Jewelry Classes Offered In Years Past At The Pratt Institute

For a description of the class in jewelry designing at the Pratt institute, and also for excellent photographs of finished work executed and designed by students of the class of 1908, credit is given to Mr. Walter Scott Perry, Director of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, of the Institute.

The first class in jewelry, hammered metal, and enamelling was organised in the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Pratt Institute, in September, 1900, with Mr. Joseph Aranyi as instructor in day and evening classes. Mr. Aranyi at the time was one of the expert workers with Messrs. Tiffany & Company, New York City. He continued as instructor of the class, until June, 1904, when he resigned his position to accept one in Providence, Rhode Island.

In September of the same year Mr. Carl T. Hamann was appointed instructor in jewelry, and for some time has had full charge of all work of this class. He has proved himself an exceptionally fine instructor, and the quality of work has gained very rapidly under his instruction. Mr. Hamann is an expert jeweller by profession, being formerly connected with Durand & Company, Newark, N. J., and later with Tiffany & Company, New York. In 1889 he went to Europe and studied modelling in Munich for one and a half years, going from there to Paris, where he studied in the Academie Julian and the Ecole des Beaux Arts for two years. After his return to this country he became the head modeller for the Whiting Manufacturing Company, New York. Mr. Hamann was the sculptor of the statue of Justice which was one of the eight statues on the Triumphal Bridge at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. At St. Louis he had a statue symbolical of Wyoming in the Colonnade of States, and he is also sculptor of the figure of Modern Art on the permanent Fine Arts Building. Mr. Hamann is a member of the National Sculpture Society. He brings to the students the knowledge and skill of a professional workman, combined with the originality and artistic appreciation of a professional artist.

In September, 1904, Mr. Julien Ramar became instructor in chasing and hammered metal work in the evening class, and also gave two halfdays to the day class. Mr. Ramar was for several years chaser for Elkington & Company, England, and in America had been employed by the National Fine Art Foundry, the Archer & Pancoast Company, the Edward F. Caldwell Company, and other firms.

In September, 1905, Mr. Theodore T. Goerck took charge of chasing and hammered work in the day and evening classes and continued as instructor for two years.

Mr. Hamann at present is instructor in both day and evening classes. The classes have grown steadily and the work has increased in efficiency. Students have been very successful in securing employment. Many have opened studios of their own and fill orders that come to them from many and varied sources.

The courses are planned to meet the needs of those who wish to enter the trades involving jewelry, enamelling, repousse, chasing in precious and other metals, and the making of suitable tools required in such work. They give adequate training in design and modelling, in the application of designs to practical problems, the setting of stones, enamelling and finishing, and in the methods and practice of technical work in metal. Instruction is also given in medal work and in the preparation of models for reduction.

The increasing demand for applied art work in useful objects, and the difficulty experienced by manufactures in securing the services of American artisans whose knowledge and skill are sufficient to guarantee good workmanship, present a trade condition which offers unusual opportunities for remunerative employment and advancement to those who have had the advantage of such training as these courses give.

In this day of specialisation, the apprenticeship system is no longer adequate. The apprentice acquires little more than the skill necessary to meet the technical requirements of his trade; but, as the success of the ornamental metal worker depends quite as much upon his artistic conceptions and his designs as upon his skill in execution, the work of the shop must be supplemented by art instruction. By alternating the character of the problems given to the students, the applied work shows the inspiration that comes from a careful study of modelling, ornament, and the principles of design; and the work in modelling and design shows the adjustment and illumination that come from constant contact with practical problems.

The courses appeal to two classes of workers; to the apprentice who, by this instruction, can greatly shorten the period of his apprenticeship, and who can supplement the technical skill which he would gain in the shop by the work in drawing, modelling, and design; also to the art student who is turning his attention to work in the applied arts. The opening offered to such a man in this held exceeds that in almost any line of illustrative art work; and the demand for trained workers in the skilled trades in art applied to metals and the limited supply of such men make advancement practically assured to an earnest worker.

The rooms of the department devoted to the study and practice of jewelry and other forms of metal work are equipped as workshops with everything needful for practical and applied work.

The day course includes instruction in drawing, design, historic ornament, and in applied work in chasing and repousse, jewelry, enamelling, and medal work.

All work is designed and modelled in wax, cast in plaster, and then wrought in copper, silver, or gold. In the work in jewelry, silver is used from the first, students making rings with various stone settings, scarf pins, pendants, chains, bracelets, buttons, brooches, etc., the work being plain, decorated, chased, or set with stones.

In hammered metal work, students make their own tools and produce shallow and deep objects in copper and silver, including trays, bowls, spoons, and the like, with decorative designs and repousse chasing. Parts of objects, such as handles and supports, are also cast, chased, and applied as needed in the design.

Instruction is given in enamelling on copper, silver, and gold.

All work is done in a thoroughly professional manner. Applicants are accepted only for regular and systematic work, and they must give evidence of originality, skill, and general fitness for the course.

Certificates will be granted for the satisfactory completion of a day course of three years.

The classes meet for work daily, except Saturday, from 9.00 A.M. to 4.25 P.M. Instruction is given on eight of the ten half-day sessions. The tuition fees are, $20.00 a term, with an additional laboratory fee of $3.00 a term for miscellaneous material used by students. There are three terms in each school year. The fall term opens the last week in September.

The course provides for wax-modelling, hammered metal work, the application of relief ornament, and the finishing of casting in a thoroughly professional manner; the work being planned for advanced students as well as for beginners. Instruction is given in the making of tools, the modelling of objects in sheet metal, repousse, or relief ornament in flat and hollow ware, and the chasing of ornament in brass, bronze, silver, and gold. Instruction is also given in jewelry. The class meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 7.30 to 9.30 P.M., from the last week of September to the last of March. The tuition fee for the evening course is $15.00 a season of six months, which includes all practice material used by students in class.

Students and alumni of Pratt Institute have organised The Pratt Art Club, which its members otherwise quaintly designate as "Ye Brooklyn Club of Ye Handicrafters"; in its exhibitions, held at the club's rooms near Pratt Institute, are shown some attractive specimens of the work of these crafters.

There is a course in jewelry designing at Cooper Union in New York City under the direction of Mr. Edward Ehrle. The Cooper Union class meets tri-weekly, in the evening, for a two hours' session. The work begins with easy geometrical designs; original work by the pupils is constantly encouraged. The school year begins the second Monday after September 15th and ends about May 15th. The full course requires about three years. At the conclusion of the term in the year 1908, a cash prize offered by The Jewellers' Circular-Weekly was awarded to Mr. Frederick E. Bauer for his excellent work.

A resource of value to the artistic designer of jewelry in and near New York City is the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, a subsidiary institution of this famous old hall of education that is now, although progressing in its acquisition of valuable exhibits, of incalculable value to the arts and industries of America; the usefulness of this institution is however restricted, because it is not well known. It is probably a safe assumption to say that not one person in many thousands of the inhabitants of the metropolis is cognisant of the existence of such a treasure-house, which is available to all earnest seekers after ideas, information, and material for the betterment of art, and under conditions impossible to excel in providing the greatest opportunity and freedom to all who will avail themselves of it. The contents of this museum would astonish thousands who are familiar with the broadly advertised contents of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the feeling of regret that comes over the appreciative visitor to the Cooper Union Museum suggests the reflection that a little adept yet dignified promotion of publicity would be beneficial to the efficiency of this institution. A strong feature of this working museum is a collection of encyclopedic scrap-books, open, like all else here, to all applicants for permission to use them; the scrap-book covering jewelry shows many excellent designs, fertile in ideas for bracelets, chatelains, clasps, lockets, combs, crowns, tiaras, head ornaments, dress and engraved ornaments, knots and bowknots, ear-rings, girdles, belts, hoops, rings, necklaces, pendants, sceptres, seals, and watches.