Product Info

If you are a design and furniture aficionado you may recognize the name "Steltman" because of a chair, rather than jewelry. However they share a history.

Steltman is a venerable Dutch jeweler founded by Johannes Steltman in 1917 as “Joaillerie Artistique” in The Hague. In the 1960’s they were producing cutting-edge jewelry like this necklace, and in 1963 their shop was re-designed by the renowned architect Gerrit Rietveld. Rietveld was a member of the early 20th century De Stijl group of artists and designers, which also included the painter Piet Mondrian, and the Steltman shop was one of Rietveld's final projects. Though the shop was later redesigned (it was too avant-garde for most of Steltman’s clientele) the Rietveld design lives on in the chairs he designed for the store that are known as the "Steltman Chair", and which have been re-introduced into the current design of the store. I’ve included two photos of the Rietveld-designed shop; the Steltman chairs are the angular chairs adjacent to the counter.

This necklace is a marvelous example of brutalist jewelry, and rather delicate in appearance despite that name. Created in 18 karat gold, the necklace wraps the neck with organic-looking tendrils that are broken into short hinged segments that allow it to conform gracefully to the neck. They join in the front in a "V" shape made of brushed plaques studded with clusters of diamonds. In the wall case shown in the photos (which were taken in the 1960's when the shop was re-designed by Rietveld) you can see a necklace with a profile very similar to this one.

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