Robert P. Bergman Ring

The Robert P. Bergman Prize takes the form of a gold seal ring designed by internationally renowned goldsmith John Paul Miller, recipient of the first Cleveland Arts Prize for the Visual Arts in 1961. The image of a striding lion with a star above his shoulder is taken from an ancient royal seal carved into a piece of chalcedony believed to have been used by Darius the Great and his son Xerxes, who together ruled Persia from 522 to 465 B.C. Miller, who took classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art and studied at the Cleveland School of Art (now Cleveland Institute of Art) in the 1930s, rediscovered the process of gold granulation lost since the time of the Roman Empire. His celebrated gold jewelry has been seen everywhere from the Cleveland Museum’s May Show, which he won several times, to the exhibition Great Jewelry of the Ages at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 1994 he was honored by the American Craft Council with its gold medal award for artistic excellence. The ring presented to Bill Rudman, the first winner of the Bergman Prize—along with a special display case crafted and donated by Potter and Mellen, Inc.—was cast from Miller’s original design.