Gene Verri (Verrecchia), an Italian-American jewelry designer from Cranston, R.I. was awarded a special Italian Ministry of Culture Life Achievement Award.

Gene’s parents came to America from Italy in 1904. His father was a skilled jeweler and found plenty of work in the jewelry business in Providence. The twins were born in 1911. “My parents were not too happy here and they moved back to Italy,” said Verri, as if that was not the least bit unusual.

In fact, it was. The Verrecchia family in Italy was relatively well off and they were welcomed back in 1916. But then the Verrecchia family lost their mother and their father became a prisoner of war, Still, the family made the best of a bad situation until the Verrecchia boys decided to come back to America.

Gene was 14 in 1925 and had a passion for art. He enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design on a scholarship. He worked in nearby jewelry factories between classes and then accepted a scholarship by the New England Jewelers Board of Trade. The dilemma /necessity of helping his family was solved when he garnered a lucrative part time job.

In 1933, Coro hired him as a designer, and within three months, he was the head designer for the company, a position he held for over 30 years.

Verri’s vintage designs called anti-deco, and retro-rococo, used natural subjects like birds, fish and flowers but with a distinctly modern, slightly surreal sensibility.

Given that Verri was head designer for Coro, and Coro produced 50 percent of all  costume jewelry in America, his designs were well known and racked up enormous sales.

Gene and his twin brother Alfeo, founded Gem Craft soon after he got out of the Military in WWII, and being two of the best designers in the business, retained Coro as a client, and added all the major companies to their roster.

Gene’s son, Ronald, a Brown graduate with a degree in engineering, began working with his father in 1978 and now is in charge of production and other business details.
Verri – a dapper man who dresses and looks as if he should be spending his time loafing around an exclusive gentlemen’s club – looks perfectly content to still come to work daily and works in a small corner of the shop, surrounded by the clutter of his craft.

Peter DiCristofaro, founder of the Providence Jewelry Museum, was the other Rhode Islander honored for outstanding contributions to the arts. Therefore of the three Americans chosen to receive this award, two live in Rhode Island.
 

Lifebeats feature

GENE VERRI HONORED BY I

WArwick Beacon
By Joe Kernan
12/02/2004

A special exhibition of the decorative style known as Art Deco is packing them in at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The style, which dominated the decorative arts in the first half of the 20th century, was not as universally popular as it was universally encountered. The slick, streamlined and abstract forms were everywhere, including costume jewelry.

Enter Gene Verri, an Italian-American jewelry designer from Cranston who became the chief designer for the Coro jewelry company in the 1930s and 1940s who could be called the anti-deco, whose distinctive designs were recently honored by the Italian government.

“To be honest, people were getting a little tired of Art Deco,” Verri said in his Cranston office last week. “They were ready for something else, and we began to supply it.”

In modern terms, you might describe Verri’s vintage designs as retro-rococo, in that they used natural subjects like birds, fish and flowers but with a distinctly modern, slightly surreal sensibility.

Given that Verri was working as head designer for the company that produced about 50 percent of all the costume jewelry in America at that time, his designs were well known and racked up enormous sales. Of particular interest was the “duette” pin, which was made of two or more parts that could be worn separately or together. Verri came up with his own ideas on the duet and watched it fly.

“We sold over $3 million worth of the duettes back then,” he said. “It was a big hit. Of course, we [Coro] were very big in those days. We had sales offices in New York, Chicago, all over the country.”

One of the ironies of the history of costume jewelry in America is that Adolph Katz, an executive at Coro, is listed as the designer for countless pieces of jewelry that were actually designed by Verri.

“He was the guy who submitted the designs to the patent office; he’d fill out the forms and send them in,” said Verri. “It was just easier for him to sign them. It saved time.”

Verri has no ill feeling about Katz being considered one of the best jewelry designers of the era. Verri is actually a very down to earth, amiable fellow who doesn’t take himself too seriously.

“He was a good friend to me,” he said. “We were very busy at the time and it wasn’t something I worried about. He was a good, good friend of mine. It doesn’t bother me a bit.”

It shouldn’t bother him. Most experts in the thriving market for vintage costume jewelry recognize Verri as the man behind the Katz designs. Recently, the Italian government recognized Verri’s contribution to the world of decorative design and invited him to Rome for a special Ministry of Culture life achievement award. In an extraordinary nod to the Ocean State’s international position as a multi-cultural center for arts and industry, of the three Americans chosen to receive this award, two live in Rhode Island. Peter DiCristofaro, founder of the Providence Jewelry Museum, was the other Rhode Islander honored for outstanding contributions to the arts on October 30 in Rome.

Verri, now 93 and less inclined to travel as much as he used to, stayed in Rhode Island. According to his son, Ron, there are plans being considered now to have the current mayor of Filignano bring the award to Cranston for a special ceremony.

What makes the award so extraordinary is that Gene and his twin brother, Alfeo, were not born in Italy.

Gene’s parents came to America from Italy in 1904. His father was a skilled jeweler and found plenty of work in the relatively young costume jewelry business in Providence. The twins were born in 1911.

“My parents were not too happy here and they moved back to Italy,” said Verri, as if that was not the least bit unusual.

In fact, it was. The Verrecchia family in Italy was relatively well off and they were welcomed back in 1916. But then the Verrecchia family lost their mother and their father became a prisoner of war. Still, the family made the best of a bad situation until the Verrecchia boys decided to come back to America.

Gene was 14 in 1925 and had a passion for art. He enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design on a scholarship. He worked in nearby jewelry factories between classes but still managed to garner recognition and scholarships for his art. He decided to accept the scholarship offered by the New England Jewelers Board of Trade.

Torn between pursuing his arts studies and the necessity of helping his family, Verri’s dilemma was solved when an Attleboro company made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“They let me work part time and still go to school!” he said. “They gave me $18 a week! In those days, most people didn’t make that kind of money full time!”

In 1933, when Coro was looking for a designer who could make marketable designs that were not slavishly Art Deco, Verri was in the right place at the right time. Within three months, he was the head designer for the company, a position he held for over 30 years, including the time after the war that he founded what would become Gem-Craft with Alfeo and an older brother.

“After I got out of the Army, I already knew I wanted to start my own business, and the people at Coro were a little disappointed when they found out I was back in town and hadn’t come back to them,” said Verri.

Coro agreed to let him pursue outside interests, and he went back. Gene and Alfeo, who was also an artist, soon gained a reputation as being two of the best designers in the business and began to do work for companies like Capri, R. Mandle, Tancer, Kramer and Codoro.

Now known as Gem-Craft and located on Elmwood Avenue in Cranston, the company continues to make original pieces for specialty companies and stores and has a “library” consisting of a sample of every piece of jewelry produced by Gem-Craft in the past 50 years.

Gene’s son, Ronald, a Brown graduate with a degree in engineering, began working with his father in 1978 and now is in charge of production and other business details. Gene still comes to work daily and works in a small corner of the shop, surrounded by the clutter of his craft.

Recognition may be coming late in his career but Verri – a dapper man who dresses and looks as if he should be spending his time loafing around an exclusive gentlemen’s club – looks perfectly content as he reflects on his past. He marvels at the impact his work has made on his industry and collectors of vintage costume jewelry.

“About 10 years ago I began to notice how many people were interested in the work,” he said, as he points to a book about American costume jewelry that refers substantially to his career and was published in Italian. “It was mostly in Europe, but now it is growing here in America.”

Verri is the subject of a short documentary called “True Circle: The Story of an Artist.”

“The woman who made it had an old bracelet that her grandmother gave her,” he said. “In her grandmother’s day, women liked bracelets because you could show them off when you were dancing and her grandmother told her about that. She owns the bracelet now and says it’s the only thing left she has of her grandmother.”

Verri paused thoughtfully as he contemplated the picture of the bracelet featured in the Italian reference book.

“When she met me, she gave me a big hug,” he said, with a smile.

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