While Neil Lane has made a name for himself as a jewelry designer, he has also had an eye for collecting since as far back as childhood.
“When I was about six or seven, and my mom and I would return home from walking in Marine Park, Brooklyn, my pockets would be filled with colored glass that I had picked up,” he recalls. “I was ‘collecting’ even then.”
Living in Paris after college, drawing and painting and learning about the decorative arts, Lane explored the wonderful jewelry on offer in the shops. While he had to be able to sell what he was buying in order to pay the bills, he chose his pieces for emotional reasons, he says, not just to turn a profit. Many years later, once he had moved to Los Angeles, one of his major clients, a longtime collector, suggested he keep some of his finds for himself. “That was like a light bulb went on in my head. I think I always desired to keep things, but didn’t know that I could. Then when I financially could, I began to.”
Lane’s jewelry education began in Paris, in the shops of Faubourg Saint-Honoré and Place Vendôme. He began to recognize the hallmarks that indicated who had made the quality jewels he saw, and where.
As his knowledge grew, his personal preferences crystallized. What fascinated and intrigued him, he says, were “pieces from the late 19th century, from about the 1880s, through 1938 to 1940” — incredible gold handwork detailing, platinum and pavé-set diamonds, Art Deco jewels. The evolving jewelry styles of this “riveting and revolutionary period,” he says, “mirrored what was happening in art and architecture.”
Diamonds were a subject of fascination for Lane from early on. “When I first went to London, at age 18 or 19, I went to the Tower of London just to see the Crown Jewels. I was drawn by the stones. Diamonds are still magical to me. The humanity of them — the rough rock that isn’t that attractive, and then the humanity of someone polishing and cutting it and bringing out the brilliance of it.”
One of his favorite diamond jewels is a brooch set with fancy-color and white diamonds by Rubel Freres, Paris, circa 1930.
When it comes to his personal collection, Lane has high standards — “super top-notch” workmanship and a “riveting” design aesthetic. He acknowledges, of course, that signed jewelry has added value, but that’s not all that draws him to a piece.
“When I was young, I didn’t have the finances to pay for the signed pieces,” he says. But in many ways, that turned out to be a blessing: It forced him to do what he calls “search and scavenge.”
“I’d go to the flea markets and up and down the side streets, looking at the small stores, and I would find jewelry that didn’t have signatures,” but did have other attributes. At an early age, he says, he became aware of the difference between superior-quality and mediocre items. And he began to understand that while certain jewels might not be signed, they nonetheless must have been made by someone of special talent. Many of the remarkable unsigned pieces he bought have since been authenticated as the work of great designers.
“I just got an authentication letter from Mauboussin for a pair of wonderful earrings from 1923. Having the certificate of authenticity does make the jewels more valuable, but I bought them without knowing that. I trusted my taste,” he says. Another piece that immediately attracted Lane was a “glamorous” ruby and diamond bracelet, circa 1920s to 1930s, with just a French hallmark and no maker’s mark. After actress Zsa Zsa Gabor’s death, he saw a photo online of her wearing it. “I still don’t know who made it, but I know that Zsa Zsa Gabor treasured it. That was one of the ‘aha’ moments.”
More than a collector, Lane also considers himself a conservator and a detective. From the beginning, “the sense of discovery of something that might be worth a lot more than I paid for it added a level of intrigue.” Moreover, he continues, the aesthetics of the jewelry in his collection have inspired his own designs and the quality of how those pieces should be made.
“I probably would not be the designer I am today if I had not looked and touched and begun to collect the most wonderful jewels of the past,” he says. “When I started to design, I went backward to go forward.”
Image (left to right): Rubel Freres brooch with fancy-colored diamonds, baguette-, marquise- and round brilliant-cut white diamonds, and cabochon emeralds, Paris circa 1930; Art Deco jade, diamond and enamel earrings, Mauboussin Paris, 1923; ruby, diamond and platinum French bracelet formerly belonging to Zsa Zsa Gabor.Article from the Rapaport Magazine - October 2017. To subscribe click here.