bidz.com Blog

“In an exhibition organized by the Museum of Arts & Design, New York, “Seaman Schepps (1881–1972): America’s Court Jeweler,” brings together some 150 pieces of jewelry, designs and related material that trace the development of this innovative jeweler. The exhibitions opens June 9 at the Gilbert Collection, Somerset House, and will run until August 27, clearly illustrating his daughter Patricia Valli’s comment, “Daddy’s jewelry was something outrageous.”
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Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, Doris Duke, Wanda Toscanini Horowitz and the Duchess of Windsor, as well as members of the du Pont, Mellon and Roosevelt families, were among his clients. His eye-catching jewelry not only appealed to the modern independent Twentieth Century woman, who found his pieces visually striking and fun to wear, but also to Pop Art icon Andy Warhol, who was an avid collector.

What makes the jewelry of Schepps so distinctive and memorable is the way he incorporated an astonishing diversity of natural materials such as seashells, sandalwood, walnut, Asian carvings and rock crystals along with traditional gem stones.
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As with so many jewelers, nature played an important role in Schepps’ designs: flowers, animals, birds, butterflies, insects, grapes, fish, shellfish, seahorses, turtles and shells appear time and again in his own inimitable style. Schepps designed some jewels incorporating miniature sculptures; his innovative use of baroque pearls in jewelry rivaled the pieces made by Renaissance masters.”
antiquesandthearts.com

Pictured here is a swan brooch, circa 1940, baroque pearl, emerald and diamonds.