MdP01 Vintage Margaret De Patta sterling silver pin / brooch; circa 1948 for design creation
Origin: California
Dimensions: 2.63" x 1.75"; 19.4 gm
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: Private Collection
Price: SOLD

Dimensional, delicately etched, hand-burnished sterling brooch by pioneering studio jewelry artist Margaret De Patta plays form, surface and shadow to dynamic effect. Rebelling against conventional ‘prettiness’ and mass-produced, mid-century design, De Patta and a coterie of metalsmith jewelry artists working around San Francisco Bay sought to take personal adornment down to its essence, producing bold, clean, deconstructivist forms. This brooch displays De Patta’s architectural, stripped-down style; an identical piece is featured on page 65 in Toni Greenbaum’s “Messengers of Modernism.” De Patta finished all her production pieces personally, by hand. Made in small quantities for the connoisseurs and intellectuals of the time, her work is nearly impossible to find today.