This Sotheby’s auction presented a collection of carefully selected and thoughtfully curated pieces of artists’ jewelry. My aim was to share my passion for artists’ jewelry with discerning collectors and to excite the interest of lovers of all kinds of art in this developing and important genre. The works presented were miniature sculptures. Acquiring one of them allows the buyer to experience an intimate relationship with the piece itself, the artist who created it, as well as a direct connection to the art movement it reflects.

Artists’ jewelry tends to mirror the artistic mode of the day; therefore, the sale was divided into sections loosely defined by some of the significant art movements of the 20th century. An emphasis was placed on prominent artists, though some who are lesser-known were included owing to the excellence of their works. Many are known for works on a large physical scale, but all have been drawn to explore this medium in miniature. In this reduced scale, the contrasts and detailing stand out sharply.

The more I have learned about the artists, their jewelry creations, and their history and philosophy, the more fascinating I find them. I am confident that collectors and other readers of this auction will be equally captivated.

Each work has a very personal connection to the artists who created them. The artists in each section are known for their work in particular mediums. Upon my visit to his studio in Les Fusains in Paris,  Hubert Le Gall entrusted me to include his unique and delicate Alaskan Fisherman with a Jewelry Stand Mirror and Swallow, all of which include obsidian (volcanic glass). He shared the insight that many artists feel that it is more challenging to garner power in the small than they can easily get in the massive.

The works here represented historical moments of creative expression from Calder’s kinetic genius in the 1930s and 1940s to today's visionaries, who are creating with their art what I view as the heirlooms no just of today but of tomorrow. Throughout this auction, you can see how each artist has explored mediums on different scales using diverse materials and combining different techniques.

Visionary artists included, for example, Luz Camino’s unique works consisting of thinly-sliced agate combined with her skill in using the 14th-century plique à jour technique. Tito Pedrino used stones such as aquamarine in bold and powerful ways in his Aquamarine Necklace. Innovative interpretations of the surrounding world are reflected in works like the handmade ‘Atlas’ Jewelry Box by sculptor Luna Benai, while the violinist Yury Revich’s The Expressivity: Shostakovich Eye Jewelry was inspired by the edginess, expressivity, discomfort, and surreal beauty of music composer Dimitri Shostakovich. James de Givenchy is a recognized visionary whose work will be a classic reference for future generations, just as we now look back to early jewelry artists such as Suzanne Belperron, born in 1900, who pioneered a new aesthetic in jewelry.