The Jeweled Menagerie

The Jeweled Menagerie: The World of Animals in Gems

For jewelry collectors, animal lovers, art connoisseurs and anyone who loves beautiful things, The Jeweled Menagerie is a lapidary zoo of nineteenth and twentieth century jeweled wonders. In the nineteenth century, a new group of designers, seeking to satisfy the growing middle class’s appetite for jewels, revived the Egyptian and Etruscan styles. Animals of all sorts were incorporated: birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and fish. Prominent houses such as Fouquet, Fontenay, Falize, Fabergé and Tiffany all produced a spectacular array of animal jewels that are much prized today. Design developments throughout the twentieth century—Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and those that followed—contributed impressive animal jewelry, from Lalique's intricate insects to Cartier's panthers, from Boucheron and Van Cleef & Arpels to the sophisticated imagery of Verdura. The Jeweled Menagerie beguiles with its stunning photography and fasacinates with its detailed profiles chronicling the meticulous craftsmanship and imaginative design of each precious piece.  Softcover, 216 pages; over 300 full color photographs. 11.1" x 8.7".

Museum Provenance

The spectacular Conchita Sapphire Butterfly on display in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology Gems and Minerals, National Museum of Natural History evokes animals jewelry in The Jeweled Menagerie. This pendant/brooch highlights the amazing variety and color range of natural sapphires—steely blue, to fancy-colored shades of purple, pink, orange and yellow—from Montana. The 18k yellow gold butterfly is set with 331 round brilliant-cut sapphires and 2 cabochon cut sapphires, totaling 27.97 carats. The largest sapphire in the head of the butterfly is from Yogo Gulch, MT. However, most of these sapphires are from the famed Rock Creek deposit, located in the Sapphire Mountains near historic Philipsburg, Montana. The Conchita Sapphire Butterfly, a collaboration by jewelry designer Paula Crevoshay and gem dealer/gemologist Robert Kane, was generously given by them to the Smithsonian Institution's National Gem Collection in 2007. Ms. Crevoshay named the creation "Conchita" in memory of her mother, who instilled in her an early appreciation of butterflies and nature.

Every Smithsonian purchase will arrive with a museum provenance card explaining how it is adapted from or inspired by an object or objects in our collection.