Winifred Mason
Winifred Mason | |
---|---|
![]() Winifred Mason, 1936 | |
Born | Manhattan, New York, USA | June 22, 1918
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | New York University |
Known for | Jeweler, Silversmith |
Spouse | Jean E. Chenet |
Winifred Mason (born June 22, 1918) was an African-American jeweler, active in New York in the 1940s.[1] She worked primarily in copper, and was inspired by West Indian cultural traditions.[2] She is believed to be the first commercial African-American jeweler in the United States.[1]
Under her married name, Winifred Chenet, she also sold jewelry in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.[3] She escaped from Haiti following the murder of her husband by the Tonton Macoute in 1963, and returned to the United States.
Personal and Family
Winifred E. Mason, was born June 22, 1918, Manhattan, New York, New York.[4] Her father Joseph Hubert Mason, was born in Antiqua, British West Indies; her mother Juliette, was born in St Martin, French West Indies. They immigrated to the United States and settled in New York, New York in 1915.[5] According to the US Census records, Winifred Mason was the first of four children all born in New York City.[6] She married Jean E. Chenet September 13, 1948 in Manhattan, New York, New York. Chenet was born October 14, 1924, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.[7]
Education and Teaching
Mason received a BS in English Literature in 1934, and went on to receive a MA in education from New York University in 1936.[8] In the early 1940s, Mason taught youth metalworking skills at Junior Achievement, where she met Art Smith.[9] After graduating, she hesitated to begin her career as a teacher, and she worked for a while as a teacher for the WPA and later as a crafts instructor at the Harlem Boys Club, but she chose another way as her life career. Mason received a grant from the Rosenwald Fund to "gather folk material and basic art patterns used by the West Indian Negro and to express these feelings in jewelry."[10][11][12] This research included time in Haiti, where she met her husband, Jean Chenet.[13]
Studio and Jewelry
Her first piece of jewelry appeared in 1940, and it was a pendant in bronze, copper, and silver. It had to be of great interest among her friends and soon she began to get orders for the similar pieces. Mason never repeated her works and every piece she made was unique. When she could not find a proper instrument to use in her work, she made it herself.[1][9]
In 1943, she received her first order from an exclusive department store on Fifth Avenue. After working on jewelry at home, Mason opened and maintained a studio in Greenwich Village in the early 1940s.[1][9] Jewelry from this studio was sold at national department stores like Lord and Taylor.[14] Much of the jewelry was custom-made, and clientele included Billie Holiday.[14] By the late 1940s, there had been ten exhibitions of her jewelry including one-woman shows in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Port-au-Prince, Haiti.[2]
Among her employees was Art Smith, who went on to found his own studio and become one of the first significant African-American jewelers.[9]
After her marriage, she spent much of her time in Haiti. Under her married name, Winifred Chenet, she sold "voodoo-inspired" jewelry in Haiti.[3] She also operated a store in New York selling Haitian art.[2]
In 1963 her husband was murdered in Haiti by the Tonton Macoute. Winifred Mason-Chenet escaped and returned to the United States.[13][15]
References
- ^ a b c d Kirkham, Pat (2002). Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference. Yale University Press. pp. 135, 207. ISBN 0300093314.
- ^ a b c "The Jewelry of Winifred Mason". Modern Silver Magazine. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
- ^ a b The standard guide to Mexico and the Caribbean. Funk & Wagnalls. 1956.
- ^ Mason, Winifred. "Births Reported in 1918-Borough of Manhattan". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ Mason, Joseph. "Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920". Ancestry.com.
- ^ Mason, Winifred. "Fifteenth Census of the United States; 1930". Ancestry.com.
- ^ Mason, Winifred. "New York, New York, License Indexes, 1907-2018". Ancestry.com.
- ^ Wilkins, Roy, ed. (August 1936). The Crisis. Vol. 43–44. Crisis Publishing Company. p. 236.
- ^ a b c d Russell, Charles L. (2015-12-28). Art as Adornment: The Life and Work of Arthur George Smith. Outskirts Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 9781478743156.
- ^ Embree, Edwin Rogers (1938). Julius Rosenwald Fund: Review For The Two-Year Period 1936-1937. The Julius Rosenwald Fund.
- ^ Schulman, Daniel; Museum, Spertus; Museum, Allentown Art; Museum, Montclair Art (2009-02-05). A Force for Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 9780810125889.
- ^ "Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park Campaign". Rosenwaldpark.org. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ a b "An Interview with Jacques Chenet". Modern Silver Magazine. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
- ^ a b "Copper Christmas". Ebony. 2. December 1946.
- ^ African American Fine Art Auction : Session Two of the Treadway/Toomey 20th Century Art & Design Auction John Toomey Gallery. Oak Park, IL: John Toomey Gallery. May 13, 2014. p. 95. Retrieved 14 March 2021.