A Rayonnement (radiance) Ring
NY: CFA, c1978. Limited edition, number 100 of 250. 14K gold, sapphire, diamond, and mother of pearl, art deco ring, 6.13 grams (1 1/8” X 7/8” X 3/4”). Signed with marks stamped inside the band “© CFA 14K 100/250 ERTÉ.” Faint use, else fine. The only recent one at auction sold for $2,000 (HA, Feb 21, 2020, lot 21088). A bleak, costume jewelry replica of our ring can be had from the Met for $60. Fine. Item #454
Romain de Tirtoff, (1892–1990) was a Russian born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, simply from the French pronunciation of his initials AIR and TAY, not to be confused with areté, from a Greek word meaning excellence, or arête, a French word meaning a sharp mountain ridge. In 1907 he visited Paris as a 15 year old and tried Art Nouveau sculpture, then returned there in 1910 and adopted Art Deco while he worked for Paul Poiret (1913–1915). Harper’s Bazaar hired him for a cover in 1915 and his career hatched. More magazine covers followed (Harper’s, Ladies’ Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, etc.), then costumes (Gaby Deslys, Mata Hari, etc.), stage sets (Ziegfeld Follies, Bal Tabarin, Théâtre Fémina, Folies Bergere, Le Lido, etc.), and then prints of his pictures. In 1920 he designed the costumes and sets for The Restless Sex, a William Hearst film starring Marion Davies, and in 1925, Louis Meyer brought him to M. G. M. where he designed film sets (Paris, Ben–Hur, Time, The Mystic, The Comedian, Dance Madness, etc.). When the depression arrived in a cloud of soot, Erté’s opulent images lost their allure. Out of fashion he learned that in Hollywood lying is just good manners, lost custody of his inner child, and after W. W. II his Art Deco got trampled by modernism. Erté’s magazine work carried him through, and when the mid–1960s cultural revolution revisited Art Deco he starred in the form’s revival. In 1967, 170 of his works were exhibited in New York, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art bought them all. With his fame resurrected, he returned to bronzes and initiated wearable art, especially jewelry, and our ring is from that incarnation.
Price:
$1,500.00