The aptly named new exhibition, “Spectacular,” featuring “Gems and Jewelry from the Merriweather Post Collection,” at the Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens in northwest Washington, D.C., presents a dazzling display of jewelry that Post personally chose and wore throughout her life. “Everywhere you turn,” says Hillwood’s Executive Director Kate Markert, “there are absolutely great pieces.” The nearly 60 pieces on view through January 1, 2018, represent the major jewelry designers of the twentieth century, including Cartier, Harry Winston, Verdura, David Webb and others.
A Discerning Collector
Born into wealth — her father founded the Post Cereal empire, later to become General Foods — Post (1887-1973) developed an appreciation for artistic creativity, be it furnishings, paintings or decorative objects. She approached collecting extraordinary examples of fine jewelry, says Markert, in the same way, appreciating it as both an art form and wearable accessories. “She had a lot of parures and en suites so that she could wear all turquoise and diamonds or all emeralds. She had those fabulous strap bracelets by Cartier — there’s the ruby and diamond one that’s the very height of Deco design. But she also had the same strap bracelet in emeralds and in sapphires as well as rubies to go with whatever other jewels she was wearing.” Post would also combine designer pieces to achieve the look she wanted. When she went to the Red Cross Ball in Palm Beach in the 1960s, “she wore a Harry Winston turquoise and diamond necklace, a Harry Winston chunky bracelet of turquoise and diamonds and really hip Cartier earrings. She topped it all off with a tiara featuring turquoises, which started out with emeralds, but she had it reset. She combined all of that — Cartier earrings, Harry Winston necklace, historic tiara — and just looked like a queen.”
In fact, Markert goes on to say, the only time she didn’t wear her jewelry was right after the Depression. “She used the money she would have paid on insurance had she been wearing the jewels to open a soup kitchen in New York.”
While Post had a curator for the porcelain, furniture and paintings she collected, she chose the jewelry herself, based on the same high criteria. “She saw her jewelry as a collection,” Markert explains. Post had very specific standards for determining what she would acquire, starting with aesthetics. “In terms of the jewelry, number one, it had to be beautiful. Number two, it had to be beautifully crafted. And third, it didn’t hurt if it had a royal provenance.” In fact the exhibition includes several pieces with impressive historical lineage, such as Marie Antoinette’s14-carat diamond drop earrings and a vintage ruby and diamond parure reputedly owned by the granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I.
On View
The exhibition offers a peek at the amazing jewelry Post acquired. Something that was very much in keeping with her wishes, says Markert. “She left her very best pieces to the public collection. She wanted them to be available to the public in the future.”
Everything that Hillwood owns is in the show, and that’s a first, Markert says, as well as several pieces on loan from other institutions. “The late Liana Paredes, who was Hillwood’s chief curator, who put this exhibition together and authored the accompanying book, called the collection ‘unparalleled,’ and it truly is.”
The exhibition is organized in three sections, says Markert. “The first is all about gems. Post was a connoisseur of gems, having learned to recognize a good emerald, a good sapphire, etc., at an early age. The next section goes through the history of jewelry design in the twentieth century. We’re looking at the major houses — Cartier is represented, but also Van Cleef & Arpels, Harry Winston, Verdura. It’s a wonderful primer on the different design houses and what made them special. The third section is the historic jewelry.”
Standout Pieces
One well-known jewel in the collection is an emerald and diamond pendant brooch, circa 1920s, made by the London branch of Cartier. It’s adorned with more than 250 carats of carved Indian emeralds, which trace back to the Mughal period. Another emerald with historic connections is the 21-carat Colombian emerald, once worn in a ring by the emperor Maximilian of Mexico and remounted for Post by Cartier. It was worn by Post on her presentation to the Court of St. James in 1929 and donated to the Smithsonian, which lent it to the current exhibition. Another extraordinary piece, more modern in creation, is the dramatic ruby and diamond brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels, featuring their signature invisible setting, circa 1967.
“The more you study this collection,” sums up Markert, “the more amazing it really becomes. Post ordered the Van Cleef & Arpels brooch when she was 82; she didn’t think twice about it. She never stopping collecting. The connoisseurs know that Post was one of the great jewelry collectors. But this exhibition will be an opportunity for a much broader public to know it. The jewelry provides a great moment to actually see the history of twentieth-century jewelry and some great individual pieces. I think people are going to be thrilled with just the aesthetic experience of it.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - July 2017. To subscribe click here.