Vintage Designer Signed Jewelry
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Jewelry as Sculpture: The Birth of Modernist Studio Jewelry
By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis — My background is in fine art. My B.A. was in Art Education, so I started out as an art teacher. Later, I began working on a master’s degree in art valuation and started working for galleries. I enjoyed that side of it, the collecting and the sales, the gallery experience. I wasn’t really into jewelry, but we moved to Alexandria, Virginia and I worked for a gallery there called Silverman Galleries on North Saint Asaph Street. I was their art historian, and they had lots of jewelry, mostly...
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Christie Romero on Differences Between Fine and Costume Jewelry Over the Decades
By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis — I started out with general antiques and collectibles... I was a dealer for a while and bought and sold all kinds of things. Gradually jewelry became my focus. In the mid-1980s I started getting serious, and in 1988 I started teaching small classes, workshops, and seminars, primarily on costume jewelry but also some fine jewelry. Vintage costume jewelry was just beginning to take off as a collectible. Up until that time, most people thought it was junk. They didn’t understand what it was...