stern, a Rio-based jewellery house that used it to showcase the variety of gemstones mined in Brazil. The 18 carat gold bracelet from 1957 has 12 spheres, each set with many different coloured gemstones. The single sphere 18 carat Sputnik ring is set with 19 various coloured stones. H. Stern also made brooches, earrings and necklaces in the same style.
Eternal flame
Out of this world After Russia launched the first artificial earth satellite in 1957, both Cartier and Hermès produced Sputnik-style brooches and clips in its honour. Cartier’s designs were typically spectacular; these sculpted ear clips, with matching brooch, project threedimensional gold rays, and each carries the highly sought-after Cartier 16 / February-March 2016 / ve
Born in 1924 and still making jewellery today, Betty Cooke’s mostly abstract gold and silver spheres and tubes are as precariously balanced as an Alexander Calder sculpture, with bold sweeping lines and moveable parts. She also utilises contrasting materials such as plastic, wood and enamels in combination with metals. These fantastic atomic brooches constructed from metal, wood and Plexiglas are from the early 50s but look really modern today, as do her starburst designs, which are still in production.
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Designing ‘Space Age’ jewellery as early as the 1930s - Margaret’s gemstones appear to just float in space!
Silver machine
Defying gravity
Producing most of his work for Georg Jensen, Henning Koppel is the epitome of ‘Danish design’, and in our opinion, the most space age designer of all time! From the very beginning, his abstract, sculptural silverwork was unlike anything that had been before – his ‘Amoeba’ necklaces and linked bracelets resembling vertebrae and microscopic organisms – a very alien concept in the late 1940s! The sculptural ‘Shooting Star’ pins seen here, were made between 1946 and 1955, but nevertheless have a very space age look about them. His highly sought after 60s pieces, like this open elliptical form and ‘Splash’ design, were made with matching bracelets, brooches, pendants and earrings – and are still out of this world!
Margaret de Patta was very much ahead of her time, making ‘Space Age’ jewellery as early as the 1930s and 40s! Influenced by Bauhaus, she was one of the first Americans to recognise the endless possibilities for modern design in jewellery, treating each piece as a sculpture, and her gemstones often appear to float in space. With her husband, industrial designer Eugene Bielawski, she experimented to create a reasonably priced limited-production jewellery line – Designs Contemporary – which lasted 12 years from 1946 through 1957. Though today her amazing designs are highly desirable, her business closed after retailers found her avant-garde designs were too forwardlooking for the general public. Frustrated and depressed, Margaret’s marriage suffered and sadly she took her own life in the early 1960s.
Plan 9 from Outer Space More modernist overall, Ed Wiener produced some real little gems – more Ed Wood than Ed Weiner! He was almost entirely self-taught and produced some fantastic cufflinks and pins in the space age style. Just look at the alien type character with a cabochon eye featured on his 1950s abstract figural ring. And don’t his cufflinks look like they’ve just flown in from planet Zorg? www.vintagexplorer.co.uk
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fashion
Space craft Since the 1920s, the US based company Trifari has produced a huge range of costume jewellery. Founded by Gustavo Trifari, an Italian immigrant and the son of a Napoli goldsmith – its success is mostly attributed to the French designer Alfred Philippe, who designed for them from 1930 to 1968. He developed invisible stone settings (originally for Van Cleef and Arpels) and continued this style with Trifari which set it way above any other costume jewellery producers of the time in terms of technique. In the 1960s they produced a small, but stunning range of space age jewellery which is highly collectable today. Using plated metals and Lucite, brushed metal finishes and bright coloured glass cabochons, these pieces certainly captured the spirit of the time. The long metal disc necklace and collar with Lucite ball, seen here, certainly wouldn’t have looked out of place on Barbarella! The Sputnik inspired charm bracelet was a more affordable alternative to the Cartier versions.
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Star Wars star They say, always leave the best ‘til last! We first featured Finnish designer, Björn Weckström back in issue 3 of VE, and we just couldn’t leave him out of this space age group for one obvious reason: George Lucas chose his Planetary Valleys necklace (shown above) to be worn by Princess Leia at the end of the Star Wars movie, god dam it! It all started after a customer asked him to work with some gold nuggets from Lapland, the appearance of the raw gold in its natural state – as well as the natural beauty of the landscape in which it was found – became a lifelong inspiration, leading eventually to the founding of the Lapponia Jewellery company of which he is co-owner. He won numerous design awards including, in 1968, the prestigious Lunning Prize, set up by the owner of the New York agency for Georg Jensen. On his return to Finland in 1969, he sat down and designed his famous ‘Space Silver’ series for Lapponia. The first piece to be designed was this Ikaros (Icarus) ring (shown right) and by the time he had finished he had 50 different designs, including Dance in the Galaxy ring and Petrified Lake ring, also seen here.
The Planetary Valleys necklace that Princess Leia wore is also know as Galactic Peaks - the difference being the latter is highly polished silver, and is still being produced by Lapponia today. Bjorn combined silver with other materials in innovative ways for his ‘Space Silver’ series
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