Bracelet
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.The Arts & Crafts artist Edward Everett Oakes was one of the most talented of his generation. He trained under Boston jeweler Frank Gardner Hale, who had studied silversmithing and enameling in England with the influential Arts & Crafts designer C. R. Ashbee. Oakes later joined another skilled Boston jeweler, Josephine Hartwell Shaw, before opening his own shop in 1917. A prominent member of the Society of Arts & Crafts, Boston, Oakes was elected a master craftsman in 1917 and was awarded a Medal of Excellence in 1923. Oakes also produced silver hollowware, and the American Wing owns a porringer with oak leaf handle as well as a beautiful pair of silver and amethyst candlesticks by this outstanding metalworker.
This bracelet is a stunning example of Oakes’s gold and gem-set jewelry, reflecting his personal style in the use of deeply colored Montana sapphires and pearls, and exquisitely finished settings. It is at once organic and sumptuous, historically-derived and novel. Oakes’s commitment to studying and employing techniques and motifs of the past is evident in both the working of the gold and the inclusion of faceted collet-set gemstones.
This bracelet is a stunning example of Oakes’s gold and gem-set jewelry, reflecting his personal style in the use of deeply colored Montana sapphires and pearls, and exquisitely finished settings. It is at once organic and sumptuous, historically-derived and novel. Oakes’s commitment to studying and employing techniques and motifs of the past is evident in both the working of the gold and the inclusion of faceted collet-set gemstones.
Artwork Details
- Title: Bracelet
- Maker: Edward Everett Oakes (American, 1891–1960)
- Date: ca. 1925
- Culture: American
- Medium: Gold, Montana sapphires, and pearls
- Dimensions: Approx. 7 in. L
- Credit Line: Promised gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing