The Roaring Twenties; Art Deco & DecoFiniti

Among other images, we have the film, The Great Gatsby, to help reimagine the vivid time of art deco.  Decked out flappers, sleek cars, and incredible design from buildings to furniture to china were unique to deco. It was a great time to be alive and to celebrate. The war was over, and the Spanish flu had been eradicated. The empire state building was completed, taller than any building in history and King Tutt’s tomb was unearthed with its rich history and sophisticated designs, features that were incorporated into the design of art deco jewelry. 

In general, people were not interested in politics. They were looking forward, not back. The exhibit in Paris in 1925, Exposition International des Decoratifs et Industriels Moderns was the official expression of the new era that was modern and futuristic.   

Bright, optimistic colors were prevalent in the china of the art deco period with artists like Clarice Cliff, Susie Cooper and the Myott Brothers creating works of art for dining. In fact, Clarice Cliff became the first woman whose designs were actually signed by her. 

At teatime, china could be matched to intricately designed sterling silver spoons and other flatware, often enameled with the vivid colors of the time creating the celebration before dinner throughout neighborhoods in Northern Europe, especially in Britain and Scandinavia.  

While much of costume jewelry of the art deco period is still valuable for its sleek designs, DecoFiniti is built on sterling silver pieces created during the 1920’s and 1930’s. The spoons chosen were usually in their original boxes, and as often happens, their owners thought they were too beautiful to use. Other pieces were used and have marks to prove it. We chose not to try to improve any of these flaws and, in many cases, the flaws add another dimension of beauty.

We preferred to work with sterling for most of the DecoFiniti collection which explains why some of the jewelry artists from the period are underrepresented because they worked with brass or similar metals.  Our art deco repurposed jewelry will always contain some sterling silver and a piece from the art deco time frame. 

Other time periods are represented as they looked back to art deco for their inspiration and created beautiful pieces and designed similar styles. The 1950’s styles were particularly compatible with the art deco spoons (e.g., “cha cha” beads) as were the enameled pieces by the Hogan Bolas line in the 80’s in the U.S. While these were not all sterling based, they hold their own to showpiece the lines of art deco sterling spoons. Later finds in art glass, formerly known as rhinestones, from the late 30’s through the 40’s (e.g., Juliana, Weiss) were sublime when paired with art deco flatware. Often plated with rhodium to make silver shine, the pieces were not easily married to the art deco sterling pieces so there is a lot of hard work behind their creation.