Vintage Brooch with Cat Design, c. 1950
by Stella Popowski (1931-2008), Mexico
Mixed metals of sterling silver and brass, onyx inlay
.75" high x 1.25" wide
Provenance: The Collection of Cindy Tietze-Hodosh and Stuart Hodosh
Stella Popowski (1931-2008) was a Jewish emigre from Poland, who fleed the Nazi occupation by moving to Cuba in the 1940s, and then to Mexico in the 1950s. She lived and worked in Taxco, Mexico in the 1950s to early 1960’s, and designed jewelry for renowned jewelers Antonio Castillo, Antonio Pineda, and later for herself. She played a big part in the modernist jewelry movement in Taxco, Mexico, and became well known for her abstract and atomic designs.
Stella was not a silversmith, so she designed the jewelry and had it made by a number of other Mexican silversmiths. In the mid-1960s she moved to California where she lived in Newport Beach while concentrating on painting and design projects. She passed away in Newport Beach, California in 2008.
