The Museum Quality Jewels At The Winter Show

The Winter Show, which was moved from its longtime home at The Park Avenue Armory to four floors of flagship Barney’s Madison Avenue building at 660 Madison Avenue creates a feeling of a shoppable museum with its highly curated “rooms” and its rare, authentic antique and vintage jewelry, artwork, furniture and decorative pieces. The move is a result of the postponement of its previously scheduled January dates due to surges in COVID-19.

The show will be back in its original location in 2023 but for now the unused Barney’s building is a perfect venue, particularly for the jewelry.

Signed pieces from Castellani and Giuliano to Chaumet and Lalique and many other renowned houses are artfully displayed by the exhibitors whose treasures have been hand chosen for their rarity, originality, their ability to mesmerize and stop antique/vintage jewelry collectors and enthusiasts in their tracks, do double takes and be swept away back into the period in which these pieces were made. The type of jewels shown at this 10-day event are some of the best, most magical examples of the various eras in which the handwork, techniques and designs are precise and preserved in excellent condition

Here are some of the pieces we found to be extraordinary or wonderful representations of a certain period in time.

Windows Shopping:

Levi Higgs, the Head of Archives and Brand Heritage at David Webb, whose creativity extends to Instagram influencer and whose feed is filled with eye-arresting and storied antique and vintage jewelry posts was chosen to design the jewelry windows for the show. They are hypnotic, original and reflective of his vivid imagination and the nature of the pieces you will see inside. Here he talks about his concept for the displays and how they were realized. “In the vein of a cabinet of curiosities, I wanted to create windows that were filled with interesting variations and different specimens of the same object. Since the overarching theme for the larger windows was “rejuvenation” I was particularly drawn to the idea of eggs. I looked around my own personal collection and saw that I had quite a few; wooden eggs of many sizes, cut glass eggs, metal eggs, and even some actual eggs. Adding the treenware brought the display into the realm of Wunderkammer. As for the jewelry I selected, I wanted all pieces to build on the theme of eggs, and feature either birds, wings, feathers or be symbolic of flight in some way. A bit of hope and new life with a dash of visual interest. Many of my eggs and treenware were sourced from my favorite store upstate, Pidgin, in Oak Hill.”

Jewelry included in windows:

Macklowe Gallery: Georges Fouquet peacock cloak clasp in sterling silver and opal

James Robinson: two reverse painted rock crystal birds, one pendant and one brooch, swan micro mosaic, dove micro mosaic bracelet

Kentshire: Cartier falcon cuff

Didier Ltd: Giacometti gold bird pendant, Pierre Hugo gold bird necklace

Simon Teakle – Sterlé yellow and white diamond feather brooch