I am trying to find some information on a piece of jewelry.
It appears to be a pendant that hooked into a lapel by a button
that is a silvery color, the pendant itself on the obverse side has a seated woman in a chair with 2 owls on either side of her
at her feet on the left is some books and on the right an oil lamp.
An eagle sits at the very top of the pendant, under the eagle the words “New York Public Library”.
Under the figures feet are what appears to be stairs and written on the stairs are the words “Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations”
then beneath that appears to be a windmill.
On the reverse side are the words “Opening of New Building May 23rd 1911″
Beneath that at the bottom are ” Black, Starr & Frost
SILVER
Thanks for any insight someone can give to me on this piece, there is nothing online that I could find to help me [img size=400]https://kovels.com/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/DSC09350.jpg[/img]
It sounds like your piece was created to celebrate the opening of that building, and it was made of silver, by the jewelers Black Starr and Frost, a very old and well respected company that was bought out by a larger corporate entity, which ran it poorly, then closed it down just a few years ago. I would imagine that the construction of this library was made possible by large donations from philanthropic multi-millionaires, such as the Astors. Why don’t you contact the library itself? I would also imagine a librarian would know the history of the building, and may even has access to old newspaper accounts of it, or at least they would be able to find out about the origins of the building. Good Luck!
