Vintage Nubia Modernist Sterling Silver Necklace by Mary Ann Scherr for Reed & Barton

Description

A fine modernist sterling silver gold washed pendant.

Mary Ann Scherr designed this modernist neckpiece as part of the Signature … more A fine modernist sterling silver gold washed pendant.

Mary Ann Scherr designed this modernist neckpiece as part of the Signature V Collection in 1975 for Reed and Barton. In addition to Mary Ann Scherrs works, the collection included pieces by Arline Fisch, Glenda Arentzen, Ronald Hayes Pearson, and Lynda Watson and epitomizes top design sense of the mid-1970s.

Reed and Barton marketed this necklace in the 1970s as the Nubia Neckpiece. They described it in their sales pamphlet as: a shimmering disc of silver delicately etched with 24-karat. Gold electroplate hangs suspended from an elegant band of solid looping silver. It retailed it for $200.

In an 2001 interview with Mary Douglas of the Mint Museum of Craft and Design in Charlotte, N.C., Mary Ann Scherr recalls:

In 1975, I was a participant in the Reed and Bartons, Signature Five national sales promotion [Reed and Barton, Silversmith Company, in Massachusetts]. They commissioned five metal-smiths to design prototypes, which then would be copied and fabricated by their in-house artisans. These copies were then sold in major stores as the Signature Five Collection. From a series of drawings, the designs were selected and the prototype fabricated by the designer. This is a designer dream world. (Oral history interview with Mary Ann Scherr, 2001 April 6-7, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution).

This particular necklace was deaccessioned from the Reed and Barton Archives. Remarkably, it has never been privately owned in the last 40 years.

It is constructed of solid sterling silver, and the central medallion is washed with gold.

Overall Condition:
It is in overall good, as-pictured used estate condition with some very fine and light surface scratches here and there and other signs of light wear consistent with age.

Fineness:
Marked as sterling silver.

Maker:
Reed Barton

Marks:
The reverse bears marks for Reed and Barton, Sterling, and an artist mark for Mary Ann Scherr.

Measurements:
Length: ca. 11 1/2 in.
Width: ca. 6 1/4 in.
Medallion width: ca. 2 in.

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The height dimension listed is an estimate and is not accurate. less