Events & Awards

20th-Century Jewelry Conference Heads to Boston

Events & AwardsApr 08, 2019

20th-Century Jewelry Conference Heads to Boston

The speaker line-up features curators, historians, gemologists and jewelry artists.

20190408_Conference_Header.jpg
"Somewhere in the Rainbow" gem and mineral collection manager Shelly Sergent will lead a lecture on this Cartier bandeau tiara, seen in its original box above, at a jewelry conference this summer.

Ellicott City, Md.—History buffs, rejoice.

The Antique Jewelry University and the Association for the Study of Jewelry & Related Arts (ASJRA) are joining forces to host a series of all-day jewelry conferences over the next three years.

The first conference, "Jewelry of the 20th Century: 1900-1960s", will be held at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design in Boston on June 8.

The event will be directed by ASJRA co-director Elyse Zorn Karlin and Yvonne J. Markowitz, the Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Curator Emerita of Jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The speaker roster features curators, historian, gemologists and jewelry artists.

Suzanne Martinez and Starla Turner of Lang Antiques will host a session on how to date diamond rings from that time period and detect reproductions.

Craig Lynch, graduate gemologist and principal of Ouelette-Lynch Appraisal Services will lead a discussion about the jewelry aboard the RMS Titanic.

Macklowe Gallery president Ben Macklowe will share his knowledge of Art Deco jewelry, while ASJRA co-director Elyse Zorn Karlin will delve into jewelry of the “Space Age,” the era from 1955 to 1975 when the United States and the Soviet Union raced to be dominant in spaceflight capabilities.


Elyse Zorn Karlin will discuss this platinum and diamond rocket ship brooch dating back to the 1950s in her “Out of this World! Jewelry in the Space Age” lecture.

Shelley Sergent, collection manager of the “Somewhere in the Rainbow” gemstone and jewelry collection, will give a lecture on “A Cartier Bandeau,” recounting the history of that specific tiara.  

An interactive panel discussion will follow. Attendees are invited to “stump the panel” by submitting pictures of jewelry they would like discussed.

A limited group of people will be invited to a pre-conference study day on June 7, which includes a series of curated tours at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The conference fee is $400 with discounts available to ASJRA members. The fee for the study day is $400.

For more information about the program, and registration, visit the conference website.

Lenore Fedowis the senior editor, news at National Jeweler, covering the retail beat and the business side of jewelry.

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