Mosaic earrings constitute one of the recurring forms in the output of JAR, the Paris maison founded by Joel Arthur Rosenthal in 1977 at 7 Place Vendôme. The term mosaic, applied loosely in the trade to a number of related JAR designs, identifies pieces in which the surface is built up from a dense field of carefully calibrated coloured stones laid out as a pictorial or abstract pattern rather than as a botanical or naturalistic study.

Construction

JAR mosaic earrings, like the maison's flower studies, are pavé constructions built over a carved three-dimensional metal substrate. What distinguishes the mosaic pieces is the absence of an underlying naturalistic motif. The stones are arranged geometrically or as gradated colour fields, and the surface relationships between adjacent calibrated stones become the principal subject of the design. Tonal gradation across the field, sometimes from one corner to another and sometimes radiating from a centre, is achieved by the side-by-side selection of stones varying by very small increments of hue, saturation or tone.

The substrate is patinated to near-black in the standard JAR manner so that no metal is visible, and the earrings are most often mounted as ear clips with butterfly clutch fastenings rather than as wires or studs. The mosaic surfaces typically use sapphires across multiple tonalities, supplemented by tsavorite, ruby, spinel and diamond as required by the colour scheme.

Aesthetic Lineage

The mosaic pieces draw lineage from the Roman and Byzantine micro-mosaic tradition and from the carpet-like pavé surfaces of nineteenth-century French haute joaillerie, but the JAR treatment is closer in spirit to colour-field painting than to either historical antecedent. Several critical writers have likened the gradation effects in the mosaic earrings to the work of the painters Mark Rothko and Josef Albers, and Rosenthal's own remarks on the importance of colour relationship within his pieces support that reading.

Auction and Exhibition Record

JAR mosaic earrings have appeared at Christie's and Sotheby's New York and Geneva sales with consistent strong results, and several pairs were included in the Jewels by JAR retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013. As with all JAR pieces, the mosaics are unique and their values at auction depend heavily on documented provenance and exhibition history.