The Fascination of Jewellery. 7000 Years of Jewellery Art
Exhibition
/
17 Dec 2024
-
17 Dec 2025
Published: 19.12.2024
MAKK. Museum of Applied Arts Cologne
- Mail:
- makk
stadt-koeln.de
- Phone:
- +4922122123860
- Curator:
- Petra Hesse, Lena Hoppe
- Management:
- Christine Drabe
From left to right: Bangle with ram heads, 550-330 BC, Sasanian Empire.
KNELL #3 Pendant by Karin Pontoppidan, 2016. Dragon Fish Brooch by Eugène Feuillâtre, 1900. Alpine Rose & Stars brooch by Jantje Fleischhut, 2007.
© Detlef Schumacher
KNELL #3 Pendant by Karin Pontoppidan, 2016. Dragon Fish Brooch by Eugène Feuillâtre, 1900. Alpine Rose & Stars brooch by Jantje Fleischhut, 2007.
© Detlef Schumacher
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.

With The Fascination of Jewellery, the MAKK of Cologne opens the first permanent comprehensive exhibition of its outstanding jewellery collection. Featuring some 370 selected exhibits, seven millennia of jewellery art will be presented in all their various facets, ranging from ancient oriental gems from the 5th millennium BC through to contemporary jewellery.
The concept developed by the curators Petra Hesse and Lena Hoppe envisages a combination of chronological as well as cross-epochal and cross-cultural content such as symbolism, memory, luxury, conventions, gender and identity. The different subjects allow diverse and individual approaches to the field of jewellery art. By way of examples, they provide an introduction to the many facets of jewellery design and offer insights into the social, societal, emotional and symbolic aspects of jewellery.
With around 1,700 pieces, the MAKK's jewellery collection spans a period of 7,000 years – which is what makes it so unique and diverse. The particular focal points are the works from antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the 19th century.
Elisabeth Treskow, perhaps the most renowned 20th century goldsmith, who lives and works in Cologne, donated her collection of antique gems and her study collection of antique jewellery to the MAKK. Her own work, which reintroduced the ancient technique of granulation into the art of jewellery, is also represented in the collection.
The 19th century – one of the richest periods in European jewellery – is represented with works by Lucien Falize, Jules Wièse, Eugène Fontenay, Carlo Giuliano and the Castellani brothers, among others.
Numerous other goldsmiths and jewellery artists of the 20th and 21st centuries are also represented in the collection, including René Lalique, Karl Gustav Hansen, Raymond Templier, Hildegard Risch, Ebbe Weiss-Weingart, Friedrich Becker, Emmy van Leersum, Peter Skubic, Falko Marx, Wendy Ramshaw, Peter Chang, Dieter Roth, E. R. Nele, Johanna Dahm, David Bielander, Annamaria Zanella, Svenja John, Karen Pontoppidan and Sam Tho Duong.
Some of the exhibited pieces have been acquired by the MAKK, many were donated and some are on permanent loan.
>> Explore the MAKK Jewellery Collection's Online Catalogue HERE
With around 1,700 pieces, the MAKK's jewellery collection spans a period of 7,000 years – which is what makes it so unique and diverse. The particular focal points are the works from antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the 19th century.
Elisabeth Treskow, perhaps the most renowned 20th century goldsmith, who lives and works in Cologne, donated her collection of antique gems and her study collection of antique jewellery to the MAKK. Her own work, which reintroduced the ancient technique of granulation into the art of jewellery, is also represented in the collection.
The 19th century – one of the richest periods in European jewellery – is represented with works by Lucien Falize, Jules Wièse, Eugène Fontenay, Carlo Giuliano and the Castellani brothers, among others.
Numerous other goldsmiths and jewellery artists of the 20th and 21st centuries are also represented in the collection, including René Lalique, Karl Gustav Hansen, Raymond Templier, Hildegard Risch, Ebbe Weiss-Weingart, Friedrich Becker, Emmy van Leersum, Peter Skubic, Falko Marx, Wendy Ramshaw, Peter Chang, Dieter Roth, E. R. Nele, Johanna Dahm, David Bielander, Annamaria Zanella, Svenja John, Karen Pontoppidan and Sam Tho Duong.
Some of the exhibited pieces have been acquired by the MAKK, many were donated and some are on permanent loan.
>> Explore the MAKK Jewellery Collection's Online Catalogue HERE
MAKK. Museum of Applied Arts Cologne
- Mail:
- makk
stadt-koeln.de
- Phone:
- +4922122123860
- Curator:
- Petra Hesse, Lena Hoppe
- Management:
- Christine Drabe
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