Sidney F. Mobell (April 10, 1926 – November 4, 2022) was an American artist, jeweler, and philanthropist from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. He owned Mobell Jewelry and was known for his designs of everyday objects made of gold and jewels. He lived in Hillsborough,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Biography

Sidney Mobell was born in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

on April 10, 1926, and starting in 1937 he was raised an orphan. Mobell eventually made his way to San Francisco and owned and operated several jewelry stores in the city until his retirement in 1995. In March 1996, Mobell Jewelry was sold to Shreve & Co.. Mobell was known for his transformation of ordinary, everyday items such as food cans and cellular phones into bejeweled pieces of art. Several of his works are housed in the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

, including a $2,000,000 USD

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

set made of 23-carat gold, with rubies and sapphires atop the chimneys of the houses and hotels. It is the most expensive Monopoly set ever produced. Mobell was a guest on ''

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...

'', several times where he showcased his designs. He was also a donor to several healthcare causes. Mobell died in

Hillsborough, California Hillsborough is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is located south of San Francisco on the San Francisco Peninsula, bordered by Burlingame to the north, San Mateo to the east, Highlands-B ...

, on November 4, 2022, at the age of 96.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mobell, Sidney 1926 births 2022 deaths 21st-century American Jews American jewellers Artists from San Francisco Jewish American artists People from Hillsborough, California