Beaux-Arts style George N. Steere sash pin

Sash brooch by George Steere, marked GNS & Co. In gilt brass with a fanciful bug and glass stones.

For a number of photos of George Steere jewelry, go here:

http://www.morninggloryantiques.com/JewelChatGNS.html

Not much is known about George Nathaniel Steere (marks GS, GNS and GNS & Co.) who made jewelry in Rhode Island from about 1906-1911. His pieces have a mythical feel in their motifs, using unfoiled glass stones, and a variety of creatures: griffons, bugs and birds.

Beaux-Arts architecture expresses the academic neoclassical architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Frankly, it sounds kind of a mess...: depended on sculptural decoration along conservative modern lines, employing French and Italian Baroque and Rococo formulas combined with an impressionistic finish and realism.

Anyway, the Americans liked it and Beaux Arts jewelry was popular alongside of Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts and Edwardian from about 1890-1920. In Christie Romero's book Warman's Jewelry, she states: "finely detailed griffons, cherubs and foliate motifs show up in circa 1890-1920 pieces by Kerr, Riker, Krementz and others, which up until now have been called Art Nouveau, even though the name didn't fit. "Beaux Arts" seems to fill a need for this label for this style and sufficient numbers of examples are on the market today to warrant giving it recognition and its own classification."