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THE COAST GOLDSMITH
MISSION STATEMENT
The website of The Coast Goldsmith has a
three-fold purpose.
1) We at the Coast Goldsmith make to
order one of a kind jewels, (in gold,
silver or platinum), for individual customers. We endeavor to collaborate with
the customer to bring into being a piece that is uniquely theirs. We also
provide ready made one of a kind and limited production items to the general
public. Our custom pieces and the limited production lines of jewelry we produce
are all conceived and made at our shop. We do not deal in commercial mass
produced items. Our designs are more often then not representational in style,
taking their inspiration from nature and antiquity, using classical forms. Our
jewelry style is in some ways a rebellion from the modern soulless,
"minimalist", machine age styles that have come to dominate the
jewelry industry. In the past jewelry was a statement of individuality, a
personal totem if you will. That is the aspect of the jeweled arts we wish
to resurrect. Our jewels, even the limited production items, endeavor to give
the wearer a bit of individuality rather than to force them to be an anonymous
member of a group advertising and wearing a designer label (which is all that
most modern jewelry, and fashion for that matter, has been reduced to). We want
to put individuality back into the jeweled arts. The jeweled arts are one of the
last creative arenas where an individual can still create and wear something
that is uniquely theirs.
2) In addition to our jewelry we offer for sale a substantial number of
engraved gems (hardstone cameos and intaglios). The collection offered contains
engraved gems from the 19th and early 20th century, both
set and un-set. These gems represent the final flowering of the gem engraver's
art. They were produced just before the advent of industrialization and mass
production that all but drove the practice of gem engraving into virtual
extinction. These are all one of a kind, hand engraved miniature works of art.
Each piece is the result of many hours and in some cases days or weeks of
careful carving. These pieces truly represent the most sophisticated of the jeweled
arts. From ancient times this art form was recognized as a jewelers highest form
of expression. No Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek or Roman of any status was
without their engraved seal stone. Cameos were used to adorn royal regalia,
furniture and fine jewelry. In antiquity the collecting of these miniature works
of art was considered as important as collecting paintings and sculpture. Julius
Caesar him self had a collection of hundreds of engraved gems. The love and
appreciation of these miniature works of art has extended down through the ages.
The creation of these miniature works of art reached a peak of perfection in the
Renaissance. During the Renaissance, engraved gems, ancient and contemporary were
coveted and collected by Popes, Kings, Emperors, and any one aspiring to be educated or upper classes. By the 18th and early 19th
centuries the interest in and collecting of engraved gems became almost a mania
for the wealthy. Each gem tells its story, depicting famous persons,
representing gods or portraying scenes from myth and history. High art and
self-adornment come together in engraved gems. Each engraved gem is truly a
timeless individual creation, not a mass produced bauble of transient value.
Engraved gems deserve the jewelry buyer’s interest and attention. To
appreciate, own and wear engraved gems offers a person more than just adornment.
It
connects a person to our history, our myths, and all our arts. To understand and
appreciate these beautiful little carved bits of mineral color is a mark of true
sophistication.
3) Finally, The Coast Goldsmith offers a select group of small bronzes and
metal art objects that may be of interest to those who understand and collect
such items. The items are offered to complement our engraved gems and jewelry.
These small objects are for the most part items collected in the 19th
and early 20th centuries by travelers to Europe and the
Mediterranean, Grand Tour souvenirs as it were. The items were collected as
souvenirs of travels just as we collect them today. The difference they have
from today’s tawdry souvenirs is that they display a genuine quality of
workmanship and an aesthetic understanding of the item being copied or made.
They evoke the ancient civilizations of the lands being visited and the
importance those ancient civilizations still have for us today. Again these
items hearken back to a time when craft and finish was still important to even
the humblest of artisans. They are of relatively limited production, and bring a
bit of our artistic heritage to the possessor of the item.
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