JAR Paris - The Jewelry of Joel Arthur Rosenthal

“The person most responsible for this freeing of boundaries in high jewelry, and as consequence this extraordinary burst of imagination is Joel Arthur Rosenthal, JAR, alongside his partner Pierre Jeannet.”

- Juliet Weir-De La Rochefoucauld in 21st Century Jewelry Designers: An Inspired Style

“No doubt, jewelry will never be assessed in the same manner ever again, Rosenthal’s designs seem to emerge from a dream world and carry a secret message from an unknown land. The pieces are sublime”

- Hans Nadelhoffer (President of Christie’s, Geneva)

“One must not underestimate the importance of this man to the wave of innovative design that has taken hold of the jewelry world; many of the ideas that are not common in jewelry design started with him in the 1980s and ‘90s.”

- Juliet Weir-De La Rochefoucauld in 21st Century Jewelry Designers: An Inspired Style

JAR Jewelry Exhibitions

100 pieces 1978-1987

Jewels of Jar National Academy of Design, New York November 30, 1987 (invitation only 3 hours, 400 flashlights, dimly lit room)

397 pieces 1978-2002

The Jewels of JAR, Paris Somerset House, London November 2, 2002 – January 26, 2003

395 pieces 1978-2013

Jewels by JAR Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York November 20, 2013 – March 9, 2014

Books on JAR

Jewels by JAR Metropolitan Museum of Art 2013

JAR Paris Catalog by Christie’s 2002

JAR Paris (same as JAR Paris I) 2002

JAR Paris I (reissue of JAR Paris 2002) 2013

JAR Paris II 2013

Book Reviews

JAR Paris (same as JAR Paris I)

A turning point in the history of high jewelry

I completely agree with Juliet Weir-De La Rochefoucauld, who said: “The person most responsible for this freeing of boundaries in high jewelry, and as consequence this extraordinary burst of imagination is Joel Arthur Rosenthal, JAR, alongside his partner Pierre Jeannet.”, and this is the book that brought his jewelry to a broader public.

The book represents a complete catalog of the 397 pieces (one per page) presented during his second public show: The Jewels of JAR, Paris 1978-2002 at Somerset House, London on November 2, 2002 – January 26, 2003.

Many of the pieces from his first show, Jewels of Jar at the National Academy of Design, New York on November 30, 1987 (an invitation-only show that lasted only 3 hours, displayed using 400 flashlights in dimly lit room), are also included.

Personally, every piece is an inspiration to my jewelry designs, and the impact on the high jewelry world is clear from the first page.

Some of the highlights include the banded agate zebra brooch (piece 257, resold as part of the Ann Getty Estate through Christie’s in 2022 for more than $500k), and the Mughal Bangle Bracelet (piece 111) in purple titanium. This particular bracelet changed the history of high jewelry, as JAR pushed the limits of materials, and discovered titanium as the perfect material for large colored pieces especially bracelets and earrings. Colored titanium is everywhere in high jewelry today, but JAR, in 1987, was the first.

Even though there are only two short essays in the book, one by Joel Arthur Rosenthal (JAR), and the other by Pierre Jeannet, the photos speak for themselves, and I believe this is the #1 monograph on JAR. An incredible overview of JAR jewelry from his first 24 years of design, I believe this group of jewelry marks a turning point in the history of high jewelry, and would be interesting to anyone with a passion for jewelry, its design and its history.