Hello, all - I'm new here. I'm an antique jewelry dealer out in California. I joined up because I recently acquired an Arts & Crafts ring, and I'm trying to find out who made it. I sent photos of it to a local jewelry historian/appraiser, and he thought he know who the maker was, but couldn't remember the man's name. What he remembered was, he was "a craftsman in Boston who belonged to the Boston Society of Arts & crafts in the 1930's, one of the few Afro-American members at that period and I believed he died from Leukemia. He made many similar items. The leaves were die struck and sold by a jewelry manufacturing company..."

Can anybody help me with this? I've ransacked all the books I own that I thought might help, but no joy.



Thanks very much for any help!
Jocelyn Reynolds

Hello Jocelyn,
Welcome to the Arts and Crafts Society and we hope you will find it interesting enough to continue returning again and again.

I am not much on the knowledge of fine jewelry but you have a nice ring there and there is no doubt that it has some value, as to how much value would be up to an appraiser who knows about these pieces. I personally like the style, thanks for sharing.

Respectfully,

Ralph

Hi Jocelyn,

I might be able to help you identify the maker and the images are not appearing. I see a message explaining that they are not available. Could you repost them. There were several quality jewelers in the Boston area during the Arts & Crafts Movement. I am not familiar with any Afro-american jewelers of the period and I can ask around to some of my collector friends. Is it marked? Does it have a stone/stones?

Hello again!

Ralph, thanks for your welcome! I'm glad you like the ring - I'm sort of in love with it!

Fred - any help would be terrific! I wish the photos were working for you! I can see them inside my post now. I don't know how to re-post them, Rikki Neyman inserted them for me. If you would be willing to send me your email address, I'd be happy to forward them directly to you. Meanwhile, the ring is only marked 14k. It has 3 opals in a line N to S, 4 blue sapphires in a square (so that the central opal and the 4 sapphires look like the 5 on a die), all in an oval-shaped setting surrounded by gold leaves.

thanks for any help!
Jocelyn

Jocelyn,

I can now see the images. It is a very nice piece and have done a bit of research and come up with nothing yet. I have not heard back from my friends and when I do I will get back to you.

Wonderful ring. I would love to learn more about this African American jeweler. If you discover more let me know.

Best

Hi, Fred,

If your friends can give us any help, that would be grand. I don't actually know where else to do research on this, since the books I have don't seem to refer to this man, and I haven't found anything on-line.

Does the Boston Society have any kind of archives, or lists of members, or anything like that? I was sort of hoping that would be the case ...

Thanks again for looking!

All the best
Jocelyn

Jocelyn,

I have searched through my resources and contacted a few folks with knowledge of jewelry of the period. Nothing stands out in the piece you have that identifies it as made by a know jeweler of the Arts & Crafts Movement. The use of a plate for mounting the faceted stones is not common and as you mentioned the leaves are off the shelf variety and not hand made as would be typical of most of those early Boston jewelers.

A book was compiled of the members of the Society of Arts & Crafts of Boston fron it's founding through 1927. I could not find anyone fitting your description, designated as silversmith, metalsworker, or jeweler in this record.

Your ring is lovely and it is quite possible that we may never know it's maker.

Hey, Fred -

Thank you so much for looking so hard! I really appreciate it. And it's good to know that there is a book of the Boston makers - all that archival stuff is so great to have!

But how sad that ultimately you couldn't find an ID. Perhaps my friend the jewelry historian will eventually remember the maker's name, or where he read about him.

If I ever do find out, I'll be sure to post the information here, and meanwhile hopefully sometime I'll be able to help someone else out with an ID :-)

best wishes
Jocelyn

For anyone interested in the book that Fred mentioned it is:

Society of Arts and Crafts Boston Exhibition Record 1897-1927 By Karen E. Ulehla, published by the Boston Public Library (February 1982)

Lauren

Thanks Lauren,

The book is not easy to find to purchase. It is a valuable resource for collectors and historians alike.

I did find a copy on a book search and it is selling for just over $400.