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MAHNAZ COLLECTION is New York City’s trusted gallery for original designer, goldsmith, artist and architect-made vintage modernist and contemporary jewelry. We are both a sales and knowledge portal. The Collection is well known for its mid 20th century onwards jewelry made by forward-looking, independent jewelers whose work stands the test of time. We pay significant attention to the makers themselves; they are a storied group of designers. Our unique assemblage of jewels is distinctive, rare, influential. It contains original, intimate, collectible, treasures.

A worldwide clientele is served by our Online and Madison Avenue (New York City) galleries. Our clients are often focused modernist vintage jewelry and collectors, or individuals with an independent spirit and curiosity, those who know their own personal identity and style, those who appreciate modern and contemporary design, art and architecture, and jewelry lovers of vintage, modernist and contemporary jewelry.

Mahnaz Collection invites you to time travel with us into a world of fine vintage and estate jewelry, a world that promotes preservation, re-use and thus sustainability today. We bring to the fore old worlds where superb hand work and craftsmanship still thrived. While our focus is on independent jewelers, we do carry wearable, sophisticated design classics by heritage brands and sell contemporary works that upend traditional concepts of preciousness or design, or support living artisans keeping a craft alive.

Displaying distinctive designs and fine craftsmanship,the jewelry we sell must represent strong examples of its maker or period. We marry our passion for vintage modern jewelry with expertise in research and documentation of its rich cultural heritage. We enable you to explore the careers and cultural universe of pioneering goldsmiths. Where some makers have been lost to history, we shine a new and brighter light on them.

OUR ONLINE SHOP gives you the ability to shop from any location using your mobile, laptop or desktop devices. We sell a wide assortment of ready-to-buy Essentials at our online shop, perfect as the foundation for a jewelry wardrobe and daily or day-to-night wear. We are also the go-to gallery for fine, talismanic, zodiac jewelry including pendants by Van Cleef and Arpels and Cartier.

Selections from our special Jewelry Collections are viewable online as well. We build these investment-quality collections over time. They include works by path-breaking South and North American and European makers. An exclusive selection of the finest, museum-quality Hopi, Navajo and Pueblo modernist jewelry is a part of Mahnaz Collection, as are the works of the renowned Burle Marx Brothers from Brazil. We also sell select, stylish and wearable jewelry styles from Heritage brands including Chaumet, the jewelry designers of Tiffany & Company, and the design-focused, family-owned firm of Hemmerle. Lost masters from the past such as the exceptional Italian House of Cazzaniga are revived. You can purchase them via e-mail, telephone inquiry or a gallery visit. We can also schedule a Zoom appointment.

We are active on Instagram @mahnazcollection, where you can see new jewelry acquisitions, learn about their makers, DM us to shop directly, and access our Online Shop.


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RESEARCH AND CATALOGUES We are best known for our jewelry from the 1960s and 1970s. Much of it is collected based on the research we conduct and then share in catalogues we originate at Mahnaz Collection. These are available for purchase here. The end of the 1950s -1970s saw radical technological, social and cultural change. Important jewelry design concepts were explored, marrying high with low, precious with semi-precious materials, along with a plethora of talismanic and India inspired (street and yogi not Maharaja) jewelry styles. New movements in art, architecture and design were originated in Europe and America, and similarly, influential design vocabularies entered the then stale and static jewelry world. These new designs were destined to become collectible modern classics - the focus of Mahnaz Collection.

The 1960s and 1970s were years of abundant creativity, exploration and innovation. Even today, in 2021, and the years along the way, fashion’s gatekeepers keep returning to these earlier decades for style inspiration. Then, makers wrought deep changes in jewelry design and used diverse styles: regular and formalist, organic and minimalist. Moving away from purely decorative adornments in white gold, platinum and diamonds after the Second World War, the jewelers relished the use of that most ancient and malleable of precious metals, yellow gold, while also experimenting with new concepts of value, of preciousness. Hard-stones and diamonds mixed together, and value became less associated with the combination of metals and gems used and more with the ingenuity of the jewelers and their design capabilities. Crafted by adventurous jewelers, goldsmiths, artists and sculptors creating largely one-of-a-kind pieces, by hand or in smaller workshops, the jewelry reveals the influence of nature and landscape; classic explorations of form, texture and shape; a fascination with locally sourced or rough-cut gemstones; and the avant-garde art, architecture and design of their place and time.

JEWELRY EXHIBITIONS of the highest quality, sometimes in collaboration with partners, are mounted by Mahnaz Collection in its role as a knowledge portal. Our live exhibitions have broad educational value and help to better inform clients, jewelry lovers, collectors, curators and scholars. We research, document and then appropriately display the jewelry, and prepare original essays for our catalogues. Significant exhibitions to date include Forma Livre: The Jewelry of Brazil’s Burle Marx BrothersLondon Originals: The Jeweler’s Art in Radical Times (2016); and Material Beauty: Modern Hopi, Navajo and Pueblo Artist Jewelers. Since 2022, following the quiet of the COVID years, we reopened the gallery with exhibits on Women Pioneers, Nordic Design Jewelry, and Materials in Play, a show of global contemporary jewelers.

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ABOUT MAHNAZ. Mahnaz is a longtime East Coast American, raised in her early years in South Asia, where jewelry, whether a simple metal bangle or fine gold and enameled piece, is very much a part of daily adornment, of life’s central rituals and the security of women. 

I am a constantly curious explorer of the world’s cultures. My family heritage includes the art, design and architecture of the Mughal, Persian and Western modernist worlds. My Bombay-born grandmother gave me a pair of late Victorian emerald and seed pearl earrings when I was 5 or 6. Most of the time, my favorite doll wore them. They were lost forever during the war between India and Pakistan in 1971 when the Indian Navy sank the ship carrying all our possessions. When you lose a piece of sentimental jewelry the ache never leaves you.

My first proper watch as a young teenager was a gift from my mother - an Omega designed by the British avant-garde jewelry designer Andrew Grima. I still own it, along with the first ring my mother had made for me when I was 10 or so - a cabochon cat’s eye set in rich yellow gold. I myself later collected antique Mughal era kundan and meenakari jewelry. I have traveled and worked across continents, collecting small portable, sculptural objects along the way - in Russia, former Yugoslavia, Brazil, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Senegal, and Mali. I find peace in the beauties of nature, and especially so in the ancient, monumental landscapes of the American Southwest. A scholar by training, I hold a Ph.D. in international relations and a BA in the liberal arts. Prior to starting Mahnaz Collection, my career was in the fields of international policy and professional philanthropy. I believe deeply in public service and sit on boards that serve all New Yorkers as well as the arts, including the New York Public Library and Lincoln Center. I have also served as a Commissioner for Public Design for the City of New York.

OUR PROFESSIONAL TEAM is highly knowledgeable, experienced, welcoming and cultivated, and guarantees an inspiring personal experience of jewelry that will be forever a joy to wear. We respect your investment and provide dedicated service so you can securely enjoy your purchases and pass them on to the next generation. 

The Mahnaz Collection gallery team includes me; Adrienn Banyai, our highly experienced Team Director for Jewelry Sales and Busines Strategy, our Senior Jewelry Sales Associate & Manager, Contemporary Jewelry, Noelle Weigand, and Nandhi Honwana, our Communications & Gallery Associate & Office Manager. Along with them are senior consultants Bella Neyman, Douglas Fanueil, and Donna Ghelerter. We are privileged to have our visual identity communicated for the past decade by lead artist-photographer, Hee Jin Kang. Kevin Kish also contributes valuable photographs of our jewelry. For our branding, catalogs, and related design issues we have worked for 10 years with Stephen Doyle and Rosemarie Turk of the design firm Doyle Partners. For all tech services we rely on Mac-tech.

We are available daily, Monday - Friday, via phone, email, or Zoom, and at our Madison Avenue gallery by appointment. 

OUR SERVICES include Jewelry Commissions, Finder Services, Assistance in Selling Your Jewelry, and Repairs , Ring Sizing, and Cleaning. Mahnaz Collection works closely with global jewelry sourcing networks and private individuals to buy and sell fine jewelry, and to locate individual pieces upon request. If we do not have the piece you are looking for in our collections, we can certainly try to acquire it for you. Please contact us at studio@mahnazcollection.com.

We provide repair and restoration services for jewelry purchased from us and work closely with relevant specialists. Our select contemporary jeweler partners accept private commissions which adhere to their respective policies and also to Mahnaz Collection’s financial policies and timelines. No exchanges or returns are possible on commissioned jewelry and all transactions are final. 

SHIPPING + RETURNS We ship promptly upon receipt of payment. Please read our detailed policies here. Also, read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.