The Art of Collecting Art Nouveau

February 6, 2024

Over the past five years, modern designs have taken inspiration from the Art Nouveau style of jewelry, which enjoyed popularity between 1885 and 1910. The era represented a revolt against industrial mass production.

Some of the most revered French artisans participated in the movement, which broke boundaries by throwing out the rules and redefining fine jewelry. They used unconventional materials, mixing metals and gemstones that enhanced the naturalistic themes of the pieces. Ironically, the most valuable stones — diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and natural pearls — had less worth, in artistic terms, for the masterpieces of Art Nouveau.

Now, a new wave of artists has been working with daring arrangements of materials, creating intricately detailed pieces that display bold mixes of gems and several different types of enameling and botanical motifs that appeared in the original unorthodox, trailblazing designs.

Learn more about this topic by Beth Bernstein as reported in Rapaport on rapaport.com.

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