Should Jewelry Be In the Vault or On the Wall? Both.

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“Why Not Hang Gems?” the American jeweler David Webb asked in a 1963 essay. He believed in jewels as cultural artifacts, as integral to history and decorative arts as painting or sculpture, and also deeply connected to both mediums. In The Art of David Webb: Jewelry and Culture, writer Ruth Peltason uses illuminating and often unexpected juxtapositions to outline his point and to celebrate the impact this belief system had on his work.

Webb’s jewelry is never timid, and Peltason reveals his equally bold inspirations: a carved coral chrysanthemum brooch paired with Hokusai’s 19th-century print of a chrysanthemum; a coiled dragon brooch fueled by a Scythian gold animal pommel (6th century BCE); the hammered gold and gemstone Tree of Life necklace evoking the Gustav Klimt masterpiece of that name; a banded gold cuff reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum. Jewelry is often dismissed as mere adornment; Webb insisted it should never be. This book makes his case.

This story appears in the September 2023 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW

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