On May 5, 2019, Toomey & Co. held a single-owner auction, The Paul & Terry Somerson Collection of 20th and 21st Century Metalwork and Jewelry. This carefully curated sale showcased the largest private collection of American Arts & Crafts metalwork and jewelry ever assembled. The Somerson Collection also featured a range of impressive works by modern and contemporary silversmiths and makers. Altogether, 500 lots were included in the auction, the sell-through rate was 93%, and the total result with premium was $650,000.
Paul Somerson was a highly successful tech journalist and author in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2001, Paul and his wife Terry began collecting American Arts & Crafts metalwork and jewelry as well as Stickley furniture, art pottery tiles, and vintage photography. Paul eventually founded ChicagoSilver.com, a guide to Chicago's renowned Kalo Shop and other Arts & Crafts makers. On May 25, 2018, Paul died unexpectedly at age 68. We were deeply saddened by his passing, but it was a distinct honor to handle The Paul & Terry Somerson Collection.
Since 2019, Toomey & Co. has offered a variety of additional material from The Somerson Collection at auction.
Sam Kramer 1913–1964
Sam Kramer was born in and studied jewelry design in Pittsburgh. He began his career in the 1940s, peddling surrealist-inspired jewelry on the streets of Greenwich Village. He became a downtown personality, eventually establishing a shabby studio and shop full of taxidermy, swords, shells, bones, Mexican, Indian and Native American artifacts, and unusual stones and beads he salvaged from antique shops. A flyer by Kramer from this era (which were handed out on the streets by women dressed in space costumes and painted green) says that his jewelry “evolves from the dream world and the art world”. His oddball reputation did not precede him though, as he was one of the most respected mid-century jewelry designers.
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The DeCoster Collection: Arts & Crafts from a Grosse Pointe Cottage
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