Ed Levin

Edward Levin (1921-2008) NYC, NY. Levin studied Fine Arts at Columbia University NYC and furthered his studies at the Barnes Foundation, New School for Social Research, Alfred University. Additionally, he studied with Sculptor Chain Gross and painters Kurt Seligman and Paul Wieghardt. During World War II, he was a pacifist and social activist working with the early beginnings of CORE, the movement for racial equality. In the late 1940s he returned to New York after an apprenticeship with a prominent Argentinian Goldsmith and began making jewelry in a railroad flat underneath what is now Lincoln Center. In the 1950s he and his wife Ruth moved their shop to Vermont due to his deep inspiration with nature and formally established the Ed Levin Jewelry Company. His early jewelry was made from sterling in the Constructivist tradition, though he was also drawn to Primitivism and the Modernist work of Braque. In 1964 he moved his shop back to NYC to accommodate his growing popularity and need for a larger shop. In the 1970s, he again moved his shop to Cambridge, NY to an even larger facility, where it is still to this day. Peter Tonjes worked for Levin for 30yrs as a Production Manager, right out of college and was eventually appointed President in 2004. He purchased the company from the Levin family in 2012. - Courtesy of the book: "Modernist Jewelry 1930-1960 The Wearable Art Movement by Marbeth Schon" Published 2004 by Schiffer Publishing and EL Designs Website.