Anjelica Huston wearing "The Jealous Husband" by Alexander Calder featured in the upcoming "Calder Jewelry" @ Philadelphia Museum of Art

A 1976 cover illustration from The New York Times Magazine shows Angelica Huston wearing a Calder necklace known as "The Jealous Husband." Her body presents the sculpture, while the necklace enhances her beauty - a perfect performance.

- Karla Klein Albertson (Style Century Magazine)


Anjelica Huston wearing "The Jealous Husband" (c. 1940), by Alexander Calder, in a 1976 photograph by Evelyn Hofer.

Calder family sculpture runs like connective tissue through Philadelphia.

After emigrating from Scotland in 1868, Alexander Milne Calder made 250 sculptures for City Hall, including the statue of William Penn.

Son Alexander Stirling Calder created the figures on the Swann Memorial Fountain on the Parkway.

And the Philadelphia Museum of Art owns many works by his son, the Alexander Calder many of us know best. His magnificent 1964 mobile is a familiar sight in the Great Stair Hall. Few people know, however, that throughout his life, this Calder created individual small sculptures that can be worn by human beings.

Starting July 12 and running through Nov. 2, an exhibit, "Calder Jewelry," will put roughly 100 necklaces, bracelets, pins, earrings and tiaras on display in the Exhibition Gallery of the museum's Perelman Building. Accompanying the show is a beautifully illustrated companion book published by the Calder Foundation.

The 20th-century Calder (1898-1976) never considered his jewelry a lesser art form. The earrings and necklaces he made individually from hammered silver or brass wire often have suspended sections that react to movement like his mobiles.

Most of us wear our jewelry, but Calder's jewelry seems to wear the owner.

"I was awestruck with how beautiful the pieces were," says Elisabeth Agro, associate curator of American modern and contemporary crafts and decorative arts, who is responsible for the show's installation. "Depending on your personality, you either become activated by the piece itself - become part of the sculpture - or it uses you as a post to be placed upon."

The bold pieces - many featuring the dramatic spiral forms that were a Calder favorite - might not suit the pale and petite. The catalog includes a famous photo of actress Anjelica Houston wearing a hammered-brass necklace the artist called "The Jealous Husband" - the former model can carry it off.

Many pieces made for Calder's beloved wife, Louisa, are gathered together in a special section of the exhibition. "I decided to open the show with the work he made for his wife," Agro says. "The jewelry is a very intimate expression of his devotion to her."

In a 1950 photograph, artist Georgia O'Keeffe wears a brooch with the initials OK that her friend "Sandy" Calder had made just for her. Calder never reproduced or made multiple copies of his jewelry creations.

Fortunately for collectors, he did offer some of the 1,800 or so pieces he made to the public, some through exhibitions at the Marian Willard Gallery in New York. He also sent out collections for "trunk shows" in other cities.

In May 2006, two brass necklaces - both made in the 1940s - sold for $284,800 and $318,400 at Sotheby's New York. A silver bug pin in the same sale brought $120,000.

- Karla Klein Albertson (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

"Calder Jewelry" opens July 12 and runs through Nov. 2 at Philadelphia Museum of Art's Perelman Building.