As Secretary of State during the Clinton administration, Madeleine Albright used brooches to silently communicate with others in the room or at the table. After reading a 1997 Time article titled “Brooching it Diplomatically,” Philadelphia-based gallerist and collector Helen English Dutt invited seventy-five artists to submit work for a related exhibition on the communicative nature of jewelry. The following year, Drutt’s gallery mounted an exhibition that later traveled to museums in The Netherlands, Finland, Estonia, and New York, and published a small book. On the cover of Brooching it Diplomatically: A Tribute to Madeleine K. Albright, the Secretary of State wears this brooch by the Dutch artist Gijs Bakker. Featuring Lady Liberty’s head with two watch faces for her eyes, it was specially designed for the exhibition. One watch is upside down, enabling both the wearer to look down to read the time, as well as the person looking across the meeting table who reads the other right-side-up clock face. Thus, both the wearer and the audience are aware of the appointment's ending time.

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