A Diamond in the rough
Feathers, seeds and human hair are not items normally found in jewelry stores next to the diamond case.
But, inside S.E. Needham Jeweler’s on Logan’s Main Street, a display case known as the Palmer Collection hales unique and historic pieces.
The Antiques were collected by Mary Gilbert Palmer during several trips to England.
“I look for pieces which are unique, unusual and genuinely old, so they will be treasures of lasting value,” Palmer said.
Many of the pieces are made from silver, gold and porcelain, but a few in the collection are made of unusual materials. Each of the pieces has their own uniqueness and story to tell.
“Jewelry is material culture, actual artifacts from the past,” Palmer said. “The wonderful thing about jewelry is that it functions the same today as it did 100 years ago. Folks may not think they enjoy history, but when they fall in love with a fabulous piece of antique jewelry it immediately connects them with the past.”
One of the most characteristic pieces in the collection is the mariner bead necklace. The necklace is made out of seeds that mariners would take out to sea with them. To help pass the time they would carve designs into the seeds.
Allison King, a senior in public relations and an intern for Palmer, said, “The mariners bead necklace is probably the most expensive piece in the collection; it costs $2,445. There are pieces in the collection for every price range, from $10 to over $2,000.”
The items in the collection not only vary in price, but also in the reason that they were created. There are a few pieces called mourning jewelry.
Someone wore this jewelry when he or she had lost a loved one. Most of this jewelry is black, but some contains hair from the deceased. King said people would leave directions in their will about using their hair to make jewelry for their loved ones to remember them by.
Stories about the pieces are one reason that people are drawn to historic jewelry.
“The jewelry connects people with the history,” Palmer said. “They will fall in love with a piece and they connect with its history.”
Palmer collects the pieces by visiting antique stores and estate sales throughout England. Traveling is not only one of the benefits of Palmer’s job, but it was also one of the main reasons she started doing it.
“I have been a collector of jewelry since I graduated from college,” Palmer said. “I’ve always loved jewelry and I also tended to like jewelry that belonged to my mother and grandmother. As a professional I got started because I wanted to find a way to get paid to travel.”
Palmer started to collect antiques professionally after she had worked as a caterer and a schoolteacher, she said. When she was traveling overseas she picked up some antique jewelry and came back to the United States and sold it. After her first experiment selling the antiques she decided that she could be successful doing it for a living.
“The first time that I did it I had one cardboard table in my driveway, and looked like a garage sale,” Palmer said. “Pretty soon I had graduated from one table to a number of tables.”
After selling the antiques for some time Palmer was being asked to lecture about jewelry. With people asking her about the history of the jewelry she decided to go back to school at Utah State University. She went back and earned a master’s of arts with honors in history.
“I decided that I needed the skills of a historian,” Palmer said.
Today, Palmer serves as the historian for S.E. Needham Jewelers. She also attends the Annual Antique Jewelry Conference at Hofstra University, the seminar for the Society of Jewelry Historians and has traveled to Italy for the jewels of Rome.
Palmer has also attended the London Understanding Jewelry Course, Sotherby’s Institute and the Victoria and Albert Museum short course “The Victorians.”
For more information about the Palmer Collection, or to see the antiques visit S.E. Needham Jewelers at 141 N. Main St.
-rbarlow@cc.usu.edu
Carma Caudell, of Logan, inspects some of the new acquisitions of the Palmer Collection at S.E. Needham Jewelers. (Photo by Scott Davis)