Defining Art Deco

Consider the Chrysler building in New York with its towering, sleek stepped geometric design. Or a Marquise- cut diamond ring, or cobalt blue mirrored glass topped tables. Then you understand what defines Art Deco.

Soon after World War I ended, an explosion of decadent living and accelerated innovation collided. Shaking off the horrors of the war, spirits were high. Life became a party—consider The Great Gatsby. This period in history now focused heavily on modernization with a rebirth in design. The innovative style used in the arts, industrial design, and architecture appeared throughout Europe, and during the 1920s, the United States. In 1925, the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts was held in Paris, resulting in the term style moderne, or French Art Deco. Straight lines and geometric shapes replaced the soft curves of the previous Art Nouveau style.

The latest creations in fashion were meant to dazzle with sequins, beads, and fringes adopting straight lines, like the flappers’ dresses with its “drop waist” design. No longer accentuating the female shape, dresses became non-conforming, androgynous, cylinder-shaped. Somewhat contradictory to the straight lines was the fact that necklines often plunged, and the dress length was shortened above the knee. The fashion was meant as a strong signal that rules were to be challenged. Bobbed hair, heavy makeup, smoking, drinking, and dancing in public, signaled rebellion against cultural norms.

Art Deco jewelry acted as showy accents, drawing your eye to the piece. The jewelry often incorporated diamonds with platinum, coral, black onyx, and other materials. Although a simplistic design was the goal of the designer, Art Deco jewelry was anything but simple. The intricate workmanship, settings, and hours spent creating one of a kind piece were indeed a work of art. The appearance of the piece often took painstaking hours to complete, getting the geometry just right.

While searching for an Art Deco
example, I visited Queen May on the Washington Street Mall in Cape May. An exquisite piece of jewelry in the Art Deco style caught my eye. It was a pendant necklace in platinum, encrusted with diamonds accentuated with blue synthetic sapphires. Deco jewelry was often made with precious gems and metals mixed with synthetic materials.

In true Art Deco fashion this piece was set in platinum. Jewelry makers now turned to platinum instead of gold because of the strength that platinum has over a softer metal. Another advantage of platinum is that the metalsmith didn’t have to use as much metal when creating the light airy design indicative of Art Deco jewelry. Most jewelry has hand faceted gems, which is labor intensive. Synthetic sapphires were often used because of a deep even color, as opposed to real sapphires that frequently contain noticeable inclusions.

The Art Deco piece at Queen May consists of three large old European diamonds at the center, surrounded by 27 smaller single-cut diamonds. An inferior piece would use only small diamonds. It is a brooch pendant conversion necklace made by Kobrin Brothers of New York. It was popular during the 1920s—a brooch that could be worn as a pin or converted into a necklace simply by attaching a chain. There are platinum beads added called “milgrain”—a technique that creates the textured border. The word milgrain is derived from the French “mille-grain” meaning “a thousand grains.” This intricate technique gives the piece a delicate and detailed appearance, indicative of Art Deco jewelry. It is time consuming but worth it because of the additional sparkle and focus on the gemstones. In addition, the delicate filigree and the use of vibrant blue sapphires enhance the piece.

This necklace in geometric shapes with clean lines and symmetry falls under a popular design in the 1920s and even today. In addition, this piece with its tightly packed stones surrounding the larger diamonds was sold at the best Parisian jewelry stores. Jewelry houses in Paris like Cartier and Chaumet, were followed by designers in the United States like Tiffany and Co. of New York and JE Caldwell of Philadelphia to name a few. Korbin of New York, close in quality as the Parisian jewelry houses, designed this Art Deco pendant necklace.

Jewelry now broke the rules by incorporating stones like jade, bloodstone, black onyx, and enamel along with synthetic rubies and sapphires. A bonus was that synthetic gems rarely contained visible flaws like mined gems. The development of the “cultured” pearl was recent in the 1920s. This method required implanting oysters with mother-of-pearl beads. Then the oyster secretes naceus around the bead, eventually creating the pearl. Now long strings of pearls became affordable and were all the rage. The 1920s woman owned several necklaces of pearls to dangle around their necks.

As the 1920s hairstyles became shorter, earrings became longer, some practically reaching the shoulders. Imagine a flapper, bare neck and exposed shoulders on the dance floor as the dazzling earrings moved in tune with the music. Today, there’s a resurgence of this type of jewelry that’s quite reminiscent of the flapper era.

Highly sought after, Art Deco is popular now more than ever, quickly becoming the coveted prize.