“Wait till you see, your eyes will pop out of your head,” said Billy Montella Jr., former Toll Gate art teacher, about the recent donation he made of his father’s 12 jewelry drawings to Rhode Island School of Design’s museum.

His father, William E. Montella, was a jewelry designer while Rhode Island’s jewelry industry was booming from 1920 to the early 1970s. At one point, in the early 20th century, the city was coined the jewelry capital of the world.

“I called RISD in February,” said Montella. “They called me back saying they couldn’t get over the drawings.”

Montella said that the drawings are beautiful and unique and could never be done by a computer with today’s recent design methods.

According to jewlerydistrict.org, in 1850 the jewelry industry employed 590 workers, which later more than tripled to 2,700 workers by 1875 during the post-war economic reverberation. Immigration, the growing labor force and the growth of lower-end jewelry allowed for this increase. The industry in Rhode Island provided jobs for native and foreign workers and fostered the development of small jewelry shops that became multi-story factory buildings to respond to its demand.

After having traveled to many museums in his life locally and nationally, Montella thought his father’s art was often as good or better than what he saw.

Jan Howard, curator of prints, drawings and photographs at the RISD Museum, said the museum didn’t have many drawings from the 1930s in their collection.

“We were particularly interested in the drawings because they represented the jewelry industry in Rhode Island,” said Howard. “RISD was really founded to support industries like the jewelry that was happening here already and to try to promote better designs.”

Howard said one of the pillars that the school stands on is that its artists learn to successfully apply the principles of art to requirements of trade and manufacturers, which is another reason why the drawings were interesting to them.

“Also because he attended RISD and worked for major jewelry manufacturers,” said Howard.

The drawings are 11”x 14” pencil drawings and some were done with gouache paint, similar but heavier than watercolor to create a more reflective look. He described the jewelry having repeated precise patterns inspired by the art deco period.

“He was phenomenal, and I’m not saying that because he was my dad,” said Montella.

William Montella earned a reputation as a designer. He would design his work in a studio in Providence before his agent would take them to New York and sell them to different levels of jewelry: costume, middle and fine jewelry. The same design would be replicated with metals or upgraded to semi-precious stones to using gold and gems. Montella said his father used to be sought after by Hollywood motion picture productions for specific elegant pieces. He said his father was successful and made a great living. He recalled the day he bought his Cadillac.

Montella is a painter, sculpture and musician and says his father influenced him and his technique.

Nine of the Montella family, including his father and Montella, attended RISD since the 1900s, and art seemed to flow inside their DNA. Montella’s family includes various painters and sculptors like his grandfather, uncles, cousins, most notably his great-uncle Antonio Cirino, and cousin Aristide Cianfarani.

Like himself, his father “shut the outside world out when he was working,” said Montella. “He was very intense in the studio.” His father would spend eight hours a day designing and continued to sketch ideas at home.

It wasn’t novel for him to have an accomplished artist in the family, as he grew up surrounded by art and continues to live with walls covered with his families painting including his own. He said his father would be honored to know that his drawings made it inside a museum.