Short history of the great American designer Seaman Schepps, a master of color ♦ ︎
There are designers who have a resounding success for a shorter or longer period. And there are designers who enter history. One of these is Seaman Schepps. Son of immigrants, he became famous for his vintage-style jewelry. From the East Side of New York, at the end of the nineteenth century, Schepps moved to California, with its own shop in Los Angeles that also sold antiques in addition to jewelry. In 1931 he returned to New York, where he finally had a good success with a store on Madison Avenue.
Schepps, like many Americans of that time, regarded Europe as the beacon of creativity. Therefore, when he visited Paris, he studied Verdura’s jewels for Chanel, Suzanne Belperron, René Boivin and Jeanne Toussaint for Cartier. These great designers have contributed to the professional growth of Schepps, which has found its artistic path: large jewelry, super retro-style bracelets, many colored stones. He was not a revolutionary of jewelry, but a painter who used the colors of the palette in an original way.
The stones were often cut irregularly, they used little diamonds, while they preferred pastel-colored stones like blue sapphires, emeralds, yellow topazes, citrines, rose quartz, jade, turquoise and lapis lazuli. In short, he has reworked already used geometries, such as the Maltese cross, but with his own style. His work continued until the late 1960s. Then, the Seaman Schepps brand was sold to Jay Bauer and Anthony Hopenjam and still exists. But the designer’s original jewels are still very sought after. Cosimo Muzzano
