Seaman Schepps Vintage Exhibition Icons and Signatures
Together with over two centuries worth of experience in fine jewelry craftsmanship and focus on custom, high-end design, Yamron Jewelers and Seaman Schepps have much to celebrate. Honoring an American tradition in jewelry, Yamron will exhibit nearly forty rarely-seen vintage jewels from the private collection of Seaman Schepps.
Rising to fame in the mid-twentieth century as Schepps crafted whimsical jewels for a celebrity clientele including the fashionable Duchess of Windsor, legendary Doris Duke, publisher Blanche Knopf, and even the White House’s political elite, earned Schepps the title, “America’s Court Jeweler” in an article by Maxine Chesire written for The Washington Post in 1968.
Designing collectible, yet wearable pieces, Schepps, like a “magician”, transformed unexpected combinations of gemstones, precious, semi-precious, exotic woods, shells, and intricately carved objects alike, into extraordinary, powerfully captivating jewels.
Encrusting his baubles with candycolored tourmalines, aquamarines, sapphires, diamonds, and pearls, Schepps was not shy, crafting large-scaled jewels like the “barbaric” cuff, the grand cluster bracelet that adorned the wrist of opera singer Mrs. Axel Wenner-Gren, and the jumbo sized Multi Baroque Necklace, all on view in the exhibition, “Icons and Signatures.” A Grape Brooch, clusters of sapphire cabochons set with emerald and diamond, once graced the lapel of Doris Duke. A complementing multi-strand bracelet and a detailed carving of a sapphire bluebird, also formerly in Duke’s collection, will be on view.
The Duchess of Windsor once decorated her dress with the whimsical Bluebird of Happiness, a playful, delicate pin of pearl, sapphire, and diamond designed for her specifically. Also on view is a Swan Brooch featuring one of the largest and most rare non-nucleated natural baroque pearls elegantly set with diamonds encrusting the swan’s neck and wings and an emerald eye.
Schepps had a longstanding interest in Asian art, leading not only to him collecting small Chinese and Japanese carvings, but also to incorporating them into his jewelry designs. He bejeweled ivory chessmen as brooches and used sliced snuff bottles and coral branches to create sectional bracelets.
The evolution of the classic turbo shell collection, still today one of the most recognizable collections for the brand, can be seen through the Triple Shell Brooch created in 1945 and the Shell Earrings capped with turquoise and coral cabochons which are as fashionable today, nearly seventy-five years later, as they were in 1940.
Flattering, captivating, and grand in scale, Seaman Schepps jewelry appeared on no less than fifty Vogue covers. Amanda Vaill, co-author of “Seaman Schepps, a Century of New York Jewelry Design” and grand-daughter of Schepps himself, states that Vogue’s “Christmas 1935 and April 1941 covers were devoted to Schepps designs exclusively, no clothes in sight!”
Yamron Jewelers established in Atlantic City more than four decades ago and was under the guidance of the Yamron family for many successful years. They instituted a tradition of excellence in service and appreciation for fine watches & jewelry. Bruce Yamron was at the helm for 25 years until he sold Yamron Jewelers to longtime friend and industry colleague, Danny Govberg.
Yamron Jewelers, with its own great history of over one hundred years in jewelry, even creating the very first Miss America crown, recognizes this great jeweler and his everlasting talent and carries the contemporary Seaman Schepps collection year round. The exhibition, “Icons and Signatures”, will be on view in the store from March 3rd through the 15th. Yamron Jewelers is located in the exquisite Waterside Shops in Naples, Florida.
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