The Jewelry and Metalwork of Marie Zimmermann
Yale University Press, 2012
Hardcover, 400 pages, $65

David Cole (Jewelry / Metal Arts faculty) spent 13 years and traveled widely to photograph the work of Marie Zimmermann for this book, which includes approximately 400 of his images. He cleaned, documented, styled, and photographed each piece, from tiny rings to mausoleums. Zimmermann was one of the most creative and important makers of metalwork in early-20th-century America. She worked in gold, silver, bronze, copper, and iron, and explored a wide range of innovative approaches to pattern, material, and surface. She led a very colorful life as well. A true eclectic in her personal life, her professional pursuits, and her creative expression, she has proven an elusive character for historians; this book gathers her full story for the first time. Essays by leading scholars in the decorative arts offer extensive new research.