Exhibitions Archive - non-metallic materials
Ceramics
Facettes : Un regard sur le bijou céramique
Facets. A look at Ceramic Jewellery
At the heart of this exhibition, 25 creators, jewellers, ceramists, visual artists and designers from all over the world, question the approach to ceramic jewellery in the crucible of contemporary art through a hundred or so powerful works.
Some choose fragile and resistant porcelain - sometimes of a clinical whiteness - others bring back pieces that are "already there", plates and shards, while others still prefer the precious clay of the origins.
Thus, ceramic jewellery builds its identity in a complex dialogue between different materials, playing with the very definition of jewellery.
It is undoubtedly its supposed or projected fragility that has favoured its reappearance... as if to remind us to take care of our relationship with the earth, our history, ourselves and the Other.
15/04/2023 - 18/06/2023
Centre Céramique Contemporaine de Giroussens (Room 1), 7 place Lucie Bouniol, 81500 Giroussens, France
Artistry and Craftsmanship: Ruskin Pottery, Enamels, and Buttons
Founded in 1898 by Edward Richard Taylor and his son William Howson Taylor, Ruskin Pottery was named after a founding writer and critic of the Arts & Crafts movement, John Ruskin. Throughout its 35-year history, the pottery produced decorative vessels, tableware, buttons, and small glazed plaques called enamels, intended to be set in silver or pewter as jewellery. This exhibition features about 80 objects from 213 works of Ruskin Pottery given to the Denver Art Museum by Carl Patterson, the museum's conservator emeritus. This remarkable gift makes the DAM collection of Ruskin Pottery one of the largest collections in the world and presents great opportunities for research, exhibition, and publication.
4/03/2016 – 1/05/2017
Denver Art Museum, 100 W 14th Ave Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204, USA
Fired, Crafted and Blown
New ceramic jewellery from Jane Stirzaker-Evans
17/09/2011 – 21/01/2012
Worthing Museum and Art Gallery, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 1HP, UK,
Life in Miniature: Ceramic Netsuke from the Silverman Collection
The people of Japan created some of the most opulent personal accessories during the Edo Period (1615–1868) in order to attach inro (cases) to their elaborate silk clothing. Japanese artists invented miniature sculptures known as netsuke (pronounced NET-skeh) as fasteners for luxury-loving Japanese citizens. The tiny treasures, which were worn primarily by men, have since been collected for their wit, whimsy and craftsmanship. Approximately 200 rare ceramic netsuke were recently donated to the Museum by Richard R. Silverman, one of the most prominent collectors of netsuke in the world, and are being exhibited for the first time. Life in Miniature explores the iconography of these decorative and useful objects and their depiction of everyday and fantastic subject matter. Also shown are Japanese screens depicting Kyoto, where many of the objects were made and sold, and a kimono with netsuke illustrating how these delightful fashion accessories were worn.
1/10/2010 – 27/02/2011
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo OH, USA
Un peu de terre sur la peau - A Bit of Clay on the Skin: New Ceramic Jewelry
One hundred and forty works in porcelain — compelling and forceful pieces on loan from eighteen artist from diverse backgrounds and nationalities — question the codes of ancestral artistic expression as a way to cast them within new perspectives. In contrast to traditional jewellery, metal work associated with the applied arts, contemporary jewellery since the 1970’s has become a field of experimentation at the frontiers of art, design and craftsmanship.
16/06/2010 – 16/10/2010
Fondation Bernardaud, Limoges, France
15/03/2011 - 4/09/2011
Museum of Arts and Design, New York Ny 10019, USA
30/12/2011 - 5/02/2012
New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
15/03/2012 - 19/08/2012
Musée des Arts décoratifs, 107, rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris, France
29/09/2012 – 24/03/2013
CODA Museum, Vosselmanstraat 299, 7311 CL Apeldoorn, Netherlands
14/05/2013 – 11/08/2013
Gardiner Museum, 111 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C7, Canada
28/05/2014 - 9/11/2014
World Jewelry Museum, 75-3 Hwa-dong Jongno-gu Seoul, Korea
Enamel
Fourth International Exhibition of Enamel Jewellery
As the Museum is dedicated to the Arts of Glass and Enamel, all jewellery entered for this exhibition must have components of enamel. It is our aim to create a survey of the various styles and techniques used in enamelled jewellery. We hope for happy contrasts and startling common denominators.
25/08/2013 – 8/01/2014
museum voor vlakglas- en emaillekunst Ravenstein, Marktstraat 22, 5371 AD Ravenstein, Netherlands
Form- und Farbenspiel. Neue Wege im Emailschmuck
Shape and colour. New directions in enamel jewellery
An exhibition in association with the Society of Goldsmiths, the Deutschen Goldschmiedehaus at Hanau and the District Museum Zons. Fifteen participants from home and abroad have accepted the invitation to submit their latest jewellry in enamel. Over 100 works show how impressive diverse and complex jewellery can be when the goldsmiths and jewellery designers throw all conventional ideas for enamel overboard. The enamel is approached with a variety of creative means so that the actual materiality is repealed. The combination with silver, copper and gold, stones and other materials lets the enamel form not only a colourful accent, but allows it to dominate the piece of jewellery as an essential design element.
21/04/2013 - 30/06/2013
Kreismuseum Zons, Schloßstraße 1, 41541 Dormagen, Germany
Exhibition of enamel
The Danish Jewellery Museum in Stege on the island of Moen has opened its summer exhibition and this year enamel was the theme. Includes work by Louise Birn, Jørgen Bindesbøll, Annette Dreyer, Andreas Exner, Marie Genefke, Beathe Kormannshaus, Tom Lindsten, Inger Trust Mertz, Christina Olsen, Maria Victor.
22/06/2012 - 21/10/2012
Danish Jewellery Museum, Storegade 75, 4780 Stege, Denmark
Glass, Metal and Fire
A small selection of work by Ruth Ball; a well established designer enameller from Southport. Ruth is highly acclaimed for her innovation in enamel as well as her commitment to education work in this specialist area. The display focuses on the various methods of enamelling, demonstrating how traditional techniques can be used in a contemporary way. This includes a new painted piece of the Walker Art Gallery which will become part of the Decorative Art collection. ‘Enamelling’; a ‘how to’ book written by Ruth Ball, is also on sale in the Walker Art Gallery gift shop.
22/10/2009 – 31/12/2010
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
The Enamels of the World. 1700 - 2000. From the Khalili Collection
8/12/2009 – 18/04/2010
The Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia
Second International Jewellery Exhibition of enamelled jewellery
This Museum is dedicated to the Arts of Glass and Enamel. The exhibition will show the work of designers with art academy education, gold- and silversmiths, students from vocational schools, as well as trained or self-taught enamellers who have branched out into designing and making jewellery.
14/06/2009 – 4/10/2009
Stichting Museum voor vlakglas- en emaillekunst, Ravenstein, Netherlands
Edge of the Sublime: Jamie Bennett
Jamie Bennett is an internationally recognized metalsmith whose painterly innovations have greatly expanded the field of fired enamel into a medium for contemporary expression. This first-ever retrospective explores Bennett’s creative use and development of a variety of enameling and metalworking techniques to produce highly color-saturated imagery on signature brooches, necklaces and pendants. Bennett’s related production of enameled wall reliefs and other works on paper painted in oil and encaustic is explored in this exciting overview of the artist’s career.
22/03/2009 - 6/09/2009
Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin, USA
3/11/2009 – 28/02/2010
Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA, USA
Gems and other cut stones
(For engraved gems, see Subject & Function/Uses)
Elements
From Actinium to Zirconium, it’s time to get switched on to science with a journey along the periodic table! Get set for an odyssey that will take you from the rocks beneath your feet to the most distant and ancient reaches of the Universe. Everything from microscopic viruses to vast galaxies – and you too – is made from elements. In this spectacular and unique exhibition, the only one of its kind in Europe, you can find out what the elements look like, where they were made, how they occur naturally, how we use them, and why they can be dangerous!
3/07/2014 - 4/12/2022
Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast BT9 5AB, UK
Brilliance: The Art and Science of Rare Jewels
Discover how gems and minerals are used in a wide variety of fields, from jewellery design to scientific research in geology, chemistry, physics, and other disciplines. Enter our Gem Vault and marvel at the brilliance of over one hundred spectacular objects — necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, and unmounted gems — drawn primarily from the works of master jewellery designer Robert Procop — that will be on display alongside minerals from the Museum’s collection.
8/12/2021 – 21/02/2022
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA
Pierres Précieuses
In collaboration with Van Cleef & Arpels, this exhibition offers an immersion in several intimately linked but rarely united universes: mineralogy, gemmology and jewellery. Diamond, ruby, emerald, aquamarine, turquoise ... Extracted from the depths of the Earth, coveted and sought after for millennia, gems - precious stones worked by man - have always been considered as instruments of power and objects of seduction but also, since the 18th century, as scientific subjects. Through a contemporary scenography, the exhibition brings together more than 500 minerals, gems and works of art from the collections of the Museum and more than 200 gems and jewellery creations from Maison Van Cleef & Arpels. This unique dialogue between mineral, gem and jewel structures the route and immerses the visitor in the history of the Earth, the processes of mineral formation and the latest scientific advances in geosciences. It also allows you to marvel at the most beautiful creations shaped by human hands from natural diversity.
16/09/2020 - 22/08/2021
Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, 36 rue Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 75005 Paris, France
Dolce color d’orïental zaffiro. Le gemme in Dante e nei bijoux americani
The Sweet Colour of the Oriental Sapphire. Gems in Dante and in American Jewellery.
The celebrations of Dante in this year 2021 have touched on the most erudite, in-depth, geo-localized aspects possible, but one aspect, not yet addressed, is displayed in this exhibition; the gems mentioned in the Divine Comedy come to life in the most iconic and original American jewellery of the 40s and 70s. The best brands such as Kenneth Jay Lane, Miriam Haskell, Pell, Trifari, Krementz find light in the showcases of Sala Zaffanella of the museum of Casalmaggiore, in an unusual and curious intersection with the verses of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.
The exhibition honours Alighieri by displaying jewels of unspeakable beauty, linked to the gems he mentions in his most famous work, made by Italian emigrants in the States: exiles, like Dante. And, like Dante, these compatriots, like Midas, have transformed a weakness into "gold": thanks to the Florentine poet, the vernacular has risen to unimaginable heights, allowing the widespread dissemination of knowledge and culture; thanks to the Italian-American jewellers, even an object made of non-precious materials becomes a work of art, to be worn by all classes of society.
Also intertwined in this narrative are the jewels produced by Casalmaggiore's cobbler factories: the 'Dante-gadgets' are part of the museum's heritage, pendants and bracelets testifying to the fact that Casalmaggiore was celebrating Alighieri even in the 600th anniversary of his death.
25/09/2021 - 9/01/2022
Museo del Bijou, Via Porzio 9, 26041 Casalmaggiore (CR), Italy
Gemmes, une brillante histoire
This exhibition presents the history of gems from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, in paintings, engravings, objets d’art, manuscripts and crystals.
6/07/2014 - 5/10/2014
Musée de Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye, Le Noviciat, 38160 Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye, France
Jewels, Gems, and Treasures: Ancient to Modern
What is a gem? Today, in the West, we have come to regard diamond, pearl, emerald, sapphire, and ruby as the most precious of materials. That has not always been the case. Throughout the course of world history, other substances have commanded equal attention, including materials that are largely ignored today. Kingfisher feathers, tiger claws, jet beads, and mica appliqués were at one time worn in different parts of the world with great pride. Some materials, such as coral and rock crystal, have served a protective role, in which they were perceived as being able to guard their wearer from dangerous circumstances or malevolent forces. Other substances, especially those that are rare and available to a select few, are signifiers of wealth and power. This exhibition, the first in the Museum's new Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation Gallery, will examine the various roles and meanings associated with a wide range of gem materials.
19/07/2011 – 25/11/2012
Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115-5597, USA
Dreher Masterworks
This exhibition showcases the most highly sought after masterpieces of the gem carver’s art.
Created by four generations of masters from the Dreher family in Idar-Oberstein, Germany these exquisite pieces are brought to life using ruby, sapphire, aquamarine, topaz and other rare gemstones.
3/06/2022 – 29/05/2023
Houston Museum of Natural Science, 5555 Hermann Park Drive, Houston Texas 77030, USA
Gold, Jasper, and Carnelian: Johann Christian Neuber at the Saxon Court
Since antiquity, gemstones (also known as hard or semiprecious stones) have been cut and polished for use in jewelry, in the creation of vases and cups, and in the decoration of palaces. Rediscovered and developed in sixteenth-century Florence, pietra dura (hard stone) objects were collected and sometimes used as political propaganda among the Medici. A sign of wealth, taste, and power, they were also offered as diplomatic gifts or acquired by foreign sovereigns. In the following centuries, they not only aroused admiration at major European courts but also prompted artists to work with gemstones. In eighteenth-century Saxony (part of Germany), the technique was revived again by Johann Christian Neuber (1736–1808), one of Dresden's most famous goldsmiths. The Frick Collection presents the first comprehensive introduction to Neuber's oeuvre, including important diplomatic gifts and approximately thirty-five snuffboxes, bonbonnières (candy boxes), and fashionable accessories.
30/05/2012 - 19/08/2012
The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021, USA
Stone of Heaven. HRH Prince Henrik’s Collection of Oriental Jade
In Asia, jade stone has been given the poetic title ‘Stone of Heaven’, and because of its beauty jade has become associated with the spirit world – as a link between heaven and earth. Jade stone, with its aforementioned beauty, colour and texture has been used for carved figures, imperial objects for everyday use, gifts for the dead, protective talismans and jewellery. As jade has not been utilised in Denmark to the same degree, the exhibition will, therefore, give the visitor an insightful glimpse into the artistic craft that is not only unusual to our culture, but which stretches back several thousand years. Prince Henrik’s eminent collection of jade figures makes up a unique platform for the presentation jade as a material, which is a relatively unknown precious stone to most people in the Western world: an unacquaintedness that stands in sharp contrast to Asia’s thousands of years of history and culture, where jade art has been an integral part of life. HRH Prince Henrik has collected Oriental jade all his life. The collection, which is housed at Fredensborg Palace, Amalienborg Palace and Château de Cayx, covers an extensive range both in terms of style, size, form and colour, and numbers more than several thousand objects. Parts of this collection are exhibited here for the first time.
22/01/2017 - 27/08/2017
Museet på Koldinghus, Koldinghus 1, 6000 Kolding, Denmark
Jade, des empereurs à l’Art Déco
From the emperors of China - great intercessors between Heaven and 4 Earth -, who considered it a natural jewel, up to Cartier and the leading London and New York jewellers who sublimated it in the 20th century in the Art Déco creations inspired by the Chinese taste, jade remains this eternal and mythical stone, an object of fascination and absolute power for the sovereign. The exhibition will strive to render jade since its origin and throughout its historical and geographic epopee and will touch on its symbolic, aesthetic, and scientific aspects. For the first time it will bring together, beside a selection of MNAAG jade works, two prestigious Chinese imperial collections never before shown together: those of the National Palace Museum, Taipei and those of the Château of Fontainebleau, forming an exceptional ensemble, enriched by numerous loans from the Louvre, the Musée des Arts décoratifs, the Musée Jacquemart-André, the Muséum d’Histoire naturelle…
27/09/2016 - 15/01/2017
Musée Guimet, 6, place d'Iéna- 75116 Paris, France
Marvellous Marble - South Devon's forgotten industry
The marble industry of South Devon is probably the least well-known of the British decorative stone-cutting industries of the 19th century. This exhibition includes a selection of jewellery, mainly brooches, set with South Devon marbles, and is a rare opportunity to see authentic pieces. There are also some Scottish and Derbyshire examples for comparative purposes.
6/04/2012 – 26/07/2012
Torquay Museum, 529 Babbacombe Road, Torquay, Devon TQ1 1HG, UK
Hidden Gems: Scotland’s Agates
The deceptively simple exteriors of agates conceal an enormous spectrum of colour and texture. Discover how and why these beautiful semi-precious Scottish gems have captivated collectors past and present.
4/05/2018 – 6/01/2019
National Museum of Scotland, Exhibition Gallery 3, Level 1, Chambers Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1JF, UK
Jewelry Museum Collection Exhibit: Yamanashi and Jewellery
At first glance, this may seem like an unusual pairing.
High-quality quartz crystals were once mined in Yamanashi. There is a history of quartz crystals have been mined in Yamanashi since the Jomon period (approximately 5,000 to 3,000 years ago).
The industry evolved in the Edo period (1603-1868) with the introduction of polishing techniques from Kyoto. These techniques have been passed down over generations and are still in use today by the present-day jewellery industry.
Today, Yamanashi is one of the most unique places in the world for jewellery industry. It is the industrial cluster of specialised jewellery workshops and companies for the processing of gemstones,crystals, and precious metals, as well as for crystal art engraving.
This museum opened in 2013 to raise awareness about the high level of jewellery technology in the local Yamanashi industry.
This exhibition of the Jewellery Museum Collection focuses on the jewellery that expresses changing seasons from autumn to winter and the jewellery designs symbolise Yamanashi.
Please enjoy the delicate and beautiful jewellery from Yamanashi.
28/10/2022 – 27/02/2023
Yamanashi Jewelry Museum, 1-6-1 Marunouchi, Kofu-shi, Yamanashi 400-0031, Japan
Crystals in Art: Ancient to Today
Today, high-quality quartz crystals are mined from the mountains and caverns of Arkansas. Yet this iridescent, enigmatic material has captivated artists, religious leaders, monarchs, and healers across the world for thousands of years. Organised by Crystal Bridges curator of contemporary art Lauren Haynes with guest curator Joachim Pissarro, this exhibition is the first of its kind to explore the complex and varied connections between crystal and art throughout the world, spanning history and geography. View ancient artefacts such as engraved gems, figurines, and more alongside works from contemporary artists around the world that explore the power of crystal in art by drawing on its form, properties, and mysterious qualities. Featuring more than 75 works from Ancient Egypt, Rome, China, and beyond, discover how the power of crystal transcends the boundaries of time and space.
12/10/2019 – 6/01/2020
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville AR, 72712, USA
All That Glitters: The Splendor & Science of Gems & Minerals
Did you know that every glittering ruby, sapphire, diamond, and opal has a history as old as the Earth itself? Discover how the same Earth processes that build landscapes produce dazzling gemstones and precious metals—even right here in San Diego County, one of the most famous gem-producing regions in the world. Witness a stunning selection of spectacular natural mineral crystals, exquisite jewelry, and works of art. See objects on display for the first time ever. Discover “first finds” in the world, found right here in California: benitoite, gold, kunzite and morganite. View stunning objects on loan from private collectors and major U.S. institutions including the American Museum of Natural History, Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Harvard University Mineralogical Museum, Newark Museum and National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
15/05/2010 - 8/04/2012
San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego, CA 92101, USA
The Spirit of Stone
This event will bring to Lappeenranta an exhibition, work-shops and lectures, related to stones and jewellery. The theme of the event is the spirit, mythic and power of the stone. The Spirit of Stone is organized in cooperation with Kalevala Jewelry (Kalevala Koru) and South-Karelia Museum. It will present the prehistory of the stone and some of the best works from the international competition for art jewelry students. The exhibition also includes an invitation exhibition for jewelry artists around the world and a stone jewellery exhibition of Kalevala Koru.
8/05/2011 - 8/01/2012
South Karelia Museum, Lappeenranta (Fortress area) Finland
Carl Fabergé and Masters of stone carving. Russian masterpieces of semi-precious stones
The exhibition, comprising articles made from semi-precious stones, is devoted to the Russian art of stone carving and its most distinguished craftsmen, i.e. jewellers Carl Fabergé, Avenir Sumin, Ivan Britsyn, suppliers to the Imperial court, Alexey K. Denisov (pseudonym Uralsky), known as “the artist and poet of the Urals”, as well as other eminent jewellers and stone carvers of the XVIIIth - XXth centuries from Jeremy Pauzie to Louis Cartier, whose style and art of jewellery making in the early XXth century has been developing under the influence of the Russian school of gem stone carving. The display presents over 400 jewellery pieces made from precious and semiprecious stones, derived from the Urals, Siberian and Altai deposits. All of them reveal the highest level of craftsmanship, characteristic of manufacturers from the Imperial Lapidary Factories of Yekateringburg, Peterhof, Kolyvan, the firm of Verfel and the Ural workshops.
8/04/2011 - 24/07/2011
Assumption Belfry, Kremlin, Moscow, Russia
Earth's Treasures
This exhibition presents approximately 500 mineral, gem, rock, and meteorites specimens from all over the world. The exhibition space is divided into Zones of Amygdaloidal Cavities in the Huge Basalt Formation, the Beauty of Mineral Colors, the Beauty of Mineral Shapes, Minerals & Human Civilization, Minerals & Human life, and the Trend of Mineral Application. Each display case in the exhibition presents a theme for visitors to explore and a selection of amazing specimens that illustrate the subject, and each piece of the jewelry on display is accompanied with its gemstone and rough mineral, that offers visitors the chance to see vibrant specimens up close, learn an abundance of facts and discover what rocks and minerals tell us about Earth’s amazing treasury.
7/07/2010 - February 2011
National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan
From pebble to jewel
The geographic origin of the stones which are used in jewellery.
13/03/10 - November 2010
Musée du Marbre, Rance, Belgium
Facets of GIA
An exhibit of breathtaking jewelry, gems and minerals that brings to life the Institute’s groundbreaking role in gemological education and research.
14/05/2008 – 30/04/2010
The GIA Museum, Carlsbad CA, USA
Set in Stone: 2000 Years of Gem and Mineral Trade in the Southwest
Over the last 54 years, the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show has grown enormously along with its impact on the local economy, but the lure of the minerals beneath our soil has generated trade for much longer than that. Gems, minerals, copper, and even sea shells and other exotic goods have been carried across the Southwest along well-established and well-worn routes for more than 2000 years. Set in Stone brings this long history to light, featuring 800 objects and audio-visual displays. With Native jewelry and mining tools from across the span of time, and with mineral samples, photographs, and recordings, the viewer is transported on a journey of deep historical resonance along routes that trace how the quest for mineral wealth has shaped the identity of the Southwest. Designed to complement and coincide with the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, Set in Stone gives context and perspective to our community’s annual gathering.
until 28/02/2010
Arizona State Museum, Tucson, AZ, USA
Light & Stone: Gems from the Collection of Micheal Scott
This exhibition brings together more than 200 superb pieces, all carefully chosen by Scott to represent the quality and diversity of crystals and gems, as well as their stunning range of colour. Jewelery pieces, gemstones cut and unset, as well as modern interpretations of gemstones as art are all dazzlingly displayed. Among the exhibition’s highlights: a 9,000-carat carved quartz sculpture entitled Repose, depicting a nude male youth with a draping of 18 karat gold over his lap and a spectacular tiara entitled Queen of Kilimanjaro, featuring the world’s largest faceted tanzanite (242 carats) on 18 karat white gold, encircled by 803 rare tsavorite garnets and 913 brilliant-cut diamonds.
12/04/2009 – 15/11/2009
Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto, Canada
Dazzling Desire
People have desires. They desire love and security. They desire to understand the meaning of life. They also desire wealth, status and power. 'Dazzling Desire' reveals the variety of meanings that people have attributed to diamonds. The stories they have made up about them – and still do. Mary of Burgundy’s engagement ring, the impressive Our Lady’s Jubilee crown, the Cartier tiara worn by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and the bling of popular hip-hoppers today. Each and every one shows us how people try to shape their desires through diamond objects. Contemporary works by Berlinde De Bruyckere, Jan Fabre, Phillip Aguirre, Sobudh Gupta and Thierry De Cordier provide a critical viewpoint. But can mankind really draw meaning from these diamond objects? Or are they merely a symbol of desires that are ultimately unattainable?
18/10/2017 - 14/01/2018
MAS | Museum aan de Stroom, Hanzestedenplaats 1, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Pink Diamonds
For the first time, see the largest collection of some of the world’s most beautiful Australian Pink Diamonds, including the 2.83 carat Argyle Violet, one of the scarcest gems on Earth.
The chance of a pink diamond forming is one in a million and Australian pink diamonds are renowned among jewellers for their incredibly rare colour intensity. While found throughout the world, pink diamonds from the Kimberley region typically have the most intense pink colours and account for more than 90% of the world’s known pink diamonds.
This is a special opportunity to see these dazzling, naturally formed diamonds and jewellery from the L.J. West collection featuring unique and striking gems, whose colours range from pink through red and violet.
5/11/2022 – 29/01/2023
Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson St, Carlton, Melbourne VIC 3053, Australia
“Diamonds are not only a girl’s best friend”: Diamonds in industry – 100 year anniversary of Hanau’s long-established company LACH DIAMANT
6/10/2022 - 25/10/2022
Deutsche Goldschmiedehaus Hanau, Altstädter Markt 6, 63450 Hanau, Germany
Diamonds, The Collection of Benjamin Zucker, New York
Les Enluminures presents an exhibition of the extraordinary collection of diamonds - the king of gems - of Benjamin Zucker, one of New York's leading dealers in diamonds and precious stones.
24/10/2019 - 9/11/2019
Les Enluminures, 23 East 73rd Street, 7th Floor, Penthouse, New York, NY 10021, USA
Diamonds: Rare Brilliance
Romantic and beautiful, scientists believe these exquisite gems are formed as the product of high stress – intense heat and pressure over billions of years until they are pushed up out of the Earth from under continents. This winter NHM’s Gem and Mineral Vault will be home to four of nature’s rarest colourful diamond masterpieces. Discover the amazing properties of coloured gemstones, the science behind natural coloured diamonds, and how the interplay of light and chemistry gives diamonds colour. The science behind the diamonds is as mesmerizing as they are!
16/12/2016 - 19/03/2017
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA
Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration
Diamond, the hardest natural material known, carries associations of endurance and longevity. These qualities, allied to the purity, magnificence and value of the stones, have for centuries led rulers to deploy diamonds in regalia, jewellery and precious objects. Individual diamonds have achieved great renown, passing down the generations and between enemies or allies as potent symbols of sovereignty and as precious gifts. This spectacular exhibition at Buckingham Palace will show the many ways in which diamonds have been used by British monarchs over the last 200 years. The exhibition includes an unprecedented display of a number of The Queen’s personal jewels – those inherited by Her Majesty or acquired during her reign. The exhibition will reveal how many of these extraordinary stones have undergone a number of transformations, having been re-cut or incorporated into new settings during their fascinating history.
30/06/2012 – 7/10/2012 (closed 9-30/07/2012)
Buckingham Palace, London SW1A 1AA, UK
The Nature of Diamonds
Discover the rarest and most dazzling gems from collections throughout the world as the exhibit explores the human fascination with diamonds and provides an in-depth look at them as a natural substance. Delve into their geological origins, learn how they are mined, explore their cultural significance in art, literature and adornment and marvel at their numerous uses in modern science and technology. From the volcanoes that bring these gorgeous crystals to the surface to the fabulous jeweled masterpieces created by man, discover the rich history of this amazing mineral.
8/05/2009 - 7/09/2009
Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, TX, USA
17/10/2009 – 28/03/2010
The Field Museum, Chicago, IL, USA
When stones speak
Precious stones do not speak only of themselves. All stones speak to the imagination but especially diamonds to dream! This may sound bizarre, but diamonds traditionally play a role in real or imagined (life) stories ... This is a unique exhibition project based on fabricated stories of diamonds or objects in which diamonds play a (main) role.
30/10/2009 – 16/02/2010
Diamantmuseum Provincie Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
Diamonds: Mined, Refined and Designed
Diamonds is an interactive, bi-lingual (English/French) exhibit that explores fascinating aspects of these rare, highly-sought-after jewels. Visitors will learn about the forces that forged these gems billions of years ago, and discover the complex processes involved in finding, extracting and cutting diamonds. Also on display are exquisite examples of diamond jewellery, courtesy of Kline Fine Jewellery and Design of Edmonton. These magnificent pieces will illustrate the 'four Cs' of the diamond world - carat, clarity, cut and colour. Are there diamonds to be found in Alberta? Why are Canadian diamonds among the most valued in the world? Discover the answers and much more in Diamonds: Mined, Refined and Designed!
until 17/01/2010
Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Lapis Lazzuli. Magia del blu
Lapis Lazuli was a rare and precious stone, found only in the mountains of Badakhshan, before the discovery of vast resources in Siberia. This exhibition covers every aspect of the subject, from its use as a pigment in medieval and Renaissance painting, and its presence, richly mounted in gold, in aristocratic and royal Kunstkammern, to modern experiments in creating simulants and synthetics.
9/06/2015 - 11/10/2015
Museo degli Argenti, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy
Turquoise, Water, Sky: The Stone and Its Meaning
People in the Southwest have used turquoise for jewelry and ceremonial purposes and traded valuable stones both within and outside the region for over a thousand years. Turquoise, Water, Sky presents hundreds of necklaces, bracelets, belts, rings, earrings, silver boxes and other objects illustrating how the stone was used and its deep significance to the people of the region. This exhibition highlights the Museum’s extensive collection of Southwestern turquoise jewelry and presents all aspects of the stone, from geology, mining and history, to questions of authenticity and value.
13/04/2014 – 2/05/2014
The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, 710 Camino Lejo off Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, USA
Glass
Vetro. Gioielli italiani fra '800 e '900
Glass. Italian jewellery in the 19th and 20th centuries
The UN has declared 2022 as the International Year of Glass in which the world celebrates the "technological, scientific, economic, environmental, historical and artistic role of glass in society". The Museo del Bijou is celebrating glass with this special exhibition of a selection of jewellery and period documents.
Glass, kaleidoscopic and multiform, has always been appreciated because it is capable of taking on the features and colours of nature and also of going further, transforming itself into something new, the fruit of human ingenuity and creative ability.
Before the advent of plastics, glass was considered one of the materials par excellence in the creation of jewellery that marked the evolution of women's style and role in society: from angel of the hearth to uninhibited flapper, from bon-ton lady to career woman, from revolutionary flower child to ethereal minimalist. Between the 19th and 20th centuries, following the process of industrialisation, glass diversified its identity: on the one hand a mass-produced article for the general public used in low-cost bijoux; on the other a product of the highest craftsmanship subject to technical and artistic experimentation for refined and luxury jewellery.
23/04/2022 – 16/10/2022
Museo del Bijou di Casalmaggiore, Via Porzio, 9 - 26041 Casalmaggiore, Italy
Take 9/Reflections on Glass Jewelry
Glass has long played a role in personal adornment because of its decorative qualities. But the nine internationally acclaimed artists featured in this exhibition—Nirit Dekel (Israel), Don Friedlich (USA), Teri Greeves (Kiowa)(USA), Mieke Groot (Netherlands), Timothy Horn (Australia, working in USA), Paolo Marcolongo (Italy), Patricia Niemann (German, working in Scotland), Bernhard Schobinger (Switzerland), and Joyce Scott (USA)—have chosen instead to focus on the symbolic and metaphoric qualities of glass to make strong social, political, and cultural statements. Glass embodies the paradoxical ability to be transparent and opaque, fragile and strong, alluring and hazardous—traits that are often associated with the human condition. The artists represented here work with glass as their primary or recurring material; each, however, takes a very different approach to the medium. They use a variety of masterful techniques to present unique perspectives that are informed by their diverse cultural and geographic backgrounds. While some works are designed for the human body, others serve as oversized metaphors that challenge accepted norms for adornment. The resulting objects are compelling and of enduring interest.
cancelled Spring 2022
Museum of Glass, 1801 Dock Street, Tacoma, WA 98402, USA
Linda MacNeil: Jewels of Glass
Artist Linda MacNeil’s innovative use of glass to create elegant, wearable jewellery provides a unique opportunity for Museum of Glass to present its first exhibition of jewellery. MacNeil has been a pioneer in both the Studio Jewelry and Studio Glass movements since the 1970s. Emerging during that decade with formal training in metalsmithing, MacNeil began fashioning a body of work that combines glass and nonprecious metals — more recently augmenting them with precious materials — to make exquisite articles of adornment not rooted in narrative. Over her 40-year career, MacNeil has created more than 700 necklaces, brooches, and earrings. This retrospective exhibition and accompanying catalogue is the first scholarly examination of the development of MacNeil’s work and her contribution to late 20th- and 21st-century American jewellery.
21/01/2017 - 1/10/2017
Museum of Glass, 1801 Dock Street, Tacoma, Washington 98402 - 3217, USA
René Lalique: Enchanted by Glass
This major exhibition will bring together glass, jewelry, production molds, and design drawings by René Lalique (French, 1860─1945), dating from about 1893 to Lalique’s death in 1945. As a successful jeweler Lalique experimented with glass in his designs, which eventually led to a career in which he fully embraced the material. His aesthetic choices in his designs informed the styles of Art Nouveau and Art Deco in France, and the objects he created have become iconic reflections of these periods. This exhibition will be drawn primarily from the Museum’s permanent collection.
17/05/2014 – 4/01/2015
The Corning Museum of Glass, One Museum Way - Corning, NY, USA
Dual Nature-Contemporary Glass and Jewelry
This dramatic exhibition explores the parallel histories of glass and jewelry/metalsmithing which are deeply rooted in the Pacific Northwest, featuring works by eight emerging and established artists. On display are intricate metalwork inspired by botany, organic forms in paper and resin, architectural glass vessels, colorful micro-mosaic brooches, and reflections on cultural roots and identity.
15/05/2010 to 15/01/2012
Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, Seattle, WA 98104, USA
Ercole Moretti. Un secolo di perle veneziane
Ercole Moretti. A century of Venetian beads
A century of Venetian beads and precious handmade glass works by one of the most famous and ancient Murano Glass factories, the Ercoli Moretti & Bros, celebrating this year the one hundredth anniversary of activity. Among the works on display are the 'Rosetta' bead, famous all over the world, the Mosaic bead, the Millefiori and the well known Murrina, on display together with many other glass works, on the first floor of the Murano Glass Museum.
9/10/2011 – 6/01/2012
Museo del vetro di Murano, Venice, Italy
2000 year-old glass - Jewellery and everyday objects
This exhibition shows, largely for the first time, ancient Egyptian jewellery, Mycenaean and Phoenician beads, Greek Perfume bottles, Hellenistic mosaic glass and Roman Oil bottles, tableware and gold glass fragments 2000 years old. Glass manufacturing and glass art brought to life.
5/09/2010 – 13/02/2011
Martin von Wagner Museum, Würzburg, Germany
René Lalique and his art
A collection of art nouveaux jewellery designed by Rene Lalique, including sketches as well as the jewels themselves. With the participation of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, the Lalique Museum, Hakone, Japan, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
16/09/2010 – 9/01/2011
Assumption Belfry, Kremlin, Moscow, Russia
Altino: Glass of the Venetian Lagoon
This exhibition is being held to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Museum, by organizing an event that highlights its glass legacy, in terms of archaeological artefacts, and at the same time, promotes and introduces glass to a wider public. Starting with the legacy preserved at the Museum, the objective of the exhibition is to provide a deeper understanding of glass techniques used during the Roman era and supported by the artefacts uncovered during the excavations in the area of Altino (both in the necropolis and the inhabited areas). The objects that will be displayed represent an important 'dictionary' of the techniques that were used and known at the time when Altino, with Ravenna and Aquileia, was one of the great ports on the Adriatic Sea. The exhibition will highlight the line of continuity between the ancient Altino glass and Murano glass, whose production has its roots in the forms and techniques of ancient workmanship. Around 400 pieces of glass are shown - jars, bottles, jugs, cups, glasses, plates, balm, but also jewellery (rings, bracelets, pearls, glass paste).
15/05/2010 – 30/11/2010
National Archaeology Museum of Altino, Altino, Venice, Italy
The adventure of glass. From the Renaissance to the twentieth century, between Venice and distant worlds
Renaissance masterpieces from Venetian museums, a cargo of sixteenth century pearls and glass recovered from the Croatian seabed, fascinating glass bead necklaces destined for the African market, and also Napoleon’s glass flute which was recovered by the English after the Battle of Waterloo will be among the magnificent collection of objects on display. A rich section will be dedicated to multicoloured necklaces of glass beads from public and private collections.
27/06/2010 - 7/11/2010
Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trento, Italy
Glas wird Schmuck 2010
The exhibition Glass in Jewellery presents the latest work of 24 jewellery makers from seven countries. Jewellery made of glass is now perceived as an art form, as "art that can be worn" in its own right, not merely as imitation of precious gems. The works currently on display represent a wide spectrum of colors, shapes and techniques. Two years ago, the first exhibition in which was shown exclusively glass jewellery was shown. Meanwhile, much has happened in the area of jewellery design with glass and there are surprisingly many new things to discover. In this current exhibition the variety of glass is wonderfully made visible again.
14/05/2010 - 9/10/2010
Galerie am Museum / Eisch Atelier, Frauenau, Germany
Glass Jewelry : An International Passion
The ancient art of making jewelry from glass has undergone a revolution. Today, artists from around the world are creating spectacular pieces, both wearable and purely sculptural, where glass in all its forms complements or even take the place of precious metals and gemstones. The artists in this exhibition employ highly sophisticated glassworking techniques such as blowing, flameworking, casting and sandblasting to realize their ideas. The results exploit the mystery, sensuality, color and reflective properties of glass. The 33 participating artists in this exhibition represent 10 different countries including Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Scotland, The Netherlands and The United States. This exhibition is being held in conjunction with the Glass Art Society 40th Annual Conference, which will take place in Louisville June 10 - June 12, 2010.
22/04/2010 - 17/07/2010
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville KY, USA
Brilliant Impressions: Antique Paste & Other Jewellery
A glittering exhibition of paste and other jewellery dating from the golden years of the 18th and 19th centuries. Catalogue Antique Paste & Other Jewellery by Diana Scarisbrick, £30
15/06/2010 - 29/06/2010
S. J. Phillips Ltd, London, UK
Glass Beads of Ghana
Southern Ghana is home to sub-Saharan Africa's most dynamic and enduring glass bead-making tradition. For over 400 years, Ghanaian bead artists have been producing powder-glass beads from recycled glass to meet local demands of fashion and customary practice. Glass Beads of Ghana, the first exhibition to look closely at this distinctive art form, is drawn largely from The Newark Museum's own extensive collection, one of the few such collections in the world.
Until 21/03/2010
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ, USA
Small but perfect - new jewellery from glass, part II
Last year the Glass Museum held for the first time an exhibition of exclusively glass jewellery. It showed jewellery for which the artists had made some beads themselves, but also took advantage of processed fragments and fused glass items from old Bohemian beads necklaces and rings. The interest of visitors was enormous and the variety of the pieces shown impressive. This exhibition again shows jewellery, which consists primarily of glass, combined in some cases with precious stones and other elements. Sometimes it is playful and very colorful, sometimes rather strict and cautious. Again it becomes clear just how diverse are the opportunities for using glass and how different the ways jewellery designers deal with it.
11/07/2009 - 14/02/2010
Glasmuseum Immenhausen, Hesse, Germany
Glasswear: Glass in Contemporary Jewelry
This exhibition combines two of the most vibrant and inventive areas in the decorative arts today- glass and jewelry. This presentation showcases highly innovative works by 60 internationally renowned jewelry artists, representing countries as diverse as the United States, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Japan, Australia, South Africa, among others. Many of the works will be seen for the first time as special commissions for this exhibition. Visually exciting works will exploit the expressive potential of glass to engage our senses and challenge our ideas of adornment and the values of materials. GlassWear has been produced in partnership with the Schmukmuseum, Pforzheim, Germany. It was made possible with a grant form the Art Alliance of Contemporary Glass. Organized and Circulated by Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY
13/07/2009 - 20/09/2009
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
2/10/2009 - 3/01/2010
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL, USA
Organic materials
Kingfisher Headdresses from China
Since ancient times, Chinese poets have praised the plumage of the kingfisher, a bird widely found in the tropical regions of Asia.
By the Song dynasty (960–1278), portraits of empresses showed them wearing headdresses adorned with kingfisher ornaments. Few examples of this fragile artistry have survived, and the earliest ones come from the tomb of the Wanli Emperor (reigned 1572–1620), in which archaeologists found four elaborate kingfisher crowns worn by his empresses.
The vivid feathers were expensive, with the most prized specimens imported from Cambodia and Vietnam. Artisans cut them to shape before painstakingly pasting the feathers onto gilded metal backing that formed the structure of the headdresses. Precious and semiprecious stones such as rubies, agate, and jadeite as well as other valuable materials including amber, coral, and pearls added to the splendid effect. Popular motifs — bats, butterflies, dragons, and phoenixes — symbolized various aspects of good fortune.
This exhibition brings together over 20 objects crafted from these extraordinarily beautiful feathers, all promised gifts from Barbara and David Kipper. They include ornate headdresses as well as smaller pieces of jewellery and hairpins, which provided a less cumbersome touch of glamour.
21/05/2022 – 21/05/2023
Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60603, USA
Piqué. Gold, Tortoiseshell and Mother-of-Pearl at the Court of Naples
Galerie J. Kugel presents the first exhibition devoted to the art of ‘piqué’, which flourished in Naples during the first half of the 18th century. The technique combines lavish inventiveness, virtuoso skill and astonishing opulence. Over 50 extraordinary objects bring together three precious materials: tortoiseshell, gold, and mother-of-pearl. These pieces were created between 1720 and 1760 for connoisseurs and the court, and particularly for Charles of Bourbon, who became king of Naples in 1734, and made his court one of the most splendid and cosmopolitan in all Europe. The artisans who created these masterpieces were known as “Tartarugari”. Giuseppe Sarao, the most famous among them, had a workshop adjoining the walls of the royal palace. Several of the pieces in the exhibition were made by him. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, offering the first complete study of the subject. The French version will be published by Monelle Hayot and the English version by Rizzoli.
12/09/2018 - 8/12/2018
Galerie Kugel, 25, quai Anatole France, 75007 Paris, France
Amber
Ambra. Dalle rive del Baltico all'Etruria
Amber. From the shores of the Baltic to Etruria
This exhibition represents an important opportunity to highlight the ancient links between Italy and the Baltic peoples. It is divided into three sections: modern Baltic amber jewellery; ornaments, amulets and symbols of power in Etruria; and ancient and nineteenth-century amber from the workshop of the Roman goldsmith Castellani. Amber was considered by the ancients a precious and magical "stone", with its warm light similar to that of the sun, a stone from which to make precious jewels and amulets which could be used to ensure good luck and heal many diseases. For the first time refined amber jewellery made in Etruria, including some precious necklaces from Vulci and Veii Capena will be presented to the public. The exhibition will be accompanied by the publication of a catalogue illustrating the materials on display and analysing the forms of production, distribution and circulation of amber in the Mediterranean and in Northern Europe.
15/12/2012 – 10/03/2013
Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, piazzale di Villa Giulia 9, 00196 Roma, Italy
Russian Amber Coast
Travelling exhibition from Kaliningrad Amber Museum funds
May to June 2012
Museum of the City of Lodz, Ogrodowa Street 15, 91-065 Lodz, Poland
The magic of amber - amulets and jewellery from classical Basilicata
The exhibition shows 180 specimens in amber found in Basilicata, dating from the eighth to the fourth centuries BC, including small sculptures by carvers from the Greek cities of the Ionian, and the Etruscan cities of Campania, but also necklaces or belts of inestimable value. Myths, mysteries and legends accompany more than two thousand years history of amber, which are obtained with precious jewels and amulets. The Greek tradition maintained that the raw amber came from the remote and legendary West, perhaps because it came mainly from Italy to Greece, across the Adriatic. The spread of amber in Basilicata dates from the second millennium BC, so that a major fossil-guide can be used to reconstruct the archaeological history of the region. The exhibition also shows rare amber from ancient Macedonia.
22/07/2009 – 15/02/2010
Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
28/01/2011 - 25/04/2011
Das Römisch-Germanische Museum, Cologne, Germany
3/09/2010 - 9/01/2011
Italienisches Kulturinstitut, Zurich, Switzerland
Coral
Gioielli del Mare. Coralli, Cammei, Perle tra Memoria e Modernità.
Jewels from the sea. Coral, Cameos and Pearls between Memory and Modernity.
This exhibition features more than 100 pieces of jewellery - parures, necklaces, bracelets, brooches and cameos - derived from the rarest and most prestigious materials of the sea and transformed into objects of wonder by the skilled workshops of Torre del Greco, some in operation for over 100 years. The exhibition is divided into three sections: Coral, the Mediterranean gem par excellence; Cameos, the result of the skilled art of glyptics, the expression of the cultural identity of Torre del Greco, whose interest spread through all the courts of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries; and Pearls, gems that have fascinated man in all ages, from East to West, and are associated with rarity, wealth and power. The exhibition is curated by Cristina Del Mare.
20/03/2015 - 1/07/2015
Museo del Gioiello, Basilica Palladiana, Piazza dei Signori, Vicenza, Italy
Coral: Something Rich and Strange
Explore the enduring fascination with coral as a material, symbol and inspiration for artists, cultures and societies across the centuries. This major new exhibition juxtaposes Manchester Museum's natural coral specimens, fossils and glass models of sea anemones with ethnographic objects, cultural artefacts, decorative art objects and artworks from different cultures around the globe, including parts of a large collection of Victorian coral jewellery from the Gallery of Costume at Platt Hall, which will be on display alongside Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Pre-Raphaelite painting Joli Cœur, among other works. Art installations by Mark Dion and textile artist Karen Casper will go alongside our community art project, Manchester’s first Crochet Coral Reef. Paintings, prints and objects on loan from Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery and the V&A will also be on display. Supported by Arts Council England and The Granada Foundation.
29/11/2013 - 16/03/2014
Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
I grandi capolavori del Corallo. I coralli di Trapani del XVII e XVIII secolo
Masterpieces of coral. Trapanese corals from the 17th and 18th centuries
From chalices and monstrances, cribs and chests, salt cellars and frames to gaming tables and trophies for the palaces of nobles and kings: this exhibition gathers together the best of Trapani coral art from that historical period. Curated by Valeria Vigni Li, director of the Pepoli Museum, it is a collaborative effort between the Puglisi Cosentino Foundation and Fondazione Roma Mediterraneo and houses historical collections belonging to the Banca Popolare di Novara, the Pepoli Museum, the Whitaker Foundation and the Diocesan Museum of Monreale, as well as individual pieces from private collections, both Italian and foreign. During the exhibition, the Goldsmiths Jewellers Association of Trapani, in collaboration with Federpreziosi-Confcommercio and the Art School of Design in Trapani, will set up a laboratory where students will show how coral is currently worked in useful and important initiatives for promoting this charming old trade to the new generation.
3/03/2013 – 5/05/2013
Fondazione Puglisi Cosentino per l'arte, Palazzo Valle, Viale Vittorio Emanuele 122 - 95131 Catania, Italy
18/05/2013 – 30/06/2013
Museo Pepoli, Via Conte Agostino Pepoli 180, Trapani, Italy
Ivory in Bruges. Treasures from museums, churches and monasteries
This is an exhibition of precious and delicate jewels. The collection of ivory art works comes from Bruges churches, monasteries and museums. Most of these exceptional objects are of religious origin, but there are also a number of buckles and even an early hairpin. These unique pieces, some of which date back to the 12th century, are brought together for the first time in the medieval wards of Saint John’s Hospital.
29/04/2010 – 7/11/2010
Memling in Sint-Jan - Hospitaalmuseum, Bruges, Belgium
Pearls
Lustre: Pearling and Australia
From a fossil pearl shell 125,000 years old to modern lustrous pearl jewellery, Lustre: Pearling and Australia weaves together the diverse strands of Australia’s pearling heritage. Lustre traces pearling across the north of Australia, from Shark Bay to the Torres Strait Islands. It reveals the natural world, the traditions of Aboriginal Australians who have harvested pearl shell for over 20,000 years, and the complex and enduring relationships of the people who made and defined the pearling industry. Lustre was curated in a partnership between the Western Australian Museum and Nyamba Buru Yawuru. The exhibition is sponsored by Visions of Australia.
20/08/2016 - 22/01/2017
Immigration Museum, 400-424 Flinders Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
23/02/2018 – 22/07/2018
National Museum of Australia, Lawson Crescent, Acton Peninsula, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Angels’ Tears or Gems of the Ocean: Pearls in the History of Jewellery
Extremely rare and thus immensely precious, pearls have always been objects of desire. As early as in antiquity, mussels were gathered in the Persian Gulf in search of pearls of supreme quality. After Alexander the Great conquered Persia, they also made their way to Europe. Countless legends, myths and stories about pearls have developed in the course of time. From classical antiquity to our day and age, pearls have been an integral part of jewellery. By means of historic as well as contemporary examples, this exhibition will present multifaceted ways of how to use pearls in jewellery and the skilled craftsmanship involved.
26/10/2012 – 27/01/2013
Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim, Jahnstrasse 42, D-75173, Pforzheim, Germany
Pearls
A pearl-drop earring worn by Charles I at his execution in 1649, magnificent pearl tiaras worn by European nobility and a necklace of cultured pearls given to Marilyn Monroe by Joe DiMaggio in 1954 will be among the array of jewels and other objects that will be on display in an exhibition that will be held at London’s V&A (Victoria & Albert Museum) in partnership with the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA). On display will be over 200 pieces of jewellery and works of art showcasing the variety of colour and shape of natural and cultured pearls. The exhibition will examine how pearls have been employed over centuries in both the East and the West as a symbol of status and wealth, how tastes vary in different cultures and the changing designs of jewellery with pearls. The creations will be drawn from the V&A and QMA collections, alongside objects from British collections such as Tate Britain, the British Museum and the Royal Collection.
21/09/2013 - 19/01/2014
Victoria & Albert Museum/V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL, UK
Pearls: Jewels from the Sea
Commemorating 40 years of friendship between Japan and Qatar, this exhibition showcases around 200 works of art between historical objects and sumptuous jewellery and demonstrates how pearls are formed and their relationship with societies throughout history. Along with the collection of Qatar Museums Authority, artifacts on view at the exhibition are from the exquisite collection of Albion Art in Tokyo, Mikimoto and Co, Yoko London and Hinata Company Kobe.
28/07/2012 - 14/10/2012
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, 1-1-1, Wakihama Kaigan-dori, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan
Perles de la Nature - « Du coquillage au bijou »
This exhibition is dedicated to natural products, in particular pearls of all kinds.
23/04/2010 - 23/09/2010
L'Aquarium-Muséum de l'Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium
Pearls
This exhibition has brought in some of the rarest pearls worth more than $100m from 24 collectors from round the world. The exhibition offers comprehensive tour inside the world of pearls, natural and cultivated, ending with the precious treasure. Adding glamour to the show are pearls of different size, colour and structure; from different periods of history; pearls of fame and those owned by legends; from different parts of the world and those from reputed collection. From the extraordinary Melo pearls to a Chinese Emperor robe, from the bags of pearls from the Qatar waters to the unique Nautilus pearls, from the French Art Deco jewellery to the latest creations by Chanel, the exhibition is a tour de force that the region has never seen before.
30/01/2010 - 5/06/2010
Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), Qatar
Plumes - Feathers !
From the middle of the 19th century, feathers were increasingly imitated on fabric with varying degrees of accuracy. These fabrics were allied in fashionable dress with hats incorporating actual feathers mixed with ribbons and precious jewels. Feathers have also featured in the ornaments of other cultures, from the Trobriand Islands and Papua New Guinea to the Apache and Iroquois of North America. This exhibition will show pieces from the collections of the museum, as well as from other museums and private colelctions. It will also include a presentation of the feather-worker's art, and an evocation of costumes and accessories from Parisian fashion houses.
16/04/2011 – 23/10/2011
Musée de Bourgoin-Jallieu, Bourgoin-Jallieu, France
Jewellery: Materials and Meaning. Jet and other Victorian materials
Curated by Lynne Glazzard, Whitby Museum's Artist in Residence, who will include a few of the pieces she has made during her residency. The exhibition will mainly showcase artefacts from the jet, ethnographic and social history collections of the Museum, and will have a number of themes or threads running through it. It will have a section on the use of different materials including at least one of the beautiful woven or plaited Victorian hair bracelets
30/03/2010 - 20/06/2010
Whitby Literary & Philosophical Society, Whitby, UK
Hair
Woven in hair. A recent gift of hairwork jewellery
Uncover the surprising beauty of jewellery made from human hair and the intimate meaning such pieces had for those who wore them, as friendship, sentimental or memorial tokens. Made in the 1840s to 1860s, these exquisite jewels, selected from a recent gift, are shown for the first time. The fashion for hairwork jewellery was made popular in Britain by Queen Victoria. Throughout her life the Queen exchanged locks of freshly cut hair – her own, and those of her children and grandchildren – with members of her family on birthdays and anniversaries. The hair was either mounted in lockets or bracelets, or braided into three-dimensional jewellery made entirely of hair. These hairwork jewels are a gift from Ann Louise Luthi, author of Sentimental Jewellery (1998) and long-standing volunteer in the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory.
19/07/2019 - 1/09/2019
The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG, UK
Mementos of Affection: Ornamental Hairwork in Jewelry and Portrait Miniature
This exhibition, on display in Gallery 213, will delve into the dual themes of why these keepsakes were created and cherished: love and mourning. These pieces are emblems of familial and romantic love that were personal records of family members, engagements, and marriage. Because hair does not decay it also came to represent a way to make the memory of deceased loved ones immortal. Mourning hairwork developed into an array of symbolic styles, from engraved Georgian enamel-work to scenes of a mourning widow at the grave, that served as a reminder of those who had passed away. In addition to these themes, there will be a section discussing how hairwork is done, including a sampler and tools.
27/05/2017 – 18/11/2018
Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45202, USA
Kunstvolles aus Haar
Braiding, twisting, gluing, punching - hair could be processed in a variety of ways. Flat or round hairstyles are still used today to create elaborate earrings, brooches or chains. Filigree pictures were created with hair dust and elaborate three-dimensional hair pictures were made from hair strands wound into loops. Jewellery and pictures of human hair fascinate and irritate. Pieces of hair have been handed down since the Middle Ages in northern Europe. The fashion for hair came during the Biedermeier period. For the intensively cultivated friendship and commemoration cult of that time, hairstyles of all kinds were a suitable means of expression. The custom was widespread that the bride gave the groom a watch chain of her own hair. Mortuary memorials have been decorated with weeping willows or plant tendrils ornately carved out of hair. This exhibition presents a variety of valuable hairstyles. Thanks to loans from the Marie Fässler-Neff collection, Lochbuebe Marie, Brülisau, more than 120 historic pieces of jewellery can be seen. They impressively show the high craftsmanship of this craft. Outstanding is the hair decoration by Maria Elisabeth Signer (1824-1908), the most important representative of Innerrhoder Haarflechterei. 16 unique hairstyles from Grimmenstein Abbey are on display for the first time, complemented by filigree pictures and medallions from the Historical and Ethnological Museum of St.Gallen. Today, the almost forgotten arts and crafts are continued by Mina Inauen and Jakob Schiess, both from Appenzell, at a high level. The exhibition shows parts of her current collection of hair accessories. In addition, the renowned Lausanne artist Lorna Bornand has realized artistic interventions from hair at the invitation of the Museum Appenzell.
25/11/2017 - 3/06/2018
Museum Appenzell, Hauptgasse 4, 9050 Appenzell, Switzerland
Woven Strands: The Art of Human Hair Work
A favoured folk art of the 18th and 19th century, hair art was a sentimental expression of grief and love, usually created by women whose identities have become anonymous over time. Human hair (from both living and deceased persons) was used to form flower bouquets, wreaths, braided jewellery chains, weeping willows, and painted scenes of mourning. Considered to be a form of portraiture, these were cherished tokens to preserve the memory of a deceased loved one, chart a vibrant family tree of the living, or to be traded as friendship keepsakes. It is rare to view such pieces publicly as they were created in domestic settings, for home display. From six private collections, the Mütter Museum along with John Whitenight and Evan Michelson have assembled an exquisite group of hair art and jewellery as well as accompanying materials that discuss the social expectations of Victorian-era mourning rituals that ruled 19th century society with strict standards.
19/01/2018 - 12/07/2018
Mütter Museum, 19 S 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA
Daily 10am–5pm
Adults: $18. Seniors: $16. Students $13
Haarscharf. Schmuck aus menschlichem Haar - eine vergessene Kunst
A lock of hair. Jewelry made from human hair - a lost art.
Hair, especially that of a loved one was and is still very popular. A lock of hair (in a medallion) is considered a very special gift, a piece of the giver themself. The gift of hair as a gesture of friendship was like a popular game in some circles, as the poet Jean Paul wrote to a friend while on holiday in 1800: "I captured a lot of hair (quite a watch chain from the hair of three sisters) and gave much of my own in return." Most of the hair came from young girls when they changed their hair style or "went under the hood". The hair was then carefully placed in paper and set aside. The treasured hair was preserved for a long time until the girl fell in love, got engaged or married and gave it to her chosen man - in the form of a watch chain, perhaps - as a gift. But this exhibition, showing pieces on loan from the museum at Mühltor Isny, the Historical Museum of St. Gallen, as well as from private lenders, does not just show watch chains. There is hardly any jewellery class of hair like bobbin lace or in braided form which cannot be seen. Pictures of powdered hair and souvenir pictures and mourning jewellery complete the display.
14/04/2012 - 30/09/2012
Stadtmuseum Dornbirn, Marktplatz 11, 6850 Dornbirn, Germany
Victorian Hair Jewelry
The Rosenberg Library Museum features Victorian hair jewelry as the January “Treasure of the Month.” Hair jewelry, whether handmade or professionally crafted, was popular during the height of romanticism and was a sentiment that characterized the Victorian era. These nineteenth century pieces were crafted as tokens of love, friendship or in memoriam of a beloved family member. Pieces often took the form of brooches, necklaces, and bracelets, and were made stylish in Europe by Scandinavian crafters and Queen Victoria. The pieces on display range in date from 1840 to 1880. The museum’s collection of hair jewelry was donated by Helen Ebert, 1968; Shelby Z. Mowat, 1975; and Mrs. Catherine D. Gauss, 1985.
January 2010
Rosenberg Library Museum, Galveston, Texas, USA
Beloved hair mounted in gold. Hair jewellery
Hair in culture and history - hair jewellery from the private collection of Nora Lettau. Everyone has it - more or less - but the knowledge of hair and its significance - especially for women, is now almost completely lost. Nora Lettau shows the importance of hair in history, folk tales, legends, the Bible and in other cultures. Hair has for centuries symbolised our social status, our beliefs and attitudes. Similarly, the processing of hair as wigs, hair ornaments and pictures, as well as a commercial product, which was as expensive as gold, is almost entirely forgotten. All this and more is shown through examples and objects during this special exhibition. A journey through the history of hair!
15/11/2009 - 06/01/2010
Sandelsches Museum, Kirchberg an der Jagst, Germany
Jewellery from hair - a forgotten barbers' art
The 19th Century was the heyday of artistically designed work made from hair. This jewellery was worn as a pledge and the demonstration of feelings and personal relationships. When two people were in love, it was symbolic to carry the other's hair with them. This exhibition tells the story of this forgotten art.
21/05/09 – 19/07/09
Dreieich Museum, Dreieich, Germany
Paper
Sieraden van Nel Linssen
The Paper Jewellery of Nel Linssen
The artist Nel Linssen (1935) has been making paper jewellery in Nijmegen for around thirty years. The Museum Het Valkhof is hosting this exhibition because she has very generously donated her complete internationally famous collection to the museum. The exhibition consists of complex woven bracelets, necklaces and pendants.
2/10/2014 - 6/04/2015
Museum Het Valkhof, Kelfkensbos 59, 6511 TB Nijmegen, Netherlands
Textiles
Bijoux textiles, au fil de la parure
Textile jewellery, the thread of ornament
While the word 'bijou' evokes the concept of precious materials such as gold, silver and gems, this exhibition presents an alternative vision of jewellery made from the complex interweave of threads of fibre or metallic tissue
15/10/2010 – 13/02/2011
Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs , Lyons, France