Edouard Colonna
Edward Colonna was born in Muhlheim near Cologne (Koln), Germany in 1862 moved to Brussels, Belgium to study architecture. Then in 1882 he moved to the United States to work with the Associated Artists group which specialized in interior design and was headed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Here he also met and worked with Ogden Goelet and Charles Flint before working with Bruce Price from 1884 to 1885. He moved from New York City to Ohio to work on designing train cars. In 1888 he filled his papers to become an American citizen and established an office in Montreal where he worked primarily for the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1897 he was back in Paris with Sigfried Bing. Bing directed Colonna along with Eugene Gaillard and Georges de Feure, to form the trio to create designs which would be both modern and appealing to the French. This is when his jewelry pieces were crafted. Each piece was made as a single piece and it inspired him to create both jewelry, objects, furniture, and accessories. Colonna and the others exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 and again in Turin in 1902 however the expense of these exhibitions crushed Bing who closed the doors in 1903 and retired. Colonna’s artistic life changed and he returned to North America. He continued to work as an architect, artist, designer, and even antique dealer until he passed in 1948.
