Angela Cummings 18K Yellow Gold Sinuous Snake Ring

About the Item

Scarce 18K yellow gold Angela Cummings snake ring 1986 The snake motif is one of the most loved in jewelry design, symbolizing everlasting love, royalty, wisdom, transformation, rebirth and desire. Marks: Cummings, 18K, 1986 Condition: Very Good Size: 3.75 US Angela Cummings is an iconic designer closely associated with Tiffany & Co., for whom she began working immediately after completing her goldsmithing and gemology degrees in Italy and Germany in 1967. While at Tiffany's, she created her first full collection under her own name in 1975 and quickly became part of a small group of designers (Elsa Perretti, Paloma Picasso, Jean Schlumberger) synonymous with innovation, luxury and glamour. Cummings remained with Tiffany's until 1984 when she left to form her own business with her first boutique at Bergdorf Goodman. The 1984 collection was featured in the New York Times and included marvelously creative pieces in zebra patterns, orchid shapes, black opals, South Sea pearls, burnished silver and gold with etched woodgrain. The success of the designs led to the openings of new boutiques, international operations and collaboration with some of the most esteemed retailers worldwide.

Creator:
Angela Cummings
Ring Size:
3.75 US, Not Resizable
Metal:
Gold,18k Gold,Yellow Gold
Weight:
5.1 g
Style:
Artist
Period:
Late 20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1986
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1887226416942

Shop All Angela Cummings

Angela Cummings

With her playfully bold, nature-inspired pieces, Angela Cummings has left a lasting mark on the world of jewelry design. Full of movement and sensational color, her eye-catching collar necklaces, stud earrings and bracelets continue to be favored by red-carpet celebrities and tastemakers the world over.

Cummings was born in Austria in 1944, during a time when her country was being torn apart by war. At the age of three her family moved to America, where she was raised. Returning to her native country as an adult, Cummings studied art in Perugia, Italy, then went on to study jewelry design in Hanau, West Germany. She graduated with a degree in gemology, goldsmithing and jewelry design from Zeichenakademie in 1967.

Cummings returned to the United States after finishing her studies. She marched into legendary American luxury house Tiffany & Co. in New York City and asked for a job. Under the mentorship of Donald Claflin, a designer who’d previously worked for David Webb, Cummings became a respected in-house designer for the brand. Her named collection, Angela Cummings Exclusively for Tiffany & Co., debuted in 1974.

Cummings created sumptuous 18K gold accessories that were inlaid with coral, opal, mother-of-pearl, jade and lapis lazuli. Not unlike the work of Elsa Peretti, who signed an exclusive contract with Tiffany & Co. in 1974, Cummings’ designs — seashell necklaces, maple leaf pendants — drew on the shapes and forms of the natural world.

As her style continued to develop, Cummings integrated silver, precious gemstones and platinum into her work, creating exquisite juxtapositions by mixing the materials with wood and iron. Her pieces increasingly featured more movement-inspired elements — curling vines, crashing waves and billowing cloud forms — that hearkened to the rhythms of nature.

In 1982, People magazine featured Cummings' jewelry and the publicity launched her into the spotlight. Two years later, she established her own business, Angela Cummings Inc., and began to experiment with abstraction in her work, as well as allowing her surroundings in Japan, where she opened several boutiques, to inspire her adornments.

Cummings retired in 2003, making a brief comeback in 2013 to collaborate with Assael Jewelry, for which she created an exclusive line of cultured pearl jewelry.

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