Prominent Jeweler's Retrospective At Newark Museum
By Staff -- JCK-Jewelers Circular Keystone, 6/1/2004
A first-ever retrospective of the work of the master jeweler F. Walter Lawrence opened on March 24 at the Newark Museum in Newark, N.J. Thirty-eight pieces of Lawrence's handcrafted jewelry and silver will be on display in the museum's Contemporary Craft Gallery until Oct. 3.
Born in 1864, Frank Walter Lawrence opened his own business in New York City in 1894. By that time, he had attained considerable repute as a designer of beautiful, sumptuous jewelry and elegant silverware. He was immersed in the Arts and Crafts ideal that these objects were not merely costly commodities, but art forms.
Lawrence's work was exhibited at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Arts Clubs in Syracuse and Albany. His jewelry was written about in such diverse periodicals of the time as Town & Country and Gustav Stickley's Craftsman magazine. This is the first exhibition of his life's work.
