Before the Industrial Revolution (1750), almost all work had been done with hand tools. Many of the new technologies developed during the 18th and 19th centuries brought about dramatic changes. Improved mechanization, transportation, and communications had transformed the Western world (Europe and America) from primarily agrarian societies to industrial societies. This also had a profound effect on aesthetics. The shift in design thinking from “utilitarian” and “purposeful” to “decorative” was a result that remains with us today.
America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was an exciting time. He saw mass production methods, a growing middle class with discretionary funds available, and a growing demand for products. The creation of mail order catalogs such as Marshall Field, Sears, Roebuck and Company, Montgomery Ward, Macy’s, and many others filled this need. For the first time, middle-class American women could buy, at an affordable price, the precious clothes and possessions previously only available to “grand ladies.”
One of these items, always important to a lady, was the jewelery box, more popularly called the Jewel Box, a repository of her most precious jewelry and keepsakes. Where once every jewelry box had been hand-built by a goldsmith, now the most delicious cast metal creations were produced in many designs and available (due to new mass production methods) to every lady in America. The growth in popularity of these “Art Metal” jewelry boxes (also called jewelry boxes and caskets) paralleled the growth of catalog shopping. The jewelry boxes were promoted as “dainty gifts for Milady” or “M’lady’s jewelry box” and were made in sizes ranging from the smallest ring box to very large tissue and glove boxes.
Art Nouveau was the predominant design style in the United States between 1900 and 1910. Art Nouveau is a French term meaning “new art” and was coined by the Maison de l’Art Nouveau, a Paris gallery that opened in 1895 This was a romantic style, influenced by the art forms of Japan, with many motifs taken from nature (flowers, women, birds, and vines) and recognizable by the “whip” curves and asymmetrical elements. Of the Art Nouveau jewelry boxes produced in the United States, those with floral motifs abounded.
Roses and poppies were the most popular, and there were many interpretations of these two flowers in jewelry boxes. Daisies, four-leaf clovers, lily-of-the-valley, pond lilies, grapes, violets, carnations, holly, and a myriad of other flowers also decorated jewelry boxes. This may be due, in part, to the not too distant Victorian period (1880-1900), when the “meaning of flowers” played such an important role.
The Victorians were noted for communicating their feelings through flowers, so much so that specific feelings were assigned to a wide variety of flowers and plants creating a “language” of their own. Entire conversations could be carried out using only a bouquet of flowers. This suited the Victorian concern with detail, and many books have been written on the subject. Even Collier’s Cyclopedia of Social and Commercial Information, published in 1883, contained an entire chapter on “The Language of Flowers,” specifying which flower spoke for each sentiment.
A second and important contributor to the importance of floral motifs was the “Flower of the Month” concept, promoted by jewelry and related trades in the early 20th century. Floral motifs had always appeared on cutlery, jewelry, and metal art objects such as jewelry boxes. Driven by the public’s desire for more decorative objects, the jewelry industry had improved production, distribution, and marketing methods. Little by little, the role of flowers as a decorative motif became the central theme. Manufacturers assigned specific flowers to birth months. And so we also find jewelery boxes decorated with roses for love (June), carnations for admiration (February) and holly for foresight (December).
Art Nouveau jewelry boxes were as beautiful on the inside as they were on the outside. All the jewelry boxes were lined. The most common linings were fine silk, fault, jacquard and satin. Silk had always been prized as a precious and luxurious fiber. Its lustrous appearance has ceaselessly captured the fancy of ladies throughout history. In the 20th century, the United States was a major importer of silk from Japan and China. Because silk was easily dyed, it was available in a rainbow of colors, although very pale shades of pink, green, and blue were usually used in jewelry boxes. The linings were usually trimmed with a fine twisted silk cord.
In the early 1900s, there were many American manufacturers producing metal art items, with jewelry boxes being one of the most popular items. Many of these manufacturers are long gone, but one, Rogers Brothers, still exists today. There were several “Rogers” brothers in the business at the turn of the century, and the name gained national recognition due, in large part, to the wide distribution of mail-order catalogues. The name became so popular that other companies tried to adopt it and laws abounded. The original Rogers family was primarily associated with silverware, but a brother of his, N. Burton Rogers, maintained his own metal art business and produced many Art Nouveau jewelry boxes.
Other American jewelry box manufacturers included The (MS) Benedict Mfg. Co, Jennings Brothers Mfg. Co. (JB), Kronheimer & Oldenbusch Co. (K&O), Weidlich Brothers Mfg.Co. (WBMfg Co), Brainard & Wilson Corp. (B&W). These companies produced entire “lines” of jewelry boxes as well as other decorative art metal items such as clocks, chandeliers, statues, etc. All of these companies also “signed” or “marked” many of their pieces (with the initials noted above), and for that reason we can identify much of their work today.
By 1915, the popularity of these art metal jewelry boxes had reached its peak. The First World War caused the production of metal articles of art to be curtailed and the continuity of fashion was broken. The first naturalistic yet interpretive Art Nouveau flowers, leaves, and vines had become “mainstream” floral decoration. 1925 saw the virtual end of these beautiful cast metal jewelry boxes. The Americans were in different styles and different materials.
Fortunately for us today, Art Nouveau jewelry boxes can be found almost everywhere, if you look closely: antique stores, malls, antique shows, the Internet, resale stores, even garage sales, though rarely. . Because jewelry boxes are somehow still “unrecognized” by the general public as a valuable antique collectible, they are often mislabeled, mispriced, and misplaced. Prices range from $20 to $700 each. Art Metal Nouveau jewelry boxes seem to be one of the “best kept secrets” as there are actually many serious collectors in the United States and elsewhere, some with collections of up to 600 boxes!
