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The Enduring Beauty of Vintage Jewelry
| Article
# : |
17170 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1990 |
1,685 Words |
| Author
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Judith Bell
Judith Bell is an art historian and novelist based in
Arlington, Virginia. |
When Christine Crawford, daughter of actress Joan, decided to dispose of her mother's collection of domed rings from the forties, she contacted Barrett-Smythe, a New York City-based jewelry store specializing in fine vintage jewelry. "Everyone loves provenance, the piece with a past behind it," says JoAnna Mendelson, owner of Barrett-Smythe. "We obtained permission to sell them as Crawford's personal rings, and all three of them - diamonds and sapphires, diamonds and rubies, and diamonds and emeralds - went to one of our more flamboyant, fashionable clients who avidly collects jewels."
Other important pieces in the shop's current inventory include a pink gold watch with a hidden face, made for ballet dancer Vera Zorina (one of choreographer George Balanchine's wives) by Harry Lackritz, a prominent Chicago jeweler in the forties, and the smallest watch in the world, identical to the watch worn by Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation. Featuring a quarter-inch face, this Jaeger-LeCoultre watch is cast in a solid block of platinum and attached to a diamond and platinum band.
The LeCoultre piece originally surfaced through one of Mendelson's buyers in London, who found it in a parcel of low-value items offered at a flea market auction. "We opened the watch up and discovered it was a LeCoultre," recalls Mendelson. "We gave the numbers to LeCoultre, and it was then we learned that only two of these watches were ever made. It was truly like finding a Rembrandt in the cellar. If the movement alone were duplicated today, it would cost nearly as much as the vintage watch. I understand Princess Diana owns a similar watch in gold."
Mendelson's
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