Diamonds: A Century of Spectacular Jewels

“The bold forms of white Art Deco jewelry were influenced by architecture, the most visible aspect of the postwar recovery. Americans viewed skyscrapers as symbols of progress, especially the Empire State Building in New York, at the time the tallest building in the world. In Europe, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe transformed architecture with a philosophy of simplicity that rejected applied ornamentation and instead emphasized proportions and the disposition of shapes. As the Jewelers’ Circular (February 23, 1928) analyzed it in ‘The Tendency of Art and Industry,’ ‘From architecture to jewelry seems a long step, but the apparent space is easily covered by the same characteristics: simplicity, directness of purpose, appropriateness, liveliness, originality,”

-Diamonds, A Century of Spectacular Jewels, by Penny Proddow and Marion Fasel