This four-sided brooch is shaped like a tall triangle with the top point trimmed off. The top left 'corner' is curved. The surface is smooth, inlaid with crackled pieces of white eggshell in varying sizes, creating a stone-like appearance. The spaces between the eggshell pieces and the fine cracks in the shells are colored dark red and black. These dark colors are split into two triangles, a dark red triangle on the left and a black triangle on the right. The dividing line runs between the top right and bottom left corners.

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See more objects with the tag texture, inlay, eggshell, quadrilat.

Object Timeline

1970	We photographed this object.
1975	Work on this object began.
1999	Work on this object ended.
2016	We acquired this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object.
2017	We exhibited this object.
2024	You found it!

NOT TITLED 8 Brooch

This is a brooch. It was manufactured by Thomas Gentille. It is dated late 20th century and we acquired it in 2016. Its medium is eggshell inlay, metal. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

For more than five decades, Thomas Gentille has resolutely explored concepts, materials, and techniques that combine a painter’s eye for line, color, and light with an architect’s knowledge of proportion and form. Gentille executed the subtle, painterly surface of this brooch with the intricately executed eggshell technique that took him six years to master.

This object was donated by Susan Lewin. It is credited The Susan Grant Lewin Collection, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Drawing, Study in Color and Form
brush and watercolor, pen and ink on vellum paper.
The Susan Grant Lewin Collection, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
2017-26-1

Kanshitsu Box And Lid (Japan)
gilt wood, lacquer, eggshell.
1986-66-1-a,b

Door With Handle (France), 1925–26
carved, joined, and lacquered wood, eggshell, mother-of-pearl, gold leaf,....
Gift of Mrs. Solomon R. Guggenheim.
1950-104-2

Our curators have highlighted 1 object that are related to this one.

Drawing, Study of an Abstract Composition

Drawing, Study of an Abstract Composition
graphite, red, black and white crayon on paper.
Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer.
1963-39-756

Its dimensions are

H x W x D: 13 × 9.3 × 2.3 cm (5 1/8 × 3 11/16 × 7/8 in.)

It has the following markings

On reverse, bottom right, block letters in blue ink(?): "T. GENTILLE"

Cite this object as

NOT TITLED 8 Brooch; Manufactured by Thomas Gentille (American, b. 1936); eggshell inlay, metal; H x W x D: 13 × 9.3 × 2.3 cm (5 1/8 × 3 11/16 × 7/8 in.); The Susan Grant Lewin Collection, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; 2016-34-36

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Jewelry of Ideas: Gifts from the Susan Grant Lewin Collection.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/R36zT/
Accession Number 2016-34-36
Object ID 554917313