Necklace

This seventeen-inch long necklace composed of twenty-three pendant oval shattuckite stones, mottled blue, green and reddish-brown in color is strung on a gold mesh chain. Each stone is set into a plain gold bezel with beaded edge and attached to gold tubes set with tiny gold beads. A small coral bead is set between each of the shattuckite pendants and bordered on either side by small gold rings. Another small coral bead hangs from wires that descend between the pendants. The clasp is hidden within the gold tubes at the rear of the piece.

This necklace was made by American Arts & Crafts jeweler Marie Zimmermann, whose work was admired and celebrated during her lifetime and continues to attract attention today. Born in Brooklyn in 1879 to an upper middle-class Swiss family, Zimmermann studied at the Arts Students League and refined her skills at the Pratt Institute. She was deeply inspired by the art of the past, often visiting the Metropolitan Museum where she frequented the Greek, Egyptian, and Far Eastern galleries. In 1901 she was invited to join the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park, whose members included such artistic luminaries as William Merritt Chase, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and Alfred Stieglitz. There she established her studio, and there she remained for the next twenty-five years. Although trained in painting and sculpting, she was primarily a metalworker, who liked to say she made “everything from tiaras to tombstones.” Her work was highly regarded throughout her career, as she diversified from her early work in jewelry into vases, tablewares, candlesticks, architectural elements and stained glass windows. She exhibited widely, and her work was discussed and illustrated in journals such as “The International Studio and House & Garden”. National recognition brought her commissions from wealthy clients, but she also made objects for her family and friends.

Zimmerman’s extraordinary sense of color and design is clearly evident in this necklace, where the mottled blue, green and reddish-brown tones of the shattukite stones are enlivened by the orange coral beads and the rich gold of the settings.