<I>"Lady Day"</I>
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1971
name: label: Created by
content: Art Smith, American, 1917 - 1982
notes: label: Caption
content: Like Smith’s ‘Baker’ Cuff was named in honor of Josephine Baker, this necklace has Billie Holiday, often called Lady Day, as its namesake. Smith did not have a habit of naming his individual pieces, but his partner, Charles Russell, designated names for many of the designs years after Smith’s death.
label: Caption
content: Russell may have been inspired by Smith’s love of jazz and connections to Holiday when naming this piece. An abiding jazz aficionado, jazz was one of the inspirations for Smith’s work. He liked to attend live jazz performances in Harlem and collected record albums by his favorite artists. Smith began his career working as an apprentice to modernist jewelry designer, Winifred Mason Chenet, who counted Billie Holiday among her high profile clientele. Holiday wore pieces likely designed by Smith in a December 1946 Ebony magazine article about Mason and her work.
label: Description
content: A plated silver collar-style necklace composed of two separate semi-circular metal pieces facing opposite sides and conjoined by a silver wire connector clasp at the center of each. On top of the wire is a sagenite stone set in a silver bezel. The connector clasp allows for the bottom semi-circular portion to move freely while the piece is worn. Both semi-circular pieces are made by soldering an edge onto a flat sheet of metal.
label: Description
content: The artist has no mark engraved into this particular piece.
place: label: Place made
content: New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
title: label: Title
content: Necklace by Art Smith
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Craftsmanship
label: Topic
content: Design
label: Topic
content: Fashion
label: Topic
content: Ornamentation
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Collection title
content: Art Smith Archive, 1909-2010
label: Classification
content: Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Charles L. Russell
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2018.110.3
objectType: label: Type
content: necklaces
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: plated silver and sagenite agate
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D: 7 1/16 × 4 1/8 × 1 3/16 in. (18 × 10.5 × 3 cm)