Henry Steig modernist silver jewelry

Henry Steig modernist silver jewelry
Born in 1906 in Bronx, New York, Henry Steig was a renowned jeweler of the 1940-60s and one of the founders of the wearable art movement.
He grew up in a creative atmosphere, where his relatives were artists and musicians. After graduating from the National Academy of Design, Steig dabbled in a variety of arts, including music, graphics, and photography. However, in the late 1940s, he decided to take up jewelry making and attended several training sessions.
A self-taught jeweler, he started making abstract modernist jewelry at home and selling it to his friends. In 1950, he opened a New York store in Greenwich Village, which was essentially the center of US modernist jewelry in the middle of the last century. Next to the Steig shop were the workshops of already well-known modernist silversmiths. Among them, in particular, Sam Kramer, Frank Miraglia, Frank Rebajez, Paul Voltaire, Ed Weiner, Arthur Smith and Paul Lobel.
Steig worked primarily in silver in his early years, but later focused on gold. He labeled his modernist jewelry “Steig”, or “Henry Steig”, and “sterling”.
In 1953, Steig moved his New York store to 52nd Street and Lexington. Noteworthy, it was there that the iconic episode with Marilyn Monroe in a white dress was filmed (“The Seven Year Itch”, 1954). Celebrities who bought Steig jewelry included Ella Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Taylor.
Steig closed the New York store in 1963 and moved to Provincetown with his wife, Mimi. In 1972, he sold his business to Chicago jeweler Jan Dee.
Steig died in 1973.

Henry Steig modernist silver jewelry