American Jewelry History Told Through the Lens of One of the Best That Ever Was
Marcus & Co. Three Generations of New York Jewelers
Four years ago, when Beth Carver Wees told me she was working on a book with Sheila Barron Smithie about the American jeweler Marcus & Co., my first thought was, “That’s great.” I’ve never seen a bad or even a mediocre piece of jewelry by the New York firm that opened in 1892.
Still, I wondered, even though the authors are academic heavyweights, if they would be able to find enough information to fill a publication. Very little was generally known about Marcus, the jewelry is comparatively rare and the company had been out of business since 1942.
Well, as it happens, Beth, who is the Curator Emerita of The American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Sheila, who has consulted on jewelry for The Met and is an adjunct faculty member at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art had already been researching for about six years when I learned about the project. All in, the collective effort involved in the production of the book, which was officially published on December 2, spanned approximately 10 years.
Selected pages of jewelry including several inspired by Islamic design from “Brooches and Pendants, No. 5.” Courtesy of Morse Museum
