Or: modernism in America wasn’t only happening in Rebajes’ Greenwich Village workshop
Frank Rebajes gets most of the attention when American mid-century modernist jewellery comes up, and deservedly, but he wasn’t working alone. A wider community of American studio jewellers, Esther Lewittes among them, were producing sterling silver work through the same period, applying the same broad modernist instincts, structural form, honest material, minimal ornament, without necessarily building the same level of commercial fame.
This brooch is a genuine example of that wider studio jewellery movement, American mid-century modernism as a real, broad-based craft culture rather than the output of one or two famous names. It’s worked in sterling rather than Rebajes’ signature copper, which itself says something: not every American modernist workshop was chasing the same affordable-material strategy, some worked in precious metal from the start.
Why the wider studio movement matters, not just the famous names. American studio jewellery in this period was genuinely decentralised, small workshops and individual makers across the country, not one dominant style radiating out from a single figure. Understanding that wider context is part of what makes a single well-attributed piece like this genuinely interesting, rather than treating it as a footnote to Rebajes.
What to look for. A clear sterling stamp alongside the maker’s mark, both present here, confirms genuine precious-metal studio work rather than a plated reproduction.
This piece has since sold. It was part of a small, genuinely personal collection of mid-century and antique jewellery, gathered over years rather than acquired for resale. See the Esther Lewittes brooch on Gozotiques.