Contributors

Jack Ogden is an expert on jewellery history, with a special focus on the development of materials and technology

Jewellery History History. SJH may have been in existence for forty years, but an interest in jewellery of the past goes back far longer. Jewellers from Cellini to Castellani have been both inspired and intrigued by earlier jewellery styles and techniques whilst others, from Flinders Petrie the ‘grandfather of Egyptology’ to Lawrence of Arabia’s explosive’s expert, have contemplated methods and materials. This presentation will look at how jewellery history has developed and ponder how it meshes with our wider understanding of the past and helps to weed fakes from collections.

Nigel Israel is a gemmologist and jewellery historian and an independent jewellery consultant

Ruby a Magical Red: from the Bible to the 21st Century. The history of the ruby. From mentions in the Bible to dramatic prices in 21st century auctions, rubies have fascinated covetous humans. From earliest times man has tried to imitate and enhance rubies. Since the 20th century genuine rubies have been synthesized, and natural ones enhanced by more and more sophisticated methods which are increasingly difficult to identify. Yet natural untreated stones remain some of the most desirable, and valuable, gemstones.

Hazel Forsyth is a curator at the Museum of London.

‘Mud, mud, glorious mud…’ jewels and metal-detecting. The last forty years has seen a burgeoning interest in hobby metal-detecting, the formation of the Society of Thames Mudlarks and the emergence of the Portable Antiquities Scheme. All sorts of jewels have been recovered from field, furrow and river mud, providing crucial evidence of contemporary fashions, trade networks and craft skill.

Corinne Julius is a freelance journalist and broadcaster who has worked extensively in print and on BBC Radio 4 and is the curator of the forthcoming exhibition Bloomin’ Jewels

‘Bloomin’ Jewels’. The regrowth of the floral in contemporary jewellery. A brief explanation of the demise of the floral motif in Studio Jewellery from the late 1960’s onwards. Why it was rejected by contemporary jewellers as mere prettification and the experience of makers and the curator in re-addressing the theme of the floral in the preparation of ‘Bloomin’ Jewels’.

Geoffrey Munn is the Managing Director of Wartski

Munn’s Miscellany. Geoffrey will give a short light-hearted introduction to jewellery and its significance from the Renaissance to Art Deco. He will bring half a dozen pieces for the audience to see and use them to demonstrate the unique hold that gold, precious stones and jewellery have on the human psyche. Muriel Wilson is the Managing Editor of Jewellery History Today and, formerly, the Editor of Findings, the ACJ’s Magazine

Revitalising Jewellery Design: The International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery, 1890- 1961. An exhibition at Goldsmith's Hall between October and December 1961 was the response to a novel concept from curators at the V&A through which leading international sculptors and painters were to be invited to experiment with differences of scale, material and function. Although the original idea survived radical changes during its preparation, the exhibition remains an important milestone in the recent history of jewellery in Britain.

Rosemary Ransome Wallis is the Art Director and Curator of the Goldsmiths’ Company

Studio Jewellery- An overview of the Goldsmiths’ Company’s modern jewellery collection. Formed as a result of the major International Modern Jewellery exhibition at the Hall in 1961 , the Company’s Modern Jewellery Collection has been seminal in highlighting the unique work of studio jewellers who have been become collectable in their own right.

Eleni Bide is the Librarian of the Goldsmiths’ Company

Buried Treasure: finding archival gems in the Goldsmiths’ Company’s Library. A whistle- stop tour of some of the fascinating primary sources available for researching the history of jewellery in the Company’s library. From early modern lapidaries and 19th century drawings to recreating a 1950s jeweller’s window and diamonds and fashion in the 1970s, the Company’s Librarian lifts the lid on a wealth of unique documents and images.

Norman Cherry, formerly Head of the Birmingham School of Jewellery, is an independent jewellery artist, consultant, and curator.

Travelling to the mountain. During the past twenty years British universities have hosted immense numbers of international students, especially those from China. Currently, of the 58,000 Chinese studying in the UK, more than 9,000 are on Art and Design courses. Exact figures for jewellery are not available but it is estimated that hundreds of Chinese students are enrolled on HE jewellery programmes each year. There is a tradition that Chinese jade carvers must use grit mined from a different mountain to the one where their rough material was found in order to properly shape and polish it. This lecture will illustrate the work of some of those who have, in their own ways, visited The Other Mountain by studying here and elsewhere in the West during that time. It will explain what value their period of international study has had for them, and examine the influence they now have as artists and educators.

John Benjamin is an international jewellery consultant and lectures on a wide a range of jewellery related topics in the UK and overseas

Jill Clarke (1925-2015): Pioneering Innovator and Passionate Traditionalist seamlessly combined. Jill Clarke ran the Bloomsbury antique jewellers Cameo Corner through the 1960’s and early 1970’s. Celebrated for its unrivalled stock of Ancient, Renaissance, 18th and 19th century jewels, Jill was also one of the earliest pioneers in support of contemporary jewellery, exhibiting annually and providing a showcase for many of today’s most celebrated Designer Craftsmen.