A vintage jewelry exhibit showcases the concept of jewelry as art at M.C. Ginsberg.

By Hanna Rosman

Jewelry is meant to be more than merely an accessory; it is artwork. Throughout the decades, the concept and creation of jewelry has changed from being one-of-a-kind art to highly commercialized and mass-produced pieces.

M.C Ginsberg, 110 E. Washington St., seeks to remember the earlier concepts of jewelry as art by exhibiting vintage jewelry from the Art Decorative and Retrospective periods during regular business hours through Nov. 30.

“I am intrigued by the period,” said Mark Ginsberg, the president of M.C. Ginsberg. “The industrial modern period and post-World War I seemed to be not only a great period for fashion, for cars, but for jewelry,”

The Art Decorative period boasted jewelry that is angular and sleek in design, aimed for an elite crowd. The color palette used for the design included white metals such as platinum. Pieces on display at Ginsberg’s store, including a heart structured with metal and encrusted with blood-red jewels, demonstrate the period’s trend of geometrical symmetry.

A majority of people in that era could not afford such jewelry because it was custom-made. Those wealthy enough visited jewelry stores such as Tiffany’s or Harry Winston and sat face-to-face with designers to make something specific, Ginsberg said. The lustrous and sophisticated themes matched the tastes of the upper-class people who purchased the jewelry.

The Retrospective period in jewelry reflected the people by being bold and confident. The jewelry ultimately mirrored the rebirth of society to celebrate the ending of the repercussions of World War I, such as rationing and the American public’s nerves being strained and exhausted from violent conflict. The pieces used flowing design and bold sizes to show unrestraint and the desire to scream and be noticed, much like society.

The transition between the two periods was blunt, rather than being lost in shades of gray, Ginsberg said.

“[Art Deco] ended with a dot, dot, dot and [the Retrospective period] picked up with an exclamation point,” Ginsberg said.

The draw one has to a piece of jewelry is rooted in an emotional connection. An initial appeal may be a piece’s aesthetics or gleam, but it leads to a desire that it sparks within a viewer. In custom-made pieces, it is through the minute details made from a burnishing tool or the type of polish that magnetizes this attraction, Ginsberg said.

“There is something intimate, something sexy and sensual about” the subtleties of a piece, he said.

In mass-produced, commercialized pieces, these subtleties in detail can be missed. If a piece of jewelry is one-of-a-kind and handcrafted, it is a piece of fine art, said Ann Au, the owner of 2AU in West Des Moines.

“There is something dramatic and theatrical about a piece of art,” Ginsberg said. “If you are going to acquire them, acquire them for the right reason. If it doesn’t have an emotional connection, then it is all worthless.”