Necklace

American Arts & Crafts jewelers disdained the disastrous effects of industrialization on the arts, instead reviving handcraftsmanship and promoting beauty in design. This lovely gold, moonstone, and sapphire necklace bears the mark of a prominent Boston jeweler, Margaret Rogers, who was born and trained in Boston. Rogers studied under the painter and teacher Albert Munsell, who invented a standardized system for defining colors called the Munsell System. Indeed, Rogers’s jewelry displays a colorist’s eye, evident here in the satisfying combination of milky blue moonstones and deep blue sapphires set in bright yellow gold. In a January 1916 article published in The American Magazine of Art, Rogers was praised by writer Emily E. Graves, who ranked her among the foremost of the Boston Arts and Crafts jewelers: "In her settings there is very frequently noticeable a delightful color combination in different tones. Her work has a great charm and delicacy, a feminine quality that adds a certain grace, while it does not weaken the structure of the design."
A member of the Society of Arts & Crafts, Boston (SACB) since 1904, Rogers was awarded the prestigious Medal of Excellence in 1915. She also served four years as dean of the Society’s Jewelers’ Guild—a mark of the stature she achieved. Rogers exhibited regularly in Boston as well as in Detroit and Chicago, and she traveled abroad to view contemporary European and British jewelers’ work. This necklace—the first piece of jewelry by Rogers to enter the Met’s collection—displays her sophisticated design aesthetic and technical skills.