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Founded in the 1980s and riding the influence of the English new wave culture, the vintage-inspired and romantic-tinged Maximal Art costume jewelry offers an exciting rediscovery.
How do you stay excited about a hobby year after year? Learn something new! When it comes to jewelry, I never feel like I’ve seen it all and discover new things that interest me continually. This includes jewelry on the newer side of the collecting spectrum.
Like many of my jewelry collecting friends, I tend to buy vintage pieces or jewelry crafted by artisans rather than scouring racks in traditional stores. A downfall of this procurement method is that I sometimes miss great things when they’re becoming trendy. One of the brands I discovered long after it was already being sold at retail is Maximal Art.
I first found the vintage-inspired, romantic elements used in Maximal Art designs to be intriguing, and then noted some features that fervently appealed to me as a forager of antique shows and flea markets. I’m betting that you’ll enjoy learning more about the charming history of jewelry made under the Maximal Art brand, too.
HOW MAXIMAL ART BEGAN
The history of the Maximal Art brand began in 1985 when two dear friends residing in Pennsylvania, John Wind and Hillary Jay, decided to go into business together. The brand got its footing prior to that time while Wind was in England attending the Slade School of Fine Art on a scholarship. He began by making jewelry using “fabulous vintage bits” he found scouring flea markets in London during the early the 1980s, as mentioned on his website.
This found-item jewelry crafting led to brooches Wind wore out on the town at first, but he soon began marketing them to others. He partook in London Fashion Week and found his work celebrated in British Vogue. The Thompson Twins, a band who epitomized English new wave culture in the 1980s, were among his customers during that timeframe.
After finishing his studies, Wind returned to Pennsylvania to join forces with Jay. They researched how to produce belt buckles and jewelry, and each staked $2,000 to get the business rolling. Their first operation was a homegrown set-up in the garage of Wind’s family home. There the duo created some very interesting jewelry designs some of which featured vintage watch heads linked together to form bracelets while others followed Wind’s tradition of using found objects in a “precursor to Steampunk.”
Jay was featured in a 1986 issue of “The Executive Female” where she noted that the firm’s designs embody the opposite of minimalism aptly describing them as warm and evocative. Many publications took notice of Maximal Art jewelry in the late 1980s and the business flourished. Fashionable boutiques and fine department stores across the country carried Maximal Art designs.
While Jay departed in the 1990s to follow other opportunities as a journalist, art gallery manager, and co-founder of Design Philadelphia, Wind continued to operate Maximal Art. One of the company’s long-standing employees, Robbin Cook, stayed on as president and helped Wind overhaul the brand. One of their achievements in the late 1990s was introducing lines that incorporated vintage-style artwork with romantic trappings like heart charms and antique-looking silhouettes. That set the stage for future lines that also included reproduction elements inspired by nostalgia.
In the mid-aughts, when the popularity of costume jewelry hit its stride after a lull, the business introduced the John Wind Signature Collection. These designs were marked Maximal Art on the jewelry and had a paper hang tag denoting the collection name. The firm’s most successful design, the “Sorority Gal” bracelet, was sold during this timeframe. Anthropologie was one of the stores that put the brand on the map marketing these pieces.
The late 2010s ushered in another change for the adaptable company as Cook left the business to start Violet & Brooks. The scope of Wind’s work changed to include more handmade jewelry coming full circle in the life cycle of his career. He also moved the company to South Philadelphia to house it in a historic converted stable.
From the earliest found art pieces to the company’s reproduction charm designs, several are now part of celebrated museum collections around the world. These include the Victoria & Albert Museum in London; the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania.
MORE ON THE JEWELRY
The earliest pieces of Maximal Art jewelry are now considered to be vintage as they are 20 years old or older. This includes the found art pieces that have layers of components glued together to form brooch designs. Many are dated, especially examples made during the early ’90s.
Jewelry produced during the late 1990s and into the early 2000s isn’t usually dated. However, these pieces incorporate vintage-inspired artwork so they’re easy to recognize. From styles made to honor mom to holiday selections featuring Christmas or Halloween themes, these designs are rooted in nostalgia.
When it comes to the many charm necklaces and bracelets produced under this brand, their Sorority Girl bracelets are the most well-known. The initial charms used to make these pieces were produced using old typesetting samples from the 1950s. Knowing the origin was a stash discovered in a Rhode Island warehouse can make them even more appealing to collectors of vintage jewelry.
Maximal Art also produced several lines in partnership with Disney marketed at their varied theme parks. Other charm designs feature the places Wind shopped for found art components in his younger years like the Portobello Road market in London and Brimfield in Massachusetts. These designs were made with reproduction charms that looked old at the time and are now approaching vintage status in their own right. Some were also packaged in round containers that recall vintage hat boxes.
Today, Wind’s collections include “Grand Hotel” line made with crystals sourced from chandeliers removed from the historic Plaza and Waldorf Astoria hotels in New York City. His current “Charm Bar” offers customizable necklaces that can be embellished with new charms as well as resurrections of some older styles. Newer pieces are usually marked John Wind rather than Maximal Art.
Whether older or newer, Maximal Art jewelry tends to be affordably priced in the secondary marketplace making it attractive to vintage jewelry shoppers. The exception is with some of the holiday pieces whether they feature patriotic themes or Santa Claus. Disney artwork and other animal designs, like those featuring cats, can also sell on the higher side.
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