Sumeet Chordia of Jardin Jewels by Beacab, talks shop with John Souglides of Joseph Saidian & Sons, both located in New York City. Image courtesy of the Palm Beach Show Group.
Review & Onsite Photos by ZG Burnett
NEW YORK CITY — The dazzling New York City Jewelry & Watch Show (NYCJAWS) returned to Manhattan’s Metropolitan Pavilion October 22-25, nearly doubling its ticket sales from last year’s event.
“From opening day through Sunday afternoon, the show floor maintained a steady and vibrant pace as collectors, jewelry enthusiasts, trade professionals and first-time buyers explored an extensive offering of antique and estate jewelry, signed pieces, natural diamonds and gemstones, vintage and collectible watches, and contemporary designs,” reported show managment, the Palm Beach Show Group. “Exhibitors reported strong sales throughout the weekend, meaningful new client relationships and an increasingly diverse audience of both established collectors and younger buyers.”
Though the age demographic may be changing at NYCJAWS, exhibitors were impressed with the engagement and expertise of newer collectors across the show’s many categories. L&Z Antique + Estate Jewelry, Morrisville, Penn., which has shown at NYCJAWS for the past 11 consecutive years, wrote after the show, “Attendance this year was unbelievable, with so many new and younger faces. Dealers who came with a great attitude and were willing to work with customers did very well… Substantial natural diamonds and layered chains continue to dominate.”
Time is relative when it comes to jewelry styles; this 18K gold and diamond suite dated to about 1850 and pieces likely served as inspiration for interwar period designers like Elsa Schiaparelli. Keyamour, New York City.
Dana Kiyomura of Keyamour, New York City, is another NYCJAWS veteran who presented an unusual Nineteenth-Century necklace, cuff bracelet and locket pendant suite in its original case. Each piece was 18K gold, with the cuff and locket sporting two solitaire and one cushion-cut diamonds apiece. Kiyomura believed that the suite was either English or French, and was made circa 1850. The date was surprising not only because of its wonderful condition, but also because the design seemed Postmodern, almost Atomic Age. The necklace resembled a pneumatic tube with a loop fashioned specifically to fit the locket’s bail, which was bordered by small golden orbs connected with a slender filament. These were also present on either edge of the cuff. Each diamond was mounted in a beveled starburst, elevated on a double-pointed oblong panel with beading along its edges. Kiyomura reported that the NYCJAWS team made improvements in the show’s social media outreach since last year, bringing more new customers through its doors.
Another celestially-inspired piece was presented by Steven Neckman, Miami, a brooch fashioned of mother-of-pearl clouds mounted in 18K gold. The brooch dated to the 1980s and was designed by Mellerio dits Meller, now shortened to Mellerio, a French jewelry house that was founded over four centuries ago under the patronage of Queen Marie de Médicis. The luminous clouds were accented with a delicate gold moon and star, as well as a pair of enameled songbirds with tiny diamond heads that moved back and forth amongst the mother-of-pearl layers. Its original case was also intact, showing the Place de Vêndome tower in Paris, near where Mellerio’s Rue de la Paix’s gallery has been located since 1815.
Measuring 37.8 by 52.5 millimeters at its base and 14 millimeters at its height, this millennium-era watch by Kutchinsky and Excentric was the loudest statement timepiece at NYC JAWS. The Mahnaz Collection, New York City.
Mahnaz Collection, New York City, may have only just started to carry more watches in its inventory, yet one of the biggest watches of the show radiated sparkles from the firm’s booth. Weighing in at 111.6 grams, it was a limited-edition collaboration piece by Kutchinsky, London, and Excentric, made circa 2000, and one of the last of Kutchinsky’s horological statement lines. The Swiss-made quartz watch itself was “so Y2K” in design, with colorless, black and brown pavé diamonds in a leopard-print motif that covered all three tiers of its face and 18K white gold mount. Hilary Heard Gurley shared that it came from an overseas collection, therefore the sky-blue gator strap had to be replicated upon its arrival in the United States. The silver buckle was also decorated with pavé diamonds. Numbered 030 in the collection, this design was one of many in this collaboration that exemplified the optimistic excess of design in the early Twenty-First Century.
One of the more deliberate objects at the show was not a piece of jewelry, but a desk object with a history that matched its opulent trappings. Designed by American jeweler David Webb, it was a 7-by-4½-inch rock crystal “wrapped” with twisting gold ropes and turquoise cabochons, weighing nearly 6 pounds overall. The matching plaque on its bottom surface was signed and inscribed, “To Robin And Angie With Our Dearest Love Jeanie & Bill March 1965.” Robin Chandler Duke and Angier Biddle Duke were prominent patrons to the arts, activists and personal friends of president John F. Kennedy. Robin served as the US ambassador to Norway, and Angier Biddle Duke was chief of protocol of the United States, among many other diplomatic roles. She was also a cousin to Doris Duke, who was one of Webb’s chief customers, and both would often be photographed wearing his creations. Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned another desk object the year before with the John F. Kennedy half dollar proof set in gold, inscribed and presented to Douglas Dillon, Kennedy’s secretary of the Treasury. It is now in the collection of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
The New York City Jewelry & Watch Show will return to the Metropolitan Pavilion October 28-31. For information, www.nycjaws.com or 561-822-5440.
