British Designer Silver

DESIGNER BRITISH SILVER from studios established 1930-1985

style to be agreed when dj approved

DESIGNER BRITISH SILVER from studios established 1930-1985

TO BE STYLISED WHEN DUST JACKET STYLE AGREED

Chailey Lambert When British Airways wanted suggestions for a suitable wedding gift to present to Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Sarah Ferguson in 1986, they consulted Chailey as he had recently received a loan from The Prince’s Trust (i.e. the Prince of Wales’ Trust) which allowed him to expand his fledging business. Noting that Sarah wanted to be a working royal and her coat-of-arms included a bee, he suggested a honey pot based on a conventional straw hive. It is designed to take a standard pint pot that contains about 11⁄2 pounds of honey. Sir David Kirch, the wealthy Jersey businessman commissioned another that differed slightly from the Royal couple’s example. Made from Britannia as opposed to sterling silver, there is no bee on the spoon’s terminal. In recent years Sir David has been selling his collections and donating the funds to his charitable trust. The Collection secured the honey pot in 2011 for £5,000. Height 14.5cm. London 1987.

John Andrew

and

Derek Styles

CONTENTS Dedicated to the memory of Graham Hughes Acknowledgements

6

Foreword

8

Introduction

11

The Work and Lives of the Leading Designer-Silversmiths:

Š2014 John Andrew

World copyright reserved

ISBN 978 1 85149 780 5

The rights of John Andrew to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Printed in China for the Antique Collectors’ Club Ltd, Woodbridge, Suffolk

57

Michael Lloyd

294

Frances Loyen

304

Grant Macdonald

312

Alistair McCallum

320

Angus McFadyen

326

David Mellor

334

Hector Miller

346

Malcolm Appleby

58

Louis Osman

356

Brian Asquith

72

Padgham & Putland

364

Geoffrey Bellamy

80

Don Porritt

372

Gerald Benney

86

Dunstan Pruden

380

Michael Bolton

106

Martyn Pugh

388

Clive Burr

114

Keith Redfern

398

Jocelyn Burton

120

Fred Rich

406

Eric Clemments

128

Michael Rowe

416

Desmond Clen-Murphy

136

Jane Short

430

Kevin Coates

142

Graham Stewart

438

Stuart Devlin

152

Robert Edgar Stone

446

Lexi Dick

174

Alex Styles

458

Michael Driver

180

Keith Tyssen

466

Leslie Durbin

186

Graham Watling

474

Maureen Edgar

194

Robert Welch

480

Anthony Elson

200

John Willmin

492

Howard Fenn

210

Richard Fox

216

Brian Fuller

224

Wally Gilbert

230

Robert Goodden

238

Anthony Hawksley

246

Reginald Hill

252

Adrian Hope

258

Sarah Jones

266

Rod Kelly

272

Christopher Lawrence

284

Designers, Craftsmen, Silver Manufacturers and Engravers

502

Where to See Designer British Silver

536

Abbreviations

539

Glossary

540

Bibliography

542

Index

546

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Malcolm Appleby Brian Asquith Jeremy Asquith, son of the late Brian Asquith Nicholas Asquith Dr Victoria Avery, Keeper, Applied Arts, The Fitzwilliam Museum Phil Barnes Michael Barrett, Silver Steward, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths John Bartholomew John Bassant Norman Bassant David Beasley, Librarian, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths Simon Beer Michael Bellamy, son of Geoffrey Bellamy Gerald Benney Janet Benney, widow of Gerald Benney Simon Benney Robin Beresford Eleni Bide, Assistant to the Librarian, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths Margaret Bolton, widow of Michael Bolton Jean Breckenridge, daughter of RE Stone Robin Buchanan-Dunlop, former Clerk of The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths Clive Burr Jocelyn Burton Ian Calvert Justin Calvert John Campbell Stella Campion David Cawte Verity Clarkson, Collection Research Officer, Crafts Council Eric Clements Desmond Clen-Murphy Helen Clifford, Freelance Curator Kevin Coates 6

Cynthia Cousens, Senior Lecturer, Area Leader for Metals, Programme of 3-D Design & Materials Practice University of Brighton George Dalgleish, Principal Curator, Scottish History, Scotland and Europe Department , National Museums of Scotland Chiara Desantis, Acing PA to the Editor, House Beautiful Carole Devlin Stuart Devlin Lexi Dick John Donald Roger Doyle Michael Driver Maureen Edgar Ndidi Ekubia Rev (Wing Commander) John Ellis, Former Church of England Chaplain RAF Cranwell Martin Ellis, Curator (Applied Art), Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery Anthony Elson Christopher English, The Silver Trust David Evans, The Beadle, Worshipful Company of Haberdashers Godfrey Evans, Principal Curator of Applied Art, National Museum of Scotland Howard Fenn Ellis Finch, Head of Silver, Bonhams, Knightsbridge Marianne Forrest Richard Fox George Frost, Guide, Lichfield Cathedral Brian Fuller Amanda Game, Freelance Curator for Craft Wally Gilbert Philippa Glanville, formerly Chief 6

Curator of Metalwork, Silver and Jewellery at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, Associate Fellow of Warwick University and Academic Director of Waddesdon Manor Ian Haig Peter Hampson, an advisor to The Pearson Silver Collection in the 1990s Ian Harris, N Bloom & Son Julian Hart Adrian Hope Graham Hughes Richard Jarvis Christina Jensen, Director, The Scottish Gallery Sarah Jones Corinne Julian, Journalist John Keatley Rod Kelly Alan Kelsey, a spoonmaker who was an apprentice at CJ Vanders in 1945 Chris Knight Phillip Kydd Chailey Lambert Dr Povl Larsen James Lawless, David Mellor Design Limited Christopher Lawrence Tony Laws Kirstie Lawton, David Mellor Design Limited John Limbrey Michael Lloyd Gordon Lochhead Angela Lowery, daughter of Dunstan Pruden Philip Lowery, son-in-law of Dunstan Pruden Frances Loyen

Sheila Macdonald Patrick Maddams, Sub-Treasurer, Inner Temple Oliver Makower, P&O Makower Trust and Bishoplands Educational Trust Helen Marriott Cameron Maxfield Robert May, former Principal Lecturer, Medway College of Art Alistair McCallum Angus McFadyen Corin Mellor, son of David Mellor Hector Miller Alann Mudd, Engraver and Enameller Father Tony O’Brien, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Lucinda O’Donovan, Mary Evans Picture Library Carl Padgham Brett Payne Judy Payne Peter Payne Rear Admiral Richard Philips CB FNI, The Clerk, Worshipful Company of Haberdashers Chris Philipson William Phipps Ian Pickford Don Porritt Anton Pruden, grandson of Dunstan Pruden

Martyn Pugh Andrew Putland Rosemary Ransome-Wallis, Curator, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths Wendy Ramshaw Keith Redfern Andrew Renton, Head of Applied Art, National Museum Wales Christine Rew, Art Gallery & Museums Manager, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Fred Rich Nel Romano, wife of Kevin Coates Kathryn Rooke, Archivist, The Clothworkers’ Company Michael Rowe Minnie Scott Russell Jane Short Susi Smith, Information Services Librarian, Welwyn Garden City Library Martin Snow, Curator, Museum at the Royal Hospital Chelsea Donna Steels, Collection Curator, Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft Graham Stewart Alex Styles Amanda Stucklin, Press and Marketing, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths Philippa Swann, wife of Malcolm Appleby

Christopher Tarratt Martin Tidewell, Assistant Editor, Staffordshire Sentinal News & Media Dan Tolson, former Director of Modern Design at Christie’s Trevor Towner Eric Turner, Metalwork Curator, Victoria & Albert Museum Keith Tyssen Steve Wager Ray Walton James Brent Ward John and Jane Watling, son and daughter of Graham Watling Rupert Welch, son of Robert Welch Charlotte Whitehead, Archivist, Robert Welch Designs Limited Richard Whitehouse Dr Lesley Whitworth, Deputy Curator, University of Brighton Design Archives John Willmin Jonathan Winter Tamar de Vries Winter Professor Jonathan Woodham, Director of the Centre for Research and Development (Faculty of Arts), University of Brighton

Fiona MacCarthy, wife of David Mellor Grant Macdonald 7

7

FOREWORD

FOREWORD

by Gordon Hamme This volume will be the standard work for collectors as well as dealers, curators and academics with an interest in designer British silver, or modern design in general. A comprehensive work, it is a compendium of designers and designer-makers who shaped British contemporary silver from the 1950s to the present day. For the first time it reveals the full events that triggered the Renaissance in British silver during the late 1950s. It explores the lives and work of the leading players, reveals how they became silversmiths, the sources of their inspiration, the influences on their work, their major commissions and illustrates a cross section of their work, drawing on the collection of The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and private ones such as The Pearson Silver Collection and The Keatley Trust.

The two authors could not have better credentials for creating this book as both are dedicated connoisseurs of the subject. John Andrew is the curator of The Pearson Silver Collection, the largest collection of modern designer British silver in private hands, while Derek Styles, who co-founded Styles of Hungerford, is a dealer of great repute and renown.

What makes their opinions and judgements so interesting and valid, is that as well as being enthusiastic devotees of modern British designer silver, they are also commercially orientated, respectively as a collector and a dealer.

The book covers the history of the studios established from 1930 to 1985 through to the present, with details of socio and economic insights that place the designers as well as the designer-silversmiths in their time. The story is woven with interesting and unexpected facts. It surprisingly begins in 1925 with George V complaining to the Goldsmiths’ Company that he is never given modern trophies to present at Ascot. Unfortunately the Company did not get around to organising a design competition until the following year, ready for Ascot in 1927. The King rejected all of the selection committee’s proposals! It surprises many people that George V was a champion of modern design.

In the early 1930s the Government realised that design was not the country’s forte, so committees were established to examine how design could be improved on an individual industry basis. Frank Pick, who had run London Underground and then London Transport for years, was appointed to chair the Silverware Committee. One of the recommendations was a modern silver exhibition. This was staged in 1938 and was the first in the Company’s history. It was a tremendous success attracting 37,000 visitors.

8

This boded well for modern silver design, but unfortunately the storm clouds of war were gathering. World War II saw silversmithing businesses closing, while others continued working with a skeleton staff. However, one silversmith became a star. In 1943 George VI decided the citizens of the USSR’s Stalingrad should be presented with a sword to commemorate their heroic stand against the besieging German army. The King selected R.Y. Gleadowe’s design and 30 year-old Leslie Durbin, who had completed his studies as a mature student at the Central School just before the War, was charged to make it. Working in a garden shed, progress was filmed by British Paramount and screened in cinemas in the weekly newsreels. It really captured the public’s imagination. When the sword went on public exhibition, long queues formed and an estimated 30,000 people saw it.

Very early in the War, the Government realised that to repay the money borrowed to fund the conflict, would require foreign currency earned through exports. So as to compete in the world market, how to improve the nation’s design capability was therefore an imperative issue. The result of all the discussions was the formation in 1944 of an influential state-funded design promotion organisation known as the Council of Industrial Design, which later became the Design Council.

The Government also realised that the encouragement of good design was one thing, but the country also needed a steady supply of designers. London’s Royal College of Art was seen as the ideal institution to produce the first wave of product designers and those who could teach future generations in the nation’s art colleges. In 1948, the artist Robin Darwin was appointed the College’s Rector. He in turn appointed new professors for the various Schools within the College, drawing on some of those he had met during his war service in the Royal Navy’s Camouflage Directorate.

One was Robert Gooden, an architect and designer of massproduced domestic glassware. Darwin offered him Wood, Metal and Plastics, but he opted for Silver and Glass, possibly as his uncle was the silver designer R.Y. Gleadowe and his personal involvement with glass design.

One of the authors’ first big surprises as the book progressed was that Goodden was not the superb inspirational teacher and catalyst they thought he was.

Nevertheless, there is no doubting that the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery, as his department became, was a great success. In the first half of the 1950s the School was blessed with five great designer-silversmiths.

8

The first two were Eric Clements and Jack Stapley, who both became educators and silversmiths, though Clements was also an industrial designer. However, it was the next three who were the golden trio: David Mellor, Gerald Benney and Robert Welch. All three were educators at some stage in their careers; all were silversmiths, but not necessarily for all of their careers; and, all were also industrial designers. More to the point, all three founded businesses that today are continued by a son.

the feature, Gerald indicates that ‘with four or five’ other smiths, ‘I am trying to design silver which is immediately recognisable as English’. John added, ‘This was a real eureka moment. I could not believe my good fortune.’

Until recently, the final reason given for the Renaissance in British silver in the 1950s was Graham Hughes. He was appointed Exhibition Secretary of the Goldsmiths’ Company in 1951. He tirelessly promoted modern silver, staging many exhibitions and encouraging individuals and companies to commission it. However, in John Andrew’s words, ‘We had the firework with the blue touch paper, but it had not been lit.’ Feeling there was a missing link, he started searching. It was over pre-lunch drinks on 17 May 2011 in Chichester that he received the biggest surprise of his researches. Asking Stuart Devlin, arguably regarded as the most creative silversmith to emerge from the 1950s, what he considered triggered the Renaissance of British silver post World War II, John nearly fell off his chair when his host responded, ‘Gerald [Benney] broke the mould. He brought a richness to silver, a contribution to the idiom.’

What had been puzzling John for some years then all fell into place. Stuart Devlin had given up silver for being a sculptor in the early 1960s. ‘However, when he saw that Gerald had broken the Bauhaus/Scandinavian idiom’, John explained, ‘he realised coming second was a better place to be.’ Like Benney, he did not like the Scandinavian influence on British silver – he found it alien to his nature, while Gerald found it sterile. He also realised that the items he made for his wife and friends were far more romantic than his public work. So, while retaining the simple forms of his objects, he started to enrich them to create an air of romanticism. He added gilding, textured surfaces and filigree work. He drew on his skills of working with molten metals that he had learnt as a sculptor. The result was work the likes of which had not been seen before in the world of silversmithing. In 1968, the newspaper columnist Godfrey Winn described Stuart’s workshop as ‘an Aladdin’s cave’ and his creations, ‘the work of a magician’. The author’s view is that Devlin’s ‘out of the box creativity’ was the catalyst that gave the Renaissance momentum.

However, Gerald had died three years earlier and despite long conversations over the years, it had never consciously crossed John’s mind that Gerald had contributed to the idiom. He added, ‘Strangely, when Simon telephoned to say that his father had passed away, I ended the conversation with, “You know Simon, he was a great man” and in his obituary in the Independent, I stated he was, “was one of the most outstanding and influential British goldsmiths” of his era. However, clearly I had missed something. Then Janet Benney, his widow, e-mailed and said she had found a letter and papers that may interest me. I went down. First she told me a story of how Gerald had been devastated when an American lady told him in the late 1950s that his silver “was not modern British, but modern Scandinavian”.’

The volume has taken some 20 years to research, over five years to write and and with some 550 pages containing around a third of a million words with over 500 images.

While it features potted biographies of around 230 designer silversmiths who were already working in 1945, or who started to do so by 1985, the main section of the volume features the lives and works of the 50 main players based on one-to-one interviews, or where this was not possible, by drawing on unpublished autobiographies, family input or other sources. This is the first book on a generation of silversmiths that is primarily based on interviews, bringing the diverse characters to life, making it a joy to read. It is also packed with information. I learnt more on reading the chapter here on Gerald Benney than I did reading an entire book on his life and work!

While the letter was insightful, it was not groundbreaking. ‘However, the papers, which included many cuttings, seemed more interesting’, he said with a smile.

‘It was not long before I found a page from a longer interview article with Gerald. It was not dated and there was no indication of the publication. It was agreed that I take them home to browse at my leisure.’ Towards the very end of his task he found the three missing pages. In

Gordon Hamme is founder of British Silver Week, a contemporary silver exhibitions company. He has spent his working life in the jewellery and silversmithing trades and has formed a small collection of designer British silver.

9

9

INTRODUCTION

by John Andrew

There is no disputing the fact that since the ending of World War II, there has been a renaissance in British crafts, including metalwork. From the 1950s the UK has been a melting pot of creativity for silversmiths that today manifests itself in Britain being recognised as a world centre of excellence for designer-makers in this magical metal. Such is the reputation of the country for silversmithing that it is now attracting overseas students to study here, while established silversmiths from the Far East, continental Europe, Scandinavia and elsewhere have settled in the UK to practise their craft. Ironically Britain’s increasing repute in this field has occurred when the country’s appetite for silver in the home has diminished. In the 19th century the residences of the British middle classes shone with silver either made from the solid metal, the less expensive Sheffield Plate1 or Electroplated Nickel Silver.2 Following World War II a combination of events including a decline in domestic help, less formal entertaining and the introduction of stainless steel resulted in a gradual diminishing of the demand for traditional domestic silver.

Needless to say, the war had a disastrous effect on silversmithing. The obvious fall in demand to one side, the older silversmiths were required to work in precision trades while the younger ones were called-up for active service. For example, RE Stone, who established his silversmithing business in London during 1929, was 36 when the hostilities began. His workshop was closed and he went to work at a torpedo factory in Scotland, while his apprentices and workers joined the forces – one did not return. Although Leslie Durbin was 26 when the war began, he was not called-up until December 1941; the

Opposite: Candelabrum Centrepiece Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This four-candle candelabrum is by Christopher Lawrence. The collared hemispherical bowl on a spreading circular foot contains a textured dome mount from which four sets of five textured spikes rise. Gilt flowers surround the four candle receivers, with all being bordered by an arrangement of leaves. Height 44cm, London 1990.

delay was said to be because he was working on a commission of a dish for Sir Stephen and Lady Courtauld to present to HM King George VI and HM Queen Elizabeth. He was certainly designing and making during the early 1940s,3 though in early 1943 he was given indefinite leave of absence from the RAF to work on the Sword of Honour for Stalingrad to be presented by HM King George VI to the people of that city.4 The designersilversmiths who established businesses prior to the war, who are discussed in depth in this volume, all resumed silversmithing after the hostilities ended. They were Leslie Durbin, Dunstan Pruden and RE Stone. Charles Boyton who had set up as an independent designersilversmith after his father’s business closed in 1933 was not so fortunate, for in addition to the falling demand for luxury goods, interest in his favoured Art Deco style was waning. However, there was one silversmith who qualified prior to World War II who became a silver designer soon after he was demobilised in 1946. This was Alex Styles who studied at the Gravesend School of Art from where he won a High Exhibition to the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.5 Although he had the opportunity to return to college after the war, his preferred option was the establishment of a freelance design practice. Although Wakely and Wheeler6 could not offer him work, the firm’s designer recalled Styles’ work when he was an external examiner at Gravesend and recommended him to Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co Limited7 of 112 Regent Street. Following an interview with the company’s chairman he was offered a full-time position as a designer. Shortly afterwards he received an offer from Garrard & Co Limited the Crown Jewellers.

He accepted the first offer as he considered it the more

1. Fused sheets of silver and copper.

2. A method of depositing pure silver on a metal, in this case nickel silver, by way of an electrical current.

3. There is a box hallmarked 1942 in the Pearson Silver Collection that bears the maker’s mark of Francis Adam. It is inscribed, ‘Designed by Leslie G Durbin and made by Francis Adam and Charles Thomas’. Francis Adam was Durbin’s tutor at the Central School of Arts and Crafts.

4. Now known as Volgograd.

5. Now Central Saint Martins, a constituent college of the London University of the Arts.

6. Wakely and Wheeler Limited was one of the large London-based manufacturers of silver at this period. It executed many important commissions from retailers such as Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company Limited and Garrard & Company Limited, as well as many leading silver designers such as Robert Goodden and Eric Clements. The company employed superb craftsmen during the post-war era including Frank Beck, Leonard Burt and Stan Holland.

7. A large London retailer of jewellery and silver etcetera.

11

INTRODUCTION

forward-thinking company. The two companies in fact amalgamated in 1952, adopted the Garrard’s name, but operated from Goldsmiths & Silversmiths’ impressive Regent Street shop with John Hodges, the chairman of Goldsmiths & Silversmiths continuing the role for the combined company. Hodges backed Styles’ design philosophy and during the 1950s Garrard’s was the only retail outlet in London where one could find a selection of modern British silver.

Matters were not good for the larger silver manufacturers and silversmithing workshops. Richard Vanderpump, who joined his family’s business CJ Vander in 1949, recalls that there were then 60 to 70 silver workshops and retailers in central London. At this time, Vanders employed 24 silversmiths and 10 polishers. Despite the fact that there was a demand for silver from City institutions that had lost their silver during the war, the company’s principal business was restoring antique pieces and repairing vintage items. As well as offering this service to the trade and the public, the company also bought pieces that it would subsequently sell to the retail trade. Alex Styles recalls Vanders regularly supplying Garrard’s with antique stock. When Christopher Lawrence was an apprentice with Vanders, he remembers cycling to collect a Paul Storr candlestick from a dealer in the City en route to Fenchurch Street station for his train home, putting it in his saddle bag, keeping this valuable antique in his bedroom overnight and taking it to the workshop the following morning for repair.

One of the post-war austerity measures was that Purchase Tax on luxury items was increased in 1947 to an eye-watering 110 per cent. Antique and vintage silver were exempt from the tax, but apart from ecclesiastical silver, new items were not, which meant that it was difficult to sell newly made silver. When Labour won the 1945 General Election, Clement Atlee (the Prime Minister) initially appointed Sir Stafford Cripps as President of the Board of Trade. Sir Stafford realised that the punitive rate of Purchase Tax would be detrimental to skilled craftsmen and that the country could well lose the best ones. Paintings and sculpture were exempt from the tax and Sir Stafford extended this to small producers with the Assistance to Craftsmen Scheme. The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths administered this for silversmiths.

Providing the Company’s Assistance to Craftsmen Scheme Committee considered that a design for a piece 12

INTRODUCTION

of silver was of artistic merit, the designer could have up to six pieces made, providing each was ‘signed’.

Naturally, to be able to retail an approved item under the scheme free of such a punitive tax was a great advantage. The scheme operated from 1947 through 1962. Perhaps the designer who took the greatest advantage of this concession was Alex Styles. Although he trained as a silversmith, he never registered a maker’s mark and continued to have his facsimile signature applied to the pieces he designed all his working life. Although RE Stone had his own maker’s mark, he nevertheless ‘signed’ his work with a facsimile of his signature both before the scheme began and after it ended.

While this scheme helped the designer-silversmith, it was not normally of use to the larger silver manufacturers whose designers usually adapted trends rather than being originally creative. The workshop of Josiah Williams & Co in Bristol was bombed in 1940 and the business ceased. Sheffield suffered devastating bombing in the December of that year8 and some returning to Birmingham after service in the armed forces decided that the motor industry would offer more secure employment than the silver or jewellery trades for which the city had become famous. This was probably the right decision, for in March 1953, Sir Edward Boyle, Member of Parliament for Handsworth, Birmingham, raised the loss of jobs in his constituency in the House of Commons. The losses were because of the declining prosperity in the British jewellery and silverware industry. In 1946/79 the London Assay Office received 411,802 items for hallmarking, but following the imposition of the 110 per cent rate of Purchase Tax for luxury goods, this had fallen by 52 per cent to 195,891 items in 1952/3, despite the commemorative silver items made for the Coronation of 1953. As silver was needed to replace the bullion lent to the UK by the USA during the war, the Government replaced the already debased silver coinage10 with a cupro-nickel currency in 1947. Certain countries also started to ban imports, among the first being Argentina, Chile, the Scandinavian countries and Iceland.11 To add to the economic misery in that year, for two months the country suffered from an ‘Artic freeze’ with the February being the coldest on record and a temperature of -21°C being recorded in Buckinghamshire. Coal stocks were already low, but the adverse weather affected distribution to electricity stations and power cuts were ordered for both industry and domestic use.

Food supplies also shrank alarmingly because of the distribution issues and it became necessary for the first time to ration potatoes.

So, given the state of the nation and the glum outlook for the silver trade, how did Britain become a creative melting pot for silversmiths, leading to a renaissance for British silver? A most unlikely person sowed the initial seeds in 1925. King George V became tired of presenting the same traditional style of trophies at Ascot, so sent Lord Churchill, his representative at the racecourse, to see the Prime Warden and Clerk at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

The general thrust of the message was ‘Get silversmiths to design modern trophies’, but phrased in a diplomatic way. The then Assistant Clerk was George Hughes. He had a genuine interest in silver, having undertaken a silversmithing course at the Sir John Cass Technical Institute. He had a good eye for design and could well have begun to focus on this aspect of silver. Certainly in that year he visited the Exposition Internationale in Paris, which put Art Deco on the map as well as similar

The Royal Family at Ascot © Charlotte Zeepvat/ILN/Mary Evans Picture Library King George V and Queen Mary at Ascot in the early 1930s, riding in a carriage with their sons Edward, Prince of Wales (in black) and Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.

exhibitions in Copenhagen and Stockholm. Lord Churchill visited the Prime Warden just before the summer break, but despite the message from the Palace he did not reconvene the Court, the Company’s governing body. Unfortunately he appears to have forgotten all about it after the vacation, for the Court was not told until January 1926, when there was apparently an enquiry from Lord Churchill as to what progress had been made. Unfortunately by then it was impossible to organise modern designs in time for Ascot in July 1926, but a competition was held that year in readiness for the 1927 event. Unfortunately the King subsequently rejected the entire short list that had been selected by the judging committee. However, some progress was made, for in 1927 the Company started its modern silver collection and a committee was formed with the objective of improving design.

8. See note 3, p.334.

9. Up to 1974, the London Assay Office changed the date letter on 19 May, which is St Dunstan’s Day. St Dunstan is the patron saint of gold and silversmiths.

10. Following the steep rise in the price of silver bullion in 1919/20, the Government reduced the fineness of silver used for coinage from sterling (.925 fine) to .500 fine in 1920. Some sterling fineness sixpences and threepences were issued bearing the date 1920, but most 1920 specimens were struck in .500 fine silver.

11. Australia did not impose a ban until 1952. Just one silver manufacturer – James Dixon & Sons of Sheffield – exported £60,000 of silver each year ‘down under’, which resulted in a big dent in its turnover.

13

INTRODUCTION

Further progress was made during the 1930s. In 1933 the Board of Trade launched a quest to improve the design for manufactured goods throughout the UK. To achieve this goal the Council for Art and Industry was formed. The Council worked on an industry basis. Frank Pick was appointed Chairman of the Council and also of its Silverware Committee. He had run London Transport for years and was Vice-Chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board. While this may seem an odd appointment to us today, Pick, a solicitor, had an eye for design – remember the Underground posters and signage of the era? The Pick Report was published in 1935 and it gave a good analysis of the gulf between the mass market and that of the designermaker. While acknowledging that the Company had made progress since 1926, it noted that only a few of the more enlightened manufacturers, makers and retail outlets took an active role. Suggestions were made as to how the design of silver may be improved. This included the formation of the Wardens’ Silver Committee that comprised most of the Pick Committee and the Company’s Wardens. The Committee was formed in 1937 and worked until 1940 when it had to be abandoned because of World War II. Another suggestion was that an exhibition of modern silverware should be held at Goldsmiths’ Hall. This was the first such exhibition in the Company’s history. The event was staged from 4–16 July 1938. It was advertised by an Above: Poster for the 1938 Exhibition of Modern Silverware Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company, photographer Richard Valencia The poster for the 1938 Exhibition of Modern Silverwork was designed by E McKnight Kauffer. The fluted vase featured was designed by RMY Gleadowe and made by HG Murphy; it was a key image from the event. The poster appeared widely, including the Underground. George Hughes, Assistant Clerk and Art Secretary of the Goldsmiths’ Company and AE Pittman of Wakely and Wheeler, one of the London-based large manufacturers of silver, talked about the exhibition on television, then a media in its infancy. It attracted a record 37,000 visitors. This total was only exceeded twice during the remainder of the 20th century.

Opposite: Display at the 1938 Exhibition of Modern Silverware Courtesy of The Goldsmiths’ Company About 500 pieces were displayed in 1938 at what was the Company’s first exhibition of modern silver. While some were from the Company’s collection, City companies, educational establishments, clubs, corporations and private individuals lent many items. Additionally, designer-silversmiths were invited to submit designs. These could be adopted by retailers and displayed with their name as well as those of the designer and maker. The Company also commissioned pieces. After the exhibition these were either gifted or placed in the Company’s collection.

14

attractive modern poster and even featured on the fledgling television of the day. Around 500 pieces were displayed and it created what we would call today a certain ‘WOW factor’. The exhibition attracted 37,000 visitors, including Queen Mary and cost £7,000 to stage (equivalent to about £375,000 in 2012 prices). World War II broke out the following year.

Incredibly, the Government turned its attention back to design as early as 1941, when there were discussions regarding the country’s ability to produce consumer durables that were both modern and aesthetically pleasing. It was considered that the British workmanship and materials were fine, but what was being produced did not feel or look ‘right’. In brief, while the nation could manufacture goods, it was somewhat lacking in the design department. Hugh Dalton, then President of the Board of Trade within the Coalition Government established the Council of Industrial Design in December 1944 the objective of which was ‘to promote by all practical means the improvement of design in the products of British Industry’. SC (Clem) Leslie12 became

12. Australian-born and educated, he became a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol, Oxford, where he obtained a doctorate. After a brief spell as a university lecturer in Wales and Australia, in 1926 he became an assistant to SM Bruce, the Australian Prime Minister. In the same year he companied Mr Bruce to England decided to stay and go into commerce. By 1936 he was publicity manager for the Metropolitan Gas, Light and Coke Company but in 1940 he was appointed Director of Public Relations at the Ministry of Supply. In 1943 he was Principal Assistant Secretary at the Home Office and it was from there that he moved to the CoID in 1945, a post he held until 1947.

15

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

machine to emphasise that good design was important for business. This all-embracing organisation was directed towards industry, designers, lecturers in higher education, students and of course those who wrote about design for dissemination to the consumer. It also maintained lists of designers from which the CoID would select potential candidates when manufacturers asked for help with design matters from third party professionals. However, it was not all plain sailing for the new Council. Some manufacturers, mainly in the North, were reluctant to embrace the need for welldesigned products. Sectors of the Design and Industries Association,16 whose slogan was ‘Nothing Need be Ugly’ and which were mainly based in the Midlands, did not appreciate the intervention of what its members considered the ‘arty elite’ in the capital who favoured the Modern Movement, as they preferred the principals of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Although the CoID (which became the Design Council) eclipsed the DIA, the latter continues its work to this day as an independent body, organising competitions, events and offering bursaries. the CoID’s first Director of what was seen as the spiritual successor to the Council for Art and Industry.13 Its 18 members were mainly industrialists, all of whom promoted ‘good design’. The CoID’s chairman was Sir Thomas Barlow14 who said of the task ahead: ‘The war years of rigidity and limited production of consumer goods brought matters to a head. The prospect of our facing increased post-war competition with nations which have no lee-way to make up and which have, perhaps, been able to advance while we could not, presents a formidable challenge.’

Despite the economic woes of the UK after the war, the CoID was well funded. The combination of support from the State and input from eminent industrialists during the chairmanship of Sir Thomas signalled a new era where the Government took more than a cursory interest in industrial production and was using private enterprise to help achieve its goal. The result was a body that perhaps was the world’s most influential state-funded design promotion organisation of the second half of the 20th century.15 It set up co-operative Design Centres that were supported by firms in each industry. Training programmes were started which incorporated examinations. This initiative was of course devised to provide a supply of designers who were in a position to meet the requirements of industrial companies. It also established a savvy information 16

The CoID lost no time in planning to make an impact, for in September 1945, just a month after World War II ended, the Council announced by way of a release to trade associations that it was to stage an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum from September to November 1946. The proposed event was outlined in the Council’s Minutes: ‘...a national exhibition of design in all the main range of consumer goods – clothing, household furnishings and equipment, office equipment and civil transport... It will represent the best and only the best that modern British industry can produce ... [it will be] British industry’s first great post-war gesture to the British people and the world.’ 17 One of the world’s greatest museums of art and design was a natural choice for the venue. Part of the reason for choosing it was that its main exhibits were still in store away from the capital and the museum had not suffered war damage.

World War II had left the country with severe debt. The CoID formed part of the Board of Trade. Sir Stafford Cripps emphasised that the Government’s objective was to generate an income by export in a speech during November 1945: ‘Design is a factor of crucial importance to British Industry today... We must have something more than British solidity to sell our goods in competition with others.’ The exhibition was called ‘Britain Can Make It’ and it was made clear from the

start that the items displayed would not be available to the British general public for the time being as the object was to obtain bulk orders from overseas so that the UK could obtain much needed foreign currency. This fact resulted in the event being nicknamed the ‘Britain Can’t Have It’ exhibition.

BCMI occupied 90,000 square feet, which was then half of the museum’s exhibition space. The CoID appointed James Gardner18 as the exhibition’s Chief Display Designer. The Council also appointed Basil Spence19 as Exhibition Architect and the two men worked together.

Gardner’s challenge was that the number and type of goods were unknown and the design of the exhibition had to look complete without anything being displayed.

He cleverly addressed this issue by not putting the exhibits on open view, as was the norm, but by tucking them into alcoves, behind screens and around corners. It is possibly no coincidence that Gardner was attached to the Army Camouflage Unit during the hostilities! When a visitor entered a section of the exhibition, all they saw was the décor: the display of goods was his element of surprise. When BCMI opened, 5,000 items were on display in 32 sections (and many sub-sections) designed by nearly 80 designers. As well as being a visual feast for the eye (there were a series of room settings) BCMI also had an educational function that manifested itself in the section called ‘What Industrial Design Means’.

This was the first major commission for Misha Black20 and the Design Research Unit.21 This was an eyecatching exhibit. The 1,432,369 visitors to the exhibition encountered a plaster egg nearly 4m (13ft) high, while inside the museum there was a continually operating plastic moulding press making 3,000 egg cups a day.

The display explained the importance of the industrial designer in the whole process.

Opposite: The Cover of the ‘Britain Can Make It’ Catalogue Courtesy Design Council/Brighton Design Archives This exhibition, conceived by the Council of Industrial Design, was a post-war ‘showcase’ of the best that modern British industry could produce. The aim was to generate much-needed foreign currency via exporting. Consequently the items shown were not available to the British public, so it was dubbed the ‘Britain Can’t Have It’ exhibition. A major problem for the designer of the event, James Gardner, was that the number of exhibits was not known. He cleverly addressed this issue by not putting the exhibits on open view but instead tucking them into alcoves, behind screens and around corners. It is possibly no coincidence that Gardner was attached to the Army Camouflage Unit during the hostilities!

The designer of the displays in the Sports and Leisure Section was Robert Goodden RDI22 (see Goodden, pp.23845. One of the visitors was David Mellor (see Mellor, pp.334-45). Four years later, their paths would cross.

David Mellor was either approaching his fifteenth birthday or was just 16 when he ventured to London with his friend Harold Bartram.23 Both were students at the Sheffield College of Art. It was certainly David’s first visit

13. The Council was not a great success. It organised the British display at the 1937 Paris Exposition des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. This was an important international event bringing together original artistic and industrial practices so as to show the ways in which aesthetic creativity could influence modern life. The British Pavilion had an emphasis on British sporting traditions and ‘fair play’ as well as the countryside with wall murals featuring rural agriculture, village cricket, medieval cathedrals, olde worlde pubs and country houses. This missed the main thrust of the Exposition. British manufacturers saw the Council as an elitist London organisation with no experience of the world of industry.

14. A successful textile industrialist and public servant. He was a director of the family textile business Barlow and Jones Ltd and one of the most prominent men in the cotton spinning and weaving industry. From 1941–5 he was Director General of Civilian Clothing. Although also a distinguished banker, he was deeply passionate about art and design in the industrial sphere, hence his appointment as Chairman of the Council until 1947.

15. A Dictionary of Modern Design, Jonathan M Woodham (Oxford, 2004).

16. Established in 1915, the Association was inspired by the Deutscher Werkbund that was established in 1907. This organisation’s aim was to improve the standard of design in Germany. Founder members included Cecil Brewer (a partner in the architectural firm of Smith and Brewer and a cousin of Ambrose Heal of Heal’s in Tottenham Court Road); Ambrose Heal (craftsman, designer and finally Chairman of Heal’s); Harry Peach (a devotee of the Arts and Crafts Movement who was proprietor of the Dryad Works in Leicester) and Harold Stabler (the silversmith and jeweller). All four had visited the 1914 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Cologne.

17. Design Council Archive, Design History Research Centre, University of Brighton: ID/361 Summer Exhibition 1946: Policy Committee Minutes.

18. James Gardner (1907–95) went on to become Britain’s most important postwar exhibition and museum designer. Leaving the Westminster School of Art in 1923, he worked as a designer at Cartier in Bond Street. He was subsequently employed by the commercial design consultancy Carlton Studios where among other things he undertook ‘cutaway drawings’ of engines and radio components.

This gave him a thorough grounding in understanding how things worked. He then went into advertising for a cross section of commercial companies. During the war he was attached to the Army Camouflage Unit (Royal Engineers). He was responsible for numerous deception projects, including inflatable decoy tanks and landing craft. The Ministry of Information utilised is talents as an illustrator. Following the BCMI exhibition, he joined the design group that worked on the Festival of Britain. From the early 1950s he returned to designing exhibitions, shop interiors and other projects, including in 1966, the superstructure of the QE2 ocean liner.

19. This was after consultation with the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Spence, later Sir Basil Spence, became one of Britain’s most celebrated post-war architects, famously associated with the modern design for the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral following the bombing during World War II. 20. An industrial designer, interior designer and architect who came to the UK from Azerbaijan in 1912 aged two years. He was a powerful international influence on designers from the 1930s. He died in 1977.

21. This was the first generation of British design consultancies combining architectural, graphics and industrial design expertise. It was founded in 1943

by Marcus Brumwell (the managing director of Stuart’s Advertising Agency), Misha Black (see above) and Milner Gray (industrial designer).

22. Royal Designers for Industry, a distinction established in 1936 by the UK’s Royal Society of Arts to those who have achieved ‘sustained excellence in aesthetic and efficient deign for industry’.

23. Later to become a graphic designer.

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

The professors at the RCA designing for the Festival involved their students. Brian Asquith spoke of the event, ‘I couldn’t believe it. All these wonderful things together in one place, so much visual excitement. It was an enormous boost to me, a great inspiration.’

Throughout his career Brian Asquith drew his inspiration from European Modernism and also from

to London. The two boys joined the eager throng of visitors at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Without doubt, the exhibition was a great success. The design critic John Cloag sent a telegram to the Chairman of the CoID that read, ‘Sincere congratulations on superb showmanship, excellent designs, stupendous feat of organisation.’

However, the CoID was but one initiative to improve the standard of design in Britain. The Royal College of Art had been identified early on as a suitable vehicle to help achieve the government’s goal. In 1948 the artist Robin Darwin was appointed the College’s Rector. He knew Goodden – an architect by profession, who had become interested in industrial design – from his time at the Royal Navy’s Camouflage Directorate during World War II and also when he was at the CoID. Darwin wrote the introduction to the ‘Britain Can Make It’ catalogue. The new Rector offered Goodden the Department of Wood, Metal and Plastics, but he opted for the Department of Silver and Glass, later to become the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery. Goodden probably favoured silver and glass as he had designed pressed domestic glassware for Chance Brothers and a silver trophy for the Architect’s Golf Society while a student. Furthermore, his uncle was RMY Gleadowe, Slade Professor of Art at Oxford University and then later Art Master at Winchester College. Gleadowe had a passion for silver, his most famous

24. Source: Art and Design: 100 Years at the Royal College by Christopher Frayling (Ilminster, 1999) 25. A friend of Robert Goodden. The two formed an architectural partnership after the War. Russell was subsequently appointed Professor of the Department of Wood, Metal and Plastics at the RCA.

18

work being the design for the Sword of Honour for Stalingrad (see p.189).

The seeds had been sown and when the hostilities were over, they began to sprout. Later a group of enthusiastic youngsters wanting to make an impact in the world of metalwork were given the opportunity and encouragement to do so. Having a determination to make a difference, they succeeded and the designersilversmith wafted like a breath of fresh air into the fusty world of a traditional craft. Goodden was Professor at the RCA from 1948–74. In that period of just over a quarter of a century, there was a steady flow of very talented silversmithing students24 (see table opposite).

So, how did Goodden manage to achieve this result? The early students would have benefited from the excitement of the Festival of Britain with a feeling of optimism sweeping the country. Robert Goodden and Richard Russell25 were asked to design one of the pavilions that Goodden named The Lion and the Unicorn.

Above: Cruet Set by RE Stone Courtesy Design Council/Brighton Design Archives There was very little silver in the ‘Britain Can Make It’ exhibition, but there was some silver plate. This three-piece condiment set was designed by RE Stone, who ran a traditional silver workshop.

Towards the end of his life, Stone confided to his wife that his proudest achievement was not a piece of silver, but that he had trained 10 excellent apprentices. Two of those as at 2013 are still working and have sons who are also silversmiths at the bench.

Name

Period at RCA

Brian Asquith

1947-51

Eric Clements Jack Stapley David Mellor Gerald Benney

1949-52 1949-52 1950-54 1951-54

Robert Welch Keith Redfern Keith Tyssen Gerald Whiles Stuart Devlin

1952-55 1956-61 1957-60 1957-60 1958-60

Tony Laws Ronald Stevens Andrew Bray Anthony Elson Ian Rodger Robin Beresford Ian Beech David Frost Roger Millar Michael Driver

1958-61 1958-61 1960-63 1960-63 1961-64 1961-64 1962-65 1962-65 1963-66 1965-68

Malcolm Appleby Hector Miller Robert Marsden Michael Rowe

1966-68 1968-71 1969-72 1969-72

Kevin Coates Michael Lloyd Martin Page Robert Birch

1973-76 1973-76 1973-76 1974-77

the artists and designers who had displayed their work at the Festival of Britain. The Company persuaded the larger silversmithing companies to mark the occasion by commissioning silver and ran a design competition.

Eric Clements entered, but was not a winner. However, his design was exhibited at the Company’s subsequent ‘Modern Silver Exhibition’ and Grosvenor House, the

Career Sculptor, industrial designer and from the late 1960s, silversmith Educator, industrial and silver designer Educator and silversmith Industrial designer and silversmith Industrial designer, goldsmith and silversmith, Professor RCA 1974-83 Industrial designer and silversmith Educator and silversmith Educator and silversmith Educator and silversmith Industrial designer, goldsmith and silversmith Educator and silversmith Educator and silversmith Educator and silversmith Silversmith Educator and silversmith Educator and silversmith Industrial designer Educator and silversmith Educator and silversmith Silversmith and graphic designer Engraver and silversmith Designer and silversmith Silversmith Educator and silversmith Senior Tutor RCA 1978Goldsmith and silversmith Silversmith and chaser Educator and silversmith Educator and silversmith

19

INTRODUCTION

The Sports and Leisure Section Courtesy Design Council/Brighton Design Archives This was the Sports and Leisure Section of the ‘Britain Can Make It’ exhibition. It was designed by Robert Goodden, an architect by profession, who later became Professor of the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery at the Royal College of Art. The college had been identified as the vehicle for the government’s goal of improving the standard of design in the UK and consequently improving its export potential. One 15-year-old visitor’s path to the exhibition would later cross that of Goodden’s to become his first star student.

Above: Inside the Lion and Unicorn Pavilion at the Festival of Britain Courtesy Design Council Slide Collection at Manchester Metropolitan University Early students studying silver at the RCA after the war benefited from excitement generated by the Festival of Britain. Professor Goodden was asked with his former architectural partner Richard Russell to design one of the pavilions. This is the interior of the Lion and the Unicorn Pavilion showing the mechanical white doves Goodden designed to periodically fly its length. Goodden involved his early students in the whole project. One of these, Brian Asquith, commented on the event, ‘I couldn’t believe it. All these wonderful things together in one place, so much visual excitement. It was an enormous boost to me, a great inspiration.’

five star hotel on Park Lane, commissioned it to be made. Although Professor Goodden has long since passed away, he thankfully recorded the approach used at the RCA in a newspaper article. In 1966 the theme of the RCA’s annual exhibition was the works of both former and current students who had studied at the College’s School of Silversmithing and Jewellery from 1950 to 1966. Entitled ‘Hallmarks RCA’, the exhibition was hailed by The Times on 11 May 1966 as ‘the brightest show in London’. Professor Goodden explained the goal of the School to the paper’s reporter, ‘We aim to supply industry with the designers they need but a few prefer to set up their own silver and jewellery workshops and to train workers to carry out their ideas.’

He added, ‘We like to study the special characteristics of each student and help him to realise his own capabilities – rather than keep telling him what’s wrong and what’s right.’ Goodden explained to the journalist from Retail Jeweller, who wrote the report of the exhibition for the publication’s May 1966 edition, that ‘designing’ at one time may have meant becoming a draughtsman or having the ability to sketch a new 21

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

shape. However, he stressed that this was not the case at the RCA where students learn to design, ‘through doing, through working with the materials in which they are designing.’ Goodden added, ‘It’s best for students to learn a craft first and if those who teach them do so properly, it doesn’t inhibit them when they turn to designing. We have had a number of students from the Central School of Arts and Crafts come to us.’

The journalist noted that Goodden was not a formal educationist, but, ‘has the gift of making ideas ferment in students’ minds.’ By way of an aside, it should be noted that the craft of silversmithing was not just learnt by full-time study at art colleges. The large silversmithing firms of Wakely and Wheeler, CJ Vander, as well as smaller ones such as RE Stone, trained apprentices with incredible silversmithing skills.26 These are the unsung heroes who actually made the designs of those designer-silversmiths who did not work at the bench. Two of these little-known heroes feature in RE Stone’s chapter.

When the writer Fiona McCarthy, the wife of David Mellor, wrote Goodden’s obituary in The Guardian, she stated that his ‘qualities as a teacher are vouched for by an early generation of his students’, adding, ‘there is hardly a metalworker in this country not touched at some point by the Goodden influence.’ By contrast, Gerald Benney who wrote a personal memoir for Goodden’s obituary in the Goldsmiths’ Review 2001/2002, said, ‘Robert has been described as a teacher but the funny thing is that he didn’t appear to teach at all.’ Stuart Devlin agrees that he did not teach, adding, ‘This is not the function of the RCA.’ 27 When Stuart was asked what were Goodden’s outstanding qualities, the response was immediate, ‘He gave students the maximum opportunity and the minimum of interference. He was very rarely in the studio, but he was always available.’ However, he later added that an appointment was needed to see the professor. In Devlin’s day, Phillip Popham was the Senior Tutor in the Department. Devlin commented that he was not a designer, but was available to help students. The

26. The apprenticeships included college study on a day release basis.

27. The conversation took place at the Devlins’ penthouse at Chichester on 17 May 2011.

28. Robert Welch, Hand & Machine – Robert Welch: Designer – Silversmith (Chipping Campden 1986).

29. Telephone conversation with Keith Tyssen January 22, 2012.

30. This was identical in form to those designed for British American Tobacco in 1962.

31. This was used by HM Queen Elizabeth II at The Mansion House Coronation Banquet in 1954 following the Royal Tour of the Commonwealth.

22

Technician was Tom Boucher, who was there to advise on the finer points of making objects. Eric Clements undertook his National Design Diploma at the Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts from 1947–9.

Arriving at the RCA, he was bowled over at the liberalism following the rigidity of his Birmingham course. Later he questioned how important the RCA had been in his development as it was a case of ‘get on with it’ without ‘it’ being defined. In his memoir of Goodden, Gerald Benney comments that he can never remember the professor advising a student regarding the ‘shape of a beaker, teapot to be slimmer or fatter’. However, the students would seek his approval on the basis that an accolade from the Head of Department was an indication of their progress. After a student had explained the reason why a piece had been designed in a particular way, Goodden would simply reply, ‘I’m sure you are right.’

Interestingly, Robert Welch like Fiona McCarthy described Goodden as a teacher, but continued, ‘His philosophy was to leave his students pretty much alone on a day-to-day basis, so that varying talents worked and reacted on each other, and together they simmered in a gentle stew with only an occasional stir from the Professor, aided by a number of firm directions that he had established.’ 28 The ‘directions’ included work experience. Anthony Elson recalls sometimes receiving a letter from Goodden at the end of term giving suggestions of ‘things to do’ over the break. Alas, he kept none but does recall that they were beautifully written.

Keith Tyssen remembers Goodden as a very approachable man.29 He would talk to students in the workshop and look at what they were doing, but Keith can never remember him explaining what he would do if he was designing the piece. Keith regarded him as a man with great taste, sophistication, having a good eye and being enlightening. Although his manner was shy, diffident and hesitant he was receptive. Despite not being outward, Keith regarded him as slightly theatrical. His voice certainly carried, or as Keith summed it up, ‘You could hear him before you saw him.

His voice was like an overture.’ He also had mannerisms which some students would mimic, such as clearing his throat, his laugh and saying, ‘Oh yes, jolly good. Jolly good.’ Keith looked upon him as a paternal figure who was very encouraging. He recalls the possible opportunity of some small commissions for Guildford Cathedral. Goodden accompanied six to seven students to the home of Sir Edward Maufe, the cathedral’s architect, and also to the cathedral itself.

Interestingly, Keith saw Goodden’s role as that of a nursemaid or shepherd. The students did receive some commissions. Keith concluded, ‘He was a kindly man.

He enabled young people to get on. He ran competitions [for commissions] and opened doors.’ While Keith regarded Goodden as ‘A visionary who was imaginative and in tune with his time, he pointed out that he was not a metalworker. Indeed, others made all of his designs, such as Leslie Durbin, the silversmithing firm

of Wakely and Wheeler, the in-house Phillip Popham or Tom Boucher. Goodden did not in fact design a great deal of silver. Indeed, when one of his successful students was told that The Pearson Silver Collection had been fortunate to secure four condiment sets, a pair of casters and a centrepiece he had designed,30 the immediate response was ‘I didn’t realise he had designed silver.’ Two of his most famous pieces are the Festival of Britain Tea Service, which has been described as ‘contrived and difficult to use’ (see Goodden, pp.242-3). He also designed the Queen’s Cup for the Company to celebrate the Coronation.31 He received a reasonable number of commissions for royal gifts, for example in 1947 the Royal Society of Arts

Opposite: Robert Goodden Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Robert Yorke Goodden, an architect by profession, was Professor of the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery at the Royal College of Art from 1948–74.

Above: David Mellor Courtesy John Garner/David Mellor Designs David Mellor working at 1 Park Lane, Sheffield, in the mid1960s. Combining his living accommodation with his studio and workshop, this allowed David to abolish what he thought of as false distinctions between work and leisure, where work was viewed as drudgery and leisure the longed-for respite. For him work was pleasure. At 1 Park Lane he could be in touch with his design work at any time of the day. It is now a listed building.

Right: Robert Welch and John Limbrey Courtesy Robert Welch Designs Limited Robert Welch (standing) with John Limbrey his design assistant, model-maker and silversmith. The two met when students at Birmingham College of Art in 1950–2. John started working for Robert in 1958 and retired from his full-time role in 1998, but made the last piece of silver Robert designed in 2000.

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INTRODUCTION

commissioned him to design a cigarette box in various colours of gold with diamond initials to present to HRH Princess Elizabeth as a wedding gift; the RCA commissioned him to design a jewel box to present to HM Queen Elizabeth II on her birthday in Coronation year,32 and in 1956 HRH The Duke of Edinburgh commissioned a silver electric kettle as a Christmas gift for the Queen. Tom Boucher made the kettle, while the recently graduated Gerald Benney made the stand.

In his personal memoir in the Goldsmiths’ Review, Gerald posed questions about Goodden’s period at the RCA by asking, ‘What did he do?’ and ‘What did he achieve during this period?’ These he answered with: ‘His achievements were many and are well-documented but for those of us who were there, the memory remains of a man presiding over a bush fire of excitement during that heady period of the emergence of wonderfully original design, British in character and yet international in appeal.’ Stuart Devlin remembers the RCA was really buzzing in the late 1950s. Janey Ironside, who built closer relationships with the industry, was Professor of the Fashion School. It was this area that became the real hot spot, receiving considerable press coverage. The arrival of Raymond Ossie Clark as a student in 1961, who became a major figure in the Swinging Sixties, gave the buzz a further boost. The RCA’s Fashion School really began to feed the newly arrived colour supplements.

Stuart’s view is that the silver department buzzed for a different reason. With the freedom granted by its professor, people started to develop their own ideas. In the first half of the 1950s, the department was blessed in having three great designer-silversmiths: David Mellor, Robert Welch and Gerald Benney. All three produced silver though not necessarily for the entire period of their career;33 all three were also industrial designers and all three saw the businesses that they established being

32. Of crown shape, it is silver-gilt and velvet with enamel decoration set with pearls. Students at the RCA made it, with the enamel finial being the work of Phillip Popham.

33. Interestingly the triumvirate plus Geoffrey Bellamy, Eric Clements and Stuart Devlin all designed cutlery or objects in stainless steel. This metal was one of the reasons why the demand for silver decreased.

34. With Alex Styles’ work, post-war modernism mostly prevails, but some Scandinavian influences are there as late as the early 1960s. Alex’s response to this observation was ‘We were all influenced by the Scandinavians.

35. Bloom was an entrepreneur who in 1958 started to sell twin tub washing machines direct to the public for 39 guineas (£40.90), about half the price of those offered in the High Street. The business expanded rapidly into other white goods and later package holidays to Bulgaria. By 1963, Bloom was the UK’s largest press advertiser and a household name. In 1964 his main bank withdrew its support and his business empire collapsed. Gerald Benney also sensed all was not well and did not lose out financially.

24

INTRODUCTION

designing objects to be made in this metal. Indeed, in his last year at the RCA, he decided to specialise in stainless steel and visited the company that made Old Hall, then the UK’s only range of tableware made in the metal. During the Easter of 1955 he visited Copenhagen in connection with researching his diploma thesis that was entitled ‘The Design and Production of Stainless Steel Tableware’. By the time he graduated from the RCA, he had been appointed a design consultant for Old Hall. In 1955 he established his studio and workshop on the top floor of the Silk Mill at Chipping Camden and started work on his silver commissions and designing for Old Hall. While the name Robert Welch has long been associated with cutlery, the repertoire of Welch’s designs ranged from clocks to lighting, glassware to kitchen tools and also included products in cast iron. A shop at Chipping Camden opened in 1969 and continues to this day, even including a few small silver pieces.

continued by a son. It is also true to say that while not necessarily ‘household names’, they are extremely well known in their fields.

Interestingly, during a conversation with Keith Tyssen early in 2012, he said, ‘We [i.e. those of the second half of the 1950s] were overshadowed by Benney, Mellor and Welch, but we mopped up the teaching posts.’ The impact of the triumvirate was impressive. Mellor, in common with all those at the RCA in the 1950s, was influenced to

by Scandinavian design.34 When Mellor won a travelling scholarship in 1952, he not surprisingly chose Sweden and Denmark as his destinations. The visit had a considerable impact on his life as he warmed to all things Scandinavian, from their use of ‘new’ materials such as stainless steel and aluminium to stylish quality objects offered in their shops. Additionally he liked the clean lines of their public buildings and even the street furniture. It was at this early stage that he saw himself not just as a traditional silversmith but also as a designer working in other media for mass production.

The following year he spent six months at the British School in Rome and became impressed with the Italians’ generally stylish approach to life. Back at the RCA he decided, appropriately for someone born and bred in Sheffield, to design cutlery to be machine produced. By chance Peter Inchbald, the maternal grandson of Sir Albert Bingham of Walker and Hall, the large Sheffield firm of silverware producers, was attending the RCA one

Opposite: Gerald Benney Courtesy Simon Benney Early in his career Gerald Benney designed items for mass production ranging from clocks to prams, from desk lamps to a percolator. However, today his name is synonymous with finely crafted silver. Shaken rigid when an American lady told him in the late 1950s that he was not designing and making modern English silver, but modern Scandinavian pieces, he set about developing a style that was ‘immediately recognisable as English ... rugged, solid and functional, but at the same time modern.’ As a result he broke the idiom and paved the way for the public to accept further changes. As a result there was a Renaissance in British silver from the 1960s. Early in that decade he introduced texturing to the surface of silver after accidentally using a hammer with a damaged head while hand-raising the bowl of a cup. Instead of being smooth it had a patterned surface and ‘Benney Bark Finish’ was born. He later added colour in the form of enamels to his work, having been taught this art by Berger Bergensen, who in turn had learnt it while working for Bolin in Stockholm. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, some of Fabergé’s enamellers worked for Bolin. Benney had perfected the technique by 1971 and it was not long before he was covering even larger surfaces than the House of Fabergé.

day a week. After he graduated from the RCA, Mellor was appointed design consultant to Walker and Hall on a salary of £1,000 a year, a considerable sum in those days.

He established his own studio-workshop nearby and over a long career designed everything from silver to traffic lights. After he became a cutlery manufacturer as well as a designer, he became known as the ‘Cutlery King’.

Although he did not design much silver after the 1970s, Mellor Design Limited still produces some of his earlier silver designs. The company has a shop in London’s Sloane Square and at Hathersage, a village near Chatsworth in the Peak District National Park. The Hathersage site includes a cutlery factory together with a Visitor Centre embracing a design museum, café and shop as well as the retail outlet.

Robert Welch also embraced Scandinavia, visiting Norway in 1953 with the help of a travelling scholarship awarded by the Birmingham College of Art. Not only was he impressed, ‘by the simple, everyday objects that were functional and beautiful and which most people could afford’, but Theodore Olsen, whose factory in Bergen (Norway) specialised in enamelware, offered him a post as a designer. The following year, with the assistance of a scholarship from the Swedish Council of Design, he visited Sweden. Upon seeing a display of drawings, dies, models and finished pieces of domestic stainless steel, he saw the possibility of

Following his graduation Gerald Benney established his studio and workshop in central London. In addition to his silversmithing business, he was also involved in designing a range of products from clocks to prams and was a partner in a fibreglass business on the south coast that made, among other things, dispensers for Eldorado Ice Cream and the casings for John Bloom’s35 washing machines. Although Benney was receiving both small and large commissions for silver, the business was initially a small, albeit very busy one. Indeed, up until 1961, he only employed one craftsman.

Nevertheless, the foundation for his financial success was established within three years of his graduation. In 1957 he was appointed a design consultant to Viners, the Sheffield silver and cutlery manufacturers. He negotiated an annual salary of £2,000 and in addition a royalty of a modest 1.5 per cent of the wholesale price of the annual sales of his designs. Although he only designed four cutlery patterns that were mass produced in stainless steel, the royalties earned him up to £60,000 a year. The appointment ended in 1969. In his memoir of Goodden, Gerald Benney wrote, ‘Robert realised, more than anyone, that if the British silver industry were to survive it had to employ designers who had a good knowledge of engineering and who were not afraid of quantity production. In the 1940s, silver had consisted mainly of period reproduction, and stainless steel was only just emerging, so Robert’s students were sent off to the main industrial centres such as Sheffield and Birmingham to assess the possibilities.’ Benney was the only one of the three who concentrated on silver for his entire career. Although he did make ‘stock items’, most of 25

INTRODUCTION

his work was commissioned. His son Simon, who trained as a jeweller, has followed in his father’s footsteps. Indeed in January 2008 Gerald Benney saw his son Simon unveil the Three Sisters Candelabra at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Weighing over 50 kg, it was the largest piece of silver to have been made in the UK for many years.

In the Benney Archive there is a letter to Gerald Benney’s father EA Sallis Benney, who was Principal of the Brighton College of Arts and Crafts. Dated 5 August 1954 it reads, ‘It was uncommonly kind of you to write me such a nice note as you did on 15th July on the completion of Gerald’s course here. I am of course delighted to know that he enjoyed himself so much, but there is not the least occasion for you to thank me. I have done nothing more than I am here to do, and to do that carries a very rich reward with any student who is as able and as nice as Gerald... I have not the least doubt of his success in the career which he is now beginning. In fact, I feel more confidence in his future than I have in that of any other student who has passed through the School during my time here so far.’ 36 When David Mellor obtained his consultancy at Walker and Hall in 1954, Goodden considered this the highlight event of the mid-1950s. If Goodden was looking upon Gerald to establish a silversmithing dynasty as opposed to one where the focus was industrial design, the letter was very insightful. There is no doubting that during the first half of the 1950s three very gifted individuals passed through the RCA’s Department of Silver and Jewellery. Given that Goodden more or less left the students to their own devices, it is difficult to assess whether he was just fortunate in having outstanding students in those early years or was a catalyst that inspired creativity. All three of his early protégés certainly secured the top design consultancy roles in the area of domestic metalwork leaving none for those that followed.

When reflecting upon his time at the RCA, Stuart Devlin recalled his first Livery Dinner at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

‘Graham Hughes sat to my right. He was very important in the development of silversmithing.’ Graham was the son of George Hughes. When the Company launched its new policy in 1925 for encouraging better design and craftsmanship in silver, George Hughes assumed responsibility for the programme with the title Art Secretary. George Hughes was the Company’s Clerk from 1939–53 but World War II curtailed the design aspect. Nevertheless, in 1941 when the Government was making preparations for improving design after the hostilities had ended, George Hughes played an active 26

INTRODUCTION

part. Additionally, scientists on the Court opined that the Company should also devote more attention to technology. In 1946 the Company played a major role in establishing the Design and Research Centre for the Gold, Silver and Jewellery Industries at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Although the Company had great hopes for it, the Centre soon became ineffective, mainly as a result of the lack of support from the trade.37 Therefore, the Company decided to renew its own initiative regarding design.

However, it soon became apparent that Hughes senior’s destined successor was not inclined towards the aesthetics of silver, so the role had to be passed elsewhere. The Festival of Britain, a national exhibition, was planned for 1951 to give the UK’s population a ‘lift’ following World War II as well as promoting the nation’s contribution to science, technology, industrial design, architecture and design. To co-ordinate with the Festival, the Company staged two large exhibitions ‘Festival of Britain: the Historic Plate of the City of London’ (which attracted 27,000 visitors) and the ‘Modern Silver Exhibition’ (which attracted 12,500 visitors). Graham Hughes was appointed Exhibition Secretary in 1951 and later became the Art Secretary (his title was changed to Art Director in 1962). Graham took over from where his father left off following the outbreak of war, but unlike Hughes senior he had a whole galaxy of up-and-coming stars at the RCA to draw upon and encourage. When he assumed the role he was a contemporary of those who studied at the RCA during the first seven years of Goodden’s tenure.

Hughes was with the Company for 30 years. An appreciation of his contribution appeared in the Goldsmiths’ Review 1981–2. It is no surprise that this was written by Gerald Benney, as the two became great friends. Gerald wrote, ‘A man of many parts, Graham Hughes has a reputation for positive thinking and total commitment to the flowering of modern silver and jewellery design. Realising that the most essential need of any craft, if it is to flourish, is patronage, he used his amazing energy and enthusiasm to convince many of the big companies in the City and elsewhere that modern silver, designed and made to furnish their new head offices and boardrooms, would show how advanced and forward-looking that particular company was. In the early ’50s if silver was present at all, it was either reproduction or antique. More than any other person at that time, he was aware that most people, when purchasing silver, would not have knowledge of any other alternative. By greatly enlarging the scope of

exhibitions at the Hall and by purchasing new pieces for the City to comment upon, Graham, rather like the conductor of an orchestra, drew out the very best solo performances and sometimes made the ears ring with a crescendo of disciplined teamwork. Sometimes, also, a virtuoso performance would get out of hand and run amok! In the main, however, from very small beginnings a steady growth of new work was achieved. By the end of the ’60s the number of new enterprises had escalated to hundreds, which partly compensated for the decline in manufacturing industrial output in the silver trade.’

As Robin Buchanan-Dunlop, a former Clerk of the Company, said at the Celebration of Graham Hughes’ Life held at Goldsmiths’ Hall on 27 January 2011, Graham’s arrival at the Company coincided with an explosion of talent among the new wave of designers and makers and he was there to harness it. He continued, ‘But for all of us here it is not just a matter of what he achieved as a result – but how he achieved it. If there were not already a word ‘enthusiasm’ in the English language you would have had to invent it for Graham. I can see him now – as indeed all of you can – that seraphic smile on his face and the crinkled eyes, a feature brilliantly caught in the two photographs on the invitation Serena sent to you. Then, when you got close to him, you could see the gleam in his eyes, and you were drawn into conversation like a co-conspirator. Just the two of you – well, perhaps a glass of wine – and the rest of the world didn’t matter. The ideas would then come tumbling out, and you could be planning to rob the Bank of England, because with Graham everything was possible. He never let mere practicalities stand in his way. In a way he was the ultimate artist with a true

Above: Graham Hughes, 1961 Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company From 1951 through to 1981, Graham Hughes worked at The Goldsmiths’ Company tirelessly promoting both contemporary silver and jewellery. An important person in getting modern silver on the map, he secured commissions for up and coming silversmiths, staged exhibitions both at Goldsmiths’ Hall, at other UK venues and overseas, and added to the Company’s modern silver collection. Robin Buchanan-Dunlop, a former Clerk of the Company, referred to him as ‘the ultimate artist with a true disdain for the chains of administration and those awkward little things like budgets’. Gerald Benney commented, ‘Graham, rather like the conductor of an orchestra, drew out the very best solo performances and sometimes made the ears ring with a crescendo of disciplined teamwork.’ Following his departure from the Company, he purchased the US magazine Arts Review and channelled his enthusiasm into journalism. He passed away in 2010.

disdain for the chains of administration and those awkward little things called budgets. As an administrator myself I could only stand in awe of his insouciance, because invariably he was successful. Let me give you an example. Today if the Company wants to put on an exhibition outside the Hall, there are committee meetings, and yet more committee meetings, there are site visits and security reports, there are lists and refined lists, there are condition reports and expert packers, there are couriers and perhaps Customs carnets. In fact, the whole catastrophe of modern life. In his day Graham had a very simple philosophy: ‘Have plastic carrier bag, will travel!’ And those plastic carrier bags went all over the world. It seems crude to describe Graham as a salesman but when it came to putting the sunburst of British silversmiths and jewellers on the international map, Graham was a merchant prince of salesmen.’

36. Mrs Janet Benney kindly made this letter available.

37. There were other issues too – see Unveiling The Mystery: The Story of the Goldsmiths’ Company in the Twentieth Century by Peter Jenkins, Volume 1, pp. 212–13 and 239–40. However, the Centre did devise Silver Dip, a liquid that removed tarnish simply by immersing a piece of silver in it (or applying to the surface with a brush with larger pieces). Although the effectiveness of the Centre declined from 1952, it continued to exist until the 1970s being funded by the royalties it obtained from its success with Silver Dip. Its one member of staff was Dorothy Pike, a Technical Liaison Officer. In 1952 the Company gave full support to Graham Hughes to pursue its design initiative.

27

INTRODUCTION

Another speaker that evening was the jeweller Wendy Ramshaw. She began, ‘When I read the heartfelt words of tribute from silversmiths and jewellers in November last year. I often thought – I wish they had been my words. In particular Malcolm Appleby wrote so succinctly: “Graham Hughes, the Godfather to artist metalsmiths, jewellers and medallists. A huge supporter, handing out opportunity to emerging talents in the 1960s and ’70s. The dynamic force behind the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. A HERO TO US ALL.” Keith Tyssen wrote: “Dear Graham, there were many generous kindnesses you gave, and so many of us that feel inadequate to fully express our gratitude.” I had written: “I remember Graham Hughes for his warmth and welcoming presence, his boundless enthusiasm for the work of artists and his understanding of creative energy...” Now, as I think of Graham my mind turns back to our first meeting prior to the opening of my first exhibition in 1970. I was so anxious I failed to keep our appointment. I telephoned to apologise and he asked me what led to my non appearance. I said I simply forgot to come, his response – so typical and generous was, “Then come tomorrow and bring your work”. I was a truly penniless unknown maker but on that wonderful day he purchased three pieces of my work for the collection, in an unexpected moment I had found a friend who would support me throughout my whole career... I know my life has been enhanced for knowing Graham Hughes. He was a charming and brilliant man – a maverick who loved the arts and artists. We are lucky to have known him and had him fight our cause so many times in his life. He was a man who cared very deeply about creativity in both his public and his private life. This evening we celebrate him and the wonderful legacy he has left with us.’

Just as George Hughes had formed close contacts at the RCA and other colleges where silversmithing was taught, his son did likewise. He got to know the students, talked to them about their projects, looked at their designs and watched them working at the bench.

In other words, he was on the lookout for talent. He

38. Birmingham, 2001.

39. This was financed by various Commonwealth tea-exporting countries, the Tea Market Expansion Board and was operated via the Tea Bureau.

40. There are numerous Cheltenham Festivals embracing music, literature, jazz and the like. However, the name was originally given to the National Hunt Meeting that took place each March at the Cheltenham Racecourse. The prize money is second only to the Grand National. The Meeting is unusual as the best British and Irish trained horses race against each other.

28

would talk to the heads of department and the college staff to get their views as well. His arrival at Goldsmiths’ Hall coincided with the Festival of Britain which itself generated commissions for silver to commemorate the event. Graham Hughes gives a good account of his activities during the 1950s in his essay in Eric Clements: Silver & Design 1950-2000.38 He writes, ‘Visitors trickled steadily into my office to ask advice on how to get distinguished silver made. I often recommended Eric who had learned the maturity and stability of character to make a convincing impression on our often aged and eminent intending patrons.’ Members of the Company certainly persuaded commercial companies as well as their friends to commission new silver. In Graham’s words, ‘The Festival itself on the South Bank was another great stimulus towards the youth of Britain, but it was the personal clout at Goldsmiths’ Hall which aroused a sleepy old craft scene in favour of the dash of youth.’ While seeking commissions was a way of promoting modern design, it was on a one-to-one basis. So as to spread his net more widely, Graham organised an ambitious programme of exhibitions. A dozen were held each year and at one a month this was certainly a challenge. One of the first was held at the Tea Centre39 at 22 Regent Street, London. Its promotional space was then considered one of the best places in the capital for exhibitions. During the 1950s it showcased modern ceramics as part of its drive to promote the drinking of tea. The centre in conjunction with the Company held a design competition open to a small number of young designers who were paid for their submissions. Naturally the competition was for a tea service. The winner was Eric Clements, who in addition to his 7 guineas (£7.35) design fee received a prize of 25 guineas (£26.25). The Company had the service made by Wakely and Wheeler and presented it to the Tea Centre. The complete process was filmed to illustrate a talk by the Company. The service

Opposite: Christmas Display at the Design Centre Courtesy Design Council / University of Brighton Design Archives This table setting is part of the Christmas display at the Design Centre in 1957. The Council of Industrial Design’s exhibition ‘Britain Can Make It’ certainly triggered the public’s interest in design. In 1949 it launched Design magazine to inform professional designers, business managers and buyers as well as educators. It played a leading role in the Festival of Britain, choosing all the products on show at London’s South Bank venue.

In 1956, so as to feed the growing public interest in design, it opened its Design Centre in Haymarket. As well as the showcase for the best of British design, it was also the CoID’s headquarters.

was the centrepiece of an exhibition devoted to modern British silver that opened on 22 November 1954. The main contributor was Eric Clements. There is a photograph in the Clement Archive of HRH Princess Margaret examining the milk jug from the service. The exhibition then moved on to be shown in other UK cities.

The service was sold, but the location of it is now unknown.

According to Graham, the most successful London exhibition of the 1950s had been staged at the Royal Festival Hall earlier in 1954. This was the first occasion that this 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue on London’s South Bank was used for an exhibition. Called ‘Skill’, it was staged along the riverside promenade on the top floor. The following year, the Company undertook its first marketing co-operative with retailers. During the Cheltenham Festival,40 Graham persuaded ten of the town’s leading silver and jewellery shops to each give one of their shop windows to the Company for the display of modern silver and some jewels. The silver was placed on a frame of shelves designed by Alan Irvine, the architect and designer who studied at the RCA from 1951–3 and went on to become one of the UK’s top exhibition designers. The air of great expectation that preceeded the

event was soon dashed. Graham wrote, ‘I wish I could claim that my optimism and powers of persuasion bore spectacular fruit. They did not. The retailers were unenthusiastic about the fresh designs which I so much admired, and the conservative public of Cheltenham quickly penetrated behind our glittering and austere shelves, into the dim shops behind. The salutary lessons for me were that modern design does not automatically sell better than traditional imitations of old work, and that timid shopkeepers prefer to sell pieces which they have paid for and bought for their stock, in preference to exhibits lent for special displays. The worst message from Cheltenham was that public taste is not the same thing as aesthetic distinction.’ Despite this disappointment, Graham did not give up. On occasions the exhibitions of modern silver contained important historic pieces from the Company’s collection ‘to sugar the pill of new design for visitors who might think they did not like modern work’. However, it was not just the Company that was giving exposure to modern silver. In 1956 the CoID opened its Design Centre in London’s Haymarket (later to include a shop and a café). In 1957 David Mellor’s Pride cutlery was included in the first Design Centre Awards. This scheme was based on selecting the best 29

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

products that had been displayed in the centre each year.

The number of products chosen for an award varied annually, as did the panel of judges who were selected from members of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry. The winning designs were chosen because of their ‘good appearance, sound workmanship and suitablility for purpose as well as the particular market for which the article was designed’. In 1957 3,500 products were displayed in the Design Centre, but only 12 were selected as ‘Designs of the Year’.

Following the publication by the Company of a small booklet featuring photographs of modern silver in 1954, it was decided to produce a larger and more comprehensive version in 1959. This featured 74 pieces by 23 makers. The main contributors were:

Silversmith

Number of pieces

%

Gerald Benney

20

27

Eric Clements

11

15

Robert Welch

9

12

Jack Stapley

5

7

The remaining 19 makers contributed up to three pieces each, with 12 contributing just one item. Of the 74 items shown, seven were ecclesiastical and 14 ceremonial (i.e. maces or badges) and the majority of the remaining 53 pieces were institutional or corporate commissions. The introduction made reference to two common misapprehensions. The first related to cost. It made the point that a small piece of domestic silver that is partly or entirely made by machine costs ‘no more than a new suit’. However, ‘To have a piece specially designed and made to suit one’s own personal taste and needs is a very pleasant luxury; but the difference in price between a specially commissioned piece and a stock piece is less than is often supposed: it is not outrageous. It is, in fact, comparable to that between tailor-made and ready-made clothing. Compared with cigarettes, television sets and motor cars, silver is not frighteningly expensive.’ The second related to cleaning and the advice given in this case has stood the test of time, ‘if it is kept in use, it [i.e. silver] needs very little attention’.

30

As the 1950s began to draw to a close, Graham Hughes gave some thought to the progress made in the world of modern silver. The result was a series of three articles in 1960 that appeared in The Studio, a leading art magazine at the time which is now incorporated into the on-line journal Studio International. These covered domestic, ceremonial and ecclesiastical silver. In the first, which appeared in January 1960 and covered silver for the home, he made the point that there were very few modern designed objects in retail shops, but reproduction and out-of-date machine made pieces as well as the antique were avilable in abundance. By this time, purchase tax had been reduced and he noted that this, together with a perceived swing in public taste towards the modern would help. He added, ‘Most of all, however, a re-assessment of silver’s potentialities as an art form is needed. Young designers today are producing work of superb quality. It has not yet gained the recognition it deserves, despite many useful exhibitions held by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and others. For 50 years sales of silver have been slowly declining: now’s the time for a recovery.’ He then made the point that hardly a single silversmith depends upon making objects in silver for his living, adding ‘there aren’t enough orders to go round’. He then stated that Leslie Durbin and Eric Clements spent part of their time teaching, David Mellor and Robert Welch undertook industrial design and John Grenville ran a craft shop at Clare in Suffolk as well as designing/making silver. He names the two most original designers in London as Louis Osman who ‘unusually in his profession nowadays, believes in doing everything for himself’ 41 and Gerald Benney. His description of Gerald was that, ‘of the younger generation, [he] comes as near as any artist craftsman actually to living from the silver he himself makes.’ This is not strictly true as he had an income and royalties from Viners, but the fact remains that in the second half of the 1950s he was the most prolific maker of designer silver of his generation and until 1961 he only employed one craftsman.

Hughes then went on to discuss students. ‘When they qualify, they look hard for jobs in the manufacturing or retail trades where, alas, the climate doesn’t yet favour modern work. They mostly fail to find them and end up teaching and working in a small way on their own. The wastage of talent is terrible. The quality of work they can produce is astonishingly high, the quantity they are enabled to produce by the present level of public demand appallingly low. Indeed, the quantity of hand-

made new silver throughout the country is minute. A designer is very clever or lucky if he gets commissions for more than two dozen pieces in a year, and there are perhaps only three dozen designers whose work could really be called modern. There is an inspiring revolution going on in the craft but as yet is has not made a big impression on the industry as a whole. The best work is almost always specially commissioned, not made for stock; so it is seen only in driblets and people cannot continue to think of British silversmithing as dying if not dead.’ He then examines the quality of craftsmanship in the British silver trade and concludes, ‘The shortage is not of skilled craftsmen, but of skilled work for them to do.’ The article ends, ‘British silversmiths are producing better work today than at any time since the Regency.’ 42 One can sense Graham’s frustration, yet his enthusiasm for modern handmade silver wins through. Although he had taken knocks during his first decade at the Company, his enthusiasm for his mission remained intact. He would have been encouraged by the fact that the 1959 exhibition ‘Modern Silver’ at Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire attracted 18,681 visitors, which was nearly 50 per cent more than the 1951 modern silver exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

Towards the end of the 1950s the Company had agreed to participate in ‘British Artist Craftsmen: an exhibition of contemporary work’, a touring exhibition of the United States and Canada arranged by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. It was part of the British Exhibition which showcased the best of what Britain had to offer. In 1958 the Company commissioned five experimental pieces of silver from five designer-craftsmen including Louis Osman and Gerald Benney. Gerald made a portable altar set featuring textured silver bars against a background of Thai silk. It incorporated a cross and a pair of candlesticks. It was displayed with a silver chalice the Company had bought from him a year earlier. The exhibition toured North America during 1959–60. The British Exhibition opened in New York during June 1960 and the city’s Herald and Tribune was bowled over. It included a display of 300 of the best British contemporary designs selected by the CoID embracing the home, travel, sports and gourmet food, everything from antiques to contemporary craftmanship. Among the images the newspaper chose to illustrate of the latter exhibit was a figure of Christ by Sir Joseph Epstein, bronze bas reliefs by Elizabeth Frink, a tapestry by Graham Sutherland and the silver chalice

and altar piece by Gerald Benney. The paper concluded that the American public would be astounded by the quality of the new design. In addition to the five pieces of silver being displayed, the Company had the first stand in the London Arcade of Prestige which the paper described as, ‘a little corner of the West End’, that was modelled on the capital’s Burlington Arcade.

The display here was described as ‘dazzling’. Other overseas exhibitions in which the Company participated during the 1960s were held in Australia, South Africa, Japan and countries within continental Europe. Modern British silver was finding a wider audience than purely Britain. However, this did not mean that sales were booming. The British Exhibition in Tokyo during 1965 saw 75 pieces of modern silver and 95 pieces of jewellery being displayed. Orders were received for items with a value of £15,000 (around £250,000 at 2013 prices).

Whereas the foundation for new silver design was laid in Britain during the 1950s, it was the 1960s when it began to blossom. There is no doubting that the silversmiths who trained in the 1950s were influenced to a greater or lesser degree by the material emanating from Scandinavia. In his January 1960 feature in The Studio, Graham Hughes touches on this very aspect. ‘ “A bit Scandinavian, isn’t it?” So says almost any Englishman on seeking good English modern silver.

Scandinavian work is rightly famous and fashionable: but it isn’t the same as ours.’ He then mentioned the 1956 international exhibition of modern silver held by the City of Augsburg to celebrate the re-opening of its great Golden Hall.43 Silver from 14 countries was displayed making it the best and largest exhibition of modern silver since the end of the hostilities. Graham maintained that the British pieces stood out ‘with a strong character of their own’. As author of Modern Silver Throughout the World 1880–1967 (New York, 1967), no one was in a better position to make this judgement. However, the fact remained that while British silver at the time may have had ‘strong character’, it was generally perceived that there was a

41. Later Osman employed others and used outworkers, though he was still ‘hands on’.

42. The period in Britain from 1811–20 i.e. from the date George III was considered unfit to rule and the accession of the Prince of Wales (who ruled as his proxy of the Prince Regent) as George IV. 43. The Golden Hall is a late German Renaissance masterpiece and the most impressive room in the Augsburg Town Hall. Badly damaged by bombing in World War II, though re-opened in the 1950s, it was not restored to its original glory until the 1980s.

31

INTRODUCTION

Scandinavian influence. Gerald Benney is said to have been shaken rigid when a potential American client described his work as ‘all Scandinavian’ (see Benney, p.88) and he therefore took positive steps to break away from influences from across the North Sea. This is best seen by the series of table centrepieces that began in 1958. These generally featured openwork abstract covers (though stylised insects are also noted). It is difficult to be precise as to when this conscious break occurred for although some of Gerald’s work, particularly his commercial or stock items such as condiments and bowls are ‘Scandinavian’, his commissioned work showed complete originality from an early stage. For example he made a scroll holder in 1956 for presentation to the HRH The Duke of Edinburgh which he described as ‘a new type of container for old-fashioned parchment’; neither this nor the ceremonial inkstand he made the following year for Rio Tinto have Nordic influences.

The first signs of something radically different appeared in 1957 in the form of a chalice bought by the Company and exhibited in the British Artist Craftsmen exhibition in North America. It was a very sculptural piece with a tapering stem featuring an oval knop with a whole through it reminiscent of the work of the British sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. However, this is not the only interesting aspect of the piece. Its stem has been finely engraved by hand to give it a textured surface. Graham wrote with great enthusiasm in his Modern Silver,44 ‘Probably the world’s first piece of silver since the 18th century to be made with an original textured surface of a type now becoming popular with several silversmiths...’ In 1961, Gerald Benney

44. Modern Silver Throughout the World 1880–1967 by Graham Hughes (New York, 1967), p.125.

45. It was published in House Beautiful and is entitled ‘Design Profile: Gerald Benney – Break Through: One young designer who has reached the top sums up the problems facing all young designers in Britain today’.

46. Gerald Benney told the story that he and his wife Janet had lunch with Stuart Devlin and his wife in Sydney towards the end of the first half of the 1960s. Asked whether business was good in London, Gerald replied positively with enthusiasm. He would later joke that had he toned down his response, he would not have been in competition with Devlin. Given Devlin’s schedule at the time, the author considers the factual accuracy of this story is very doubtful.

47. The Staatliches Bauhaus was a school of design that was founded in Germany in 1919. It is more familiarly known as the Bauhaus. It was closed in 1933 following pressure from the Nazis. It taught its students giving the same emphasis to both art and to technical expertise in craftsmanship. The school’s impact on design is regarded as the most influential in the 20th century.

Ironically the school’s early closure by the Nazi’s helped the Bauhaus movement to have a considerable international influence. For example, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (the School’s last director) emigrated to the US for the directorship of the School of Architecture at the Armour Institute, Chicago.

32

accidentally used a hammer with a damaged head on a piece of silver. What should have resulted in a plain surface resulted in one with a pleasing pattern imposed on it. After some experimentation what became known as ‘Benney Bark Finish’ – a textured surface with random vertical straitions resembling a miniature version of tree bark – was born. This became Gerald’s ‘trademark’ (though he also made silver with a plain polished surface too) and continues to be used by his son Simon. Graham described the Benney studio and its output in The Studio of January 1960: ‘His workshop off the Tottenham Court Road is a forcing bed of new ideas greeted always with surprise and wonder, sometimes by the older school of craftsmen with rather a shocked innocence. His work is intensely sure and bold: the silversmiths’ Henry Moore.’ Half a century later, Stuart Devlin had this to say about his fellow silversmith: ‘He had a huge impact – he brought a richness to silver, a contribution to the idiom.’ We know what Gerald’s objectives were from a cutting in the Benney Archive. In a June 1962 feature45 he is quoted as saying, ‘I am trying to design silver which is immediately recognisable as English. How can I explain it? Well, Scandinavian design seems to me to be particularly clinical; American design tends to be brittle – beautiful, yes, but very obviously American. I think English silver should be rugged, solid, and functional, but at the same time modern.’

Of course creating something different is one thing – selling it is another. Gerald’s wife Janet had a journalistic background and knew her way round Fleet Street. Features about Gerald appeared on a regular basis. The Company continued its promotions while the Design Centre in London’s Haymarket showcased silver. While the 1950s were austere difficult times for the British public, the 1960s brought changes on all fronts. In 1962, Robert May became

Opposite: Presentation of a Willmin Jug to Keele University Courtesy Staffordshire Sentinel News & Media With the establishment of new universities from the 1960s, the Goldsmiths’ Company decided to gift a small collection of silver to the newcomers to set them on their way to acquiring more. Here John Willmin shows one of his water jugs to Professor WAC Stewart, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Keele in the presence of Lord Amory (appointed Prime Warden in 1971) at the presentation of the silver to the University in Goldsmiths’ Hall on 15 March 1972. In 1978 the Company stopped making such gifts.

During the 15 years of its largesse, 23 educational institutions benefited from the presentations. Interestingly a survey undertaken in 1981 revealed that not one of the beneficiaries ever commissioned additions to what was intended to be a ‘starter’ collection.

principal silver lecturer at the Medway College of Art. Like the majority of educationalists in this field, he also had some commercial interests, in his case that of a designersilversmith and maker of jewellery. He recalls, ‘The general public had confidence to commission modern work. I even had an order for a chess set in yellow and white gold, while agricultural organisations in Kent were seeking modern trophies. There was no shortage of work.’ There certainly was not. Early in the 1960s Benney’s workshop had orders for silver from Coventry Cathedral, while the Corporation of Reading wanted a complete collection of modern silver for formal entertaining. In an article entitled ‘Tarnished image’ in The Guardian on 15 March 1965, Fiona MacCarthy investigated the British silver industry. Having described Gerald Benney as the most single-minded of the silversmiths, she added, ‘He is very busy indeed. He says he finishes about four special jobs a week, a total other silversmiths find startling.’ During the 1960s, new universities were being established. The Company realised that none would have any silver and planned to get them started. It was decided to give each either a centrepiece or mace as well as smaller items to form the nucleus of the collection.

In 1978 the Company stopped gifting silver to new universities, but during the 15 years of its largesse, 23 educational institutions benefited from presentations of silver. Interestingly, a survey undertaken in 1981 revealed that not one of the beneficiaries ever commissioned additions to what was intended to be a ‘starter’ collection.

The first recipient was the University of Sussex. In 1963, it was given a centrepiece designed by Desmond Clen-Murphy and six pairs of water jugs by Gerald Benney, Neil Harding, Atholl Hill, Keith Redfern, Robert Welch and Gerald Whiles.

Of these seven, four studied at the RCA, while Desmond Clen-Murphy learnt his craft at the Brighton College of Art, Neil Harding at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silver as well as at the Norwich College of Art, and Atholl Hill at the Glasgow School of Art. This shows that the Company did not only look at those who had undertaken postgraduate studies at the RCA. Indeed, there was considerable talent at other London art colleges as well as those in the provinces, as may be seen in the more detailed biographies of the silversmiths and designers in this volume.

Gerald Benney’s silver workshop was a lone ‘forcing bed of new ideas’ in London for the first half of the Swinging Sixties, but that was soon to change. In 1965 Stuart Devlin decided to open a workshop in the capital. He had trained as an art teacher (specialising in metalwork) in his native Australia and taught for five years. He then studied gold and silversmithing in Melbourne and went

on to study silversmithing and industrial design over three years at the RCA in London. He then spent two years at Columbia University in the US where he developed a career as a sculptor. Back home, as agreed, he returned to his role as an educationalist, but also became involved in a competition to design the Australian coinage – his designs were chosen. At the age of 32, he had achieved his ambition of being appointed Inspector of Art Schools in Victoria, but did not like the role. During a visit to London supervising the cutting of the dies for decimal coinage, the seeds were sown for establishing himself there as a silversmith.46 The decision was not taken lightly as he realised that the old craft was facing competition from a new medium – stainless steel. It was less expensive, but more durable than silver. Like most students at the RCA during the 1950s, Stuart was influenced by Scandinavian design that had developed from the German Bauhaus movement.47 However, he considered that the Bauhaus and Scandinavian influences were both alien to him and that is why he turned his attention to sculpture in the States. Analysing the silver works he had made, he regarded his public work as sterile, while the gifts he made for his wife were romantic in nature. This revelation was the beginning of what became the distinctive Devlin style. He recognised that the way forward was to enrich his work, but the only problem was that the traditional forms of embellishment used by silversmiths were expensive. However, unlike his contemporaries, he brought a new dimension to silversmithing. His exploration of making sculpture in the States gave him skills of working with molten metal.

He adapted and refined the techniques he had learnt to a wide variety of textures on the surface of silver as well as making filigree forms. The result was silver, the likes of which had never been seen before. Indeed, Godfrey Winn, the writer and actor, described Stuart’s workshop as ‘a veritable Aladdin’s cave’ and the objects he saw as 33

INTRODUCTION

‘the work of a magician’.48 Winn was so impressed that he persuaded his friend FR Morrell, the Chairman of Collingwood of Conduit Street Limited,49 to visit the workshop, which he did out of politeness. However, he too was bowled over and instead of paying a short visit, spent hours and thousands of pounds there. He also offered Stuart a summer exhibition. Members of the Royal Family attended the private view. Stuart Devlin was a phenomenon. The Company acclaimed him as ‘The Designer with the Midas Touch’, the Investors’ Chronicle said he was ‘Arguably the Greatest Living Silversmith’, while Kenneth Snowman chairman of Wartski, the London antique Fabergé specialists, wrote, ‘It has been claimed that Devlin is, in a sense, following in the footsteps of Carl Fabergé; this I suppose was bound to be said of any craftsman who commands his materials as effectively as he does...’ Having mentioned that Fabergé’s work was surprisingly fresh and stimulating given the artistic climate of his time, he added, ‘With Stuart Devlin we have quite another case; here is a young builder in precious metals and stones who, without any sense of despair whatsoever, looks only ahead and whose gaze is evidently never far away from the contemporary scene. Whereas Fabergé often quite deliberately glanced back in his superb pastiches of earlier manners, Devlin is wholly a man of his own time. He is conscious of the natural phenomena around him and does not hesitate to incorporate these in his work.’ 50 Very generously, Stuart Devlin puts his success down to the fact that Gerald Benney had broken the mould for the public to accept a step change in the approach to silver and that ‘coming second was a better place to be’.

With the new path being laid by Gerald, he was able to build on it introducing further richness.

34

London was now home to two innovative tours de force of the silver world. Furthermore, their styles were completely different as indeed were their business models. When Stuart came to London, he only had one commission: a mace for Melbourne University. He began to work on a speculative object, a 24-light candelabra which was the first non-commissioned piece he had made commercially. Graham Hughes saw it, liked it and secured it for the Company’s Modern Collection. On the basis that it was possible to sell stock items, Stuart decided to make collections speculatively instead of relying on commissions. This he continued to do until he left London in 1989, moving towards the south coast: from that date he only undertook commissions. Initially he sold via regular exhibitions and also from his workshop showroom and later from retail premises in Mayfair (1979–84) until he returned to having a workshop showroom. The variety of output was tremendous with 1,000–1,500 different designs appearing each year. While Gerald had a workshop showroom and occasionally had selling exhibitions, the mainstay of his business was commissions. Despite opposing models, the output from these two giants of the world of silver was tremendous. In 1969 Gerald delivered the silver for the corporate dining rooms at ICI, then the UK’s largest company. There was everything from coffee services to condiments. The same year he delivered 600 pieces of dining silver to the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Around this time, Benney employed 25 craftsmen. At its height, Stuart’s business was employing 60 people, 40 of them working at the bench.

graduated at the same time, combined teaching with designing. Ronald Stevens, Tony Laws and Keith Redfern graduated from the RCA in 1961. Stevens and Laws immediately established a workshop in London with Ian Calvert who made up their designs, while Keith Redfern went to work three days a week as a designer for Elkington & Co. Ltd51 and spent the other two teaching at Hornsey College of Art. In 1963 Keith joined the other three to form The Silver Workshop Limited, with each being an equal shareholder (see Redfern, p.405). The company stopped trading in 1972 and the four shareholders went their separate ways to pursue their careers in silver. Anthony Elson, who graduated from the RCA in 1964, initially became an assistant to the Chairman of William Comyns & Sons Limited,52 but he established his own business in 1966 as a designersilversmith. Initially he undertook commissions and supplied modern domestic silver to West End retailers. In the same year, a new designer-silversmith arrived on the scene as if from nowhere – Christopher Lawrence, the only silversmith of his generation to make a name for himself by starting at the bench. He left school in 1952, aged nearly 16, and became an apprentice at the large silversmithing firm of CJ Vander. He attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts on day release and undertook evening classes three nights a week. Reginald Hill (see Hill, pp.252-7) taught him design. Subsequently he worked for RE Stone and from 1961 for Gerald Benney.

His first commission as a designer-silversmith was the civic plate for Southend-on-Sea. During the 1970s his output became prolific and up to 2011, there was still a

While Benney and Devlin dominated the scene, there were many other players. The Derbyshire-based Brian Asquith, who was one of Goodden’s first students, majored in sculpture while at the RCA. Following a career principally as an industrial designer, during the 1960s he started to make individual objects in metal and in 1966 received his first silver commission. This was for a centrepiece the Government was going to present to Mauritius upon the occasion of its Independence within the Commonwealth. By the end of the 1960s he was producing a range of domestic silver and later sports trophies. Jack Stapley, a contemporary of Eric Clements, became a respected educationalist and successful designer-silversmith primarily undertaking commissions, many of which were prestigious. Although Keith Tyssen became an educationalist after graduating from the RCA in 1960, he also worked as a designer-silversmith and at the time of writing continues to do so. Gerald Whiles, who

Opposite, upper: Stuart Devlin © Stuart Devlin, photographer the late Lord Lichfield Looking at Stuart Devlin’s career, which stretches over 50 years, one can see why he has been called ‘Renaissance man, sub species Australasius’. His roles have included educationalist, silversmith, sculptor, jeweller, architect as well as a designer of items as diverse as instruments for keyhole surgery, aids for the disabled, furniture and coinage. Add in his interest in artificial intelligence, his having been at the cutting edge using a computer as a design tool as well as his interest in teaching creativity and one appreciates that Stuart Devlin is a polymath. Although it looked as if he was destined for a career as a silversmith when he graduated from the Royal College of Art, he turned his attention to sculpture and coin design as he regarded the Scandinavian influences prevalent in silver during the 1950s alien to his nature. However, when he saw Gerald Benney had broken this idiom he ‘realised coming second was the better place to be’.

Using the techniques he had learnt as a sculptor, he brought a romance and richness to the world of silver, the likes of which had never been seen before.

small but steady output from his workshop. The flamboyant Malcolm Appleby graduated from the RCA in 1968 and quickly established himself as the country’s leading engraver; he is still very active.

The early 1970s saw three large exhibitions of modern silver at Goldsmiths’ Hall. In 1971 there was the Louis Osman Gold Exhibition that combined a retrospective of his work from 1957–70 and new gold works made in 1970–1. The show-stopper was a pure gold goblet made by Louis that had been engraved by Malcolm Appleby. This was also the first time that the gold crown made by Louis for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969 was placed on public display. This is the only crown of a contemporary design to have been made in the 20th century. The second exhibition was staged in May 1973 and was a retrospective of Gerald Benney’s work that ended with a collection of Benney silver given to Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh by members of the Royal Family, the Cabinet, friends and official organisations on the occasion of the couple’s Silver Wedding Anniversary the previous year. There was a second exhibition that summer of the work of newcomer Christopher Lawrence. The Company gave him a one-man show to mark ‘five years of meteoric artistic and commercial development’. It was well-deserved, for Christopher had made a reputation for himself in a very short period of time. Graham Hughes remarked after the exhibition, ‘It was his silver tableware that astonished visitors.’ So how did Christopher become so established so quickly? There was a ready market for modern designersilver and Sydney Rogers, then chairman of Watches of Switzerland opened Galerie Jean Renet at 1 Old Bond Street in London’s Mayfair. The gallery was entirely devoted to contemporary silver and jewellery and as well as stocking Christopher’s work, it also staged exhibitions entirely devoted to it. In the Glasgow Herald for 11 August 1971 it is reported that a coffee service costing £1,742 (over £21,000 at 2013 prices) sold on the first day it was placed on display. Jocelyn Burton, who had studied at the Sir John 48. From the Introduction of Stuart Devlin 1970 Exhibition at Collingwood of Conduit Street Limited.

49. The company had Royal Warrants from HM Queen Elizabeth II and HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

50. Stuart Devlin 1972 Exhibition Catalogue published by Collingwood of Conduit Street Limited.

51. In January 1963 Elkington merged with Mappin & Webb and formed British Silverware Limited. Not long afterwards, the newly formed company acquired Walker & Hall, Adie Brothers and Gladwyn Ltd. 52. A long-established London company with 50 employees which essentially produced good quality reproduction silverware exclusively for retailers in the UK and overseas.

35

INTRODUCTION

Cass College in the City of London in the late 1960s, sold her jewellery and later her silver through Galerie Jean Renet, though in 1973 she changed her allegiance to a shop selling Charles de Temple’s53 avant-garde jewellery and her silver in London’s Princess Arcade.

Hector Miller graduated from the RCA in 1971. The display of his work at the degree show impressed Stuart Devlin and he asked Hector to go to work with him.

Having spent a year gaining experience in the workshop, he assisted Stuart with designing. This of course had to be in the Devlin style, whereas Hector preferred his own, so that arrangement soon came to an end. Prior to his graduation, Hector had been approached by the businessmen John Sutherland-Hawes and Len Whiter who proposed the launch of Aurum Designs, a company which was to market limited editions of silver objects marking an event associated with royalty or an institution such as a cathedral, school or museum. Generously Stuart said Hector could work on projects for Aurum within the Devlin workshop. Hector duly did and even made an extensive dinner service there for the Shah of Iran. Hector established his own set-up in 1974 and secured Leslie Durbin’s workshop the following year. There is no doubting that the late sixties and early seventies were boom times for silver. The public was being offered something completely different, they liked what they saw and they bought. Hector found that the limited edition market was buoyant until the mid-1980s. Michael Driver graduated from the RCA in 1968 and immediately received commissions for trophies. In 1970, he was sufficiently confident to establish a shop, studio and workshop in central London where he held two exhibitions a year. He also received prestigious commissions. In his chapter reference is made to the economic background against which he traded. The first difficulty, the oil crisis, saw the world’s stock markets plummet in 1973–4,54 but with the inflation of the period, people were very keen to purchase tangible items such as antiques, collectables and bullion. If

53. Born in the United States he grew up travelling with a circus. He left aged 14 and began singing in nightclubs and acting in Hollywood westerns. Later settling in Provincetown, Massachusetts, he began making jewellery. He later moved to the United Kingdom where he continued his jewellery career. He made the ‘gold finger’ for the film Goldfinger. In the very early 1970s, Burton and de Temple formed a business partnership, but it did not survive for long.

54. The FT 30 (now the FT Ordinary Share Index) lost 73% of its value.

55. The bank was formed in 1970 when the Royal Bank of Scotland Plc merged its two English and Welsh subsidiaries: Williams Deacon’s Bank Limited and Glyn, Mills & Company. In 1985 it was absorbed into the Royal Bank of Scotland.

56. Page 76, Gerald Benney Goldsmith: The story of fifty years at the bench by Graham Hughes (Alfriston 1998).

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INTRODUCTION

the economic malaise and industrial unrest was not enough, an eye-watering blow hit the luxury trade generally. The November 1974 budget doubled the luxury category of VAT to 25 per cent. Possibly this may not have initially had a detrimental effect on the sales of modern designer silver which may have been perceived as a form of alternative investment at the time. However, as the decade progressed there was increasing industrial unrest and economic woes. Michael noted that his clients became different and that there was not so much money about.

Although he did not give up silver, he diversified into graphic design. Although Anthony Elson made no reference to a decline in trade during the mid-1970s in his interviews, he recalled benefitting from the demand triggered by the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. However, by the end of the decade he was noticing that there was a difference. The silver market was static and the retailers upon which he relied were either closing or experiencing a fall in demand. A further blow came in the early 1980s – his rent was to rise 600 per cent. He took action, established a studio and workshop in Clerkenwell and started to work only to commission. Stuart Devlin was busy throughout the mid-1970s with a heavy commission book. Apart from many trophies (including two for the Duke of Edinburgh), there was a mammoth candelabrum for the Duke of Westminster and a large canteen of cutlery for Williams & Glyn’s Bank.55 There were also three shows a year at his St John Street showroom as well as numerous exhibitions overseas.

However, there was a surprising casualty during the mid-1970s. In addition to the hike in VAT from 8 to 25 per cent, Gerald Benney saw the rent on his large London workshop in Bear Lane rise from £500 to £7,000 over two years. According to Graham Hughes’ book, Gerald initially kept his staff of 19 working normally for as long as he could, but in 1974, ‘he realised something had to give, and that something was his team of craftsmen. He stopped making stock – there were almost no sales then’.56 Everyone was made redundant and the workshop tools and machinery were moved to Beenham, his Berkshire home, with the exception of the tools of his qualified craftsmen, as these he allowed them to retain. The London closure, as well as details of the re-opening of the workshop at Beenham, are covered in greater depth in the chapter on Benney. Grant Macdonald took over the London workshop in 1977 and as at 2012 he still operates from there. The year prior to this happening Professor Goodden, who was retiring the following year from his post at the RCA, approached

Gerald and suggested that he may like the role. As business was then booming, Gerald politely declined, but his former Professor persisted and Gerald suggested that he could manage a couple of days a week. When he was formally interviewed he responded to the question ‘What would you do if you were appointed?’ along the lines that he had no idea and in any event he could only squeeze in 2½ days a week. He did not expect to get the job after this response, but much to his surprise he received an offer. He assumed his appointment in September 1974 and remained Professor until 1983.

During his tenure his silversmithing students included:

Name

Period at RCA

Career

Kevin Coates

1973-76

Goldsmith & Silversmith

Michael Lloyd

Robert Birch

1973-76

1974-77

Alistair McCallum 1975-78

Silversmith & Chaser Silversmith Metalsmith (specialises in Mokume Gane)

Clive Burr

1976-79

Silversmith

Robert Legg

1976-79

Educator

Jane Short

1976-79

Enameller

Richard Fox

1978-81

Silversmith

Marianne Forrest Rod Kelly

1980-83 1980-83

Silversmith Silversmith & Chaser

Those he taught remember Gerald as being always happy to chat to his students. He recruited a fantastic set of technical people led by John Bartholomew as Chief Silversmithing Instructor. John was a highly regarded silversmith who had worked at Wakely and Wheeler. Also on the full-time staff was Ian Haigh who specialised in machining, but in

addition Gerald would invite people from the trade as guest lecturers who could not only talk to students, show them how their particular speciality such as spinning, engraving or polishing is undertaken, but more importantly give practical advice on what a top engraver could achieve for them, how to prepare something for polishing or aspects to look out for when an item is returned from an outworker Above: Prof. Gerald Benney Courtesy Paul Benney In 1974 when Professor Robert Goodden neared retirement, he asked Gerald Benney, who had been his student some 20 years earlier, if he would be his successor at the Royal College of Art. Initially Gerald declined but said he would consider doing 2½ days a week. Duly invited for an interview by a senior fellow of the College, he was dismayed to find that he was but one of a dozen of his silversmithing contemporaries summoned for the same purpose.

Despite only agreeing to work half a week he was granted the chair.

He held the position until 1983 and was held in high esteem by his students. This portrait of Gerald is the work of Paul Benney, Gerald’s son. Painted in 1995 it was originally a full-length portrait accompanied by another of Janet Benney, his mother. They were both cut down to a three-quarter length size measuring 91.5 x 73.7cm. Paul is a celebrated artist who for over three decades has produced a distinctive and singular body of work in both the US and UK. He is also one of Britain’s leading portrait painters.

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INTRODUCTION

such as a polisher, spinner or engraver. When Clive Burr expressed an interest in enamelling he was invited to Gerald Benney’s studio to work with Alan Evans and Robert Winter, ‘the best enamellers in Britain’, while Jane Short notes that she still uses the technique she learnt from these two master enamellers for spreading enamel over larger surfaces. Talking to Gerald’s students thirty years or more after they graduated, many can still recall the advice he imparted. Clive Burr remembers, ‘Gerald insisted that to be a good designer, you had to be technically competent so that you could execute what you designed.’ Rod Kelly’s favourite ‘Benney words of wisdom’ are, ‘The best craftsmen are those who can get out of their own unfortunate mistakes.’ Rod added, ‘That is quite true – very little goes exactly according to plan.’ The ethos at the RCA during Gerald’s tenure was hard work with a commitment to making individually designed objects that were of great craftsmanship. Gerald Benney and his wife Janet were famous for their hospitality at Beenham House in Berkshire, their 52-room home for 34 years. Each summer before the end of term the whole Department would be invited down for lunch, ‘Beenham was massive and there were Henry Moore sculptures in the garden’, Clive Burr recalls incredulously. It is clear that Gerald Benney was held in high esteem by his students and fondly regarded. One man who studied under both professors was Michael Lloyd. He describes Robert Goodden as ‘A wonderfully charismatic old style professor. He was not technical, but was very perceptive as to what was going on in the world of design and was wonderfully encouraging.

He was a “kindly uncle” whose presence made you feel special.’ Michael studied longer under Gerald Benney who he found, ‘Totally different. He was very much the successful silversmith and entrepreneur who was business savvy in the silver world. We were very much in awe of him.

His sense of energy was contagious and certainly fired us up. He was incredibly generous with introductions, one was to Kensington Palace and very generously he got his clients, such as Alistair McAlpine57 to come along and buy at the graduate shows.’ Both Gerald and Michael had a common interest in narrow boats. He added, ‘When his guard was down you saw a completely different side of him and he became a helpful friend. He was a “father figure”.’

By 1970 the Company had effectively abandoned the hope of persuading the traditional silver trade to stock modern British silver58 and was concentrating on the designercraftsman. There was a major initiative in the mid-1970s of holding selling exhibitions at Goldsmiths’ Hall in the City of London, which started a tradition that continues to this day.

After many discussions the first was held in 1975. There 38

INTRODUCTION

were some in the Company who felt that the events could undermine retailers who sold silver, while others were concerned that such a commercial venture was below the dignity of a livery company, while the lawyers and financiers were anxious not to take action that could impinge on the Company’s charitable status and therefore effect its favourable tax position. It was right that these aspects should be aired, but at the end of the day the fact remained that designer-craftsmen of merit were finding it very difficult to retail their work. The trigger for the Company to explore a selling exhibition had its origin in 1973 during the oil crisis59 when there was criticism of the exhibition ‘Artists’ Gold’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall. This featured a couple of dozen sculptures in gold. Although this was not a selling exhibition, there was an indication of each piece’s value next to each sculpture based on the cost of the gold used in making it and the standing of the artist. Needless to say, the prices were very high. There was some criticism in the press that the Company was being insensitive during an economic crisis. A member of the Company’s Court of Assistants60 suggested a selling exhibition with an inverse approach regarding price, with the top price being set at £50 (which is around £410 at 2012 prices) as ‘most of the jewellery and silver shown by the Goldsmiths’ Company was beyond the reach of ordinary mortals’.61 The figure was set at that amount for the first event as secretaries in the City considered it was impossible to find a well-designed piece of jewellery for less. It was proposed that the new selling exhibition should be called Loot. This was the name the independent Exhibition Organiser had proposed for a selling exhibition to be staged by the Welsh Arts Council, but on that occasion it was rejected as being ‘too commercial’.

Despite the name being trendy, the Company agreed to its first selling exhibition bearing this name. Loot was staged in the November of 1975. Two thousand carefully selected pieces of silver and jewellery made by 310 designers (many of whom were relatively unknown) were offered. However, there was no interaction between the buying public and the men and women who created the pieces. The goods were displayed and those wishing to make a purchase went to a counter to complete the transaction with a member of the Company’s staff. The buyer would be sent the piece(s) after the exhibition, or arrangements made for some other form of delivery/collection. The first Loot attracted 15,000 visitors and sales/orders totalled £250,000 (just over £2 million at 2012 prices). This was an excellent result. Although it was intended to be a one-off event, there were a further six exhibitions, though the £50 price ceiling was not maintained. In 1976 and 1977 the London Loot travelled on to the Leeds City Art Gallery and in 1978, it was staged only

in the United States at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

The event attracted considerable attention in the US press.

The last Loot was held in 1981.

Not everyone considered the Company’s decision all those years ago to concentrate on the designer-craftsman, while also assuming the general silver trade would remain independently resilient, was the correct one. With almost 50 years experience in the luxury retail trade, one person who thinks this was the wrong approach is Richard Jarvis, a Liveryman of the Company and a former Managing Director of Garrard’s, considered one of the greatest authorities on craftsmen and veterans of the UK trade.62 He resigned from Garrard’s when it merged with Asprey in 1998 and started his own retail business, initially in Pall Mall and since 2011 in Bury Street, St James’s.63 Asked in 2005 to reflect on 40 years in the London silver trade, his views appeared as a guest editorial in the January 2006 edition of the now defunct J-dex magazine. He began by stating that the London silver retail and manufacturing trade had drastically altered since the 1960s and that it was in danger of shrinking beyond the point of return. He continued, ‘Could we see it coming? Could we have prevented the decline? In truth, only those living in an ivory tower could have been unaware of the deteriorating situation. However, with such a fragmented trade and with so many negative factors impacting adversely, the outcome coupled with its basic decrease in demand meant that the decline was inevitable. The ’70s saw the fragmentation grow rapidly with London manufacturers increasingly now dealing directly with the public and governments, in particular in the Middle East and later Brunei. Resentment and mistrust grew between the retailer and manufacturer in a trade which was rudderless and without any codes of conduct other than “looking after number one”. The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths worked on the whole in blissful isolation of the retailer, larger workshops and many outworkers in preference of supporting and promoting and in some instances directly assisting designer craftsmen, many of whom feature strongly in the cottage industry which currently exists.’

‘Over the past four decades, we have seen the authentic and discerning style of the wealthy which existed in the first half of the century, widely replaced by a “brand label” consumer whose lifestyle, whilst embracing the slickly marketed watch and jewellery industry, does not see domestic silver as being desirable or relevant.’ The reflection goes on to explain that the long-established large London manufacturers continued to make reproduction silver and ignored the changing tastes and lifestyles of its potential consumers. Later the leading

retailers compounded matters by taking advantage of lower labour costs overseas so as to increase their margins. He added, ‘With an industry so small yet so divided, it is no wonder that it was ill-equipped to cope with a change in consumer wealth that was often no longer aspiring to silver as a luxury requirement. This is not surprising as little or no aspirational marketing profile has emanated from the trade other than the Craft Council or the Goldsmiths’ Fair, which due to inconsistent criteria excluded retailers who had in-house designers and craftsmen. By doing so, further rifts and fragmentation arose within the trade.’ 64 The Goldsmiths’ Fair was the successor to Loot and is discussed later. He continued, ‘In terms of a consistent marketing profile, who is currently countering the usual prejudices associated with owning silver? Who is championing silver’s longevity and value for money compared to that of other luxury commodities?’ As a result the great long-established workshops such as Edward Barnard & Sons, William Comyns, Nayler Brothers, Padgett & Braham, Roberts & Belk and Wakely & Wheeler and most recently, Calvert & Son are no more. These of course were a breeding ground for bench-trained apprentices. He finally added, ‘Although one can only applaud the emergence of the new Goldsmiths’ Centre [see p.55], one has to seriously worry that coupled with the decline of the likes of Garrard and Asprey, the traditional trained silversmith is now truly an endangered species.’

While Richard Fox was studying at the RCA, he thought that he would never ‘work as a silversmith thanks to the Hunt Brothers’ (see Fox, p.218). In the mid-1970s Nelson Bunker Hunt and his brother William Herbert Hunt began to accumulate large amounts of silver bullion first using the billions they had inherited from their father and later by borrowing. The story is told very well in The Great Silver Bubble: How two of the world’s richest families – the Hunts of Texas and the House of Saud –

57. Ennobled as Baron McAlpine of West Green in 1984. He was a great patron of the arts and at one time was a member of the Arts Council. Collecting was a passion. He died in January 2014.

58. Anthony Elson and Grant Macdonald supplied quality London retailers with contemporary silver in the 1970s, while Grant also sold to county and other quality jewellers throughout the UK. 59. In October 1973 members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries proclaimed an oil embargo following the US decision to re-supply Israel’s military during the Yom Kippur War. It lasted until March 1974.

60. The governing body of the Company.

61. From the introduction by Brian Beaumont-Nesbitt (Exhibition Organiser) to the Loot VII catalogue. The exhibition was held from 2–21 November 1981.

62. Gordon Hamme, Editor of J-dex magazine in his January 2006 editorial.

63. Richard Jarvis at N & I Franklin, 11 Bury Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6AB. 64. Richard Jarvis slightly expanded the quote in January 2013.

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INTRODUCTION

tried to corner silver by Stephen Fay.65 Indeed, by the end of 1979 the Hunts and their friends had virtually succeeded in cornering the market. On 12 January 1980, the Daily Telegraph reported that over the past year there had been a near six-fold increase in the London spot price from £2.50 to £14.80 an ounce. In the column entitled ‘Silver Boom Gloom’, Samuel Bulka, a London dealer in antique silver and the chairman of the tenants of the London Silver Vaults66 was quoted as saying, ‘The effects on the retail trade have been disastrous. When it costs something like £80 to buy the silver to make a table fork, who can afford to buy the finished product? When the bullion price has varied by as much as £1.50 overnight people are not happy about selling at all. Many shops are selling it at under the melting value, because they have just not caught up. We are praying for the price of silver to drop and stabilise – and the sooner the better.’

Stuart Devlin, who opened his showroom on the corner of Conduit Street and George Street in Mayfair in 1979 recalls having to revise his price list practically every day and that towards its peak, he simply could not afford to buy the raw material. On Friday 18 January 1980 silver peaked at US$50 in New York,67 then just over £20 an ounce. The COMEX68 board decided that the speculation in silver constituted an emergency. It delayed the market’s opening on Monday 21 January while it changed the trading rules. It declared that buying long69 was not allowed; one could only sell on the market and then only to legitimate buyers such as bullion dealers. The following day the Board of Trade in Chicago introduced similar rules and the speculators such as the Hunts could not sell. The price of silver began to slide. After their own resources had dried up the Hunt brothers borrowed heavily so they could continue their activities in the market. The fall in the price triggered margin calls70 and initially, despite paying millions a day in calls, interest

65. London, 1982.

66. The Chancery Lane Safe Deposit opened in 1876 renting strong rooms to wealthy London households requiring secure storage for their silver, jewels and other valuables as well as documents. Several of the vaults became the retail outlets of silver dealers. This aspect of the business rapidly expanded after World War II and in 1953 became known as the London Silver Vaults.

67. The record was set in Chicago at US$52.50 – Fay p.144.

68. Formerly known as the Commodity Exchange, it is now a division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. COMEX is the leading US market for metal futures and future options trading.

69. Buying with the expectation that the asset will rise in value. The Hunt brothers used futures, which is an agreement to buy or sell a specific amount of a commodity or financial asset at a stipulated future price.

70. In essence, when borrowing to finance the purchase of a commodity or security, the lender will only advance a certain percentage of the underlying asset’s value. A fall in the asset’s price will require for a payment to be made.

This is known as a margin call.

40

and storage, they were still able to meet their commitments by borrowing. The Federal Reserve then stepped in and discouraged the banks from lending for speculative purposes. On 27 March 1980, a day known as Silver Thursday, the Hunts missed a margin call and the markets plunged with silver leading the way, falling to under US$11 an ounce. The Hunts were charged with market manipulation and fined, summoned in front of Congress and publicly rebuked and forced into bankruptcy. It was not until the end of the 1980s that their creditors were satisfied. Although the brothers lost billions, they were still relatively wealthy.

Apart from making it very difficult for silversmiths, the Hunt brothers’ activities had another impact worldwide – the mass melting of antique, vintage and modern silver. This was quite simply because the value of an object’s silver content exceeded its perceived value as a decorative or functional Above: The Goldsmith’s Craft Fair Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company A familiar face at a number of retail events held over the UK at which craftsmen and women exhibit their creations, is Brett Payne, a Sheffield-based silversmith. Wearing white gloves, he fascinates people with the seemingly endless configurations that his pairs of candlesticks and candelabra can be displayed. His repertoire also includes cookware (from frying pans to saucepans) and cutlery. This shows Brett at his familiar position at the top of the right hand staircase at Goldsmiths’ Hall with a view towards the Livery Hall.

Opposite: Goldsmith’s Fair (Drawing Room) Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company For a fortnight each year Goldsmiths’ Hall near London’s St Paul’s Cathedral stages a fair for the sale of the best of Britain’s contemporary jewellery and silver. Dealing direct with the designer/makers, it is a must for those with a penchant for the creation of the contemporary work of the country’s gold and silversmiths. Held in the public areas of this magnificent livery hall, our image shows the stands in the Drawing Room.

Goldsmiths’ Fair is normally held over a two-week period at the end of September/early October. The exhibitors alter over each of the two weeks, though some may attend for the whole fortnight.

41

INTRODUCTION

item. In mid-January 1980, the UK’s press was full of stories regarding the queues of people outside the bullion dealers in Hatton Garden, the centre of London’s jewellery and precious metals trade. The reports stated that items which can never be replaced in terms of craftsmanship, as well as modern pieces in top showroom condition, were being consigned to the furnace. We shall never know how much post-war designer silver was destroyed at this time, for many items that were retailed prior to the late 1970s could have been scrapped in January 1980 at a profit. In the Pearson Silver Collection there is a set of eight Grant Macdonald sherry goblets with the original invoices indicating that they were purchased in July and November 1973 for £47.50 each – £380 in total. (The latter sum, adjusted for inflation, would be £3,952 at 2012 prices.) Weighing a total of 1162 grams, or 37.37 ounces, they therefore cost the purchaser £10.16 an ounce. Selling at the top of the market would have resulted in a very healthy profit.71 These goblets survived either because their owner liked them, had forgotten about them, was unaware of the bullion price or because he was waiting for the price of bullion to increase further. While the bullion dealers always stated that silver the public took for scrap was always placed in the furnace, we do know of cases where dealers were allowed to look it over before the deed was done. However, the market for post-war British designer silver had not begun in 1980 (most pieces offered at auction in those days sold for a margin over scrap value) and the chances are that an antique piece had a better chance of escaping the furnace. Nevertheless, despite some being rescued, the fact remains that a great deal of antique, vintage and modern silver was melted during this period.

Richard Fox recalled during his interview for this book, ‘It was a worrying time for established silversmiths, yet alone those thinking of becoming one.’ The price of silver may have fallen but the bursting of the bubble was followed by a

71. The scrap price is always below the bullion price so as to cover the cost of transforming sterling silver objects (which are 92.5 per cent silver and 7.5 per cent copper) to an ingot form of pure silver as well as providing the bullion dealer with a profit.

72. It actually states 1980, but this is an error.

73. Unravelling the Mystery: The Story of the Goldsmiths’ Company in the Twentieth Century (Lingfield, 2000).

74. The Company’s Modern Collection was not without its critics. In July 1967 Edwin Mullins wrote a feature entitled ‘Silver Gone Wrong’. He was reviewing the exhibition ‘The Goldsmith Today’ that was being staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall until 7 July 1967 where 600 pieces acquired since 1953 were being exhibited for the first time. He states that the Company’s purchasing policy encourages the novice as opposed to rewarding the successful. The result is proportionally more experimental work and student pieces than one would expect. He was disappointed by one feature of the pieces which he felt were contrived to look like sleek mass production hardware ... [designed] for a popular market.’ However, he praised the silver of Brian Asquith, Stuart Devlin, Desmond Clen-Murphy, David Mellor and Gerald Benney.

42

recession. Richard graduated and in his words, ‘Initially I turned my hand to anything.’ He made tables for printmakers, did graphic work for a friend, exhibited silver at galleries throughout the UK and offered his work at Loot.

Unfortunately he could not raise the finance to place cutlery he designed into stainless steel batch production, but in 1984 he had a major breakthrough and was chosen to make Formula One racing trophies. Although Stuart Devlin had ridden through the 1970s oil crisis, VAT at 25 per cent and industrial unrest as well as the hype in silver price resulting from the Hunt brothers’ activities in the silver market, the recession of the 1980s did cause him problems. In 1984 he closed his large West End shop and moved his retail operation back to 90–92 St John Street as ‘costs have risen beyond a point which can be justified’. This was not the only change.

Unfortunately trade was such that he had to make a lot of his craftsmen redundant, some of whom had only ever worked for him. This was a very sad day for Stuart Devlin.

The Hunt Brothers’ activities and the subsequent recession of the 1980s were not the only shockwaves that reverberated round the world of silver in this decade.

According to Graham Hughes’ obituary in The Times on 9 November 2010, Graham Hughes resigned as the Company’s Art Director in 1981,72 bought the US magazine Arts Review and channelled his enthusiasm into journalism. Peter Jenkins in his work on the history of the Company in the 20th century,73 referred to Graham’s ‘resignation’ and also to his ‘departure’. There are hints at what really happened in the Celebration of Graham Hughes’ Life referred to above. Robin Buchanan-Dunlop described Graham as ‘the ultimate artist with a true disdain for the chains of administration and those awkward little things called budgets’, while Wendy Ramshaw simply called him a ‘maverick’. When Graham joined the Company in 1951 its management, in common with businesses and livery companies in general, would have been very informal compared to today. As the second half of the 20th century progressed, internal procedures, risk management, budgets and external regulations such as customs formalities became the accepted norm in all areas of commerce, including the City livery companies. These would have been completely alien to Graham Hughes and most likely his

Opposite: Examples from the Pearson Silver Collection Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection A small selection from the Pearson Silver Collection displayed at the Goldsmiths’ Centre in connection with British Silver Week 2012.

Having its origins in 1985, the collection is the largest of its kind in private hands. It may be viewed at www.pearsonsilvercollection.com.

total disregard for them would not have pleased Peter Jenkins, the Company’s Clerk from 1975–88. Having served the Company loyally for 30 years, Graham was very upset at leaving. Unable or unwilling to conform to 1980s procedures, he could well have found himself in an impossible position. To give him his due, Peter Jenkins did praise both Graham and his father in his book. Talking of remarkable family records, he wrote, ‘George and Graham Hughes, father and son, who for sixty years inspired and implemented the quest for improved design in silver, and the Company’s reputation was greatly enhanced by their energetic leadership.’

Ironically, the last Loot exhibition took place in 1981, the year of Graham’s resignation. While it was not replaced with an alternative immediately, it was clear from the series of Loots that there was a role for a selling exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

It was not until 1983 that the new series was launched – ‘Goldsmiths’ Craft Fair’, though the word ‘craft’ was later dropped as it was considered dated. The event adopted the traditional trade fair layout with individual stands staffed by the maker(s) of the items offered for sale. This engagement appeals to visitors and the concept of the fair is attractive to exhibitors, who not only benefit from the camaraderie but also through networking and the sharing of ideas and skills. In 1995 the Fair attracted 6,500 visitors, while in 2011 the number had increased to 12,000.

Because of its popularity the event has been extended from one week to two. Only 90 stands are available each week, but over 300 makers of silver and jewellery apply for these, which means many applicants are disappointed. A vetting panel that considers each application makes the selection.

Applicants have to meet the criteria of the Fair, which is essentially a showcase for the designer-maker. Together with ‘Desire’ staged at Richmond in March and at Winchester in November, these are the only fairs in Europe that focus solely on precious metals. In June 2014, a new event ‘Hallmark Salon’, a five-day sale exhibition of contemporary jewellery and silver was staged at London’s Somerset House. Of the 86 exhibitors, 14 were silversmiths. It is hoped that this may become an annual event.

The Company has the world’s finest collection of modern British silver. From 1925 to 1981 its formation was in the

hands of George and later Graham Hughes and although the acquisitions during this period reflected their personal taste, the result has international stature. However, towards the end of the 1970s, an inbalance was noted between the antique and the modern collection. The former represented four centuries and comprised 600 pieces while the latter covered just 75 years and had 800 items. Some of the pieces had been purchased to encourage young craftspeople while others were probably acquired towards the end of the financial year to spend a budget. It was decided that the best of the modern pieces should form the Collection, while other pieces should be The Reserve Collection.74 With Graham’s departure it was decided to form a Modern Plate Committee to oversee the Curator’s management of the Collection as well as making purchases. While there were doubts as to whether acquisition by committee would work, it has proved successful. The Modern Plate Committee’s report for 1989–91 emphasised that the Collection did encourage both private and institutional patronage. Today the Company encourages new makers not just by purchasing worthy work, but with its Young Designer Silversmith Award. This is a prestigious competition open to any student under 30 years on a BA or Master’s degree course. Started in 1994, each year the design brief changes.

In addition to a cash prize, the winner is placed in a modern workshop under a master silversmith to make the piece. The Company pays for all costs. Once the piece has been made the rules of the scheme decree that it is presented to the major museum nearest to where the student is studying for its collection of contemporary decorative arts. Its objective is to encourage students to show their artistic individuality in silver and give them the opportunity to perfect dexterity of craftsmanship under the guidance of a master silversmith.

43

INTRODUCTION

However, it is not just the Company that provides patronage to silversmiths. In 1979 Pope and Oliver Makower became responsible for a small charitable trust.

Mr Makower’s grandfather had been a serious silver collector. They approached their friend Gerald Benney, who was then Professor of Silversmithing at the RCA, to ask for his suggestion. He pointed out that at that time the Victoria and Albert Museum did not have a grant to commission someone to make a piece for its contemporary collection. They started by commissioning Jane Short the enameller, then about to graduate from the RCA. The piece was to be lent on long-term loan to a museum with the proviso that it had to be placed on display.

Additionally a miniature version had to be made for retention by the Trust. While initially this was an annual commission, currently it is a bi-annual one with the loan of the larger piece being made to the Ashmolean (Oxford), the National Museum of Wales or the V&A. The Keatley Trust was founded in 1968 since which time it has assembled a leading collection of 20th century British applied art and prints. The principal collections are books, bookbindings, ceramics, glass, metalwork (mainly silver), woodwork (mainly furniture) and prints. Each of these collections plots the path of 20th century art in their own field. Each contains between one and 200 objects. There are less extensive collections of paintings, drawings, sculpture and calligraphy. Objects are available for loan to qualifying institutions, to be placed on display either permanently or regularly. The main institutions to benefit have been the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and Blackwell House, Cumbria.75 Smaller numbers of items have been placed in 12 other centres including London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. The Trust is unusual in commissioning items as well as purchasing them. Over 90 per cent of the modern silver collection has been commissioned.

The Pearson Silver Collection is devoted to post-World War II British designer silver, though it does have a couple of early 1940s pieces by Leslie Durbin. Its first piece was purchased in 1985 though it was not until the approach of the Millennium that it was decided to really concentrate on acquiring material from 1945 to the present, the acquisitions being part-funded by the sale of earlier silver and other collections. The Pearson Collection now follows the development of silver from the end of the war, through its renaissance to the present day. Regarded as the largest collection of its 44

INTRODUCTION

kind in private hands, the vintage part of it nears completion. In due course only contemporary pieces will be added through buying stock items, but mainly through commissioning larger pieces. The owners nevertheless believe in encouraging young, up-andcoming makers and in recent years a subdivision of the Collection has grown that is devoted to the caddy spoon.

Major participants such as Rod Kelly, Jane Short, Fred Rich and Toby Russell have been commissioned to make this humble object that was once de rigueur in every middle class household. The objective since the first decade of the 21st century has been to use the Collection to generate interest in modern British silver, especially contemporary pieces. In 2009, the Collection became an educational sponsor of British Silver Week (see p.55) and a dozen pieces from it formed a trail through Chatsworth House’s impressive State Rooms, culminating in the Great Dining Room with a display of a dozen pieces of silver by 12 of the country’s leading silversmiths. In December of that year, the Collection’s website was launched. As at the end of 2012, it was receiving over 200,000 hits a year. In addition to media interest in the UK, there have been overseas articles featuring the Collection, including from periodicals in South-East Asia and the Middle East. Since 2005 the Collection has been lending material to exhibitions.

Currently 12 pieces from the Collection (in four sets or pairs) are on long-term loan to the National Museum of Wales and are displayed in the Museum’s gallery devoted to 20th century decorative arts. It is hoped that more institutions will take advantage of the Collection’s willingness to lend pieces. From 2011, the then recently established Pearson Silver Foundation, a UK registered charity, has periodically staged a design competition that is open to all silversmiths. Additionally it has replaced the Collection as a sponsor of British Silver Week and made donations to various silver-related causes including Bishopsland (see pp.51-2), sponsored a workbench for Rod and Sheila Kelly’s Shetland Workshop project (classes for international silversmiths started in the Spring of 2013) and contributed to the cost of a contemporary altar cross for St Alban’s Church, Romford.

Perhaps the most unusual collection that has its origins in the 1980s was the Benton Seymour Rabinovitch Collection of fish servers and cake slices. Both have broad blades and are commonly referred to as ‘slices’. A former US academic, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle, started forming it

towards the end of the decade. Like the Pearsons, he had an interest in antique silver and was the author of Antique Silver Servers for the Dining Table (published 1991). Its formation was intended to satisfy two purposes, first what he describes as ‘a modest effort to support independent silversmiths and their craft and secondly to provide a comparative study of contemporary styles in metalsmithing relating to one type of object: the broad-bladed server.’ The result is an amazing collection of 99 slices of which 50 were made in the UK and 49 in North America.76 The smiths were given a free range as to their inspiration for their pieces and subsequently to the design itself. Their challenge was to give a utilitarian item beauty. They certainly rose to the gauntlet laid down by the Professor and a most amazing array of different slices is the result. The first pieces were delivered in 1989 and the last in 1998.

The collection therefore gives a snapshot of the work of designer-silversmiths in both the UK and the US approximately over the last decade of the 20th century.

The project resulted in a book.77 Each slice is illustrated, described and each silversmith gives his or her philosophy/statement. This is followed by a potted biography of each smith and ends with a few sentences from the Professor, which may be how he met the designer-maker or some other anecdote. The book contains a very useful chapter on how to commission silver. The Benton Seymour Rabinovitch Collection is on long-term loan to the V&A. The museums are also forming their own collections of post-war and contemporary British silver. Their purchases clearly support the craft, while the display of pieces bring post-war silver as well as contemporary work to the attention of the public. (See p.536 for details of where post-1945 British silver may be viewed.) An earlier initiative to bring silver to a wider audience, and to encourage and sponsor smiths, was the Crafts Council.

It was established in 1971 as the Crafts Advisory Committee. It is the national agency for crafts in the UK. In 1972 it started the Crafts Council Collection and now has some 1,400 objects spanning all the main media. Its earliest piece of silver is a red and white enamel bowl from 1970 by Gerald Benney and the most recent is a vase made by Lucian Taylor in 2010. The Craft Council Collection is not particularly representative of the craft over four decades, but naturally the purchases encouraged and were beneficial to the silversmiths whose work was chosen. It can be viewed on-line at the Council’s website. The Council has also staged

exhibitions of silver over the years. The first was in 1974 and was devoted to the work of Robert Welch. In 1978–9 there was a seven-week exhibition entitled ‘Michael Rowe – Objects in Metal’ and in 1982 another called ‘Colouring Metals’ to coincide with the launch of Michael Rowe and Richard Hughes’ book.78 There were two exhibitions in the 1990s. In 1993 ‘20th Century Silver’ displayed fine silver for the table from 17 countries, while in 1995 ‘Shining Through’ included ‘Living Silver’, an exhibition of contemporary silver tableware. It was ten years before the Council staged another silver exhibition.

The Jerwood Applied Arts Prize79 was a partnership between the Crafts Council and the Jerwood Charity. The prize was launched in 1997, but in 2005 metal was added as a new discipline. It recognised, ‘aesthetic beauty, intellectual rigour, fine making and function’. It was an open submission competition, which from that date ran over a six-year cycle covering metal, jewellery, ceramics, glass, textiles and furniture. Nearly 80 people entered the competition in 2005 and the eight shortlisted artists80 had their work exhibited at the Craft Council Gallery in London before it went on a three-centre tour in the UK. As Corrine Julius who was one of the judges commented, ‘the inclusion of metal as a discipline in this prize was quite a thrust for silver as it really brought the medium to the fore. People who had not followed the development of silver suddenly became aware.’ The winner of the £30,000 prize was Simone ten Hompel. The judges commented that they had given her the award because of her, ‘pure innovation, her cohesive collection of work and the way that she embraces different metals in her work’.

The Crafts Advisory Committee assisted Francis Loyen, Alistair McCallum and Michael Rowe, who all feature in this book, with a New Craftsman’s Setting-up Grant; this paid their rent for the first year and gave help towards equipment on a matched basis up to a certain sum.

The Craft Council launched the ‘Chelsea Craft Fair’ at Chelsea Old Town Hall, London in 1979. The first event

75. Located at Bowness-on-Windermere, it was designed by MH Baillie Scott and is one of England’s most important surviving Arts and Crafts houses from the turn of the 20th century.

76. 45 from the US and four from Canada.

77. Contemporary Silver: commissioning, designing, collecting by Benton Seymour Rabinovitch and Helen Clifford (London 2000). As at January 2013, this book was still available.

78. The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals.

79. It was replaced by Jerwood Contemporary Makers in 2008.

80. Frances Brennan, Ane Christensen, David Clarke, Chris Knight, Hans Stofer, Hiroshi Suzuki and Simone ten Hompel.

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INTRODUCTION

attracted 1,200 visitors. From these small beginnings it grew into Europe’s finest craft fair. At its silver anniversary in 2004 there were 22,000 visitors. The fair was instrumental in changing perceptions and celebrating fine craft and craftsmanship and it became the UK’s principal selling event for individual makers.

Adrian Hope and Angus McFayden used to exhibit there. The fair was replaced in 2006 with ‘Origin’ and the location moved to London’s Somerset House. The venue was changed again in 2010 to Old Spitalfields Market where the fair formed part of the London Design Festival. The event is currently being researched and developed and when refreshed and revamped, could well have a different name again. In 2004, the Council launched ‘Collect’ an international art fair for contemporary objects at the V&A. In 2009 the venue moved to London’s Saatchi Gallery. This event soon established itself as Europe’s premier annual fair for museum-quality contemporary craft. Each year since its conception, the event has attracted over 10,000 collectors and visitors from Britain and around the world. Acquisitions have been made in the past by our national institutions, including the British Museum, National Museum Wales and the V&A as well as public collections located from Aberdeen to Plymouth. In 2012, 31 galleries from 11 countries around the world exhibited the artists. The only exhibitor whose stand was entirely devoted to British silver was Bishopsland (see pp.51-2) which displayed the work of 12 contemporary silversmiths working with traditional techniques. These included Malcolm Appleby and Jane Short. Lisa Gee and Susan Sherrit of the Harley Gallery at Worksop, Nottinghamshire, curated the exhibition.

They translated Bishopsland’s emphatic concentration on the skills of hand and eye as the bedrock of silversmithing with an impressive display. Clare Beck at Adrian Sasoon of Kensington, London, represented Nididi Ekubia, Chris Knight and Hiroshi Suzuki.

Contemporary Applied Art in London’s West End represented Abigail Brown and Simone ten Hompel.

81. She was the wife of Sir Nicholas ‘Nicko’ Henderson, one of the 20th century’s most distinguished British diplomats. In 1982 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called him out of retirement to serve as Ambassador in Washington.

He appeared nightly on US television during the 1982 Falklands War. 82. Margaret Thatcher: The Downing Street Years (London 1993) p.23.

83. Excepting when it is on exhibition or being used elsewhere, the silver is permanently at Downing Street. No 10 is also responsible for maintaining the silver.

84. Formerly Marcia Williams, Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s secretary.

85. The artist and designer at Cardross Glass.

86. One of the world’s leading manufacturers of silver alloys and of the highest purity silver (999 fine). It has been based on its Sheffield site since 1760.

87. A process for manufacturing flat metal components by chemical erosion.

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Gallery SO in London’s East End represented Michael Rowe and Hans Stofer. The Ruthin Craft Centre, North Wales, represented Pamela Rawnsley and The Wills Lane Gallery of St Ives, Cornwall, represented Drummond Masterton.

Contemporary British silver received a further boost in the mid-1980s when the late Lady Henderson,81 a veteran of more than 30 years of diplomatic dinners, was horrified to learn that 10 Downing Street did not have silver of its own for use when prime ministers officially entertained.

In days when leaders of the elected party had great family wealth, they simply brought their own silver with them. Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister on 4 May 1979 and in her autobiography82 she recalls that when there was an official dinner, the caterers brought in their own silver, until Lord Brownlow lent her pieces from his collection at Belton House, Grantham. In 1985 Lady Henderson together with the late fashion designer Jean Muir met Gerald Benney at Goldsmiths’ Hall to discuss the concept of The Silver Trust. The Trust would commission, own the silver that would be made available on loan for the use in government houses such as 10 Downing Street and Her Majesty’s embassies, promoting the work of Britain’s contemporary silversmiths in doing so.83 Later Lady Henderson and Miss Muir attended a dinner party at which Rupert Hambro the merchant banker and silver connoisseur agreed to help. In 1987 Mr Hambro, Lady Henderson, Miss Muir and Lady Falkender,84 who were later joined by other trustees, established the Trust. Initially fundraising was slow, but a cruet set was commissioned from Malcolm Appleby in 1987. Thankfully a generous anonymous donation was received in 1991, which set the way for some meaningful

Opposite: Items from the Silver Trust at Downing Street Courtesy The Silver Trust Margaret Thatcher recalls in The Downing Street Years that when she became Prime Minister in 1979, there was no silver at Number 10. For official dinners the silver was brought by the caterers until Lord Brownlow of Belton House in her home town of Grantham lent her some of his family silver. When Lady Henderson learnt about the situation in the mid-1980s, she and the fashion designer Jean Muir decided the issue had to be addressed. The Silver Trust was formed with the help of Rupert Hambro and now commissions and owns the silver, which is available for loan to Government houses such as 10 Downing Street and UK embassies overseas. The first small commission was made in 1987 with more following in the early 1990s after a significant anonymous donation. The picture shows a small selection of the Trust’s silver on display at 10 Downing Street.

additions. A Commissioning Committee was established comprising the four founding trustees and the core of the collection was sourced and made from 1991 through to 1993. Each of these pieces are engraved ‘The Silver Trust’ to ensure that they are recognised as part of the anonymous gift. Early in the 1993, there were sufficient silver pieces finished to hand over a significant quantity to the then Prime Minister John Major for use at official functions. Mrs Norma Major told Lexi Dick, who had designed and made two fruit stands, ‘I like those bowls – and I really mean it.’ Although The Silver Trust’s items were for use rather than public display, it instituted a series of exhibitions during the summer Parliamentary recesses, initially alternating annually between a national and overseas location. This exposure has played its part in generating interest in modern British silver.

There was a burst of media coverage in the autumn of 1991 when, in conjunction with the Daily Telegraph, a competition was launched for 72 underplates, each with a different design.

These were considered perfect conversation pieces for the guests at the Prime Minister’s official lunches and dinners.

The competition was launched both in the newspaper and by way of posters on college notice boards, and was open to anyone whether a professional, art student or amateur.

There were over 500 entries and the judging committee met at the Royal College of Art in February 1992. The winners ranged from unknowns to Lord Cardross85 and included Maureen Edgar, Michael Driver and Clive Burr who feature in this volume. The metal for the plates was donated by Paul Tear of Thessco Limited86 and the plates were spun at William Comyns & Sons. Each is struck with the mark of Paul Tear to acknowledge his contribution. The designs were either engraved or chased by professionals, or photoetched.87 Each plate was either sponsored by a company or individual(s). One plate features a pea pod with one missing pea at the centre of a maze. Its designer, the silversmith Andrew Marsden comments, ‘I imagined all these MPs sitting down to rather boring speeches and I thought it would give them something to fiddle with while they are listening.’ The objective is to roll a real pea to fill the void in the pod. The instructions engraved on the reverse of the

plate stipulate that frozen peas cannot be used and that prodding with cutlery will lead to disqualification. There is no record of a diner attempting the feat during a banquet.

The Silver Trust’s collection was first placed on public display at Garrard’s in August 1994. The venue was most appropriate for since the arrival of Alex Styles as Head Silver Designer in 1952 (see Styles, pp.458-65), the company stocked modern as well as reproduction silver. Periodically Garrard’s had themed exhibitions in conjunction with a commercial partner. For example, an exhibition of soup tureens in partnership with Campbell’s; of tea services in conjunction with Twining’s and mustard pots with Coleman’s. As well as antique pieces, these exhibitions always featured modern pieces.

Alex Styles retired in 1987 and although he had established a design team to continue his work, the company also commissioned work from external silversmiths. For example, in 1987 the company commissioned Rod Kelly the silversmith and chaser to make and decorate a pair of large vases. This was Rod’s first sizable commercial commission and it was a milestone in the development of his career. To mark the 47

INTRODUCTION

150th anniversary of Garrard’s being Crown Jeweller, the company staged an exhibition called ‘Royal Goldsmiths: Garrard Design and Patronage in the Twentieth Century’. The items on display dated from 1903 to 1993 and included work designed by 17 contemporary silversmiths including Ian Calvert, Maureen Edgar, Adrian Hope, Rod Kelly, Robert May and Fred Rich. Richard Jarvis, then Managing Director of Garrard’s, was impressed with Fred Rich’s enamel work and offered him a one man show two years later.

Fred was given free range to create whatever he wanted. When each piece was finished, it was delivered and Fred was paid. The fact that he was preparing for a major exhibition was kept secret. The exhibition of the dozen pieces expressed his ideas, competencies and skills. It was a great success and not only did every piece sell, but he received further commissions that took him two years to complete. Fred believes that the exhibition probably took 10 years off the typical process of establishing a reputation through commissions.

The Silver Trust was not the only major public commission of contemporary silver that had its origins in the 1980s. In 1989 John Harley Lang, Dean of Lichfield Cathedral and his wife visited Gerald and Janet Benney at Beenham. The purpose of the Dean’s visit was to ask

Gerald if would design and make a small chalice and paten for use at the cathedral on the occasions during the year that the principal benefactors were commemorated.

During the course of the conversation, began to talk enthusiastically of the talent of designer-silversmiths in the UK. On the basis that there could be additional possibilities for contemporary silver at Lichfield in the not too distant future, the Dean encouraged this course of conversation. Somehow the focus moved from what the nation’s silversmiths could offer to a grand gesture of commissioning a piece from everyone, so as to promote the craft of the contemporary silversmith and providing the cathedral with the silver that would comprise its ‘wish list’ in an ideal world. Back in Staffordshire, when the Dean told his colleagues of the discussion with Professor Benney he encountered warm support, but with a common question, ‘How was such a project going to be financed?’ When the plan was outlined to friends and supporters of the cathedral, sponsors came forward and very quickly the Dean realised that what was conceived at Beenham as potentially a remarkable project was in fact within the cathedral’s grasp. Within a fortnight of the initial meeting, Gerald Benney visited Lichfield. Having viewed the silver the cathedral had, he discussed with the Cannon and Dean what contemporary ecclesiastical silver it would be desirable to have in addition. Counting a pair as one, the list included 16 pieces ranging from a processional cross to a pyx, or small box used for taking Holy Communion to the sick. Later a pair of choristers’ badges was added, making 17 items in all. Gerald went away and estimated the cost of commissioning all the pieces. The Dean felt that the required funds could be raised and the project moved to its next stage.

It was Gerald’s intention that the Lichfield silver should be more than just a commission. His vision was that it should be a permanent snapshot at a particular moment in time to reflect the state of the art of British silversmithing at the start of the final decade of the 20th century. He therefore proposed that in addition to the pieces of silver, the cathedral should also secure the smiths’ working drawings, as these would add to the future importance of the commission for study by art historians in years to come. For his part, the Dean advocated that the commission should be seen as a vehicle to promote the chosen silversmiths who worked on it as well as acting as a catalyst to help raise awareness of contemporary British ecclesiastical silver both at home and abroad. The silver is always on public display at the cathedral when it is not in use.88 At this

48

juncture, Rosemary Ransome Wallis, the Company’s Curator and the first port of call for potential commissioners of contemporary silver at Goldsmiths’ Hall, became involved in the project. She matched the objects to 16 (later 17) of Britain’s leading designer-

Opposite: Alex Styles Courtesy Alex Styles Alex Styles was the first new silver designer to emerge after World War II. Returning to the UK in 1946 after serving in the RAF, he could have returned to his silversmithing studies, but decided to become a freelance designer-silversmith. Instead he was offered a permanent position by the retailers Goldsmiths & Silversmiths and a few days later by Garrard’s, then the Crown Jewellers. He opted for the former as it favoured contemporary designs. As his chosen company amalgamated with Garrard’s in 1952 and adopted its trading name, he became Head Silver Designer for the Crown Jewellers, a post he held until his retirement in 1987. Although he trained at the bench, he never made silver professionally and never registered a maker’s mark. The majority of the work he designed bears his facsimile signature. Of the initial new batch of designer-silversmiths after the war, he was the least influenced by Scandinavian design.

Above: The Lichfield Cathedral Silver Project Reproduced by kind permission of the Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral On St Valentine’s Day 1991, 16 silversmiths attended a seminar at Lichfield Cathedral to discuss new ecclesiastical silver for the medieval place of worship and to see the building for themselves.

Seventeen smiths actually worked on the commission which was, and still is, regarded as a triumph. Starting at the front row, from left to right: Jocelyn Burton, Gerald Benney, John Lang (Dean), Rosemary Ransome Wallis, Jane Short, Rod Kelly, Brian Asquith, Louis Osman, Keith Redfern, Lexi Dick, Alexander Brogden, Michael Lloyd, Leo de Vroomen, Richard Fox, Kevin Coates, Grant Macdonald, Andrew Putland and Carl Padgham. Stuart Devlin and Fred Rich did not attend the seminar.

silversmiths.89 The Duchess of Devonshire agreed to become Patron for the Lichfield Cathedral Silver Commission as well as a member of the Design Committee with Roger de Grey, President of the Royal Academy, Professor Benney, Rosemary Ransome Wallis and of course the Dean. There was also great activity on the fundraising front. A list of the donors is included in Lichfield Cathedral – Silver Commission published by the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral in 1991.

On St Valentine’s Day 1990, the participating silversmiths travelled to Lichfield to attend a seminar on the cathedral and to see the building for themselves.

From all accounts, there was a high degree of camaraderie, with Jocelyn Burton telling the Dean that she had a red dress that was the exact colour of his vestment. Lichfield Cathedral is certainly an impressive building and there was certainly no shortage of inspiration from colossal columns down to such detail as gargoyles and tiling. The brief was that the objects being designed and made had to be both beautiful and functional. Each artist worked in their own style and while most found inspiration for their design in the

88. It will also not be available for viewing on the very rare occasions that it is being exhibited elsewhere. Additionally, the doors of the Treasury (where the silver commission is exhibited) may be closed on the rare occasions when the clergy are vesting before a service, if a specialist tour of the Cathedral’s service is taking place or when the room is being used as a Consistory Court. It would be prudent to check with the Cathedral if you are planning a long journey to specifically see the display.

89. One of the chosen silversmiths was Padgham & Putland, comprising Carl Padgham and Andrew Putland, making the final count of smiths of 18 from 17 businesses.

49

INTRODUCTION

building itself, this was not necessarily the case. For example, Michael Lloyd when designing the offertory plate wanted to introduce nature into the cathedral. He did this with a crown of thorns and a border of oak leaves to symbolise the strength of faith.

Gerald Benney summed up the commission by saying, ‘We are all taking part in something special’. Michael Lloyd went a stage further by referring to it as ‘extra special’. The Design Committee deliberated on the submitted drawings at the Royal Academy over three days in mid-May 1990. Each one was discussed in depth and occasional suggestions were made. Technical questions were asked and duly answered, while in cases where more than one design was submitted, the Committee had to make a choice. On 14 February 1991, exactly a year after the participants’ initial visit to Lichfield, the designer silversmiths took their finished pieces to Goldsmiths’ Hall. Entering the vault one at a time, they unwrapped their creations and there slowly emerged a collection of 17 very beautiful objects that, while having a diversity of style, were of their time – pieces designed and made in the late 20th century for worship in a cathedral dating from the late 12th century.

The commission was and still is regarded as a triumph.

While other cathedrals commissioned some contemporary silver after the Lichfield project, only two sets have so far been sizable. The first was for York Minster. This project began in 1997 when the Design and Craftsmanship Sub-Committee (the Committee) of the Friends of York Minster (Friends) decided that a new set of liturgical silver for use in the nave sanctuary would be a worthwhile project to mark the Millennium.

The commission was much smaller than Lichfield’s and comprised an altar cross and pair of candlesticks, a processional cross, taper holders, four chalices, two ciboria90 and paten and an alms dish. The funds for the commission were mainly raised from small donations.

The following year the Secretary of the Friends contacted the Goldsmiths’ Company and Rosemary Ransome Wallis advised on a design brief, the estimated costs and compiled a list of silversmiths to be invited to submit portfolios. The shortlisted portfolios were put to the Chapter and Council of Friends, and the final six designer-silversmiths were chosen. Each was asked to submit a design for a specified piece in March 1999.

These were discussed by the Committee and although minor amendments were suggested, no attempt was made to impose a uniform style. However, the use of 50

INTRODUCTION

gold enrichment on two of the pieces was taken up by the designers of the other four. The completed pieces began to arrive at the cathedral towards the end of August 2000. Although the processional cross was donated by the Dowager Marchioness of Normanby in memory of her husband the Fourth Marquis, the funds for the other pieces was raised from a large number of smaller donations. The silver was dedicated on 5 November 2000.

Lincoln Cathedral also commissioned silver, but adopted a different approach; this may have been because it has the first Treasury ever installed in a British cathedral.

In 1957 Charles Oman, Keeper of Metalwork at The Victoria and Albert Museum, proposed to the Goldsmiths’ Company that treasuries should be installed in cathedrals so as to allow parish plate to be put on public display. Lincoln was chosen as the diocese had an abundance of plate (though ironically the cathedral had little). Additionally the Dean and Chapter were prepared to make the space available and the Reverend Peter Hawker, the incumbent of nearby Cherry Willingham, was an enthusiastic connoisseur of silver. Louis Osman, an architect by profession and a recent convert to silversmithing, was appropriately charged with the project. The cathedral’s Treasury was dedicated on 17 May 1960 and antique silver from the diocese’s parish churches was placed on display. The Reverend Hawker was given the title of Custos Thesauri (which translates from the Latin as Guardian of Treasures), which was an office that had been in abeyance at the cathedral since the Middle Ages. He retained the post until he joined the Roman Catholic Church. Subsequently various individuals looked after the Treasury. Mention was made in Silver Studies, the Journal of the Silver Society during the late 1990s that Lincoln Cathedral was looking for a Custodian for its Treasury. Spurred by the mention in the Journal, Oliver Griffin, a retired local industrialist with a penchant for silver, decided to find out more. He soon discovered that the cathedral had little silver of its own. This was because of two thefts in the 19th century; consequently, it was getting by, but only just. He noticed that there were too few chalices at Holy Communion and furthermore, those they did have were of insufficient capacity to cope with the number of communicants. Although he had no official link with the cathedral, he decided to do something about it. In 1999, following an introduction from his own vicar, he had a word with the Canon responsible for both the cathedral’s silver and the Treasury. Between them they drew up a

‘wish list’ for contemporary silver to be used by the cathedral. Advice was sought from the Goldsmiths’ Company. On the grounds that they wanted a single silversmith to be commissioned over a period of time, as opposed to a group of silversmiths simultaneously making a collection over a short period, Rosemary Ransome Wallis suggested Anthony Elson. Initially a single chalice was commissioned towards the end of 1999. The cathedral approved the model Anthony presented and Oliver Griffin bank-rolled its acquisition in 2000 and then secured the funding. This happened to come from a single donor who wanted to present an item to the cathedral in memory of her late husband. Anthony Elson tells the story of the Lincoln commission in his chapter (see Elson, pp.200-9). Lincoln’s approach is certainly different from both Lichfield’s and York’s as the commission has been designed by one individual and therefore has a uniformity of style. Oliver Griffin is now the cathedral’s Custos Thesauri, but the contemporary silver is not displayed in the Treasury, as it is in regular use during services.

The role played by commercial galleries in promoting contemporary silver must not be overlooked. Richard Fox recalls exhibiting at galleries throughout the country after he graduated in 1981. In 1986 Amanda Game became Director of the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, which has been selling contemporary art since 1842. Amanda’s exhibition programme was both ambitious and visionary, taking in the new, the established, the colleges and the institutions. Writing in the introduction to the catalogue for ‘Collection 2000’, an exhibition of the work of 10 Scottish silversmiths all bearing the Millennium mark, she recalled, ‘In 1988 the Scottish Gallery organised an exhibition entitled “The Metal Vessel”. At that stage it was extremely rare to see modern silver (or other metalwork) in contemporary galleries and “The Metal Vessel” was a deliberate attempt to focus attention on the rich and varied work that existed, but was rarely seen.’ Fifteen smiths were featured in this exhibition including Malcolm Appleby, Maureen Edgar, Howard Fenn, Adrian Hope, Rod Kelly, Michael Lloyd and Jane Short. During Amanda’s tenure, the Gallery gave solo shows to Robert Marsden, Michael Lloyd, Simone ten Hompel, Hiroshi Suzuki, Chris Knight, Maria Hanson, Adrian Hope, Sidsel Dorph Jensen and Roger Millar. In 1997, in conjunction with Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, the Gallery staged ‘Silver from Scotland’, an exhibition of period and contemporary silver that toured to the Crafts

Council. Additionally, in 2001 it hosted ‘A Field of Silver’ where 10 silversmiths created works in a South Oxfordshire field over a three-day period without their usual tools.91 Her successor Christina Jansen also has an interest in contemporary silver.

Contemporary Applied Arts was founded in London’s West End during 1948 as the Crafts Council of Great Britain. In 1967 it became the British Crafts Centre and in 1985 adopted its present name. A registered charity since 1967, its objective is to promote and champion British craft. It markets itself as the UK’s premiere exhibition and retail venue for learning about, appreciating and purchasing contemporary craft.

Members who are smiths currently include Abigail Brown, Lin Cheung, Anne Christensen, Rebecca de Quinn, Alistair McCallum, Lucian Taylor and Simon ten Hompel. Two recent exhibitions were ‘The Stuff of Memory’, featuring the spoons, bowls, jars and containers of Simone ten Hompel (2010) and ‘Silvermaker’, which brought together the work of seven UK members who graduated in the last ten years including Peter Musson and Max Warren. Amanda Game curated this exhibition.

The Oxford Gallery was founded in 1968 by Valerie Stewart and Joan Crossley-Holland and became influential. Although all-embracing, Valerie staged several exhibitions of enamelwork and also gave oneman shows to silversmiths such as Michael Lloyd and the enameller Jane Short. The gallery closed in 2001 and Valerie died in 2005.

During 1993 in the depths of rural south Oxfordshire, but not too far from Reading with its good links to London, an institution was born which has become a tour de force in the world of silver. Indeed, it has been described as ‘the Sandhurst for silversmiths’.92 In the late 1980s Pope and Oliver Makower acquired Bishopsland at Dunsden, a farmhouse with tall and imposing 16th-century chimneys, together with its numerous outbuildings. Pope had been a graphic and product designer by profession, but had re-trained midcareer as a silversmith. Her plan from the very beginning was to have a workshop, adding, ‘but I don’t

90. The vessels for the communion wafer.

91. They were supplied with a sheet of silver and silver wire, a guillotine and a blow-torch. The products of the silversmiths’ creativity and labours were purchased by the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

92. The Times, 4 June 2003.

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INTRODUCTION

want to rattle around in it on my own’. Oliver suggested students as ‘an anti-rattling agent’. Having been responsible for the P&O Makower Trust in 1979 (see above) the couple were in contact with young smiths.

Oliver, a businessman, initially noted that while silversmithing was being taught at art colleges, professional practice such as the basic of running a business was not. Additionally, the technical aspects of silversmithing were not being taught as robustly as in the past. The concept of teaching workshops where students could learn the craft as well as professional practice was conceived and the Bishopland Educational Trust was formed. Pope’s objective was very simple, ‘to help silversmiths who had just graduated to start to earn a living’. She explained, ‘At this time a new generation of silversmiths were emerging from college, but there were no jobs. The major manufacturers had lost their markets and apprenticeships had long since ceased to exist. There was a growing demand among collectors, but no recognised route to link them to the new makers. Meanwhile as a silversmith you were on your own and had to learn the craft of self-employment on the run.’ Oliver added, ‘Bishopsland approximates to the second half of an 18th-century apprenticeship when the aspiring craftsman was looking forward to setting out on his own. No one can afford an apprentice any more, nor are young people keen to sleep under counters, but young craftsmen still need time to polish their skills and their contacts and to understand the principles of marketing.’

The Bishopsland course is demanding. It works on a tutorial system teaching skills to the highest standard and is designed for recent first degree graduates.

Students, whether they are studying silversmithing or jewellery, become self-employed immediately they start their studies. As its website explains, ‘Bishopsland is a learning community and learning is by doing. One of the first tasks is to produce a body of work up to exhibition standard for the first show. It has to be priced, packed, displayed and ready for sale to the public. Up to standard and out on time.’ There are no exams, but from day one there has been the ‘Bishopsland Standard’ by which students can monitor their progress. The standards range from acquiring a new skill to ‘saleable’ standard to obtaining coverage in two publications, and from being able to photograph work to having work accepted by three galleries.

Masterclasses and instruction in traditional skills were important factors in the course from the beginning.

52

INTRODUCTION

However, at the turn of the 21st century, the Makowers’ noticed that educational institutions were cutting back on one-to-one tuition and workshops because of financial pressures. Consequently masterclasses by such people as Rod Kelly as well as individual instruction by Malcolm Appleby became more important to maintain Bishopland’s excellence. As at 2012, over 150 graduates have passed through Bishopsland. Most of these have established their own businesses, either designing and making in their own workshop, managing their own gallery, or designing for the retail sector. Forty have gone on to undertake MA courses, 31 of these at the RCA. Upon the successful completion of their course, the students become Fellows of Bishopsland. Senior Fellows of Bishopsland comprise smiths who have been commissioned by the P&O Makower Trust (whether or not existing Fellows). There are two exhibitions of Bishopsland’s students, Fellows and Senior Fellows work at Dunsden each year. The annual ‘Retrospective’ is held in early August and ‘Christmas at Bishopsland’ in late November. In addition to Collect, other events attended include the Henley Festival in early July and Art in Action at Waterperry near Oxford; students also participate in British Silver Week (see p.55). At the 93. Bonhams sold The Family Reserve Collection of Gerald Benney on 1 December 2010. Included was a silver box with 18-carat gold embellishments of the same size and weight (249 grams, 8 troy ounces) as the two ‘pyramid’ boxes purchased by the Pearson Silver Collection, but it was made one year earlier and instead of the cover being optical allusion engraved, it featured three silver horizontal strips and two in 18-carat gold. It sold for a hammer price of £7,500, which after the Buyer’s Premium of 20 per cent (which attracts Value Added Tax, then at 17.5 per cent), meant that the purchaser paid £9,262.50. The author considers this a freak realisation that was the result of auction room rivalry. The previous record for a Benney silver box was established at Bonhams in May 2010 when a much larger silver and enamel box (weighing 1,178 grams) sold for £5,928. An 18-carat gold and enamel box was purchased by The Pearson Silver Collection at Bonhams on 1 December 2010 for £37,050. As at May 2014, this is the current auction record for a Benney box.

94. The Pearsons recall Peter Hampson, initially at Gray’s antique centre near Bond Street underground station, then at Church Street Kensington, now no longer a dealer; Peter Gaunt also at Gray’s, later at Church Street Kensington (but does not generally deal in post-war silver); Fay Lucas, Church Street Kensington (now retired); John Jesse of Church Street Kensington (now retired); Trevor Allitt (based at Stratford-upon-Avon) who stood at antique fairs in the Midlands, home and northern counties (now retired); S & J Stodel in the London Silver Vaults, Chancery Lane (who still stock post-war British silver); Robert Necus at Antiquarius in the King’s Road, Chelsea (now with Michael Sedler in the London Silver Vaults and still deals in post-war silver); Jack Podlewski at Gray’s (who occasionally still has post-war silver); Nat Leslie Limited in the Silver Vaults (now retured) and Shine, a partnership between Sofia de SouzaGirao and George Williams (now no more).

95. The last event took place in the art room of the Museum’s Sackler Centre on 21 September 2010. Entitled ‘Whizz Bang’, it was one of the many events hosted by the V&A for the London Design Festival. With tools and equipment lent by the RCA (including three tree trunks, bench tops, gas bottles and several extremely heavy stakes) the event was visted by over 150 people. Objects from the Silver Trust as well as the work of members of Contemporary British Silversmiths were displayed in the room.

96. Both being the years when the Olympic Games were staged in London.

time of writing, this unique community of craftsmanship and creativity is being led by the next generation of the Makowers – Jane and William – through a process of strengthening the organisation to prepare for the transition to a new management team.

In the 1990s there were the first stirrings of interest in post-war British silver on the secondary market.

However, some dealers, such as Paynes of Oxford and Styles of Hungerford, had been stocking a selection prior to this. The Pearson Silver Collection was started in the mid-1980s when there was hardly any interest in the sale rooms. The first piece was acquired in July 1984 – a silver and gilt goblet made by Stuart Devlin in 1976, purely because the Pearsons knew Stuart Devlin.

It weighed 311 grams (10 troy ounces) and was acquired at a general silver and jewellery auction in Hatton Garden for £92. The bowl, which is hand raised, sits upon a cluster of flower heads. The Pearsons recall seeing one at Stuart Devlin’s Christmas exhibition the following year with a retail price of over £1,000. The Collection secured its first piece of Gerald Benney – a goblet with a green enamel bowl and ivory enamelled stem with the interior of the bowl and the foot gilded.

Made in 1970, it was auctioned at Phillips (now merged with Bonhams) in its original Benney fitted case during December 1985. It was acquired for £245. There certainly was not a great deal of such modern material being offered at auction at that time. Indeed, the collection did not secure its first Benney box until March 1992, a silver one with 18-carat gold embellishments and optical allusion pyramids engraved on its cover, each ‘surmounted’ by a gold sphere. It was acquired at Phillips for £268. A similar example was purchased at a Sotheby’s country house sale in October 2003 for £880.93 As the 1990s progressed, dealers became interested in post-war designer British silver, but the numbers were still relatively small.94 It was not until 1996 that a core group of the nation’s makers of contemporary silver decided that it was time that the new generation of silversmiths should have a voice of their own. The Association of British Designer Silversmiths was formed. The main objective of the association was ‘to promote the best of modern British silversmithing and to that end emphasis will be placed on the highest standards of modern design as well as craftsmanship.’ The supporting aims of the new organisation were, ‘to encourage a greater awareness of and interest in modern British silversmithing among

retailers, interior designers, business and above all the general public.’ The association’s first exhibition, ‘The Silver Show’, was held at Leighton House, London, over the first half of November 1998. Members also gave demonstrations at the V&A and continue to do so periodically.95 Since its inception, the organisation has staged exhibitions throughout the UK, which have also travelled to Denmark, Finland, Germany, Holland, Taipei and the US. In 2009 members undertook a review of the organisation’s structure and the potential of the organisation. A business strategy plan was commissioned and Rupert Hambro was invited to become the first patron of what became Contemporary British Silversmiths. It was felt that the acronym ABDS could not represent the organisation effectively without a massive media campaign and the association’s name in full was just too long. It was thought that the chosen replacement accurately reflected the nature of the organisation’s work in a straightforward way. At the time of writing, the organisation’s latest exhibition was staged at the V&A’s Silver Gallery from 30 March – 16 September 2012. Entitled ‘Fit for Purpose – a practical and conceptual exploration of silver’ it complemented the museum’s major exhibition ‘British Design 1948–2012’,96 which was part of the V&A’s British Design Season. The display of the state of the unique art in contemporary silver pieces were created by 52 established and up-and-coming silversmiths from around the UK. Eric Turner, Curator at the V&A commented, ‘Contemporary British Silversmiths aims to promote the highest standards of silverware design in Britain today. This collection offers supreme evidence of how its members succeed in acknowledging the rich historical heritage that is British silversmithing while equally renewing and reinventing it.’ Included among contributors to the collection were Clive Burr, Howard Fenn, Richard Fox, Wally Gilbert, Alistair McCallum, Don Porritt, Martyn Pugh and Keith Tyssen, who all feature in this volume.

As the Millennium approached, post-war silver was gaining interest. Indeed, Fay Lucas held an exhibition at her gallery in Church Street Kensington in March 1999 that was opened by Eric Turner of the V&A. More modern silver was also appearing at auction. In the summer of 1999 Sotheby’s sold part of ICI’s silver it had commissioned from Gerald Benney for its directors’ dining room 30 years earlier. Comprising coffee services, condiments, sauce boats, a pair of vases, a couple of cigar boxes and lighters as well as cutlery for 24 place settings, 53

INTRODUCTION

it sold but not with great enthusiasm.97 In November 1999 Christie’s South Kensington held a sale that featured stock from Asprey & Garrard,98 including pieces from an exhibition called ‘Living with Silver’ that had been staged at Asprey in 1997–8 as well as pieces made for the ‘Royal Goldsmiths’ exhibition staged at Garrard’s in 1993. The sale attracted great attention and, probably for the first time, modern British silver was selling for sums at auction that suggested the beginning of a journey towards sale prices that were represntative of its true worth. The auction houses saw that there was a new market developing and while some placed silver into modern design sales, others incorporated it into their silver sales.

In the early years of the new century, prices were stable.

In June 2001, The Pearson Silver Collection purchased a 1972 candelabrum by Christopher Lawrence featuring a reed warbler’s nest suspended from its five elegant rods at Phillips’ Modern Design sale in London for £2,000. Four years later its twin surfaced at a provincial auction. It was secured for £2,025 including shipping. The pair was displayed at Christopher Lawrence’s solo show at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1973. However, as the first decade of the 21st century progressed, prices did begin to rise. In May 2001, The Pearson Silver Collection purchased a 1974 silver-gilt box by Gerald Benney, its cover enamelled crimson within a white border. At its centre is a gold sunburst set with an opal. The box was offered at a sale of Important Gold Boxes at Christie’s in King Street and it was the only modern item on offer. It was secured for £925. In December 2007 its twin was offered at Bonham’s in Knightsbridge and acquired by The Pearson Silver Collection for £5,680. Initially Phillips, under the guidance of Dan Tolson, spearheaded the auction houses’ development of the market for post-war silver when he founded the Modern Design department in 1998. Bonhams and Phillips merged in November 2001 and Dan moved to become Head of Modern Design at Christie’s in 2003. Ellis Finch subsequently built the company’s interest in postwar British silver within the silver department in Knightsbridge. Currently Bonhams includes post-war British silver in two of its sales each year.

Following a referendum in Scotland during 1999, the electorate consented to the establishment of a Scottish Parliament. The official residence of the First Minister of Scotland, who is head of this parliament, is Bute House in Edinburgh’s 18th-century Charlotte Square, which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mirroring the Silver Trust that lends silver to London’s 10 Downing Street, the Scottish Goldsmiths Trust 54

provides silver on permanent loan to Bute House. The Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh, an institution founded in the mid-15th century, established Scotland’s Trust. The Incorporation performs a similar function to the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, but in Scotland. What is known as The Millennium Collection for Bute House, so named as each piece bears the special commemorative Millennium hallmark that could only be applied in either 1999 or 2000, was commissioned by the Incorporation in 1999.

The collection was made by 15 of Scotland’s top silversmiths, including Malcolm Appleby (table centrepiece), Adrian Hope (cutlery), Maureen Edgar (condiment set), Michael Lloyd (a pair of water jugs) and Graham Stewart (a pair of claret jugs). It was presented to The Rt Hon Henry McLeish, First Minister, in June 2001. It has been described as the most exciting collection of contemporary ‘working’ silver portraying the definitive statement of silversmithing in Scotland at the beginning of the 21st century. The collection has been exhibited during the Parliamentary recesses not only in the UK (Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh (twice) and London) but also in numerous overseas location as diverse as New York and Beijing, Paris and Kyoto.

Since 2007, The Millennium Collection for Bute House has been joined on its travels with ‘Silver of the Stars’.

This was the brainchild of Michael Laing, Chairman of the Incorporation while walking his dogs in the Pentland Hills above Edinburgh. ‘I asked myself’, he recalls, ‘how silversmithing, a tradition reaching back hundreds of years in Scotland, could be made more relevant and interesting in the modern world. Scotland has always been a leader in innovative design, producing lifechanging inventions. It occurred to me that we now needed to adapt the best of the exquisite design and craft traditions to suit today’s nano-second world, in which much of our lives are defined and influenced by image, excitement and entertainment.’ So ‘Silver of the Stars’ was born, matching up 10 international celebrities in the fields of film, fashion, music theatre and literature with 10 of Scotland’s finest silversmiths. The paired celebrity and silversmith collaborated with the design for a piece of silver on the scenario of ‘a drink with a close friend’. The result was a wide range of vessels from absinthe goblets to tea pots to claret jugs. The celebrities included Sir Sean Connery, Billy Conolly, Lulu, Ewan McGregor and Alexander McQueen, who were paired with Michael Lloyd, Graham Stewart, Roger Millar and Marion Kane. ‘Silver of the Stars’ is a registered charity

that benefited 10 other charities, one nominated by each of the celebrities. For full details of this exciting project, visit the ‘Silver of the Stars’ website.

In 2007 Gordon Hamme, who had been associated with the jewellery trade for many years, was in conversation with his friend Brett Payne, the Sheffield-based silversmith. Brett had recently won the major Dutch prize associated with a national silver day in Holland.

From this concept, British Silver Week was born, though the two are still arguing about who came up with the UK equivalent. Gordon outlined the format of the proposed British Silver Week 2008 to Paul Dyson, then the Goldsmiths’ Company’s Promotions Director and there was an immediate offer of support. The Company became the event’s lead patron. The press launch for the event was at Goldsmiths’ Hall in January 2008 with a private view on 9 June for press, event holders, sponsors and selected guests. At this event 30 signature pieces of silver by the same number of silversmiths were displayed.

British Silver Week commenced the following day with the work of these smiths and a further 64, making 94 in total, that were exhibited at 23 selling events spanning the length and breadth of the UK. In 2009 the same format was adopted, but there were two differences; more younger silversmiths were encouraged to participate in the event and there was a major exhibition at Chatsworth. There was a ‘House Trail’ of a dozen vintage

Above: Snail Box Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The pull-off cover of Martin Ronald Baker’s circular box is applied with a realistic model of a snail crawling across its polished surface. Its body is carved from ox horn, with each of its delicate tentacles being reinforced with a steel rod. The shell is of textured silver with oxidised stripes. It was purchased at auction in 2011 for a shade under £650. Diameter 10cm, London 1996.

items from The Pearson Silver Collection spread throughout Chatsworth’s State Rooms, culminating in the Great Dining Room with a display of a dozen pieces of silver by 12 of the country’s leading silversmiths as well as a group of silver sculptures that had been commissioned by Pangolin London. By 2012 the number of regional events had considerably diminished, but there was a week-long selling event in central London with the mix of participants changing daily.

In 2012 the Goldsmiths’ Centre opened near Farringdon station in London EC1. Conceived in 2005, this visionary project is the Company’s largest direct investment in the future of those who work with precious metals. The objective of the centre is to advance and develop art, craft, design and artisan skills in particular, but not exclusively for jewellers and silversmiths. It offers fully equipped training workshops and design studios, conference and exhibition space, as well as a café that is open to the general public. Appropriately the first exhibition held there was part of the Festival of Silver 2012 and showcased contemporary and post-war British available for purchase as well as displays of items from the Pearson Silver Collection.99 There was an afternoon of lectures including ‘Why the Renaissance of British Silver post-1945?’. It will be interesting to watch the impact of the centre on both the current and future generations of silversmiths. The prospects look exciting.

97. The cutlery sold for just over £10,000 hammer, but the purchaser did not pay for it and it was re-offered in 2005 when it sold in the region of £15,500 hammer.

98. Asprey and Garrard & Co were purchased by Prince Jefri, a younger brother of the Sultan of Brunei in 1995 for £243 million. The two companies merged in 1998. Following financial problems, the company was sold to private investors in 2000 for an undisclosed sum. The two companies demerged in 2002. Garrard was sold in 2006.

99. 10–14 July 2012.

55

THE WORK AND LIVES OF THE LEADING DESIGNER-SILVERSMITHS

by John Andrew

INTRODUCTION The following 50 chapters have mainly been based on one-to-one interviews, or in the event of those who have died, on published material and in two cases, unpublished autobiographies. In some cases information has been obtained from surviving family members. With living silversmiths, all have been given drafts so they could make corrections, amendments, additions and suggestions. It is believed that this is the first book on a generation of silversmiths that is primarily based on one-to-one interviews. The book has been designed so that a good general outline of the subject can be obtained simply by reading the captions for the images.

57

MALCOLM APPLEBY Although primarily known as an engraver, Malcolm Appleby is in fact a designer and multi-skilled craftsman whose work ranges from small buttons to large centrepieces.

“Of course, I’ve got this other little trick up my sleeve called engraving which can add this extra lustre to anything because what you are doing with engraving is multiplying the surface area and it brings out the tremendous light – it’s just magic and I’ve never lost the enthusiasm for that quality.”

Malcolm Appleby

Malcolm Appleby was born at Beckenham in Kent during 1946 and formed an interest in working with metal at an early age. The catalyst was a family friend of the Applebys, John Wilkes of the long-established firm of gun makers bearing his name. It was not only the guns and rifles that fascinated the young Malcolm, but the intricate engraving with which bespoke firearms are traditionally decorated.

Deciding that he wanted to be a designer-artist, Malcolm Appleby embarked on a pre-diploma course at the Beckenham School of Art and later studied at the Ravensbourne School of Art, the Central School of Arts and Crafts and the Sir John Cass School of Art,1 his studies ending in 1966. It was while at the Central School that there were two events that were to significantly impact on his life. First, he started a ‘mock apprenticeship’ with John Wilkes as a gun engraver. Engraving into the hard steel on firearms is a very specialist skill. Secondly, in 1964 he was awarded a travel scholarship from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and visited Scotland where he was inspired by the natural beauty.

From 1966-8 he studied at the Royal College of Art. The RCA gave him the opportunity to explore his numerous experimental ideas. This included die cutting with his first subject being the image of a cockatrice2 that he cut into mild (as opposed to hard) steel. The resulting lead medal won the Company’s and the Arts Council’s competition for die sinking. He also began his research into firing gold on to steel or iron. His pioneering Hawk Ring of 1967, which is carved steel inlaid with 24-carat gold and fine silver, is both visually stunning and of superb craftsmanship. Decades later, this piece is still in his collection. Naturally he brought his experience of gun engraving to his RCA bench and began developing 1. In 1965 the Department of Silversmithing and Allied Crafts of the Central School of Arts and Crafts merged with the Sir John Cass College’s Department of Fine and Applied Art to form the Sir John Cass School of Art. 2. A fantastical creature with the head and claws of a cock and the body of a serpent.

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new engraving techniques. In 1967 he exhibited some of his print engraving at the Royal Academy summer exhibition. Stuart Devlin subsequently saw his work, appreciated his free creativity and suggested he may like to work with him. Carole Devlin has a silver cube paperweight engraved by Malcolm Appleby in 1970-2 on her desk today.

His studies at the RCA over, Malcolm was in demand.

He collaborated with Michael Driver who had been commissioned by the Company to make four jugs for the University of Kent at Canterbury. Malcolm

Opposite: Baroque ’n’ Bowl Courtesy British Silver Week In addition to designing by making very detailed drawings, Malcolm has a more informal approach where pieces are ‘just made’ and ‘come together as I am making them’. Sounds easy, but of course the process is the result of over 50 years of making. This Baroque ’n’ Bowl is one such creation. It forms part of his triangular series which has its roots in a design exercise he set some students from a local school who spent the afternoon in his workshop. Starting with a sheet of metal, he draws lines on it with a felt pen so that it may be cut to the shape he requires. While still flat he engraves the metal with a bold and simple design. The surface is also textured by placing the sheet on a ringing bed, a large, very rusty and pitted cast steel disc with a hole in the middle that was used in former days to place tyres on wooden cartwheels. It looks like a giant, but grubby, polo mint. The textured surface of the ringing bed is transferred to the sheet of silver by striking the latter with a clapper from a bell while the sheet is on the bed’s surface. The sheet was then passed to Ryan McClean, who periodically works with Malcolm. He raised it into the desired shape using wooden and nylon mallets as well as wooden stakes. The two work together as a team, Malcolm preparing the next flat sheet of silver while Ryan works his magic with hammers. ‘It is fate from the very beginning. We’re just hoping for the best’, Malcolm sighs. Looking at the fluid form of the end result, it may appear to effortlessly curve for the viewer’s aesthetic pleasure, but rest assured there is nothing easy about making a piece like this. Height 52.5cm. Edinburgh 2009.

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its top with the Prince’s emblems. These were the Welsh dragon, corn stooks of the Duke of Chester, feathers of the Prince of Wales and the Black Prince and the bezants of the Duke of Cornwall. Unbeknown to Louis Osman, Malcolm placed the initials of everyone who had worked on the crown at the base of the orb. He also placed small animals around the corn stooks. He revealed, ‘Many people thought they were harvest mice, but they are rats.’ One should always look carefully at Malcolm’s engravings as it is not unusual to find something surprising.

The Investiture of the Prince took place on 1 July 1969.

Less than three weeks later there was another even more memorable occasion – Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon walk of 21 July. Louis Osman had been commissioned by Simon Horn, a stockbroker, to make small spherical models of the moon to mark the occasion.

Like the Prince of Wales’ crown, Louis decided to make these by electro-forming;3 giving Malcolm a press cutting showing the moon photographed from a rocket, he commissioned him to complete the engraving on hard steel in a totally unreasonable four days. Malcolm’s first task was to proceed to the Natural History Museum and secure historic images of the moon’s surface. Working in a studio at his parents’ home in Kent during the early

undertook the engraving of the Arms. The Company had also acquired its first piece of Appleby, a cigar jar made from steel with fused gold and silver. The body is carved and engraved with the sun and the moon, its cover decorated with carved, chased and engraved dog roses. Appleby still considers this to be an outstanding piece of the period. Louis Osman had also been commissioned by the Company to make the Crown for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales and he subsequently asked Malcolm to design and engrave the small orb at 60

Above left and left: Hurricane George Shallow Bowl Courtesy Malcolm Appleby, photographer Philippa Swann ‘Hurricane George is a piece to commemorate George W. Bush playing golf while New Orleans drowned’, Malcolm said. ‘I spoke about my plans to create this piece to RCA students visiting my retrospective at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2006. I explained that I found RCA work unemotional and computer-aided, work generally devoid of any feeling. “Where is the love, anger and political comment?”

The hand and tool on the metal is what gives a piece its human quality. Their tutor asked how I was going to sell it. I just responded that I had to do it.’ Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The resultant surge protection failures in New Orleans were considered the worst civil engineering disaster in US history. Malcolm continued, ‘This was a modern environmental disaster. I wanted an image of an effect of global warming. I felt it had to be anti commemorative – I saw the newspaper image of Bush playing golf without a care in the world. Although the spiral effect of a hurricane is destructive, it has a certain beauty. As someone said, “If it wasn’t for the death and destruction, a sea battle is wonderful to watch.” The same applies to hurricanes. I wanted a tee-shirt printed of it to eclipse ones of Che Guevara.’ Malcolm’s deep hammer and chisel technique used in the engraving seems to accentuate the anger and love of nature Malcolm transferred to it during the making process. The piece sold in 2009 to a private client. Diameter approximately 45cm. Edinburgh 2007.

hours of the morning, he can remember his father shouting up the stairs that Neil Armstrong had taken his first step on the moon. Malcolm has never forgotten this Herculean task, which he describes as a ‘feat of endurance bending hard steel punches under the strain’.

Malcolm’s first year after the RCA was certainly a baptism of fire. An enthusiast for hard work, he had nevertheless become weary of the aggressive commercialism of the capital. ‘I moved away from London when I was 23’, he said. ‘I saw this sort of pressure building up all around and I didn’t really like it. I didn’t feel that the essence of what I was doing was in the suburbs of London. I got an opportunity to move to Scotland for a year and I took it. I’ve been in Scotland ever since.’ He rented a friend’s house in Deeside and a year later, as a result of his post RCA success, was able to buy Crathes Station near Banchory off the Aberdeen to Braemar road. A 3. Electro-forming involves building-up an object by electro-depositing the metal, in this case gold, on to a resin mould made from a model, in this case a hard steel.

4. Held from 17 February through to 11 March.

5. 13 February 1971.

casualty of Dr Beecham’s axe in the 1960s, by mid1971 Malcolm had converted it into his home and workshop. Early in that year the young Appleby took London by storm. The occasion was Louis Osman’s ‘Gold Exhibition’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall.4 This was the first occasion that the Prince of Wales’ crown had been publicly displayed. However, the headline for the piece about the event published in The Illustrated London News5 was ‘Royal gold cup’. Half of the text regarding

Above left and right: Raven Beaker Courtesy Malcolm Appleby, photographer Philippa Swann The Raven Beaker was a private commission in memory of a family member. The subject was chosen because of the symbolism of the birds to the family. ‘Ravens do amazing dances in the sky’, Malcolm mused. If you have not witnessed their spiraling and diving in the heavens then there are a couple of short videos on YouTube by Lisa Lee Miller you should watch. As Malcolm had a stuffed raven in his collection, he had a static model to hand. He drew the design on the silver with indelible felt pen as opposed to sketching on flat paper. Although he has been engraving for over 50 years, he confessed that for the first time, while working on this piece, he pierced the metal. It was very skillfully repaired.

Height approximately 12cm. Edinburgh 2008.

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the exhibition and 65 per cent of the entire page was taken up illustrating one of Louis Osman’s latest works, the 10cm high 435.4 gram fine gold cup raising from a square base to a circular top.

The four surfaces were engraved and carved by Malcolm with a fanciful version of the Prince’s heraldic symbols.

The unnamed journalist wrote, ‘The most important and beautiful object in the exhibition, surely destined to become an historic one, is the gold cup we illustrate.’

Having explained that it has been worked on all four planes by Malcolm Appleby, the writer continues, ‘It exhibits the extraordinary skill of this 23-year-old genius … The technique is exquisite, ranging from extremely fine stippling, for instance on the lion’s coat, which looks as if someone has gently breathed on the gold, to crisply incised lines with facets which sparkle like jewels.’ The writer then mentions some of the details that are noticeable on closer examination, such as the fact that the dragon’s tail ends with a firework. Very clearly Malcolm eclipsed Louis. Louis Osman made the cup intending that someone may purchase it as a present to Prince Charles as a keepsake. Although the ILN speculated that it would be bought by the Company, it was eventually purchased by a private individual. What is now known as the Prince of Wales Gold Cup was sold at auction by Bonhams on 30 November 2011.6 Meanwhile, back in Scotland, Malcolm moved into his new home. Christine Rew described visits to Crathes Station as ‘like stepping into another world, with a magical fairytale quality’.7 There is no doubting that the converted station was atmospheric’ with the former waiting room being the workshop and the ticket office becoming a secure store.

However, Rod Kelly8 is of the view that the magic did not emanate from the building, but from Malcolm himself, a larger than life, affable character with a good sense of humour. Far more at home in Scotland than the suburbia of Greater London, Malcolm certainly finds his environment inspiring. ‘I can sit here in my workshop and outside I don’t have to go any further than the doorstep to pick up

6. Estimated at £60,000-80,000 it sold for the lower estimate, which was £75,000 by the time the Buyer’s Premium (25 per cent) had been added. VAT at 20 per cent was payable on the Premium. The hammer price was also subject to half the Artist’s Resale Right levy (Osman’s Estate had not registered). The applicable rate was therefore 2 per cent on the first € 50,000 and 1.5 per cent thereafter.

There was only one telephone bidder who bid against the vendor’s reserve.

7. Christine Rew, Keeper (Applied Art) at Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums writing in Malcolm Appleby, that was published in 1998 to coincide with the exhibition ‘Malcolm Appleby Designer and Engraver’ at Aberdeen Art Gallery in collaboration with Malcolm Appleby, 10 October to 21 November 1998.

8. He undertook work experience with Malcolm in 1980 prior to going to the RCA.

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something to work from’, he said. ‘I only have to look out of the window to see the clouds – I don’t even have to step outside. People say, “Oh, you should do this, you should do that, you should go to these places”, but I’ve stayed put and I’ve got a lot out of what I have around me.’ He continued, ‘Inspiration is a difficult word. It sort of evolves over the years from doing all these things and building all these different techniques together. I suppose its a bit like cookery – throwing ingredients in and seeing what comes out really. I often don’t know what the things are going to look like until they are finished.’

A lengthy project of the 1970s certainly resulted in combining different techniques. The London jewellers Collingwood of Conduit Street commissioned Malcolm to make the chess set that he wished to work on, a task

Opposite above: Textured Bowl Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This textured bowl with its lemon gilt interior is a typical example of Malcolm’s hollowware although, sets excepted, no one piece is the same as another. The flat metal having been textured, the bowl was hand-raised on wood. It sits perfectly vertical on its rounded base with its rim absolutely horizontal to the eye. This century it was inexplicably donated to a charity shop and acquired by a lady for a song. When her husband became very ill and funds were required to aid his recovery, it was consigned to Bonhams in Edinburgh. To the lady’s delight it sold in August 2011 for a hammer price of £750, giving much needed money during her family crisis. After all costs, a dealer added it to stock for just under £1000. The Pearson Silver Collection acquired it from the dealer in May 2012 for £1750.

Periodically the Collection reviews its list of favoured dealers.

Diameter 10.2cm. Edinburgh 1997.

Opposite below: ‘Moral Capitalism’ Beaker Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington On 19 January 2012, Prime Minister David Cameron gave a major speech on the economy in which he outlined ‘moral capitalism’. He claimed that when they work properly, markets and free enterprise can actually promote morality. ‘Moral capitalism – I thought it was hilarious!’, exclaimed Malcolm. It can be no coincidence that in the same year as the speech he launched his beakers engraved with political and personal catchphrases such as ‘No No No’, ‘Friendly Fire’, ‘Peace in our Time’, ‘Collateral Damage’, ‘Less is More’ and as here the ‘hilarious’ ‘Moral Capitalism’. Using an abstract form of lettering, the catchphrase appears unimportant to the object on which it is engraved. Indeed, from a very cursory glance it may appear to be decoration as opposed to a script. Nevertheless the beakers have been noticed. Indeed, they have generated considerable interest from a wide range of people as opposed to just silver enthusiasts.

In 2012 one visitor to the Festival of Silver, who had never bought a piece of silver before, remarked on seeing one, ‘I would really like to buy it because I like it and especially as it is a political statement.’ And she did! Height 6.5cm. Edinburgh 2012.

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Left: Downing Street Pepper Mill (drawing) Courtesy Malcolm Appleby, photographer Philippa Swann The original design with an ‘Adam and Eve’ theme.

Opposite: Downing Street Cruet Courtesy The Silver Trust In the second half of the 1980s, Malcolm was the first silversmith to be asked by The Silver Trust to design silver for Downing Street.

Requested to submit a rough sketch of his proposal for a cruet, he decided to send detailed drawings instead. These were riddled with allegory. This was the era of Thatcher and Reagan, with the former describing their personal friendship as ‘ideological soul-mates’.

Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative for protecting the US against nuclear ballistic missiles. The mainstream press derided the proposal as Star Wars after the popular 1977 epic film by George Lucas. Coincidentally, the SDI was halted while the cruet was being made. Malcolm chose an Adam and Eve theme for the pepper mill to represent Reagan and Thatcher respectively. Adam has a lion’s and Eve a horse’s head. The apple that Eve hands Adam explodes bomblike into a mushroom cloud, which is the mill’s screw top.

that he undertook over a seven-year period. The black pieces are carved steel that have been fired and inlaid with gold. Completed in 1977, it was used by the retailer to commemorate Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee. Malcolm comments, ‘My main preoccupation is with combining surface quality and form. In using techniques such as engraving, mixing metals, texturing and hammering, the decorative process becomes complimentary to the final form. The materials I use are gold, silver and platinum, iron and steel and gem stones, in particular those with character.’ It is not surprising that a diverse range of raw materials combined with a cornucopia of techniques results in an eclectic output. Indeed, this is Malcolm Appleby’s objective as he explains, ‘What I’d like to achieve is a variety of work. So that when the work I’ve produced over the years is brought together it will be so, so totally different that people are going to find it extremely difficult to categorise it and shove it into a pigeon-hole.’ He added, ‘I thoroughly enjoy working with other folk.’ Indeed, he regularly collaborates with enamellers, wood turners, jewellers, glassmakers and other silversmiths, drawing upon their talents so that his ideas can be realised.

Although his silver ranges from small buttons to large centrepieces, Malcolm Appleby is particularly noted for 64

The mustard pot has a blue glass finial, ‘partly to get the commission’, Malcolm said with a smile, adding mischievously, ‘But, it has streaks of red in it!’ As a container for the English form of the condiment, to Malcolm the pot resembled heat. During the creative process his thoughts turned to deserts. ‘Thatcher hated railways. The miners’ strike changed the working structure of the country’, he said before he started recalling the imagery. ‘There is a unicorn’s skull, symbolising the death of innocence. The pot also features a dragon emerging from primeval mud and rising to the dome at the top of the container. The dome in the base is pierced with an image of a cockatrice, a mythical beast having a snake’s body and a cockerel’s head. It could kill by its withering stare. Finally, the mustard’s body additionally features an ash tree prematurely shedding its leaves.’

Also known as the World Tree in several religions and mythologies, it supports the heavens, while its roots connect the world to the underworld. It therefore symbolises the Cosmic Axis of the universe.

‘A scorched earth piece, a prophetic piece’, mused Malcolm.

The salt is symbolic of regeneration. Its top is engraved with a double-headed Celtic god with the salt, which is a life-sustaining substance, emerging from its mouth. Towards the base there are flying salmon, while at the very bottom there is a land-sea-air mermaid ready to rise. ‘Life will begin again from the bottom of the sea’, said Malcolm. He added, ‘Hogarth came from being a silver engraver. I shall remain an artist on silver.’

Indeed William Hogarth did start his career apprenticed to a silver engraver called Ellis Gamble. He later established his own business as an engraver. There is a very finely engraved salver in the Victoria and Albert Museum made by Paul de Lamerie in 1728-9 which is believed to have been embellished with its engraved decoration by Hogarth’s hand. While William Hogarth is best remembered as an 18th-century pictorial satirist, Malcolm will be remembered as a leading post-war engraver of silver and a political animal with a wicked sense of humour.

For some unknown reason, the trustees of The Silver Trust favoured symbolism of flora, fauna and heraldic animals on future commissions. Is it coincidental that the image of this cruet has not been photographed with a view of showing the engraving to advantage? Height of the pepper 22cm. Edinburgh 1987.

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his bowls and beakers. ‘I first started work on bowls in 1973, engraved on flat discs of gold or silver which I then had raised’, Malcolm explained. This is the opposite of the conventional process, which is engraving a bowl once it has been finished. He continued, ‘Working firstly with Lou Marlow, then with Peter Musgrove9 the bowls were initially very small and thick with swirling line patterns over the surfaces. As my technique developed and changed I worked on more figurative ones. I have carved, or very deeply engraved, on forged blank discs about an eighth of an inch thick in the centre. The finished raised bowl often distorts the engraved image making once straight lines into sweeping curves flowing with the form of the bowls. Using this method, it is also possible to work on both sides of the disc sometimes causing the engraving to appear through the metal. I work out a form of the finished bowl, but the final shape is often dictated by the process. I rely on Peter Musgrove’s intuition, taking advice if the metal starts to complain.

Editions of prints are taken from some of the flat bowl blanks when this is possible, though I try not to let this side process affect the way I engrave them.’

Oliver Walston, a Cambridgeshire farmer and national journalist, perhaps commissioned the most impressive series of Appleby beakers. Following a bumper crop of sugar beet in 1981, Mr Walston decided to commemorate the event with a beaker. However, during the initial telephone conversation, the project was nearly halted in its tracks as Oliver Walston advised Malcolm that he liked his

Opposite: Engraved Standing Cups Courtesy Malcolm Appleby, photographer Philippa Swan These standing cups followed from a commission undertaken for the George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh. It was founded in 1628 following a substantial bequest from George Heriot, the royal goldsmith. In 1792 a John Stewart gave the school a cup in the form of a silver gilt mounted nautilus shell, which was believed once belonged to Heriot. Each year what became known as the Heriot Loving Cup is used at the school’s Anniversary Dinner to drink a silent toast to the ‘Immortal Memory of the Founder’.

Following discussions with the National Museums of Scotland, the Governors of the school were made aware that the cup was an excessively rare early example of Scottish silver. With security and accessibility to a wider audience in mind, the Governors decided to place the cup on loan to the Museums, providing it was made available for the Anniversary Dinner each year. The school then commissioned Malcolm to make two contemporary cups – one for the school to keep and the other for it to auction. Instead he made three and two were successfully auctioned. He then decided to make three more similar but not identical cups, which of course do not bear the school’s arms. These are the result.

Height of the tallest, 40.5cm. Edinburgh 2011.

silver ‘plain and uncomplicated’. After a long silence, Malcolm responded, ‘You’ve come to the wrong man.’

Nevertheless the commission proceeded with Malcolm being given carte blanche regarding the design. The result incorporated 48 different sugar beets with insects and animals being hidden among them. The other five beakers marked the lunacy of setaside,10 celebrated a successful lambing season, an excellent yield of wheat, a good crop of peas and the Walstons’ farm hosting the national Cereals Exhibition. The beakers were all displayed at ‘Precious Statements’, the major retrospective of Malcolm Appleby’s work staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2006.11 Indeed, Malcolm Appleby’s work has been exhibited at many galleries and museums in the UK during his career and is in the permanent collections of museums both in England and his adopted Scotland. One of the 60 or so guns he engraved, the Raven Gun was commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum, then at the Tower of London, now located in Leeds. However, the Raven Gun remained at the Tower.

Malcolm has had no shortage of patrons over the years.

A larger than life character who is quintessentially a British eccentric with a subversive sense of humour, working with Malcolm is never a mundane experience.

His first major commission from the Company, championed by Graham Hughes, was for a bowl to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the establishment in 1478 of the London Assay Office. Each one of its five scalloped sections is engraved by Malcolm with a symbolic leopard depicting its various changes through the years. It is an impressive piece – one of the ‘Appleby factors’ is that it bears an Edinburgh as opposed to a London hallmark! The 1985 seal for the Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum is of machined steel, carved, fired and inlaid with gold and silver. Look carefully and it bears an image of Malcolm’s then recently deceased cat. No one is spared the ‘Appleby factor’. Indeed, when HRH Prince Charles commissioned a cigarette box, the Prince of Wales’ feathers were replaced by three smoking cigarettes and the ‘ICH DIEN’ motto with a HM Government health warning regarding the dangers of smoking! In 1988 he designed and engraved the condiment set illustrated here

9. A silversmith who is a technician at the RCA. He has undertaken work for Malcolm for over 30 years. Other collaborators include Andrew Metcalfe, Kevin Allen, Stephen Bishop, Beverley Moore, Roger Doyle and Graham Fuller.

10. A European Union initiative that pays farmers for not producing crops. In 1993 15 per cent of the Walstons’ land was set aside. The beaker was engraved with every conceivable weed and the base engraved, ‘300 acres of Setaside produced absolutely nothing’.

11. 19 May to 1 July.

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for 10 Downing Street.12 The caption includes Malcolm’s explanation of the imagery. The following year he completed an innovative Standing Cup and Cover commissioned by the National Museums of Scotland and in 1999 a large table centrepiece for Bute House,13 as well as the Millennium Casket for the Company in white and yellow gold that is illustrated here. Over the Christmas period, those who purchase from Malcolm are entered into a draw for a small prize, such as a Malcolm Appleby silver button.

In 1996 Malcolm moved from Crathes Station to a home and workshop he designed in Perthshire. An inspiring teacher, he regularly gives one-to-one tuition to visiting students. Known locally as ‘the man with the woolly jumper’ this unique item of attire has become his trademark and was even displayed at his retrospective at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Knitted by his mother, it started life in 1964 as a plain green jersey. Malcolm has darned holes 68

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Above: Millennium Casket Courtesy of The Goldsmiths’ Company This Millennium Casket was one of the highlights of the ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’ exhibition staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall from 25 May to 21 July 2000. Designed and engraved by Malcolm Appleby, this masterpiece was crafted in 18-carat white gold by Hector Miller. When delivered to the Hall it contained over 200 packets of wild flower seeds, one for each member of the Company’s livery, to scatter in the British countryside as a symbol of regenerating planet Earth in the 21st century. The engraving symbolises the three elements essential for life – sunlight, water and air. The golden sun, which is yellow gold plated on to white, is seen casting its rays on the tidal waters below. The air makes its presence noticeable on the waves of the sea and is also represented upon the cover. The large dark grey mystical moonstone in the centre of the cover is evocative of the moon’s influence on the oceans. The gold is alloyed with a high proportion of palladium to enhance the white appearance of the metal. The base is walnut as opposed to metal. The length of the piece is 17cm. Edinburgh 1999.

over the years with varying hues resulting in it becoming a riot of colour. ‘I added curtsying tabs and thick padding around the shoulders, later adding silver buttons and epaulettes’, Malcolm explained. ‘It’s a matter of more is more than less is more.’

12. The silver was crafted to Malcom’s design by Hector Miller.

13. The official residence of Scotland’s First Minister.

Above: Appleby in his Jumper Courtesy Malcolm Appleby, photographer Philippa Swann When Malcolm’s retrospective was held at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2006, his famous jumper was displayed. It started life in 1964 as a plain green sweater his mother knitted for him. Malcolm darned holes over the years with varying hues and liberally scattered it with his silver buttons. It is now a ‘jumper of many colours’ and a work of art in its own right. Locally Malcolm is known as ‘the man with the woolly jumper’.

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MALCOLM APPLEBY MALCOLM APPLEBY THE TEACHER While researching this book, one name of a working silversmith periodically surfaced as being an inspiration – this was Malcolm Appleby. In addition to his contemporaries, those who studied silversmithing in the late 20th and early 21st centuries were also mentioning Malcolm as an inspirational source. Most of the latter had attended engraving courses in his Scottish workshop. They clearly enjoyed the experience as well as benefiting from his vast knowledge built-up over decades. Michael Lloyd, a student at the RCA from 1973-6, was the first to mention the Appleby influence.

During background conversations regarding the introduction to this volume, he viewed Professor Robert Goodden and Professor Gerald Benney with high regard. He then added, ‘I also found Malcolm Appleby, then a guest tutor, particularly inspiring.’ Like Malcolm, Michael had an interest in nature and from early in his career introduced imagery to his work.

Michael also wanted to embellish his work, but he did not take the engraving route like Malcolm, instead becoming a chaser. Rod Kelly, who graduated from Birmingham Polytechnic’s Faculty of Art and Design in 1979, took a year out before studying at the RCA from 1980-3. While he spent the summer of 1980 cycling 2000 miles round France with a friend, prior to this he undertook work experience with Malcolm in his workshop and studio converted from Crathes Railway Station. Rod had decided that chasing was his chosen medium of expression while he was at Birmingham and his time with Malcolm did not result in his altering his preferred course. However, he recalls, ‘That visit was the beginning of a truly wonderful inspirational time; he was so encouraging, engaging and full of enthusiasm. I took away with me a vision for my own work and a goal to aim for, one that I would strive towards and one that I have yet to reach.’

Many would question the last phrase, but then true craftsmen are always striving to reach a higher plane.

MALCOLM APPLEBY So what was it that his near contemporaries found so inspiring? Michael explained the impact on him. ‘You must remember that in the 1970s, silver was regarded as design more than art. When Malcolm became a visiting tutor at the RCA, he was a breath of fresh air. He was working on a chess set where the pieces were charged with personality and humour. The chessmen were far more than just design, they were works of art.’ Malcolm worked on this chess set from 1970-7 for Collingwood of Conduit Street (see above). He continued, ‘Gerald Benney had created objects that went beyond design, but these were not shown to the students.14 At the time a lot of people believed that the artist-craftsman was dead. From the 1950s it became the thing to be an industrial designer. However Malcolm Appleby and John Makepeace came along and showed that it was possible to make a living out of what you wanted to make rather than designing items to be manufactured in a factory. Malcolm has produced some ground-breaking metalwork. He has an enquiring mind … he is constantly looking for new things and he does not accept the norm. He has done a great deal for the craft and has influenced all those born in the 1950s and has been incredibly kind and generous.’

Michael of course is speaking for his own generation who are contemporaries of Malcolm. However, Malcolm has influenced most if not all generations of silversmiths over the last four decades and continues to do so. For example, to quote Oliver Makower of Bishopsland Educational Trust, writing in the introduction for the listing for Collect at the Saatchi Gallery (2009), ‘Malcolm Appleby is a Guest Fellow [at Bishopsland], a sobriquet earned like a knighthood on the field of battle. Each year he invites to Perthshire as many of the gang as can fit into his capacious workshop. It’s a week of deep immersion from which all get a fine understanding of engraving and each year come away one

or two masters in the making. As such, Miriam Hanid’s work speaks for itself. Always innovative, always open to new techniques, she has now added the delicate strength of an engraver to her many other skills.’ In essence, from his early days Malcolm has taken teaching away from an institutional environment into a functional workshop.

Miriam studied at Bishopsland in 2007-8. She recalls that during her time two groups of up to four students went to the Appleby studio and workshop. She remembers her intensive five-day period with the maestro: ‘On the first day we made our graver, which is a small hand-held tool used for engraving. [Speaking to Malcolm later, he stressed ‘It is essential to know how to make tools.’] Malcolm believes that an engraver has to master engraving straight lines before attempting curved ones. Engraving a straight line may sound easy – one really has to practise for up to two days and even for a third. Before we ventured to Scotland we were asked to prepare a design that we would engrave on silver – we practised on copper sheets. Malcolm advised whether our drawings were appropriate – if they were too complex he would suggest simplifications. On the last day we did our test piece, covering a small sheet of silver with our design, using the skills that we had learnt over five intensive days.’

She added, ‘I admired how Malcolm was prepared to stop his own work to explain engraving techniques in depth with students. He spent a great deal of time with you ensuring that you got it right. I have been back each year either to attend one of his symposiums held under the Hand Engravers’ Association [Malcolm is a founder member].’ It is not only silversmithing students that Malcolm invites to his workshop. As can be seen in the caption to the Baroque n’ Bowl, he also has students from a local school there for design exercises (see p.58). In The Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Awards (Council Awards) 2009, 15-year-old Callum Strong received a Commended in the Engravers (Junior) section for his silver belt and buckle plaque. He was the youngest person to receive the Award. When Callum was a schoolboy he visited Malcolm’s workshop with his mother and immediately wanted to learn engraving.

Malcolm said he could when he was 12 years of age. Callum made him keep his word and he returned to the workshop three years later to undertake his ‘apprenticeship’ there when his schoolwork permitted. Callum won another Commended in 2010 and at 16 was still the youngest person

Opposite: Bird Vase by Miriam Hanid Courtesy Miriam Hanid, photographer Clarissa Bruce This is an example of Miriam Hanid’s work five years after she first received instruction from Malcolm. Hand-raised in Britannia silver, the Bird Vase has been chased, engraved and carved and the birds gilded in lemon gold. Height 13cm. London 2013.

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to receive the Award. Callum then went on study for his Highers and spent a gap year completing his apprenticeship and working for Malcolm. As at 2013 he is completing the second year of a degree in geology at Edinburgh University, but he still works for Malcolm when he can. Karen Wallace started her ‘apprenticeship’ with Malcolm in 2011 and he now designs pieces for her to engrave for a fee.

In 2010 Malcolm held a creative engraving competition in association with Bishopsland Educational Trust. Max Warren won the first prize of £700 and the runner-up was Nan Nan Liu. Both had studied at Bishopsland and both had attended Malcolm’s intensive five-day course in Perthshire. Max commented on being presented with his prize at the Bishopsland exhibition at The Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, ‘It is a great honour to receive this award, especially as it is not purely about technique, but focuses on the creative use of engraving which is so important for the future of the discipline.’ Malcolm Appleby also instigated an annual award for engraving at British Silver Week in 2010 as he believes it is a useful opportunity for craftspeople to gain an addition to their CV as well as giving a moral boost. When Malcolm received a Gold Special Council Award in the Engraver, Die Sinker, Seal Engraver Senior category in 2012, he said at the presentation, ‘It’s great for engraving as a craft to see the younger generations coming up and trying a different approach to work.’ It is largely thanks to Malcolm that they do. Furthermore, he steers some clients in the direction of other silversmiths on the basis that he himself is too busy. Here is definitely a candidate for a lifetime achievement award. Hopefully one day soon he will be recognised as being more than worthy of one.

AVAILABILITY Malcolm Appleby’s work periodically appears on the secondary market, particularly in Scotland. Some galleries and retailers stock his new work. Commissions can be placed direct with him. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact details, website address and for the list of galleries and retailers stocking his new work.

14. This appears to have been standard practice at the time. Noting that Keith Tyssen and Cameron Maxfield, both lecturers at Sheffield, made a re-arrangeable table centrepiece/candelabra and that Brett Payne a student at Sheffield subsequently made re-arrangeable candelabra, Brett was asked whether his tutors had been an inspiration for his candelabra and candlesticks that became so popular in the 21st century. The answer was that they had not. When Keith Tyssen was broached about the subject he made it perfectly clear that at the time, tutors would not show students examples of the work they designed as commissions.

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BRIAN ASQUITH Brian Asquith was a sculptor, designer and silversmith whose work ranged from tools and china to chalices and fountains. He turned to silversmithing relatively late in his career, viewing domestic silver as an example of elegant modern product design. He found the malleable properties of silver particularly appealing. He received six Design Council Awards before the scheme ended in 1977. Brian Asquith died in 2008.

“Whatever I was designing, it was not about being high-tech, but about the visual qualities. I was finding solutions to technical problems through making, not being an engineer, but looking at objects for their shapes. I could see what I wanted to do.”

Brian Asquith

Brian Asquith was born in Sheffield in 1930. His creative instinct was inherited from his father who was ‘a creative engineer who made model steam engines’.

He had an artistic leaning from an early age and always remembered the first paint box given to him by his parents who not only recognised his talents but also encouraged them. Indeed, he started his formal art education in 1942, aged just 12, when he was enrolled at the Junior Art Department1 of the Sheffield College of Art. He described Mr AT Glover,2 the College’s head teacher as ‘A remarkable man. He was very open about many things and had a sense that all kinds of working were possible.’ It is doubted whether Mr Glover ever envisaged the breadth of work the young Asquith would undertake during his long career. Four years later he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art.3 His ambition was very clear, ‘I wanted to be a sculptor’.4 He studied under Professor Frank Dobson5 whom Brian found as inspirational as Mr Glover, saying of his new mentor that he had a knack of ‘making us feel as though anything were possible’. While at the RCA he also studied silversmithing under Professor Robert Goodden. He graduated at a very exciting time as the

1. The Education Act 1902 established junior versions of art, commercial and technical schools to provide vocational training for those aged 13-16.

2. GH Glover became an eminent educationalist. His Teaching for a New Age, which was based on his experiences in Sheffield, became a post-war classic.

3. Brian was at the RCA from 1947-51.

4. This chapter was written after Brian had died. His quotes are mainly taken from ‘Brian Asquith Sculpted by Design’ by Jacqueline Yallop, the catalogue that accompanied his retrospective exhibition at The Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, with the approval of the Asquith Family and Sheffield Museums, the publisher of the catalogue.

5. He was regarded by many as the one of finest sculptors of his age along with Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore.

6. The modernist architect and designer.

7. The caves, richly decorated in prehistoric times, are believed to have been painted with their naturalistic mural paintings and engravings of animals c.35,000 BC. They were discovered by schoolboys in 1940 and opened to the public in 1947, However, they were permanently closed in 1963 as the humidity generated by visitors threatened them. A replica was opened nearby in 1984.

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Festival of Britain’s principal exhibition site was opened on London’s South Bank on 3 May 1951. ‘I couldn’t believe it. All these wonderful things together in one place, so much visual excitement. It was an enormous boost to me, a great inspiration’, he commented.

During the summer of 1951 he accompanied Frank Dobson on a tour of France. This had a significant impact on both his life and work. Professor Dobson introduced him to the work of Le Corbusier.6 They also visited the cave paintings at Lascaux near Montignac, Dordogne.7 In their later life, Brian and his wife Barbara, whom he met at the RCA in 1949, lived half the year at their old farmhouse in the Dordogne.

Throughout his career Brian Asquith drew his inspiration from European Modernism and also from the artists and designers who had displayed their work at the Festival of Britain. However, before his professional life could begin, he had his National Service to undertake. He was stationed with the Army Education Corps at Colchester. A keen sportsman, he was invited to play for Colchester United.

Opposite: Trophies for Holts Products and Blue Circle Cement Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Holts Products Trophy (right) was introduced in 1979 to give a fillip to fixtures between county cricket sides and touring teams.

The five stylised cricket balls are engraved West Indies, India, New Zealand, Australia and Pakistan and are inset with coloured bands of acrylic. An image of this trophy was used in Art and Design, published on the occasion of the Royal College of Art’s centenary, as representative of Brian’s work. The smaller Blue Circle Cement trophy uses acrylic to a stunning effect. Cricket trophy height 40cm, Sheffield 1979. Smaller trophy height 14cm, Sheffield 1984. These trophies were consigned to auction by Brian Asquith’s widow in 2011.

BRIAN ASQUITH

BRIAN ASQUITH

for Dunlop; gas fires for Baxi heating; mowers and trimmers for Qualcast; stainless-steel cutlery for Denby and Viners; garden and hand tools for Spear & Jackson and kitchens for Magnet. In fact he designed Magnet’s first ever mass-produced fitted kitchen units. He also designed the first saw with a moulded plastic handle and no rivets. It remained in production for three decades. He won his first Design Council Award in 1961 for the Redfyre 35 oil-fired boiler, with five more awards in 1962 and 1965 including one for a rake and hoe that are in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In 1963 Brian Asquith moved from Sheffield and established his business and studio, The Brian Asquith Design Partnership, in the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District National Park at Youlgreave. Here he worked with his three designer-trained sons Nicholas, Jeremy and Patrick and 14 other designers. ‘Some of them were people I had taught who then came to work for me. They were a great help. Because we were making so many things at once, I needed support – but I needed people I could trust.

We had little teams working away to get the job done’, he recalled. He enjoyed this teamwork. It reminded him of After his National Service ended in 1953 he returned to Sheffield and by 1955 was sharing an office and studio with David Mellor, also a native of the city. The two were both at the RCA in 1950-1. The office was located in a former Georgian rectory in Eyre Street next to the Walker & Hall factory. Brian remained there until 1960.

Although he taught part-time at Barnsley College of Art, the rich diversity of the area’s industry encouraged Brian to explore new avenues. He envisaged his design talents being directed towards industrial design. He initially found it difficult to break down the inherent conservatism of the local industrialists, but his fortune changed one day when he made a cold call ‘in the pouring rain’ on Newton Chambers, manufacturers of oil and gas central heating boilers. Having gone through his RCA portfolio, they were obviously impressed and offered him work designing their products.8 ‘It seemed an exciting thing’ he said, but immediately added, ‘At the same time I was working on a huge sculpture of Christ for a new

8. According to Jeremy Asquith, his son, at the interview, ‘He was asked what his skills were. He replied, “I’m a sort of designer”, which elicited the retort, “A sort of designer, you’re either a designer or you’re not. Which is it to be?” Needless to say, he gave the right answer, charmed the gentleman in question and began a long and profitable working relationship with Newton Chambers of Sheffield.’

9. British Overseas Airways Corporation, the British state airline formed in 1940 with the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Limited. In 1946, two further state airlines were established: British European Airlines (BEA) and British South American Airlines (BSAA). BOAC absorbed BSAA in 1949, BOAC and BEA merged in 1974 to form British Airways.

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the days with Mr Glover at the junior art department of the Sheffield College of Arts and Crafts, ‘the walls between this discipline and that discipline, between old ways and new ways, were falling down. Everyone was trying things out together. All kinds of working were possible.’ It was not until he had established the business in the Peak District that Brian began to turn his attention to metal. ‘I started to make individual objects in metal, which were a link with my sculptural training, experimenting with design ideas and abstract form’, he explained. His first major silver commission was in 1966 when he was asked by the British government to make a centrepiece to be presented to Mauritius upon the occasion of its Independence within the Commonwealth in March 1968.

Although Brian Asquith entered the silver business relatively late in life, the fact that he was in his late thirties was not a barrier. Indeed, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths commissioned him to make a three-piece tea service very shortly after he had received the Mauritius commission.

Hand-raised, with the teapot having a nylon handle and knob, the piece has a fluid form. It was a favourite of his, which, he confessed, always brought a lump to his throat

church at South Ruislip and the two lived off each other.

Drawing, sculpting, printing, layering, it was all part of the same process of design.’ The diversity of Brian Asquith’s work is surprising. In addition to the boilers for Newton Chambers, his designs included a set of elegant in-flight china, glass and cutlery for BOAC;9 tyre treads

Above: Tea Service Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Pearson Silver Collection acquired this tea service at a country house sale in 1999. It is hand-raised and the handle and knob of the teapot are nylon. Brian Asquith advised the Collection’s curator after its acquisition that he made only two such services and that the other was in the Company’s collection at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

‘Whenever I see it, it brings a lump to my throat’, he added. It later emerged that he had also made two other teapots, both of which slightly vary, but which are very similar in design to the above.

Height of teapot 15.1cm. Sheffield 1968.

Opposite: Replicas of the Candlesticks for Chichester Cathedral Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington Brian’s favourite commissions were those that he undertook for cathedrals because they usually have histories spanning centuries with artists and craftsmen contributing to their fabric over the years and he therefore felt that he was part of a long tradition. In the early 1990s he was particularly pleased to be commissioned to deign and make the processional cross and altar candlesticks for Chichester Cathedral. They were delivered in 1992. The candlesticks illustrated here are half size replicas of the pair from Chichester. Height 9cm. Sheffield 1996/7.

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BRIAN ASQUITH

when he saw it at Goldsmiths’ Hall. By the late 1960s he was producing a range of heavy gauge domestic silver combining production techniques with sculptural texture. A common characteristic of his silver is simplicity of form and a commitment to creating a fine finish. He was passionate about the awe-inspiring scenery of the Peak District with its rolling hills and fast-flowing rivers. The texture, shape and form of the countryside in which he lived and worked influenced both his silver and industrial designs.

In the early days of his embracing silver, the Company was regularly holding exhibitions overseas. Brian focussed on these export opportunities and participated in the exhibitions. He recalled, ‘I visited and exhibited a collection in the USA, Japan and Australia. However, what were really wanted from English silversmiths were our traditional patterns. Much was the same in England, with the retail trade and generally only traditional patterns were saleable.’ 10 Undeterred, Brian concentrated on the design and development of his own ideas. The commissions did begin to flow in for sport (including the International Tennis Federation’s World Champions awards11), from Oxford Colleges, other universities, local authorities, the Company, 10 Downing Street, churches, cathedrals and from patrons, including the making of gifts for members of the Royal Family.12 Of all his commissions, he particularly enjoyed making altar candlesticks and large processional crosses for cathedrals. ‘These objects are part of a long tradition.

There have been artists working in cathedrals for centuries’, he said. He added, ‘Ecclesiastical silver should relate to the architecture – unique to the place so that it serves its function to perfection. The shape and form should be simple and timeless, reflecting the

10. His son Jeremy Asquith, recalled at his father’s memorial service at Youlgreave parish church on 27 March 2008: ‘He toured the world with a collection of silver [i.e. pieces from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ Collection] including the priceless Paul de Lamerie silver platters that he kept under the bed for safe keeping.’

11. Jeremy Asquith recalled at his father’s memorial service, ‘He met Bjorn Borg who commented, “You keep making them and I’ll keep winning them.” ’ 12. The following is an enchanting story. Although it relates to a non-silver gift to a Royal, it is preserved here for posterity. Jeremy Asquith recalled, ‘In the 1980s, he [Brian Asquith] was commissioned to design a sundial for the Queen Mother on behalf of the Victoria and George Cross Society. I think this was one of his proudest moments as he was struck by the serenity and selflessness of these men who had laid their lives on the line. He often commented about meeting Admiral Plaice who had piloted the midget submarine and sank the Tirpitz. He also enjoyed the fact that he escaped royal protocol when the sundial was presented to HRH the Queen Mother at Clarence House. The royal equerry told him to wait in the bushes until the dignitaries had been presented and then he would nod dad forward to come to be announced. All was quiet, the garden was empty until he was discovered hiding in the undergrowth by a pair of corgis followed by the Queen Mother. By the time the dignitaries appeared they had discussed the sundial, how it was made and where it would be sited.’

13. One of the Company’s governing bodies.

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BRIAN ASQUITH

poetry of its construction. Decoration should be part of the total concept, idea, construction and form expressing the spiritual quality.’

Brian has always been quick to experiment with new materials. By the late 1970s he was combining acrylic and silver. A penholder and paperweight set in The Pearson Silver Collection was made in 1977, the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. The choice of red, white and blue acrylic was appropriate for the celebrations at the time. The use of acrylic for a novelty item such as this is one thing, but by the 1980s, he was becoming bolder.

When Sir Francis Tombs (later Lord Tombs of Bailey) was appointed to The Court of Assistants13 at the Company, he was invited to commission a modern wine cup for use at Goldsmiths’ Hall. He selected Brian Asquith to design and make his goblet. Sir Francis was then chairman of Rolls Royce with its offices in Derby not far from the Asquith studio. Brian suggested a goblet with a laminated acrylic stem. When it was made in 1984, it certainly was the first combination of silver and acrylic among those used by the Assistants and it remains so to this day. It is very similar to the example illustrated here. Visually the combination of acrylic and silver is fascinating. As with the example made for Sir Francis, the stem is of hexagonal cross section. Two opposite sides of the stem are uncovered, while the other four sides are panelled in silver. The acrylic is clear, with a thin vertical sheet of royal blue at its centre. Look at the stem head-on and the bowl appears to be supported by an openwork stem: look at it at an angle and the stem appears to be made of panels of lapis lazuli and silver. Indeed, the stem appears to change appearance at whichever angle it is looked at.

This is a simple concept, but one that brings an interesting new dimension to a drinking vessel.

A slight eccentricity of Brian’s was to swim outdoors each day – even if he had to break the ice to do so!

When he was at the RCA, he would swim regularly in the Serpentine. When he returned to Sheffield in the 1950s, his swim was in the lido at Millhouses Park.

When this closed, ‘We decided to swim in rivers. We

Opposite: Drinks Set Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This drinks set comprising six goblets, a siphon and a tray is decorated with cast bands of stylised texturing that was a common theme of Brian’s domestic range in the late 1960s and the 1970s. The range was generally made of heavy gauge silver.

Height of siphon 11.7cm. Sheffield 1967-9.

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BRIAN ASQUITH

BRIAN ASQUITH

swim in Lathkill now, in a pool.’ Lathkill was the river at the bottom of his garden at Youlgreave. His penchant for swimming went beyond a means of keeping fit.

Jacqueline Yallop, the curator of his 2004 retrospective ‘Brian Asquith Sculpted by Design’ at Sheffield’s Millennium Galleries explained, ‘it is about intimacy with water and landscape, the cycle of the seasons, man’s relationship to natural elements and the warmth of a shared passion. It is something that colours his view of his work and he finds continuous inspiration in the forms and textures of local landscapes. When we discuss the fundamentally Modernist feel of his pieces he chooses swimming metaphors to articulate the curiosity Modernism still excites. “It’s a wonderful depth to swim into.” ’ Of all his collaborators, Brian Asquith had special praise for Alberto Alessi, the Italian industrialist. Brian worked with Alessi for two years from 1992 to produce a range of tableware based on Christopher Dresser’s original drawings. ‘People said, “Oh you are copying” ’, Brian commented, ‘But we were bringing Dresser’s sketches to life, things which had never been produced.

Alessi was interested in the way our industrial heritage had developed from craft skills. He saw Dresser as an industrial designer. He made links between the new and the old, between different traditions, which we never managed to make in Sheffield.’ For Brian, the project appears to have been the culmination of many years of exploration in the field of design. To him it linked contemporary design with the historic tradition of the craftsman-artist and perfectly encapsulated the very essence of the way he worked. At the end of the project Brian Asquith and his son Jeremy were invited to dinner at the home of Alberto Alessi on the shores of Lake Orta.14

designing, silversmithing and sculpture. He had a rare combination of talent.

Brian Asquith’s last major public work was a project of fantastic fountains, planters and seating in the awardwinning Peace Gardens of Sheffield, the city of his

Opposite: Goblet with Acrylic Stem Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett New materials always interested Brian and in the 1970s he introduced acrylic into his work. The hexagonal stem of this goblet is acrylic with two opposite sides being open and the other four being cased with silver. There is a royal blue panel at the centre of the clear acrylic which alters the appearance of the stem when it is viewed from different angles. The last silver Brian designed was a set of 20 of these goblets for Rolls Royce, but the company cancelled the order after the pieces had been made. The Pearson Silver Collection purchased half a dozen in 2001. Height of goblet 18.4cm. Sheffield 2000.

Below: Silver Jubilee Desk Set Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The concept for this desk set comprising a pen and pencil holder together with a paperweight is certainly a good way to express the patriotism of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, even though it is not the most practical of items for the office. Height of paperweight 4.5cm.

Sheffield 1977.

birth. Located in a square in the centre of Sheffield off Pinstone Street, they have the imposing Victorian Town Hall as a backdrop. The water issuing from the fountains is intended to symbolise the molten steel with which Sheffield was so closely associated, as well as the water of its rivers, the Sheaf, River Don, River Rivelin, River Loxley and Porter Brook that were used to power the mills of former days. However, the fountains also perfectly encapsulate Brian’s lifelong devotion to sculpture and design, serving as a fitting memorial to one of Sheffield’s own. His son Jeremy Asquith commented, ‘It is a fitting tribute that this was his last great commission. It was perfect. He was working in a city he loved with materials that he cherished on a scale that allowed him full expression. It was the culmination of a life’s work and has been admired across the nation.’

AVAILABILITY His work does appear on the secondary market periodically, but pieces combining silver with acrylic are more difficult to find.

In 1997 Brian Asquith quite rightly featured in the Company’s exhibition ‘British Master Goldsmiths’.

However, according to his son Jeremy, Brian primarily regarded himself as an industrial designer because this financially supported his silversmithing and sculpture.

The fact remains that he excelled at industrial

14. Jeremy recalled at Brian’s memorial service: ‘Each room in the house had been designed by an internationally renowned architect. The sitting room by Sotsass, the dining room by Mendini and the bedrooms by Richard Sapper. Each room had a fireplace. The table was set as we sat drinking an aperitif. Dad asked why none of the fires were lit as it was still winter. “Oh”, came the reply, “They look great but we can’t get them to work.” The scoutmaster [Brian was the Youlgreave scoutmaster for a number of years] surfaced, his head disappeared up the nearest chimney and suffice to say the meal wasn’t served until all the fires were burning.’

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GEOFFREY BELLAMY While he was prolific in the mid to late 1950s, Geoffrey Bellamy’s work epitomises the design of the day. By the end of the fifties he had become a freelance designer. After two design-related posts in the early to mid-1960s he became an educationalist. He initiated what eventually became a major part of the University for the Creative Arts.

“Geoffrey Bellamy was typical of many of the older generation at the Royal College of Art, who have not received the notice they deserve. They were determined to create a better world and forget the carnage which so nearly destroyed them all.”

Graham Hughes Former Art Director of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

Geoffrey Guy Bellamy was born in Birmingham during 1922. Both his parents were from the environs of the picturesque town of Ledbury in Herefordshire where their respective ancestors had lived for several generations.

Geoffrey spent a great deal of his childhood in the countryside that surrounds the town and it is believed that at this time he wanted to be a farmer like his cousins,1 but during one visit to Herefordshire, the seeds were sown for another possible career. The catalyst was one of Alan Cobham’s National Aviation Days, more popularly known as Cobham’s Flying Circus.2 Geoffrey the schoolboy wanted to be a pilot. Following the divorce of his parents, he went to live with his father at Hampstead Garden Suburb,3 which gave him a taste of what London had to offer. When school was over he became apprenticed to an estate agent, but was dismissed after he reorganised the filing system. Lying about his age, he joined the Air Force Auxiliary,4 which did not please his father. However, in 1940, when he was 18 years, he joined the Royal Air Force as an Aircraftman 2nd Class and served until the end of World War II. He flew Lancasters in 405 Squadron before moving to the Pathfinder Force5 where he was a

1. Information supplied by his son, Michael Bellamy.

2. Alan Cobham started these in 1932. Up to 14 aircraft ranging from singleseaters to commercial passenger planes toured the UK. Operating from airfields or farmers’ land cleared for the purpose, they provided a combination of stunt performances and short pleasure flights for the public. The Flying Circus stopped performing at the end of 1935.

3. Founded in 1907, it is located north of Hampstead, west of Highgate and east of Golders Green in the London Borough of Barnet.

4. The Royal Airforce’s equivalent of the Army’s Territorial Army, where reservists work alongside regular members of the armed forces.

5. An elite night-bombing squadron founded in August 1942.

6. In an open testimonial dated 7 August 1953 owned by the Bellamy family.

7. Robert Goodden was working on the Lion and Unicorn Pavilion for the Festival of Britain and Geoffrey was one of the RCA’s students chosen to be involved. Geoffrey found it hugely stimulating.

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Navigator with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He undertook an incredible 112 missions and won the Distinguished Flying Medal and bar, as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross. According to Professor Robert Goodden,6 Geoffrey Bellamy had ‘an unshakeable modesty’ regarding his war service, but he could justifiably be described as a ‘bomber hero’. Tragically he lost two crews, one while he was convalescing following a flak wound, the other while he was seconded elsewhere.

This would have been a traumatic experience for him that undoubtedly had an impact on his life.

After the war he abandoned ideas of becoming a pilot, but decided to study at the Birmingham College of Art, which he did from 1946-50. From 1950-3 he studied at the Royal College of Art in the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery as well as the Department of Industrial Glass.7 He was in the same year as David Mellor and his period of study overlapped with Gerald Benney, Eric Clements and Robert Welch. In Goldsmiths’ Hall Library there is a drawing by Bellamy dated 1951 for an altar cross and pair of candlesticks to be presented by King George VI to Washington National Cathedral. The design was possibly for a competition. Although Geoffrey Bellamy was not awarded the commission, he did graduate with a first class degree – indeed, he was the first student at the RCA

Opposite: Monte Carlo Silver Coffee Spoons Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington In the late 1950s Geoffrey was designing stainless steel cutlery for George Wostenholm & Son Limited. Marketed as Monte Carlo, they won a Design Centre Award in 1961. This cased set of silver coffee spoons is in the same pattern, but bears Geoffrey’s ‘GGB’ maker’s mark. A cased set has been seen with ‘Liberty’ on the lid’s interior.

Length 10cm. Sheffield 1959.

GEOFFREY BELLAMY

GEOFFREY BELLAMY

exceptional and consistently high level of achievement’.9 However, today while Benney, Clements, Mellor and Welch are well known, Geoffrey Bellamy is mainly known only by enthusiasts interested in 1950s silver.

Graham Hughes touches upon Geoffrey Bellamy in his book Gerald Benney Goldsmith – The Story of Fifty Years at the Bench (Alfriston 1998). It is ironic that a work devoted to a rival has, until now, been the most in-depth reference to Bellamy in the literature. ‘Art historians sometimes forget the social conditions that create art, and so it has been with historians of this post-war RCA’, writes Hughes. He continues by saying that the intake of diverse students at the RCA in those days were not just having fun and dreaming of beautiful things to create. He ends with, ‘I mention Geoffrey because he was different from his younger colleagues, part of the sombre post-war backdrop. His grim memories and his quiet determination must have been a sobering influence against which the more showy young new stars could shine.’ However, there is no evidence to suggest that Geoffrey was a morose figure who did not mix with his fun-loving contemporaries.

Indeed, he shared a flat in Earls Court at one stage with David Mellor and possibly Bob Heritage,10 where he lived the life of a typical student of the 1950s.

After graduating from the RCA Geoffrey established his own one-man workshop in London below a dry cleaner’s studying silver to ever do so. All his peers looked up to him and he was greatly admired by all. This was not just because he was older, but because he was an outstanding student. Indeed, Professor Goodden of the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery wrote to him, ‘you and Mellor have been awarded Royal Scholarships8 in recognition of the outstanding work which you have done during your first year here’. Writing a congratulatory letter to him upon his graduation, the Professor referred to Geoffrey’s ‘quite 8. Goodden wrote in the open testimonial dated 7 August 1953 (see note 6), ‘This scholarship has, since the College became independent of the Ministry of Education, become a titular distinction without carrying with it any financial reward, and is given in recognition of quite exceptional work to a very small number of students at the end of their first year.’

9. Letter dated 26 June 1953, owned by the Bellamy family.

10. Information supplied by Michael Bellamy. Robert Heritage was studying furniture at the RCA from 1948-51. He first worked with Gordon Russell in 1969 and was responsible for a group of furniture for both living and dining room areas known as the GR69 range. From 1972-4 he taught in the RCA’s Furniture School and from 1974-7 was its professor.

11. This location was chosen as Geoffrey and his wife lived round the corner in Cadogan Gardens.

12. Michael Bellamy believes Gerald Asprey was one.

13. Prime Warden of the Company from 1969-70.

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Left, above: ‘Nut Rocker’ Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This ‘nut rocker’ was a popular item in its day, but with a length of just 13cm, for a 21st-century drinks party it would be considered far too small. However, there is no doubting that it is elegant. London 1957.

Left below: Triangular Dish Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Geoffrey Bellamy produced a range of silver that reflected the economic austerity of the period. His output was of small pieces that therefore would have been relatively inexpensive compared to the larger work of other designer silversmiths. This dish measures 9.5 x 9.5 x 9.5cm. London 1954.

Opposite: Candleholder Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Geoffrey certainly managed to spread his wares over a wide geographic reach. In addition to the hallmarks and his facsimile signature, he stamped his work ‘GG Bellamy’ within a circle together with the name of the retailer. One of these candleholders was retailed by Assinder in Jersey, the other by Winsor Bishop of Norwich. As shown by the inset, Geoffrey’s silver may be small in scale, but it bears a profusion of marks. Length 9.5cm.

London 1957.

establishment at 35 Cadogan Street, Chelsea.11 He was greatly influenced by the Scandinavian silversmiths, as indeed were many who studied in the 1950s. Most of his output was of a light gauge and mainly comprised items such as small bowls, dishes, ashtrays, candleholders and small beakers. A popular line was his ‘nut rocker dish’. The ‘rockers’ are hand-sunk and planished and were produced in different sizes. He enjoyed cocktails and another range was ‘cocktail cutlery’ in the form of spoons of differing lengths and two-pronged forks. Most of his ashtrays were decorated with fine line engravings of fish, horses, playing cards and even Adam and Eve complete with apple. During the second half of the 1950s Graham Hughes advises that the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths purchased some of his work for presentation to visiting dignitaries to the Hall.

In the Studio Year Book of 1955-6, there is an example of a simple, plain coffee pot with a long flared thumbpiece over a carved handle. However, the general thrust of the business was the small items already described. He appears to have built up quite a retail network as we have encountered pieces marked as having been sold by Assinder (Jersey); Winsor Bishop (Norwich); Boodle & Dunthorne (Liverpool); Garrard & Co Limited (London); JW Henn & Sons (West Midlands) and George Tarratt (Leicester). Undoubtedly there were more retailers.12 Tarratt’s, then run by Ivan Tarratt,13 was keen on expanding the business and sought an agency for Georg Jensen jewellery as there was a demand for the Scandinavian maker’s work in the county.

The request to Jensen was declined on the grounds that although Leicester was 100 miles north of London, the city

was too close to the outlet in the capital. At some point after the Cadogan Street workshop had been established, Ivan Tarratt approached Bellamy and asked him to design jewellery in the style of Jensen. He was chosen because Ivan Tarratt was familiar with Bellamy’s designs. However, there was a family connection – the cousin of Ivan’s wife served with Geoffrey in the War. So, Geoffrey Bellamy started designing a range of Jensen inspired jewellery. He was quite prolific with angelfish and leaping deer as well as flora.

Christopher Tarratt, Ivan’s son, particularly recalls a heraldic series, not in the Jensen style, that was very successful. ‘It really showed his designing skills’, he commented. There was great excitement one evening in the Tarratt household when Judi Dench was spotted wearing one of Bellamy’s Unicorn brooches. The jewellery was produced at Deakin & Francis in Birmingham bearing Geoffrey Bellamy’s facsimile signature. As part of the business arrangement between Bellamy and Tarratt, a silver production company, Ivan Tarratt supported Geoffrey’s workshop financially. It is also possible that he initiated the wider distribution of Bellamy’s small silver range. So as to make the business more viable, a metalworker capable of undertaking repairs was installed so that the restoration of silver could also be offered.

Being the ‘County Silversmiths’ as well as jewellers, Tarratt’s gave Geoffrey the opportunity to design silver as there was a strong civic demand in the late 1950s. By 1960 the Bellamy & Tarratt partnership had ended at Ivan Tarratt’s instigation. For a period in the 1960s Bellamy did design a series of silver and gold jewellery for 83

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a company called Ivan Tarratt Eng Limited. This was quite separate to the George Tarratt jewellery business, though it retailed the range. Bellamy’s work was successfully sold through stunning advertisements in magazines such as Country Life and The Field. By the mid-1960s, it had begun to use other designers. Geoffrey Bellamy designed for AE Jones in Birmingham during the late 1950s and early 1960s.14

14. Michael Bellamy has a chamber candlestick hallmarked 1959-60 that is identical to those made during the period when Geoffrey worked independently as well as during the Bellamy and Tarratt partnership, but it just bears AE Jones Limited’s maker’s mark.

15. It became the Design Council in 1972.

16. We learn something of Geoffrey’s standing at the CoID in an open testimonial to support his application to a post at the Sheffield College of Art. It is in the Bellamy Family Archive. Dated 28 September 1966, it is written by Dan Johnston, Head of Industrial Design at the CoID and includes the sentence, ‘In all his work he demonstrated his sound appreciation of design and the necessity for a businesslike approach in carrying out design work with industry.’

17. The Design Centre Awards Scheme was initiated in 1957 by the CoID. 18. The set was illustrated in Design for June 1961. It was made of stainless steel and carbon steel with a satin finish and retailed at £3 17s 6d (approx. £4) boxed and £5 1s 6d (approx. £5) cased. The caption read, ‘This elegant design was welcomed by the judges who admired the way in which the shapes had been kept as simple as possible and were carefully related to each other to form a related set. This subtlety or shaping was evident in both the plan and profile views and was felt to be particularly successful in the form. All the pieces are comfortable to hold and although they are much lighter than their appearance would lead one to expect, this does not prove to be a disadvantage in use.’

19. According to Graham Hughes in Gerald Benney Goldsmith: The Story of Fifty Years at the Bench (Alfriston, 1998), products designed by Gerald for eight different companies were rejected from the CoID’s index and public displays ‘under Geoffrey Bellamy’. Bellamy was the Industrial Officer for silver and the allied trades. While Gerald’s stainless steel cutlery for Viners would have fallen under his remit, the clocks, desk lamps, prams etc. Gerald Benney designed would not have done so. As stated in the text, the CoID was a committee-run organisation.

20. In an open testimonial dated 22 April 1970 from ADH Cary, Dean of Sheffield Polytechnic (written to support Geoffrey Bellamy’s application for the post of Deputy Principal at Canterbury College of Art, to which he was appointed) Bellamy was described as, ‘a man of great integrity’ and it was stated that, ‘He has clear-cut views based on serious thought and sensitive appreciation.’ These characteristics are inconsistent with any action of a malicious nature. The testimonial is in the Bellamy Family Archive.

21. David Mellor obtained five Design Centre Awards.

22. 25 May – 21 July 2000.

23. It became Sheffield Polytechnic on 1 January 1969.

24. See the open testimonial dated 22 April 1970 from ADH Cary, Dean of Sheffield Polytechnic, referred to in footnote 18.

25. The Kent Institute of Art and Design was based across three campuses in Kent. It was formed by the amalgamation of Canterbury College of Art, Maidstone College of Art and Rochester (Medway) College of Art. In August 2005 the KIAD merged with the Surrey Institute of Art and Design, University College to form the College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester. It obtained University status in 2008 to become the University for the Creative Arts.

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After the Tarratt partnership came to an end, the Bellamy family moved from London to Whitstable, Kent.

Geoffrey taught metalwork at Faversham Grammar School.

His son Michael commented, ‘It can’t have been much fun and certainly wasn’t what he had hoped for following his first from the RCA.’ However, his career was back on course after a year. In 1961, he joined the Council of Industrial Design,15 established in 1944 ‘to promote by all practical means the improvement of design in the products of British industry’ and of course to stimulate the public’s demand for objects which were better designed. Bellamy joined as an Industrial Officer for the silver and allied industries; his job was to encourage good designs.16 In the same year he won a Design Centre Award17 for his Monte Carlo stainless steel cutlery that was made by George Wostenholm & Son Limited of Sheffield.18 By this time Gerald Benney, with whom he had been at the RCA, had established himself as a leading silversmith. He had also been a successful designer for industry. Although Gerald Benney may have joked that he had no success after his friend Geoffrey Bellamy arrived at the CoID,19 the fact of the matter is that Geoffrey was but one member of the CoID team, where incidentally committees, not individuals, made decisions.

Furthermore, he was a man of great integrity20 and would

Above: Bellamy Bowl Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This bowl may not be large, but it is among the larger pieces retailed

by Geoffrey Bellamy. The largest the authors have encountered is a dish with a length of 30cm. Width 12.5cm. London 1957.

Opposite: Seahorse Dishes Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Geoffrey produced a profusion of small dishes and coasters. In addition to bearing engraved designs and motifs, some are also encountered applied with cast ones. Size 8cm square. London 1955 and 1958.

have not have nurtured any vindictive resentment from his RCA days. Benney consoled himself that the rejected products were a great commercial success and although other designers may have won awards,21 he had the most important prize – financial success. Geoffrey Bellamy was no doubt pleased that his work had been periodically displayed at the Design Centre in London’s Haymarket and that he had three ‘nut rocker dishes’ and a three-piece stainless steel Monte Carlo carving set at the RCA’s ‘Hallmark’ exhibition in 1966 that featured the work of 500 past students. Although he does not feature in the volume 100 Years at the Royal College: Art and Design by Sir Christopher Frayling (London 1999), he would no doubt have been delighted to see seven of his pieces displayed at the Company’s ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’,22 the UK’s major millennium exhibition that paid tribute to silver made during the previous 100 years.

Following his success with the Monte Carlo carving set, in 1964 Geoffrey was invited to join the cutlery manufacturers George Wostenholm & Son Limited as its Director of Design and Deputy Managing Director and the family moved from Whitstable to Sheffield. A couple of years later Geoffrey decided that it was time for another move. He applied for a position at the Sheffield College of Art23 and in January 1967 became Head of the Department of Three Dimensional Design (Silversmithing). This was essentially the silversmithing department where his old friend David Mellor had trained during the 1940s. When Geoffrey became Head, the department was expanding and moving into new premises and he had the task of working on the project. He demonstrated that he had the organisational skills required, showing considerable understanding of the problems, opportunities and pitfalls relating to the realisation of an educational building project.24 Three years later, Geoffrey, who clearly liked academia, was looking for another challenge that offered wider possibilities. In 1970 he moved to Canterbury College of Art as Deputy Principal

and in 1973 was appointed Principal. He went on to forge links with the Maidstone and Medway Colleges of Art and to establish the Kent Institute of Art and Design,25 which eventually became a major part of the University for the Creative Arts. He retired from the Kent Institute in 1987.

Geoffrey Bellamy died in 1997.

POINTS TO NOTE All of Geoffrey Bellamy’s silver (as opposed to jewellery) bears his maker’s mark, with the exception of that produced by Garrard & Company Limited of London and AE Jones Limited of Birmingham, which bears those companies’ makers’ marks. In addition pieces bearing his maker’s mark or those of Garrard and Jones may also bear his facsimile signature ‘Geoffrey G Bellamy’ (which may be preceded by DES for ‘Designed by’). It may alternatively bear his stamp of ‘G G Bellamy’ within a circle. Examples are known that bear both a signature and a stamp. Many pieces also bear a retailer’s stamp.

Geoffrey Bellamy also registered his mark in Sheffield during the late 1950s. This is possibly when he was undertaking design work for George Wolstenholm & Son Limited of Sheffield. We have seen a set of Monte Carlo pattern teaspoons dated 1959 in a fitted case with Geoffrey Bellamy’s facsimile signature on the silk lining of the interior lid, but no other silver cutlery.

AVAILABILITY Small objects dated 1953-67 – bowls, dishes, candleholders and the like – are normally available from dealers specialising in post-1945 silver. Bellamy’s work is the most easily obtainable of 1950s silver with the greater part of his output being from 1954-9.

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GERALD BENNEY From the early 1960s, Gerald Benney’s style is instantly recognisable with its elegant lines and rich surface texture. Add his use of gold and rich enamels and it is indisputably representative of his time, but which nevertheless has a timeless appeal. Although renowned for his domestic silver, Gerald Benney was also an outstanding box maker. He started work at the bench in 1949 and retired in 1999. His son Simon continues the business. Gerald Benney died in 2008.

“My philosophy as such is to project and involve my own personal design theme without too much reference to others in the field.”

Gerald Benney

Adrian Gerald Sallis Benney was born during 1930 in Hull. Both his parents were artistic, his mother being accomplished at silversmithing.1 Although always known as Gerald, his maker’s mark was ‘AGB’ (on account of his initials), which can be confusing for new collectors. From 1946-8, he trained at Brighton College of Art, where his father, Sallis, was Principal. The Roman Catholic ecclesiastical arts and crafts silversmith Dunstan Pruden taught him. Dunstan was a member of The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic near Ditchling on the South Downs. The Guild had been founded by Eric Gill and was a semi-religious community of craftsmen and women. There was a steady flow of commissions through the workshop, and from about 1946 through to 1949 Dunstan gave Gerald practical work experience at the Guild.2 Consequently the young Benney had the opportunity to gain a real understanding of religious objects under ideal

1. In 1954 mother and son both exhibited silver at Steyning Grammar School’s Art Society’s Contemporary Show.

2. It was Sallis Benney who asked Dunstan Pruden to give his son work experience. In his unpublished autobiography So Doth the Smith, Pruden states that ‘silver smithing could not be learned in an art school, however much one tried to reproduce workshop conditions. The College was lucky enough to have in Sallis Benney, a Principal who was sufficiently enlightened to recognise this. He asked me if his son Gerald, who was in my department, could work in my workshop one day a week. A precedent was thus established and Gerald was followed by other students.’ This and other quotes from the book are by kind permission of Anton Pruden, Dunstan Pruden’s grandson.

3. Dunstan wrote in his autobiography (see footnote above): ‘I often look back with shame on the way in which I subordinated everything in life to my work. Once when Gerald was helping me, I finished an urgent job just before the last post was due to be collected. I said to Gerald, “Quick, jump on your motor-bike, and we might just be able to get to the Post Office before it closes.” With me on the pillion we tore off at dangerous speed, and going round a corner Gerald, the bike, the parcel and I were all flung in different directions. I picked myself up, found that the parcel seemed to be intact and the bike in going order, and turned my attention to poor Gerald who was lying half-conscious in the road. “Come along”, I cried urgently, “we can still make it!” and we did, but I was never allowed to forget the episode.’

4. A handwritten PS reads, ‘Will you please burn this letter when you have read it?

I am not supposed to disclose details that throw any light on the classes awarded in the Final Exams. RYG’. The letter is safely preserved in the Benney Archive.

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conditions as well as a thorough grounding in the running of a silver workshop.3 After military service from 1948 to 1950, Gerald studied at the Royal College of Art from 1951-4 under Professor Robert Goodden. In 1952, a four-piece tea service and tray secured him the Prince of Wales Scholarship. This has the small outward sloping legs that featured on so many items of contemporary design exhibited at the Festival of Britain the previous year. The service was hand-raised and demonstrates that although its maker had only been working at the bench just over five years, he was already a master craftsman. He graduated from the RCA with an upper second degree and was disappointed that he did not receive a first. However, in a letter to his father Sallis Benney, Goodden revealed, ‘He did remarkably well here, and always looked certain to do so. In fact he really did even better than was made to appear by his placing in the Final Examination, in which he missed the highest class by a hair’s breadth.’ 4 During his last term at the RCA Benney went to Ide’s, a plating specialist at Suffolk House, Whitfield Place off London’s Tottenham Court Road, to

Above, left: Mark of Adrian Gerald Benney Note that the initials are always within three conjoined circles.

Opposite: Candleabra for Lord McAlpine Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett In the mid-1960s, Gerald designed a series of candelabra with forged tapering spikes that reflected the lights of the candles. This pair is the first of the series and was made for the late Lord (Alistair) McAlpine. His Lordship was so pleased with the pair that he ordered another, but in silver as opposed to silver gilt, for presentation to the Victoria and Albert Museum. When Gerald saw these were to be shown at an exhibition in a Kensington Gallery in 2000, forgetting that he had made two pairs, he rang the V&A and asked them to check their vaults. Height 49.5cm.

The pair weigh over 6.5 kilograms. London 1965.

GERALD BENNEY

GERALD BENNEY

remembers that he was shaken rigid by the comment, but cannot recall the exact year.7 While Gerald’s domestic stock items were certainly very Scandinavian, and indeed remained so until the end of the 1950s, his commission work during this decade, while modern had but a hint, if any, of Nordic influences. His first commission was obtained quite by chance. Gerald was making a delivery of cadmiumplated nuts and bolts to Harwell. He explained, ‘I had a lovely 1928 3-litre Crossley at the time, and I drove it down to the plant one day to make a delivery. After I had gone through the normal security routine at the

have a piece of silver partially gilded. He discovered that the business was closing. ‘The old boy [Mr SW Ide] wanted £250 for the goodwill of the business. I sold my Citroen for that and bought it, 1000 square feet of workshop and no heating.’ He persuaded the proprietor to stay to run it for three years as a buttress to help finance his fledgling commercial silversmithing enterprise. He also widened the business to embrace cadmium plating (which he used when making parts for the reactor at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, colloquially known as Harwell) and chromium plating (he plated irons for Hoover ™). In addition he was also involved in designing a range of products from clocks to prams and was a partner in a fibreglass business on the south coast that made among other things, dispensers for Eldorado Ice Cream and the casings for John Bloom’s washing machines.5 Having made good the war damage at Whitfield Place and refurbished the building, the resulting silver workshop, which opened soon after term finished, was described in The Studio as

5. Having served in the RAF, John Bloom worked for a Dutch company selling washing machines door-to-door. After a while he decided to start his own business. As he was short of funds he initially found that Dutch manufacturers were unwilling to sell him machines, but eventually a firm in Utrecht agreed.

He placed an advert in the Daily Mirror in 1958 incorporating a coupon to request a home demonstration for his Electromatic twin-tub washer-dryer for 39 guineas (£40.95). This was half the then retail price in the high street for a comparable machine. The advertisement generated 7000 responses and it was not long before Bloom was selling 500 units a week, which was 10 per cent of the top-brand’s market. Production was switched to the UK, but within seven years Bloom had run out of customers and the business went into liquidation.

6. The department store on the corner of Marlborough Street and Regent Street in London’s West End famed for its trend-setting stock since it was founded in 1875, as well as a range of antiques from around the world.

7. Janet died on 7 April 2013.

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having, ‘a definitely modern feeling, of black and white with spots of colour and books and photographs’.

During the 1950s young designers and silversmiths sought to create pieces that were totally new and identifiable as being of their time. In the early years, like many of his contemporaries, Gerald Benney was no exception and was influenced by the purity and minimalism of Scandinavian design. For him this translated into a range of domestic silver notable for its clean simple lines, including a threepiece condiment. This design was commissioned by Arthur Stewart Liberty, the owner of Liberty & Co, shortly after the workshop opened.6 However, the store’s buyer rejected the order because the set was not to his personal liking.

Obviously this was a great disappointment for an emerging business. However, Benney had more success with an elongated dish he made for Janet (who was later to become his wife). She showed it to her father and said, ‘Look, my boyfriend makes these by hand and they are absolutely perfect.’ Her father expressed doubts as to whether anything a young craftsman made could be perfect.

However, after meticulous measurements he conceded it was indeed perfection. His future son-in-law presented him with its twin to prove that he could repeat the exercise. In the second half of the 1950s Patrick Plunket, 7th Baron Plunket, an equerry to Queen Elizabeth II, was asked by Lady Alexandra Metcalfe if he could recommend where to take her American friend to see modern British silver. He suggested that the ladies go to Gerald Benney’s studio and workshop at Whitfield Place. Mrs Lasky looked at Gerald’s work and declared in a booming voice, ‘This is not modern British silver, it is all Scandinavian.’ Janet Benney well

Opposite: Cruet Set ordered by Arthur Liberty Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett There is no doubting the Scandinavian influence on the design of this cruet set. Arthur Liberty ordered some for his store, but when they were delivered the Liberty’s buyer rejected them. For the Benney retrospective in 2005, Gerald could supply the salt and pepper and the Pearson Silver Collection the mustard. Gerald seemed to indicate that the Collection should have the salt and pepper. Nothing materialised and the Collection offered to buy the pieces. The request was declined on the grounds that they were too important to him. So it was arranged for the mustard to be delivered on Christmas morning as a surprise present for Gerald on the basis that the pieces should be together. Gerald was delighted, sent a charming thank you note and offered to sell the Collection the complete set! Length of mustard 9.5cm. London 1958-9.

Right: ‘Skyscraper’ Timepiece Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographed by Bonhams This clock was commissioned by WH Smith for its collection to celebrate 100 years of the association of the Hornby family with the company. WH Smith was founded in 1792 and prospered in the Victorian era by establishing bookstalls at railway stations. St John Hornby met Freddy Smith, the great-grandson of the founder at Oxford. After graduating in 1890 Smith inherited the business and in 1893 invited St John Hornby to join it, the Smith family having little interest in running the business. His son Michael Hornby was Vice Chairman of WH Smith from 1944-65 and in turn his son Sir Simon was Chairman from 1986-92. It is not surprising that Gerald was asked to make this clock as Michael Hornby was Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company in the late 1960s and guided many commissions to him. His son Sir Simon encouraged Gerald to use more stones in his work and to market the enamel work perfected in the early 1970s. The 84 enamel panels in the clock’s body are individually set in a silvergilt frame. Sir Simon Hornby died in 2010 and the clock was consigned to auction in November 2012. Upon learning that the Collection had secured the clock, Janet Benney wrote, ‘I was hoping you would as I consider it one of his masterpieces and designed relatively late in his life.’ It sold for £24,120 including 4 per cent Artists Resale Right on the hammer price. Height 47cm, weight just under 7kg (gross). London 1992.

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gate and was inside the grounds, I was stopped by a man who would not believe that I was just making a regular delivery in such an unusual car. I had to open the boot and show him all before he would believe me.’

The man was Sir John Cockroft, the Director of Harwell. The meeting was quite fortuitous as Sir John was thinking of presenting a gift to the Research Establishment and when he discovered that Gerald was a silversmith, he commissioned a silver centrepiece. The resulting piece is of circular form with sloping sides, its cover has a central aperture upon which there is a representation of an atom and it is certainly modern British as opposed to a Scandinavian object; it is regarded as a masterpiece. The trophies that followed for the Royal Thames Yacht Club and Australia’s Royal Perth Yacht Club, as well as an inkstand commissioned

in 1957 by Rio Tinto Company, are certainly modern, but British and not Nordic. Two interesting commissions of the late 1950s are the Slazenger Trophy for the National Closed Championship of the Professional Golfers’ Association and the standish made for the Rio Tinto Company. The trophy has the design picked out by 4 ounces (124.4 grams) of 18-carat gold, while the inkstand has the Rio Tinto Company’s coat of arms inset into the cover of the central storage for the pen as well, as each side having 32 ribs of 18-carat gold.

From the 1960s, Gerald routinely combined gold and silver in his boxes. It appears that the only commission of the 1950s that has Scandinavian influences is the silver and wood scroll holder commissioned by the Borough of Aldershot for the Freedom of the Borough bestowed upon the Parachute Regiment.

8. His tutor at Brighton, Dunstan Pruden was proud of Gerald’s achievement as a silversmith, but being totally opposed to mass-production (see Pruden, pp.380-7), he was not impressed at Gerald’s involvement with Viners. He wrote in his autobiography, ‘Gerald Benney, probably the best-known name in silversmithing today, but I thought it a pity that he became involved in industrial design.’ The autobiography was written in the early 1970s.

9. When the Company commissions a piece it is catalogued as ‘Commission’; when it acquires a stock item, or something made speculatively by the silversmith, it catalogues the piece as ‘Purchase’.

10. Held at Goldsmiths’ Hall from 25 May to 21 July 2000.

11. ‘Silver Turns to Gold’ by Gwyn Jones, Daily Telegraph supplement, 27 April 1973.

Although the workshop received numerous large and small commissions throughout the 1950s, the foundations for the financial success of the business were laid in 1957 when Gerald was appointed consultant designer to Viners, the Sheffield silver and cutlery manufacturers. He held the position until 1969. His annual salary was £2000, a good sum in those days.

However, he also negotiated a 1.5 per cent royalty on the wholesale price of the cutlery produced from his designs.

His four stainless steel flatware patterns – Chelsea,

Studio, Design 70 and Sable – sold in enormous quantities from the 1960s. Indeed, in the good years, their royalties exceeded the remuneration of Viners’ chairman.8 In 1957, Gerald speculatively made a chalice that was very different from anything that he had done before. We know that it was not a commission because the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths purchased it for its collection.9 Its shallow hand-raised bowl sits on a tapered stem that flares into an oval knop with an oval aperture, which is clearly influenced by the work of sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. The style is described in the catalogue of the Company’s millennium exhibition ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’ 10 as, ‘related to free-form Scandinavian silver but distinctly British’. Interestingly the stem is textured, the effect being achieved by hand engraving. Gerald told a journalist that in the late 1950s he was consciously ‘trying to break away from the long, cool Scandinavian design’ that was dominating British silver.11 The most dramatic of Benney’s work in the 1950s was the start of a series of table centrepieces, the first being given to the new University of Leicester in 1958 by its first Chancellor, Lord Adrian. These took the form of a large circular bowl with an openwork cover, sometimes with a polished gilt interior. Prior to World War II and in the early to mid-1950s, a few silversmiths such as Omar Ramsden and HG Murphy started making bowls with openwork covers. These were generally referred to as

Opposite: Inkstand for the Rio Tinto Company Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett While Gerald’s commercial production was influenced by Scandinavian design, his commissions were not. This inkstand made for the Rio Tinto Company Ltd features 32 ribs of 18-carat gold applied to its front and back and the company’s arms in 18carat gold are inlaid into the cover of the central pen recess. With typical 1950s ‘sputnik’ legs, it shows no hint of Nordic influences.

Length 42.2cm. This piece was purchased in 2011 for £5,850.

London 1957.

Opposite: Chalice Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Gerald told a Daily Telegraph journalist that in the late 1950s he was consciously ‘trying to break away from the long, cool, Scandinavian design’ that was dominating British silver. This chalice was made speculatively by him in 1957. It appears to have been his first conscious attempt to do something completely different and was purchased by the Goldsmiths’ Company. In the ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’ catalogue it was described as ‘related to free form Scandinavian silver but distinctly British’. It appears to be influenced more by British sculpture than Nordic design. Note the stem’s hand-engraved, textured surface. Height 30.3cm. London 1957.

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GERALD BENNEY Opposite: Enamelled Centrepiece Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Greatly admired at the Benney retrospective in 2005, when Simon Benney subsequently offered this centrepiece for sale on behalf of its owner, it moved from The Pearson Silver Collection’s ‘wish’ to ‘must have’ list. The cover has been constructed as if the circular discs appear to ‘float’ over the bowl. Then expertly enamelled by Robert Winter, Benney’s master enameller, it is as if bubbles are floating on a lake of silver. Its design was inspired by bubbles seen floating on a rock pool while Gerald was holidaying. When seen on a lunch table, most guests react by placing their fingers between the gaps in the bubbles. The photos below the main image show Gerald reminding himself how it was made and fascinated students from Bishopsland. Diameter 26cm. London 1974.

Left, upper: Allegory of Life Bowl Courtesy The Keatley Trust The Allegory of Life Bowl is one of two pieces that Gerald Benney designed with his son Simon – the other was the Commonwealth Mace of 1992. It is completely different to any other centrepiece emanating from the Benney studio. It was the idea of John Keatley as a commission in memory of his housemaster, who he considers most influenced his life. ‘The gilded “button” on the rim represents the single cell. It is sited opposite the entrance to the maze’, John explained. ‘After some false starts and a few wrong turns one reaches the centre of the labyrinth where there is a piece of rock crystal through which you can imagine a golden future.’ Lift the cover with its crosshatch pattern, which was Simon’s main contribution, and the crystal is revealed to be positioned above where the three bowls of its interior meet. ‘In reality you then see what you want to see’, John said with a smile. Diameter 31cm. London 2005.

Left: Bug Bowl Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This centrepiece was specifically commissioned by The Goldsmiths’ Company in 1962 for display at prestigious exhibitions overseas as an example of superb British contemporary design and craftsmanship. Its design was inspired by an enlarged image of a water beetle. The piece also received exposure in the UK. It was displayed at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1963, while in 1964 it featured in national newspapers ranging from the Times to the Daily Worker as well as the regional press.

Silversmiths would be delighted at such extensive coverage today. Its value in 1964 was said to be £1,500, around £25,000 at 2013 prices. Diameter 53.2cm. London 1962.

rose bowls, though to all intents and purposes they are table centrepieces.12 They were anything from around 2030cm in height and generally their domed covers featuring a knob were pierced.13 Gerald’s centrepieces differed as generally they are around 8cm in height and their openwork covers are flat and not pierced. Instead they are very sculptural and over the years their subjects have varied from the abstract to stylised flowers and insects, on occasions the pieces being set with gems.

It was in the 1960s that Gerald Benney’s very distinctive texturing – the bark finish – became a feature of his work.

It first appeared in 1961 on a piece of his silver by accident.

While hand-raising the bowl of a cup, he inadvertently used 92

a hammer with a damaged head. After half a dozen blows, what should have been a smooth surface had a pattern imposed on the silver. Had this not happened, he may well have continued the raising with an undamaged hammer and created a smooth polished surface. Instead, Gerald filed the hammer’s head to emphasise the pattern and continued

12. They were possibly inspired by a combination of items from the past. First, the 16th- and 17th-century large shallow dishes known as rose bowls that were filled with water upon which rose petals floated. Diners would use the resultant perfumed waters to wash their fingers. Secondly in the late 19th century when the drinking of punch had declined, the redundant punch bowls were placed into service by being used as vessels for flowers. The pre World War II rose bowls could be used as standalone table ornaments or have flowers placed protruding from their covers.

13. Traditionally cut out with a saw.

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the experiment. Delighted with the result, he produced beakers and goblets to test his ‘invention’. The rest is history, for not only did texturing work technically and aesthetically, but also it became a valued and unique expression of his skill on his own work. Emulation is said to be the highest form of flattery and it was not long before a large part of the industry was imitating what became known in the trade as ‘Benney Bark Finish’.

Clearly, texturing looks good and in its early days, being regarded as an artistic novelty, it certainly boosted sales. It soon became apparent that there was a practical aspect. Handle silver with a polished surface and your fingerprints immediately appear.

These marks, which are caused by moist skin, also cause tarnishing.

However, with Benney’s texturing, the fingers do not press continuously on to the metal’s surface, just the textured high points. This not only means that the fingerprints are not visible, but it also helps reduce tarnishing. Indeed, texturing also virtually eliminates tarnish caused by the atmosphere. Whether a sheet of silver is raised by hand or shaped by machine stamping or pressing, the process involves compressing the metal, which in turn hardens it and makes it brittle.

Periodically the silver has to be softened so it is made pliable for working. This is achieved by a controlled heating process known as annealing. However, there is an unsightly side effect – the heating causes the copper alloy in sterling and Britannia standard silver to oxidise – that is to blacken. This is burnt off with acid that leaves a surface of very soft pure silver. Absolutely pure silver is hardly subject to tarnishing by oxygen in the air. However, polished silver objects do tarnish when exposed to the atmosphere. This is because the layer of pure silver that forms during the making process very quickly wears away, exposing the silver with its copper alloy. It is this metal that is susceptible to tarnishing.

However, when hammering textured silver, the layer of pure silver is hardened and it does not wear away. It is like a toughened skin of virtually tarnish-resistant metal protecting the main body of alloyed silver.

Textured silver therefore is not so susceptible to tarnishing as silver with a polished finish. During the 94

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1980s the introduction of new silver cleaners with ingredients that slowed the tarnishing process, meant that the anti-tarnishing properties of texturing were not as important. Nevertheless, textured silver now accounts for 80 per cent of the output from the Benney workshop and of that, 70 per cent is subsequently enamelled.

The year 1961 was significant for another reason. Up until that date, Benney only had one craftsman working for him, Ted Ford who had been trained at CJ Vander. However, when Coventry Cathedral approached Gerald Benney for what at the time was regarded as the largest ecclesiastical commission of the century, he realised that he needed a flat worker to make the large bread plates. He therefore recruited Christopher Lawrence who had a high reputation as a craftsman. Lawrence started to build a team for the now expanding workshop. Benney had many patrons over the years,14 but one of the most generous in his early days was the Corporation of Reading, now Reading Borough Council. In the early 1960s Reading was a small town that had been chosen by the government to be developed into a model residential and industrial centre.

The objective was to create a dormitory town within easy reach of the capital. Reading may not have been large, but George Darlow, its quiet and modest town clerk, was determined to prove that what Reading lacked in size was more than compensated for by a show of civic pride. He decided that the Corporation should form a collection of silver. Together with colleagues and heads of local industry, several visits were made to Goldsmiths’ Hall to discuss the project. The Corporation decided that the Reading Collection should be in a contemporary as opposed to a traditional style. This was a far-sighted initiative. Mr Darlow’s idea was that the Corporation would place the initial commissions, while local commercial firms and other organisations should be encouraged to make subsequent ones. To have modern designs was not the only bold step taken: the other was to have an artistic unity with the pieces being made by one designer-silversmith – the young Gerald Benney. Coincidentally, in 1964 he moved his family from central London to Beenham House, a 52-room mansion in the Kennet valley near Reading which became his home and studio for 34 years.

A large dish contributed by the Chamber of Commerce started the collection, but it was not just businesses that commissioned pieces. NALGO,15 the local government trade union and the Reading Teachers’ Association commissioned two of the earliest pieces, respectively a cream jug and a sugar bowl. Over the years individuals as well as commercial organisations made more gifts to the collection. In many cases, the objects chosen by businesses reflected their trade, for example, the brewing company Courage gave a beer jug, Tate and Lyle a sugar castor and Huntley and Palmer four biscuit barrels. Gerald Benney’s intention in designing the pieces for Reading was to create an aura of splendour without ostentation.

Consequently the objects are restrained while being dramatic with their simplicity. The earlier pieces have a traditional polished silver surface, usually with a fine crisp engraving of Reading’s coat of arms. Each is discretely inscribed with the name of its donor. The texturing that Gerald Benney had developed in the early 1960s was applied towards the end of the decade on the objects made for Reading. It is first seen subtly on the 14. As well as the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and the Royal Family, his patrons included Alistair McAlpine, later Lord McAlpine, who commissioned in the region of 450 pieces. Michael Behrens of the Ionian Bank commissioned Gerald to design and make the silver for the three dining rooms at the bank as well as other pieces including crocodile vanity cases for the directors to take on a day’s trip to Paris. The cases contained a silver-gilt perfume bottle, five silvergilt boxes and other items. Nigel Broackes (later Sir Nigel) who built up Trafalgar House, a successful conglomerate until the 1990s, also commissioned many pieces. He also became a competent silversmith in his own right, which eventually reduced the volume of his commissions from Gerald.

15. National Association of Local Government Officers. In 1993 NALGO and two other public sector unions combined to form UNISON.

biscuit barrels and the centrepiece with pierced cover set with sapphires in square settings, both of which were made in 1968. The centrepiece, which is one of the most dramatic pieces, commemorates the opening of the orbital ring road. The Reading Collection is an impressive array of silver. Gerald Benney designed all 176 pieces from 1962 through to 1989. As it is the nation’s only civic plate to have been made by one silversmith, it is without parallel.

The silver is used at civic dinners, including one for all past mayors. Other large commissions followed in the late 1960s such as the table service for three directors’ dining rooms at ICI and a good proportion of the 600 table pieces for The Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Opposite: Britannia Caster Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett A feature of Gerald Benney’s silver from the 1960s is textured surfaces. While raising the goblet of a bowl he inadvertently used a hammer with a damaged head, liked the effect and ‘Benney Bark Finish’ was born. This is an early example of Benney’s texturing. Made from Britannia Silver, which contains 95.8% pure silver as opposed to Sterling Silver’s 92.5%. This is not a standard that Benney ordinarily used. However, being softer than Sterling, it is possibly an experimental piece. Certainly the texturing is finer than on later pieces. Height 23.1cm. London 1961.

Above: ICI Vases Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This pair of vases was part of the silver service that ICI commissioned Gerald to make for three directors’ dining rooms.

There were coffee services, sauce boats, cruets, sugar casters, butter dishes, cigar boxes and lighters as well as cutlery. Height 17.5cm. London 1969.

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By 1962, Gerald had a superb reputation. In an article entitled ‘A Handful of Silversmiths’ in the October 1962 edition of The Director, Mary Noble begins by referring to the contemporary ‘bursting of design and craftsmanship in silver’ that is comparable to the ‘great age’ – the 18th century. Her handful of silversmiths are David Mellor, Geoffrey Bellamy,16 Robert Welch and Eric Clements and she continues: ‘The fifth and perhaps most outstanding member of the group is Gerald Benney. Claiming to be in the true sense traditional, Benney is a controversial designer-craftsman who concentrates on presentation pieces; his work is bold – to those accustomed to curving lines and decoration it may appear stark, and he is uncompromising in his approach.’ When Stuart Devlin was asked in 2011 what in his view caused the renaissance in British silver following World War II, he simply replied, ‘Gerald Benney. He broke the mould. He had a huge impact. He brought a richness to silver and made a contribution to the idiom.’ 17 Gerald took Mrs Lasky’s words of rebuttal ‘it’s not English, it’s Scandinavian’ very much to heart and consciously shunned the Nordic in favour of developing a style that would be globally recognised as modern English silver. Nearly four years after Gerald’s death, the author of this chapter were regretting not having known of the step change in his approach to his work during his lifetime so that it could have been discussed with him. Just at this time, in November 2011, Janet Benney sent an email to say that she had found a letter that was of interest (from Goodden to Benney senior) as well as ‘other things’. The latter included four volumes of press cuttings. Very kindly she lent the material so it could be thoroughly researched.

The albums shed small rays of light on sundry areas.

Then a rich vein was struck: an interview article that was a profile of Gerald Benney.

The feature appeared in House Beautiful a Hearst publication in the same stable as Good Housekeeping.

Published in June 1962 it is entitled ‘Design Profile: Gerald Benney – Break Through’. The feature opens by looking at what is wrong with British design. It states that the general public overseas could not name a contemporary English designer, but could identify 18thcentury ones. It went on to say that English designers blame manufacturers for this as they will not produce their designs, saying the public will not buy them. It then goes on to say that one young designer has made a name for himself and they are going to ask him how he achieved it. The unnamed staff writer then reveals, ‘His 96

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name is Gerald Benney and he is a silversmith, who at the age of 31, already has acquired the kind of prestige that leaves him free to design whatever he likes and be certain it will sell.’ Stressing that Gerald’s experience is limited to his craft, but that the experiences he faced are much the same as others in different fields have to face, the interview began: ‘As far as silver is concerned’, Gerald said, ‘the word “English” is a must and the word “modern” is a must. The two together must be a must.

What I am trying to do, and what four or five others in my field are trying to do, is to recreate an international image of English silver in modern terms. Everybody knows how good English 18th-century silver was; they still buy it, and if they can’t afford the genuine, the Americans go for reproductions. But what we want to do is to bring the whole craft up-to-date with all the skill in the making that made the earlier silver famous, coupled to ideas in design that fit in with the 20th century.’

‘I am trying to design silver which is immediately recognisable as English. How can I explain it? Well, Scandinavian design seems to me to be particularly clinical; American design tends to be brittle – beautiful yes, but very obviously American. I think English silver should be rugged, solid, and functional, but at the same time modern.’ At this point he showed the interviewer a beaker for gin-and-tonic to illustrate the point. The House Beautiful reporter indicated that it was simplistic in design, very solid and a pleasure to hold.

Having made the ludicrous remark that it felt that it would not break if dropped and the unsubstantiated one that it did not appear to be a ‘tremendous nuisance to clean’, he or she made the more reasonable aesthetic comment that, ‘It was very English – but beautifully so in an exciting and modern way.’ The conversation then turned to the problem that UK designers faced in general and to how it may be possible to encourage the public to create the demand for new material that would give the country’s designers the opportunity to come up with the goods. Gerald responded, ‘It takes five years – at least and if you can do it at all. No new kind of design is to become a saleable proposition – unless through a fluke in less than that time in England. In Sweden, though you might not believe it, the moment anything new comes off the drawing boards, the manufacturers snap it up, rush it into the shops and it’s a sell-out. The customers study the new designs publicised in the papers and ask for them. When I design anything for mass production, I go back to the

ideas I had four or five years ago. Something I was thinking about right now would be far in advance of what the customers want. Let me put it like this: when I left college I took samples of things I had made round to all the best shops and they were all turned down flat.

Quite rightly, in retrospect. They were just not what the public wanted. If a customer wanted modern silver at that time he went to Jensen’s. Who had heard of English modern silver?’

‘Then I began, gradually, to get commissions for set pieces. Some of them attracted notice. My name began to get known. And more people asked me to do more things. That’s the way it goes. I was lucky enough to have friends at the beginning whose commissions gave me a start – call it patronage. Without that, heaven knows how I would ever have got off the ground. But the way to influence and educate public opinion is through private orders, not mass production. If I design a centrepiece, say, for a university library and it gets some publicity, all the people who see it, either in the papers, or in the library begin to get the idea of what one is trying to express. If they like it, they start asking in shops for modern silver. Thus the demand is created and the manufacturers decide to do something about fulfilling the demand. Eventually the boards of directors have a meeting to discuss all these requests for the type of thing that the customers have found they can’t get anywhere – and some new designer gets his chance. But if you sent brand new designs straight into the shops, without having created the demand through prestige work that has caught the customers’ eyes, they just wouldn’t sell. Which is why, as I said, when I design for mass-production I work on lines that are several years old. By this time they have sunk into people’s brains enough to sell.’

His centrepieces certainly received publicity in the press both at home and abroad. The one that received the greatest exposure was the 1962 ‘Beetle Bowl’.

There is no doubting that it is visually stunning, the cover being inspired by the photographic enlargement of a microscopic underwater creature. It was specifically commissioned by the Company to display at prestigious overseas exhibitions to attract attention to modern British silver that was described as being ‘now enthusiastically optimistic in spirit and individual in design’. The beetle’s eyes were formed from six ounces of 22-carat gold with the pupils being green peridots. Even more gold was lavished upon the

centrepiece gifted to Ipswich Corporation18 in 1963 by a former resident who had emigrated to South Africa in 1952, it weighed 372 ounces, of which 22 were pure gold. This was one of the largest centrepieces made in the 20th century and one of the most ambitious pieces of silver made since the end of World War II. Graham Hughes described it as, ‘a work of international importance’. In 1965 there was an exhibition of ‘table jewellery’ (i.e. centrepieces) at the Design Centre in London’s Haymarket. Described as modern silver ornaments set with precious stones, they were said to be the latest status symbol. Most were the work of Gerald Benney.

Another area where he made a name for himself was boxes. Although he had been making boxes since the 1950s, it was in the mid-1960s that he started a range that added new dimensions to the genre. Always of good gauge, the sides invariably bear his distinctive bold texturing. That is, however, where their uniformity ends. The patterns on the top surfaces are skilfully tapped in with a chasing hammer – a new use for an old technique. The results are striking designs with lines cleverly arranged so as to give a continuous visual rhythm and appear to have great depth. This is particularly so with the boxes featuring ‘pyramids’.

While the design appears to be three dimensional, they are in fact flat. These are examples of one of Gerald Benney’s deceptively simple achievements: illusion cutting. Colour, in the form of gold, was usually added to the surfaces. With Gerald Benney’s boxes, the gold panels or spheres are actual sheets of 18-carat gold as opposed to silver that has been gilded. Visually stunning, what is pleasing to the eye belies an extremely skilful technical process. Gold and silver melt at different temperatures, therefore to solder the two metals together, let alone create a flat sheet made of numerous gold and silver panels, requires not only skill but also considerable experience. One can only speculate how many boxes were ‘lost’ before the technique was perfected. The boxes were made at the workshop he had established at Beenham.

16. Interestingly the selected five were all designers for industry – Geoffrey Bellamy had won a Design Award in 1961 for the Monte Carlo cutlery he had designed for George Wostenholm & Son Limited. When the article was written he was on the staff of the Council of Industrial design.

17. Conversation with John Andrew, Chichester on 17 May 2011.

18. Since 1974, The County Borough of Ipswich.

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known studio to have undertaken fine enamelling.20 The Burch-Korrrodi enamellers had indirectly inherited some of their skills from Fabergé’s craftsmen as Berger Bergersen, its head enameller, had worked for Bolin, a rival of Fabergé. After the Russian Revolution some of Fabergé’s enamellers fled to Bolin’s Stockholm workshop which had been established in 1916.21

In the late 1960s Gerald Benney noted a revival of interest in objets d’art. ‘One day in Peter Jones19 I saw these banks of towels. They were just great banks of colour. I thought, now that is one thing missing in silver – colour.’ He thought it was time for enamel to blossom again.

Enamelling is the process of fusing coloured glass in powdered form to a surface, usually a metal one. Although used somewhat primitively from the late 15th century BC, the Byzantines brought enamelling to the status of an art form in the sixth century AD. Developed over the centuries, enamelling reached its zenith in the late 19th and early

19. A department store in Sloane Square, London.

20. Meinrad Burch-Korrodi (1897-1978) was a contemporary of Dunstan Pruden, Gerald’s tutor at Brighton. Although he never met him after his student days, in his autobiography he wrote that Burch-Korrodi, ‘became one of the greatest goldsmiths in the world’. According to Graham Hughes (the Art Director at the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and a great friend of Gerald’s and author of Modern Silver Throughout the World 1880-1967), after the Central School BurchKorrodi worked mounting high jewellery for Bond Street shops before setting platinum with diamonds for a Hatton Garden jeweller called Wachkirsch. In 1924 he went to New York and worked for Davidson and Schwab on 40th Street.

Following a spell in Paris he returned to Switzerland in 1925 and established a workshop at Lucerne. In 1932 he moved to Zurich. Although Burch-Korrodi stopped silversmithing in 1966, he would not turn a silver commission down. He sold his business to Christophi Trudel in 1967, who traded as Trudel Juwelier.

21. The House of Bolin was established in St Petersburg in 1796 by the father-in-law of Carl Edvard Bolin, Andreas Roempler. In the 1830s Carl and his brother Conrad, both of whom were originally from Sweden, took over the business. Bolin was appointed an Imperial Jeweller to the Tsar in 1839. A Moscow branch was established in 1852 and at Bad Homburg in Germany in 1912 as the spa was visited by the Russian Imperial Family. The Bolins retained their Swedish nationality and by the early years of the 20th century had a summer home in Sweden. In 1916, taking advantage of their Swedish nationality, they transferred the considerable stock from Germany to Stockholm where they established a retail shop and workshop. During the Russian Revolution, the Bolins’ Russian assets were confiscated. However, their Stockholm business became jewellers and silversmiths to the Swedish Court.

22. AAE for Alan A Evans and RVW for Robert V Winter.

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20th centuries when Carl Fabergé employed a wider range of colours than any enamellist had achieved before and specialised in enamelling comparatively large surfaces.

After World War I the demand from wealthy patrons dwindled and the art was lost to all but a handful of craftsmen working principally on jewellery. Benney therefore journeyed to Zürich to search for craftsmen who had worked for Meinrad Burch-Korrodi, then the last well-

While walking along Zürich’s main shopping street Gerald Benney slipped and sprained his ankle outside Turler’s the jewellers and Herr Turler came to his assistance. While Gerald was recovering he revealed his mission. By chance Turler knew the Norwegian Berger Bergersen and introduced him to Gerald. Mr Bergersen was persuaded to travel to England to advise on enamelling techniques. So, the slow process of reviving a virtually extinct craft began. Bergersen stayed for several months at Beenham House teaching Gerald Benney’s team everything he knew. The enamelling workshop was established at his home in the Berkshire countryside as Gerald explained: ‘You can’t do this in London you know, because of the dust’.

Experiments were conducted, not only with enamels, but also with the construction of the silver and the formulae for the solders so as to perfect the enamelling

process. Benney’s worst suspicions were soon confirmed: enamel is one of the most unpredictable materials known to man. The art of enamelling requires learning from experience rather than theory.

This is because the process requires the powdered glass to be fused on to the metal’s surface. The only way of doing this is to heat the metal and the powder to a high temperature. A slight error or miscalculation in either the temperature or the length of time for which the object is in the kiln and weeks of work can be reduced to a lump of molten metal and glass within the twinkling of an eye. ‘For two years we just had great crates full of rubbish. The least speck of dust, or a tiny air bubble, can ruin enamel’, Gerald revealed. There is no wonder that enamelling was nearly a lost art.

By 1971 translucent enamels had been perfected at Beenham in red, blue and green. Since that date, the initials of the craftsman enameller22 have generally been shown on each enamelled piece in addition to Gerald Benney’s maker’s mark. As time progressed, more hues were added to Benney’s enamel pallet. In the early 1970s, enamelling was added to the box repertoire. In addition to ‘classic’ examples of a single hue of enamel, within a white border, on a textured background, there are

Above: Enamelled Box and Canisters Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett In the late 1960s, Gerald was impressed with a display of bales of coloured towels in Peter Jones’ Sloane Square store and decided to add colour to his work. He set off for Zurich to track down craftsmen who had worked for Burch-Korrodi, the last well-known European studio to have specialised in fine enamelling. A jeweller introduced him to Berger Bergerson the firm’s former head enameller. A Swede, he had trained at Bolin, the former Russian jeweller to where some of Fabergé’s enamellers fled after the Revolution. He persuaded Bergerson to come to England to teach Benney and his team all about enamelling. By 1971 translucent enamels in red, blue and green had been perfected at the Benney workshop. The cigar canister with the blue cover is 15.5cm in height. The above pieces are hallmarked London (from left to right) 1976, 1974 and 1972.

Opposite: Enamel Box Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographed by Bonhams This 18-carat gold and enamel box was part of the Family Reserve Collection of Gerald Benney. Its cover is inset with a boulder opal matrix which, by Benney family repute, was originally cut for a centrepiece displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851. At that time it was considered the largest opal matrix in existence. In addition to Gerald Benney’s mark, the box also bears the mark of the enameller, Robert Vidal Winter. Length 9cm. London 1972.

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contemporary designs. These take the form of bold black and white stripes, an expanse of royal blue with a series of central white rectangles or gold-edged white circles against an ivory background with a distinctive orange flange, a popular colour during the early 1970s. However, the Benney repertoire of enamel objects was certainly not restricted to boxes. It extended to wine goblets, water tumblers, vodka cups, table lighters, jugs, bowls, vases, the lids of coffee and tea services and items of sheer fantasy such as the bowl of strawberries made for the ruby wedding of Lord and Lady Astor in 1985. The surfaces covered also became larger and more complex.

One of his masterpieces of enamelling is the thistle vase that was made for the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in 1992. This was commissioned as there was no largescale example of his enamel work in the Company’s collection. The vase is technically challenging in two aspects: the thistle shape requires considerable skill to hand-raise and the deep crimson enamel is also exacting technically. Gerald Benney was covering even larger surfaces than the House of Fabergé.

Benney’s work had its first international exposure in the late 1950s with the exhibition ‘British Artist Craftsmen: an exhibition of contemporary work’ sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute. This featured the work of modern British artist craftsmen and toured the United States and Canada from 1959 through to 1960. During the 1960s his work appeared in 32 major exhibitions throughout the world and his first one-man show was staged at London’s Rutland Gallery23 in 1969.

23. Located off Bond Street near St George’s Hanover Square, the church that featured in the film of the musical My Fair Lady.

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Left: Thistle Vase Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This is an iconic piece of Benney silver. It is also a masterpiece of both hand-raising and enamelling. When the Goldsmiths’ Company noted that it did not have a large-scale example of an enamelled object by Gerald, it was decided to put matters to rights. A thistle vase had been a Benney stock item since the 1970s. Although it terminated with a 4-5cm flare, it was nevertheless considered the most challenging forms of the stock pieces to raise. Gerald proposed a variant form terminating with a real flourish of a flare for the Goldsmiths’ commission. There was no doubt great relief when the ‘hammer man’ had successfully completed his task. He chose to have the lower half of the vase enamelled in brilliant crimson, an infamously temperamental colour with which to work. Alan Evans undertook the task and produced a perfectly enamelled surface. The colour certainly enhances this classic design which is a tribute to the arts of handraising and enamelling. Height 22cm. London 1992.

Opposite above left: Hot Water Jug Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This hot water jug in the post-war modernist style was part of a four-piece tea service that Gerald Benney made in about 1947. In 1949 it was sold to the wife of the brother of the band leader Henry Hall. As Gerald did not have his mark at the time, it was hallmarked with that of Brighton College of Art and the London date letter for 1949. In the late 1990s it was purchased by a dealer in the London silver vaults together with a milk jug and sugar bowl in a similar style, also bearing the marks of the college. It was subsequently sold to a West End dealer. The ‘threepiece service’ (the hot water jug being called a teapot) was then offered to The Pearson Silver Collection as being an early work of Gerald Benney – his name was now engraved on the hot water jug with the lettering in the same style as he later adopted for his work. It was acquired by the Collection and shown to Gerald. The tea pot/hot water jug was his work, but the other two pieces were made by a fellow female student. These were returned to the dealer. The whereabouts of the tea pot, milk jug and sugar bowl that Gerald sold to Mrs Hall are not known. Height 14.9cm.

London 1949.

Opposite above right: Teapot Courtesy The Keatley Trust ‘It is the most exquisitely beautiful British teapot of the second half of the 20th century’. I call it the Grace Kelly Teapot,’ says John Keatley. The Pearson Silver Collection considers it to be an iconic example of Gerald Benney’s work. When this view was expressed to Simon Benney he replied, ‘It is iconic because it sums up in one piece all that was great about my father’s designs: the texturing, the enamelling and the wonderful shape of the body.’ A picture says a thousand words. Height 14.5cm. London 1991.

Opposite: Coffee Service Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Gerald Benney produced a wide range of domestic silver. Always of good gauge, it is robust as well as elegant. Height of pot 24.1cm. London 1983.

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Gerald wanted to make the pieces for this exhibition stand out so that they would appeal to art collectors.

Deciding that the pieces were going to be a limited edition of five, he wanted a distinguishing feature in addition to a number on the base, but was at a loss as to what this could be. Janet steered him towards the drawing room and told him to stay there until he found something that inspired him. Noticing a Japanese box on a table with a sun emblem, he decided upon an 18carat gold roundel inset into the textured silver surface of each piece. Items made for this exhibition are therefore easily recognisable. Each piece is unique for although intended to be a limited edition of five, only one of each object was made. In this year a property developer purchased the entire block at Whitfield Place and Benney was bought out. A client, Alistair McAlpine24 of the construction company, came to his rescue with the offer of a lease on a derelict site at Falcon Wharf on London’s South Bank opposite St Paul’s Cathedral. Planning permission was obtained for a new workshop and in 1969 the business was transferred, now with 25 employees, from Whitfield Place to Falcon Wharf, Bankside. Again with the help of Alistair McAlpine, in 1973 Benney moved to new premises in nearby Bear Lane, Southwark.

In 1973 Gerald’s first one-man exhibition was staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall in the City of London.25 The catalogue began with a message from the then Prime Minister, Edward Heath, on Downing Street headed paper. It read, ‘With skill and imagination Gerald Benney has set a standard in the design and working of gold, silver and enamel in the best tradition of British craftsmanship. I therefore wish this exhibition of his work every success.’

Starting with a large bowl made in 1948, it culminated with a collection of silver and enamel pieces lent by Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, including silver wedding presents given the previous year to the Queen and the Duke by members of the Royal Family, the Cabinet, friends and official organisations. There was also a large bowl enamelled in cream lent by Edward Heath that had been given to him by his constituents when he became Prime Minister in 1970. Although Mr Heath survived two assassination attempts by the IRA26 after he had

24. Robert Alistair McAlpine was created a Life Peer in 1984.

25. 1 – 22 May. 26. Irish Republican Army.

27. 26 May – 9 July.

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left Downing Street, the bowl was not so lucky. In December 1974 his London home was bombed during his absence. This resulted in two pockmark holes in the bowl’s enamel. It was brought to Benney for repair, but the damage was such that a complete remake would have been required. Instead, Mr Heath was persuaded to preserve the holes as part of British history, so they remain there to this day.

The patronage of the Royal Family manifested itself in Royal Warrants. Indeed, Gerald Benney was the first British craftsman to hold four. The first was granted in 1974 when Her Majesty the Queen appointed him ‘goldsmith and silversmith’. HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother did the same the following year with HRH the Prince of Above: Box with Gold Roundel Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Gerald’s first one-man exhibition was held at London’s Rutland Gallery in 1969. He decided that no more than five pieces of each item would be made and that there would be a common distinguishing feature on each one. He could not decide what this would be, so his wife locked him in the drawing room until he decided. Noticing a sun emblem on a Japanese box, he decided that it would be an 18-carat gold roundel. In fact, only one piece of each item was ever made. The price for this box in the 1969 catalogue was £850. It sold at auction in 2005 for £1,667. Length 27.6cm. London 1969.

Opposite: Group of Boxes Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett With boxes, Gerald added a new dimension to the genre. Back row from left to right: A plain silver box, length 15.4cm, London 1958; The feather box, length 17.9cm, London 1966; Dark green and white enamel stripes, length 15cm, London 1970. Second row from left right: Silver and 18-carat gold, the cover with allusion engraving of pyramids, a gold sphere set at the top of each ‘apex’, length 9.65cm, London 1967; One of a pair in enamel, an opal set in an 18-carat gold sunburst and silver gilt, length 12.7cm, London 1974; An 18-carat gold and silver box purchased in 2011 for £4,340, length 10cm, London 1970. Front group from left to right: Silver-gilt and enamel circular box, purchased in 2010 for £3,952, diameter 4.8cm, London 1973; Small silver and enamel box, diameter 3.6cm, London 1989; Silver-gilt and enamel eye-shaped box, purchased in 2010 for £3,828, length 10.1cm, London 1973.

Wales making the grant in 1980. However, he had been making objects either for, or to be presented to, the Royal Family long before he became a warrant holder.

Indeed, one of his earliest commissions was to design a scroll holder for presentation to HRH Prince Phillip in 1956 by the Institution of Electrical Engineers. Prince Phillip was the first member of the Royal Family to make a direct purchase. His choice was a silver box, as indeed later was HM Queen Elizabeth II’s first direct acquisition.

The late Queen Mother was an ardent fan and even visited the workshop at Bear Lane. The late Princess Margaret accompanied by her then husband Lord Snowdon opened his exhibition at the Rutland Gallery in 1979, while HRH Princess Michael of Kent opened his second exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2005.27 In 1973 Gerald Benney was flattered to be approached

by Professor Robert Goodden, whose retirement from the RCA was scheduled for the following year, to ask if he was interested in the position. Business was booming and taking up a teaching position was not on his horizon, so he declined. However, Professor Goodden was not to be fobbed off so lightly and he ventured from the college to visit Gerald at his workshop in Bear Lane. By way of compromise, and no doubt feeling that his proposal would be dismissed by the powers at the college, Gerald accepted, but limited his participation to just a couple of days a week. While no doubt not considered ideal, Professor Gooden certainly did not dismiss the proposal. Indeed, he accepted it, subject to an interview with Hans Juda, a publisher who was a

senior fellow at the RCA with considerable influence at the college. In due course, Gerald was summoned for an interview with Juda. However, much to his dismay, he found himself waiting with half a dozen of his peers summoned for the same purpose. When it was his turn to be interviewed, Gerald found a dozen high-powered aesthetes, one of whom was David Mellor, a contemporary of his at the RCA years previously. Juda started with ‘Well Gerald, what would you do if you were appointed?’ Typically Gerald was direct and responded that he had no idea as he had left the RCA 20 years previously and had never been back. He certainly made it clear that he could not spare a full week teaching, but may be able to squeeze in 2½ days.

He returned home disappointed as secretly the idea of being a professor was beginning to appeal to him. Much to his surprise, two days later he received a letter from the RCA’s Registrar appointing him to the Chair. He remained at the RCA from 1974 through to 1983. He treated his students as friends and remained in touch with many for the rest of his life.

In common with all of those involved with a luxury trade, Gerald Benney’s buoyant business suffered in the mid1970s. Initially there was an economic malaise with double-figure inflation and industrial unrest as a result of the government capping pay rises. Then came another blow. In 1973 the UK joined the European Economic Community, now known as the European Union and as a consequence, VAT was introduced. Denis Healey’s budget of July 1974 introduced a luxury category of VAT with a 12.5 103

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puzzling. In an interview Gerald gave the Evening Standard in 1977,30 it was stated that in 1973 Mr Benney had 20 craftsman working for him in London and Beenham. The journalist quotes Gerald: ‘All I had time to do was design. I wanted time to make as well and felt the workshops were getting too big to personally control the quality of the work.’ The feature then states that it was the introduction of VAT (and presumably more so its luxury rate) that forced the closure of the London operations.

While this may have been a factor, it would appear that the overriding one was that he wanted to be in charge of quality control and this was only possible, given his chair at the RCA, if he had only one workshop. Given that he was at the RCA two or more days a week, it made sense if this was based at his home. Gerald did invite his craftsmen to resume working for him, but this time at Beenham as opposed to London. Seven did respond, but the others found it problematic to make the move to Berkshire. Some of his former craftsmen he never saw again. In 1977 the London workshop was placed on the market and another silversmith, Grant Macdonald, moved in that November.

per cent per cent rate.28 In his so-called ‘rough and ready’ budget of November 1974 this rate was doubled to a crippling 25 per cent. Furthermore, the rates on the Bear Lane workshop rose from £500 to £7000 in the space of two years. In his book on Gerald, Graham Hughes29 states that the VAT was ‘almost a killer for Gerald, and for many skilled producers like him’. He continued, ‘He managed to survive for a year with nineteen staff working normally, but by 1974 he realised something had to give, and that something was his team of craftsmen. He stopped making stock – there were almost no sales then – he paid redundancy to his staff, and moved everything to his huge new home at Beenham near Reading. He allowed his qualified craftsmen to retain their tools in the hope that when tax was reduced to more bearable levels, these craftsmen would return to him as self-employed outworkers.’ The luxury rate of VAT was reduced in 1976 to 12.5 per cent. Graham concluded that ‘the [VAT] wound had been deep and the damage to Gerald, as to British silversmithing generally, had gone too far.’ None of the other silversmiths who were working in the 1970s mentioned VAT and its dramatic impact upon Gerald was

Above: Enamel Goblet Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This was the first piece by Benney that the Collection secured. The porter at Phillips rang to say ‘there is a piece of that strange silver you like in today’s auction’. It was described as ‘having a green bowl – you’ll like it’. It was bought unseen, but we certainly did like it. An early piece of enamel work from the Benney workshop, its surface is reasonably large, so it is an ambitious piece for newcomers to the world of enamel. Enamelling requires learning from experience rather than theory. It is one of the most unpredictable materials known to man. The slightest of errors regarding the kiln’s temperature, or the length of time an object is left within it, and instead of an objet d’art, one has a lump of molten metal and glass. ‘For two years we just had great grates full of rubbish. The least speck of dust, or a tiny air bubble, can ruin enamel’, Gerald Benney recalled. No wonder the art of enamelling nearly became lost. Height 13.2cm. London 1970.

28. The standard rate of VAT was decreased from 10 to 8 per cent.

29. Gerald Benney Goldsmith: The Story of Fifty Years at the Bench by Graham Hughes (Alfriston, 1998).

30. ‘Busy year’s silver lining’, 30 March 1977.

31. Her Majesty chose that the funds raised by the appeal should be used to support young people and, in particular, on encouraging and helping young people to serve others of all ages in the community.

32. On 27 August 1977, 15 boats started from Southampton and all completed the race. The winner was the maxi ketch Flyer skippered by the Dutchman Cornelis van Rietschoten.

Opposite: Court Cup Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This is Gerald Benney’s Court Cup. Although not visually the most impressive of his enamel work, it is considered to be one of his masterpieces as the enamel technique employed is known as champlevé and is technically one of the most difficult. The enamel is placed in recesses on the metal’s surface with a vertical side opposite a sloping one. The cup bears the marks of Alan Evans who made it and Gerald Benney who both designed and enamelled it. The engraving was undertaken by Malcolm Long. Height 8.8cm. London 1981.

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Although one encounters less Benney silver made from 1975 through to 1976, from the following year onwards the workshop at Beenham was very active. The output may not

have been as great as in the halcyon days of the 1960s and early 1970s, but all had not been lost. Indeed, 1977 was the year of the HM Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee. The Benney workshop was appointed official silversmith to the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Appeal31 and supplied shields and three sizes of trophies of conical form that could be ordered by the organisations helping with the appeal. He was also commissioned to make the trophy for the 1977-8 Whitbread Round the World Race.32 This was a large piece comprising the silhouettes of three yachts on an abstract sea-swirl. The Jubilee prompted City livery companies to commission a loving cup, a large set of goblets and a centrepiece.

Carrington & Co. the Regent Street jewellers and retailers of silverware, commissioned a complete 130-piece dinner service. In the early 1980s, the pièce de résistance of the workshop’s enamelling was produced. Gerald Benney became a Freeman of the Company in 1958 and was elected a Liveryman in 1966. He served on the Court of Assistants from 1981 until he resigned in 1984. It is the custom at Goldsmiths’ Hall for members of the Court to be given a sum of money to commission a silver wine cup for their personal use at the Hall. Naturally Benney decided to design his own.

Made in his workshop, it was engraved by Malcolm Long, one of Britain’s finest engravers, and enamelled by Alan Evans at Beenham. It is considered to be one of his masterpieces as the enamel technique employed is one of the most difficult. Its surface has green champlevé enamel mantling flowing from the Company’s heraldic crest of the demi-virgin. Gerald Benney likens these recesses to a ha-ha in a garden – with a wall on one side and a gentle slope on the other. The enamel settles easily into the deep side, but on the shallow side it tends to move towards the centre and can move back on itself forming a sphere. It should be no surprise to learn that this is the trickiest enamelling that the Benney workshop has ever attempted. While the cup was for his exclusive use, each year many people use one of the numerous pieces of Benney silver that the Company owns.

In 1987 he won the Company’s competition to make fifty 11piece place settings of cutlery for use at their luncheons. The pieces, which are perfectly balanced, are a delight to hold.

In 1994 Gerald Benney, together with his son Simon, opened a retail showroom in Knightsbridge, London. Following Gerald’s retirement in 1999, Simon continued designing and making silver and now has a London office and a workshop in Wiltshire. At A celebration of the life of Professor Gerald Benney CBE RDI held in Southwark Cathedral on 30 October 2008, Grant Macdonald, the then Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths said in the Eulogy, ‘Gerald never did a job well – it had to be excellent.’

AVAILABILITY Gerald Benney was prolific with his output of silver.

Indeed, in his words, ‘We worked like maniacs’. A wide range of his objects appear at auction periodically and dealers who specialise in post-war British silver normally have some pieces in stock. However, all his 1950s silver is quite scarce in the secondary market.

His most prolific period was during the first half of the 1970s up to and including 1974.

His son Simon Benney carries on the business, selling stock items and undertaking commissions. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact and website details.

His stainless steel cutlery is usually available on eBay as single items, in boxed sets or as cased canteens.

WARNING Mark of Albert George Brooker Note that Gerald Benney’s mark appears within three conjoined overlapping circles. A common error by dealers and auction houses is to mistake Brooker’s mark – which has the same initials within a rectangle – with Gerald Benney’s mark. Brooker registered his mark in 1945 and was still active in the early 1960s. He produced high quality work, but his style is completely different from Gerald Benney’s.

FURTHER READING Gerald Benney Goldsmith: The Story of Fifty Years at the Bench by Graham Hughes (Hardback, Alfriston 1998; paperback 2005)

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MICHAEL BOLTON Incredibly, Michael Bolton, who was both a silversmith and a jeweller, was entirely self-taught while in his thirties. He once described his style as ‘medieval art nouveau’. While certainly inspired by the medieval period, his pieces were also influenced by the magic and aura of Celtic, Roman and Anglo Saxon metalwork, the romanticism of the King Arthur legends and the ethics and ideology of the late 19th- and early 20th-century British Arts and Crafts Movement. The result has an earthy medievalism that is instantly recognisable.

Michael died in 2005.

Bolton had a natural flair for fabricating silver and a strong determination to succeed. He mastered the mysteries of the silversmiths’ craft, developed his natural talent for design and registered his mark at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

Peter Jenkins A former Clerk of the Goldsmiths’ Company

Michael Allen Bolton was born in Hammersmith, west London in 1938. The following year upon the outbreak of World War II, his family moved to Downham in south London where he was subsequently brought up. Leaving school with modest qualifications, he was told he was not artistic enough to go to art college. Initially he worked as a clerk in a shipping company and then for American Express (Amex) where he undertook a similar role. In 1969 Amex sold the business and the new owners offered him a new contract or a ‘golden handshake’ of £350. ‘I’d started to make pots at evening classes and thought to myself, “it’s now or never” ’, he recalled and established a pottery studio in a friend’s disused chicken shed near his home in Biggin Hill. Unfortunately the friend sold the land on which it was built six months later. Offered a part-time post teaching ceramics at Hammersmith School of Art, he would no doubt have remained a teacher had it not been for an event in 1970.

In his words, ‘One afternoon I went into the V&A [Victoria and Albert Museum] to shelter from the rain and my life changed totally. There was a retrospective exhibition of Gerda Flockinger’s jewellery. As I entered I said to myself, “I’ve found it, I’ve actually found it.” ’ The exhibition changed his life. Having purchased a copy of Pitman’s Silver Work and Silver Soldering, he taught himself how to make jewellery. In the Christmas of that year he presented his wife Margaret with his first collection, which she still has; the pieces were soldered with lead solder as he was not confident to use silver solder. In 1975 he gave up his teaching post and exhibited at his first ‘Loot’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall. However, 106

it was not long before he was adding small silver objects to his repertoire. Although he was introduced to metalwork through jewellery, it was as a silversmith that he made his name. Nevertheless, he more or less split his time 50:50 between making silver objects and jewellery.

The silversmith Martyn Pugh recalls first seeing Michael’s work at the Spring Fair at Birmingham in the early 1980s.

‘His work stood out like a beacon as it was clearly not mass-produced and definitely not modernist. I confess, I didn’t understand it.’ However, he did not encounter Michael until the first Goldsmiths’ Fair in 1983, ‘I met the man and then it all fell into place. The work was him – beaten, knobbly, decorated and above all, enthusiastic. His “goodies” as he called them, could only have been created by this big, cuddly Viking who beamed down at me with twinkling eyes and a smile in his voice.’ Michael indeed was a larger than life character, a gentle giant who, according to Martyn, ‘loved beating hell out of silver’. His

Opposite: Davy Jones’s Locker Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This amazing fantasy piece is called Davy Jones’s Locker. Its exterior is applied in high relief with a plethora of underwater creatures including fish, plankton and starfish swimming in and out of shells and seaweed, while a crab guards the chained lid that fastens with a padlock. It is set with cabochon garnets and moonstones. The interior contains Neptune’s Trident, an anchor and a ‘piece of eight’. Michael made it speculatively in admiration of Peter Carl Fabergé. It was sold at Goldsmiths’ Fair in 1994 for £2,850. It was secured in April 2000 from Sotheby’s former internet auction site for £1,430. It is a magnificent piece, which clearly was not appreciated as the new Millennium dawned. Height 11.4cm. London 1989.

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style is very distinctive and consequently most of his work is instantly recognisable as being by his hand. It has an earthy medieval feel. His personal statement in Who’s Who in Gold and Silver contained an excellent paragraph regarding the source of his inspiration, ‘In designing and handmaking I draw my inspiration from the strength, visual impact and theatricality of medieval metalwork in all its various forms, together with the ethics of the early 20th-century British Arts and Crafts Movement tinged with the romanticism of the King Arthur Legends.’ A further insight into the ‘Michael Bolton style’ is gleaned from the catalogue for the ‘Contemporary Silver Tableware’ exhibition staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1996 where Michael displayed a range of cutlery with a decidedly ‘medieval look’. The cataloguer wrote, ‘His work in silver and gold is inspired by the magic and aura of Celtic, Roman and Anglo Saxon metalwork, the romanticism of the King Arthur legends, and the ethics and ideology of the late 19th- and early 20th-century British Arts and Crafts Movement.’ Michael has also described his style as ‘medieval art nouveau’.

Michael was very much a ‘hands-on’ silversmith. ‘I enjoy working on a one-to-one basis with my clients in the hope that they get as much joy from the creative process as I do. I work for the most part by hand directly into sterling silver and high carat golds, using

1. Margaret Bolton advises that Michael hardly ever worked to technical drawings. If pressed for one he would always say, ‘I will give you a very nice detailed sketch, but it will not fully represent the finished item. But you will not be disappointed, I promise you.’ Margaret added, ‘And they never were!’

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only basic hand tools, simply for the pure joy of the creative process and using such a beautiful, responsive and forgiving raw material.’ He continued, ‘I work with my wife and young designers, giving them complete training but plenty of freedom to find their own levels

and ability, which has always been very high. All items are designed1 with an innate skill and love of the craft of silver and goldsmithing, the precious metals contributing their natural quality and beauty to the finished item. The most important item in the workshop being the one in the process of completion.’ Certainly his hammered approach to silversmithing accentuates the malleability of its surface. It creates a finish that is unique to him. He often used cabochon garnets and gold spheres to enrich his work.

Although Michael’s work is remarkable, the fact that he is completely self-taught is even more so. Margaret is convinced that some people do not believe that he had no formal silversmithing tuition. She recalls, ‘When he first became interested in making jewellery, he went to Johnson Matthey’s in Hatton Garden to buy some silver, but had no idea what to ask for. He met a young lady there who was a jeweller and he asked her for help. Michael stood with her while she placed her order and she advised him what to order. Afterwards she asked him what tools he had and

Above: Five-piece Carving Set Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington There is certainly a medieval look and feel to this five-piece carving set. To some extent it reflects Michael’s larger than life character. The wooden handles give a good grip, making it practical, but the embellishment of the pieces with cabochon garnets adds a grandeur that one would not expect to find on a set of domestic equipment. It appears that Michael commissioned the stainless steel blades of knives especially for the set as they are engraved ‘Made in England 1979’ for the year that the set was made. Length of longest knife 20cm. London 1979.

Opposite, upper: Grapevine Coasters Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This pair of coasters have a pleasing ‘medieval’ feel to them. Being embellished with three elaborate castings of vine, each sporting a bunch of grapes, they are far more interesting than traditional coasters. Diameter 11.4cm. London 1988.

Opposite, lower: Penguins Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington When the French explorer Beaullieu encountered penguins he thought they were a type of feathered fish. We now know that they are a family of aquatic, flightless birds that divide their time between water and land. Superb at swimming, walking is not as easy as their legs and feet are set far back on their bodies, so they often waddle. This whimsical one-off table piece has caught their posture and mannerisms to a tee. The cast figures are oxidised silver. Length 20cm. London 1983.

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was told “None”, so she wrote a list of the basics he should have and pointed him in the direction of Walsh’s.’ After the chicken shed, Michael had no alternative but to work in his garage. At that time they were living on a modern estate at St Mary’s Green, Biggin Hill, with a garage away from the house. There was no heat, water or electricity and Michael would work with the up-and-over door open, which was not very pleasant in the depths of the winter.

His early silver was restricted to spoons, but in 1979 he received a commission from Sir Anthony Touche, a newly appointed member to the Court of Assistants2 at the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. It was to make Sir Anthony’s wine cup for use at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Margaret explained, ‘It was the first significant piece of hand-raising he had undertaken. After a while he got stuck, so he contacted his friend Richard Akehurst, a retired silversmith living nearby. Richard declared “No wonder, you want help! You need at least five years’ experience to take on something like this.’ Michael just wanted him to explain what to do. According to Margaret, ‘He was so determined to beat the odds.’ The cup was made and delivered in 1980. It was twice the allowed size. As Peter Jenkins wrote in his book,3 ‘It was in proportion to Sir Anthony’s height and Bolton’s bulk.’ Interestingly, the cup and a pair of vases also commissioned by Sir Anthony are the only examples of Michael Bolton’s work at Goldsmiths’ Hall. It was a disappointment to him that his work had not been selected by his peers for inclusion in the Company’s superb collection of contemporary British silver. However as Peter Jenkins, wrote in Michael’s obituary in The Times (February 2005), ‘In the long run of history [Bolton’s] reputation will shine proudly enough on the strength of the many fine pieces commissioned by other great institutions.’

2. One of the Company’s governing bodies.

3. Unravelling the Mystery: The Story of the Goldsmiths’ Company in the Twentieth Century (London 2000).

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In 1982 the Boltons moved to Wittersham in Kent to live in a 400-year-old cottage a few miles north of Rye. Michael’s work was now in demand. He started to receive commissions from livery companies, churches, and from a cross-section of celebrities including Glenda Jackson, Julie Andrews, Stanley Kubrick, Rowan Atkinson and Dame Judi Dench, for whom he made a silver and gold watercolour paintbox. Margaret indicated that the list was far more extensive than had been published, as a number of patrons asked to remain anonymous. Some of his more unusual commissions include the silver for the 1994 film The Madness of King George III and a 3-ft diameter font together with silvergilt altar plate for the Church of the Incarnation, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. This commissioning brief was allegedly along the lines of ‘Gothic meets Disney’.

Michael’s designs lent themselves to the building’s interior, but certainly had no overtones of Disney.

However, one person placing a commission did get more than she bargained for. In 1985 Julie Tucker-Williams commissioned Michael to make a pair of earrings for her 21st birthday. She had very specific ideas and Michael Above: Marine-themed Salt and Spoon Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington Salt is one of the oldest and most frequently encountered food seasonings. Produced from the evaporation of seawater, or mined from sedimentary deposits resulting from the evaporation of seas and lakes in the very distant past, it is apt that Michael chose a marine theme for this salt container. Salt corrodes silver, so this is why the interior of the bowl and the salt spoon are gilded. (Never leave a salt spoon in the salt!) Width 8cm. London 1996.

Opposite: Teapot Courtesy a Private Collection, photographer Michael Pilkington According to Margaret Bolton, only two tea pots were ever made in her husband’s workshop. The design of each was different. The wooden handle of this one is removable and the top of the finial on the cover is set with a cabochon garnet, a typical Michael Bolton touch. Height to the top of the hoop handle 20cm. London 1998.

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immediately warmed to her artistic leanings. ‘Why don’t you come and help me make them?’, he asked her. She became his first apprentice. Over the years students have worked with Michael from many UK art colleges and even from Schoonhoven in the Netherlands.

Additionally he gave work experience to sixth formers from his local comprehensive school. His apprentices Julie Tucker-Williams and Stuart Jenkins of the Sussex Guild and his placement Gabriella Lane are now either silversmiths and/or jewellers. Various degrees of Michael’s influence can be seen in their work today.

Michael Bolton was a prolific producer of domestic silver such as goblets and coasters. While he also made larger pieces, generally as commissions or ‘one-off’ speculative pieces, he also made smaller items such as serviette rings and caddy spoons as well as dining silver ranging from teaspoons to candlesticks. However, he also made a small series of one-off fantasy pieces. There is the Garden Box

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with butterflies; Egg that opens to reveal flowers and stones; the Owl and the Pussy Cat box with the full story in three-dimensions built round the entire box and There was an old lady who lived in a shoe that was commissioned by grandparents for their grandchild. Here the ‘shoe house’ was modelled on a Doc Martens boot complete with steps and doorway leading from the heel, with windows and children playing. Then there was Davy Jones’s Locker. Here is what Martyn Pugh wrote in his appreciation of Michael in Newsletter 17 (April 2006) of the Association of British Designer Silversmiths, ‘For me, one of his more memorable pieces was a silver treasure chest. It was of course, brimming with ‘stuff’, over-flowing with treasure on the inside, starfish and other sea creatures hanging off every corner and details worked into every surface. Only he could have carried off such a convincing over-the-top exuberant, tour-de-force, a piece full of fantasy and imagination.’ When it was sold by

Left: Court Cup for Sir Anthony Touche Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This was Michael’s first major silver commission and the first significant piece of hand-raising that he had undertaken. It was commissioned by Sir Anthony Touche in 1979, who as well as other positions held at that time, was Deputy Chairman of National Westminster Bank. A Liveryman of the Goldsmiths’ Company, he had been appointed to its Court of Assistants (the Company’s governing body) two years earlier. Each Assistant receives a sum of money from the Company to commission a wine cup for their personal use at Goldsmiths’ Hall, and Sir Anthony chose Michael Bolton for the task. The Court Cup was made in Michael’s garage, which had no power or water, near his home on a modern estate. He soon became stuck so called in a trusted friend, a retired silversmith, for guidance. Although Michael did not have the experience when he started to undertake such a major commission, he did complete the task and the cup was inspired by a Charles II goblet. Height 15cm. London 1980.

Opposite: Pair of Vases Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Sir Anthony Touche clearly had faith in Michael when he gave a self-taught newcomer with no major work under his belt to make his Court Cup. Having served as Prime Warden from 1987-8, Sir Anthony again turned to Michael in 1990 when he wanted to commission a pair of vases to mark his period of office. They were to be inspired by calyx krater vases in the British Museum and with their beading and use of cabochon garnets, Michael certainly stamped his individuality upon them. Comparing the Court Cup to the vases also shows the progress Michael had made. In 1989 he had to seek guidance when hand-raising the bowl of a cup, whereas just over a decade later he confidently turned his hand to raising a pair of sizeable vases. The Court Cup and the vases are the only examples of Michael’s work in the collection of the Goldsmiths’ Company. Height 26.5cm. London 1990.

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Sotheby.com in April 2000, the cataloguer wrote, ‘Objects like the present example display an impressive quality of craftsmanship and imagination.’

When looking at a piece of Michael’s work, one instinctively feels there is a part of Michael in it. One year when exhibiting under the auspices of the Company on the British stand at the Basle Watch, Clock and Jewellery Fair, two German gentlemen stopped to talk to Michael.

He explained that he made everything by hand, the only machine he had being a polisher. One of the men said he did not believe him. Michael’s response was, ‘Short of saying to you, come to my workshop for a week and watch the raw metal turn into an object, I don’t know what to say to you.’ The man responded, ‘If you are telling the truth, you will kill yourself as there is too much of your heart in your work.’ Michael’s response was, ‘No, you are wrong. It is because there is so much of my heart in it that made you stop and have this conversation.’

In the late 1990s, the Boltons moved to a converted stone hay-barn in north Cornwall, where both Margaret and Michael worked in a purpose-built workshop.

Although in the middle of a course of chemo-therapy, he did attend the Goldsmiths’ Fair in 2004. As ‘father’ of the Fair, he gave is usual hilarious ‘thank-you’ speech to the organising team. Having to leave early immediately after the speeches, he made his apologies with ‘I have to get to my evening class on how to be a silversmith.’

However, in the past he had said, ‘I’m proud of what I did with no knowledge, with total naivety’. Margaret, his wife, continues to make jewellery and small silver items.

AVAILABILITY Small pieces such as spoons frequently turn up on the secondary market, although it is rare that two are exactly the same. He produced a great deal of general domestic silver such as candlesticks, coasters and goblets. These are normally periodically available in the market. However, speculative ‘one-offs’, commissions and fantasy pieces are more difficult to find.

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CLIVE BURR A perfectionist both with design and craftsmanship, Clive Burr is renowned for his clocks. His professional career embraces both silver and jewellery. His work as a silversmith ranges from one-off, high-end luxury pieces to sizable production runs for retail giftware or corporate gifts.

Clive’s designs have a similar elegance of form. Sometimes his work is decorated with detail such as enamel or engraving, or the fluting on a set of pepper mills, but it retains sensitivity both for the overall shape of the piece and for the way in which different materials such as metal, glass, crystal or stone are combined.

Jane Short Enameller and friend Clive Burr was born in Nottingham in 1953. He confesses to having hated school. After considering a career as an architect, he chose instead to go to art school and had ‘An amazing education. I was just so fortunate to be studying in the 1970s.’ In 1972 he embarked upon an art foundation course at Loughborough College of Art where the main focus on drawing. In 1973 he enrolled for a course in Three-Dimensional Design at High Wycombe College where he decided to specialise in silversmithing under Graham Arthur. In 1974 he visited Gerald Benney’s studio at Bear Lane, Southwark, and saw it at its very peak of activity. ‘It was my first realisation of a professional man making a successful living as a silversmith’, he recalled.

‘There was silver all over the place. The atmosphere in the workshop was incredible.’ In his final year at High Wycombe Clive entered a competition organised by Johnson Matthey1 to design a tea urn. He won the contest and duly made the piece. He graduated in 1976 with first class honours. The natural progression was to the Royal College of Art to study silversmithing under Professor Gerald Benney, whose Southwark workshop he had so admired just two years earlier.

It is evident that Clive thoroughly enjoyed his time at the RCA. He was a contemporary of Jane Short, the enameller; Alistair McCallum the mokume gane2 maker was in the year above and Richard Fox the silversmith in the year below. ‘Gerald insisted that to be a good designer, you had to be technically competent so that you could execute what you designed.’ Certainly the course in those days started with technical exercises so as to ‘perfect the skills’. Clive continued, ‘Gerald was superb in selecting people who could not only talk to you but also show you how things were done.’ He spoke highly of John Bartholomew, the School’s Chief Silversmithing Instructor, Patrick Whyte the Jewellery Technician and Ian Haigh who specialised in machining and also gave an introduction to computers.

‘Then there were the guest lecturers’, Clive continued.

‘There was Stan Reece, a superb engraver. His calligraphy was amazing, beautiful. The important thing was to understand what an engraver has to do rather than becoming a specialist yourself. Then there was Henry Pierce, the “god of spinning” and superb polishers and setters to give sound practical experience. To know how to prepare a piece for a professional polisher is essential. If necessary I could polish

1. Johnson Matthey can trace its roots back to 1817 when Percival Johnson established his business in London as a gold assayer. George Matthey joined the business in 1851 and its name was changed to Johnson & Matthey. In 1852, the company became Official Assayer and Refiner to the Bank of England. The company supplied both metal and ancillary products such as silver solder to the jewellery and silversmithing industries. Today Johnson Matthey is a specialist company focussed on its core skills in catalysts, precious metals, chemicals and process technology.

2. Mokume gane is a traditional Japanese metalworking technique. The name translates into English as ‘woodgrain metal’ or ‘eye of the wood metal’, which is descriptive of the effect that the technique produces. A ‘sandwich’ is created by soldering or diffusion bonding (a form of welding) a number of different metals together. These are normally silver, copper and copper alloys. The result is then forged (a manual process of shaping metal with the addition of heat using a hammer) so as to create the desired pattern in the metal. This is achieved by breaking through the top layer of metal in the ‘sandwich’ to one of the metals below. The result is then passed through a rolling machine to produce a smooth, patterned sheet of metal to be fashioned into an object.

Opposite: Candelabrum originally for Downing Street Courtesy Clive Burr, photography Clarissa Bruce Enter Clive’s workshop and the chances are that the first thing you will see are wooden models for a pair of candelabra. They are impressive. Ask a question and Clive will say, ‘I designed those for Downing Street, but the commission did not come to fruition. We [that is Clive and Jane Short] designed and made a clock instead.’ The drawings of the design were approved, but the majestic models were rejected. Clive of course will not say why, but most designers will tell you that undertaking work for a committee is not always a smooth process. Having spent so long on the designs, he made the pieces anyway. ‘The lead crystal really pushed the glass cutters’ skills’, he said with a smile. Only the base, collars to the columns and the sconces are silver. Not surprisingly they soon sold. They were purchased by one of Clive’s clients in Australia. Height 66cm. London 2008.

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Above: Splash Bowl Courtesy Clive Burr ‘This is the first piece of silver I ever made. It was during my second year at High Wycombe College’, Clive said with justifiable pride. ‘It was inspired by a series of photographs I took in a darkened room using a strobe for lighting. I dropped a pebble into a bowl of water hoping I synchronized the resultant splash with the flash of light.’ Clearly he did and the Splash Bowl is the result. Diameter 32cm. London 1974.

Below, left: Domino Set Courtesy Clive Burr This was an early commission in Clive’s career. Richard Green, the Managing Direct of Garrard’s the Crown Jewellers wanted something special – a boxed silver domino set. The pieces are housed in a silver box lined with pear wood. The dominoes are slatebacked with silver fronts, the traditional circles indicating the

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number of each half being onyx set into the silver. As far as Clive can recall, two sets were made. However, it was the start of a long relationship with the company that only came to an end with the recession of the early 1990s. Length of box 20cm. London 1986.

Below, right: Firework Box Courtesy Clive Burr Clive and Jane Short met while studying at the Royal College of Art and have worked on joint projects all their professional careers. Clive had the idea of making a really large vase enamelled by Jane to celebrate the Millennium. ‘I associated a new century with a massive firework display. What I did not want was a firework display that looked like “flowers in the sky”. I wanted something dramatic and explosive.’ Jane did some tests and came up with beautiful sample pieces. This was developed into the design concept for a box of pyrotechnics bursting through the silver lattice work. It was purchased by a client in the US. Length 30cm. London 2010.

Slate Clock Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Clive Burr Clive’s workshop is always busy, which means that there is only a limited opportunity to speculatively design and make pieces. Indeed, as at 2012, this was the only such piece to emanate over a two-year period, though this time frame did include a proposed change of workshop. The announcement by Contemporary British Silversmiths of the exhibition ‘Fit for Purpose’, a practical and conceptual exploration of silver to be staged at the Victoria and Albert Museum from 30 March – 16 September 2012, encouraged Clive to bring the project to a conclusion. The general form of the clock in slate is a very understated, but very carefully considered, design. However, its dial enamelled by Jane Short is stunning. ‘Clive wanted to include a rich turquoise and this was only possible by enamelling on 18-carat gold’, Jane revealed. In ‘the flesh’ the clock has a presence that is not captured in the image. Length 79cm. London 2012.

a piece, but a professional would be so much quicker.’ When Clive expressed an interest in enamelling, he went to Benney’s studio at Beenham and worked with Alan Evans and Robert Winter, ‘The best enamellers in Britain’ he commented. At this time at the RCA there was an ethos of long hours at the bench and a real commitment to making objects that were individual in design, as well as being superbly crafted. No wonder Clive looks back and feels fortunate in being educated in the 1970s: these are the skills required to survive in the commercial world.

Following the RCA, together with Jane Short and Alistair McCallum, Clive established a workshop at Hope Sufferance Wharf, Rotherhithe, in 1979. Naturally it takes time to get established as a silversmith straight from college. In addition to silversmithing, Clive also diversified to help the cash flow. One of his more unusual projects was ‘fancy bath fittings’. In 1983 the three moved to Old Street and in the following year they were joined by Rod Kelly and his partner, the enameller Sheila McDonald. However, by 1988 everyone had gone their own way: Alistair had bought a house with a workshop; Jane had moved to Brighton and Rod and Sheila to Norfolk. Clive moved round the corner to Berry Street, which was his workshop and studio until

3. When an item is submitted for hallmarking it has to be sponsored by someone and have their mark stamped upon the piece. When the silversmith submits the piece, his or her mark is known as the maker’s mark. When submitted by another person, who has a mark registered at the Assay Office, the mark is referred to as the sponsor’s mark. Should a member of the public submit an item for hallmarking, the assay office will use its sponsor’s mark. For London this is LAO (London Assay Office).

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2012. Clive’s business has been a combination of silver and jewellery. The jewellery is the smaller element of his enterprise. It always features individually designed 18-carat gold pieces, but occasionally he undertakes runs of fashion jewellery. Although Clive has a team of skilled craftsmen, he additionally uses specialist outworkers when the need arises. ‘I am very particular, indeed fussy, about standards and select subcontractors with great care, choosing the most reliable and the best’, he says. Just looking at his list of clients over the years confirms that he only deals with the luxury end of the market: Liberty, Alfred Dunhill, Thomas Goode, Asprey, Garrard, De Beers, Bulgari, Hennell of Bond Street, Ralph Lauren and Burberry.

Generally, in the earlier days, the retailers quite often insisted on their own sponsor’s mark,3 as opposed to Clive’s maker’s mark, appearing on the silver he designed for them. A few made an exception and there are some one-off pieces that do bear Clive’s mark. For example, after Alex Styles retired in 1987, Clive undertook a considerable amount of work for Garrard, but very few of the pieces bear his mark or name. The recession of the early 1990s took its toll on the silversmiths’ business. However, quite coincidentally 117

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Clive Burr was introduced to the Middle Eastern market at this time. The orders included large runs of multiples for gifts as well as luxurious one-off commissions. Clive continued, ‘The orders all required great attention to detail. On occasions the timescales were very tight and we almost worked 24/7 throwing all hours at a project until it was done.’ He recalled a commission from the Sultan of Brunei for a silver horse being ridden by a polo player. However, the figure of the player had to be enamelled. ‘Enamelling on cast silver is not easy’, Clive explained, ‘but that was the way the client wanted it, so we set to work.’ He recalls working all night to complete the piece. It had been collected before he realised he had no photographic record of what is a masterpiece.

Towards the end of the 1990s, commissions from the Middle East began to diminish. Throughout his career, as one door closed for Clive, another opened or had already done so. In 1996 through to 2001, the Burr studio and workshop was designing and making silver for Hennell of Bond Street,4 the prestigious retail silversmiths and jewellers. When Hennell was taken over by Indian owners, Clive made two visits to the subcontinent to direct and design for a workshop comprising 25 craftsmen. This was a fascinating period for him and he relished the experience, seriously considering at one stage moving to India. Today he is one of the few European silversmiths who has designed silver for retail in the world’s largest democracy. His Indian designs ranged from large vases and trays engraved with images of Hindu gods to smaller pieces such as boxes. However, during this

4. Founded in 1736, now no more.

5. Now known as the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, it is run at Ascot in late July each year, this is the UK’s most prestigious flat race open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run over 1 mile and 4 furlongs (2,414 metres). It was first run in 1951 as the Festival of Britain King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The ‘Festival of Britain’ wording was removed the following year. The diamond company De Beers sponsored the race from 1972 through to 2006, and from 1975 until 2006 the word ‘Diamond’ was included in its title.

6. Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths from 1993-4.

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period he was also designing in the UK. Indeed, he designed and made the owner’s prize for the 1999 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.5 Then sponsored by De Beers, the large silver plate is hand-engraved, enamelled and pavé set with nearly 14 carats of diamonds. Clive’s approach to all his commissions follows a set format.

Having listened to his client’s requirements his initial designs are drawn and discussed with the client.

The next stage is usually to make a model of the preferred design. ‘This is a useful tool when speaking to a client to ensure that their expectations and requirements have been correctly translated and well-designed, stylish and practical solution’, Clive explained. Comparing the medium-density fibreboard model of the candelabrum made for Thomas Goode with the silver and crystal finished objects certainly emphasised the usefulness of models as such a tool.

Although Clive produces a range of both silver and jewellery, with his silver ranging from sizeable production runs of corporate gifts to one-off commissions, there is one area for which he is particularly noted – clocks. ‘I like making them periodically’, Clive confessed. ‘I made my first one at the RCA and have included them in my repertoire from my days at Rotherhithe.’ His timepieces range from an 18-carat gold example made for a client in the Middle East, to stock items. The latter include one with a Welsh grey slate case with an enamelled dial in either black, grey or blue and another in crystal with a hand engraved and enamelled silver dial. Clive is perhaps the only British silversmith who has engine-turning machines in-house. The dials on his clocks are usually guilloché enamel, which is translucent enamel fired over an engine-turned pattern. His commissioned and one-off clocks are spectacular. For example, the Mystery Clock commissioned by Alexander Murray Stirling,6 with the brief that it should ‘extol the virtues of the goldsmiths’ craft’ certainly falls into this category. With many of his clocks, Clive works in collaboration with Jane Short and the Mystery Clock is indeed their joint work. Even from a distance, it looks stunning. One’s eye is immediately drawn to the central clock encased in a circle of blue enamel with swirling yellow flames. Where is the mechanism? That is indeed the mystery. With the two side panels, one is initially drawn to the framework of engraved and enamel scrolls. However, closer inspection of the sea-blue enamel of the panels reveals ‘the virtues of the goldsmiths’ craft’ for they contain

Opposite: Life Bowl Courtesy Clive Burr, photographer Clarissa Bruce This was a gift commissioned for Sir James Wolfensohn. ‘I naturally wanted to make something special, so I arranged to meet him.’ Clive said. He soon discovered that Sir James had led a full and interesting life. He was born in Sydney, where he went to school and to university studying Arts and Law. In 1956 he was a member of the Australian fencing team in the Melbourne Olympics. From being an officer in the Royal Australian Air Force he went to Harvard, later becoming a banker by profession and working for many banking institutions. He was the President of the World Bank from 1995–2005. While in office he was the first president credited with bringing attention to the problem of corruption in the area of development financing. Sir James has been involved with numerous civic and charitable activities, and has also received numerous awards including Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia and an Honorary Knighthood of the Order of the British Empire. At the age of 41 his friend Jacqueline du Pre offered to teach him the cello on the condition that he would perform at the Carnegie Hall for his 50th birthday – he did and also for his 60th and 70th. For the commission Clive proposed the Life Bowl depicting 24 key events in Sir James’ life spanning everything from salmon fishing in Alaska, the coat of arms of his school, his marriage and the birth of his three children. The bowl’s centre features Jane Short’s enamel interpretation of Clive’s drawings of a shadow of a splash with its ripples in the water, metaphorically interlinking and embracing Sir James’ achievements. The rim of the bowl is engraved with the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No 1. Diameter 42.5cm. London 2010.

Above, left: Pencil and Sharpener Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett These pieces are included here to show Clive’s versatility. In addition to designing and making one-off pieces to commission, he does undertake the making of limited editions and stock items as well as corporate gifts. This pencil sharpener and silver-covered pencil were made in 2000 and were for sale at the ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’ exhibition staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall from 25 May to 21 July as a celebration of the Millennium. Designersilversmiths were invited to submit small items of silver featuring the Leopard’s head (the mark of the London Assay Office) for order at the exhibition. The price for each item could not exceed £100. In this case there is a Leopard’s head embossed at the end of the pencil and, of course, engraved on the sharpener. A note was not made of the individual prices, but the ‘set’ cost £122.50.

Length of pencil sleeve 14.5cm. London 2000.

Above, right: Mace for Edge Hill University Courtesy Clive Burr In 2007 Clive was commissioned to make maces for Edge Hill University. Originating in Liverpool as the UK’s first nondenominational teacher training college for women, it moved to Ormskirk in the 1930s and admitted men in 1959. Curriculum changes from the 1990s, together with expansion, resulted in the institution gaining university status in 2005. The principal mace is illustrated here. At its head is an 18-carat gold dome enamelled by Jane Short with a design giving the impression of fire. The silver surrounding it is engraved with the university’s motto. The decoration of the main body is inspired by the acanthus leaves and columns of the original university building. The second mace is a silver and gilt version of the first. The maces were first used at the 2008 graduation ceremony held in the university’s then newly built 850-seater lecture theatre-in-the-round. Length approx. 1m.

subtle images of a silversmith and jeweller undertaking various tasks in their respective workshops. Technically Jane has used basse-taille, which is a transparent enamelling applied to engraved metal to show a pattern or image through the surface of the enamel and champlevé, where the enamel is placed into recesses on the metal’s surface. The clock, which is set on a polished slate base is permanently displayed on the mantelpiece of the Company’s Court Breakfast Room. The clock has a Swiss quartz movement. With his own interest in enamels, it is not surprising that he is the chosen silversmith of such enamellers as Jane Short and Ros Conway to make the objects for them to enamel. This is because he has practical experience of the exacting requirements needed to produce a piece of silver that can withstand the high temperatures in an enamelling kiln.

Clive Burr’s commuting by bicycle across London from his home to his City Fringe workshop (he was the first silversmith to move into the Goldsmiths’ Centre which opened in 2012 near Farringdon Station) has changed from a means of travelling to a competitive sport. He is now a passionate devotee of the cycle racing track. He has won medals at National and National Masters levels and at the European and World Masters track championships.

AVAILABILITY Clive Burr’s earlier pieces generally do not bear his maker’s mark and therefore cannot be readily identified.

Examples bearing his mark are beginning to emerge on to the secondary market. Clive Burr’s stock items can be bought and commissions placed direct with him. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldand silver.com for his contact and website details.

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JOCELYN BURTON Despite not being allowed to undertake a full-time silver course because she was a woman, Jocelyn Burton went on to become the country’s leading female designer-silversmith. Although many of her designs are in the neoclassical style, the fact that she is fascinated by the beauty and complexity of nature also means that her work is very organic.

It is her love of the world that gives Burton’s work such style, strength and integrity.

Robert Tewdwr Moss The late consummate journalist Jocelyn Burton1 was born in Wales during 1946. Her mother collected silver and jewellery. ‘She was very discerning’, Jocelyn recalled before describing a home brimming with silver and Sheffield plate in daily use. ‘My mother had a breadth of talents, indeed when she was 14 years of age she won an eisteddfod,2 but initially the judges did not believe that she wrote the poem she entered, so, they put her in a room and told her to write another. She produced another brilliant work. She was very imaginative and stylish. I can remember her designing a set of gold and amethyst buttons for a black outfit.’ Jocelyn followed in her mother’s artistic footsteps as she started drawing from a very early age. Educated at St Clare’s at Seaton in Devon, this was followed in 1965 with two years at Lady Margaret’s House,3 Cambridge. ‘Basically I was cramming for Cambridge, where I intended to read modern languages.

However, much to my parents’ horror, in my late teens I fell in with a Bosnian Serb artist called Radovan Kraguli.4 He was then a printmaker, specialising in mezzotint,5 an involved process used by the Illustrated London News

1. (Sara) Jocelyn Margarita Elissa Burton.

2. Welsh language competitive arts festival.

3. Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII refounded and enlarged God’s House Cambridge as Christ’s College. In 1511, St John’s College, Cambridge, was founded by her estate. A cramming college called Lady Margaret’s House no longer appears to exist in Cambridge.

4. Also spelt Kraguly. Born in Yugoslavia in 1934, he was regarded in the 1960s as a brilliant draughtsman. He moved to Wales in the 1970s and lived in an isolated rundown farmhouse that animals would occupy when he travelled. From this date he produced very detailed, realistically executed prints and drawings where the recurring theme was animal welfare, agricultural practices and the breeding of livestock. In the 1980s he expanded into painting, sculpture, dance and experimental theatre. He staged a multi-media exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris during 1989 where the recurring theme was the cow. An artist with an international reputation, he has exhibited widely throughout Europe. He lives in both Paris and Wales.

5. A printmaking process where tonality in the print is achieved by making thousands of tiny dots on the printing plate with a tool called a ‘rocker’ that has small teeth.

6. Now The Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design of the London Metropolitan University. In 1965 the College’s Department of Fine and Applied Art merged with the Department of Silversmithing and Allied Crafts from the Central School of Art to form the Sir John Cass School of Art.

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before it started using photographs.’ Radovan was at the Sir John Cass College in the City of London.6 In 1967 Jocelyn decided to abandon modern languages and to enrol at the college because she ‘needed to create things’. The college awarded her a scholarship for travelling to Yugoslavia in 1967. Naturally Radovan accompanied her.

Although Jocelyn had already added etching and mezzotint to her artistic repertoire, she decided to explore another avenue. Her first choice was the silver department that was then headed by Jack Stapley. However, although this was the liberated 1960s, women were then not allowed to enrol full-time on a silversmithing course. So, she signedup to study jewellery during the day and silversmithing in the evenings. As there were only nine students on the jewellery course and an interconnecting door to the silver workshop, there was an opportunity for flexibility of which Jocelyn took advantage. At this stage in her development it appeared that her forte would be jewellery, for in 1968 Jocelyn won De Beers’ International Diamond Award for the design of diamond jewellery. This is one of the Opposite: Millennium Bowl Courtesy Jocelyn Burton When the Millennium Bowl for the Worshipful Company of PainterStainers was first seen by Tessa Murdoch (Deputy Keeper, Department of Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass at the Victoria and Albert Museum), she declared it ‘a major work of art’.

The bowl, which is supported by three columns, is decorated with gilded acanthus leaves against a lightly oxidised silver background.

Jocelyn describes the design as ‘Very bold and an example of my work being influenced by the neoclassical’, adding, ‘It is more architectural and structurally sounder compared with my early work.’ The use of three columns to support the bowl of course gives a central stage for the focus of the piece. Set on a plate of lapis lazuli, there is a silver urn with a phoenix rising from its flames. The boss of the richly bluecoloured hardstone above certainly draws the eye to the subject. As well as being the symbol of re-birth, the phoenix features in the Company’s coat-of-arms. Height 40.6cm. London 2000.

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from the owner, Napier Russell, who had his photographic studio on the first floor. ‘Although I thought it was wonderful, I was a lone voice. My boyfriend at the time, an architect, pointed out it was a stable, it had a stone floor, no electricity nor windows.’ Clearly a great deal of work was done, as now 50c is a tranquil haven nestling between the West End and the City of London. It is a true delight, a Shangri-La in the heart of a bustling city, a centre of creativity in a commercial world. Jocelyn continued, ‘My boyfriend designed the windows front and back, Mr Russell paid for the work to be done and I moved in. It was only afterwards that I discovered that the first floor had been the studio of Esmond Burton, the 1950s monumental sculptor’, she said as she pointed to some sculpture that had been incorporated into the building’s fabric by Mr Russell, from whom she eventually bought the property. ‘Napier is Toby Russell’s father’, she added.

Toby Russell became a silversmith in 1986.

industry’s most prestigious awards and for it to be won by a student was exceptional. Jocelyn’s friends said that having won the De Beers’ Award, she should consider launching her career. However, Jocelyn decided that she would like to combine her formal training at the Sir John Cass School of Art with working one day a week in the trade. The college refused, so Jocelyn left. For the following two years, she worked for a Hatton Garden jeweller. It was a form of unofficial jewellery apprenticeship, though she continued her silversmithing evening classes. Ironically, the following year the college made experience within the industry an integral part of the course.

In 1970, she decided it was time to launch her career, so she went in search of a studio. ‘I found this place. It was love at first sight’, she said sitting in what is now her studio and home at 50c Red Lion Street, just a stone’s throw from Holborn underground, a hop, skip and a jump from Sir John Cass and a brisk 10-minute walk to Hatton Garden. Initially she was seeking to rent the ground floor 122

Jocelyn initially made 18-carat jewellery. Indeed she went into partnership with Charles de Temple7 who had a shop in Bond Street selling avant-garde jewellery. Feeling that she had the raw end of the business arrangement, she vowed never to enter a partnership again. However in 1971, Mr de Temple did introduce her to Sydney Rogers, chairman of Watches of Switzerland, who had recently founded Galerie Jean Renet at 1 Old Bond Street. The gallery was entirely devoted to contemporary silver and jewellery. Although Jocelyn initially supplied jewellery, she was keen to design silver. ‘People thought I was mad wanting to become involved with silver. In the 1970s there was a swing towards industrial design. It was said that silver would not survive as everyone wanted stainless steel.’

Jocelyn remembers one of her first designs for Galerie Jean Renet, champagne flutes with ‘drip’ patterns on the outside.

From a very early stage in her career Jocelyn decided that her forte lay in silver design as opposed to actually making objects at the bench. Although she modelled the external decoration, Wakely and Wheeler made the pieces. As Jocelyn commented, ‘Paul de Lamerie as well as Matthew Boulton both left the bench at an early age.’ She also designed ‘boudoir objects’ such as ‘outrageous powder puffs’ that featured two spherical shapes. A superb artist, Jocelyn produces stunning drawings and then paintings of the objects that she designs. Indeed, prints of these are in

Opposite: Seahorse Goblet Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Collection secured two cased half-dozen sets of these goblets in 1999. The seahorses were plain silver. Thinking that they would benefit from being gilded, a silversmith was instructed to undertake the task. Feeling uncomfortable that the designer had not been consulted first, Jocelyn was telephoned and was quite comfortable as normally the sea creatures were gilded. Height 18cm. London 1973 and 1974.

7. Born in the United States, he grew up travelling with a circus. He left aged 14 and began singing in nightclubs and acting in Hollywood westerns. Later settling in Provincetown, Massachusetts, he began making jewellery. He later moved to the United Kingdom, where he continued his jewellery career. He made the ‘gold finger’ for the James Bond film Goldfinger.

Above: Shell Vase Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This vase was made speculatively in 2002, together with a smaller ‘flask’ vase, using casts that Jocelyn had made two decades earlier.

An impressive piece, it has a height of 29.2cm. London 2002.

demand by interior designers as they are works of art in their own right. However, more significantly, Jocelyn realised at an early stage in her career that potential customers would not commit to spending a significant sum unless they knew exactly what they were buying.

Jocelyn’s career was quick to get underway. Her first large commission came in 1972–3 from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This was for a mace to be presented to the Legislative Assembly of Western Samoa by the House of Commons. Jocelyn’s design featured castings of shells interspersed with plain discs ‘so as to show the contrast of the natural and the developed world’. The mace went on display in the Upper Waiting Room of the House of Commons from the 10 to 21 June 1974 and was presented to the Legislative Assembly in Western Samoa towards the end of that year. This was the first use of cast shells in Jocelyn’s work, but it was to become a recurring theme.

Indeed, by 1972 she had become captivated by one form of marine life – the seahorse – and was using this fascinating creature on the stems of a suite of goblets. However, during 1973 when she was working on the Samoan mace, another commercial door opened for her. A multi-millionaire who had made his fortune from a string of cinemas decided to open a shop in London’s Princess Arcade between Jermyn Street and Piccadilly for Charles de Temple’s jewellery and 123

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Jocelyn Burton’s silver. Switching allegiance from Galerie Jean Renet to the new establishment, shells began to feature prominently in her work. As Jocelyn states in Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory, ‘The world truly is “my oyster” in the sense that I am fascinated by the beauty and complexity of nature.’

Indeed, her cabinet of natural curiosities, which contains a cornucopia of wonders for the eye to behold, fascinates many visitors to her studio at 50c Lion Street.

The mid-1970s was a boom period for the Burton studio.

In 1974 she was commissioned by Rustenburg Mines, one of the largest producers of platinum at that time, to make a platinum cup and cover to commemorate the introduction of the platinum hallmark in London on 2 January 1975. Inspired by the tradition of the Renaissance gourd standing cups, this was a new interpretation of an old theme. Jocelyn explained, ‘I have tried to show off the strength and flexibility of the metal in the whippy looking organic strapwork of the stem and, I hope, enhanced the natural greyness of platinum by the addition of South African aquamarines.’

The cup was publicly hallmarked in the Livery Hall at Goldsmiths’ Hall in front of a large assembly. It was the first piece of platinum to be so hallmarked in the UK. Hector Miller, who also crafted three other of Jocelyn’s designs that were hallmarked in 1975, made the cup.

The other commissions included goblets marketed by Aurum to raise funds for the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother opened its new extension in July of that year. Jocelyn’s inspiration for

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the Fitzwilliam Cup was the Anglo Saxon chalices. ‘I liked the simple elegant concept which I considered captured the simplicity of the 1970s’, she explained, adding, ‘One of the things that has always made my work unusual, is the use of semi-precious stones in large pieces of silver.’ The Fitzwilliam Cup is set with five topaz cabochons, each of 8 carats. It was issued in a limited edition of 150 pieces. The other two were also for Aurum. The first was a goblet commemorating the 300th anniversary of the beginning of the rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral following the Great Fire of London.

The edition was limited to 600. Following the popularity of the goblets, later that year she also designed a commemorative quaich for St Paul’s. On this occasion the edition was increased to 900 pieces.

Commissions have always been an important element of Jocelyn Burton’s oeuvre. Over the years she has produced large pieces for the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and other city livery companies and for institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, St Paul’s Cathedral and other cathedrals, the Silver Trust National Collection at 10 Downing Street, Longleat House, the seat of the Marquesses of Bath and for royal patrons such as the King and Queen of Spain, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Makhtoum of Dubai and the Duke of Edinburgh as well as a kaleidoscope of others that reads like a who’s who of society. Until more recent times, there has also always been a flow of commercial pieces. In the early 1980s when the bullion price of silver rose sharply, she concentrated on a smaller range

of items such as novelty spoons, ladles and napkin rings, while for her ‘Living Silver’ exhibition at Asprey and Garrard in 1998, objects from a silver-gilt, lapis lazuli and glass table lamp to bottle stoppers, menu holders and napkin rings were produced.

Over the years Jocelyn has received many awards.

However, the one of which she is the proudest is the City and Guilds’ Prince Phillip Gold Medal in 2004. This was the first time since the award’s inception in 1962 that the medal had been awarded to a woman. The award is bestowed upon the person who has ‘displayed outstanding individual achievement in the areas of science, technology and industrial development’. Each year three names are submitted to the Prince, who is the President of City and Guilds, for his personal selection. It is thought that the long line of male winners is a historical tendency for a City and Guilds qualification to be seen as the preserve of engineering and construction. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, the Guilds’ two fastest growing subject areas are health and social care and virtually every hairdresser has at least one of the Guild’s qualifications.

Certainly the Prince knew of Jocelyn as he was taken with a pair of 1.2m-high (4ft) wall sconces featuring a pair of dolphins, a trident and a triton shell that Jocelyn designed for the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers in 1985.

Prince Phillip subsequently commissioned her to make a pair of mustard pots to present to the Fishmongers. In silver gilt, they also feature dolphins and the terminal of each lid is set with a baroque pearl.

Opposite: Shell Napkin Rings Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Cast sea shells are a recurring theme in Jocelyn’s work. These napkin rings are further embellished with either tear-shaped amethyst, lapis lazuli or malachite. Diameter 4.6cm. London 1975.

Right: The Fitzwilliam Cup Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Fitzwilliam Cup was designed by Jocelyn, made by Hector Miller and distributed by Aurum Designs to raise funds for the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The number made was limited to just 150 and they were retailed at £388 each (with a £2 discount if a pair was bought!). Both the design and the craftsmanship are superb. Impressed with the first it acquired in 1996, the Collection decided to acquire a further five. The quest took eight years. Here are the cost of the six and the dates of their acquisition: £425 (1996); £375 (1997); £430 (1999); £600 (2002); £965 (2003) and £475 (2004). Jocelyn was invited for a celebratory dinner to christen them. Shortly afterwards, one appeared at a provincial auction and it was secured for just over £200! That one now belongs to Jocelyn. Height 22.9cm, set with five topaz cabochons of 8 carats each. London 1975.

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During the mid-1990s Jocelyn received a very large commission to design and subsequently supply chandeliers for a company in Kuwait. This was followed by a commission for gigantic external lamps for a building in Canada. The designs were finalised over a weekend and the lamps supplied within two months. Although there have been other lighting commissions, silver remains her passion. In 2007 she delivered The Pataudi Trophy to the Marylebone Cricket Club, more commonly known as the 125

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MCC. It is presented to the winning captain at the end of the England versus India test series each year. In this year she also delivered the Freedom Centrepiece to Hull Museums to remember the 200th anniversary of the end of the slave trade in the British colonies. William Wilberforce, who was very influential in the anti-slavery movement, was born in Hull, hence the commission. The centrepiece

Upper, left: Mustard for the Duke of Edinburgh Courtesy Jocelyn Burton Jocelyn first met the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1980. ‘It was at the National Coal Board stand and I had designed silver coal-burning stoves for the Board that fascinated Her Majesty.’ A few years later she was asked if she would be guest of honour at The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers’ Court Ladies Night. As Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh is a member of the Livery (and a past Prime Warden), he was also present. As is customary at Livery dinners, the Prime Warden together with the principal guest lead the procession of the top table into dinner. ‘That will be the only time I will ever take precedence over royalty’, Jocelyn laughed. She sat next to Prince Phillip during dinner. Her speech was on the subject of patronage.

After the formalities were over, Jocelyn and the Duke retired to the Court Dining Room for a private chat. He admired her pair of massive silver Dolphin Wall Sconces she had made for the Company and commissioned a pair of mustards for him to present. Each is surmounted by a gilt octopus with a baroque pearl body. In 2004 he personally selected her to be awarded the City and Guilds’ Prince Phillip Gold Medal. In 2012 he viewed her 40-year retrospective exhibition staged in Piccadilly. Height 15.2cm. London 1995.

Left: Molten Cups Courtesy Jocelyn Burton ‘These beakers were very experimental at the time’, Jocelyn said with a smile. ‘They are electroformed over wax painted with metallic paint and it is still under the silver.’ She gifted these to her mother and they were returned to her after her mother passed away. Many silversmiths give their parents an early piece of their work. Height 15cm. London 1969.

Opposite: Centrepiece for Hull Museum Courtesy Jocelyn Burton To commemorate the bi-centenary of the slave trade, Hull Museums commissioned a centrepiece. The museum asked three leading silversmiths to submit forward-looking designs and Jocelyn’s was chosen. As she has a penchant for shells, it is not surprising that one features predominantly in the design. ‘Conch shells look like a ship’s sail in the wind, moving us forward to a better future’, Jocelyn added. The large silver conch sits on a silver turtle shell, which in Asian religious mythology was the symbol of the primitive oceans. Its rim is engraved with the names of many freedom fighters through history, including Hull’s William Wilberforce. The ebonised base is applied with chased silver representing the four elements – earth, water, fire and air – which make up the universe to which humankind belongs. Below there is a design of broken chains to symbolise the abolition of the slave trade. Height 36cm. London 2007.

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features a large hand-forged conch shell, the shape of which ‘represents a ship’s sail in the wind, moving us forwards to a better future’, Jocelyn comments.

‘Jocelyn Burton – The Art of Silver’ was staged from 14 November to 8 December 2012 at Bentley & Skinner, the central London jewellers located in St James’s, Piccadilly.

This was a 40-year retrospective. Some of her most iconic designs, from silver-gilt wall sconces to table decorations were displayed. HRH Prince Phillip, The Duke of Edinburgh was given a private view. Sir Roy Strong, who wrote the Foreword to the catalogue, accompanied him.

AVAILABILITY Jocelyn Burton’s work is periodically available on the secondary market, especially items made in the 1970s and 1980s. The most readily available item is the quaich commemorating the 300th anniversary of the start of the rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Her work from the 1990s is beginning to trickle on to the market. Jocelyn’s stock items can be bought and commissions placed direct with her. See www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for her contact and website details.

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ERIC CLEMENTS An educator, designer and silversmith, Eric Clements’ career combined teaching with designing silver and a range of other items, from anodised aluminium trays to measuring tape cases. While the majority of his silver items were one-off designs, the tea service he designed for Mappin & Webb in 1960 was produced into the 1990s.

I have been fortunate to have the freedom to develop and explore ideas. My full-time job in education provided financial security allowing me to be relieved of the tedious financial problems that occur if one is ‘in business’. I could enjoy the many experiences, such as travelling or meeting eminent people who came my way.

Eric Clements

Eric Clements was born at Rugby in 1925. At the age of 13 he secured a place at the local grammar school and earned top honours in his examinations. In 1942, upon the suggestion of his art teacher he applied to the Birmingham College of Art, but his studies were interrupted by war service. He served with the Gordon Highlanders, but only in the UK because of a throat tubercular condition. Towards the end of the war he was transferred to the Education Corps where he taught arts and crafts to servicemen awaiting to be demobbed.

Graham Hughes, in the book accompanying the major 2002 retrospective at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, ‘Passion & Perfection. Eric Clements: Silver & Design, 1950–2000’, wrote that this period laid the foundation for Eric’s later ‘belief in the inspirational possibility of sensitive teaching’.1 Eric undertook his National Design Diploma at Birmingham from 1947–9 and studied silversmithing under Ralph Baxendale and Cyril Shiner. Initially art was taught at the main college and silversmithing at the associated Vittoria Street School of Jewellery and Silversmithing, which was vocationally orientated. Both lecturers taught at the College and the School, which merged in 1946.

While there is no doubting that Birmingham provided a sound grounding in manual skills, Eric did not find the course inspiring. While art embraced life drawing, anatomy and the history of architecture, the subjects were taught with ‘rigid protocol’. Furthermore, Eric observed, ‘There was a Birmingham style and students frequently produced designs in the style of a particular tutor in order to gain favour or commendation.’ In 1948 he won a £50 1. Eric Clements: Silver & Design 1950–2000 edited by Martin Ellis, Birmingham 2001.

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travelling scholarship and embarked upon a three-week visit to Scandinavia. Three pioneering silversmiths particularly impressed him with regard to the attention they devoted to designing: Sigurd Persson in Stockholm, Henning Koppel at Jensen in Copenhagen and Hans Hansen at Kolding. Eric’s work has been described as, ‘leaning heavily on Scandinavian’. He certainly did not follow the favoured flutes of his tutors, which either consciously or unconsciously are absent from his work.

Eric completed his NDD Silversmithing in 1949 and on the basis that a friend had applied to go to the Royal

Above: Clements’ Signature Eric Clements never registered his mark, but the majority of the pieces he designed bear his facsimile signature.

Opposite: Coffee Pot Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This coffee pot had a difficult birth. A customer of Payne & Son, the Oxford retail jeweller and silversmith, wanted a coffee pot to accompany an antique teapot. The latter was described to Eric and he was asked to provide a rough sketch of a design. When it was completed the customer said that he did not want to pay purchase tax on the piece, which would have doubled its price. Instead of a traditional object, he wanted one of ‘artistic merit’ that would be exempt from tax under the Assistance to Craftsmen Scheme. It took three submissions of a modern design to the relevant committee before approval was forthcoming. The customer then advised he was no longer interested in acquiring a coffee pot. Payne & Son decided to make it a stock item and also commissioned a sugar and cream en suite. The additions did not receive the committee’s approval until 1955. Despite the design not having a smooth passage, the coffee pot and coffee service was one of Eric’s most popular retail pieces. Indeed, when Earl Attlee received the Freedom of the City of Oxford, he chose the coffee service as his gift. This coffee pot was made by Wakely & Wheeler, but also bears Eric’s facsimile signature. Height 26cm. London 1953.

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College of Art, Eric also applied. Being successful, he entered the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery under Robert Goodden. After the rigid approach at Birmingham, he was astonished at the RCA’s liberal atmosphere as he was free to do whatever he liked. Nevertheless, he was not that enamoured with the RCA and later questioned how important the College was to his development as it was a case of ‘get on with it’ without ‘it’ being defined. As Graham Hughes observed, ‘Eric and his contemporary Jack Stapley showed a more fluent vision than their predecessors had done, with a creative originality, an ease of presentation drawing and a command as hammermen at the bench, which quickly impressed visitors.’ It certainly impressed his father George Hughes, the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, as he commissioned Eric in his first year to make a chalice and paten for his local church at Litlington.2 It is one of probably only a dozen pieces of silver that Eric both designed and made. At an early stage he concluded that the craftsmen in the London workshops could make pieces better than he would ever be able to achieve. While some have held that delicate design nuances that are impossible to communicate to a craftsman are lost, Eric would not agree. This is because he has always had a close relationship with the craftsmen who have made his designs. He explained, ‘When forming metal, it can assume a shape that is subtly different to that drawn. When this happened, Frank Beck or Stanley Hollands3 would telephone and say, “Come and have a look and see what you think.” We had a mutual respect for one another and they knew exactly what I wanted.’

2. St Michael’s, Littington, East Sussex.

3. Frank Beck and Stan Hollands both worked for Wakely & Wheeler. From the mid-1990s, by which time both had left the company, Eric used Stan Hollands who worked as an independent silversmith.

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The Company exhibited each year at the British Industries Fair and invited silversmithing students to help staff its stand.

Eric assisted in his very early days at the RCA and his immediate observation was that there was little of contemporary design on display.

This would have been music to the ear of Graham Hughes, then the Company’s Exhibition Secretary, who also thought that the silver trade required an influx of new imagination. In 1950, as the nation was preparing for the 1951 Festival of Britain, a feeling of optimism was sweeping the country and institutions and the larger silversmithing businesses were easily persuaded by the Company to mark the occasion by commissioning silver.

Eric Clements entered competitions and also received commissions via the Company. His design for a silver tea service won first prize in the 1949–50 National Design Competition, while the then unknown Alex Styles received second prize. However, Eric was critical of his

Above: Clock Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Smith’s have been making clocks in Britain since 1827. Eric chose to incorporate one of its movements in this clock he designed in 1955. It has a rosewood dial and a silver-gilt case with engraved lines to its front. The case was made by Leonard Burt and the piece bears his maker’s mark. Eric’s listing of ‘principal commissions and contracts’ makes no mention for a clock in 1955, but the following year he records a ‘table clock, silver gilt and wood’ made for the Cheltenham Festival of Art. This one could have been a prototype. It was purchased by The Goldsmiths’ Company. Height 12cm. London 1955.

Opposite above: Centrepiece with Two Fruit Dishes Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The pair of dishes at the front of the picture were acquired in 2003.

They were made by Leonard Burt in 1959 but were designed by Eric Clements. Five years later a dealer offered the Collection the large covered bowl. Reference to the list of Principal Commissions in Eric Clements Silver & Design 1950–2000 revealed that in 1959 Eric designed a ‘Centrepiece with 2 Fruit Dishes’ for Lord Blackford to present to Guardian Assurance. When he saw the photographs, Eric confirmed that the pieces were indeed the Blackford commission. The bowl and cover was purchased and the pieces were reunited. The covered bowl is the same length as Eric’s daughter at birth. Length of covered bowl 48.26cm. London 1959.

Opposite below: The Clements Tea Service Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Clements Tea Service was designed by Eric in 1960 for Mappin & Webb. It was mainly produced in EPNS, but some were made in silver. Production continued well into the 1990s. Height of coffee pot 18.5cm. Sheffield 1961.

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own design which he considered outdated compared with Alex Styles’ one. Although he did not win a prize in the Company’s Festival of Britain competition, which he was invited to enter by the silver firm of Padgett and Braham, his design entries were displayed in the subsequent Modern Silver Exhibition. Grosvenor House, the five star hotel on Park Lane, also commissioned Eric Clements’ design for a candelabrum and the piece was to be made

by Padgett and Braham. The hotel was so delighted with the finished piece it ordered another. It lent one candelabrum for exhibition throughout the 1950s, and it helped to secure Eric many more commissions.

The first of these was the Merton Bowl and Cover, a rowing trophy, as the College had finished at the head of river for the first time. Upon a visit to Oxford he presented himself at Payne & Son’s jewellery and silver shop in the High Street, the design for the commission was agreed in January 1952 and Wakely and Wheeler was charged with making it, while Peter Payne handled its retail on behalf of Eric. Indeed Payne & Son displayed the bowl together with other contemporary silver. Although Eric technically graduated from the RCA in the summer of 1952, he stayed a further term as what today would be called ‘work experience’ at the Birmingham firm of Firmin & Sons. As far as Eric could recall in 2009, this was the idea of his professor Robert Goodden and/or Stanley Wright, the Director of the Design and Research Centre, so as to give him experience of designing for industry.4 One of his first tasks was to design the Royal Livery buttons bearing the EIIR cypher of the new Queen Elizabeth II. Later work included designing regimental badges.

As a result of all of this, Eric’s his degree show at the RCA was delayed until the summer of 1953. Impressively it featured 16 pieces, including the Grosvenor House candelabrum and the Merton Bowl and Cover, as well as a pair of coffee pots commissioned by the RCA Project.5 According to the Clements Archive, he made these with 132

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Geoffrey Bellamy in 1951.6 As Geoffrey was the year below Eric, this was in keeping with the RCA’s long tradition of a junior (‘the slave’) assisting a senior preparing for his/her degree show. Notwithstanding his commercial successes while at the RCA, Eric decided that he wanted to teach and in his words, ‘fell into a post at Drayton Secondary School in Ealing’ as metalwork master. However, he did begin his design practice, working in the evenings and his spare time.

He participated in the many exhibitions staged at various locations by the Company in the 1950s. A favourite venue was the Tea Centre in Lower Regent Street. Indeed, he had so many items at the 1954 exhibition there that one guest remarked ‘This is really your show.’ However, it was the exhibition at the Festival Hall that year which was another turning point. Ralph Baxendale entered the lift in which Eric and his wife were about to ascend to the gallery. He told his former pupil that there was a job in Birmingham if he wanted to apply for it. In the autumn, Eric Clements returned as a senior lecturer at Vittoria Street, sharing responsibility for NDD Silversmithing with Cyril Shiner, while Ralph Baxendale was Head of School. However, he continued with his design practice. Throughout the 1950s, Payne & Son encouraged Eric and placed commissions his way.

Indeed the company was one of three that invited Eric to enter the competition for the design of the Everest Trophy. Eric won second prize for his Payne entry and was highly commended for the other two. Later Auto Diesels saw the designs and commissioned Eric via Payne & Son for a rework as a presentation piece upon the incorporation of the Borough of Uxbridge.

Silver was but one medium that Eric Clements worked on. In 1955 he designed anodised aluminium trays in a range of colours. A variety of industrial designs followed: window and door furniture; tools for Polycell; cleats for sailing ships; cigarette lighters; ceiling panels; heating

controls; measuring tape cases for Rabone Chesterman and stainless steel items such as tea services, a range of dining items from cutlery to serving dishes as well as tankards for JR Bramah & Co of Sheffield. However, his most successful collaboration for the mass market began in 1957 when he was appointed design consultant to Mappin & Webb (which in 1963 became part of British Silverware, owned jointly by Charles Clore’s Sears Holdings and Delta Metal). One of his early projects was a contract to design silver-plated (also known as EPNS – electroplated nickel silver) cutlery for P&O’s SS Canberra. This design was later produced in stainless steel, silver and EPNS by Mappin & Webb and marketed as Overture. His range of retail silverware for the company was Rosalind, Nocturne, Prelude and Concerto cutlery as well dining items ranging from a condiment set

Opposite, left: Café au Lait Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The café au lait service shown in the colour illustration was offered to the Collection in 2012. Both bear Mappin & Webb’s maker’s mark and the milk pot is stamped ‘Designed by Eric Clements’, with his name being a facsimile of his signature. No reference to it was found in Eric Clements: Silver & Design 1950–2000, so Eric was contacted. He could not recall designing the pieces for Mappin & Webb, though he acknowledged that the flaring spout of the coffee pot and the thumbpieces were typical of his design. He suggested contacting Stanley Hollands, a silversmith from Wakely & Wheeer, who made up Eric’s silver designs in the 1960s. Stanley immediately recognised them as being of a similar design to the café au lait commissioned by Massey College, University of Toronto, for the Fellows’ Dining Room – see the black and white illustration.

Mappin & Webb made the EPNS version for the students’ dining room. However, he also pointed out slight differences in the design.

The pieces made in silver by Stanley have a different angle to the cones on the covers and wooden insert finger lifts to the front instead of thumbpieces at the back. Clearly the Mappin & Webb silver versions were not authorised by Eric. While Stan considers the Mappin & Webb pieces are Eric’s design, Eric regards them as ‘second cousins’. Height 24cm. London 1963 (milk) and 1966.

Opposite, right: Massey College Café au Lait Courtesy Stanley Hollands The Massey College café au lait made by Wakely & Wheeler.

Right, upper: Court Cup Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This Court Cup was commissioned by the Rt Hon Alan Lennox Boyd MP shortly after he was appointed to the Court of Assistants, the governing body of the Goldsmiths’ Company. In 1964, the then Lord Boyd became Prime Warden of the Company. The Company’s arms and the name of its owner were engraved by Theodore Wise, one of the leading engravers at the time. The cup was hand-raised at Wakely & Wheeler and bears that mark, but is stamped ‘Designer’ together with a facsimile of Eric’s signature. Height 12.2cm. London 1951.

to a candelabrum, from tankards to a trophy. However, his most successful design was the Clements Tea and Coffee Service comprising a teapot, hot water pot, coffee pot, sugar bowl, milk/cream jug and tray. Although some sterling silver services were produced, the majority were in EPNS. Production continued from 1960 into the 1990s.

By the 1960s, Eric’s design practice had blossomed from his small flat in west London. He was well aware that employees thought that having a second string to one’s bow could be an indication that one may not be giving one’s full commitment to the main job. In Eric’s case this definitely was not the case. Certainly it is difficult to fault his argument, ‘I would expect a professor of surgery to be a surgeon, and likewise anyone teaching design should be a designer.’

Whereas in his student days at Birmingham he felt there was a need to emulate tutors in order to succeed, as a teacher he made every effort to encourage individuality.

Instead of his hands-on designing detracting from his teaching, it added to it. He explained, ‘I felt that it was important that my own design experience should be incorporated into the design exercises and projects that were set students. Therefore, my offerings to students were based on introducing realism in various ways. My own design commissions, disguised but including specific limitations with given dimensions, materials and/or processes, always allowed the student room for manoeuvre; recognising

4. In post-war Britain the Government objective was to improve the standard of designs produced by British industry so as to increase demand from overseas, therefore increasing the UK’s exports.

5. The curved handles of these are covered in leather. For an illustration see Eric Clements Silver & Design 1950–2000, Birmingham 2001, p. 29.

6. See Eric Clements Silver & Design 1950–2000, p. 103.

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the need for him or her to develop personal expressions and ideas, individual characteristics and quirks.’ For this reason, he favoured classes of up to 10–12 and no larger.

Despite his success in industrial design, Eric never forsook silver. Indeed, in the year that he became a consultant to Mappin & Webb, Buckingham Palace asked the Company to recommend a silversmith to design coffee and hot milk pots for presentation to King Frederick and Queen Ingrid of Denmark. Graham Hughes sent a photograph of a coffee pot from a service that Eric had designed for Payne & Son during 1953–5. Although Payne’s customer rejected the design, it nevertheless

Left: The Agincourt Cup Courtesy The Keatley Trust This is Eric’s final commission and it aptly gave him the opportunity to see a variant of a design from the early years of his career develop from a pencil drawing to a three-dimensional object. John Keatley had been researching the history of his family for a number of years, but unfortunately tracing the lineage prior to the late 16th century was proving challenging. He found the key to unlock this impasse in the University Library at Cambridge. It was a volume relating to his family from 1150 through to 1567. From this he discovered that one of his forebears was at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, where Henry V was the victor despite the numerically superior French army. It was a major English victory in the Hundred Years’ War. Contemplating a piece of silver to commemorate his ancestor’s participation in the battle, he happened to notice Eric’s entry for the Coronation Cup design competition of the early 1950s. Professor Robert Goodden’s entry won, but Eric’s was awarded second prize. John suggested that Eric’s 1950s design should form the basis of the new commission, the gilt spiral of the base being engraved with arrows. Eric suggested that the cover should be surmounted with a man-at-arms and that the bowl could be engraved with Henry V’s arms and supported by a representation of the wooden stakes the English and Welsh archers drove into the ground in front of them at an angle to force the French cavalry to veer off. This is the result, which on one occasion Eric described to John as ‘our cup’. Commissioning any object should be the result of the meeting of minds. The Agincourt Cup is certainly such an object. Height 49cm. Birmingham 2005.

Opposite: Sauce Boat Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This would been quite avant-garde in its day, a vessel with two feet instead of three, using its handle as a support. The forward outward sloping legs started appearing in the early 1950s. They are sometimes referred to as ‘sputnik legs’. While the space race certainly started at the turn of the decade, it was not until October 1957 that the Soviet Union put Sputnik 1 into space, a spherical form with spikes protruding from it. The United States followed suit the next year with Explorer 1, which coincidentally (or not) was the same shape as these legs. The piece was made by Leonard Burt, but bears the engraving ‘Des. E G Clements’ as a facsimile signature. Height 11cm. London 1957.

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became a successful stock item at the shop. Following comments received from the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, Eric redesigned the coffee and designed a hot milk pot and Her Majesty presented the resultant pair to her hosts on her state visit to Denmark in 1957. Equally prestigious commissions followed, ranging from the Sword of Office of the Chief of the Air Staff to maces (including two for US universities), to a set of three electroliers presented by the British Government to the Government of Jamaica following the country’s independence, and a complete dining service for Massey College in Toronto.

made a substantial contribution to British design, but also a significant one as a teacher within the field.

Later, as an educator, Eric played a major part in the reorganisation of the Birmingham College of Art within the Birmingham Polytechnic (now the University of Central England). He was head of the School of Industrial Design from 1964 to 1972 and became heavily involved with the formation of the Faculty of Three Dimensional Design. In 1973 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Art and Design and subsequently as Assistant Director at the Wolverhampton Polytechnic. During this period his design output diminished considerably until his retirement in 1985. However, he then continued to regularly design silver. One of his last major commissions was in 1994: a verge7 for his local church, St Nicolas’s at Kings Norton in south Birmingham, in memory of his wife Muriel. His final commission was in 2005 when the Keatley Trust asked him to design the Agincourt Cup. John Keatley was impressed with Eric’s Coronation Cup design that won second prize over 50 years previously. Although Eric Clements would have succeeded as a full-time designer, he chose education as his main career. He therefore not only

As the pieces Clements made himself were generally destined for churches or close friends, the likelihood of these appearing on the market are very slim.

AVAILABILITY The most commonly encountered items by Eric Clements are from the retail range that he designed for Mappin & Webb in EPNS, particularly the three-piece Clements Tea Service comprising teapot, milk jug and sugar bowl.

Sterling silver tea services from this range are occasionally encountered. These bear his facsimile signature.

While his ecclesiastical and institutional commissions are also similarly never likely to be sold, his corporate and private commissions do occasionally appear. These will be engraved with ‘Des by Eric G Clements’ and bear the maker’s mark, such as Padgett & Braham, Wakely & Wheeler, Len Burt or Stanley Hollands.

In 1972 he designed goblets, plates and dishes on behalf of Thomas Fattorini Ltd to commemorate the 850th anniversary of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and in 1977 he designed silver and gold Easter Eggs for the Franklin Mint. The authors have not encountered examples of these, but they will no doubt start coming on to the market.

FURTHER READING Eric Clements: Silver & Design, 1950–2000 (Birmingham 2001)

7. Also known as a wand.

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DESMOND CLEN-MURPHY He was a contemporary of Gerald Benney, but established his workshop in Sussex as opposed to London. Initially combining teaching part-time with the role of designer-silversmith, he undertook major commissions, including the award made to Sir Francis Chichester upon completion of his circumnavigation. Eventually he became a full-time lecturer at his alma mater but continued to design and make.

Desmond Clen-Murphy’s altar cross with its matching pair of candlesticks is used at The College Chapel of St Michael and All Angels, RAF Cranwell. They are much admired and I feel enhance our worship and add to the sense of occasion. Quite simply, their beauty lies in their simplicity, something that is much in character with the Chapel as a whole.

Rev (Wing Commander) John Ellis Former Church of England Chaplain RAF Cranwell

Desmond Clen-Murphy was born in south-east London during 1924. Early in World War II his family moved from the capital to the relative safety of Saltdean, located on chalk cliffs five miles east of Brighton. A motorcycle accident delayed his call-up for service in the armed forces, so he started a course at the Brighton College of Art. ‘I was very interested in cars and bikes and chose silversmithing and jewellery as it was the most mechanical of the subjects being taught’, he recalls. His studies were cut short by his call-up papers. He returned to the college after his period in uniform and from 1946–50 studied for the National Design Diploma. One of his fellow students was Gerald Benney. Dunstan Pruden taught Desmond the craft of silversmithing and, as with Gerald Benney, gave him work experience at Ditchling.1 His course over, he decided to combine teaching with making silver. He established his workshop in Brighton during 1952 and the following year started teaching at Worthing College of Art.2 In the mid-1950s Desmond was lending a hand to Gerald Benney who had established his studio and workshop at Whitfield Place, just off London’s

1. Dunstan Pruden was a member of The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic near Ditchling on the South Downs. The Guild had been founded by Eric Gill and was a semi-religious community of craftsmen and women.

2. The Worthing College of Art’s building at Union Place was designed by Robert Stillman, the county architect, in the European modernism style. It is believed to be one of only two UK purpose-built art colleges in this style.

3. The first set of silver Louis Osman designed – a whisky decanter and goblets – was made in Gerald Benney’s workshop in 1956.

4. Undertaken by forming the edge with a hammer.

5. Louis Osman (1914–1996) – The Life and Work of an Architect and Goldsmith

by Jenny Moore (Tiverton, 2006), p. 88.

6. Wife of Robin Day, the furniture designer. The Days were considered the UK’s celebrated design couple of the post-war era.

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Tottenham Court Road. ‘I also did work for Louis Osman’, he added.3 This included the alms dish made in 1958 that had been cast from a wax pattern made by Louis ‘kneading’ it as if it was dough. Desmond’s task was the skilful hand-forging of the edges.4 The piece is probably one of the heaviest alms dishes that has ever been made.5 Today the alms dish is in the collection of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. So too is the box Desmond made in the same year to his own design. Of rectangular form, it has a flush hinge, the cover being decorated with engraved lines and enhanced with gold inlay. The resulting abstract linear design greatly reflects the ‘new look’ 1950s style of home furnishings emanating from such textile and wallpaper designers as Lucienne Day.6 It is certainly of its age. 1958 was a busy year for Desmond as he also started teaching part-time at West Sussex College of Art, Chichester. The following year he decided it was time for a change. ‘I left Worthing and Chichester as well as working for Gerald and started Opposite: Aurum Champagne Goblets Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Chichester Cathedral was founded in 1075. Its 900th anniversary was marked with a limited edition issue of a goblet by Aurum.

This was designed by Desmond Clen-Murphy, whose maker’s mark it bears. The base is a silver-gilt wheatsheaf upon which the six heraldic martlets of Sussex are featured in plain silver against the golden colour of the sheaf. The edition was limited to 600. The pair are as good as the day they were made and have probably never been used. Both have their original booklets which contain a signed certificate featuring the number each goblet bears.

Height 16.5cm. London 1975.

DESMOND CLEN-MURPHY

part-time teaching at the Brighton College of Art.’ He recalls one of the first pieces of work to pass through his Brighton workshop at this time: ‘A pair of flagons forming part of a communion service for Louis Osman.

They were reproduction – in the 17th century style.’ In 1960 the Osmans had agreed to work on reconstructing Old Trinity Episcopal Church in Maryland, USA, a very small place of worship dating from before 1670. This included everything: the building, soft furnishings and the silver, apart from one chalice that had survived from the days of Queen Anne.7 The church, which is reputed to be the oldest one in use in the States, still uses the communion service, with the exception of the flagons, which the rector finds ‘too large to be practical’.8 He also commenced a series of boxes in silver, their covers inlaid with 18-carat gold to form an abstract pattern.9 As the 1960s progressed, large commissions were coming his way. In 1962 the Company commissioned him to design and make an altar set for The College Chapel of St Michael and All Angels10 at RAF Cranwell.

The cross is just over 90cms in height and Desmond

7. Queen of England 1702–14. Records at Fulham Palace (the residence of the Bishop of London) reveal that the Queen ordered ‘chapel accessories be delivered to the church through the Governor of Maryland’. It is thought that this referred to the Old Trinity Episcopal Church that colonists built with material taken from England.

8. Louis Osman (1914–1966) – The Life and Work of an Architect and Goldsmith

by Jenny Moore (Tiverton, 2006).

9. The Crafts Council has an image of one of these at www.photostore.org.uk.

10. Church of England.

11. As at 2010, Patrick Homewood was still working as a commercial engraver.

12. A follow-up survey by the Company in 1981 revealed that while the gifts were appreciated, they did not serve as a stimulus to acquire more silver.

Source: Unravelling the Mystery The story of the Goldsmiths’ Company in the Twentieth Century by Peter Jenkins (London, 2000), p. 228.

13. Sir John Prideaux was Chairman of National Westminster Bank from 1971–7 and Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in 1972.

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recalls, ‘the candlesticks have lapis lazuli bases, which are quite fun’. Both the cross and the candlesticks still adorn the church’s altar at special services, which Cranwell has quite regularly. The following year the Company decided to commission Desmond to design and make a silver gilt dish for its collection. At the time this would have been considered a very avant-garde piece. It has a clear Scandinavian influence with its elegant yet imposing 90cm-long, slightly tapering concave ‘dish’.

However, there is a twist. It stands on tripod textured feet that protrude through the body of the dish – offcentre as opposed to centrally – to support a silver disc engraved with the Company’s arms by Pat Homewood11 some centimetres above the main body. Desmond was also one of the silversmiths commissioned by the Company to make a centrepiece that would be gifted to one of the new universities being established at the beginning of the decade. This was to be their foundation collection upon which they would hopefully build12 and was to be designed by up and coming as well as established designers. Also commissioned were a pair of water jugs from each of six others including Gerald Benney, Keith Redfern and Robert Welch.

The mid-1960s also saw considerable activity in the Clen-Murphy workshop. When Sir John Prideaux13 was elected to the Company’s Court of Assistants in 1964, as is the custom at Goldsmiths’ Hall, he was given a sum of money to commission a silver wine cup for his personal use at the Hall. Sir John chose Desmond to design and make his cup. Other important commissions during the 1960s included silver for Nottingham

Left, above: Serving Spoons with Enamel Decoration Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington The enamel decoration at the ends of the stems of these serving spoons is evocative of the era. Length 26cm. London 1955 Opposite, upper: Champagne Goblets Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This pair of champagne goblets had lightly textured stems that have been subsequently gilded. Height 13.3cm. London 1967.

Opposite, lower: Box with Abstract Linear Design Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This box has a beautiful flush hinge. Its cover is embellished with gold inlay and also features engraved lines. The design reflects the exploration in the 1950s of restructuring patterns. Such abstract linear forms were popular for textile and wallpaper designers at the time, such as Lucienne Day. The piece was made speculatively and was purchased by the Goldsmiths’ Company for its Modern Collection. Length 13.4cm. London 1958.

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University, St John’s College, Cambridge, a large bowl commissioned by De Beers for a presentation in Sweden and a five-branch candelabrum for Churchill College, Cambridge. In 1966, Graham Hughes14 recommended Desmond for a mace which was to be a UK Parliamentary gift to Sabah in East Malaysia.15 It took the form of a piece of teak 1.7m in length inlaid with nearly 3.75kg of silver. However, perhaps his most prestigious commission of the 1960s was an award to

14. Art Director at the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.

15. East Malaysia comprises the states of Sabah and Sarawak in northern Borneo as well as the Federal Territory of Labuan that lies off Sabah. The two states became part of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, but retained a higher degree of both local government and legislative autonomy compared to the states in west Malaysia (i.e. those on the Malay Peninsular).

16. Now the Royal Institute of Navigation after it was granted a Royal Charter

by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.

17. Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. He left in 1577 and returned in 1580. Upon his return to London, Elizabeth I knighted him on the deck of the Golden Hind. When Sir Francis Chichester sailed up the Thames to London, HM Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in public at Greenwich with Sir Francis Drake’s sword.

18. Heraldic swallows which feature on Sussex’s coat of arms.

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Sir Francis Chichester, the aviator and navigator who was the first person to sail single-handed around the world. The circumnavigation was completed on 11 April

Above: Dish Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Desmond made this dish with its stylised engraved bird against a royal blue enamel ground as a wedding gift for Janet and Gerald Benney in 1957. It only bears the mark of the West Sussex College of Art where he was teaching at the time. Gifted to the Collection

by Janet Benney. Diameter 14.4cm. Unmarked. 1957.

Opposite: Centrepiece for The Goldsmiths’ Company Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company The Goldsmiths’ Company commissioned Desmond to design and make this silver-gilt dish in the early 1960s. At the time it would have been regarded as very avant-garde. The gentle curves of the dish are clearly influenced by the Scandinavian designs of the day, while the tripod legs are reminiscent of the USSR’s first Sputnik, but with three radio antennae instead of four. The design does not appear to have been emulated by others. The tripod legs support a disc engraved with the Company’s arms. Length 90cm. London 1963.

1967 when the homeward bound track crossed the outward bound one, but his voyage round the world was not completed until he reached Plymouth Breakwater on 28 May. The Institute of Navigation16 decided it wanted to mark Sir Francis’s achievement with a special award. Having consulted the Company, Desmond was commissioned. The award takes the form of a silver globe engraved by Pat Homewood with Gipsy Moth IV’s route and the words ‘The World Encompassed 1966–7’.

Desmond chose these, as they are the title of Sir Francis Drake’s original account of his own voyage.17 The globe stands some 25cm high within a circular band of silver supported by four sails upon a slender tubular stem. Its base is natural crystal azurite and malachite. The award was presented to Sir Francis by HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at the Institute’s AGM on 25 October 1967.

In 1975, having worked part-time for a considerable period, Desmond became a full-time lecturer at the Brighton College of Art. ‘I had some very bright students over the years’, he said. However, he continued with his commissions. These included ecclesiastical and university silver including the mace for the University of Bradford and another Parliamentary gift. This was the mace presented by the House of Commons to the Bahamas in 1974. In the mid-1970s he undertook his one and only limited edition – a goblet for Aurum. ‘I only designed these, I did not make them’, Desmond was quick to point out. Indeed, apart from these goblets, everything else that bears his maker’s mark was made by him – he was a true designer-silversmith. As Sussex had become his adopted county, it is appropriate that

the goblets were to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the founding of Chichester Cathedral in 1075.

Distributed by Aurum, the polished cups are trefoilshaped and the base of these as well as the short stems and base are applied with gilt wheat sheaves upon which there are silver martlets.18 In addition to his larger commission pieces, Desmond also made jewellery and a selection of silver items including spoons, napkin rings, goblets and boxes. ‘I like boxes’, he added. ‘I made one in the late 1970s or early 1980s where the lid was a three-dimensional landscape based on the Sussex Downs’, he continued. ‘It was partial gilt and at the centre of the lid there was a small gold model of a barn.

I sold this through Simon Beer’s shop at Lewes.’ He retired from teaching in 1987 and continued with small commissions. The last piece of silver he made was in 1996. This was for a Young Ploughman of the Year competition and took the form of a model of a fourfurrow reversible plough.

Desmond Clen-Murphy died on 3 July 2010.

AVAILABILITY Pieces designed and made by Desmond Clen-Murphy are elusive on the secondary market. However, the goblets he designed for Aurum commemorating the 900th anniversary of the founding of Chichester Cathedral are usually readily available. They are either dated 1975 or 1976.

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KEVIN COATES He planned to be a concert violinist but, thankfully for devotees of the goldsmiths’ art, studied jewellery design instead. Although he does not describe himself as a silversmith, he does work in the metal creating table-pieces, notably cups and centrepieces.

Never influenced by passing fashions, he works alone and makes the pieces he designs to the highest standard of craftsmanship. He thinks in colour and has been described as an ‘archetypal contemplator of proportions’. The way he approaches his work places him outside any design or style time-frame, which means his creations are totally different to those of his contemporaries.

If I had to place Kevin Coates’ jewels anywhere, they would seem to sit happily into that phantasmagoria of images we associate with late Renaissance books of emblems and imprese, symbolic encyclopaedias and alchemical manuals. Add to them a touch of Art Nouveau and Surrealism and we have some of the powerful impulses that frame his art.

Sir Roy Strong

Kevin Coates was born at Kingston-upon-Thames in southwest Greater London, during 1950. At school he showed an early aptitude for drawing as well as music.

Indeed, at the age of eight he was playing the violin in the school orchestra. Although at his secondary school he was regarded as one of the best art students they had, Kevin’s first passion was music. Aged 17 he went to Adelaide, Australia to undertake advanced violin studies with Antonio di Palma. He returned to the UK in 1968 and the following year was undertaking a foundation course at the West Sussex College of Design in Worthing.

So what made him switch from music to art? ‘I am equally passionate about music and art’, Kevin said with a smile. He had greatly enjoyed his studies with his Italian violin teacher in Australia, but when back in the UK, his new English teacher asked him, ‘Why do you have to play everything so passionately?’ Kevin sighs, ‘I have always been admired and criticised for my enthusiasm.’ As Dan Klein, the specialist in 20th-century decorative art, wrote in the catalogue for Kevin’s oneman exhibition and retrospective ‘Kevin Coates – Goldsmith’,1 ‘had he found the right violin teacher to harness his passion to technique, he might never have felt free enough to pursue his interest in design.’

1. At Goldsmith’s Hall, London, 26 June – 19 July 1991.

2. Kevin’s Musica Antiqua was abandoned long ago. There is now a Musica Antiqua of Cologne, which is a completely different early music ensemble.

3. Following the merger of the Central and Saint Martins School of Art in 1989, it is now known as the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (commonly abbreviated to Central Saint Martins) which is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London.

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Music certainly remained an integral part of his life.

While studying on his foundation course during 1969–70, he joined Musica Antiqua,2 a group of instrumentalists specialising in the performance of Renaissance music. The group was typical of early music ensembles in that all its members played a wide variety of Renaissance instruments. Kevin still plays the baroque violin, viola, viola d’amore, lute and baroque mandoline. From 1970–3 he was studying jewellery design at London’s Central School of Art and Design.3 It was here during 1971 that he first turned his attention to silver. He designed and made a chalice that appears to be fabricated from rectangular silver gilt panels, its bowl and base having many windows of amber, each overlaid with a silver cross. Looking at an image of the chalice in the catalogue raisonné of Kevin

Opposite: St George Centrepiece Courtesy The Silver Trust ‘Kevin Coates’ St George Centrepiece just looks so dramatic when the dining room is lit by candlelight, as the dragon appears as if it is suspended in the air’, commented Christopher English, Secretary to the trustees of The Silver Trust. The Trust presented a collection of contemporary silver to 10 Downing Street for use at official functions and this is certainly one of the most colourful pieces of silver at the London residence. The colouring of St George, his horse and the dragon is not the result of enamelling but patination and gilding. Following diverse treatments of the silver to obtain the colour, it is then lacquered so that the colour is retained. Kevin is an artist who thinks in colour and uses it like an artist, excepting that for silver, his palette does not comprise paints. Height 47.5cm. London 1993.

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KEVIN COATES

the chalice tickled the visual and tactile senses, there was another first for the organ of hearing when Musica Antiqua’s first record – Renaissance Hits – was released. Two years later Kevin received his first two awards. One was the Marlow Award from the Society of Designer Craftsmen.5 It was the first time that it had been awarded. The second was the Society’s medal for excellence. In the summer of that year his work was first included in a public exhibition, British Jewellery at Hanau, Germany.

Having graduated from the Central School in 1973, Kevin began studying jewellery design at London’s Royal College of Art. A virtuoso of modelling and carving, he added other achievements to his skills repertoire. When he wished to achieve a certain effect, but there was no known technique to achieve what he had in mind, he would undertake research. Having experimented with casting gold into, or over, steel, in 1973 he developed a method of casting gold round titanium. This became a recurring and characteristic technique in Kevin’s earlier output. Much later he perfected the inlaying of one stone into another: for example fire-opals set into a carved moonstone, or demantoid garnets into a carved opal.6 While undertaking his postgraduate studies at the RCA, he was still very active in the world of music, in 1974 forming Duo Vinaccia with Nel Romano, the harpsichord and fortepiano player.

The following year the couple recorded L’Art de la Mandoline Baroque that was released under the Arion label. Kevin graduated from the RCA in 1976 and won the College’s Anstruther Award for Goldsmithing. In addition to exhibiting at the Victoria and Albert’s Museum’s ‘RCA 76’ and ‘Passing Out’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall, his work was also shown at Barbara Cartlidge’s cutting edge Electrum Gallery in London’s South Molton Street. The exhibition was entitled ‘Titanium at Electrum’. Also in this year he made his first ring, a wedding band for his marriage to Nel Romano. Set with a star sapphire, beneath the bezel,7 which could only be viewed by removing the ring from the finger, was a minute self-portrait. The inside of the shank is simply engraved ‘AMORE’.

Coates’ work published in a comprehensive monograph,4 the piece defies an era. The uneven rim of the bowl and the inset amber suggest antiquity, whereas its overall shape is evocative of the Middle Ages. A single object manages to evoke solemnity, humour, unease and mystery. It was a small hint of what was to come. While 144

The second half of the 1970s was certainly busy for Kevin: there were exhibitions, recitals and broadcasts, lecturing at the Central School, commissions, and also researching for his doctorate in the Department of Cultural History at the RCA. His thesis was entitled ‘A study of the use of mathematics in musical-instrument design’.8 In an age when specialisation is the accepted norm, Kevin is a polymath. As Dan Klein wrote in the introduction to the catalogue of

Opposite: The Charter Bell Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company The Goldsmiths’ Company commissioned Kevin Coates to make a large object for the table, otherwise the brief was completely open.

Starting with a blank sheet of paper, Kevin explained, ‘So my pursuit of the significant began: and it began with sound. Anyone who works with metal, particularly “fine” metals, will have noticed the characteristic notes they make when they are dropped or struck.’

Having discussed the different richness of sounds that silver and gold makes, he noted that the Company was founded to ‘test’ gold and silver, a function it continues today. He continued, ‘The ancient method of testing a metal’s purity was by means of a touchstone – a small slab of dark mineral, which would retain a clear and “gradable” mark when an alloy of gold was rubbed or touched against it, in what is, in effect, a kiss of truth. And it is this “moral embrace”, together with the ring of truth – the sound of the noble metals themselves – which led me to devise a bell, in fact a double bell, in which the sounds of silver and of gold are evoked by this impacting kiss of touchstone against metal, through a touchstone clapper’s striking the gold and silver of the bells themselves.’

The Company was granted its first Royal Charter on 13 March 1327 and has been based in the City of London at its current location for centuries. ‘This wondrous pin-point in Time and Space gave me the idea to cloak this Bell in its own cosmic Livery’, Kevin explained. ‘I commissioned a star chart for the 13 March 1327, with the specific geographical co-ordinates – a chart giving the planetary positions within the 12 zodiac houses, and one allowing for the discrepancies of the Julian calendar. I used this rather beguiling information by manipulating the circular two-dimensional chart into a threedimensional outer skin “covering” the bell, but one remaining unattached to its vibrating parts. This I divided in a dozen facetted segments, separating the cosmic field into zodiac houses, covered in a cosmic ground of lapis lazuli and gold-glass mosaic stretching beyond the sun – the-18 carat gold bell – into the hand-piece needed to lift the 4.8kg of the silver bell’s weight. At the top of the bell, emerging from her throne of cloud, sits the Company’s crest-figure, the Demi-virgin, granted to its arms in 1571. As mine was not a two-dimensional heraldic depiction, I was able to take the liberty of morphing the back of her coif into the Company’s Leopard’s head authority to mark or judge (the Company’s motto is Justitia Virtutum Regina – Justice is the Queen of Virtues).’

The rim of the lower bell bears a legend, a verse composed by Kevin: By touch of stone I sound for man the truth of noble metal.

Such gold and silver are, in turn, the test of man’s own mettle. He explains, ‘This is the silent voice of the bell itself. It is one of the bell’s three voices, the other two being the sound of the upper 18carat one [musically F#], and the lower, heavy silver one [musically D]. This, as it were, is the philosophical significance of the object, and indeed, in a kind of tail-wagging-the-dog-situation, has led to the founding of a new annual ceremony, that of “The Charter Bell”, where the Company’s new Prime Warden is rung in for his year of office. Added to this philosophical significance, however, is a further layer of historical meaning, for the Company renews its directive blood annually in this way, and has done so for what in reality may have been more than 12 or 13 centuries.’

This is a very rare instance of a contemporary object triggering a new aspect to a ceremony in an ancient institution. The work occupied Kevin Coates for more than two years. Height 39cm. London 2003.

‘Kevin Coates – Goldsmith’, he ‘could have found fulfilment in a variety of ways. It is our good fortune that he chose to express himself as he does, principally as a jeweller. He could equally well have decided on a career as a musician, instrument-maker, or academic.’ Kevin’s work is inspired by music, the theatre, painting, literature, mathematics, mythology, history, science and nature. Add his intellectual and spiritual input to his work with his meticulous attention to the detail of the design and the results are pieces that are very multi-faceted. Sir Roy Strong 9 neatly sums up the combination of the ingredients in the introduction to the 2008 monograph of Kevin Coates work by saying, ‘These jewels are potent and meaningful objects, not to be regarded lightly, but things which have a life of their own disclosing their hidden mysteries only to the initiated.’ 10 Klein refers to Kevin as a jeweller and Sir Roy to his ‘jewels’. While the greater part of Kevin Coates work is jewellery, it is not exclusively so. From the mid-1970s he was making small table-top sculptures in precious metals, including beautifully modelled animals, creatures from mythology, dancers and acrobats, some mounted on naturally shaped crystals.

Kevin refers to himself as a goldsmith as opposed to a jeweller.11 When interviewed for Conversation Piece with Sue MacGregor,12 he said ‘I also make things that are larger than jewellery, and therefore I have a wider approach... I tend to call the objects jewels, or work, rather than jewellery.’ The series of Kevin’s works that fall within the category of this book, the 1971 chalice to one side, began in 1982, with a commission from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. The piece was inspired by Professor Robert Goodden, under whom Kevin studied during his first year 4. Kevin Coates A Hidden Alchemy: Goldsmithing, Jewels and Table-pieces (Stuttgart, 2008).

5. Formed as the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in 1887, its purpose was to give a voice to, and to organise exhibitions for the growing number of designermakers. Today the Society promotes and supports the work of creative thinkers, designers and makers who continue to innovate in the crafts through the exploration of materials and skills.

6. The in-set stones served as the eyes of two faces.

7. The groove holding the stone in position.

8. He was awarded his PhD in 1979. The thesis appeared in book form in 1985 with the title ‘Geometry, Proportion and the Art of Lutherie – A study of the use and aesthetic significance of geometry and numerical proportion of the design of European bowed and plucked instruments in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’. The subtitle of the work demonstrates the depths to which Kevin will go to fully understand something. In other words, playing stringed instruments is not enough for him, as the visual and structural aspects are equally as important. The work was reprinted in 1986 and later appeared in paperback.

9. A former Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

10. Kevin Coates A Hidden Alchemy, 2008, p.74.

11. On the Company’s website (goldsmiths.co.uk) in A History of the Goldsmiths’ Company, it is stated, ‘ “goldsmith” has always been understood to mean a worker in both gold and silver’. However, the business The Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co Limited clearly differentiated between the two types of smithing. Generally the Company’s view is the accepted one.

12. Radio 4 – it was broadcast in November 1992.

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at the RCA and who was Prime Warden of the Company for 1976–7. This was the Amity Cup to celebrate the long friendship between the Company and the Fishmonger’s Company and was to be used at the Amity Dinners held each year. Kevin drew on a speech his former professor had made at the dinner on 28 April 1976, particularly his ‘rich and inventive use of metaphor’. Kevin continued, ‘I drew on two images he used to express the Amity, “the ring of friendship with no end and no beginning” which I interpreted through the cup’s double stem linked by the two companies’ creatures, the Leopard and the Luce;13 and the pearl – a jewel within the harvest of the fishmonger, passed to the goldsmith who “sets” and so protects it – the pearl of friendship – “what the gold clasps and will not let go, the pearl beyond price”.’ The cup was naturally included in ‘The Treasures of the 20th Century’ exhibition staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall to mark the millennium.14 The description of the piece in the accompanying catalogue ends, ‘Kevin Coates’s intellectual and creative treatment of subject matter, combined with a technical excellence of modelling, was to place him outside any design or style time-frame and establish him as a unique artist.’ Indeed, Kevin’s work is independent and has never been influenced by passing fashions. As he once remarked, ‘I am quintessentially a post-modernist and was so before it had a name.’ 15 The press has often dubbed Kevin ‘Britain’s Leonardo’, while many know him as ‘Britain’s “archimagus” 16 of goldsmithing’. There is certainly an element of wizardry in the Amity Cup, which is a good example of ‘Coates Suspension’ (see Amity Cup caption).

Kevin has also been likened to Fabergé, but in many ways this is not a particularly good comparison. Peter Carl Fabergé ran a successful business that, from 1882 through to the closure of the firm after the Russian Revolution, produced an estimated 200,000 objects. While Peter Carl was also a virtuoso goldsmith, he designed items that were made by hundreds of craftsmen and he also employed a team of designers. Kevin works entirely alone, without assistants and he certainly does not design pieces for others to make, but will use outwork when the scale of workshop equipment precludes his own direct involvement.

13. A pike, especially when fully-grown.

14. 25 May – 21 July 2000.

15. Quoted by Dan Klein in the introduction of the catalogue for the 1991 exhibition, ‘Kevin Coates Goldsmith’.

16. A great magician, wizard, or enchanter.

17. Kevin Coates’ numbering system began in 1973 with the Abstract brooch. It does not include the eight pieces he made from 1970 to when the numbering began.

18. Kevin Coates A Hidden Alchemy, 2008, p.74.

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Furthermore, Kevin Coates’ catalogue raisonné lists just 425 pieces from 1973 through to 2007.17 As at the end of 2010, the number was 440. Such differences to one side, there are similarities between Kevin and Peter Carl. Both are artist jewellers with a talent for design, having a fine eye for detail and a sense of humour that can lead to ‘quirky’ objects. The piece of Kevin’s silver that most falls within this category is his Polar Ice-Cream Tureen with a polar bear at its North Pole and penguins that appear inverted as they walk upon the South Pole. It is also a good example of Kevin’s attention to detail. Under the tray for the ice cream, there is an ice-void to help ensure the contents remain frozen. Whereas the form may appear spherical, it is in fact an oblate spheroid, in other words is flattened at the poles as indeed is the earth. Kevin continues, ‘In use, the planished “oceanic” outer surface is designed to run with condensation from the chill within, to drain below onto the marble disc. The poles are formed of satin-finished areas inhabited on the Arctic level by a fierce sentry in the form of a polar bear, who nevertheless allows himself to be used as a handle to lift the tureen lid, while at Antarctic level a group of Adélie penguins act as thermatically isolating links to the base. Their feet tread the Pole and in consequence, to us, appear inverted as, no doubt, we would to them.’ The tureen was made in 1994.

In one of the essays in the 2008 monograph18 Dr Helen Clifford discusses the table-pieces in depth, but also gives a superb description of his working environment, ‘His studioworkshop is like a magician’s turret room in a fairy castle.

Opposite: Bruno Schroder’s Court Cup Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This is the Court Cup of Bruno Schroder, Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company in 2000-1. Not only is this a superbly modelled composition, but it forms a theatre of modern mythology.

Mr Schroder has a penchant for flying, is passionate about Scotland and is the custodian of a spectacular collection of Renaissance silver. These interests are alluded to in the two main features of the design. The flying dragon is a reference not only to flight, but also features in silver of the Renaissance, while the thistle-waisted bowl of the cup is representative of Scotland. The dragon is surrounded by miniature objects signifying the treasures in the Schroder Collection. The cup has all the characteristics of Kevin’s work: the gilding contrasts against the dark oxidised and patinated silver; a three-dimensional composition with a constantly changing profile when viewed from different angles; a feeling of movement and the apparent defiance of gravity with the cup’s bowl appearing to be suspended, in this case on the smoke and flames emitting from the dragon’s mouth.

Having seen the goblet being used at a Court luncheon, it looks as remarkable in the flesh as it does on this image.

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KEVIN COATES

Kevin’s centrepiece. Interestingly, he thinks in colour, so when a piece is taking shape in his mind, colour is an integral part of the thought process and not an afterthought. This partially explains his confident use of colour.

Being a creator of jewels, Kevin’s palette of course is not composed of paints but stones (precious, semi-precious and hardstones), rocks, minerals, wood, gold, silver, oxidisation and patination.

In Kevin’s words, ‘The piece presents a silver-gilt bowl surmounted by an arched patinated silver crossing, encasing ebony inlaid with a mosaic of coral and mother-of-pearl. The bands of red over a field of white culminate in the abandoned shield of Saint George lying above the flowers of the United Kingdom.20 Below this, in their relevant quarters,

He sketches, draws and produces fine watercolour designs, marked with their organising geometry. He conjures figures from wax, casts gold, silver and bronze, carves gems, cuts marble, slices slate, works horn, patinates and polishes, oxidises and gilds.’ One can imagine Kevin casting his spell over the materials with which he works. One of thee larger pieces emanating from the Coates studio-workshop was The Saint George Centrepiece commissioned by The Silver Trust for use at official functions at 10 Downing Street.19 Most of the pieces for use in the London residence of the British Prime Minister were commissioned in the 1990s and are the work of 23 individuals. With the exception of the mantel clock made by Clive Burr and enamelled by Jane Short, Cara Murphy’s desk set and some gilding on the pieces for the table, none of the pieces have colour. The exception is

19. Kevin recalls, ‘I remember going to present my design to the committee at a meeting held in Westminster. Not unusual for one of my profession, I am rather short sighted and had failed to notice that I was followed into the building. I tried to close the heavy Georgian front door behind me – but it wouldn’t ... and it was not until I saw the horrified expression of the receptionist in front of me (who had noticed and could see the trapped foot of my follower) that I realised why, and opened it again on a crumpled Baroness Falkender, whom I had not met before, but whom I knew to be chairing the selection committee which was to decide, if not my fate, then that of my St George. But she was a good sport, and afterwards hardly limped at all!’

20. The rose of England, the thistle of Scotland, the shamrock of Northern Ireland and the daffodil of Wales.

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Left: Amity Cup Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This is an excellent example of what is called the ‘Coates Suspension’. The Amity Cup celebrates the long friendship between the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. When looking at the image quickly, it appears as if the base and the bowl of the cup are not joined and that the bowl is floating above its base. This of course is scientifically not possible.

Traditionally goblets are constructed with a central stem on what is known as the axial, an imaginary line which divides something in half. Instead of a stem, Kevin has put the reason for the friendship between the two livery companies central stage: ‘the pearl of friendship’. The pearl is within the harvest of the fishmonger and is passed to the goldsmith who ‘sets’ and so protects it. This is shown symbolically to be the Fishmonger’s luce (a large pike) having proffered a pearl to the Goldsmiths’ leopard. With no central link between the base and the bowl, it looks as if the object is defying gravity. Both the base and the bowl are oxidised silver and both are applied with gilded ribs. The eyes are drawn to these as the gold stands out against the black oxidised surface. One would expect the ribs to meet at both the left and right sides, but they do not. Of course, there is no ‘suspension’: the tails of the two creatures join the bowl and the base. The optical illusion is the ‘Coates Suspension’.

The piece has a height of 14.7cm. London 1981.

Opposite: Polar Ice-cream Tureen Courtesy Kevin Coates This is a quirky piece that would have made Peter Carl Fabergé smile. Kevin Coates explains how it came to fruition: ‘I am extremely fortunate to have been, for some years, under the care of the eminent hypertension expert Professor Brian Prichard. The Professor, a model of sobriety in all else, has an admitted but controlled (says he!) passion for vegetable-based ice-cream. Upon receiving the award of an international prize in recognition of his distinguished work in the treatment of hypertension, he thought that it would be fitting that his daily pleasure should be made more luxurious by ritual presentation, and suitably apt that it should be enabled by a hypertension patient of his, hence the creation of this somewhat esoteric piece of hollowware. Height 31.5cm. London 1994.

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are the heraldic insignia of the four British nations, mounted against a reticulated ground of mosaic: coral for England and Wales, amber for Scotland and lapis lazuli for Ireland. The whole is surmounted by the finial of Saint George vanquishing the self-impaled dragon, realising the Garter motto Honi Soit qui Mal y pense.’ 21 Whereas traditionally Saint George is portrayed as slaying the dragon on the ground, as in Benedetto Pistrucci’s 1817 effigy for the British coinage,22 Kevin has reversed the scenario.

The twist of having the winged reptile aloft as the aggressor, impaling itself unintentionally on Saint George’s lance as it lunges towards its much smaller prey, is dramatic. Add the writhing death throes of the monstrous monster as it breathes its last and one has pure theatre. The audience of course are the diners. As one looks at this well-modelled scene with its reds, blues, and greens, together with the grey-white of the saint’s charger, one immediately thinks ‘enamel’. However, this technique is not mentioned above as being an ingredient of Kevin’s palette. He has occasionally used enamelling23 but for some time has preferred ‘to use patinations and layers of lacquer over diverse treatments of metal so it that it retains the colour’. While this may sound a guarded comment, it should be remembered that goldsmithing is referred to as a ‘mystery’.24 Every “archimagus” has their secrets!

Kevin has undertaken around three dozen or so pieces that would fall within the category of this volume. In addition to cups and centrepieces (cups are the larger proportion of his oeuvre in silver and include The St Chad Cup for Lichfield Cathedral, while the centrepieces include the Leeds Castle Rose-Water Maze Centrepiece which features a model of the castle set upon a ‘lake’ of aquamarine at its ‘destination’), other pieces include the De Beers 1982 Diamond Stakes Trophy, a two-branch candelabrum, a spoon, a clock, a magnifying glass, a paper knife and a bell as well as other objets d’art and objets de fantaisie. The spoon is the only

item of flatware he has produced and it is the most conventional piece to have emanated from his workshop. Being of Apostle spoon form, it was made in 1984 to present to Philip Popham, Senior Tutor at the RCA who taught Kevin and who later was a colleague when he lectured there. The twist of the piece is that the ‘Apostle’ is a portrait of Mr Popham.

It was given to him on the occasion of his retirement. The clock, called Midnight Oasis and made in 1992, was commissioned by a Saudi Prince to present to his uncle, the late King of Saudi Arabia. It features a white Arab stallion in a desert (sandstone) oasis drinking from a pool (aquamarine) set between three palm trees (silver). The magnifying glass, which is a superb composition christened the Angling Cat, is an absolute delight. A stalking ‘alley cat’ (oxidised silver) peers into an ornamental pond (a silvermounted etched lens) while an alarmed fish breaks through the surface of the water. It was made in 1984. Pieces that also fall within the scope of this volume are table sculptures of unicorns and small sculptures of frogs. In 2007 Kevin became Associate Artist at the Wallace Collection25 and spent four years studying and working with the collections.

This culminated in an exhibition in 2011 entitled ‘Time Regained’ 26 that celebrated the connection of time with art and humanity, as well as people’s responses to artefacts left by others. Kevin was inspired, among other things by armour, Boulle furniture, Maiolica, a Meissen ewer as well as paintings by Canaletto, Flinck, Lancret and Van Loo. Apart from the unique nature of Kevin Coates’ creations, another interesting aspect of his work is that he successfully embraces a range of pieces from the miniature to the very large. One of his smallest jewels, the pin Hypnos,27 is just 0.12cm in width, while The St George Centrepiece has a height of 47.5cm. Nevertheless, this pales against the height of a sculpture made in 1984 of silver, parcel-gilt, titanium, glass (part sand-blasted and mirrored) with a stand of bronze-laminated wood. It stands in the foyer of

Opposite: Hypnos, God of Sleep and Dreams Courtesy The Pearson Silver Foundation, photographer Bill Burnett This table sculpture of Hypnos, god of Sleep and Dreams, is crafted in 18-carat patinated gold, jewels and slate. Looking good on a desk or side-table, it also comprises two pieces of jewellery. The god’s face, which slips off the piece with ease, is in fact a ring with a small diamond set at the forehead and a cat’s-eye chrysoberyl in the mouth. His hand is holding a blue moonstone sphere upon which in the sculpture, he appears to be breathing. Below, golden stars seem to be falling from the hand through the night sky to the world below. Are these dreams? The hand can be lifted from the sculpture to be used as a lapel or tie pin. The duality of the piece is ingenious. Overall height 15.8cm. London 1988.

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Nissan House in Worthing. It is a memorial to Kevin’s father HH (‘Ricky’) Coates who died while a director of Nissan UK Limited. As a goldsmith accustomed to making jewels to be worn, Kevin is working in miniature with a very focussed attention to detail, which includes considerable thought to the actual wearing of the piece.

Kevin has been described as the ‘archetypal contemplator of proportions’.28 Certainly Kevin uses geometry to give form to his ideas. In a lecture given to the Silver Society in London during 1994 he commented, ‘this proportional geometry ... is just as easily applied to a cathedral, a piece of silver or to a jewel: for scale, by definition, is irrelevant’.

This helps explain how Kevin manages to work so successfully in different scales: he is a master of proportion. Kevin Coates is also a true designer-craftsman who stands out from the crowd. He is a colourful character who produces different and colourful work.

21. This translates from the Old French as Evil be to him who evil thinks. It is the motto of the The Most Noble Order of the Garter, the most senior and the oldest Order of British Chivalry. The Order comprises the monarch and 25 knights. Quote taken from Kevin Coates A Hidden Alchemy, 2008, p.269.

22. Which is still used on gold sovereigns.

23. The last time appears to have been in 1990 for the neckpiece Angel at the End of Time.

24. When Edward IV granted Letters Patent to what is now the Company so it could become a body corporate, reference was made to ‘the Wardens and Commonality of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London’. ‘Mystery’ in this context is believed to mean craft, being derived from the same source as the French word ‘métier’, meaning craft.

25. This is one of Europe’s finest collections of works of art, paintings, furniture, arms and armour as well as porcelain which were collected in the 18th and 19th centuries by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the fourth Marquess. Lady Wallace, Sir Richard’s widow, left it to the nation in 1897. The Collection is displayed in Hertford House, the London residence of the former owners, in Manchester Square, London.

26. 23 June to 25 September 2011.

27. The god of Sleep and Dreams.

28. Noel Cobb Working with Gold: the Mozartian Jewels of Kevin Coates in Sphinx: A Journal for the Archetypal Psychology and the Arts, Vol 4, 1992, p 107.

AVAILABILITY Kevin Coates’ work does occasionally appear on the secondary market. Commissions of course can be placed direct with him. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact details.

FURTHER READING Kevin Coates, A Hidden Alchemy – Goldsmithing: Jewels and Tablepieces (Stuttgart, 2008).

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STUART DEVLIN Australian born, he trained as a metalwork teacher, taught for a while and then went back to study gold and silversmithing part-time and excelled. Awarded travelling scholarships, he applied to study at London’s Royal College of Art. Having graduated from there with two degrees he then secured a Harkness Fellowship to study in the States, where he abandoned silver for sculpture. Back in Australia to return to education, he was asked if he would like to submit designs for the country’s forthcoming decimal coinage. He did and they were accepted.

Deciding that being an Inspector of Art Schools was not for him, he returned to London and established a workshop. Feeling the ‘modern’ idiom of silver design was sterile, he decided to design pieces to enrich, delight, surprise, intrigue and amuse. The ‘Devlin style’ was born.

It is suggested that comparisons and references to masters of the past are not applicable to Devlin, he is his own man and his work bears no comparison to, nor has derivation from either his forebears or his contemporaries. It is probably true to say that unlike his leading contemporaries in silversmithing and jewellery, Devlin is seldom copied by lesser workers. This may be partly because of the rapid evolution and development of his style, but more likely because his use of advances in technology and unusual techniques of his own devising, produce effects which are difficult for others to reproduce.

Peter Gainsbury, 1983 Director, Design & Technology, Goldsmiths’ Hall

Stuart Leslie Devlin has been described as ‘perhaps the only surviving specimen of Renaissance man, sub species Australasius’.1 He was born in Geelong, Australia during 1931 at the height of the Great Depression. His parents, Richard and Elizabeth Devlin, already had twin boys aged one year. Eighteen months later, another son was born. These were difficult times, but the Devlin family was a close-knit one where the parents strove to do the best for their offspring. Their father was a painter and decorator and a perfectionist, while their mother, who ran the household and cared for her family, would not tolerate idleness. The boys were expected to help with household chores, but were encouraged by their mother to explore the most efficient ways of undertaking their duties around the home. This creativity also extended to problem solving, for example when making their own models of aircraft. As a result, each of the boys learnt to be creative, inventive and to appreciate the virtue of hard work in the pursuit of excellence.2 1. By Dr Robin Eaglen, President of the British Numismatic Society when Stuart Devlin spoke at the Society’s Spring Reception Meeting at the Warburg Institute on 26 May, 2009. The subject of his talk was ‘Coins and Creativity’.

2. The result was a very talented family. The first son became an interior designer, the second a designer of tractors and other farm machinery, the third (Stuart) a goldsmith and the fourth a furniture maker and designer. Sadly Richard Devlin and the elder twin died in a boating accident in 1949 and the youngest son also passed away six months after he joined Stuart in London during the 1960s.

3. Geelong Junior Technical School.

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Following his primary education, Stuart became head prefect of his secondary school3 at 13 and also a winner of the Doyle Cup, awarded for ‘best influence for good in the school’. As was the custom in the third year, he was asked about his proposed career. Being good at all nine subjects he had studied in his final year, and believing

Opposite: Café au lait Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Robin Maggs, National Museum of Wales It is ironic that this café au lait, which Stuart designed in 1959, is today an icon of 1960s silver design. Like many in the 1950s, his work was inspired by Scandinavian design, but Stuart considered the influence alien to him. In the early 1960s he also developed a serious interest in sculpture, culminating in a one-man show at the Thibault Gallery in New York. The first of the full coffee sets, comprising coffee pot, milk jug, cream jug and sugar bowl, was made by Stuart while at the Royal College of Art. These early pieces had areas of nylon as insulation, white for the hot milk and cream jugs and dark green for the coffee pot and base of the sugar bowl. One set is in the collection of The Goldsmiths’ Company. It was severely damaged in a fire, but has been restored. Subsequent ones were made by Wakely and Wheeler in the early 1960s but there are no records as to how many.

Sometimes they only comprise the coffee pot and hot milk jug, as shown here. A pair acquired by the Marquess of Lothian was sold by Sotheby’s at Olympia in 2003 and is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, USA. Both pots have dark green nylon sleeves. The pair shown here was purchased at Christie’s in 2009. The underside of each of the pots’ covers are engraved ‘Des S Devlin’. Height 32.5cm. London 1960.

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STUART DEVLIN

that the headmaster was qualified to teach the entire curriculum, he responded that he wished to emulate the head.

Being asked to choose just one subject at this stage, he replied ‘art’ and when requested to be more specific, responded, ‘art metalwork’. At 14 he won a three-year scholarship to train towards being an art teacher.4 This was followed by two years practical silversmithing in an ecclesiastical workshop.5 His actual teacher training began at night school during the final year of his silversmithing experience. It continued for the following year, which was also his first as an educationalist, aged 19 teaching metalwork to secondary school teachers.

In 1952 he became an art teacher at Wangaratta, a town of around 12,000 people in northern Victoria. This lasted for five years, which he describes as a period when he was ‘banished to the bush’. He participated in a great deal of sporting activities, but virtually neglected his own

Opposite: Table Setting Courtesy Stuart Devlin One connoisseur of silver, whether it is antique or modern, confessed that until he viewed the exhibition ‘25 Years of Stuart Devlin in London’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1983, he could take or leave Stuart’s designs. However, since he has seen the richness and splendour of Devlin’s table settings he has been an ardent fan. Carole Devlin refers to dinner parties using Devlin tableware as ‘glittery evenings’. The Pearsons consider light from Stuart’s gilt filigree candelabra cast a magic in the dining room.

Above: Brandy Warmer and Stand Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This brandy warmer and stand is an important early piece of Stuart Devlin’s work. It was designed and made by him in 1959-60 when he was studying at the RCA. Stuart regards it as one of his most important pieces from a technical point of view. Interestingly the body was made of two identical pieces, then one was turned upside down, rotated through 90˚ and soldered to the other. Its circular stand has an elliptical well in its centre, making a perfect fit for the base of the brandy warmer. Indeed, it appears drawn to the well by magnetism when placed on the base, the border of which is lightly textured. The handle is kingwood, which is redder than rosewood. This has been chewed very slightly by the original owners’ cat. The brandy warmer was a wedding gift from Stuart in 1967 to a fellow student from his RCA days. They spent their summer vacations hitch-hiking to European cultural centres. Stuart was best man at the wedding. His friend immediately recognised the piece from their college days and was honoured to receive it, though there was some banter about it being ‘a student piece’. Although made in 1959-60, it was not hallmarked until the year of the wedding. Length 29.5cm. London 1967.

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creative work. However, it was clearly just dormant, for from 1957-8 he studied part-time at a Melbourne college for the Diploma of Art in gold and silversmithing. Having completed the three-year full-time course studying only part-time in one year, with the highest marks ever given, he was awarded travelling scholarships. This allowed him to study in London at the Royal College of Art from 195860. He was given permission to undertake his degree in the RCA’s School of Silversmithing and Jewellery in two as opposed to three years. He liked Robert Goodden’s approach of ‘maximum opportunity and encouragement with minimum interference’ and clearly thrived. He certainly came to the attention of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, which secured examples of his work for its modern collection. This included his tall coffee set with no handles, but with nylon grips on the lower body of the coffee and milk jugs (the nylon being white for the milk and dark green for the coffee), which he considers the best piece he produced at the RCA. With their precise geometry of outline inspired by Scandinavian modernism, the pots have become an icon of the 1960s.6 He also designed a cutlery place setting, which was sold to the Company. While these pieces have a strong Scandinavian influence, they also have a dynamic that Stuart Devlin developed further in 1959.7 The Company also secured a major commission from him: a centrepiece to commemorate the tercentenary of the Royal Society in 1960.8

4. At the Gordon Institute, Geelong.

5. T Gaunt & Company (1948-9).

6. In the Company’s 25 Years of Stuart Devlin in London (London, 1983), this is described as ‘Silver and nylon coffee service 1958’, while in the Company’s Treasures of the 20th Century (London 2000) it features as, ‘Coffee set by Stuart Devlin, 1959’. Whether designed in 1958 or 1959, it is a precursor of 1960s design.

7. The spoons and forks were hand forged by Vanders. The blades of the knives were all stainless steel and their handles ivory, which was de rigueur for quality cutlery in the late 1950s.

8. Stuart designed this in 1959.

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after the other, put their work out on the table to be criticised by their peers as well as their patrons. That turned out to be terrible at the beginning as we were all very nervous about putting our work out and hearing what one of the others may say about it at an early stage. But, eventually a rapport developed within the group when we realised we were actually helping each other. At the end, this even reached the point that I carved the plasters12 for one of my competitors.’

Stuart explained that this competition not only brought him into the field of coin design, but also back into the field of design per se. At the age of 32, he had achieved his goal of being appointed Inspector of Art Schools in Victoria. ‘When I got there I hated it’, he said. ‘I found that as a teacher you can put your ideas into practice straight away, but as an inspector you would be lucky to achieve this in ten years. So, it was very, very frustrating.’

His parents’ ethic of hard work seen in Melbourne also came to the fore in London. He worked with such earnest in the first year that he was also able to spend time in both the schools of ceramics and sculpture.

During the second year he spent most of his time working on engineering projects in the School of Industrial Design – Engineering. Here his design for a small fuel cell car where the wheels were the only moving parts was but one of his innovative product designs. He had produced sufficient original silversmithing work and industrial designs to be able to submit for ‘degrees’ in both the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery as well as the School of Industrial Design. Upon graduating in 1960, he also won the Thesis Prize for that year. Following his success at the RCA, he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship9 without having to go through the usual selection process. He chose Colombia University as his base, where he was given his own studio. Initially he designed silver,10 but he then decided to develop a career as a sculptor.11 156

Due to a condition imposed in 1958 he returned home to teach. ‘Upon my return to Australia in 1963,’ he said’, ‘I was approached by the then Professor of Fine Art at Melbourne University and asked if I would be interested in becoming a member of a group of six designers to compete to design the Australian decimal coinage. I nearly said no, because I considered designing coinage was a graphic design problem. Because the relief of a coin is so low, there is so little scope for the third dimension. However, I asked him who the other people were. They were five eminent Australians, four of whom were graphic designers while one was a medallist. The Australian Government had decided that to get the best, they had to pay the best and had decided to pay each one of the group a handsome fee, regardless of whether their design was chosen. The other thing that they did, which was very unusual, was that they arranged for a sub-committee established by the Treasury, to meet with us in Sydney once a month to review our designs. Furthermore, each designer, one

Opposite: Candelabrum, 1965 Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Stuart returned to Australia in 1963 and achieved his ambition of being appointed Inspector of Art Schools in Victoria. However, he disliked the role, so with due consideration took the opportunity when invited to compete for the role of designing the Australian decimal coinage. He won and while in London supervising the preparation of the dies, the seeds were possibly sown to return to the city to establish himself as a silversmith. When he saw the work Gerald Benney was doing, Stuart realised that as Gerald had broken the Bauhaus/Scandinavian idiom, the way had been prepared for him to make his own mark with further changes. With just one commission under his belt, he opened his London studio and workshop in 1965. He made this candelabrum speculatively and it was later acquired by the Goldsmiths’ Company. Stuart thereafter decided to spend only half of his time working to commission, with the remainder being spent on speculative projects because he felt that this gave him more scope to work creatively. The Devlin idiom had begun to emerge. Height 29cm. London 1965.

Right, above: Candelabra at Chatsworth Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Jerry Lampson Returning to silversmithing in 1965, Stuart abandoned the stark Bauhaus and Nordic styles in favour of his own more decorative idiom. This pair of candelabra have hand-crafted gilded filigree globes. Stunning whether lit in either a contemporary or period environment, they are shown here in the State Closet at Chatsworth House, the centuries-old stately home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire located in Derbyshire. The Collection secured this pair at a charity auction in the Home Counties during 1999. When they were collected one of the helpers remarked, ‘Oh why did you buy these when we had such nice candelabra?’ The response, ‘We have been looking for a pair of these for years’, brought a puzzled look. Height 42cm. London 1968.

The seeds for his return to London were probably sown when he had to spend three months at the Royal Mint to supervise the cutting of his dies for the Australian coinage.13 With the £8,000 he received in design fees for

9. Stuart secured his Fellowship following a meeting with a US visitor in the RCA’s Senior Common Room. Known as Commonwealth Fund Fellowships until 1961, the Fund was established in 1918 by Anna Harkness (wife of one of the original investors in Standard Oil). Her son eastablished the Fellowships in 1925 to reciprocate Rhodes Scholarships to allow Fellows from specific countries to study in the US. Since 1997, the Harkness Fellowships have been limited to the field of health care, but before that they were available to scholars of all academic disciplines.

10. Notably a variation of a teapot of triangular form of which he had designed variants in Australia (1957) and the UK (1958). The designs culminated in the silver prototype being made in 1963 which was acquired by the Company. It was based on the UK design – see the Company’s Treasures of the 20th Century (London, 2000) page 76, item 186.

11. While in the US, he studied and lectured at various universities and showed at several exhibitions. He also held a one-man show at the Thibaut Gallery, Madison Avenue, New York in 1962. His sculptures were also exhibited at the Terry Clune Gallery in Sydney during 1965.

12. A designer’s sketch of a new coin, whether it is computer generated or drawn freestyle, is of course one-dimensional. Traditionally a three-dimensional model of the design is prepared by carving Plaster of Paris. The result is known as ‘the plaster’. This is prepared in bas-relief. It is important for the artist to work in a depth of relief that is suitable for producing coins. The model is normally from four to six times the actual size of the coin.

13. Gerald Benney told the story in 1964 that he and his wife Janet had lunch with Stuart Devlin and his wife in Sydney. Asked whether business was good in London, Gerald replied positively with enthusiasm. He would later joke that had he toned down his response, he would not have been in competition with Devlin. Given Devlin’s schedule at this period, the author considers the factual accuracy of this story is very doubtful.

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the coin project, he returned to London and established his silver workshop at Clerkenwell in 1965.14 This was a small workshop where he both lived and worked. He only had one commission: to design and make a ceremonial mace for Melbourne University. He also designed and speculatively made a 24-light candelabrum. This features elongated cones on small ball feet and a novel lighting system: its non-drip candles are held in place by a rotating nylon candleholder at the apex of each cone, which allows the candles to be positioned in a variety of ways. This was the first major non-commissioned piece Stuart had made commercially. It was admired by Graham Hughes, the Company’s Art Director and was acquired for the Company’s modern collection. With confirmation that pieces made for stock would sell, Stuart decided to make 50 percent of his output speculatively instead of relying on commissions because this gave him more scope to work creatively. By the end of 1965, he was employing his first craftsman.

It was only after settling in London that the style that can now be instantly recognisable as Stuart Devlin began to emerge. Like most students at the RCA during the 1950s, Stuart was influenced, as we have already seen, by Scandinavian design. This in turn had developed from Germany’s Bauhaus movement.15 However, while his early work had Scandinavian overtones, it did not have the starkness seen in so many of the then designs of the Nordic countries. Instead there was a certain dynamism and majestic presence that differentiated it from products emanating from the region. Nevertheless, as far as he was 158

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concerned, he ‘regarded that the Bauhaus and Scandinavian influences were alien to me.’ This is why in the States he pursued a career as a sculptor. It certainly added a new dimension to his previous silversmithing studies. ‘I was creating new and exciting shapes’, he recalled, ‘but also encountering technical problems I had to overcome to translate my vision into metal.’ However, considerable thought went into his setting up as a silversmith. During the 1960s silver was facing competition from a new medium – stainless steel. Stuart tells the story of a dinner party he attended. ‘I had to turn the cutlery over to see if it was silver or stainless steel. I found that it was in fact hallmarked silver and was appalled at the thought that, even as a silversmith, I could not tell that this expensive cutlery was not made from the much cheaper and more durable stainless steel.’ Naturally he began to question whether the silversmith had a relevant role in modern society. While he considered that his designs were very original, he personally felt, ‘they were sterile, forms with no future in them’. However, when he saw that Gerald Benney had broken the Bauhaus/Scandinavian idiom and

Left: Gold Box with Amethyst Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Over the years Stuart produced a small number of objects in 18 carat gold. These ranged from goblets weighing over 0.25kg each to one-off eggs and boxes, some of the latter being crafted in hardstones such as nephrite and moss agate, which were embellished with up to three different colours of gold in addition to stones and sometimes together with pearls. This example is in the typical Devlin style combining amethyst crystals with textured metal.

However, this particular texturing does not appear to have been used on his silver. Height 6.5cm. London 1973.

Opposite, lower: Sauce Boat Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Gilding became an important element of Stuart’s work from the mid-1960s. His earlier work was devoid of such gold embellishment.

However, occasionally one does encounter later work that is also not gilded. An architect and his wife with a preference for plain silver commissioned this sauce boat as well as a coffee service. The ‘collet’ hammered on the body of the sauce boat was used frequently by the Devlin workshop. It was produced by using a hammer with a rounded and polished head. Length 26.1cm. London 1975.

Opposite, upper: Flowered Box Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Over the years the Devlin workshop produced a diverse range of small boxes. This circular Flowered Box has its pull-off cover adorned with a mass of gilt and oxidised flower heads. A word of caution: do not place oxidised silver in silver dip as the dark coloured metal will become lighter and possibly silver in colour.

Diameter 7.1cm. London 1980.

was introducing something different, he realised ‘coming second was a better place to be’.16 ‘After a period of worrying uncertainty, I concluded that there was in fact a role for the contemporary silversmith – to enrich the way people live and work. I felt that the nature of my craft and the romance of precious metals gave me an opportunity to design pieces that added delight, surprise, intrigue and even amusement to what had become austere and even sterile within the “modern” idiom of design. To my amazement, I suddenly realised that the private pieces I had been making for several years as gifts for my wife, were in fact much more romantic pieces than my public work.’ This realisation was the start of what unquestionably became the Devlin style.

While retaining the basic simple forms of his earlier work, his objective was to make his pieces rich and romantic.

However, there was a further hurdle to overcome. While some of the traditional ways used by silversmiths in the past to enrich their work remained available, these involved very time-consuming procedures that would result in the finished pieces not being commercially viable.

Clearly new ways were needed. The two years Stuart spent on his Harkness Fellowship gave him the answer: ‘My period as a sculptor in the States showed me how I may be able to broaden the bounds of designing in silver and gold by using ideas from my experience with sculpture. I drew on my skills of working with molten metal and adapted and refined these techniques to enable me to produce a wide variety of textures on the surface of silver and to make filigree forms of almost any kind.’

It was not long before the business really took off. ‘Fairly quickly I realised that I had far too many ideas to be able to make the pieces myself, so I started employing craftsmen and eventually built up a staff of 60-odd people, 40 of them working at the bench. We would produce something like 1,000 and 1,500 new designs

every year’, he revealed. At one stage he was operating from seven workshops in Clerkenwell. Stuart is not known for being slow after a decision had been made and very soon he was producing silver that was completely different to anything that had been seen before. The textures, most of which were achieved by a welding torch, took numerous different forms. There were bold, thick, vertical striations, a ‘honeycomb’ effect, delicate horizontal collet texturing, abstract swirls, slanting bold striations and brick-like effects, to name but a selection. Additionally there were small flower heads and later ‘Lowry’ type figures (which he called ‘caryatic’) used as enrichment.17 Both of these were used in two ways. The flowers were used to embellish the area where a bowl of a goblet joined the stem, or as a border to a dish or cover of a box. However, with some boxes, the cover is entirely covered with a mass of small flower heads. While the small human figures, which were

14. Following World War II, this area of central London was suffering from industrial decline. In 1965 it became part of the Borough of Islington and its fortunes began to slowly change attracting craftspeople. By the 1990s it was being gentrified with loft accommodation for young professionals from the City and the associated restaurants and bars. It is also now home to many professional businesses.

15. The Staatliches Bauhaus was a school of design that was founded in Germany in 1919. It is more familiarly known as the Bauhaus. It was closed in 1933 following pressure from the Nazis. It taught its students giving the same emphasis to both art and to technical expertise in craftsmanship. The school’s impact on design is regarded as the most influential in the 20th century.

Ironically the school’s early closure by the Nazi’s helped the Bauhaus movement to have a considerable international influence. For example, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (the School’s last director) emigrated to the US for the directorship of the School of Architecture at the Armour Institute, Chicago.

16. Said during a conversation with John Andrew over lunch in Chichester on 17 May 2011.

17. Stuart first used the small figures in his jewellery – see footnote 25. They were modelled directly with molten gold and therefore required great skill. He developed the technique in the early 1960s when he was a sculptor. As some of the figures are very small, the tips of hypodermic needles were used to direct the flame.

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first used for his silver in the mid-1970s, were utilised to ‘support’ the bowl of a drinking vessel,18 friezes of them are known on bowls, coasters, coffee services and boxes as well as napkin rings. In almost all cases the texturing and other enrichment was gilded, though some flower heads were oxidised. Some of the gilding was brilliantly polished, but in other cases it was left matt, which makes a superb contrast against the plain polished silver surface of the object.

candelabra or candlesticks, a dining room lit with it is stunning. Towards the mid 1970s, his filigree started to take a different form on his lighting with the branches of candelabrum supporting acetylene-pierced gilded ‘filigree’. This may be in the form of curved ‘filigree’ between the branches, or ‘hanging’ from the branches.

This approach was used in the impressive and mammoth 34-light candelabrum made for the Duke of Westminster

He also began to use filigree. It first appeared in the conventional way in the late 1960s, mainly for the making of globes for a series of candelabra or cylindrical sleeves for candlesticks.19 The globes are of near spherical form, they typically have a diameter of nearly 12.5cm and are always matt gilded. Generally weighing anything from around 195g to 210g or more, each is formed with a medium gauge wire that was painstakingly welded to form irregular shapes. The cylindrical sleeves for the candlesticks are 15cm or more in height and were constructed in a similar way, again with matt gilding being used. However, the sleeves were also developed using designs incorporating small ‘cobwebs’. This painstakingly slow method of making the shades lasted for just three years or so. Early in the 1970s, a less labour-intensive method of making the cylindrical shades had been devised. Basically a solid silver sleeve was formed and the ‘filigree’ effect made by piercing with an acetylene torch. The result is definitely pleasing, but Stuart Devlin’s golden era of filigree shades was certainly 1967-70. Nevertheless, whichever shades adorn a Devlin

Above: Candelabrum for the Duke of Westminster Courtesy Christie’s Images Limited (2007) This candelabrum is one of the largest pieces of silver made for a UK buyer in the 1970s. Commissioned by the 5th Duke of Westminster, it is constructed in three sections. The central one is designed for 14 candles, while the other two each have sockets for 10, making a total of 34. The piece was made in the Devlin workshops by Ian Clowes and it bears his Master’s Mark of a key.

Each of the central stems of the sections is surmounted by a finial of a duke’s coronet and is engraved with the initials of Viola Maud Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster, who died in 1987. The piece was auctioned at Christie’s in King Street on 12 June 2007. The bidding was between The Pearson Silver Collection and a private individual, who secured it with a bid of £38,000, which is £45,600 with the Premium. As at 2014 this remains an auction record for a piece of post-war British silver. Length just under 2.75m. London 1976.

18. Either in the area where the stem joins the bowl, or within a cylindrical sleeve that supports the bowl.

19. In 1967 it was also used in a cylindrical sleeve as a base to water beakers.

However, it was initially primarily used in lighting objects.

20. The price includes the Buyer’s Premium, which at the time of the sale was 20 per cent. VAT was payable on the Premium at 17.5 per cent. As at May 2014 this realisation is still an auction record for a piece of post-war British silver.

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Opposite: Figured Coffee Service Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Figured Coffee Service with its friezes of ‘caryatic’ figures, as Stuart refers to them, is typical of his work at this stage. Note that the figures are standing among ‘plants’ and ‘stones’. It is thought that around six were made. This one was acquired from a dealer in 1999 for £2,525. In May 2011 an example was offered at Bonhams, Knightsbridge with an estimate of £2,000-£3,000. It failed to sell but was purchased after the event when an offer of £2,500 (£3,100 with the Premium inclusive of VAT) was accepted by the vendor, who would of course had received £2,500 less the auction house’s commission. Auction results are sometimes very surprising – and not just because prices are high. Oddly, this ‘sale’ at £3,100 was used by Bonhams in October 2011 to encourage consignments for the post-war British silver sale to be held towards the end of the year. Height of the pot 28.2cm. London 1975.

in 1976. Made in three sections, each has gilt ‘filigree’ forming the base and stem of each section, as well as linking each of the conical sockets with integral drip pans for the candles. The total length of the pieces is nearly 2.75m (9ft) and it weighs 21,983g (707 troy ounces). When it was offered by Christie’s on 12 June

2007, it sold for £45,600, which was then an auction record for a piece of post-war British silver.20 However, this form of decoration was not restricted to Stuart’s lighting. From the late 1960s acetylene-pierced gilded filigree was being used for the sides of coasters, 161

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the covers or posy bowls and centrepieces, the edges of salvers, dishes and under-plates, the bases of beakers, the stems of goblets, salt cellars, napkin rings, the handles of letter knives, trophies and egg stands. It is not surprising that with a wish to add ‘delight, surprise, intrigue and even amusement’ to people’s lives, Stuart made objets d’art. Indeed, early in his career as a goldsmith he started making decorative eggs as gifts to friends and family at Easter. In 1967, Stuart began making eggs commercially.

Initially these were relatively simple and, while opening by pulling the two halves apart, contained no surprise.

However, their exteriors were decorated with filigree work applied to the bodies of the egg, which may have been oxidised silver or silver gilt with a plain or lightly hammered surface. These were generally one-offs. His first limited edition egg appeared in this year. The number made was limited to 85 and the surprise was a stylised flower with an amethyst at its centre and a bee hovering above. Towards the end of the 1960s the eggs became more elaborate and the editions of the limited ones increased.

Made very occasionally from 18-carat gold, but normally in silver gilt, they open to reveal increasingly more elaborate surprises. Instead of just pulling the two halves apart, for a brief period the openings became hinged, either along the horizontal or vertical meridian.21 Some of the surprises were either amethyst as a natural crystal or a cut polished stone, which may be set within filigree.

Another theme was insects in 18-carat gold, such as bees on a honeycomb or an ant on a piece of malachite. Again, the bodies of the eggs either had filigree applied to a surface, were textured, or made completely as filigree.

21. The hinged openings were certainly not the norm for his popular limited edition eggs.

22. The trophy is for single-handed sailing and is only awarded when a significant feat has been achieved. The first recipient was Sir Francis Chichester, the aviator and navigator who was the first person to sail single-handed around the world. The circumnavigation was completed on 11 April 1967 when the homeward bound track crossed the outward bound one, but his voyage round the world was not completed until he reached Plymouth Breakwater on 28 May. 23. From the Introduction of Stuart Devlin 1970 Exhibition at Collingwood of Conduit Street Limited.

24. The company had Royal Warrants from HM Queen Elizabeth II and HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

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Very quickly Stuart Devlin was establishing a reputation. As early as 1966, Ford commissioned him to make a silver sculpture to celebrate the launch of its Zephyr Mark IV and Zodiac Mark IV range of saloon cars. However, far greater things materialised that year. Cartier in New York exhibited a collection of his silver over Christmas into the New Year.

It was a sell-out. In 1967, Robert Grosvenor, the fifth Duke of Westminster, commissioned him to make the Chichester Trophy22 for presentation to the Royal Yacht Squadron. Early in 1968, Godfrey Winn, the writer, actor and a columnist for the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Express, visited Stuart’s workshop in Clerkenwell. Winn later described what he saw as ‘a veritable Aladdin’s

Above: Amethyst Posy Bowls Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett These posy bowls with their collet-set amethyst crystals were not bought as a pair. The first was purchased from a dealer in 2001 for £200 and the second at auction in 2011 for just under £350.

The vendor probably received around £250 of the £280 hammer price. Diameter 10.9cm. London 1978.

Opposite, upper: Bespoke Cutlery Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Round-Handled cutlery made in the late 1960s may look uncomfortable to use, but in fact each piece sits with natural ease in the hand and is well balanced. These pieces are from a canteen made for a corporate client in South Africa. There are eight place settings of nine pieces each, salad servers and a ladle. All cutlery from the Devlin workshop was hand-forged hot, using tongs and a variety of hammers on an anvil by his ‘spoonmaker’ Richard Cook.

This means that an ingot of silver was taken and transformed from an ingot into a spoon, ladle or fork in one piece. In the case of the knives, the handle forgings were subsequently silver soldered to stainless steel blades. The result is a utensil that is the Rolls Royce of the cutlery world. The simulated ‘filigree’ motifs at the end of each handle were stamped on. London 1979.

cave’,23 adding that the pieces which ranged from cutlery to enormous maces, from ashtrays to candelabra, ‘were the work of a magician’. He was so impressed that he suggested that his friend FR Morrell, the Chairman of Collingwood of Conduit Street Limited24 should pay a visit. Morrell apparently did so out of politeness, but was equally so impressed with what he saw that he stayed hours as opposed to minutes and bought several thousand pounds of Stuart’s creations, even offering ‘this brilliant artist’ an exhibition in June. Meanwhile Cartier in New York staged a follow-up exhibition in May and members of the Royal Family attended the private view of Collingwood’s exhibition the following month in London. Stuart’s first Royal commission was for a cigar box to be gifted by HM Queen Elizabeth II to Prince Hassan bin Talal, Crown Prince of Jordan on the occasion of his marriage later that year. After the success of the

first exhibition, Collingwood set aside its first floor exclusively for Stuart Devlin’s work.

Following Stuart’s experience with being unsure whether the cutlery at a dinner party was silver or stainless steel, he became interested in adding flatware to his repertoire.

In 1968, he offered some work to Richard Cook, who after a pre-apprenticeship course at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts, became apprenticed to CJ Vander as a spoon-maker (a generic title covering the complete range of cutlery as well as paper knives and goblet stems). His apprenticeship over, he spent some years at Vander’s and became extremely skilled at hand forging complete ranges of cutlery; he is certainly regarded as a master of his craft.

Stuart’s first cutlery pattern was simply called Roundhandled. Indeed the handles are not only round, but they are also tapered and extremely slim and as well as being

Opposite, lower: Easter Eggs and Christmas Boxes Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington The making of Easter Eggs as gifts for friends developed into an extensive series of novelty eggs produced commercially. While some one-off eggs containing no surprise were made in the late 1960s, the first limited edition egg was launched in 1967. Shown here in the front row just left of centre, it features a stylised flower with a bee hovering above. The series of limited edition eggs gained momentum in the 1970s, but most years a unique one was created in silver and periodically gold ones were made. Christmas boxes (back row, first on left) and Twelve Days of Christmas novelties (back row, first on right) were added to the limited edition repertoire. The eggs here are displayed on special stands that were sold separately. Average height 7cm (excluding the stand). London 1967-1983.

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that have been hand forged by the same person are lined up, there will be no noticeable difference between any of the twelve. Furthermore, a completely handmade item of cutlery feels completely different from a piece that has been die stamped – it is the difference between a massproduced car and one that has been hand-built by a team of skilled engineers.

gilt, also have a textured surface. The texturing has a faceted, almost carved appearance. It looks as if the pieces would be uncomfortable to use, but in fact they sit with natural ease in the hand, are well balanced and while strikingly different from anything that had gone before, remain completely functional. Indeed, the textured, polished, gilded surfaces against the highly polished silver bring out the richness of the metal. All of Stuart Devlin’s cutlery designs have an almost architectural quality.

Scrutinise a piece and one can marvel not only at the subtle curves, but also at the smoothly changing gauges of the metal throughout its length. Richard regards the many years he spent in the Devlin workshop as, ‘the happiest period of working anyone could wish for... There was never a dull moment and the work was always challenging and stretching.’ Stuart always encouraged Richard to experiment and to push the boundaries and both men had a mutual philosophy – there simply was no such word as ‘can’t’. While Devlin certainly designed far fewer cutlery patterns than the specialists in the field, his market was completely different. All cutlery from the Devlin workshop was completely hand forged. This means that a bar of silver is taken and is transformed from an ingot into a spoon, ladle, fork or knife handle using a hammer. Furthermore, when say a dozen dessert spoons 164

The 1970s was a busy period for the Devlin workshops. In November 1971 the first collection of jewellery was launched.25 As the decade progressed, three sets of silver were produced each year (Christmas, Easter and Summer) for sale at the St John Street showroom that opened in November 1972. The private views for these were very well-attended and there was a positive buzz.

Additionally, there was an exhibition each summer at Collingwood’s in Conduit Street and for good measure exhibitions were held at locations overseas.26 By 1976, Stuart decided that he considered that his showroom in Clerkenwell was inadequate and he sought premises in the West End. This was achieved two years later through one of his early patrons, the Duke of Westminster, who had a large portfolio of properties in Mayfair. In July 1979, Stuart moved into a showroom on the ground floor of a new building on the corner of Conduit Street and St George Street27 (which happened to be opposite Collingwood’s) while retaining his workshops in St John Street. It will be appreciated that having half a dozen or so exhibitions a year, while superb, requires an enormous amount of design work as well as a frenzy of activity in the workshops. Stuart led his team by example, working weekdays from 7.30am through to 7.30pm and then from 9pm for a further two to three hours. He also worked at the weekends. Capable of doing any task in the workshop, he expected high standards from his craftsmen. ‘I

Left, upper: Stuart Devlin Advertisement Courtesy Stuart Devlin In 1979, Stuart Devlin issued a series of advertisements promoting his creations. The background was always black and Stuart was very hands-on with the content, the arrangement of the objects and the photography. Interestingly, as at March 2013, the only piece advertised here that the authors have encountered on the secondary market is the Fishing Scene Box. It sold early in 2013 for £750. Another is known in a private collection.

Opposite: Backgammon Trophy Courtesy Stuart Devlin The Juliana’s Company commissioned this challenge trophy.

Featuring three dice on a base of backgammon men, it is reminiscent of Stuart’s period as a sculptor. Height 55.9cm. London 1982.

remember one day’, he recalls, ‘a craftsman said that a particular design, which required some technically difficult work “just could not be done”. I worked all weekend and when the craftsman came to work on Monday morning, the completed piece was on his bench.’

‘Devlin Eggs’ had captured the public’s imagination and from the 1970s limited editions28 of surprise eggs appeared each year, opening29 to reveal anything from a hippopotamus to a clown, Humpty Dumpty to a kitten playing with a ball of wool. He also continued to design and make one-off eggs for his exhibitions. A feature of these unique pieces of the early 1970s was that their bodies were decorated in relief and the surfaces partially oxidised and gilded. From 1973 until the end of the 1970s, Stuart periodically designed really special individual gold eggs.

The body of the first is a mass of amethysts hand-carved in the form of violets, which are highlighted with diamonds.

All are set on a yellow gold filigree frame that rests on leaves carved from nephrite. Press one of the violets and the egg opens to reveal an 18-carat potted plant. The flowers and the pot are made of gold, the blooms of the flowers being semi-precious stones, while its leaves are nephrite. This superb creation features on the cover of Stuart Devlin, a book privately printed in about 1973.30 The collectors’ market for objets de vertu was healthy and boxes with variations of the Twelve Days of Christmas as well as tree decorations were added to the Devlin repertoire. It was becoming evident that Stuart’s talents knew no bounds.

Indeed, in 1974 he was able to add furniture design to his oeuvre.31 This had been his intention in the 1960s, but his younger brother, a cabinet-maker with considerable skills,

25. Whereas the trend was for abstract forms, Stuart broke with tradition and introduced small figures into his work. At first these were supporters for the stones, but culminated in a brooch that was a mass of these small dancing figures. Stuart called the figures ‘caryatic’ an adjective derived from the noun ‘caryatid’. This is a column in the form of a draped female figure that the ancient Greeks sometimes used to support temple roofs. The collection was launched at Collingwood of Conduit Street.

26. For example, 1970: Georges Limited, Melbourne, David Jones, Sydney; 1971: Cartier, New York; 1973: a return to Melbourne and Sydney; 1974: Viking Limited, Hamilton, Bermuda, United Arab Emirates; 1975: Doha and Hankyu Store, Osaka, Japan; 1976: Florida; 1977: all Australia’s major cities; 1978: Marshall Field, Chicago; 1982: Hardy Brothers, Melbourne and Sydney; 1981: Juliana’s, Singapore.

27. The building is still called Devlin House.

28. The typical edition was 300, though some were limited to 100. One of the exceptions was the 1978 egg marketed by the St James’s House Collection where the edition was limited to 500.

29. These are not hinged, but like his first eggs, pulled apart.

30. Stuart Devlin commissioned Guy Manners to write the text. The volume is hard bound, comprises 40 pages and has brown cloth cover with a picture of the Amethyst Surprise Egg. Copies occasionally appear on eBay or on the secondary book market.

31. The Collection was launched at St John Street during November 1975.

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awarded to one of his craftsmen when he was elected by his peers to the status of Master Craftsman. Its award indicated that the craftsman, as a result of both his training and experience, produced a superior standard of workmanship than was the norm. The mark would appear in addition to the usual hallmark (which included Stuart Devlin’s maker’s mark), but its inclusion was at the discretion of the craftsman. Pieces bearing a Master’s Mark are very rare. Stuart tells one story where a customer was impressed with a particular piece being displayed at one of his exhibitions. “I explained the concept of the design to him and then said that it was a masterpiece and it also carried the Master’s Mark and

died six months after joining Stuart in London. In the 1970s he met Brian Martin who was skilfully able to transform Stuart’s designs into three-dimensional objects.

Using rosewood and filigree, the furniture is both rich and romantic. This naturally led into the world of interior design.32 However, throughout the 1970s he was also designing coins and medals33 and when Queen Elizabeth II established the Order of Australia34 in 1975, he was asked to design the full regalia. Commissions were also flowing

32. Stuart had worked on the interior of his own Mayfair home and of course his Conduit Street showroom. The first commercial project was in 1979 for the entire interiors of two penthouses at the top of the Bank Bumiputra HQ in Kuala Lumpur. Here he designed everything from the chandeliers to the door knobs.

More recently he has been designing his own homes in various parts of Sussex, culminating in 2009 with the interior of his latest – a penthouse in Chichester.

33. Up until 2010 he had designed coins for 36 countries. However, towards the end of 2009, it was announced that he had designed the four £1 coins for the UK’s capital cities series representing England (London), Northern Ireland (Belfast), Scotland (Edinburgh) and Wales (Cardiff). These were his first coins for the UK. As Wales is a principality, he has now designed coins for 39 countries.

34. Established ‘for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or meritorius service’, the Order is divided into five visions ranging from Knight or Dame of the Order of Australia down to a Medal of the Order of Australia. Stuart Devlin designed the full regalia comprising: Knight’s Breast Badge, Knight’s Neck Badge, Companion’s Neck Badge, Officer’s Neck Badge, Member’s Badge and The Medal of the Order. The designs of the insignia are based on a single ball of golden wattle, which is Australia’s national flower. The same year he was asked to design the Australian Bravery Awards by the Australian Government. Stuart Devlin became an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988.

35. The Autobar Group is one of the largest automated vending organisations in Europe. The Victoria Cup is one of the most popular and one of the toughest handicaps run at Ascot. It is now sponsored by Totesport.

36. The largest has the Royal Arms engraved on its cover, the other four each feature a view of one of the Royal residences – Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle. The smallest box contains a silver ingot engraved with a personal message from the Prince to his parents.

37. A noisy traditional ceremony, where all members of the workshop clang their tools together to signify an apprentice’s acceptance to full status.

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into the Devlin workshop ranging from trophies (such as the Autobar Victoria Cup of 1978 which incorporates a replica of a plastic cup35) to commemorative items (including the 1973 opening of the Sydney Opera House).

There were also personal commissions such as the set of five nesting boxes commissioned by HRH The Prince of Wales to present to his parents on the occasion of their Silver Wedding Anniversary in 1972.36 At this period Stuart, having analysed the conditions under which he worked best – near absolute relaxation and near absolute concentration – had established a routine of escaping to Mustique in the Caribbean, where the house that he built was designed for relaxation and work. After a week of windsurfing and tennis away from the pressures of work, the ideas began to flow freely.

Of course, ideas are one thing – having the craftsmen with the skills required to translate a design in pencil on paper to an object in precious metal is another. Stuart Devlin employed the best craftsmen and gave all his apprentices a fully rounded training that was not confined to the area in which they wished to specialise.

Additionally, they were expected to study appropriate subjects at night school. For those completing their fiveyear apprenticeship, there was an added bonus. Having been ‘rung out’,37 the former apprentice was presented with an Apprentices’ Tankard in silver designed by Stuart in the late 1960s. In 1973, he also devised the Master’s Mark. This Mark, that took the form of a symbol such as a key or a hand (see Figure 1, p.168 for a listing of Stuart Devlin’s Master Craftsmen and their Marks), was

Opposite: Centrepiece with Fluorite Crystal Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett For a number of years from the late 1960s, Stuart speculatively made a number of large centrepieces. The one shown here with a large fluorite crystal at its centre, is ideal for a lunch party, and this semi-precious stone he often incorporated in his early work.

For the evening the crystal can be replaced by a candelabrum for a dozen candles with a fitting which allows them to be positioned at any angle, or indeed vertically. This is hallmarked a year later than the base. Stuart advises that there was initially a problem with the candelabrum fitment which explains the date letter being different from the base. The centrepiece has been gilt with the exception of the underside of the base. At some point prior to its purchase by the Collection, the gilt base had inexplicably been lacquered. The lacquer has now been professionally removed.

Diameter 40cm. London 1968 and 1969.

Right: ‘Masterpiece’ Decanter Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett In 1973 Stuart devised a scheme to acknowledge talent among his team. This took the form of a mark such as a key or a hand and was awarded to his silversmiths when they were elected by their peers to the status of Master Craftsman. Its use was to be at the discretion of the craftsman to put on pieces that he considered to be ‘Masterpieces’. However, the team’s standards were very high and the marks were applied extremely sparingly. One of Devlin’s Master Craftsman Rodney Hingston hand-raised this decanter and it bears his mark, an ‘Eye’ on the neck of the piece. On one occasion Stuart sold a different piece at one of his exhibitions, explaining in the catalogue that it was a Masterpiece and bore the Master Craftsman’s mark, as he assumed that the craftsman would consider it to be a Masterpiece. It was purchased by a client who admired both the Devlin’s design and the high standard of craftsmanship. A few days later, the client telephoned Stuart to say that although delighted with the piece, he could not find the craftsman’s special mark, only the Stuart Devlin hallmark. Stuart said he would ask the craftsman where he had put it and ring him back. At the bench, Stuart asked the silversmith who had made it where he had stamped his mark.

The reply was, ‘I didn’t put it on because I didn’t like the design!’ The customer said that he would keep the piece because he liked the story! Height 40.6cm. London 1976.

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and honey spoons to the Duke of Westminster’s near 2.75m long candelabra, jewellery, furniture and sculpture (which he had started to create again in 1981).

The catalogue of the exhibition captures not only the scale but the diversity of Stuart’s output: the altar cross and candlesticks for St Stephen’s Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral (1970); the Presentation Bowl from the Company to the Parliament of Canada (1967); the ‘Flowering Tree’ Clock in 18-carat gold with jade (leaves), rhodocrosite (flowers), diamonds and marble (1978); the University of Bath Mace (1966) and even a thimble (1966). The following year (1984) he closed his Conduit Street showroom and moved his retail operation back to 90-92 St John Street in Clerkenwell. The split of the retail from the workshops meant that Stuart had lost the continuous contact with his craftsmen.

Furthermore, costs were rising in Mayfair.38

Figure 1.

explained all about it. A few days later he telephoned and said, “You know, I cannot find that symbol you mentioned.” I assured him that it would be there, but I would ask the craftsman where he had put it and telephone him back. I saw the craftsman and asked him if he could remember where he had placed the symbol. He replied, “That’s an easy one Stuart. I didn’t think it was a masterpiece because I didn’t like the design, so I didn’t place my Master’s Mark on it.” I then had to explain to the buyer that although the work was a masterpiece, the craftsman who actually made it did not think so.’

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The 1980s were also exciting years. HM Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him the Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George ‘for services to the art of design’.

Stuart was invested at Buckingham Palace on 14 June 1980. In 1982, he was granted the Royal Warrant of Appointment as Goldsmith and Jeweller to Her Majesty the Queen. To mark the 25th anniversary of his arrival in London, in 1983 the Company staged a major retrospective of his work at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Titled ‘25 Years of Stuart Devlin in London’ it featured 317 pieces embracing a complete repertoire of his silver from caddy

Although the retrospective was a great success and paid just tribute to Stuart Devlin, there was another exhibition in the 1980s that eclipsed it. It is the only occasion at Goldsmiths’ Hall when an exhibition has attracted so many people that the City of London’s mounted police were in attendance as a precautionary measure. In the mid-1980s, Argyle Diamonds39 approached Stuart. After years searching an area about twice the size of Great Britain in East Kimberly, which is in the remote north of western Australia, geologists uncovered the enormous Argyle Diamond resource. The company began mining the main ore body in 1985 and the Argyle Diamond Mine is now one of the world’s largest suppliers of diamonds. In 1986 the mine produced nearly 30 million carats of diamonds. There were white and pink ones, but also a high percentage of brown ones. So as to exploit the sale of the brown stones, the mine approached Stuart Devlin. His response was immediate, ‘They are not brown, they are champagne and cognac coloured’, emphasising that Stuart is a designer and craftsman who also has a thorough grasp of marketing. He suggested an exhibition of a range of jewellery using white, pink, champagne and cognac diamonds. The collection was stunning and included the use of pavé setting on a grand scale with large volumes of small stones. Stuart was at the forefront of designing by computer using CAD/CAM40 software. Having experimented with the Argyle palette of diamonds in different colours of gold, Stuart realised he could create fantastic surprise eggs.

Working with a pencil and paper, the concepts began to emerge. The centrepiece of the exhibition was rather

unglamorous sounding: ‘The Champagne Diamond Performing Egg’. It is, however, a fabulous piece where engineering and the art of the goldsmith meet to produce a piece of magic that really captivated people.

Standing just 6.35cm (5in.) high, its textured shell of 18carat gold is set with champagne and white diamonds.

Exhibited on a plinth (which houses the electrically operated mechanics), the shell slowly opens like a flower to reveal an 18-carat gold carousel set with champagne and white diamonds. It begins to revolve and the 18 horses move up and down. When the carousel stops, the shell slowly closes and the cycle begins again. Technically it was challenging to make. When Prince Jefri the playboy brother of the Sultan of Brunei saw it in the newspapers, there was no question about it – he had to have it. Stuart soon designed a new egg to replace it in the exhibition.

His idea was that the performing egg would be a crowdpuller and it certainly was. It featured on various television programmes including the Terry Wogan chat show. There was nearly a disaster as the piece did not like being transported to the TV studios and initially refused to perform. However, all was well after Stuart tweaked it with the assistance of a nail file and a pair of tweezers borrowed from one of the make-up artists. It clearly impressed viewers. Arriving at 11am for the Private Preview on 30 October 1987,41 the queue snaked down Foster Lane and continued for the duration of the exhibition. Each day Stuart Devlin wove his way along those assembled apologising for the delay of an hour or more. The mounted police looked on amused. Once inside, the guests looked at The Champagne Diamond Performing Egg with absolute admiration. The price tag was £1.1 million. There was a third performing egg, the ‘Pixie’ Egg, approximately 7.6cm (3in.) in height, which also intrigued visitors. Its textured shell is encrusted with champagne, cognac and white diamonds. It opened to reveal a pixie sitting on a diamond studded mushroom. It had a price tag of £77,537. The second egg was subsequently exhibited in 1989 at Garrard, then The Crown Jewellers. The press release read, ‘This piece is the

38. The announcement reads, ‘He [Stuart Devlin] has found the running of a large West End shop does not permit him the continuous close contact with his craftsmen which is so essential in developing new ideas. Also costs have risen beyond a point which can be justified.’

39. Owned by Rio Tinto Limited.

40. CAD/CAM software uses CAD (Computer-Aided Design) drawing tools to describe geometrics used by the CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) portion of the programme to define a tool path that will direct the motion of the machine tool to machine the exact shape that was drawn.

41. It was open from 10am until 7.30pm.

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most spectacular so far created by Stuart Devlin. It is set with 6,500 diamonds and is approximately 5in. [12.5cm] high. The shell is encrusted with diamond-set flowers of different shapes and sizes, their centres set with diamonds up to 7cts each. At the press of a button the egg begins to turn slowly, then opens in four sections to reveal a large flower of 16 polished gold petals tipped with pave-set white diamonds. The petals open to reveal a champagne diamond hive-like cluster of stamens. Two bees then emerge from the centre of the “hive” and ‘Buzz” over it!’ It was offered at £1.8 million, which is marginally below the sum that an original Fabergé egg retailed by Peter Carl Fabergé sold for on 10 May 1989 at Christie’s in Geneva.42 Stuart Devlin was certainly in demand. On 20 March 1989 there was an announcement from Stuart Devlin Limited: ‘Stuart Devlin’s involvement with special commissions is now so extensive that after much deliberation he has decided to close his showroom.

Although he will miss this aspect of his work, he has made the decision so that he can spend more time actually creating, which after all is the part of the job he really loves.’ A substantial sale was held at St John Street, with everything marked down by 50 per cent and it sold out in two days! Following a short break in the countryside in Derbyshire, Stuart announced to his wife, ‘I’d like to live like this.’ It was soon afterwards that Stuart closed his St John Street operation entirely and moved to Sussex, where he designed from his studio in his new home. He helped some of his craftsmen to establish their own workshops and used them to make the silver and jewellery he designed. Although Stuart was now approaching his sixtieth year, the move to Sussex was not a guise for semi-retirement. The commissions continued to flow into his studio and he was now using state-of-the art computer technology to communicate his artistic vision in faster, more innovative ways. His experiences with threedimensional modelling, combined with virtual imaging, were producing results that astounded even young computer geniuses. During the 1990s he was also exploring other design fields, such as instruments for keyhole surgery and a lock to be operated by the disabled of which he was particularly proud. Two

42. This was the Pine Cone Egg, complete with its elephant automata surprise, that Alexander Kelkh presented to his wife Varvara in 1900. It sold for 5.28 million Swiss Francs (then approximately £1.87 million).

43. He was the first creative goldsmith to hold this office in more than eight centuries of the Company’s history and was no doubt looking forward to a welldeserved rest.

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commissions particularly stand out from the 1990s. The first was to design the precious metal coins for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Programme. The initial approach was made just as he was completing the final weeks as Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.43 ‘When I saw the task, I nearly refused on the spot’, he admits. However, he took on the project and the result was 25 coin designs and most of the plaster carving – a Herculean task, taking about three years.

Of his many silver commissions since moving to Sussex, there is one that stands out. This is his Millennium Dish for the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Made using a combination of modern technology and traditional silversmithing, it is a celebration of the City of London, the home of the Company since its Royal Charter in 1327, as well as the ancient craft of goldsmithing. Its rich architectural rim is composed of 85 buildings that existed in the last year of the 20th century, while the Company’s Arms are at its centre. In between is a symbolic representation of the River Thames. He added, ‘This commission would not have been possible if I had not got involved in coin design. So, all my skills I developed over the years came to bear in the intricate carving of all kinds of perspectives still in relatively low relief. This is possibly one of the most spectacular pieces I have ever designed.’ The piece took 15 months for him to carve, working at least 12 hours a day, usually seven days a week. One of the Company’s stipulations in its brief was that the Stuart Devlin dish should not exceed the dimensions of the one by the celebrated 18th-century silversmith Paul de Lamerie, which was made in 1741 with a diameter of 79cm. Devlin’s Millennium Dish has a diameter of 77cm, so it does not eclipse the de Lamerie in scale. Although they are quite different in style, they are both masterpieces, one of the mid-18th century and the other of the late 20th century.

Opposite: Millennium Dish Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company It took Stuart 15 months to carve the component parts of the Millennium Dish for The Goldsmiths’ Company. He maintains that it would not have been possible had he not become involved in carving extremely accurate plasters for his coin designs. ‘So, all the skills that I developed over the years came to bear with the intricate modelling and perspectives involved in creating this massive and complex commission. It is the most spectacular piece of silver that I have ever designed and carved.’ Diameter of 77cm. London 1999.

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Opposite, upper: Animal Paperweights Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington Stuart Devlin’s carved silver-gilt animal paperweights have a wide appeal. Indeed, when property from the collection of the late Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon was sold by Christie’s in June 2006, it included a Devlin elephant, which is the most charming and elusive of the series. The selection here dates from 1971 (the donkey) through to 1987 (the cat). The rabbit and the donkey also feature in his eggs, while the crab is represented in his Signs of the Zodiac series. There is a rare cased set that he put together for the Stock Exchange comprising a bull, bear and stag (which are all stock market terms).

Height of the rabbit 5.5cm. London 1971-87.

Opposite, lower: Hambro Life Champagne Flutes Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett It was not so long ago when there was little interest in these champagne flutes. Today they are very popular with people buying them by the dozen – when they can find them. They were made for Hambro Life’s Falcon Club during the late 1970s and early 1980s and were awarded annually to members of staff for both the quality and quantity of sales. The bowls and bases were made by spinning which, simplistically, is a skilled mechanical method of forming silver by a craftsman using a lathe. The stems were initially hand-forged, then repeated by casting and gilding. The lip of each flute is stamped with a small falcon. The Collection bought these six from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, paying an average of £80 each. In March 2013, a dozen were offered at a Christie’s Interiors sale and sold for £10,400 (including Premium and VAT on the latter), which is £867 each. The en suite trays are seldom encountered; presumably these were awarded to the elite of the sales team. The Collection had the interiors of the bowls gilded and, although it does not generally condone erasure, had the falcons removed. Height of each goblet 22.4cm, diameter of tray 34.3cm. The goblets are London 1977-1980 and the tray 1978.

44. A hundred sets of six beakers, goblets and sundae dishes were made, together with 100 of the individual single pieces.

FURTHER READING Stuart Devlin, issued by Stuart Devlin, c.1973

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AVAILABILITY When the late Arthur Negus, the auction house specialist who became a TV personality in the 1960s with his appearance on programmes about antiques, was asked which contemporary silversmiths would become collected, his response was immediate – Stuart Devlin. He added, ‘Not only because of the quality and originality, but also because of the quantity of items he made.’ Stuart Devlin’s output was probably the most prolific of all the silversmiths from the late 1960s towards the end of the 1980s.

During the 1970s Stuart Devlin designed a range of stainless steel items for Viners. Like his silver, these featured some textured surfaces that were gilded.

Viners manufactured the pieces. When two components had to be joined, the company used a strong glue to bring them together. While tests proved this would work, the method did not prove to be sufficiently robust in normal domestic situations and many were returned to the company in two pieces. Surviving pieces do appear on eBay and have become collectors’ items. To launch the Devlin Collection, a limited number were made by Viners in sterling silver.44 These bear Stuart Devlin’s hallmark as well as the date letter for 1972 and were made conventionally – i.e. with the pieces being soldered together as opposed to glued.

Stuart Devlin’s Easter Eggs are readily available on the secondary market. His Christmas decorations and surprise boxes based on the Twelve Days of Christmas appear, but not as frequently. It should be noted that items in their original cases with the original booklets are worth more than uncased examples. Condition is also of importance – unfortunately not all original buyers care for their purchases as well as other people.

There is also a steady supply, albeit not a prolific one, of small domestic and decorative pieces onto the secondary market. Dishes, bonbonnières, honey and caddy spoons, models of animals, condiments, goblets (especially the tapering champagne flutes made for Hambro Life, which can be secured with relative ease). Candlesticks and candelabra, as well as decorative boxes, are becoming more difficult to find. Larger pieces such as coffee services, ewers and decanters are also becoming more elusive.

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LEXI DICK She trained as a jeweller, but having discovered the art of wax modelling, Lexi started making silver figurines, particularly of animals. After a gentle nudge, Lexi Dick now also makes larger pieces of silver to commission.

Denis and I are quite overwhelmed by the beauty and craftsmanship of the rose bowl you made for the 10 years’ celebration. It is now on display at No. 10 where it will be greatly admired. Your ingenuity and thoughtfulness in creating a piece of contemporary history are marvellous. We are most grateful. Please come in and see the bowl in place – it will add to your enjoyment. And of course it is available to go on display as a superb example of British skill and design.

Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher, 3 May 1989 Written the day after her 10th anniversary of becoming Prime Minister

Alexandra Dick, who is known as ‘Lexi’, was born in London. Although her father, an architect, was good at drawing he was not very practical. By contrast her grandfather loved making things and taking clocks to pieces and reassembling them. Educated in Bournemouth, Lexi was good at art, but it was badly taught at her school.

Naturally she got her A-level, but was rejected by London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. ‘I wasn’t surprised. I had very little to show apart from a puppet of Twiggy1 and I really didn’t know what I wanted to do’, she confessed. However, her application to Ravensbourne College of Art2 was successful. Her course in three-dimensional design was orientated towards furniture and product design. Nevertheless, in the second year, to widen the curriculum, jewellery and other subjects were introduced as ‘add ons’. She immediately took to jewellery as ‘It was more within my control. I could do everything, whereas with furniture you couldn’t, and anyway unlike the boys I had not done metalwork or woodwork at school. The few girls on the course received no remedial training.’ However, she had a terrific time and spent four years laughing while working.

Lexi is convinced that the committee at the RCA selected her as they were getting bored with predictable, safe entrants and wanted a ‘wild card’. Her period at the RCA was first under Robert Goodden, who played a key role in silver and jewellery design in the post-war period and also his successor, Gerald Benney, one of the leading British silversmiths of the second half of the 20th century. However, Lexi was more influenced by Malcolm Appleby, a guest tutor, than either of the two luminaries. She also learned a great deal from Patrick White, the School’s Technician who sat next to her. After Ravensbourne, she found the RCA less fun. However, while there she designed her famous Tadpole Necklace with frosted crystal beads representing frogspawn, silver tadpoles at progressive stages of their life cycle, culminating at its centre with a silver frog on a hand-carved slate pebble. She has continued making this popular piece throughout her career. A titanium and stainless steel chain mail necklace in her Degree Show was purchased by the Science Museum.

Lexi recalled her jewellery, ‘Looking back I made some quite spectacular pieces. I didn’t realise at the time that I was a strong entry for the Royal College of Art, because I shot off in all directions and made some very ambitious things. They didn’t all quite work, but they were certainly interesting.’

‘After seven years as a student you are entirely unemployable. The sensible thing to do was to work for a jeweller and get some experience before setting up on my own, but that never crossed my mind’, she admitted. So, she became self-employed, sharing a workshop at London’s Craft Atelier at 27 Old Street with the furniture maker Ed Prytherick, a friend from her Ravensbourne days. Her working space was 2.7 x 2.1m (9 x 7ft) and the

1. Born Lesley Hornby she was the first international supermodel of from the mid1960s to 1970. She later embarked on an acting and singing career. The name ‘Twiggy’ came from ‘Twigs’, her childhood nickname. She was 5ft 6in. and slim.

2. Originally based at Bromley, it moved to nearby Chislehurst in 1976 and is now known as the Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication.

Opposite: Serpent Goblet Courtesy Lexi Dick Encouraged by Gordon Hamme to participate in British Silver Week 2008, Lexi produced this gothic fantasy piece, the Serpent Goblet. It was greatly admired. Height 20.3cm. London 2008.

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at the annual Goldsmiths’ Fair.

Her standard working week was 70 hours, but her hard work did result in her being able to move to a larger workshop in Clerkenwell, then to buy premises in Hoxton Street.

Having progressed from jewellery to a menagerie of animals, did larger pieces of silver naturally follow? The answer is that there was a light nudge. ‘Rosemary Ransome Wallis, Curator of the Collection at Goldsmiths’ Hall decided I ought to be doing silver’, came the response. In the early 1980s, the Company commissioned Lexi Dick to make a wine funnel, coaster, wine label and wine taster with snake motifs.

They were delivered in 1983.

Six years later she made the Leopard Bowl illustrated here

Opposite, upper: Leopard Wine Cup Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company When Sir Nigel Brookes was elected to the Court of Assistants at The Goldsmiths’ Company in 1987, he was given the customary sum to commission a wine cup for use at the Hall. An enthusiastic amateur silversmith, he made his own but suggested that the Hall use the allocated money to commission a piece for the Company’s collection from a young artist craftsman. The Leopard Bowl is the result. Width 24.5cm. London 1989.

rent initially £15 a month. Lexi laughed, ‘When Ed ran his planer, I got covered in wood shavings. When he left, I built a partition.’ While there she met Mary Dean, the jeweller and wax modeller. Lexi became fascinated by wax modelling, ‘You’ve got to keep going until you can do it.

Most people give up. I don’t carve, I use a flame and six inches [15cm] of old wire coat hanger with the end formed into a sickle shape. I’ve had it for years and I would not want anything else. I build up the wax, shaping it as I go.’

Immediately after the RCA Lexi was purely a jeweller.

However, with her newly acquired skills in wax modelling 176

she was able to make designs in quantity, having them cast by the lost wax process. She began to produce small figurines, particularly animals. These proved to be very popular. She was working incredibly long hours both making and selling. In the late 1970s, she had a stall every Saturday at the Covent Garden Jubilee Arts and Crafts Market and has also started to exhibit at the annual ‘Loot’ exhibitions at Goldsmiths’ Hall. During the 1980s she was supplying shops such as Brian Fuller in Amersham and SJ Rood in London’s Burlington Arcade; selling very successfully from a weekly stall in Covent Garden’s Apple Market and undertaking commissions as well as exhibiting

Opposite, lower: Downing Street Fruit Stands Courtesy The Silver Trust The Downing Street Fruit Stands that Norma Major admired. The bowl with a gilded lion represents a summer day, and is set with garnet, tourmaline, citrine, amethyst, agate, iolite and peridot. Its companion with a unicorn depicts a winter night, and is set with cubic zirconia. Heights 22.5cm. London 1995.

Above: Golden Jubilee Paper Knife Courtesy Lexi Dick The silver-gilt paper knife presented to HM Queen Elizabeth II by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee. In a superb bit of theatre, for as we know from the Queen’s role in the Bond clip shown at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics she has natural acting talent, Her Majesty turned a harmless letter opener into a menacing stiletto. But who was the imaginary victim? Length approx. 20cm. London 2002.

for the Company’s collection. ‘It’s a very popular piece. I still get people saying they have seen it and like it’, said Lexi. This bowl, together with a seahorse bowl that the Royal Society of Arts presented to the Emperor Hirohito of Japan, prompted Sir Charles Morrison, then Chairman of the 1922 Committee comprising backbench Conservative Members of Parliament,3 to commission Lexi to make a bowl for Margaret Thatcher to celebrate her 10 years as Prime Minister.

The supporters for Mrs Thatcher’s bowl are the symbols of the three kingdoms and one principality4 that comprise the UK – the English lion, the Scottish unicorn, the Irish harp and Welsh dragon. Needless to say, they are superbly modelled.

Engraved on one side of the bowl is Number 10’s front door and on the other, the Parliamentary portcullis. Its rim is decorated with the flowers of the nations and hidden away is a small penguin as a reminder of the Falklands War. The commissions for silver were now flowing in thick and fast to Lexi’s new Hoxton Street studio from livery companies, private individuals, institutions and the church. The latter was in 1991 for an offertory dish for Lichfield Cathedral. The same year she was commissioned to make a pair of fruit stands by the Silver Trust for use at 10 Downing Street.

At the reception when the silver was handed over to John Major, the then Prime Minster, his wife Norma told Lexi that ‘I like those bowls – and I really mean it’.

In 2002 Lexi received two commissions for gifts for presentation to Her Majesty the Queen on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee. It was the smaller of the two that made the headlines. This was a silver-gilt paper knife from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. Its

3. Though when the Conservative Party is in opposition, front bench MPs (other than the party leader) may attend meetings. It meets weekly while Parliament is sitting.

4. Wales is a principality.

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handle features the parliamentary mace and the top of the blade is engraved with the House of Commons’ portcullis. The Commonwealth parliamentarians looked on with great amusement when Her Majesty was presented with the knife. Gripping it with a lightly clenched fist, her eyes open wide, she focussed on an imaginary victim and pretended to be a murderer. In a superb bit of theatre she managed to turn a harmless letter opener into a menacing stiletto. The second commission was a gift from the Royal Household. This was a silver-gilt bowl supported by three figures of Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology. This proved to be a drama for Lexi. As the Queen is very knowledgeable about horses, her model of Pegasus had to be approved by a member of the Household who had expertise in the anatomical aspects of the equine species.

The approval obtained, the work progressed. Pegasus was cast in three or four parts and the design concept was becoming reality. However, Lexi was not happy with the proportion of the bowl made for the supporters, so a larger one had to be made post haste. The commission was not late, but driving to Buckingham Palace at the eleventh hour, she discovered all routes to the Palace were cordoned off as it was very close to the big celebrations. Lexi continued, ‘I stopped by a barrier and a policeman came over. He was quite patronising. “You can’t come through here madam”, he said. He was sure he was not going to let me through: I knew he was going to.

I explained that I had the Queen’s bowl and gradually he

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got politer and politer and opened the barrier.’ Later Lexi was introduced to Her Majesty at a Royal Garden Party.

It was not until 2008 that Lexi produced a stock item of large silver. Encouraged by Gordon Hamme to participate in the first British Silver Week, she decided to make a goblet on spec. Her inspiration came from the first book she wrote, ‘in a genre all of its own, a fantasy for people who normally don’t like reading fantasy’, she explained. ‘The heroine Torbrek has a black dagger which has huge significance to the story. The handle of the dagger is a knot of snakes. I decided to use the concept for the goblet.’ The result is a tremendous piece of gothic fantasy. Three snakes slither from the bowl down the stem to the base. ‘It’s not a random tangle’, Lexi was quick to point out. ‘I’ve goldplated one of the snakes and given all three different textures so you can follow their bodies.’ The bowl and the base are each decorated with three medieval flying blades each set with amethyst trillions, triangular stones with slightly rounded sides. The goblets were greatly admired; three sold quickly and by February 2009, one remained in stock.

Lexi is now undertaking less jewellery than in the past.

One of the reasons is that during the 1980s many of her designs were pirated. While imitation is regarded by some as the highest form of flattery, Lexi immediately responded to this remark, ‘Yes, but it doesn’t half ruin your income! There were counterfeit copies of my dragon ring within five weeks of it going on sale. I felt at times

Left: Goose and Egg Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg is Lexi’s favourite stock item. Height 3.2cm. London 2009.

Opposite: Standing Bowl for the Goldsmiths’ Company Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This standing bowl and cover was commissioned by the Goldsmiths’ Company. The cast unicorns supporting the bowl and its leopard finial were inspired by the Company’s coat of arms. Lexi initially modelled them in wax using her unique method involving a flame and six inches of a wire coat hanger with one end formed into a sickle shape. Height 24cm. London 1990.

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that my Covent Garden stall was being watched for new designs to appear.’ The copies were from Australia, France, Thailand, the UK and elsewhere. Lalique was also subject to his jewellery being imitated, which is why he turned to glassmaking in 1910. So Lexi is in good company. Larger pieces of silver of course are more difficult to copy.

Lexi is a jeweller who has moved towards making bigger things. It is good that she was given that little nudge in the early 1980s towards a larger scale, as her work is widely admired. Its attention to detail is possibly a result of it being the work of an individual trained as a jeweller as opposed to a silversmith. Her

larger work is normally made to commission, but she does stock a range of her figurines and jewellery. Her animals have an appealing charm.

AVAILABILITY Lexi Dick’s stock items can be bought and commissions placed direct with her. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for her contact and website details. Her earlier smaller work is beginning to emerge on to the secondary market.

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MICHAEL DRIVER He initially studied in Sheffield and later London. Although considering himself a designer first and a silversmith second, he graduated from the Royal College of Art and set-up a combined retail outlet, studio and silver workshop in the capital. Not only was he a prolific designer-silversmith in the 1970s, but he explored numerous themes.

Although he later concentrated on other design areas, he has never abandoned silver.

I am excited by the richness and variety of medieval silver, its traditions and techniques. I have tried to convey these qualities in my modern interpretations of the craft of silver.

Michael Driver Michael Driver was born in Sheffield in 1943. From his grammar school, where he tended towards the arts, he won a scholarship to Sheffield College of Art.1 ‘I looked at the National Design Diploma course’, Michael recalls, ‘and was told that they had stopped furniture, but did silversmithing and sculpture. It was exactly what I wanted.’ He started his studies in 1961, which also included the City & Guilds in silversmithing. The following year he received an award from the Company.2 In 1965 he successfully applied to the Royal College of Art’s School of Silversmithing and Jewellery, which was headed by Professor Robert Goodden. One of his contemporaries, but in the year below him, was Malcolm Appleby. ‘At the RCA I concentrated on functional items such as boxes, tea pots and cutlery – in other words, domestic silver. I designed and produced some ecclesiastical plate. However, I also entered various competitions. One was for a medal commemorating the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. I was a finalist.’

1. Now part of Sheffield Hallam University.

2. Graham Hughes, then the Art Director at the Company, wrote to Mr R Viner (of Viners) regarding the awards made to students at Sheffield on 21 April 21 1964: ‘This Company has a small committee at the Sheffield College of Art, which meets once a year to distribute the £100 annual grant which the Wardens make available for students there. Our main purpose, of course, is to encourage students, but the committee also serves a useful need in keeping the school in touch with local industry, representatives of whom can see all the best work displayed there on this occasion.’ The £100 grant seems to have been split, depending on the circumstances, between prizes to individual students and funding for educational trips etc. Michael Driver (‘JM Driver [1st year N.D.D. course]’) appears to have won a prize of £25 in 1963. The remaining £75 was to enable four other students to make an educational trip to London. The minute recording this at Goldsmiths’ Hall also notes that is was desirable to have representatives from the Sheffield silver industry on the committee to encourage them to take an interest in the School. Hence the letter presumably to Mr Viner.

3. Now part of the Imperial Tobacco Group PLC. 4. Gold Leaf was one of John Players’ brands. Initially the trophy was used as a prize for the winners of the Round 3 heats of The British National Air Racing competition. In 1986 the Asia Cup cricket tournament also became known as the John Player Gold Leaf Trophy.

5. A follow-up survey in 1983 revealed that the initiative had failed. Although the silver was used and admired, the Company’s gifts did not act as a catalyst either to external benefactors or the universities themselves to add to the initial gift. See Unravelling The Mystery, Vol I, page 228.

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Upon graduating in 1968, Michael started working on his own account. There was certainly no shortage of commissions. One of the first was from John Players & Sons the tobacco and cigarette manufacturer3 for their Gold Leaf Trophy.4 As so often happens, this commission resulted in similar ones later, including the John Player Transatlantic Trophy and the Tarmac Motor Racing Trophy. In 1969 Michael was chosen by the Company to make a set of four water jugs that it was to present to University of Kent at Canterbury. When the Government announced in 1960 that it intended to establish a number of new universities, the Company recognised that, unlike their long-established counterparts, the newcomers would not have any silver. It therefore decided to gift silver to the new universities so they had a nucleus of a collection to which they could add or to which others could be encouraged to donate.5 Malcolm Appleby engraved the University’s Arms on to the pieces.

In 1970 he established a shop, studio and workshop in central London. ‘Having explored retailing my work through galleries, I decided to follow the concept of the Opposite, upper: Condiment Set Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The curved geometric form of this three-piece condiment set makes it very tactile. The partial engraved brick decoration is effective.

Salts and mustards either have a glass liner or gilded interiors so as to prevent corrosion of the silver. This design is certainly more suited to gilding. Height of pepper 10.7cm. London 1976.

Opposite, lower: Candlesticks Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett As the 1970s progressed, the economic conditions in the UK worsened. In 1973 there was the oil crisis, in 1974 the three-day week, inflation at 26.9 per cent in August 1975 and the winter of discontent from 1978-9 which saw 29 million working days having been lost. As there was not so much money about, by the end of the decade Michael had diversified into other areas, but he never totally gave up silver. This pair of candlesticks is en suite with the condiments illustrated here. Height 6.2cm. London 1976.

MICHAEL DRIVER

MICHAEL DRIVER

medieval craftsman and make and sell my output under one roof. Clients could of course see the pieces being made. The premises were located just off Kensington Square.6 I held two exhibitions a year – in June and just before Christmas. These usually had a theme such as flowers – for example, a posy of flowers on boxes; curvilinear, where I developed fluid irregular shapes; my Aquiline range inspired by medieval silver, which I developed using repoussé and chasing methods. Another theme was weaving, which was a time consuming process of taking strips of silver and manipulating them just as one would weave fabric. I later used to die stamp the strips with a pattern. I also explored textured surfaces.’ This was not based on the then popular ‘bark’ or ‘Benney texturing’, but embraced engraving patterns

Opposite: Cigar Canister Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Another of Michael’s decorative themes was the weaving strips of silver much in the way that cloth is woven. At first he used plain strips, but later he die-stamped them with a pattern, as shown on this cigar canister. Needless to say, this is a time-consuming process. Height 16.3cm. London 1975.

Above: Drinks Salver Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington Salvers for drinks had remained unaltered for generations, but in the 1970s their borders became textured. Here this takes the form of applied ovals. Diameter 37cm. London 1974.

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as well as tactile texturing. An integral part of his repertoire at this time was jewellery, models of cars as well as boxes in the form of houses.

The 1970s were certainly a busy time for Michael.

Viscount Amory, who was Prime Warden of the Company for 1971-2, decided to mark his term of office by commissioning Michael to make a dish. This was presented to the Company in 1974. HRH Prince Charles underwent training as a jet pilot at the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell during 1975.7 In acknowledgement of his period at Cranwell, the Prince commissioned Michael to make a model of a crane, its wings appropriately outstretched, for presentation to the College. In the same year, N Bloom & Son, the antique silver and jewellery dealer based in London’s Mayfair,8 staged an exhibition of Michael’s Aquiline range. There were also ecclesiastical commissions. For example, a font for a church in Swindon; candlesticks for a church in Manchester, the form of which was based on the columns in the nave and a pectoral cross and ring for the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham. He

6. At 3 Thackery Street.

7. The Prince spent five months at the College, but did not complete the course.

8. The company was founded in 1912. Since 1971 it has been run and owned by Ian Harris, whose maternal grandfather founded the company. Ian Harris has been an expert on the BBC’s Antiques Road Show since it was first screened in 1979. More recently the company has traded only in jewellery. Its last shop closed in 2005 and as at 2010 it only trades on-line and on a one-to-one basis with existing clients.

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MICHAEL DRIVER

Michael recalled. ‘When the lid is removed it reveals the seats in the auditorium. That was in the late 1970s.

From the 1990s Michael became heavily involved with other design work. However, he still undertook and indeed, still undertakes silver commissions. He explained, ‘After the Minerva Theatre had been added in the 1980s, the Trustees of the Chichester Festival Theatre returned during the 1990s and wanted another box of the enlarged complex. In fact, recently I was approached by clients I had made a box for some 35 years ago, which featured their home. This time they wanted me to make another one for a particular celebration. For some further reason, the order for one then increased to two.’ even found time to make paperweights for Cartier of New York. Following a rent review at his Kensington Square premises in the second half of the 1970s, he moved to a workshop round the corner. A combination of the 1973 oil crisis,9 the three-day week10 and the Winter of Discontent11 during the 1970s, resulted in diversification. Michael explained, ‘I changed direction slightly. My clients were different and there was not quite so much money about, so I diversified into graphic design. Someone asked me to help with a magazine layout and it progressed from there.

I see myself as a designer first and a silversmith second.’

In 1983 Michael moved his studio to Notting Hill, ‘That was well before the film and way before it became a trendy part of London’, he quickly added.

9. In October 1973 members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries proclaimed an oil embargo following the US decision to re-supply Israel’s military during the Yom Kippur War. It lasted until March 1974.

10. Following industrial action by miners, this was one of the measures introduced by the Conservative Government from 1 January to 7 March 1974 to conserve electricity (most of the power stations then being powered by coal). Commercial users (with the exception of food retailers, restaurants and the press – TV stations could broadcast up until 10.30pm) were limited to electricity on three consecutive days in a week and were prohibited from working longer hours on those days.

11. The term used to describe the UK winter of 1978-9 when the Labour Government’s attempts to control inflation (which had risen to 26.9 per cent in August 1975) resulted in widespread strikes. Various measures were introduced from the mid-1970s to curb pay rises. Although inflation had more than halved by July 1978, the Government introduced a new limit of 5 per cent on wage increases that was rejected by the Trade Union Council. Ford workers were the first to strike in the second half of September – the company had offered a 5 per cent rise. The work force returned on 22 November having accepted 17 per cent. Realising that the Government was powerless to enforce limits on pay rises, lorry drivers took action on 3 January 1979 resulting in thousands of petrol stations closing. Public sector workers later took action, which resulted in hospitals only taking emergency patients. Agreement to end the strikes was reached on 14 February and most had returned to work by the end of the month. Over 29 million working days were lost by the action, the largest of its kind in the UK since the General Strike of 1926.

12. Following a fire in 1900 at Stanstead Park, which is located on the Hampshire – Sussex border, the mansion was rebuilt in 1901 on the exact footprint of the 17th century house. It became the home of the Ponsonbys, Earls of Bessborough, in 1924.

13. ‘Silver and Tea a perfect blend’, 28 May – 3 July at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

14. ‘The Art & Evolution of Cutlery’, 26 May – 9 July at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

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Instead of making stock for sale, he started to undertake individual pieces on commission. ‘My house boxes had been popular and it was not long before someone said, “Can you do a box of my house?” In fact, the first request was from an ironmonger’s in Coventry. To mark a particular landmark in the business’s history they wanted a box featuring the shop and the yard. The boxes are not scale models but they are designed to capture the essence or “feel” of the place’, he explained. ‘The problem is what you leave out. My largest house box commission was from the Earl and Countess of Bessborough, who wanted me to capture Stanstead Park,12 a huge property with a large stable block that they also wanted included. The box was around 15in. [37.5cm] in length and like all of them, the roof lifts off so it can be used as a box.’ The Earl of Bessborough was a trustee of the Chichester Festival Theatre Trust and was possibly influential in the commissioning of a silver box modelled on the theatre.

‘The theatre is a hexagonal structure and this was another large piece having a diameter of around 14in. [35cm]’,

In 1998 the Company held an exhibition of historical teapots and tea services.13 Michael exhibited an amazing curvilinear teapot, its body engraved with a curved organic form with quirky handles. The following year Michael was back at the Hall when the theme of the exhibition was cutlery.14 Michael’s contribution was a ladle with an openwork handle. However, without

doubt, the most prolific period for Michael’s silver output was the 1970s. Within that decade not only was his output varied – from jewellery to trophies, from napkin rings to a font – but so too was the style of his work. It included woven silver, textured surfaces, curvilinear forms and his Aquiline range of medievalinspired repoussé and chased pieces. Add the box houses and the model cars and one has an eclectic pot pourri.

AVAILABILITY Michael Driver’s 1970s silver is occasionally available on the secondary market. His commissioned pieces may appear on the secondary market. Commissions may be placed direct with him. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact details.

Above: Coasters Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Like his contemporaries, Michael explored textured surfaces.

Whereas the ‘bark’ or ‘Benney texturing’ were emulated by many, Michael experimented with engraved patterns. These coasters have inward sloping sides, which show the vertical wavy lines to advantage. The coasters have traditional wooden bases. Diameter of top 12.7cm. London 1974.

Opposite: Teapot, 1970s Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This squat cylindrical teapot with its wavy grip handle and sunken silver-mounted lid has a distinctive 1970s look. This was made in the year that he established his studio and workshop in central London based on the medieval concept of the craftsman making and selling his wares under the same roof. Height 8.3cm.

London 1970.

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LESLIE DURBIN In the 1950s and early 1960s, Leslie Durbin was Britain’s best-known silversmith. He started his training aged 13 years and was still working well into his 80s. It is said he was too steeped in the craft of silversmithing to ever retire. In the 1940s and 1950s he made two of the nation’s highest profile pieces of silver. These were the Sword of Honour for Stalingrad and the Festival of Britain Tea Service. The output from his workshop was both phenomenal and varied.

Leslie Durbin’s designs in the early 1950s were like a breath of spring air in their innovative quality, while still retaining a strong feeling for the symbolic.

Susan M Hare Former Librarian, The Goldsmiths’ Company Leslie Gordon Durbin was born in Fulham, southwest London, in 1913. His father Harry was a railway clerk who died in the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918. This was the worst epidemic in the history of mankind, killing tens of millions globally. The Durbins’ loss resulted in his mother Lillian returning with her two children to live with her parents. Aged 13 years Leslie secured a London County Council Trade Scholarship. Following guidance from his headmaster, he was entered to study silversmithing at the Central School of Arts and Crafts.

This study took place in the afternoons following his normal school lessons in the morning. As he had a natural ability to draw, he was selected to join the privileged group of students who were taught engraving. He studied at the Central School until 1929.

In that year Augustus Steward, then Head of the Silversmithing Department, recommended Leslie to Omar Ramsden as a potential apprentice. This clearly indicates that Durbin was highly regarded at the Central School, as Ramsden was the leading silver designer of the day. However, his initial joy of being accepted by ‘the master’ evaporated when Leslie discovered while reading his Articles that he had been apprenticed as a ‘chaser, engraver and decorator of precious metals’, instead of a general silversmith as he wanted. He therefore continued with his classes at the Central School in the evenings and on Saturday afternoons so he might obtain more general training.

1. A skilled worker, who is employed by another.

2. This was for the Chapel of Chivalry in Guildford Cathedral. Comprising an altar cross, two candlesticks, a chalice, two cruets and an alms dish, the executed silver was displayed at the Company’s ‘Exhibition of Modern Silverware’ the same year. The catalogue states that SA Hammond, F Adams, AR Emerson, LG Durbin, C Lancaster and LA Moss at the Central School of Arts and Crafts made the pieces.

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When he worked for Omar Ramsden, he was number 14 on the clocking-in machine. One of his main tasks was to engrave the Latin words OMAR RAMSDEN ME FECIT (Omar Ramsden made me), which traditionally appeared on all of Ramsden’s finished objects. After his apprenticeship was over, he stayed on with Ramsden for a further two years as a journeyman.1 Later in life, despite his initial disappointment, he acknowledged that he was privileged to have worked for one of the country’s most popular silver designers, who incidentally was also a good businessman.

One senses that Durbin’s early life was not easy.

However, matters took a turn for the better in 1938, for he won a Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ scholarship for a full-time place at the Central School. This was a very happy period for Durbin, now in his mid-twenties.

He attended modelling and life classes as well as those for silversmithing. During his year at the Central School he entered the Company’s competition for Guildford Cathedral’s altar plate and won.2 The Company also commissioned him to make a casket for HRH Princess

Opposite: Hambro British Businessman of the Year Award, 1971 Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This Hambro British Businessman of the Year, 1971 award is hand-forged as opposed to cast. Very different from the work that normally emanated from the Durbin workshop. It was offered at a Bonhams general art and antiques sale at Oxford in November 2007. It was sold with an unrelated presentation plaque, a Whitefriars vase commemorating BP 1920-50 and a Daily Mail cartoon relating to BP. The lot sold for £106. Clearly the wrong sale for a specialist item. The following month the award turned up on eBay where it was contested to £415, which at the time was considered a fair price. Height 30.5cm. London 1971.

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Elizabeth3 to mark the ‘Exhibition of Modern Silverware’,4 the first display of contemporary silver at the Hall. These commissions proved to be a turning point in his professional life, as working on them gave him the ambition to one day own his own workshop. The year at the Central School also had an impact on his personal life as he undertook an even more significant commission: the repair of the silver clasp on a handbag.

This was for Phyllis Ginger, an artist and fellow student who was five years his senior. Miss Ginger eventually became Mrs Leslie Durbin.

Leslie must have felt that he was on a roller coaster, for in 1939 he won another of the Company’s scholarships – a travelling one. The Principal of the Central School, the silversmith HG Murphy, advised him to visit as many countries as possible, not restricting himself to museums and factory visits, but to see the main tourists’ sights as well. Durbin certainly treated his scholarship as a Grand Tour, visiting France, Italy, Germany, Hungary and Sweden. However, the threat of war resulted in his earlier than anticipated return home.5 Shortly after his return, he was asked to make a 188

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3. It was symbolically handed to the Princess’s grandmother Queen Mary when she attended the exhibition (the piece was in fact displayed throughout the exhibition).

The casket’s finial is a model of gambolling lambs, chosen because the Princess was ‘in the spring-time of her life’. At the time she was 12 years of age. Durbin was one of just five people who won the top monetary prize for their exhibits – £10 – but the Company’s announcement of the winners does not record the pieces that won the awards. It is therefore unclear whether Durbin won for his Guildford Plate or for the gift to the Princess. The reason Durbin was commissioned to make such an important presentation gift for the Company is recorded in the typescript of Leslie Durbin’s unpublished autobiography. The Company asked two of its current scholarship holders at the School to submit designs – Reginald Hill (who had been granted its Travel Scholarship in 1937) and Leslie Durbin, who had a scholarship to attend the Central School. Durbin’s design won, but with the rush to complete it on time, the making of the casket was a collaboration. Hill made the actual casket, while Durbin modelled the lambs and undertook the engraving of the surfaces. As well as working on the casket at the School, Durbin also took it home ‘to do the engraving in my bedroom where I could work late without disturbing the rest of the family’. All future quotes of Leslie Durbin in these footnotes are from his unpublished autobiography.

4. It was held during the summer of 1938 over a six-week period and attracted 37,000 visitors.

5. The war also resulted in the cancellation of his proposed visit to the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The Company had awarded him a special grant to make this possible. He was also going to undertake a short course at the Fine Art School at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

6. It is extraordinary that Leslie Durbin at the start of his career should be commissioned to make such a gift. However, E Alfred Jones, a liveryman of the Company and international expert on antique gold and silver, took him to meet the Courtaulds. He was interested in introducing his patrons to the work of young designers. He met Durbin at the Central School and subsequently invited him to tea at the Oxford and Cambridge Club in Pall Mall. He was later invited to lunch at what Durbin called ‘Eltham Hall, the Courtaulds’ London home’ (it was in fact an Art Deco mansion completed in 1936 besides the Great Hall of the medieval Eltham Palace in southeast London). Durbin felt most uncomfortable during the large lunch party, feeling that everyone had something to say but him. However, he obtained the commission despite his social unease.

7. Leslie Durbin recalls that Francis Adam was a Hungarian by birth. He had been a highly skilled ironworker. Durbin wrote that he had, ‘a foreign accent and sensitive manners’.

8. In his autobiography Durbin gives no indication that his call-up was delayed because of the Courtauld commission. At the beginning of the war he was clearly very busy. However, when the commissions had been completed, there still was no call-up – and no money. He tried working in two ‘equipment factories’, but did not take to the work. Now married, his wife had written a children’s book called Alexander the Circus Pony and was working on the illustrations. He wrote, ‘I posed as the model for some of the characters, and remember one of them in the bath with my swimming trunks on, as the circus strong man. Luckily no air-raid occurred at the time.’ It was published in 1943 and reissued by Puffin Books in 1951. Just when all looked bleak for Leslie on the work front, Preston Benson, leader writer for the News Chronicle called unexpectedly at the couple’s home to chat about Omar Ramsden. He also commissioned a christening set for his son and some cutlery.

9. During air raids, Francis Adam would place this in the domestic oven attached to the kitchen range for safety.

10. As well as Alex Styles, his colleagues included: Cecil Thomas (sculptor); SR Badmin (water colourist); Norman Westwood (architect) and Arthur Henderson Hall (book illustrator).

11. Now Volgograd.

dish to commemorate HM King George VI’s and HM Queen Elizabeth’s visit to North America in June 1939.

Sir Stephen and Lady Courtauld commissioned this for presentation to the Royal couple.6 The enamelled finial is in the form of a totem pole and its interior is engraved with a decorative map of North America, the motifs representing highlights of the tour. Mr Jones suggested that Leslie become ‘the Courtaulds’ family silversmith’ using one of the outhouses at Eltham as a workshop, He turned down the offer but appealed to Francis Adam, his former tutor at the Central School,

Opposite, left: Fishing Trophy Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company In the run-up to the exhibition ‘Modern British Silverware’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1938, the Goldsmiths’ Company organised a design competition with several classes. Leslie Durbin entered this fishing trophy into the sports trophy category while studying at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. The competitions attracted around 600 drawings. George Hughes, the then Assistant Clerk of the Company commented, ‘The results of the competition show that the trade firms who put in a great number of designs were not much good and that the young designers were much the best.’ Height 21cm. London 1937.

Opposite, right: Inscription and hallmarks on a box, 1942 Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photograph Bill Burnett The inscription and hallmarks on a box designed by Leslie Durbin but made by Francis Adam and Charles Thomas in 1942 when Durbin was in the RAF. It only bears the maker’s mark of Francis Adam.

Right: Leslie Durbin Courtesy Getty Images Leslie Durbin working on the Sword of Honour for Stalingrad during 1943 in the south London garden shed of Francis Adam, his former tutor at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Despite the humble surroundings, its making was filmed by British Paramount and screened in cinemas as part of the company’s weekly newsreel issues.

In Durbin’s obituary in the Times on 5 March 2005, it was described as ‘the highest profile sword since Excalibur’. This is no exaggeration. In October 1943 long queues formed at Goldsmiths’ Hall when the sword went on public display. It was then exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum before making its final London appearance at Westminster Abbey. Its ‘lying in state’ at the Abbey was captured for posterity in Unconditional Surrender, the final volume in Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy. Accompanied by Durbin and plain-clothes detectives, the sword then went on a whistle-stop tour of Britain being exhibited for one day only in Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Newcastle, Stoke-onTrent, Bristol, Plymouth, Winchester, Derby and Coventry. Wherever it went, long queues formed and an estimated 30,000 viewed it in each location. Durbin wrote, ‘On one occasion I joined a queue to find out what was the feeling of the people at that time. A few wondered what this ‘Corporal Durbin chap was like’, but most, and it was sincere, felt in silence this great sense of gratitude to the Russians.’

for help.7 Mr Adam kindly let him use his own workshop in the garden of his Lambeth home. In fact it was little more than a garden hut, but it was better than nothing.

Until he was called-up for service in World War II, Leslie worked on his own account there. Leslie’s call-up into the Royal Air Force was supposedly delayed because of this commission. However, it is hallmarked 1939, which cannot explain why Durbin did not join the RAF until 1941.8 In 1940 he designed and made a loving cup for the London Principal Knot (headquarters) of the Friendly Brothers of St Patrick and a rosewater dish for the Grocers’ Company to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V.9 All of these were important commissions for a silversmith at the beginning of his career. When he was called-up by the RAF on 3 December 1941, Leslie was far from pleased that his late arrival triggered no leave in his first six months.

In the RAF he was eventually seconded, like Alex Styles, to the Modelmakers’ Section of the Central Interpretation Unit.10 However, in early 1943 Leslie Durbin was given indefinite leave of absence from the RAF to work on a piece to be presented by HM King George VI to the people of Stalingrad.11 This was the Sword of Honour for Stalingrad to commemorate the citizen’s heroic stand in the defence of their city from the 189

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besieging German army.12 The tempered steel blade of the sword, which is a two-handed fighting weapon 127cm in length, is engraved in both Russian and English with the inscription, To the steel-hearted citizens of Stalingrad, the gift of King George VI in token of the homage of the British people. The Company organised a limited competition for the design. The King selected the work of RMY Gleadowe, Robert Goodden’s uncle, the former art master at Winchester College and Slade Professor of Art at Oxford who was then working at the Admiralty.13 As Wakely and Wheeler usually made Gleadowe’s designs, the Company was asked to make the sword. However, it had to decline because it was too busy

12. By the time the Germans were finally defeated, more than a million citizens had lost their lives.

13. Those invited to submit designs in addition to Gleadowe were Leslie Durbin, Cyril Shiner (a lecturer at Birmingham’s School for Jewellers and Silversmiths) and Percy Metcalfe (the sculptor and medallist).

14. Also known as the cross-guard.

15. i.e. ‘knob’.

16. Durbin personally selected the piece of rock crystal that was carved by a specialist lapidary firm to form the pommel.

17. The sword’s sheath.

18. Durbin makes no mention to this in his autobiography. He wrote, ‘I began to understand his hesitant and gentle manner, though sometimes his extreme hesitancy drove us all to distraction.’ He added, ‘Gleadowe couldn’t decide on the treatment of the silver quillon and at last I presented him with my finished silver interpretation of his drawing. “Heavens! Durbin, you’ve done it” – not in a congratulatory manner but in astonishment that something had been finished.

After that breakthrough we understood each other and it was a privilege to work so closely with such a fine artist.’

19. The Order was established in 1896 by Queen Victoria as an award for personal service to her. Subsequent monarchs have adopted it. Unlike other awards, it is made on the initiative of a monarch as opposed to ministerial recommendation.

20. The service was for use in the Royal Pavilion by the King and Queen and other dignitaries. Unfortunately the Festival management had forgotten until it was too late that they had not allocated money for its furbishment. Hugh Casson suggested asking the Royal Warrant holders for help. Durbin went to the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company Limited to put the proposal for the tea service and Eric Hodges showed him the door. The cost of around £1,000 was borne by Durbin.

21. 6-22 July. A train strike affected attendance, but Durbin received a considerable volume of fan mail from those who did attend.

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with war work, but Arthur Wakely asked Leslie Durbin if he would make it. Leslie agreed and was responsible for the sword’s elaborate gold and silver components, including the quillon14 that culminates each end with a gilt leopard’s head. Its grip is bound with 18 carat gold wire and there is a silver ferrule enamelled red at each end. The pommel15 is rock crystal16 and it is held in place with a gold Rose of England. He was also responsible for the Royal Arms, Crown and Cypher in finely chased gold that feature on the Morocco leather covered scabbard.17 This is bound with bands of wrought silver that form pointed arches and are gently stepped. Between these bands there are three red enamelled stars set in silvergilt stepped frames from which tooled gold rays radiate.

Leslie Durbin made the wax models for the gold embellishments for the scabbard, the leopard’s head for the quillon and English Rose for the grip. A specialist firm cast these and then they were hand-chased by Durbin. The project was secret with time of the essence as the German’s did not surrender until 2 February 1943 and the

Above: Freedom Box Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett In the introduction to the catalogue for Leslie Durbin’s retrospective exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1982, mention was made to Durbin’s fresh approach to designing Freedom caskets.

This is the casket in which Mr Alderman Randolph Cleaver LCC received the Freedom of the Borough of Hampstead on 24 September 1956. It still contains the scroll and the programme relating to the presentation ceremony. It was purchased at auction in 2003 for just under £4,600. The next day, the auction house was contacted by a gentleman who wanted to speak to the buyer of this casket. The Collection’s curator rang him: ‘Would you like to buy another?’ The offer was declined on the basis that one was quite sufficient. Length 17.3cm. London 1956.

Opposite: WVS Dish and reverse Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This fluted dish bears the crowned cypher of the Women’s Voluntary Service founded by Stella Isaacs, the Dowager Marchioness of Reading as a support unit for Air Raid Precaution Wardens. It is beautifully crafted and considerable attention has been made to the detail. It is hand engraved L G DURBIN ME FECIT (which translates from the Latin, ‘L G Durbin made me’). As an apprentice to Omar Ramsden, one of his main tasks was to engrave Ramsden’s finished pieces with a similar wording. The wording only appears on some of Durbin’s early work. Diameter 12.2cm. London 1941.

presentation was to be later that year. Gleadowe reputedly found the tension so great that he retired to a nursing home in the West Country, so Durbin was working without the benefit of the designer’s counsel.18 British Paramount filmed the various aspects of making the sword, including Durbin working away in Adam’s garden shed in Lambeth (see p.189). Interestingly he chased flames into the silver point of the scabbard. These were not in Gleadowe’s original brief, but were added by Durbin to symbolise Stalingrad’s conflagration. The Foreign Office announced that the sword was being made in June. The painstaking craftsmanship captured the public’s imagination. Indeed, in Durbin’s obituary in The Times on 5 March 2005, the Sword of Honour for Stalingrad was described as ‘the highest profile British sword since Excalibur’. Winston Churchill presented the Sword to Marshall Stalin on 24 November 1943 at the Tehran Conference. Accounts vary, but the sword appears to have been dropped by one member of the Russian delegation, but was saved from damage by the quick action of another. King George VI rewarded Leslie Durbin with the Royal Victorian Order.19 After the war, Durbin went into partnership with Len Moss, his senior at Omar Ramsden’s who has been described as ‘an artist with a hammer’. They established their workshop at 62 Rochester Place in northwest London. Not surprisingly, Durbin’s career advanced at a rapid rate. The making of the Sword of Honour for Stalingrad had given him a very high profile. Commissions flooded in, including the one to make Robert Goodden’s Festival of Britain Tea Service (see Goodden, p.243).20 Additionally, Omar Ramsden’s widow recommended the new enterprise to her husband’s former customers. Through Durbin’s solicitor Alan Oliver, who he had met in the RAF, many patrons were introduced to the new concern. Additionally George Hughes, then the Clerk of the Company, also secured him important commissions. The output from Rochester Place was phenomenal. Indeed, in the

1950s and early 1960s, Durbin was Britain’s best-known silversmith. Governments, institutions, livery companies, universities, churches, cathedrals, commercial organisations, royalty, private patrons and discerning members of the public sought his work. With such a spectrum of clients the objects produced were equally as varied, ranging from maces and processional crosses to wine labels and teaspoons. On the occasion of the exhibition ‘Leslie Durbin – Fifty Years of Silversmithing’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1982,21 Sir Frederick Dainton wrote in the Foreword, ‘The Goldsmiths’ Company does not often organise one-man exhibitions. One reason for this is that there are few craftsmen who have been productive over a sufficiently wide range of objects to fill the Hall’s exhibition rooms and to make a worthwhile display.

Leslie Durbin is a notable exception.’ This was achieved with a relatively small team.

Durbin not only designed all the objects, but he also secured the commissions, undertook all the modelling (he was a very skilful modeller) as well as working at the bench. Despite this responsibility he managed to find the time to teach, initially from 1946 at the Central School and then at the Royal College of Art, where he was still teaching one-day a week in the mid-1950s. He regarded the lively exchange with students such as Gerald Benney, David Mellor and Robert Welch as helpful and undoubtedly, the students would have benefited from Durbin’s practical expertise as a working silversmith. In her Introduction to the catalogue for Durbin’s 1982 retrospective, Susan Hare, the Company’s Librarian and organiser of the exhibition wrote, ‘Leslie Durbin’s designs in the early 1950s were like a breath of fresh spring air in their innovative quality, while still retaining a strong feeling for the symbolic.’ In particular, she focussed on Durbin’s approach to Freedom caskets. For a century these had changed little, having stepped bases and being loaded with dull heraldic shields. Durbin certainly introduced a lighter touch. A characteristic of Durbin’s 191

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Left: Rose Bowl Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The openwork cover of this rose bowl features seven flowers among a profusion of foliage.

The central knob also bears a cast rose. The bowl bears a finely engraved armorial.

Diameter 26.2cm. London 1955.

designs is his use of modelling with birds and animals on his bowls, goblets, cups and jugs. He was a frequent visitor to London Zoo so as to ensure that his models were anatomically accurate. Omar Ramsden’s widow sold him many of her husband’s casting patterns and examples are found on his work. Leslie Durbin’s silver maintains a fine balance between the traditional and modern trends in design. However, in the late 1960s and early 1970s he did produce some superb abstract centrepieces and awards.

Opposite, upper left: Seal for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Architectural Association Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Leslie Durbin excelled as a modeller and he often incorporated threedimensional birds or animals in his work as handles, supporters or simply to adorn them. As the preparations for the Festival of Britain got underway, Durbin was asked to design some silver that could be sold at the event as gifts. He submitted the design for a model of what appears to be a helmeted urchin, but nothing materialised. However, in the 1960s he used it as the handle of a seal for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Architectural Association. Height 5.5cm. London 1966.

Len Moss retired in 1970, but Leslie Durbin continued at Rochester Place. However, in 1974 Susan Hare suggested that Hector Miller go and see Leslie as she had heard that he was considering semi-retiring. Although Hector went with the intention of just buying some tools, Leslie in fact offered him the workshop and even suggested providing a private mortgage to finance Hector’s purchase. Hector moved in at the end of 1975. There was a short overlap, but when Leslie moved out Hector took on Ernie Wright, Leslie’s chaser and engraver who had also worked at Omar Ramsden’s. In 1976 in recognition of having successfully completed so many important commissions, Leslie Durbin was awarded a CBE. In that year he was also selected to model the Queen’s head for the special Silver Jubilee mark that appeared on all hallmarked silver during 1977. The profile head was based on an image taken by the photographer Peter Grugeon that had been used in the design of the postage stamps for Jersey.

Durbin’s original plaster for the hallmark punch was cast into a silver paperweight that was subsequently chased by Durbin. This was hallmarked by all of the four UK’s assay offices and presented to HM Queen Elizabeth II. It is the

Opposite, upper right: Court Room Inkstand Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company, photographer Bill Burnett This inkstand was commissioned in the mid-1950s for the Court Room at Goldsmiths’ Hall, which is where the Court of Assistants, the Company’s senior governing body, sits. The piece is monumental and draws upon the symbols from the Company’s coat of arms. The crest on the arms is the demi-virgin holding scales in her right hand and a touchstone (a traditional assaying tool for ascertaining a metal’s standard). The first and fourth quarters of the shield feature a leopard’s head, which was first used as the London assay office’s mark in 1300. The inkstand was an opportunity for Leslie Durbin not to just show his silversmithing, but also his modelling skills. It is surmounted by a model of the demi-virgin, while its is supported by four leopards. His presentation of the smallest of the four ‘big cats’ is perfection. He would have visited London Zoo before undertaking the work. These leopards were clearly admired, as at least one exists as a standalone model. Height of the inkstand 20.5cm. London 1956.

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Opposite, lower: Cherub Bowls Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett These ‘Cherub Bowls’ were stock items during the 1950s. Although Durbin himself was a very fine modeller, the handles featuring cherubs seated on a branch were made from castings he bought from the widow of Omar Ramsden, to whom he had been apprenticed. Mrs Ramsden also recommended clients to Durbin when he established his workshop after the war. Height 7.6cm. London 1954.

only piece of silver that has been legally hallmarked by all the assay offices. Durbin continued to work from his studio in the garden of his home at Kew. He selected the jobs he wanted to do and worked away at his own pace. Although he continued to make silver, he expanded his interest in coin and medal design. In 1984 he designed the first of the regional reverses for the £1 coins: this was the Scottish one. The Welsh reverse followed in 1985, the Northern Ireland reverse in 1986 and the English one in 1987. Each of these was used again five years later – i.e. in the period 1989-92. It is interesting that Durbin designed the reverse of the 1994 £2 commemorating the 350th anniversary of the Bank of England. After the war, the Bank of England commissioned Durbin, somewhat belatedly, to make an inkstand to commemorate its 250th anniversary. The piece was delivered in 1950, engraved with the dates 27 July 1694 and 27 July 1944. One of his last commissions was from the Clothworkers’ Company to design a silver spoon to commemorate the Millennium. With a gilt ram’s head finial inspired by the ram on the Coat of Arms of the

Clothworkers’ Company, the Master and Wardens presented it to members of the livery.

Leslie Durbin died on 24 February 2005 aged 92.

AVAILABILITY Leslie Durbin was a very prolific designer and maker.

His early work, from 1938 to 1945, is rarely encountered, but his post-war ‘stock items’ of mainly domestic pieces regularly appear on the secondary market. Oneoff commissioned pieces appear periodically.

In 2005 Leslie Durbin’s archive was offered to the nation in lieu of tax on the condition that it should be allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The archive was accepted and is now housed in the Museum’s archive.

As at 2010, it had not been catalogued.

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MAUREEN EDGAR Although she wanted to be a painter, at the end of her first year at art school an examiner took exception to her using her fingers on canvases. Thankfully for those who appreciate the art or enamelling, she decided to study silversmithing and was introduced to an art form that not only captivated her but at which she excelled.

Maureen Edgar has dedicated the best part of her life to perfecting her exceptional enamelling skills. From the very start, Maureen relished the time-consuming processes of enamelling, absorbing herself in them to great effect. Her resulting work has always been beautifully executed and of the finest quality with many of her pieces now collectors’ items.

Rachel Gogerly Retiring Chairman, The Guild of Enamellers

Maureen Edgar was born during 1949 in the town of Duns, some 40km west of Berwick-upon-Tweed in the Scottish Borders. Her earliest artistic memory is from 1953 when, to mark the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II, she was given a paint box in the shape of a crown. ‘I did not like reading and from that moment on the only thing I wanted to do was to paint. From colouring-in books to free-style painting, that was my life.’ She continued, ‘At high school, I only liked art and designing clothes. My wish was to go on to art school.’

After school she did an art course at a Glasgow college and then got a job as a window dresser with C&A. However, her ambition was still to progress to art school, so she signed-up for an evening course at the Glasgow School of Art and built-up a portfolio of life studies. Much to her delight she was accepted at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee.1 ‘I desperately wanted to be a painter. During the first year we were introduced to lots of different departments. I was particularly struck by the silver and jewellery one’, she recalls. ‘I’d never seen anything like it. The glass in the windows had been painted blue to make soldering easier2 and I was quite taken by the elderly man who was in charge. He just looked so interesting. However, I still wanted to be a painter.’

This was not to be, though, as Maureen explained. ‘At the end of the first year we all had to put our paintings on the wall … I did not pass, as they did not like my technique. It had been noticed that at times I used my

1. Now the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee.

2. So students could easily see the flame of the soldering torch.

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fingers on the canvas; I was told I could never be a painter as you always had to use an implement – a toothbrush was allowed, but fingers were not. It was suggested that I should be a “textile artist” as I was good at that. I refused textiles and as a reaction to not getting what I wanted, I decided to go to the interesting old man in silver.’ Maureen soon discovered that Bernard Harrington, the department head and an excellent craftsman, despite having ‘huge fingers like

Opposite: Court Cup for Professor Himsworth Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company and Professor Richard Himsworth, photographer Julia Skupny When someone commissions a piece of silver, inevitably there is a chat between the client and the craftsperson as to likes and dislikes. When a piece is being decorated with engraving, chasing or enamel there is a greater possibility of the final piece saying more about a person than a plain piece of silver. This is particularly so with Professor Richard Himsworth’s Court Cup. ‘I call them “champagne glasses and bow ties”, but they have a medical significance’, Maureen said as we chatted about the Cup’s bowl. The Goldsmiths’ Company’s catalogue similarly described the motifs, which caused Maureen to burst into laughter. Later the Professor kindly explained the Cup’s symbolism and the catalogue was corrected. The champagne glasses and bow ties are in fact respectively stylised immunoglobulin and thyroxine molecules These are there to represent his research into the so-called auto-immune thyroid diseases. The stem is also significant to his profession. The multi-coloured spiral represents the cadeuceus – the physicians’ snake – while the silver band either side of it is symbolic of the double helix to reflect his interest in genetics. Finally, his father’s Court Cup also had a snake wound round its stem, so there is also a family connection. Congratulations to Richard Himsworth for introducing so much symbolism into a wine cup and to Maureen Edgar for executing it so well! Height 16cm. London 1998.

MAUREEN EDGAR

MAUREEN EDGAR

hydrofluoric acid is not the only unusual aspect of Maureen’s enamelling technique, as she explains. ‘I finished everything by hand – the enamel with wet and dry paper in water – even the silver. This is a very labour-intensive method. An object that could be polished on a wheel8 in a day would take two weeks to do by hand. Today students would be told that they couldn’t make a living working like this.’

bananas’, was not the most natural teacher.3 She explained, ‘He was a very quiet man and slightly eccentric. He could make anything, but you always had to ask questions, as he would volunteer nothing. However, he did teach me enamelling. I thought it was the most fascinating thing ever. It is a painstakingly slow process, but that was what I liked about it. From that point on I enamelled everything.’ At the end of Maureen’s second year Mr Harrington retired, but announced, much to everyone’s amazement that he was getting married to ‘Rhona’ and going to live in Helston, Cornwall.4 Bernard’s successor was Roger Millar, who was a very inspiring tutor but knew nothing about enamelling. This did not bother Maureen as she explained, ‘I was self-taught by trial and error. This does have its advantages as there are no barriers, no boundaries, no one to say, “that won’t work” – it just may.’

Maureen applied to the Royal College of Art, but she did not expect to get in. However, she was successful and studied under Professor Gerald Benney from 1977-80.

‘This was my biggest opportunity as I received expert tuition.’ Alan Mudd, an enameller and engraver, was a visiting tutor and Bakri Yehia, a jewellery teacher at the college, had an interest in enamelling. ‘I am not the world’s best silversmith’, Maureen confesses, ‘but at the RCA we had to do hand-raising, box making and undertaking tasks such as making spouts. Philip Popham5 said my spout would look great on a milk bottle. I had a great time at the RCA.’ There certainly was a good atmosphere with Richard Fox, her junior by a year, who sat next to Maureen and put her bench up for sale when she was away with influenza. Philip Popham was not amused, but the students thought it hilarious.6 ‘I used a great deal of hydrofluoric acid while enamelling. I used it to clean whatever I was making before the final firing as it brings the colour out, and also after the final hand polishing. With pails of acid about, the staff were naturally concerned.’ 7 The use of 196

Maureen enjoyed some good sales before she left the RCA. Following a small exhibition in the College’s foyer, a gentleman approached her asking if she would make eggs decorated with enamel. She agreed and they proved so popular that they remained as part of her repertoire all her working life. Her favourite piece from her college days was a honey pot. ‘The pot was plain honey coloured’, she recalls,

‘but both the cover and the main body featured six different sized gold hexagons to represent the cells in a honeycomb. I was not very popular with my colleagues, though, as I cut the right hand arms off six different sized Allen keys9 to use them as punches to stamp out the gold foil into the required shape. Liberty took it on a sale or return basis for an exhibition at their Regent Street department store and Jon Bannenberg, the yacht designer, purchased it. Another good early sale was to the then Sir Charles Forte.10 He had seen my work at an exhibition. I had to take my collection to his office. He selected three pieces and made an offer. As I had my bill to pay at the RCA, I took the money and ran.’

Her studies completed, Maureen wanted to return to Scotland. ‘For the first two years she lived in a farm cottage in Berwickshire. The leasing arrangement was unconventional. Because Maureen was just beginning her artistic career, there was no rent, she just had to look after the property, though she did make a gift of some of her work to her benefactor. She started with a commission obtained in the south. This was from the director of the Elle fashion shop chain and comprised one dozen napkin rings featuring

Opposite, upper: Napkin Ring Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This napkin ring is enamelled with honeysuckle blooms, two entwined and one single one, against a light brown ground.

Diameter 4.5cm. Edinburgh 1986.

Opposite, lower: Egg Cup and Spoon Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett From 1992, birds became a regular feature of Maureen’s work.

Passionate about dogs, she was heartbroken when Patricia, her beloved Cavalier passed away. A friend suggested that to help her grieving process, Maureen should perhaps contemplate commemorating Patricia’s life in enamels. The thought horrified her and, contemplating buying a tropical bird, she decided to turn her attention to our feathered friends. The egg cup features two exotic birds’ heads in pastel shades as well as cloisons of gold foil and silver wire on a turquoise ground. The stem of the spoon is enamelled with the same theme. Height of egg cup 5.5cm. Edinburgh 1997.

Above, right: Enamel Egg The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bonhams The world’s most legendary Easter Eggs are the 50 that Peter Carl Fabergé made and delivered to the Emperors of Russia from 1885 to 1916. Maureen was asked to make her first egg in 1980 and she continued to produce them until she had to stop working in 1999 because of ill health. The richness of the blue on this example is particularly stunning and the delicate pastel shading of the tapered ribbon edged by fine gold wire adorning its surface is exquisite. The most elaborate part of the body is its base where three of the egg’s five bejewelled bows are grouped. The piece opens in two halves, but it contains no surprise. Height 6cm.

Edinburgh 1986.

the gates of his home in enamel with its name – Bletchley House – engraved below. ‘It was a very frugal living at the beginning but doing some teaching work helped’, said Maureen with frankness, but she added, ‘larger work did come my way.’

3. Harrington was the first head of the Jordanstone’s Silversmithing and Jewellery department and held the position from 1943-74. There is a superb cup and cover in the University of Dundee’s collection that Harrington designed and made in 1957 for presentation to Queen’s College Dundee by Mrs CJ Tudhope in memory of her late husband who was the College’s Senior Lecturer in Pathology from 1919-55.

4. Maureen did visit the couple for a week in the late 1970s and discovered the extent of Bernard’s eccentricity. On his first date with Rhona – a walk – he got out of his car and strolled off, forgetting she was with him. When married he insisted on doing his own washing. He would only wash one type of garment at a time. When it was the day for socks, he would hang them on the line in ascending order of length, with the toes all pointing in the same direction.

5. Senior Tutor at the RCA’s School of Silversmithing and Jewellery.

6. In 1984 when Richard Fox received his first commissions from Bernie Ecclestone, he asked Maureen to enamel the globe of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s Motor Racing Television Trophy. He still marvels at the fact that applying a single coat of ground glass, which forms the enamel on the world map, took 13 hours to apply using a tiny quill.

7. Hydrofluoric acid is extremely corrosive and difficult to handle.

8. Using an electrically driven machine with a rotating spindle to which interchangeable polishing heads may be fitted.

9. A tool, normally ‘L-shaped’, that has a hexagonal cross-section used to drive bolts and screws that have a hexagonal socket in their head. They are also known as an Allen wrench, hex key, zeta key or hex head.

10. When Maureen visited Sir Charles in 1977, he was CEO of Trust House Forte, the hotel and restaurant company. He became the company’s Chairman and was made a life peer in 1982.

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MAUREEN EDGAR

Maureen’s work is its weight. She explains, ‘I think pieces should have bulk so I use a good gauge of silver. I feel that it not right if the pieces feel as if they are made of aluminium. Most people who handle a piece of my work for the first time remark about its weight.’ To her, the weight of the piece is as important as the visual impact and the way it feels in the hand.

Interestingly, her pieces do not look heavy, but they certainly have a WOW factor when handled. This is probably most apparent with the wine cup she made for Professor Richard Himsworth11 when he was elected to the Company’s Court of Assistants12 in 1995. It is the custom at Goldsmiths’ Hall for members of the Court to be given a sum of money to commission a silver wine cup for their personal use at the Hall. Professor Himsworth commented, ‘I very much like enamel and appreciate the technical and craft challenges it poses. I had admired Maureen’s vase in the Company’s collection and commissioned her twenty years ago to make a table centrepiece for our silver wedding anniversary before asking her to make my Court Cup. For the cup I asked Maureen to include the two main enamelling techniques: cloisonné (the bowl of the cup) and champlevé (the stem).’

Her first large commission was from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in 1984. This was a vase 19cm in height featuring a dancing figure on a pastel background. This particular vase uses the enamelling techniques, cloisonné and champlevé, which are the two favoured by Maureen. All her work is based on natural forms with animals (principally from the cat family) and birds featuring predominantly, while flowers occasionally make an appearance. Her palette ranges from pastel shades to bright reds and intense blacks. She achieves the density of colour by applying multiple layers of enamel, with pieces being placed in the kiln on up to 15 occasions. ‘I love a depth of colour, I never have less than four layers of enamel’, she remarked. Apart from her meticulous attention to detail and finish, a feature of 198

Left: Vase Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This vase was commissioned by the Goldsmiths’ Company and is a relatively early example of Maureen’s work. It features a dancing figure upon a pastel background and was enamelled using the cloisonné and basse-taille techniques. Maureen cleaned her work after each firing with hydroflouric acid as, ‘it brings the colour out’.

She finished all her objects by hand, which made her work very labour intensive. Instead of using an electrically driven machine with polishing heads, she polished her pieces by hand. This meant that the polishing could take two weeks, as opposed to a day using a machine. She added, ‘Today students would be told they couldn’t make a living working like this.’ Height 19cm. Edinburgh 1984.

Opposite: Marmalade Pot Courtesy Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collections Maureen is passionate about cats and this is no doubt why they regularly occur in her work. This lidded marmalade pot features four playful tortoiseshell felines against a background of orange and gold flecks together with wisteria blooms. It was made in 1999 when Maureen was unwell and had to stop work. The following year she was diagnosed with cancer, but after treatment she anticipated working again. Sadly she contracted a viral infection which results in her suffering from chronic fatigue and she has never been able to resume enamelling, the love of her life.

This pot was acquired by the Aberdeen Art Gallery in 2004 with the aid of a £3,500 grant from the Art Fund. The total cost was £18,000. The pot has a height of 11cm. Edinburgh 1999.

Maureen suggested acid etching on the bowl to create a matt surface. Weighing over half a kilo, it is one of the heaviest Court Cups at the Hall. Third parties usually made Maureen’s larger silver pieces to her design and specification.

Maureen is passionate about cats and this is no doubt why they regularly feature in her work, such as the yellow vase she made in 1989 for the National Museum of Scotland. She is also a dog lover and when Patricia her Cavalier passed away, she was heartbroken. A friend suggested that she could possibly help her grieving process if she immortalised her dear and faithful friend in enamels. While Maureen was horrified at the suggestion, she had been contemplating buying a tropical bird, so she decided to enamel a pepper mill with a cockatiel. The piece was offered through a London gallery and was bought by a lady who was moved by the story and, according to the gallery owner, left the establishment with tears in her eyes. This was in 1992 and birds then also became a regular ingredient in Maureen’s work as she finds them beautiful.

Maureen tended to have three to four clients’ commissions on the go at one moment in time. ‘It normally took two years to complete a piece from start to finish,’ she explained. ‘The client gave me their brief as to what they wanted – perhaps a vase, or a bowl. We discussed shapes and I produced rough pencil sketches of forms from which they may chose, or mix and match as the case may be.

When the shape had been decided, we then discussed dimensions. A model in wood or cardboard followed for the client to take home so that they could put it on a table or in a cabinet to make sure that the size was right. If it was not to their liking, another model would be made. We then discussed the decoration. The clients gave their preferences regarding subject and colours. I then made a detailed highly coloured drawing. Additionally I made small silver templates, say 5 x 7.5cm. I traced a feature of the design on these and then enamelled them so that they could see exactly what the finished piece would look like. I believed that it was important that there was absolutely

11. Richard Himsworth MD, FRCP was Professor of Health Research and Development (1993-2002) and Director of the Institute of Public Health (19992002) at Cambridge University. He was Prime Warden of the Company 2007-8.

12. A committee that scrutinises and ratifies the actions and recommendations of all of the Company’s other committees.

13. The official Edinburgh residence of Scotland’s First Minister.

14. Maureen’s design for the Plate Competition was one of the 70 selected. It is not enamelled.

no doubt in their minds.’ This could be a protracted process as clients might take a few weeks to make decisions at each stage. It may have been lengthy, but expectations were certainly managed.

Unfortunately in 1999 Maureen became unwell and had to stop work. The following year she was diagnosed with cancer. Anticipating that she would resume working, she even bought new equipment and some silver. Although the treatment for the cancer was successful, she contracted a viral infection that affected her immune system, leaving her with chronic fatigue. She has not worked since.

However, her creations survive in public and private collections. In addition to those mentioned in this chapter, her work is in the Aberdeen Art Gallery, Bute House13 and Downing Street.14 The National Museums of Scotland acquired her well-documented working archive.

AVAILABILITY Maureen Edgar’s work does not often appear on the secondary market.

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ANTHONY ELSON His career falls into four distinct periods. Having spent a period working as the personal assistant to the chairman of a company specialising in making reproduction silver, he started on his own. Although he undertook important private commissions, the greater part of this business was supplying modern domestic silver to leading retailers in London’s West End. He then established a London studio and concentrated purely on commissions, before moving to East Sussex. Here he continues with his commissions, but has also begun exploring new effects with form and colour.

With the thorough understanding of the craft and concern about the diminishing range of skills within the industry, my designs endeavour, when interpreting the wishes of my patrons, to combine these rare skills with imagination.

Anthony Elson Anthony Gordon Elson was born at Worthing, Sussex, during 1935. At boarding school he excelled at art and was also a keen organist. His father, a doctor of medicine, was at a loss as to what career his son should pursue, but learning that offspring of his acquaintances were studying silversmithing at Brighton College of Art, he thought that this could be a good option for young Elson.1 So in 1956, having completed his National Service in Singapore, Anthony enrolled on a National Diploma of Design course at Brighton where Dunstan Pruden, a member of The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic near Ditchling, who had taught Gerald Benney a few years before, was his tutor. He received a thorough grounding in hand-working silver, for even in the mid-1950s, no power tools of any kind were available in the silversmithing workshop, other than a small polishing motor. Despite what today would be regarded as a very unconventional way of being directed towards a career, Anthony not only had an aptitude for the craft, but it was very much to his liking. Indeed, before obtaining his NDD in 1960, he decided to continue his silversmithing studies at the Royal College of Art from 1960-3. The summer before he started his postgraduate course he was engaged in work experience at Gerald Benney’s for a couple of months.2 Anthony commented, ‘A life-long friendship was formed and his style was a great influence upon my early designs.’

1. His father knew Mr Morris the Vice Principal of the College, while his Uncle Percy went painting with Sallis Benney, the Principal.

2. Gerald Benney opened his first workshop and studio at Suffolk House, Whitfield Place off Tottenham Court Road in 1954.

3. Silversmithing by Robert Goodden and Philip Popham was published by the Oxford University Press in 1971.

4. Holloware is a general term used to describe hollow metal utensils and artefacts such as goblets, jugs, tankards and vases etcetera.

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At the RCA Professor Robert Goodden headed the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery while Philip Popham was the Senior Tutor.3 Unlike Brighton, at the RCA students were very much left to their own devices and had a cornucopia of machine tools at their disposal.

Although Dunstan Pruden’s response to his departing protégé who asked about decoration was ‘you don’t need to think about it as it just comes naturally’, Anthony specialised in decoration and upon graduation was awarded the RCA’s Silver Medal for Geometric Design in Holloware.4 ‘During my second year I explored the way the milling machine could be used to produce patterns on metal in a controlled way using different cutters’, he explained. Having mounted a thick brass tube horizontally in the machine, he produced a couple of notable patterns. The first had straight vertical flutes textured in concave strips and the other an undulating surface, which he describes as, ‘rather like waves at ‘regular intervals’. Anthony continued, ‘Professor Goodden was so impressed by the wavy geometric pattern that he asked me if he could use the technique on the shaft of a mace he was designing.’ His professor was not the only person impressed. In 1962 the

Opposite: Tea Caddy Courtesy Anthony Elson This tea caddy is a masterpiece of chasing and colouring silver. It was commissioned by a gentleman who has a penchant for fine teas and an interest in ornithology. ‘It’s a Tea Leaf Bird’, says Anthony with a smile. A figment of his imagination, its design was beautifully constructed by Norman Bassant. Anthony’s colouring accentuates Richard Price’s chasing and repoussé work. Lift the bird’s beak and there is the breakfast tea, lift its tail and there are the leaves for the afternoon’s beverage. Height 13cm. London 2009.

ANTHONY ELSON

Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths purchased both prototypes for its collection. The silver candlestick with its gilt stem decorated with the vertical flute pattern was illustrated in the Company’s 1963 publication Modern British Silver.

At his degree show in 1964, Anthony was approached by Bernard Copping,5 the Chairman of William Comyns & Sons Limited, a long-established company with 50 employees which essentially produced good quality reproduction silverware exclusively for retailers in the UK and overseas. He asked if Anthony would like to be his assistant. ‘I was introduced to production techniques, refined over the centuries that governed commercial viability.’ Anthony Elson continued, ‘The emphasis of art school training at the time had been functionalism and individuality. The idea of producing a quantity of the same design was not discussed with any enthusiasm. So, I felt most fortunate to see the production of silverware at first hand and experience the day-to-day tasks of management. I travelled to New York to see Tiffany’s showroom and its factory. I also visited Geneva and Zurich. Many of our retail customers were asking for new designs as opposed to reproduction, but this avenue didn’t hold much interest for Mr Copping. So, after nearly three years with the company, I left with a certain amount of regret.’

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Although Anthony became creatively stifled at Comyns, he realised that it would have been a wasted opportunity if he did not put his newly acquired experience into use, so he decided to establish his own business. Shortly after his departure, Mr Copping contacted him as Blunt and Wray, the ecclesiastical metalwork suppliers, was on the market. While two-thirds of this business was brass work, it did have a small silver workshop that Copping thought would be a suitable vehicle for Anthony’s creative vision. Located in London’s Clerkenwell Road, the company had 15 employees and was losing £15,000 a year.

While this was not encouraging, Anthony nevertheless decided to purchase the company in 1966 on the basis that he had already won a commission6 to make silver for the dining rooms of Barclays Bank DCO.7 He explained what happened next. ‘My most urgent task was to develop a range of modern domestic silver exclusively for retail outlets.

Some retailers expressed fears that I may start to deal direct with their customers, as one outlet had experienced to its great cost when it had recently promoted the work of another contemporary silversmith. With my assurance, trust grew and Garrard, Asprey, Hennell and Spink were all very helpful in their help and guidance as B&W was the only company offering such an exclusive service.’ Anthony

5. Bernard Copping initially bought and sold secondhand silverware from a railway arch in Rochester. On 22 July 1948 he registered his maker’s mark with the London Assay Office giving his address as Comyns House, Tower Street, London, which possibly meant he was either working for Comyns at that time, or using the company to make-up pieces to his design. He purchased Comyns in 1953. The authors have seen a covered bowl from 1950 in the style of HG Murphy bearing his maker’s mark.

6. We have encountered pieces dated 1966/7. Anthony Elson thinks he may have made these pieces while he was at Comyns. The cutlery was made by a specialist Sheffield firm of cutlers.

7. Barclays Bank Dominion Colonial and Overseas was established by an Act of Parliament in 1925 that reincorporated the Colonial Bank (founded 1836) and absorbed the National Bank of South Africa (registered 1891) and the AngloEgyptian Bank (established 1864). It became Barclays Bank International in 1971.

8. In May 2008, the country’s Maoist-led assembly voted to abolish the monarchy. The Palace is to become a museum.

realised that the ecclesiastical side of the business would be difficult to grow. After World War II, B&W’s works manager had left the company and started his own business called Art Metal Guild. Employing cost effective manufacturing techniques, it prospered at B&W’s expense. The founder’s son, Jack Davis, who like Anthony realised that the ecclesiastical market was not going to expand, now ran AMG. The two companies merged, with the owner of each taking a 30 per cent stake in the other. Anthony explained the rationale, ‘This allowed Davis to concentrate on the ecclesiastical customers that he understood so well and for me to develop my interest in domestic silver.’

In 1971 Anthony won the competition to provide the

Opposite: Water Beakers for Spink Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett When Anthony established his own business in 1968, he decided to make a range of modern domestic silver for sale by luxury outlets in the London’s West End and county jewellers. These water beakers were retailed by Spink, then the world’s oldest antique and coin dealers located in St James’s. Resting on cast silver-gilt bases, the original design from which the mold was made was machine milled. The beakers bear Anthony’s maker’s mark. Height 11.4cm. London 1977 and 1979.

Right: Trophy for Sir Alan Wilson Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This was commissioned by Sir Alan Herries Wilson FRS, a pioneer of astro-physics and then Chairman of Glaxo, to commemorate his year as Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company (1969-70). It also marks man’s first landing on the moon on 21 July 1969, which was during Sir Alan’s year of office. It is believed to be the only Prime Warden’s commission that celebrates a contemporary event. The Americans loved it and for a number of years it was an iconic image of modern British silver design. However, it was not a straightforward commission. Sir Alan wanted the gods Artemis and Apollo holding up the moon and the plinth to bear the inscription ‘Man reached out into space and attained the moon’. The commission did not progress until Anthony was asked to submit a design. He expressed the opinion that the two gods were not appropriate for the inscription and should be replaced with a human hand. He also did not think it appropriate that the hand should hold the planet, but should be separated from it by gimbals. These would be indicative of the moon’s orbit and also allow the model movement. The moon, of course, is silver with its surface being based on the globe of the moon that National Geographic had constructed from the images supplied by NASA. The hand was cast in bronze, for at that period it was considered permissible to screw (as opposed to solder) the two metals together.

Unfortunately a problem had just come to light where one Assay Office was hallmarking goblets with silver bowls screwed to silverplated bronze stems. Buyers naturally thought the goblets solid silver.

A stand was taken and the bronze hand was recast in silver and then patinated a bronze colour. Height 38.7cm. London 1971.

silver for the Council Rooms of the London Stock Exchange. ‘This was a very large commission’, he explained, ‘and consideration was given not only to the design proposals, but to the number of craftsmen each competing silversmith employed. In the end, only two other silversmiths qualified on this point.’ The following year, the brass side of the business received a boost when Asprey’s placed a contract to produce all the metalwork for Narayanhity Royal Palace, the home of the monarchs of Nepal in the centre of Kathmandu.8 203

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The workforce subsequently grew from 15 to 30. While work for the Royal Palace was underway, Anthony was introduced to the proprietors of C Tavener and Son Limited in Hampstead. Roger, the son, was developing the interior design part of the business and had an array of high net worth individuals from pop stars to entrepreneurs as clients. Anthony Elson designed metal home furnishings for the business and one of his first customers was Ringo Starr, who required a fireplace in the form of a doughnut. Roger’s brother John was a composer and Anthony and his wife enjoyed attending his premiers to ‘enjoy hearing his wonderfully distinctive music’.9 Like other silversmiths, Anthony benefited from the demand triggered by the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977.

However, storm clouds were beginning to gather as Anthony explained. ‘By the end of the 1970s, after the three-day week10 and finally the Winter of Discontent11 it was not surprising that the silver side of the business was also showing no growth. The lease of B&W’s premises was ending in 1981 and the landlord was proposing a 600 per cent increase in rent. Jack Davis had retired and I decided to liquidate the company rather than hope for better things to come. My main market had been the retailers and they were closing down at an alarming rate. I was able to sell the

9. John Tavener was knighted in 2000 for his service to music. His Song for Athene was performed at Princess Diana’s funeral. He died in November 2013.

10. See note 10, p.184.

11. See note 11, p.184.

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Above: Marine Bowl Courtesy Anthony Elson, photographer Richard Valencia Anthony calls this piece the Marine Bowl. He said, ‘It’s a new departure or dimension where I have designed controlled colouring into the piece. I like colour. Enamellers have their palette, but it is an addition, whereas I treat the silver with chemicals to create the colour. It is a limited palette, but it is not just blackening the silver. Spines radiate out from the bowl and the ripples in between are coloured greeny blue. The actual bowl is a concave hemisphere and it has been carefully worked out to have a diameter that is half of the whole. It stands on just two legs that terminate in crystal, the third support being the bowl itself. It looks as if it is floating with no means of support. The green stone is foil-backed crystal.’ Richard Price undertook the superb chasing and repoussé work. Diameter 31cm. London 2010.

Opposite: Candelabra for the Inner Temple Courtesy Anthony Elson When the Inner Temple decided that it wanted a pair of candelabra as part of its celebrations for the Millennium, it asked a number of silversmiths to submit their ideas. Anthony’s design was chosen. For use at banquets held in its imposing hall, he knew that they had to look majestic and be of a certain height. As Pegasus had been the emblem of the Inner Temple for centuries, he decided to surmount the column with this flying horse of Greek mythology, which was lightly oxidised to give it prominence. The candelabra’s arms were inspired by the Romanesque arches of nearby Temple Church, the headquarters of the medieval order of the Knight Templars with its 12th-century nave in the round, as the initial church was based upon the design of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. (A rectangular chancery was added about 50 years later.) But, how could the pieces be linked to a new millennium? On the basis that Christ was born on such an occasion, though this is a matter of conjecture, Anthony researched the Star of Bethlehem that revealed the birth of the Messiah to the Biblical Magi.

According to one professor of astronomy, it was probably a result of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Anthony features this astronomical event below Pegasus. The pair of candelabra met with the approval of the Inner Temple. Indeed, so much so that they came back for more (of a different design) and also for candlesticks. Height 80cm. London 2000.

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him, for although well known in the trade, his name was not familiar to the wider public. He was also brought up to consider self-promotion ‘was bad form’.

However, as he explained, ‘I need not have worried. Although I didn’t know it at the time, the 1980s – after a few false starts – ushered in the longest period of sustained growth in the economy within living memory.

One of my first patrons to visit the studio was Joe Lewis of Hanover Grand.14 A number of items were made for him when he lived at Binfield Manor and later I made the silver for his yacht. My approach to all commissions, having received the brief, is to try and discover something that is personal or unique to the client, whether an individual or an ancient institution. It is only after this research that I select the techniques that will enable me to translate my ideas. I do not limit myself to one technique that has to fit all occasions. This can sometimes be a little ecclesiastical side of the business to A Edward Jones Limited of Birmingham.’ Seventeen years of designing silver for quantity production therefore came to an end, but for Anthony Elson it was the start of a new beginning. In 1981 he established a studio in the Clerkenwell Workshops.12 He chose the area as there was an abundance of excellent smiths in the neighbourhood undertaking specialist work from polishing to chasing. Many had been employed by large silversmithing firms, but having been made redundant, were now offering their services as self-employed individuals. There were also skilled workers from allied crafts in the locality upon which to draw.

Having worked on some exceptional commissions in the 1970s for clients ranging from City Livery Companies to the UK Parliament,13 Anthony decided that his new business would concentrate on bespoke pieces. This proposed change of direction was not without concern to 206

12. Located at 27/31 Clerkenwell Close, the workshops comprise two wings of offices, studios and workshops surrounding an external central courtyard.

13. A commission for a pair of candelabra to be presented to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on the occasion of the islands’ independence on 27 October 1979.

14. Joe Lewis is an English billionaire who has homes throughout the world. In Forbes’ The World’s Richest People List for 2009 he ranks as 261st, despite being one of the biggest casualties when JPMorgan Chase bought the troubled investment bank Bear Stearns. The Hanover Grand was originally a Masonic hall but Lewis turned it into a restaurant and banqueting hall specialising in opulent Jewish receptions. It closed in 1984 and reopened about ten years later as a nightclub and was sold to new owners in 1997.

15. Then the Company’s Assistant Director, Design & Technology.

16. Of Pledge & Aldworth, David Pledge redefined engine turning as the new design medium for metal surfaces, translating it to all types of threedimensional surfaces.

17. The Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers, one of the 110 Livery Companies of the City of London.

18. The Worshipful Company of Curriers, one of the 110 Livery Companies of the City of London.

19. The Inner Temple is one of London’s Inns of Court, the voluntary unincorporated societies of considerable antiquity that have the exclusive right in England and Wales to confer the rank of Barrister. The Inns are: the Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Gray’s Inn and Lincoln’s Inn.

unsettling for someone with fixed ideas and therefore it is with a certain degree of courage that the client allows him or herself to be led along a very private path of discovery. I have to confess that all those who successfully venture on this journey have always had a confidence in their own aesthetic judgement.’

method of design and design development follows much of the course of the fine artist as he darts backwards and forwards, adding or subtracting material and dimension to an object, often colouring its surface to give the illusion of patterning, texture or form so that he can evaluate the result.’

Writing in the Goldsmiths Gazette in 1986, Chris Walton15 profiled Anthony Elson in the Master Craftsmen series. He described his studio at the Clerkenwell Workshops as ‘one of the most comfortable designer atmospheres of any workshop in the country’.

Anthony periodically entertained there, offering a simple lunch with the occasional glass of wine. Although much of the making of the silver was now subcontracted, each new piece was prototyped by him.

Chris Walton certainly captured Anthony’s design process in his profile as he wrote, ‘... the visitor [to the studio] can see many items in the course of production.

He likes to spend time evaluating each design, putting his ideas on paper in an old and imaginative manner using felt tip pens and markers for special impact. He then works directly on to the metal and is not averse to using models to check his ideas three-dimensionally. His

The number of his commissions throughout the 1980s and 1990s were very impressive. Included were 32 pairs of claret jugs for the Hong Kong Jockey Club (via Garrards), a dozen dishes for HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and a pair of claret jugs for HM Queen Elizabeth II (both via Longmire), trophies and awards, candelabra, candlesticks, centrepieces, cutlery, beakers, loving cups and goblets for private clients, City Livery Companies and institutions. The Millennium was a busy time for silversmiths and it certainly was for Anthony Elson. The Company chose his design of a fountain pen as a Millennium gift to the Livery, which was engraved by David Pledge.16 The Tallow Chandlers17 commissioned a pair of two-light candelabra together with 40 single candlesticks, their design incorporating cast and chased angels, being the supporters of its coat of arms, while the Curriers18 commissioned a centrepiece. The Inner Temple19 chose Anthony’s design for a four-light candelabrum following submissions from a number of selected silversmiths and commissioned two pairs. There were also other private commissions.

Although he had designed a portable chalice and pyx for Moorfields Eye Hospital while he was at Comyns in 1966, more than 30 years had elapsed before he turned

Opposite: Millenium Jug Courtesy Anthony Elson This was a private commission as the year 2000 approached.

‘Many people see a millennium as possibly being a new start. It certainly was for the gentleman who commissioned this jug as he was moving from one fine property to another’, Anthony revealed.

This view features his old house, while the new one appears on the other side. The egg incorporated into the handle is carved from lignum vitae (wood of life). For centuries the egg has been regarded as a symbol of rebirth. Here it also gives a good grip for those using the jug. Capacity 1.42 litres (2½ pints). London 2000.

Right: Dish for Lincoln Cathedral Courtesy Anthony Elson, photographer Richard Valencia This is one of the many pieces of silver Anthony designed and made for Lincoln Cathedral. It is an alms receiving tray upon which the wooden platters are stacked after the collection has been completed.

This is why the centre of the receiver is concave, so that the convex underside of the first platter is held snuggly. The cross is not enamel, but has been achieved by patination using a concoction of chlorides, sulphates, nitrates and ammonia. The flutes, which incidentally are hollow as the platters will hopefully be heavy, are both concave and convex for dramatic effect – when held vertically during collection, the combination ensures the maximum amount of light is reflected towards the congregation. Note: both handles feature a discrete swan as Bishop Hugh was befriended by one following his appointment as Bishop after the 1185 earthquake that destroyed the cathedral. The inward edge of the handles are rippled as most of a swan’s labour takes place under the water. Diameter 60cm. London 2009.

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Charter in 1608 by James I. The Charter Candelabra, which were delivered in 2008, feature radiating thistles in blue-green to represent the House of Stuart23 and are surmounted by Pegasus,24 oxidised dark brown. The same year he made a most imaginative tea caddy in the form of a bird (shown here). In 2009 examples of his new work received a wider audience when they were included in the Company’s ‘Silver with a Pinch of Salt’ exhibition.25 It was greatly admired. Anthony added, ‘From 2006, my work has become experimental and a period exploring new effects with form and colour. I shall continue in this manner for as long as possible.’

near him, so the swan became part of the design.’ Having made the communion ware – six chalices, two ciboria,20 a pair of altar candlesticks and a thurible,21 more recently he made a twohandled alms receiving tray and a verger’s stave.

With an overall length of 60cm, the receiving tray was chased with a series of radiating concave and convex flutes to reflect the light. It was delivered just before Christmas 2009.

his attention to ecclesiastical silver again, when he was selected to create new designs for Lincoln Cathedral.

Anthony took up the story, ‘A patron, not originally connected with the cathedral – but who had a great love of silver – observed that there were too few chalices and that their capacities were too small to cope with the number of communicants. He then set in motion, with the approval of the cathedral authorities, a programme to commission new designs. His brief to me was that items must be functional and serviceable – that is, wellbalanced and textured where they would be handled most. My task was how to make the vessels unique to Lincoln. My research showed one outstanding man among many: Bishop Hugh who was appointed after the cathedral was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1185. While he was at Lincoln, a swan befriended him.

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In 2003 a company that wished to redevelop the property acquired the Clerkenwell Workshops.

As Anthony had space in the form of a barn and stables at his East Sussex home, he decided to relocate his studio from central London. As his move in the early 1980s resulted in his entering a different phase of his career, so did this change of scene. As Anthony explained, ‘Silver oxidises naturally in air that contains traces of sulphur and usually turns black in time.’

Anthony had used oxidised surfaces in some novelty productions in the late ’70s and early ’80s. However, it was not until the early 1990s, that he used this process in a major commission. He continued, ‘I had used chemicals to produce a dark brown patination on the fish server for the Rabinovitch Collection.22 I had been experimenting with chemicals such as copper sulphate and copper nitrate for their effect on silver. This effect has it uses, but I was more interested to try to obtain a blue-green colour as this spectrum was more sympathetic with silver.’ He first had the opportunity to use green when he was privately commissioned to design a fruit bowl with an oak tree motif on its interior. ‘The client places a few red porcelain cherries in the bowl’, Anthony revealed ‘and it looks fabulous.’ In 2007, the Inner Temple commissioned a further set of four candelabra in a similar style to the Millennium ones, but their new commission was to commemorate the grant of Royal

20. The vessels for the communion wafer.

21. A container in which incense is burned – also known as a censer.

22. This was made in 1993 and is in the shape of a gulper (a deep-sea eel). See pages 46-7 of Contemporary Silver – commissioning, designing, collecting by B Seymour Rabinovitch and Helen Clifford (London 2000).

23. James I of England (also James VI of Scotland) was of the House of Stuart.

24. The Pegasus, or flying horse, has been the emblem of the Inner Temple from at least the 16th century.

25. Goldsmiths’ Hall, London 30 March – 25 April 2009. Anthony Elson’s work has appeared in many of the Company’s exhibitions over the years.

Opposite: Oak Bowl and interior Courtesy Anthony Elson This bowl was commissioned by a gentleman as a gift for his wife.

Initially the subject was to be the family’s dog. While contemplating how to feature the canine, Anthony received an urgent telephone call from the recipient. Unfortunately the dog had disgraced itself and was in the ‘dog house’. Consequently it was not considered appropriate for its image to be preserved for posterity on a piece of silver. Anthony was invited to see what she wanted in its place. It was a magnificent oak tree. This gave Anthony the opportunity to put his research into colouring silver with chemicals into practice. He could not resist placing repoussé acorns on its base. Diameter 21cm. London 2004.

Above: Candlesticks for Comyns Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett At his degree show in 1964, Anthony was approached by the Chairman of William Comyns, a large silver manufacturer, who asked Anthony if he would become his assistant. He accepted.

These candlesticks were designed by Anthony while he was there.

The stems have been chased with a sunken lozenge pattern and subsequently gilded to good effect. They bear the mark of William Comyns & Sons Limited, but are engraved ‘Designed by Anthony G Elson’. Although he gained experience from the management of Comyns, he felt there was little enthusiasm for modern silver within the company. Two years later following an amicable agreement he set-up on his own. Height 26cm. London 1964.

AVAILABILITY Silver made in the second half of the 1960s bearing Anthony Elson’s ‘AGE’ maker’s mark is occasionally encountered on the secondary market. As 70 per cent of the output of his company in the 1970s was to supply leading retailers in London’s West End as well as county jewellers in the shires, examples of his work from this decade frequently appear on the secondary market. In most cases, though not always, the examples bear the retailer’s sponsor’s mark (such as Asprey’s and Garrard’s). If this is the case, items are also generally stamped ‘Designed by Anthony Elson’. The items he made for Spink certainly bear his own maker’s mark, but are usually also discretely stamped ‘Spink & Son’.

However, items made for Hennell bear a special Hennell-Elson mark with ‘AE’ in a trefoil with an ‘H’ above. From 1973 he designed silver for The Heritage Collection in limited editions and these items also frequently appear on the market. These bear his ‘AGE’ maker’s mark. In 1973 he designed a silver and glass claret jug together with silver goblets commemorating 600 years of Bristol. These carry the special ‘Bristol’ mark of a ship in addition to the London hallmark. In 1978 there was a limited edition of a wine coaster and in the late 1970s and early 1980s he designed six eggs in egg-cups, each containing a surprise, for the Heritage Collection’s Easter mailings. His commissioned pieces rarely appear on the secondary market. Commissions may be placed direct with Anthony Elson. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact and website details.

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HOWARD FENN His education was a combination of the conventional and the progressive. Very clearly destined towards the arts while at his local comprehensive, it was at a coeducational boarding school that it became clear that his creativity was going to be directed towards metal. With a keen sense of proportion and a love of the sculptural, he has produced elegant contemporary designs that have a wide appeal. He has also produced, to great acclaim, some experimental pieces that have been at the cutting edge of modernism.

My work uses the simplicity of line, form and function for its impact and often combines silver with other materials such as slate, glass or wood.

Howard Fenn

Howard Fenn was born in 1953 at Conisbrough, famed for one of the Britain’s finest Norman castles with its unique cylindrical keep. The town was located in the heart of South Yorkshire’s coal mining area. His father taught motor mechanics at a local technical college, while his paternal grandfather was a self-taught watch repairer.

‘One of my earliest memories is standing on a chair in his shop working a lathe under my grandfather’s supervision.’

Howard continued, ‘I went to Northcliffe Comprehensive1 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Mr May was a fabulous art teacher who had the insight to allow me to explore.’

Howard made ‘big pots in clay’, including a concrete sculpture measuring 0.7sq m (8 sq ft), which unfortunately collapsed, and he was allowed to experiment with wood carving during lunch periods. ‘It was an enterprising establishment. I was Head Boy, which was no big deal, but because of this I was given the opportunity after O-levels to go to Dartington Hall School.2 My parents asked if it was what I wanted and I said “yes”.’ Its then headmaster, Royston Lambert, decided to bring life to the school by giving scholarships to students from different backgrounds. Howard and Joy, the Head Girl at Northcliffe, were the first two students under the scheme.

This was clearly a life-changing period of Howard’s life.

‘Dartington was magical’, he enthused. ‘The art room was open 24 hours a day and there was a woodworking

1. Now Northcliffe School, Conisbrough, which is located mid-way between Doncaster and Rotherham.

2. Dartington Hall School was a coeducational boarding school founded in 1926 that offered a progressive education. It was based on a 1,200-acre estate at Totnes in South Devon. Initially there was the minimum of formal classroom teaching, but later structure was imposed, albeit of a progressive nature. The school closed in 1987. Lucian Freud attended for two years, but apparently mainly played truant.

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shop. Academically it was a disaster. I was asked what A-levels I wanted to do. I didn’t know, so it was suggested that I did biology, economics and art, albeit that I had not done the first two at O-level. I had a great time in biology as the skill aspect of dissecting really appealed and of course executing the anatomical drawings afterwards.’ Projects were a feature of Dartington. On a regular basis, students would spend a week away to paint and draw, or to visit the London theatres. Howard was given the opportunity to spend a year at a small village in Sicily that involved carpentry and farming as well as establishing a pottery and a youth club. ‘I loved the environment, people and work’, said Howard, ‘and it’s where I grew up and decided what I wanted to do. We had to return early as the local Mafia objected to our being there and put pressure on the local government. I decided I wanted to do art, so when I got back to Dartington, I spent six months putting a portfolio together.’

Opposite: Lectern for Downing Street Courtesy The Silver Trust When Howard was approached by the Silver Trust to design this lectern for Downing Street, there were two stipulations. The first was that it had to sit over an underplate and the second was that perspex as opposed to glass had to be used for the sloping top. The arched legs are not what they initially appear as they are of triangular section, the tops having a width of 2mm and the underside 14mm, reflecting Howard’s interest in the transition of metal. The height of the lectern is adjustable and the angle of its sloping top is also variable. The Government’s gilded coat of arms is encapsulated between two sheets of perspex. This is not the only lectern Howard has made. The Fishmonger’s Company commissioned him to make one for presentation to the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Height up to 45cm. London 1997.

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other way round.’ His teachers were Ron Herman, Jack Stapley and Frank Beck.

Back at the school, Howard met Bernie, a visiting tutor who taught pottery and jewellery. ‘I just liked the sound of the word “silver” and started making small things. I was given prospectuses for three or four art colleges and discovered that there were only two possibilities if I was to get a grant:3 I had the choice of either Doncaster Art College or London’s Sir John Cass School of Art.’ 4 Given that Doncaster was on the doorstep of his home and that the college only offered a foundation course, he decided to undertake the four-year course in London as, inexplicably, the grant providers considered the first year of that to be an art foundation course. With an A-level in art, an impressive portfolio and a new interest in silver, Howard opted for the Diploma in Silversmithing, Jewellery and Allied Crafts and started the course in 1973. ‘The first year covered everything’, he explained, ‘museum drawing, metallurgy and gemmology. In the second year I had to decide between silversmithing and jewellery. Having taken advice, I opted for silversmithing as it was easier to combine jewellery with studying silver as opposed to the

3. A payment from a Local Education Authority to cover living expenses. The Authority paid tuition fees direct to the university/college/school.

4. Now The Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design of the London Metropolitan University.

5. See the chapter on Reginald Hill. He also taught Christopher Lawrence and Grant Macdonald among many others.

6. A knop is an ornamental knob. For chalices this appears on the stem.

7. This was the teapot that Alfred Ward suggest he should model in plasticine and card. The finished teapot was placed in the Sir John Cass School of Art collection.

8. Then the Company’s Assistant Director, Design & Technology.

9. A traditional Arab sailing vessel with one or more triangular sails. Much larger than the feluccas encountered on the Nile, they had 12-30 crew according to size. Models of them were popular with Middle Eastern buyers at such luxury retailers as Asprey in New Bond Street.

10. It is unlikely that he ever thought that one day he would ever use just two flints bashing silver to make two objects. This is what he did in 2001 when he joined nine other silversmiths in a field in South Oxfordshire to make silver without using traditional tools, but improvising with what was naturally available. See A Field of Silver – Silver in a Field (undated, privately published – ISBN 1 899764 259).

11. Later Howard undertook numerous teaching engagements including the Royal College of Art, London Guildhall University, West Dean College (near Chichester) and Farnham College. He was also a guest lecturer at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

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An established silversmith wields his hammer with such expertise on a piece of silver and forms a shape as if he or she was modelling with plasticine. ‘When you first work with silver it is very frightening’, Howard revealed with absolute frankness. ‘However, with experience it does become a fantastic material with which to work. I was lucky as Carla, whom I met at Dartington when I was 16 – and we have been together ever since – bought my silver when I was at the John Cass as she was working in London. In those days you had to work on certain tasks until you got it absolutely right. Ron Herman, who was trained in the trade as a box maker, was a big influence. He also looked after me, supplying either a hammer or file that he thought would be useful for a particular task. Then, of course, there was Reggie Hill5 who taught us design one day a week for the first two years before he became ill. He also gave an amazing one-hour lecture on the history of silversmithing and jewellery making from the earliest of times to the present. In those days you had to paint-up your designs and also make a technical drawing, which proved what you had designed could in fact be made. He had a wealth of knowledge.’

Above: Slate and Silver Tazza Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Slate and silver is a pleasing combination and this is one of Howard’s early examples of such a marriage. This piece was purchased at a Sotheby’s auction in May 2003. The lot comprised this tazza and a dish by Charles Boyton, a designer-silversmith working before World War II who favoured the Art Deco style.

Unfortunately such odd lot combinations are occasionally encountered at auction. The diameter of this tazza is 30.3cm, a good size for grapes served with a cheese board. London 1989.

Opposite: Tea Service, 1991 Courtesy Howard Fenn, photographer Andra Nelki This tea service was regarded as avant-garde when it was designed and made by Howard in the early 1990s. A completely speculative creation, it was conceived and crafted purely for his own satisfaction. Over two decades later, it is still probably regarded as ahead of its time. Further developing the silver and slate concept launched at his 1988 exhibition ‘30 Pieces of Silver’, here the stone is used for a practical as well as an aesthetic purpose as it insulates the sculptural handle, making the silver finger grips cool to the touch when the pot is full of hot tea. The service was admired by a couple who saw it at Goldsmiths’ Fair and bought it afterwards. It was purchased for their then unborn child, presumably as ‘an antique of the future’. Hopefully it will become a cherished heirloom for many years to come. Height of teapot 15cm. London 1991.

It was not initially all easy-going. Like many people, Howard struggled with a particular aspect until there was some ‘eureka moment’. He explained what his was.

‘I didn’t find design easy. I loved it, but … I was struggling one day designing a teapot based on a helmet that I had seen in a museum. While working on a model made with clay, Alfred Ward who was the Head of the Department walked by and said he didn’t think that was the right material and I should move to plasticine and card. I did and the design came so much easier. I saw there was a method A¶B¶C to go from a line drawing to a three-dimensional design. Alfred Ward gave me that “key” and designing came so much easier after that.’ His first commission while he was at John Cass was for a chalice and paten for the Chaplaincy of the City of London Polytechnic. This was handmade in brass and featured four knops,6 each of which was set with a religious symbol. The chalice was plated in gold and silver. He also won a Johnson Matthey prize for his silver teapot with blue acrylic insulators to the handle.7 It is very clear that Alfred Ward’s ‘key’ was paying dividends. In his final year the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths was asked by a US silversmithing company in Boston to recommend a young designer as their head designer was within sight of retirement. Chris Walton8 recommended Howard, who recalled, ‘I went to a London hotel to meet the company’s representative. He must have liked my portfolio as he offered me the job.

Unfortunately they couldn’t get me a work permit and after a three- to four-month delay he was told that a US designer had to be hired.’ This was in 1977 just before his graduation and naturally Howard was upset.

He decided to work on a friend’s farm in Dorset for a few months.

When the time was right, he went back to silversmithing. ‘I worked for John Norgate, whose workshop was a concrete garage in his back garden. I drove from Stockwell to Chessington, worked, had lunch with his kids, worked again until 6pm and then drove back. We worked on all sorts of things, models of dhows,9 moneyboxes and regimental silver. Although I was only there for six to eight months, it gave me a completely different insight – I learnt how to improvise.10 That stood me in very good stead.’ In 1979, Howard decided to set up on his own, ‘However, I had to have an objective first’, he said, ‘so I planned a one-man show to launch myself.’ His workshop was established at Rotherhithe, a little south of the Thames. As well as working on his collection, he undertook some other work to help his cashflow. This was also helped by being asked, because of illness, to help out with teaching silversmithing at evening classes at the City of London Polytechnic. ‘The students were of mixed ability and had to be carefully watched so as to avoid disasters or sorting them out when they happened. It did me a lot of good and gave me an in-depth understanding of the craft. Teaching was important to me.’ Indeed in 1981 he was teaching BA students as an associate lecturer on a part-time basis at his alma mater,11 the Sir John Cass School of Art. His launch exhibition was called, with tongue-in-cheek, ‘Thirty Pieces of Silver’. It was staged at Smiths Gallery in Covent Garden, which Howard hired for two weeks in October 1988. The collection covered a wide range of objects, but Howard specifically recalls three bowls combining silver with slate, a concept that he developed further. ‘Lots of people came to view the exhibition.

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shared a stand. We just put our names above it and displayed our respective collections. The event attracts serious connoisseurs of design. Visitors looked at the design as opposed to “a piece of silver”. It could have been chrome-

Although I only sold two to three pieces, the event gave me credibility. Over the next five years I did all the shows, probably three to five a year – ‘Loot’,12 the Chelsea Crafts Fair and trade fairs. I tell all new makers that it takes seven years to become established.’

Standing at shows, exhibiting widely in the UK and Europe as well as selling through galleries, Howard has built-up a loyal clientele. On one occasion, someone bought every piece that he did not sell at Chelsea and had a cabinet custom-made in which to display them. He has also built up a reputation with collectors, design critics and fellow silversmiths with his experimental pieces. Here his interest in pushing the common boundaries between ‘craft’ and ‘art’ come into play. This is well demonstrated by the tea service he made speculatively in 1991 which features in Sotheby’s Concise Encyclopaedia of Silver13 and was displayed at the Company’s ‘British Goldsmiths Today’ exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall the following year. But even when he is clearly practising his craft, his pieces can have an almost sculptural quality. His work is beautifully proportioned with clear bold lines. His silver range embraces objects from wooden hairbrushes inlaid with silver to corkscrews (combining wood and silver) that are designed to appeal to modernists and traditionalists alike.

By the early 1990s the workshop was becoming somewhat cramped and Alfred Pain,14 who came to share the Rotherhithe workshop with Howard in 1982, proposed a move. Peter Layton, the glassblower, had moved from Rotherhithe to a workshop in what had been the old Bermondsey Leather Market a stone’s throw from Tower Bridge. In 1994 Howard and Alfred moved into a spacious workshop in the same building. ‘It was quite a wrench leaving the old workshop, but as time went on I was finding it too cramped and too limiting. Part of the pleasure when commissioning a piece from a craftsman is being able to visit the workshop and see samples of work and to watch how they are made. At the Leather Market premises could 214

be visited in comfort.’ In 1997 Howard had become disillusioned with teaching, feeling among other things, that class sizes were too large and it was not possible to give the individual attention that students deserved. However, this was not the end of Howard’s teaching as he explained, ‘The new workshop had enough space to give lecture demonstrations, master classes and open weekends.’ His hands-on days where first-timers spent a day in the workshop making a small piece of silver were very popular. The larger workshop also meant that students could be accommodated for work experience. ‘There’s a long list of people who came for six months or more’, Howard recalled. ‘Ane Christensen, Sidsel Dorph Jensen and Mary Ann Simmons, to name but a few.

Some came from, or went to the Royal College of Art, while others were from as far afield as Australia – they stayed a while and then went back. Passing on knowledge is important, but it was also good both ways. Both Alfred and I benefited from the young influence.’

‘Of all the shows’, Howard continued, ‘the most successful one I ever did was ‘100% Design’ 15 in 1998. Alfred and I

12. Loot, a summer selling exhibition, was part of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ programme to encourage good craftsmen. It started in 1976, with the last one being held in 1981. In 1983 it was superseded by the Goldsmiths’ Fair, which continues to be held each autumn.

13. London 1993. The service was purchased Mr & Mrs Doig and is now known as the Doig Service.

14. An architectural ironmonger by profession (i.e. a designer and maker of railings, automatic doors etc.), he decided at the age of 50 to retrain as a silversmith. He was in one of Howard’s classes.

15. The Contemporary Interior Design Exhibition – also known as 100% Design – is held annually at London’s Earls Court. It is the UK’s leading interior design and architecture event and one of the world’s most important interior contemporary design exhibitions.

16. A multi-disciplinary design firm with offices worldwide specialising in graphic design, architecture and industrial design.

17. Meccano is a model construction system comprising re-usable metal strips and plates that are connected by nuts and bolts. It was invented by Frank Hornby (of Hornby model railway fame) in 1908 and was manufactured by the UK Meccano Limited until 1980. Axles, wheels and gears etc. were also available so working models could be constructed. Its heyday was in the decades1930s50s, but a more sophisticated version is still made in France and China.

18. Indicative of friendly relations.

19. Originally the Association of British Designer Silversmiths.

Opposite above left: Candlesticks Courtesy Howard Fenn, photographer Andra Nelki The Fin Candlesticks see a return to the use of slate and a development of his interest in transition. In this case it is from a right angle in the silver adjoining the upper half of the slate to a curve that takes the arm holding the candle away from the base. This was made for an exhibition in Finland, with each participant being given a kilo of silver. Howard cut diagonally across his rectangular sheet and, following manipulation, this is the result. It sounds easy, but it not only requires considerable thought and model-making, but also skill to achieve the result. With lighted candles in position, these candlesticks, which can be arranged in a number of configurations, all looking stunning. Glass drip pans for the wax are placed on the receivers and are held in position by the candles. Height 41cm. London 2009.

Opposite above right: Wave Vase Courtesy Howard Fenn, photographer Andra Nelki The response to the question, ‘What inspired the design?’, does not always result in the response one would expect. ‘It is the development of a concept for a water jug that had a round base and a triangular top. I like doing interesting things with sides’, Howard explained. Then he added, ‘I had three days to design and make something for a show, so I took an A4 sheet of paper to see what I could do.’ He generally makes models during the creative process.

The Wave Vase with its straight-sided base and right angles going through a transition to a curved top was the result. It has proved to be a very successful design. The flowers are held in place by a spiral of wire inside the vase. Height 11cm. London 2004.

Above: Pin Box Courtesy Howard Fenn The Pin Box was commissioned by the Institute of Economic Affairs as a gift for Professor Colin Robinson. Its cover is a double layer of silver with a silicon sheet in between. In a small aperture at the centre of each of the 80 squares on the cover there is a pin that is held in place by the silicon. Of these 79 are steel and one is 18-carat gold. Was this an 80th birthday present? No, it was a retirement gift. Open the box and the underside of the cover gives a clue as to why the pins are there. It reads, An enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith 1776. Adam Smith was an economist and the Wealth of Nations was his book. This is a fundamental work in classical economics. So why the pins? Smith demonstrates the advantages of the division of labour, whereby one worker undertakes one or more tasks in making an item and then passes the unfinished object down the line of co-workers who each perform part of the making process until the piece is completed. He illustrates the advantages of the division of labour with a pin manufactory where the 18 operations required to make a pin are divided between 10 workers. In a day they produce 48,000 pins.

Smith maintains that had each of the 10 men been charged with completing all the 18 operations, the manufactory probably could not have produced 200 pins a day. The division of labour therefore results in a colossal increase in output. The box is symbolic of this principle of economics. The width of the cover is 16cm. London 2003.

plated or stainless steel as far as they were concerned.

When they realised it was silver they were even more positive.’ ‘100% Design’ also opened a new door for Howard as he was spotted by Pentagram Design.16 ‘I still do a lot of prototype work for them to see if a design proposal works.’

Howard also undertakes work for a variety of other people, ‘I make high quality fittings (hinges, doorknobs and pulls) for cabinetmakers such as Timothy Mark – including silver ones. I undertake work for Sylvia Sumira, who is a conservator specialising in antique terrestrial globes – I make any missing metal parts. Then there are the fittings in silver or chromium plate I make for Bill Amberg’s leather bags or the table sculptures I made for the Dorchester in Park Lane.’

One of the more unusual silver commissions that Howard has made is a jigsaw of the US flag and a ‘Meccano-type’ 17 kit, that when the instructions are followed forms into the sculpture of a head. More serious commissions include a table lectern in 1997 for 10 Downing Street made of silver, acrylic and 9-carat gold. Howard would have preferred glass to acrylic as the latter deteriorates over time. In 2004 the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers commissioned him to make a silver and wood lectern as an Amity18 gift to the Company. It features both companies’ coats of arms.

Given that Howard has a keen interest in extending the common ground between ‘craft’ and ‘art’, it is appropriate that he is not only a founding member of Contemporary British Silversmiths,19 but was also its first Chairman.

AVAILABILITY Howard Fenn’s work is beginning to appear on the secondary market. Commissions can be placed with him at his Camberwell workshop, to which he moved late in 2009. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact details.

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RICHARD FOX A man of numerous parts, he has turned his hand to many things, from graphic design to lift interiors – indeed, since 2004 he has worked on the ultimate of car interiors for Rolls Royce. Although he produces a full range of silver – including jewellery – he has a special reputation for trophies, ecclesiastical items and models.

It was a somewhat daunting request. I had started to get used to Bernie Ecclestone’s way of doing things, but this was particularly nerve-wracking as the trophy was to represent the very pinnacle of Formula One Racing. Fortunately my team rallied round without complaint, putting in an average of 10 hours a day, plus several 24-hour stints, working solely on this commission.

There was no question of missing the deadline – people in Formula One simply expect things to be done overnight.

Richard Fox Commenting on completing the Formula One World Championship Drivers’, Constructors’ and both World Rally Trophies in 1995, within the tight nine-week deadline.

Richard Fox was born at Wellesbourne, Warwickshire in 1954. Having completed his GCE O-levels at school – where incidentally he hated metalwork, but had a passion for woodwork – he decided to study for his A-levels at his local technical college. He chose to study maths, physics, engineering and geography and as an extra mural subject, jewellery. Being the only student to select the latter option, he had one-to-one tuition. Despite his hatred of metalwork, jewellery was very much to his liking, so he decided to apply to the Hornsey College of Art1 to study his favoured new subject. Keith Redfern had established courses of international reputation at the College for both jewellery and silversmithing. Richard was accepted for the former course, but during his tour of the College’s facilities he was shown the Department of 3-D Design and became fascinated in silversmithing. Mr Redfern advised him that if he wished to study making silver, he should return to Warwickshire and undertake an art foundation course, which he duly did at the Mid-Warwickshire College of Further Education. He started his silversmithing course at Hornsey in 1974. During his first two years he additionally studied ceramics, glass, furniture and shoe making, concentrating on silver in his final year. When he was awarded his degree in 1977, his diploma stated it was a BA Honours in jewellery because he had initially applied for the jewellery course and it did not take into account the fact that he had switched courses. He decided not to get it corrected.

1. The Hornsey College of Arts and Crafts was founded in 1882. In 1973/4 the then Hornsey College of Art became, together with other colleges, Middlesex Polytechnic. In 1992, the Polytechnic became Middlesex University.

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Although he had applied in his final year at Hornsey for the Royal College of Art, as he had concentrated on silversmithing for one year only, his portfolio was considered too small. So, he worked for the silversmith Roger Taylor for 12 months and studied silversmithing at Middlesex Polytechnic two days a week. He secured his Post-graduate Polytechnic Diploma in 1978 and that summer obtained design and research experience with Tourdelos Engineering. With a now enlarged portfolio he had been accepted at the RCA on a Design and Development course where he studied silversmithing under Professor Gerald Benney from 1978-81. ‘It was fantastic!’, Richard exclaimed. ‘There was only a handful of people in my year and we had one-to-one tuition and benefited from an abundance of visiting tutors. There was also flexibility so you could also switch departments.’

Richard certainly took advantage of exploring other

Opposite: Formula One Abu Dhabi Trophy, 2012 Courtesy Fox Silver Limited This was the 2012 Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Trophy.

The top of its base is encircled by a garland of gilt laurel leaves to symbolise the race’s victor. Three sails arise out of a domed sea represented by blue enamel. The shape of the sails have been extracted from dhows, the traditional Arabian sailing vessels. The fronts of the sails are highly polished. While the reverse of the third is also highly polished, those of the first and the second are gilded and reflect in the front of the sail behind it. ‘The gold reflections represents the sun and sand’, Richard revealed, ‘but also symbolise how Arabs reveal certain things with an air of mystery. As the gold does not oxidise, there is also a practical aspect – it makes cleaning easier!’ Height 55cm. London 2009.

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media including woodwork. He also became interested in titanium nitride plating2 and used the technique to plate cutlery. In 1980 he undertook research and design work for Parker Pens that resulted in his designing plated nibs that could withstand the corrosive nature of ink (he believes these are still in production today). He additionally began studying the anodising3 of metals and this resulted in the RCA granting him a research award for SIP4 decorative coatings. He made coated watch dials in gold and silver. However, the Assay Office refused to hallmark the pieces on the grounds that a sample of the underlying metal could not be obtained for analysis. He was clearly ahead of his time. Gerald Benney suggested that his research may interest the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority 5 and introduced Richard to the organisation,6 his involvement lasting until 1982.

Richard’s second year at the RCA was certainly busy as he also studied how to make black steel with the gun makers Holland and Holland. Although it may have looked as if he was moving away from silversmithing, this was not the case, for in 1980 he also received a travelling scholarship from the College and journeyed to Denmark and Sweden to visit silver workshops including Georg Jensen and Gense.7 He was also a finalist in Perovetz’s Cutlery of the 80s competition.

‘I never thought I would work as a silversmith thanks to the Hunt Brothers’, Richard recalls with reference to ‘Silver Thursday’, which saw the price of silver bullion rising to over £20 a troy ounce on 18 January 1980.8 It was a worrying time for established silversmiths, let alone those thinking of becoming one. Although the price of silver fell abruptly after the bubble burst in the March of 1980, this was followed by the recession of the early 1980s.

Against this background Richard graduated from the RCA 218

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in the summer of 1981. ‘Initially I turned my hand to anything’, he recalls. ‘I made tables for printmakers and even undertook graphic work for a friend who was working in oil in Saudi Arabia.’ However, he did not abandon silver, ‘I exhibited at galleries throughout the country’, he recalls. ‘I also received help from the Company.’ Indeed, in his graduation year the Company included his work in its exhibition ‘Cutlery of the 80s’ and he exhibited at Loot, its pre Christmas selling fair. Richard had been winning prizes for his silver since his days at Hornsey, but 1981 was a particularly good year as he was highly commended in Goddards’ Silverware Awards and he won British Steel’s Melchett Award9 for his Abovo cutlery. ‘I designed this while at the RCA’, Richard explained. ‘I applied for a patent in 1981, but my attempt to go into stainless steel batch production was frustrated. I had provisional orders from several London department stores.10 Although I had

2. Titanium nitrade (TiN) is an extremely hard ceramic material that is often used as a coating on titanium alloys, steel, carbide and aluminium components to improve the metal’s surface properties. When TiN is applied as a thin coating it hardens, protecting the cutting and sliding surfaces and as it has a gold appearance, it can also be used for decorative purposes. It is also used as a nontoxic exterior for medical implants.

3. An electro-chemical process used to increase the natural oxide layer on the surface of metals. Anodising is used commercially to improve a metal’s resistance to corrosion and wear as well as providing a better adhesive surface for paint primers and even glues, compared to normal untreated metal. Anodic films can be utilised cosmetically. The process was particularly common in colouring aluminium alloy saucepan lids. This is achieved by dyeing a thick porous coating and sealing it, Alternatively a thin transparent coating will result in plays of refractive colour of the underlying metal.

4. Sputter Iron Plating 5. The Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) was established in 1945 as the main centre for atomic energy research and development in the UK. In 1954 it was incorporated into the UKAEA which was part of the Department of Trade and Industry. With the slowdown of the UK’s nuclear energy programme in the 1980s, research into nuclear energy was greatly reduced and the funding for UKAEA was under pressure. However, the Government was reluctant to disband what was a highly regarded scientific research organisation. UKAEA was transformed into a Trading Fund, which meant that it had to not only account for itself financially but it also had to generate income. It therefore provided services, such as consultancy and research, to industry on a commercial basis.

6. In 1954, during his last term as a student at the RCA, Gerald Benney purchased a plating business off Tottenham Court Road. Although he established his workshop there, he persuaded its proprietor to stay on for three years to run the plating concern. It received an order from the AERE for cadium-plated nuts and bolts for the nuclear reactor at Harwell. Gerald delivered these personally and met Sir John Cockcroft who was bemused at Gerald unloading the items destined for a piece of cutting edge technology from a vintage car. The AERE gave Gerald Benney his first major silver commission – a centrepiece.

7. Based in Sweden, it is one of Europe’s largest suppliers of cutlery.

8. The record was set in Chicago when a troy ounce topped US$50.36.

9. Julian Mond, the third Baron Melchett, was chairman of British Steel from 1967-73.

10. These totalled £40,000 and were from Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Heal’s, John Lewis and Selfridges.

raised £40K for tooling costs, I was absolutely stuck in raising a further £30K for production. The banks wouldn’t help nor would the many Sheffield cutlers that I approached. They just had their heads in the sand.’ He added poignantly, ‘They are all out of business today.’

However, silver pieces were made at London’s Elephant and Castle Workshop, with the blades being ground and tempered at the Sheffield Industrial Museum.

Although he had set-up a temporary workshop, described by Richard as ‘just a shed’, upon leaving the RCA in 1981 he established a more permanent one at the idyllic-sounding Peacock Yard, Kennington in southeast London the following year. In the same year, he was asked to be a relief tutor at Middlesex Polytechnic for a term. It was role he enjoyed and he subsequently became an associate lecturer teaching

Opposite: Abovo Vase and Cutlery Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington The cutlery is part of a seven-piece place setting for his awardwinning Abovo cutlery. Designed while he was at the Royal College of Art, despite orders from London’s leading stores for a stainless steel version, he could not find finance for the tooling, only for the production costs. However, he did make a few canteens in silver. One was made for an experimental auction of contemporary silver in the late 1980s. Having seen his portfolio, the auction house decided Abovo should be placed under the hammer. Retailing canteens at about £3,000 at the time, Richard was delighted when it sold for £5,000. The mystery of the four pieces here is where are the other 38? The vase is an experiment with press forming. Constructed from two spun forms joined by a ring, the decoration was applied with a tool he had made. Only a very few were produced and one was stolen from the British Crafts Council stand at the Javits Centre in New York. Height of the vase, 13cm. Cutlery, London 1989 and Vase, London 1996.

Above, right: Candelabrum on Black Granite Base Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This design is based on the concept of an object made up of repeating forms, the four branches of octagonal cross-section rising from a black granite base. There are no silver drip pans for the candles, but glass ones are used on the receivers and are held in place by the candles. After the Collection acquired this one, it was decided to dismantle it for cleaning. This was the simple part of the operation! Although designed to be rotated to create a variant design, the Curator could not put it back together and achieve the stunning effect that he knew was Richard’s favoured one. A quick call to the workshop and it was returned for the expert to do the job.

If that was not embarrassment enough, he enquired as to what we paid for it. The piece was offered at a provincial auction. The cataloguer had done his home work and knew the maker was Richard Fox. We had expected the piece to sell for a four figure sum, but it sold for a fraction of what we were prepared to bid. Such bargains are rare, but they do happen. Height 29.5cm. London 1983.

silversmithing to first year students two days a week.

The turning point in his fledgling business came in 1983. ‘From the RCA days we were encouraged to make links with the Company’, Richard explained, ‘and I always sent examples of my new work to both the Librarian and the Curator of the Company’s collection at Goldsmiths’ Hall.’ This was sound advice, for in 1983 he received his first commission from the Company for a pair of four-branch candelabra. Originally these were designed to be on black steel bases, but this was changed to black granite for technical reasons. The design is brilliant and has a timeless simplicity based on the concept of repeating forms. ‘As the individual four components are screwed into the base, they can be rotated to create a variant design’, Richard said, adding ‘over the years I have sold over 20 single candelabrum of this design. Each year for four years a Dutch visitor to the annual Goldsmiths’ Fair hung his nose over one of the pieces, always saying as he left “One of these days I will buy one”. On the fifth year, he actually did, which emphasised to me that it can take some people a long 219

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Monday morning to show him my portfolio and to discuss the proposed Bernie Ecclestone Trophy.11 He must have liked what he saw. Also, I was young and London based. He asked me how long would it take to get the design done. I responded that it would take a couple of weeks. He said that he was going away on Friday and that he wanted the designs by Thursday.

Naturally I agreed. He then asked me to design the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s Motor Racing Television Trophy12 as an encore. I went back to Peacock Yard and set to work. I worked like crazy and as arranged, I went to see him on the Thursday Left: Formula One Drivers’ World Championship Trophy Courtesy Fox Silver Limited This Formula One Drivers’ World Championship Trophy by Richard was first awarded in 1950, four years before he was born! ‘It was made retrospectively’, he explained. ‘Bernie Ecclestone wanted a trophy that bore the names of all the winners of the Formula One World Championships since the first one in 1950 (the winner was Giuseppe Farina). It had to last a century.’ Richard’s objective was to design something that was timeless. The domed base is surmounted by a band of enamelled lotus leaves with a checkered collar above. There is then a spiral of laurel leaves designed for each revolution to span a decade of victors’ names. The 2050 winner’s signature will appear below the enamelled globe. The trophy is surmounted by a ribbed band with checkered flags to signify speed. The first person to be awarded the trophy was Michael Schumacher in 1995. Height 52.5cm. London 1995.

time to decide on buying a piece of silver, while the purchase of an item of jewellery can be made on a whim.’

Opposite, left: Solar Candlesticks Courtesy Fox Silver Limited These candlesticks were designed for the Contemporary British Silversmiths’ ‘Fit for Purpose’. The smiths were asked to explore the function of the object they chose to design and make, both from a practical and conceptual viewpoint. Richard’s candlesticks are ‘fit to light’. ‘I wanted something pure and bold, hence the conical column’, he explained. The dished sconces are decorated with a cut-V ribbed form and gilded with pure gold. ‘They look like spirals, or flames when they reflect the light of the candle’, he added. As the sconces reminded him of the sun, he decided to name the pair the Solar Candlesticks. The exhibition was staged at the Victoria and Albert Museum. They were then being retailed at £5,000 for the pair. Height 19cm. London 2012.

The Company’s candelabra were delivered to Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1984. This proved to be a memorable year for Richard Fox. Bernie Ecclestone, the billionaire sports entrepreneur and CEO of Formula One asked the Company to recommend top silversmiths to make a motor racing trophy. Six names were put forward and it is understood that Mr Ecclestone chose that of Richard Fox at random. Richard takes up the story. ‘To this day I don’t know who the other five were.

I was asked to go round to see Mr Ecclestone on a

Opposite, right: Corono Candelabrum and Centrepiece Courtesy Fox Silver Limited This candelabrum and centrepiece, named the Corona, was designed for an exhibition to mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of Contemporary British Silversmiths. It was a condition that the design of all the exhibits should be based around the number 10.

Richard decided to have a central bowl surrounded by 10 candleholders, but as they are moveable, these can be arranged in any formation that appeals to the owner. ‘This is my favoured arrangement’, he smiled, ‘I call it a “slimming device” as access to the the chocolates is only allowed when the candles have burnt out.

Chocoholics of course can never wait!’ Diameter 25cm. London 2006.

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morning with half a dozen designs of each in sketch concept form from which to choose. By mixing and matching, the concepts were finalised and I had three months to draw up the final designs.’ At this stage, Richard’s business was a one-man band and the task was a great deal of work for an individual. The actual making of the trophies was a team effort. While Richard undertook the making of the silver, Jane Short and Alan Mudd enamelled the Ecclestone Trophy and Robert Legg undertook its engraving. The TV Trophy was enamelled by Maureen Edgar.

mine’, Richard recalled. However, having clearly impressed Bernie Ecclestone in 1984, there were also further Formula One commissions in the form of medals in gold, silver and bronze. Having established a reputation for trophies, other organisations began to commission him. The Formula One trophies were also often returned to his workshops for repair after having been bent or even dropped by over-enthusiastic recipients. One can understand a winning team in their exuberance damaging a trophy, but the TV Trophy has been significantly damaged twice!

By the mid-1980s Richard was designing and making contemporary silver for retailers such as Garrard, the Crown Jewellers in London’s Regent Street. In 1986 he became a designer and manufacturer for Bulgari producing a range of tableware embracing cutlery, candelabra and tea and coffee services. ‘I always had the prototype hallmarked in London with my maker’s mark, which Bulgari never appreciated. Thereafter the pieces always carried Bulgari’s marks as opposed to

Early in 1989, Richard decided to relinquish his associate lectureship at the Middlesex. ‘Teaching had changed. We were hit by cuts and I felt that my teaching was being compromised. The business was also taking up more of my time’, he recalled. However, later that year the

11. Awarded to the highest-scoring Formula One national sporting association.

12. Awarded to the host broadcaster (voted by all other host broadcasters) for having produced the best coverage of an event during the Formula One season.

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on an unofficial visit to the Vatican in 1992. Richard’s work was clearly appreciated at Lambeth Palace, for other commissions followed.16 At about the same time as the commission from the Archbishop, the Silver Trust approached Richard regarding cruet sets for 10 Downing Street and a total of 20 were supplied in 1991 and 1995.

During the mid-1990s commissions for motor racing had resumed at Formula One, so Richard’s business became a mix of ecclesiastical silver and racing car trophies and winners’ medals, with other interesting commissions en route, such as Serena’s model of a silver elephant for Prince Bernard of the Netherlands in 1992.

recession of the late 1980s hit the workshop particularly hard. ‘By now I was employing seven people, but we lost 80 per cent of our work when the recession took hold.’ He even lost the Bulgari contract. The situation meant that his team had to be disbanded. Richard continued, ‘In October 1989 my future wife, Serena Milton, and I had formed Milton Fox, a subsidiary partnership designing and making jewellery and corporate giftware. We also worked with architects and undertook a variety of projects ranging from designing lift interiors, tables inlaid with semi-precious stones and even beds.’ However, silver was not forgotten. Indeed, in 1990 Richard was one of the four designers that featured in the Company’s ‘Rising Stars’ exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall and it was not long before interesting commissions away from the world of motor racing were coming his way. On 14 February 1990, Richard was one of the group of silversmiths to visit Lichfield Cathedral to discuss an exciting project: a complete range of contemporary silver for a splendid medieval place of worship. Seventeen silversmiths were commissioned and Richard’s task was to design and make Bishop Hedda’s13 Chalice and Paten.

Above: Tea Service Courtesy Fox Silver Limited This three-piece tea service was commissioned by Bulgari, but was never placed into production. Richard’s objective was to create something graceful so he incorporated an undulating wave just above the base. This goes up and down five times, around the circumference of each base. The service is in the Bulgari Collection. The height of the teapot is 13.5cm. London 1998.

Although he did not know it at the time, the Lichfield commission was to open the door to another world for Richard. He recounted what transpired. ‘I delivered the finished piece to Goldsmiths’ Hall: it was the first chalice I had ever made. When I was with Rosemary Ransome Wallis14 her phone rang. It was an enquiry regarding a commission. After she had listened to the caller she said, “I have the man you want right in front of me”, and handed the phone to me. “I understand you makes chalices”, the gentleman at the other end of the phone said and explained that he was calling from Lambeth Palace15 and that His Grace The Archbishop of Canterbury wanted a chalice to give to His Holiness Pope John Paul II.’ The chalice was duly designed and made for Dr George Carey to present to His Holy Father

Opposite: Riviera Jug Courtesy Fox Silver Limited This was designed for the Contemporary British Silversmiths’ exhibition ‘Connect’ in 2007. It was so-named as entrants had to ‘make a connection’ with one of two objects, either a Tudor Crystal glass or a soup bowl designed by Joseph Conran for Wedgewood.

Richard chose the glass as it was completely at odds with his taste, as flowers were incorporated into the design. ‘I wanted to design something sculptural and minimalist. I wanted it so simple that it was untrue.’ He transposed an element of the star burst on the glass’s base into the spout with a ribbed effect. He folded a sheet of A3 paper to design the jug’s form. He uses rose, olive or tulip wood for the handle. He calls it the Riviera as the front reminds him of a bow of a ship and he imagined the jug being used for something indulgent like Pimm’s or champagne. The combination of boats and indulgence made him think of the French Riviera, hence the name.

Today he makes the jug in four sizes. This is the largest; including the handle it has a height of 26.8cm. London 2007.

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Having firmly established a reputation for trophies with Formula One, it is not surprising that throughout the 1990s other organisations approached Richard in increasing numbers with commissions for their awards.

Yes, there were those associated with other racing car events, but there were many others related to quite different fields such as a pharmaceutical company and a City law firm. Ecclesiastical commissions came in from the

States, the Far East and Africa as well as the UK. Despite this heavy schedule, Richard found the time to lecture at the RCA in 1992 and 1994. Later that year another hiccup resulted in Richard entering yet another field as he explained, ‘The presentation of the Formula One trophies towards the end of the year had to be postponed until February 1996 because of an air traffic controllers’ strike.

This meant we could not display the trophies at Autosport International at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham on 2 January 1996, so in the three weeks before Christmas we made models of racing cars to display.’ Since then, the business has made models as diverse as London’s Tower Bridge and SS Great Britain.17 By early 2005 the workshop at Peacock Yard was too small for what had become Richard Fox Associates and the rent had also risen steeply. So that summer the businesses moved to larger premises at Croydon.

Richard Fox’s work has been exhibited extensively in the UK since 1977 and from 1984 at many venues overseas.

He is proud of the fact that an example of his work is in the Company’s collection for every decade from the 1980s. He was a founder member of the Contemporary British Silversmiths18 in 1996, was its Vice-Chairman from 1996-9 and Chairman from 1999-2002. Following

his innovative work at the RCA, it is not surprising that he was one of the first silversmiths to work with Argentum, an alloy that is up to 97 per cent silver that has tarnish-resistant properties and, in Richard’s words, ‘is stronger – somewhere between sterling silver and steel’. He used this metal to make his carving fork for the Millennium Canteen. However, perhaps his most ambitious object is the Table Fountain Centrepiece19 for Downing Street, which was a joint collaboration with the British sculptor Angela Conner.

AVAILABILITY Richard Fox’s work does appear on the secondary market from time to time. Commissions may be placed direct with him. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact and website details.

13. Bishop Hedda built a wooden church on the site of what is now Lichfield Cathedral in 700AD. He is therefore regarded as the founder of the Cathedral.

14. Curator of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ collection.

15. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s London residence on the south bank of the River Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament.

16. By 2005 there were three pieces by Richard Fox in the collection at the Vatican that Archbishops of Canterbury had presented to Popes. In 1996 he made a wafer box set with a ruby as well as lapis lazuli and lined with English yew for Dr George Carey to give to Pope John II on an official visit. In 2005 he made a pectoral cross for Dr Rowan Williams, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, to present to Pope Benedict. This was commissioned on the Monday afternoon, but was needed by the Friday.

Furthermore, the Archbishop was not available to approve the design until the Wednesday. Richard started the piece before the design had been approved. Thankfully it met with Dr William’s approval. Perhaps his trickiest ecclesiastical commission was The Archbishop’s of Canterbury Award for Outstanding Service to the Anglican Community 1996. This was to be awarded to Desmond Tutu upon his retirement as Archbishop of Cape Town. Richard recalled, ‘Dr Carey said that it should not be ostentatious as Desmond Tutu had a habit of refusing gifts. So, I designed a circular box about six inches in diameter and some three inches high. It had a circle of malachite on its cover with a Canterbury Cross at its centre set with a tanzanite.

These stones were both indigenous to Africa.’ He added with a laugh, ‘The time I spent as a chorister in Warwickshire clearly brought me in tune with the church.’

17. Brunel’s steamship found in the Falkland Islands and subsequently restored at Bristol. Today it is a popular tourist attraction.

18. Originally the Association of British Designer Silversmiths.

19. When closed it resembles a silver flower bud. As with many of Angela Corner’s sculptures, it incorporates movement. Inside the petals of the bud there is a silver gilt sphere containing water. When the mechanism is set into motion, the water from the sphere is slowly released, which in turn powers a hydraulic pressure valve that very slowly opens the petals of the silver flower bud. The sculpture is set on a large round basin with undulating edges. This is where the water from the sphere trickles. At the start of the meal there is a silver flower bud set in an empty basin – at the end it has opened to reveal the sphere, and the bowl is full of water.

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BRIAN FULLER A talk on the radio in the 1950s inspired a schoolboy to become a silversmith. His dream was fulfilled and he went on to establish a workshop in central London and a shop in the home counties. His trademark was one of the rarest mammals introduced into Britain.

I have made silver pieces ranging from tea services to trays for members of the Royal Family – and for Edward Heath when he was Prime Minister – to give as gifts during their overseas visits.

It was a great honour.

Brian Fuller Brian Fuller was born at Diss, Norfolk during 1942.

Aged 14 he was studying at a college in Croydon in south London with the intention of entering the world of commerce. One day he heard a radio talk given by Reginald Hill about a silversmithing course at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts. Mr Hill combined his career as a designer of silver with teaching at the Central School. The young Brian was so enthralled by what he heard that he decided there and then that he wanted to be a silversmith. His father, recognising that his son was adamant about steering away from a career in the commercial world, arranged for Brian to be interviewed by Mr AR Emerson, Head of the Central School and his assistant Ronald Herman. The interview was successful and Brian was accepted for a place on the pre-apprenticeship course beginning in 1958. As well as being taught design by the man who had unknowingly inspired him, he received instruction in the craft from part-time lecturers who were working silversmiths in the trade, one of whom was Frank Beck of Wakely and Wheeler. Brian applied to the firm for his apprenticeship and he was indentured to Mr Beck, who was regarded as one of the finest silversmiths in the country.1 Like every ‘new boy’ of the era, the first year of Brian’s apprenticeship was partly spent undertaking the more

1. In the Goldsmiths’ Review 2004-5, Robin Buchanan-Dunlop wrote of Frank Beck in his Clerk’s Report, his ‘light tended to be hidden under the marks of the designers and workshops for whom he worked, but any true connoisseur of silver will point to certain virtuoso pieces and say just two words “Frank Beck”.’

2. See Clements, p.130, ‘…he has always had a close relationship with the craftsmen who have made his designs…’

3. Then organised by the International Vocation Training Organisation it was also known colloquially as the international apprentices’ competition. The competition was for youths aged 17 to 22 to demonstrate their excellence in skilled professions.

The IVTO is now known as the WorldSkills International and the event as The WorldSkills Competition.

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mundane tasks in the business. He found himself making tea for 70 people and ensuring the washrooms were clean as well as learning at the bench. However, as his apprenticeship progressed, not only did he become increasingly involved with making up the designs of such individuals as Gerald Benney, Eric Clements, Atholl Hill and Alex Styles, but also dealing directly with them.

He particularly recalls Eric Clements making visits to the workshop and talking to him at his bench, explaining exactly what he wanted.2 Brian clearly excelled at his chosen career, for in 1960 he attended the global competition colloquially known as the ‘Skills Olympics’ 3 in Barcelona and won 1st prize in his category for silversmithing. Four years later he attended the competition again, this time in Lisbon where he won 1st prize again in his category – the senior’s.

His apprenticeship ended in 1964 and Brian sought experience elsewhere. He served six months with Nayler Brothers before going to work for Gerald Benney for a fourmonth period. He then established his own workshop, but in 1966 he was persuaded to return to work for Gerald Benney. This was a period when the output at the Benney workshop was prolific. In 1968 Christopher Lawrence, Gerald’s right hand man, left to set-up on his own and Brian was appointed to his position as General Manager.

Opposite: Extel Trophy Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Brian designed tazzas of a similar form for retail in his shop. One of the most popular had the bowl supported by three playful dolphins. This is a trophy made for Extel when it was owned by Pearson plc in the 1990s as part of its Financial Times Division.

With a bowl supported by three bulls, it was given as an award for investment analysis. It can be unscrewed from its wooden plinth – the screw of course is silver and it is even hallmarked! Diameter of bowl 19.9cm. London 1995.

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workshop as a craftsman. Gerald Benney was always keen to employ the best. However, as the 1970s progressed, the storm clouds began to gather over the luxury trade.

Initially there was an economic malaise with double-figure inflation and industrial unrest as a result of the government capping pay rises. Then came another blow.

The ‘rough and tough’ budget of 1975 introduced a luxury category of VAT at 25 per cent. Furthermore, the rates on the Benney workshop rose from £500 to £7,000 in the space of two years. Gradually the craftsmen at Bear Lane were made redundant. When the workforce was entirely depleted Brian continued working at the premises independently together with David Coley, a polisher, and Henry Pearce, a spinner and spoon maker. In 1977, the workshop was placed on the market and was purchased by Grant Macdonald.

He enjoyed his period working with Gerald Benney and as seen in the quote at the start of this chapter, considered working on the many prestigious commissions a great honour. There was also a link to the start of Brian’s career, for he employed Frank Beck to work at the Benney

At this juncture Brian moved to Clerkenwell4 and established his own workshop. Despite the fact that Benney’s business was suffering, Brian had plans. He had married in 1974 and they were looking for premises out of town where they could combine living accommodation with a shop to sell Brian’s work. They found what they wanted at Amersham in Buckinghamshire, just 27 miles west of London. Amersham is an interesting town, which

Left, above: Satin Finish Box Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This satin finish box has its pull-off cover enamelled with black linear sections. It is typical of the quality small gifts that Brian sold from his showroom in Old Amersham during the late 1970s.

Diameter 4.9cm. London 1977.

Left: Candelabrum and Bowl Courtesy Brian Fuller Old Amersham is a very picturesque town and attracted visitors well before one of the The Crown’s bedrooms was used for a scene in the romantic 1990s comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral. This candelabrum and bowl was commissioned by a Welsh couple who would call at Brian’s shop when they visited. They wanted two pieces of silver of approximate equal value to leave to their son and daughter. Until it was passed on, they wanted to use and enjoy the pieces during their lifetimes. He proposed a candelabrum that sits in a bowl which could be filled with water on which to float flower heads. This is the result. Diameter of bowl 30.5cm. London 1980.

Opposite: Selection of Small Stock Items Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington This is a typical cross-section of small stock items Brian retailed at his shop. The wine labels, the swan box and the paper knife were extremely popular, but the model glis glis clinging to a pole proved to be a slow seller and only six were made. Length of paper-knife 14.5cm. Various dates 1978-1992.

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is divided into two distinct parts. The old town, known as Amersham or Old Amersham, has a wide High Street flanked by period property ranging from quaint cottages to more substantial residences. There is a coaching inn and an old Market Hall that looks as if it has been ‘dropped’ accidentally into the thoroughfare. In brief it is a picturesque location.5 The newer part, which is known as Amersham-on-the-Hill, came about as the Metropolitan Railway6 continued a route west of London.7 The Fullers found a property in the old town that suited their purpose. Although the site on which it was built is mentioned in the Doomsday Book, it was a timber-framed structure dating from the mid-16th century. ‘A corn supplier and iron monger had operated from the property and it needed a great deal of work doing to it’, Brian sighed. ‘The shop opened for business in 1976.’ It is a large property on the corner of Whielden Street. Its stock ranged from jewellery to silver. In addition to Brian’s work, antique and vintage pieces were sold, as well as the contemporary work of other silversmiths. The mid-70s must have been a very busy period for Brian, for in addition to making jewellery and silver for his own shop, he also exhibited at Loot in 1976 and 1977 as well as teaching at the Sir John Cass School of Art.

At Loot in 1977 Brian offered a caddy spoon at £19.50 with ‘squirrel tail dormouse’ added to the basic description in brackets. Brian disturbed a creature nesting in the loft when the restoration of the property was being undertaken, but had no idea what it was until later. ‘We had a dog and its biscuits were stored in the cellar. I went down there one day and a creature was perched on the bag having a nibble. I had no idea what it was – it looked like a cross between a squirrel and a dormouse. I found some asbestos gloves and

4. In 1965 this area of central London became part of the Borough of Islington and it gradually changed from an area of post-war decline to one that was attracting craftspeople. By the 1990s it was being gentrified with loft accommodation for young professionals from the City and the associated restaurant and bars. It is also now home for many professional businesses.

5. Amersham Old Town was used as a location for filming of Four Weddings and a Funeral. The half timbered Kings Arms served as the exterior for ‘The Lucky Boatman’ whereas the nearby Crown Hotel served as its interior. Bookings for the hotel’s mini-suite with its four-poster bed soared after the film was released.

6. In 1863, the company opened the world’s first underground railway between what is now Paddington and Farringdon.

7. When it reached Amersham in 1892, there was opposition to a railway progressing through the valley, so it used the hill above the town, then known as Amersham Common. Following extensive residential building between the wars, what became Amersham-on-the Hill grew dramatically. The Metropolitan Line, as it became, is now an integral part of the London Underground. The journey time from Amersham to Farringdon (near Clerkenwell) is around 70 minutes.

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caught it – it was a vicious little thing. I took a photograph of it and then took it up to the woods to set it free. It was identified from the photograph as a glis glis.8 I’m very fond of the little creature and very grateful to him too. From the very beginning people

BRIAN FULLER

would come to the shop looking for a souvenir of their visit to Old Amersham. It was suggested I design a spoon with a model of Amersham’s historic Market Hall as a finial – no way, it’s not the most picturesque of buildings. So I thought, what better than an article decorated with such a localised and perky little chap.’

So the glis glis was incorporated into on Brian’s range of spoons, dishes and wine labels. In 1978-9, he went a step further in his adoption of the glis glis when pieces of silver he made for retailing at the Amersham shop were stamped with an outline of the creature. Just as a carved mouse became the trademark of furniture maker Robert Thompson, the glis glis became Brian’s.9 His Clerkenwell workshop was an easy commute from Amersham. He was not making exclusively for his own shop, for being a talented craftsman, he was in demand for making-up the designs of other silversmiths as well as for students at the Royal College of Art. Brian did a fair amount of teaching over the years.10 His work won several Arts Council awards for both design and silversmithing and he undertook commissions for the Church, private and corporate clients including Glaxo, Kodak and Volvo, as well as for the City livery companies. The Worshipful Company of Scriveners commissioned him to design and make an inkstand for

presentation to HRH Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on the occasion of their wedding. The couple used it when they signed the Wedding Register at Saint Paul’s Cathedral. In 1985 he was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Fuellers, then the newest of the livery companies, to design and make its mace and four badges of office.

In 1987 Brian closed his London workshop and established another in Amersham. In October 2010 Brian Fuller retired, 53 years after he started his preapprenticeship course at the Central School.

AVAILABILITY Brian Fuller’s work appears periodically on the secondary market.

Opposite: Bonbon and Marks Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This small bonbon on a textured collet foot is typical of Brian’s small silver range in the 1980s. The underside shows a very good example of the squirrel/dormouse-like creature Brian found in the cellar of his Old Amersham property eating from the store of his dog’s biscuits. Called a glis glis, it became his trademark. This piece was purchased in 2010 for £100. Diameter of the bonbon 11.5cm. London 1988.

Above: Inkstand for Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer Courtesy Brian Fuller This is the inkstand that Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer used when they signed the register on the occasion of their wedding at St Paul’s Cathedral on 29 July 1981. Presented to the couple by the Worshipful Company of Scriveners, Brian received the commission as at the time he was teaching silversmithing to the wife of the Clerk to the Scriveners’ Company at an evening class. Mounted on a rosewood base, it has a length of 35.6cm. London 1981.

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8. The glis glis (Myoxus Glis) is also known as the ‘fat’ or ‘edible dormouse’ and by its nickname ‘seven sleeper’ as it hibernates for seven months of the year. Walter Rothschild, later Baron Rothschild, introduced it to Britain in 1902. They were kept at the Rothschild’s then country home Tring Park (now the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts) where he had a zoological museum in the grounds. Some escaped and it was not long before farmers were complaining of stores being ruined, while householders were hearing strange bumps in their homes during the night.

Their cry is ‘woolfe woolfe’ and they also make a sound like a lawnmower. They are only known in a 200 mile square triangle bounded by Beaconsfield, Aylesbury and Luton. Today they are one of Britain’s rarest introduced mammals.

9. Not every piece of Brian’s silver features a glis glis as it was only intended for pieces retailed at his Amersham shop. No doubt there were cases when it was accidentally omitted.

10. He was a visiting lecturer at the Sir John Cass School of Art for four years.

He lectured at the Hammersmith Evening Institute for four years and at the Greenwich Evening Institute for three years. He has also lectured at the Victoria and Albert Museum as well as other art colleges.

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WALLY GILBERT From an illustrious family of applied artists, his ambition was to become a sculptor like his father. Uncomfortable with the arts world of the 1960s, he instead turned to jewellery. In the 1980s he assisted the silversmith Louis Osman and eventually became a designer-silversmith in the mid-1990s. However, there is far more to Wally Gilbert than jewellery and silver.

The strength of Wally Gilbert’s approach to his work lies in the uncompromising application of effort through both design and making skills, to achieve his uniquely detailed and highly individual style. He does not allow his imagination to be fettered by the difficulties of execution.

Martyn Pugh Named Walter after his grandfather, Robert Walter (Wally) Gilbert was born at Cranleigh in Surrey during 1946. He is the third generation of an artistic family. His grandfather Walter Henry Gilbert (1871-1946) was a designer and modeller who studied at the Birmingham Municipal School of Art, which specialised in the applied arts1 with the objective of raising the level of commercial design in the country. While details of his early life are sketchy, from 1893 he taught drawing and geometry at Rugby Technical School and from 1895 possibly taught in the Harrow area.

In 1898 he became Headmaster of Bromsgrove Art School and after his appointment he founded the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts on the principles of the Arts and Crafts Movement.2 It is not clear if its establishment was already in the mind of the Art School Committee or Gilbert’s idea. The Guild was most successful, developing

1. This is the application of design and aesthetics to objects of function and everyday use.

2. A social and artistic movement of the second half of the 19th century emphasising a return to handwork, skilled craftsmanship and attention to design in the decorative arts and architecture. It was instigated by the artist and writer William Morris and was inspired by the writing of John Ruskin. It was fuelled by a widespread dissatisfaction with the quality of manufactured goods. The movement spread to Australia and North America. It flourished from around 1870 to after the First World War. 3. It soon received an international reputation for the quality of its craftsmanship in metalwork, woodcarving, plasterwork, stained glass and other art forms. WH Gilbert drifted away from the Guild in 1918 becoming employed by HH Martyn and Company Limited of Cheltenham, but he was not formally ejected from it until 1922. In 1919 the Guild became a limited company and was a profit-focussed organisation as opposed to being driven by the principles of the Arts and Crafts Movement, for example, producing ‘castone’, a cement-based mock stone.

4. The guest was Sir Aston Webb who had been charged by the Government to completely re-model the forecourt of Buckingham Palace and the Mall. The host was most likely to have been Bromsgrove’s squire Robert Windsor-Clive (Lord Windsor, later Earl of Plymouth). He was Commissioner of Works in the Conservative Government and was directly responsible for the Buckingham Palace project. According to The Bromsgrove Guild: An Illustrated History edited by Quintin Watt (Bromsgrove, 1999), Lord Windsor was an advocate of local culture and a well-known supporter of the Bromsgrove School of Art and would have been well-aware of the Bromsgrove Guild.

5. The model was actually made by the Swiss modeller Louis Weingartner with whom Gilbert collaborated from 1903 until he retired in 1930.

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into a thriving firm that survived from 1898 to 1966.3 Its most famous commission was received in 1905. Wally takes up the story of how this came about, ‘My grandfather died the year I was born and my father when I was 14, so I cannot corroborate the facts or even remember where I heard or read them. The father of one of the students my grandfather was teaching had the architect for Buckingham Palace coming to stay as a houseguest.4 My grandfather got himself invited to a dinner to meet the gentleman and when the subject of the gates for Buckingham Palace came up, my grandfather said that he could supply them. He was asked to submit a model for one of the locks, which he did.’ 5 In his design WH Gilbert incorporated playful cherubs

Opposite: Patterned Goblets Courtesy Wally Gilbert, photographed by Keith James These goblets were made speculatively, for while Wally had produced beakers, he had never made a goblet. Although the decoration on each is very different, there is a common theme: Wally likes filling a space with a pattern. Taking a simple shape and seeing what happens when it is repeated fascinates him. ‘If you keep repeating a blade of grass, you end up with a field’, he said with a smile. With the goblet on the left, he had plants in mind, but nothing specifically. ‘I like to see how hedges grow. They have a rich texture and I am intrigued by goose grass, which as children we would stick to peoples’ backs as a prank. It is so flimsy, but because it sticks to other plants, it grows straight.’ Asking whether the goblet on the right featured leaves or feathers brought the response, ‘One unit is repeated. There are a limited number of ways of doing it. Take stories. It is said that there are only five in the world – the rest are variations of the five. I have certainly seen some very strange variations of the Greek key pattern in about every culture in the world.’ He loves spending time in museums looking for inspiration. He was recently disappointed when reading a book on modern art to discover it said nothing of the past. ‘You have to look back in order to go forward’, he said. He also looks towards nature and will take his camera on walks to capture things that fascinate him but which other people may perhaps not even notice. The height of the goblets is 19cm. Birmingham 2010.

WALLY GILBERT

surrounding the lock. One of these was modelled on his infant daughter Margot, who of course was Wally’s aunt. In addition to the main gates to the Palace – which appear in all the media images of its world famous façade – the Guild were also commissioned to make the Great Gate of Canada as well as the Australian Screen for the Queen Victoria Memorial. The Guild received a Royal Warrant as ‘Metal Workers to His Majesty King Edward VII’ when the work was completed in November 1908. It was also granted a Royal Warrant by King George V in 1910.

Wally’s father was Hubert Donald MacGeoch Gilbert.

After studying at the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy, Rome and Florence, from 1930 he undertook some of the modelling work for commissions secured by his father. He was also a sculptor in his own right, his works including portrait busts of John Logie Baird and Edward Elgar.6 His principal sculptural work is the carving for the Adelphi Building, a gem of an Art Deco edifice in London’s John Adam Street. He also designed a range of wares for Denby and Ashstead Potters. Wally’s remark, ‘I come from an applied arts background’, is therefore no exaggeration. Aged nine he became a boarder at Christ’s Hospital, popularly known as The Bluecoat School. Founded in 1552 in London, it moved to outside Horsham in West Sussex in 1902. Steeped in tradition, even today scholars wear a Tudor uniform comprising a long blue coat, knee breeches and yellow socks (‘to keep vermin at bay’ Wally commented). He refers to it as ‘a very strange school’, where he had an ‘out of the world experience for 10 years, but it was OK for all that. I found refuge in the art department’, he revealed. ‘It was the place for someone not interested in the academic or sporting side of the school. The art mistress was Nell Todd. She kept chickens in the art room and her flat was just off it. I remember when she was ill on one occasion, she conducted the lesson from her bed. There was no formal creativity but she taught me a different way of leading your life. I drew and painted, but I was pretty clueless. I just wanted to do it. I wanted to be a sculptor like my father. I modelled in clay, but I didn’t display a great deal of ability. Again, I just wanted to do it. I was a complete “head in the clouds” kid.’

In 1964 he went to the West Sussex School of Art and Design where he ‘drew and drew’. Still determined to be a sculptor he went on to study at the Chelsea School of Art where George Fullard, one of the most inventive post-war British sculptors, was Head of Sculpture. ‘I couldn’t understand what it was all about’, Wally 232

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admitted. ‘I had gone from the 16th-century atmosphere of Christ’s Hospital to King’s Road in the 1960s – from Michelangelo to George Fullard. I had a conflict between my decorative arts background and the art world of the sixties. I just could not understand what was going on.

At Chelsea I drew, but I did no sculpture. I was offered a sabbatical, but I just left after 18 months.’ Although he drifted into a mix of mundane jobs, he wanted to make items for sale. His first foray into the world of the selfemployed was making candles. The question ‘Why candles?’ drew the response from Wally, ‘It required minimum capital and you could make them in a bedsit.

It was also a very sixties thing.’ His candles were very tall and elegant, looking like lilies in bud. He telephoned Barbara Hulanicki, proprietor of Biba (the iconic and extremely popular London fashion store then located at Kensington Church Street). She turned him down. He then conceived a plan that reflected his grandfather’s determination to get a commission. Having made candles in the Biba colours of dark cream, blackish brown, dark prune, rust and blueberry, he placed them in a hastily painted box and delivered it as a messenger to the buyer at Biba with the message, ‘I will be back in two hours for a reply.’ The ploy worked and an order was placed for 60 special cream candles that Barbara Hulanicki wanted for a party. She decided to burn one at her desk. Wally continued, ‘I received a telephone call to say that not only had this reduced its height from about 14in. [35cm] to zero in a few minutes, but it had flooded the papers on her desk with wax which had run off on to her dog which was asleep on the floor beneath the desk.

Astonishingly, after some garbled explanation from me about draughts, she not only didn’t cancel the order but proceeded to order on a regular basis.’

In the 1970s, Wally turned his attention to jewellery, again on the basis that it was something that one could do in a bedsit and that it was relatively inexpensive to get started. Initially he made one-of-a-kind cast pieces. In 1975, his girlfriend suggested that he should ‘get himself a proper job’ so he applied to the Inner London Education Authority to teach jewellery. He was teaching three days a week from 10am through to 9pm at places like the Stanhope, Marylebone and Highbury and Islington Institutes. ‘I learnt a lot about making jewellery from the people I was actually teaching’, Wally mused. ‘In those

6. In the National Portrait Gallery, London and The Guildhall, Worcester, respectively.

Above: Large Fruit Bowl Courtesy Wally Gilbert, photographer Keith James This bowl was commissioned by a lady who wanted an heirloom for her son. It had to be large and practical. Wally suggested a wooden bowl, which would be ideal for fruit, with silver decoration. The burr oak from which it is made took a year to dry out. The bowl is the work of the master turner John Key. Wally’s decoration for the chased silver was inspired by the Australian bush. ‘I was working on a conservation project and during my lunch break would watch a snake. As the pool in which it swam became smaller as it dried out, he eventually caught a fish. It was really far too big for him to swallow. However, he writhed in the midday sun determined to eat it. The bowl’s decoration was inspired by the writhing snake and the sun. Diameter 53cm. Birmingham 2011.

days you could make your way by fumbling and bumbling your way around and get somewhere. There was always a nice mix of people, professionals, including the architect for the Barbican and housewives who had been attending classes for 10-15 years. I set my first stone in a class. An elderly lady with shaky hands asked me how you set a stone. I turned it around and asked how she had been taught in the past. She explained how you started by wrapping wire around the stone and I did it for her. So, effectively she taught me. It was all about keeping ahead of the game. It was a great life experience.’

Right: Tazza, 2008 Courtesy Wally Gilbert For several years a gentleman visited Wally’s stand at Goldsmiths’ Fair, but did not make a purchase. Nevertheless, on each occasion he admired the work, chatted at length with Wally and expressed his intention of making an acquisition. During the fourth year he admired some tazzas and said he wanted Wally to make a larger one for him. A general discussion ensued. He got out his cheque book and stipulated a delivery date. ‘I often find people want something made specially for them’, Wally commented. ‘I had got to know the gentleman over time and developed an understanding of him. The relationship between a commissioning client and a silversmith is a partnership. If I don’t have a rapport with the client, I just could not make something for them.’ The bowl of the tazza is chased on both sides. Diameter 24cm. Birmingham 2008.

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In the early 1980s Wally went on a cold call visit to New York. He met Barbara Rockefeller who had recently opened Barbara Rockeller Jewelry, which sponsored the creation of American craft jewellery.

More significantly he met Robert Lee Morris, the jewellery designer and sculptor.

Robert Lee Morris’s Artwear gallery had a shop window like a clothing store. There were no cabinets, the pieces either being displayed on body casts or scattered on furniture. It made Wally see jewellery in a completely different way. Wally’s jewels feature in many public collections in the UK and the USA, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Museum of Art and Design in New York.

The fact of the matter is that Wally had an intuitive flair for both designing and making jewellery. ‘I think of jewellery both as a vehicle for expression as an “artist” and as an adornment that only truly comes to life when worn.’ He felt a need to find out more about metal and to make something finer. Inspired by embroidery, he started weaving metal, initially brass wire and then silver. He read about granulation, which is the process of decorating a metal surface with tiny spherical grains of metal that had been used in ancient times, but its used died out in about 1000 AD. Attempts to revive granulation in more recent times failed until HP Littledale patented colloid hard-soldering in 1933.7 Wally has developed a similar technique fusing woven wire first to itself and later to the surfaces of sheet metal8 without using solder. ‘This magically transformed my work. It opened the door to a very different kind of jewellery. It was my one good idea’, he said with a smile. His timing could not have been better, for from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s the exciting international movement known as The New Jewellery was at its height. Indeed, 1975-87 is regarded as the most significant period of fevered global activity for jewellery during the 20th century.9 In 1978 Wally had his first one-man exhibition at Barbara Cartlidge’s cutting edge Electrum Gallery, which was entirely devoted to contemporary jewellery, in London’s South Molton Street.

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In 1978 Wally had moved from London to establish his studio in rural Herefordshire, teaching three days a week at Hereford College of Art and Design. His introduction to silver came in 1982 because Louis Osman moved to Byford Court (see the chapter on Louis Osman) and required some assistance.

Above: Wine Cooler Courtesy Wally Gilbert Wally loves entering design competitions. When one of the trade federations held a competition for a pair of wine coolers, Wally was moved to action. ‘I dashed off a drawing before going to the States. It featured winged figures, or fish angels, which were an obsession of mine at the time. I won, probably by default, as the other entries were ice buckets as opposed to wine coolers’, he said with selfdeprecating modesty. In the early 1960s he wanted to be a sculptor, but gave up his studies without making a single sculpture. However, he never lost the interest and in the mid-1990s he made wall sculptures as a decorative feature for one of his jewellery exhibitions.

The year before these were made he undertook a residency at a foundry in the US. Cast in bronze, each of the four figures have different facial expressions. The ones on the sister cooler have been patinated green. The theme of the repoussé and chased pattern to the body is a flowing movement. Height 23cm. Birmingham 2009.

Opposite: Paper-knives Courtesy Wally Gilbert At the time Wally was designing these paper-knives, he was thinking of nautilus shells and the creatures in them that swim.

The shells were made in two halves and then soldered together.

The blades have repoussé decoration on both sides as well as silver wire soldered to both surfaces. Wally sees this piece as an extension of the Rabinovitch fish-slice that has wires applied to just one side. Length 18cm. Birmingham 1999.

Knowing that Wally lived locally, he was recommended by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Wally gave up teaching one day a week at the college to work two days a week with Louis. ‘I learnt a great deal, a certain amount about silversmithing, but a lot about people. He was a larger than life character, though he could be very frustrating as he may decide to spend a day propping up an apple tree as opposed to working on commissions. Louis Osman did not influence me, but he did have a big effect on me in an indefinable way’, Wally revealed. However, there was one task that Wally refused to undertake – the mercury gilding10 of beakers. Louis believed that one could cure mercury poisoning by eating garlic. Certainly the herb is recognised as being capable of eliminating mercury from the body, but few would regard it as an antidote. Wally returned the next day to discover that Louis had undertaken the task, but as a precaution had used his wife’s hoover to disperse the fumes through an open window.

Unfortunately the heat used in the process melted the plastic parts of the machine. ‘I don’t know what pleased me more – avoiding the possibility of poisoning, or escaping the wrath of Mrs Dilys Osman’, he commented. Wally was one of the silversmiths who worked on the Victoria and Albert Museum lectern, but left before it was completed.

After his spell with Louis, he left the Hereford College of Art (where he was not happy) and started teaching general art and design at the nearby Royal National Institute for the Blind. Strangely, he did not add silver to his repertoire

7. With normal hard-soldering the solder flooded and the flux boiled-up and displaced the small spherical grains (flux is applied to the surfaces being joined and is used to encourage the flow of solder and to exclude air from the surface of the heated metal so as to prevent oxidisation, which would result in an unsatisfactory job). Littledale’s patent is based on the fact that both gold and silver melt at lower temperatures when placed immediately next to copper.

Ground-up copper salt mixed with glue is placed on the surfaces to be joined and is heated to the point where the precious metal and copper combination melt and fuse the granule to the body, by which time the glue has vaporised.

8. He applies a very thin coat of copper sulphate to the wire. When heated with a reducing flame, the alloy fuses to the sheet metal at every join and holds together. This is an over-simplistic explanation for a process that requires both skill and time.

9. See Designing Britain 1945-1975, the University of Brighton Design Archive at http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/learning/designingbritain/index.html 10. This is a perilous process of gold-plating. An amalgam of mercury and gold is applied to the object to be plated. It is then exposed to heat to vaporize the mercury, the object being left with a thin layer of gold. The risk is mercury poisoning, which can be fatal. The expression ‘mad as a hatter’ originated in the early 19th century as mercury poisoning was a hazard for hatters who used mercury salts in the making of felt hats.

11. Contemporary Silver: commissioning, designing collecting by Benton Seymour Rabinovitch and Helen Clifford (London 2000).

when working in his studio but continued designing and making jewellery. Indeed, his work was exhibited at the V&A in 1987 and at Robert Lee Moriss’ Artwear in 1989. In the same year he designed and made production jewellery for mail order and retail, but it was not a project to his liking. In early 1992 Wally met Benton Seymour Rabinovitch at an exhibition of Wally’s jewellery at Electrum Gallery. At the time Mr Rabinovitch was forming his collection of contemporary fish slices11 and being impressed with Wally’s innovative techniques with jewellery, commissioned him to make a slice. The piece, which was delivered the following year, has a pierced paddle-shaped blade with an integral rolled handle to which heavy longitudinal wires and lighter binding wire have been applied. The breadth of Wally’s interests was demonstrated in 1994 with ‘Shadows’, a series of one-man exhibitions held at various locations including the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Clearly influenced by Robert Lee Morris, Wally made sculptures for the walls as well as for the cabinets upon which his jewellery was draped. The exhibitions also included drawings by Wally, but no silver.

By the mid-1990s Wally was turning his attention to making silver objects. Indeed, in 1996 he attended the inaugural meeting of the Association of British Designer Silversmiths, chaired by Howard Fenn, and asked if he could participate ‘although I am not a silversmith’.

Within a relatively short space of time, it was difficult to envisage a time when Wally was not a leading player in the world of silver. His designs have an instantly recognisable decorative style that reminds many people of the Arts and Crafts metalwork that was produced in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. However, they are certainly not reproductions and they have a very contemporary feel. Wally explains the similarity with the comment, ‘Developments in design are cyclical rather than progressive.’ Using fine silver wire and chasing he builds up layer upon layer of a detailed surface. Colour may be added in the form of cabochon stones such as moonstones, citrines or garnets, gilding, fused gold or enamel. Because of its decorative surfaces, Wally’s creations do not show fingerprints when touched.

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WALLY GILBERT

bronze at the Stratton’s foundry. It will therefore be appreciated that Wally’s oeuvre extends way beyond jewellery and silver. Interestingly it was not his grandfather’s involvement with the Buckingham Palace gates and railings that triggered his interest in ironwork, but seeing Victorian ironwork in an unfamiliar setting in the New South Wales sunshine. Wally has designed railings, gates, balconies and a spiral staircase in ironwork. In 2007 he designed and made the panels in cast aluminium for the parapets of the new road bridge over the Grand Union Canal in Northampton.

entirely new fields. For example, in 2004 he undertook an Arts in Industry residency at John Michael Kohler Iron Foundry in Kohler, Wisconsin Arts Center, USA12 where he gained experience casting iron; in 2007 printmaking was his focus during a residency at Hereford College of Art. In the same year he was awarded a Wingate Scholarship,13 which he used in 2007-8 towards a three-month hands-on experience at the Philadelphia foundry of his friends Julia and Shane Stratton modelling and ceramic shell bronze casting. Towards the end of 2008 he also used the Wingate Scholarship for second residency at the Kohler Iron Foundry, Wisconsin, USA where he created sculptures in ductile iron that have movable limbs. These he later cast in

Wally describes himself as ‘a silversmith and artist, whose work takes [him] into a number of different fields, exploring ideas where they lead [him]’. He lives and breathes applied art, it being an integral part of his life. His passion is browsing in museums, his favourites in London being the British and the Victoria and Albert Museums as well as the Wallace Collection. He describes these visits as ‘sightseeing – marvelling’ adding, ‘I do a lot of experimenting. I am always trying to do something new.’ To Wally this also embraces 236

12. A not-for-profit art museum located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

13. Wingate Scholarships are awarded to outstanding individuals of great potential or proven excellence who need financial support to undertake creative or original work of intellectual, scientific, artistic, social or environmental value and to musicians for advanced training.

14. Margo Grant Walsh is a prominent international interior designer based in the US who has a penchant for 20th century metalwork, especially silver.

Collecting by Design – Silver and Metalwork of the Twentieth Century from the Margo Grant Walsh Collection by Timothy A O’Brien with Margo Grant Walsh was published by Yale in 2008.

15. Now known as the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, it is run at Ascot in late July each year. This is the UK’s most prestigious flat race open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run over 1 mile and 4 furlongs (2414 metres). It was first run in 1951 as the Festival of Britain King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The words ‘Festival of Britain’ were removed the following year.

The diamond company De Beers sponsored the race from 1972 through to 2006, and from 1975 until 2006 the word ‘Diamond’ was included in its title.

16. Held each autumn by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

17. Normally held in early June each year. See www.britishsilverweek.co.uk for details.

Opposite, left: Enamelled Vase Courtesy Wally Gilbert This vase was a result of Wally wanting to experiment with enamel. He has developed his own style as his object was to replicate a watercolour painting where areas of the white paper are left unpainted. The style would not work on a flat silver surface, but it is very effective, with pieces featuring a three-dimensional pattern achieved by chasing or repoussé work. The core inspiration for this piece is flow. ‘It is a challenge to keep a surface pattern flowing so that it never comes to a halt. I try to understand movement and frequently photograph water’, Wally revealed. The pattern completed, he fused silver wire between the raised parts of the design and fused gold to some of the raised surfaces. The gold accentuates the flow of the pattern. He then placed coloured powdered glass either side of the wire without ‘packing’ it and fired the piece. The result is the channels being ‘flooded’ with enamel, while the ‘high ground’ remains untouched. The effect simulates water flowing through the piece. Height 18cm. Birmingham 2004.

Opposite, right: Beaker, 2005 Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett It is not surprising that when Margo Grant Walsh exhibited her collection of 20th-century silver and metalwork at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston she chose one of Wally Gilbert’s beakers for the front cover of the catalogue of Collecting by Design as although small, they are stunning. Given that her collection is international as opposed to just British, its selection is an even greater accolade.

Wally has developed a technique of fusing woven wire to the surface of sheet metal. ‘This had a magical transformation to my work’, he says. One cannot disagree. The addition of cabochon stones, in this case peridots, and a richness is added. The overall effect is a contemporary Arts and Crafts style. Height 5.5cm. London 2005.

Above, right: Trophy for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes Courtesy Wall Gilbert, photographer Paul Hartley This trophy for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes was Wally’s first large commission. He initially decided to make it using Argentium sterling silver, which has a small amount of metalloid germanium to replace a tiny part of the copper alloy. This makes the silver highly tarnish-resistant. Unfortunately it cracked when he was undertaking the repoussé decoration, so he reverted to standard sterling silver, making the dish in ‘pie segments’ and riveting it together. His flowing design, which is set with 1,000 diamonds in white gold, has been interpreted as horses’ manes, though this was not in Wally’s mind while undertaking the work. His objective was to create a continuous flowing decoration. Diameter 50cm. Birmingham 2000.

Wally Gilbert, artist, jeweller, silversmith, sculptor, ironworker and printmaker is certainly a man of many talents.

However, he is passionate about silver. ‘I think silver is the most beautiful and sensuous of metals. Gold is OK for colour, but silver is a clever metal’, he says. Perhaps his most popular pieces are his beakers featuring applied wire and set with semi precious stones. A pleasure to hold, they are also striking to the eye. Indeed, when the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston published the catalogue for ‘Collecting by Design’, an exhibition of 20th-century silver and metalwork from the Margo Grant Walsh Collection,14 the cover featured one of Wally’s beakers. Seven years after Wally made his first piece of silver – the Rabinovitch fish slice – he was commissioned to make the trophies for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.15 Primarily Wally works to commission, but variations on existing designs are frequently made. ‘I enjoy working to commission because the partnership with the client offers the opportunity to explore new directions and to push the boundaries of my work further and harder.’

AVAILABILITY As far as we are aware, Wally Gilbert’s silver has not yet appeared on the secondary market. Items are offered for retail via Goldsmiths’ Fair,16 occasionally by galleries and participants in British Silver Week.17 Items may also be commissioned direct – see Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact and website details.

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ROBERT GOODDEN Robert Goodden was an architect who became a designer and champion of the Royal College of Art, where he was Professor of the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery from 1948-74 and Pro-Rector from 1967-74. During his tenure an array of stars emerged from the School in the form of brilliant silversmiths and jewellers. Goodden died in 2002.

Robert Goodden’s qualities as teacher are vouched for by any early generation of his students that included Robert Welch, Gerald Benney and my husband David Mellor. Later silversmiths to emanate from that department were Keith Tyssen and Keith Redfern, Michael Rowe and Malcolm Appleby, Michael Lloyd, Robert Marsden and Alistair McCallum. Among the jewellers were John Donald, Jacqueline Mina, Anne Marie Shillito and Eric Spiller. There is hardly a metalworker in the country not touched at some point by the Goodden influence.

Fiona MacCarthy

Robert Yorke Goodden was born at Over Compton, Dorset in 1909. He was proud of his ancestors who had acquired the manor of Over Compton in 1736. Gooddens had lived at Compton House, which dated back to the mid-15th century, for generations. His namesake cousin of butterfly fame, took over the house in 1976 and sold it on eBay in 2004. A property developer acquired it and the home that had been graced by a splendid collection of porcelain that a 19th-century Robert Goodden had looted from the Imperial Palace at Peking had changed forever. Our Robert Goodden played an important role in the resurgence of design in Britain after World War II and therefore certainly played a part in the renaissance that British silver has been quietly enjoying over the decades.

Goodden presided over a hotbed of excitement and it is partly thanks to him that Britain is now recognised as a world centre of excellence for designer-makers of silver.

However, it was not a path that the young Robert Goodden had decided upon. After Harrow, his wish was to become a painter, but he was persuaded that architecture would provide him with a steadier income. Goodden took the advice and continued his education at the Architectural Association. In his final year there he won a competition to design a trophy for the Architects’ Golf Society. No material written about Goodden has explored the catalyst that steered the young man who wanted to be a painter towards silver. The key could possibly be his

1. See the Leslie Durbin chapter, p.189, for an account of the making of this sword that certainly attracted the public’s interest prior to its presentation by Sir Winston Churchill to Marshall Stalin at the Tehran Conference in 1943.

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uncle. This was RMY Gleadowe, who was Slade Professor of Art at Oxford University and then later Art Master at Winchester College. Gleadowe had a passion for silver. There are examples of the pieces he desgned in the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ collection, his most famous being the Sword of Honour for Stalingrad1 that was the gift from HM King George VI to the Citizens of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) to commemorate their heroic stand in the defence of their city during World War II.

Above: Goodden’s Signature Robert Goodden never registered a maker’s mark. However, most pieces he designed bear RY Goodden engraved as above. They also bear the maker’s mark of the maker or silversmithing company that made the piece(s).

Opposite: Silver for Washington Cathedral Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company In 1939 The Goldsmiths’ Company exhibited antique and modern silver at New York’s World Fair. Upon the outbreak of World War II, it was decided that it would be safer for the items to remain in the United States until the hostilities had ended. In 1950 the Goldsmiths’ Company asked King George VI if he would accept a pair of candlesticks and a cross for presentation to Washington National Cathedral in the United States to commemorate AngloAmerican friendship during the war. His Majesty agreed, saying in his reply that he liked the work of RMY Gleadowe who in 1937 designed the altar silver that the King subsequently presented to the Savoy Chapel. As Gleadowe had died, it was decided to give the commission to his nephew Robert Goodden, who based the design on his uncle’s cross and candlesticks that His Majesty had liked.

The altar silver was subsequently presented to the Cathedral by HM Queen Elizabeth II upon her visit to Washington. London 1952.

ROBERT GOODDEN

ROBERT GOODDEN

design a pavilion dedicated, ‘to the British character and tradition’. Not surprisingly, Goodden felt that the title should be changed. He chose the Lion and the Unicorn.

However, before the Festival of Britain in 1951, there was an event that changed the course of Goodden’s life that possibly had an impact on the direction of British silver.

The government had signalled the importance of design by financing the CoID in 1944. In the introduction to the catalogue of ‘Britain Can Make It’, the first design exhibition after the war, Robin Darwin wrote, ‘The person who designs a refrigerator or a sewing-machine may be quite a different sort of person from the designer of, say, a wallpaper, and he will need a different training.’ The higher echelons of the British establishment had clearly been looking at the role of the RCA in achieving improvements in design. In 1948 a new emphasis was placed on the College’s teaching of product design and on the provision of highly specialised, professional instruction. New courses were introduced, including graphic design, industrial design and fashion. Furthermore, Robin Darwin was appointed Rector of the RCA. This resulted in several other new With hindsight the advice to become an architect was far from sound as commissions were in short supply.

Nevertheless, Robert Goodden entered private practice in the early 1930s. As he was not fully occupied he began to explore his growing interest in industrial design. In 1934 he established Asterisk Wallpapers. Goodden designed and also oversaw the printing of the range in the spirit of William Morris. The venture did not last long and the art historian Nikolaus Pevsner, a German émigré who had recently arrived in London and was managing Gordon Russell’s shop in Wigmore Street,2 purchased the unsold stock in its entirety. A more successful venture for Goodden was designing mass-produced pressed domestic glassware for Chance Brothers. The relationship with the company continued until 1948. During World War II he worked for the Royal Navy’s Camouflage Directorate that quite by chance brought a group of like-minded individuals together. There was the architect Hugh Casson; the painter Robin Darwin, later to become Rector of the Royal College of Art; the graphic designer Richard Guyatt; the fashion designer Janey Ironside; her husband the painter and later coin designer Christopher Ironside; the architect David Pye, who subsequently became Professor of Furniture Design at the RCA; and the architect and subsequent furniture designer Richard Russell. While their effort in designing patterns of deception was questionable, one thing is not: the group bonded.

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The hostilities over, Goodden went back into private architectural practice, forming a partnership with his friend Richard Russell. The Council of Industrial Design was established with government finance in 1944 to both promote the improvement of the designs produced by British industry and to stimulate the public’s demand for products that were better designed. In 1946 the CoID organised the ‘Britain Can Make It’ exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of its remit. Goodden was part of the team headed by designer James Gardner, best known for his exhibition work, and the architect Basil Spence. The exhibition was far more successful than had been expected. Goodden came to the public’s attention for the display of the exhibits in the Leisure and Sports section. It included a surreal montage of the British sporting instinct. The exhibition was premature in view of the post-war shortages. Despite the economic crisis of 1947, it was decided to hold a Festival of Britain in 1951 to commemorate the Great Exhibition of 1851, ‘as Britain needed a lift’. Hugh Casson, appointed Director of Architecture for the exhibition, invited Goodden and Russell to

2. Gordon Russell 1892-1982, was a well-known 20th-century furniture designer.

He founded a firm in Broadway, Worcestershire. He played a major role in the Festival of Britain in 1951 and subsequently became Chairman of the Design Council which promoted British industry and design internationally. The Gordon Russell Museum is located at Broadway.

Opposite: Banquet at the Mansion House Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company When the Queen and Prince Phillip returned from their six-month Royal Commonwealth Tour of 1953-4, they were invited by the Lord Mayor of London for a luncheon at Mansion House. The Goldsmiths’ Company asked the artist Terence Cuneo to record the event. The resulting oil painting now hangs in the Court Luncheon Room at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Her Majesty is shown drinking from the Queen’s Cup designed by Robert Goodden. On the table in front of her is the 1554 standing cup originally owned by Sir Martin Bowes, a goldsmith and politician and a former Prime Warden of the Company. He was also butler to Queen Elizabeth I at her Coronation and it is therefore possible that she drank from his cup at the Coronation Banquet. In 1561 he gave the standing cup, now known as the Bowes Cup, to the Company. It inspired the commissioning of the Queen’s Cup to mark the second Elizabeth’s Coronation 395 years later.

Right: The Queen’s Cup Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company The Queen’s Cup was the most important acquisition the Goldsmiths’ Company made in the immediate post-war period.

One of its treasured possessions is a 1554 silver-gilt standing cup from which, it is claimed, Queen Elizabeth I drank and toasted the Company at her Coronation Banquet. With the accession of HM Queen Elizabeth II, the Company decided to commission a standing cup to commemorate her Coronation in 1953. A competition was held and Robert Goodden’s design was approved

by Her Majesty. It was made by Frank Beck of Wakely and Wheeler. Height 45.7cm. London 1953.

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appointments. Darwin offered Goodden the Department of Wood, Metal and Plastics but he opted for the Department of Silver and Glass, later to become the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery. Richard Russell took the post Goodden had declined. Robert Goodden gave his inaugural lecture in 1950. It was entitled ‘The Golden Opportunity’ as he saw the post-war era as one where there was the opportunity for the silver industry to combine fine craftsmanship with excellence in design.

The lecture is printed in full in The Anatomy of Design published by the RCA the following year. It certainly captured the atmosphere at the RCA in those post-war days. After a timely interval Robin Darwin steered the College away from the government’s view that the only purpose of good design was to help Britain secure its way out of austerity by making products that would appeal to an international audience and consequently increase exports. To achieve this end, the Ministry of Education wanted the emphasis of the teaching to be directed towards, ‘the training of the industrial designer’. While Darwin initially appeared to go along with this, he was of the view that the RCA had to teach design in an art environment and art in a design environment. In other words, the fine arts were an essential adjunct to studies in design. Certainly the fine arts grew in strength. This extract from Goodden’s lecture captures that sentiment: In talking of design, it has been the practice in recent years sedulously to avoid this uncompromising word ‘art’, this well-known irritant, and to try to catch the industrialist napping by whispering repeatedly that good design is good business, or that design is a kind of immorality unaccountably overlooked by Parliament, or something of the sort. A much more forthright description of good design is that it is design in the creation of which true art has played a part. Following this train of thought I have found (belatedly, you will think) that the name of the Royal College of Art was by no means carelessly decided.

The Festival of Britain opened on 3 May 1951. Although events were held at various locations, the principal exhibition was on London’s South Bank. Over five months nearly 8.5 million visitors visited the South Bank. The Lion and the Unicorn Pavilion in Goodden’s words, was centred on the ‘twin symbols of the Briton’s character – as a Lion I give him solidity and strength, with the Unicorn he lets himself go.’ From the Museum

3. A studio potter, who taught part-tme at various London art colleges.

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of London Festival of Britain Archive, here is Ian Mackenzie-Kent’s view of Goodden and Russell’s work: ‘My favourite Pavilion was the Lion and the Unicorn … which set out to be an unashamed celebration of “Englishness” as it was then perceived to be. There was a touch of humour here, of a gentle Punch-like variety and more than a few hints of Popular Folk Art, coupled with an inclination toward Victoriana.’ One of its features, which Goodden designed, was an enormous white birdcage hanging from the roof. When a giant corn-dolly unicorn opened its latch, mechanical white doves were released that then flew the length of the Pavilion as a symbol of freedom. However, Robert Goodden’s most significant and lasting contribution to the Festival of Britain was designed for the Royal Pavilion. The King and Queen used it at the opening ceremony and after a somewhat chequered history, it is now in the UK’s national museum for art and design, the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is a parcel-gilt chased tea service that Goodden designed and which was made by Leslie Durbin.

It was called by one critic, ‘the most original and important set of silver made in this country for many decades’. Victor Margrie3 described the four pieces

Opposite, upper: Chelmsford Tea Sevice Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Robert Goodden designed this four-piece tea service for the then Corporation of Chelmsford in the first half of the 1960s. It was made by Tom Boucher, the craftsman at the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery, Royal College of Art. London 1964.

Opposite, lower: Royal Pavilion Festival Tea Service Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company While one critic in 1951 thought it the most original and important piece of silver made for decades, Graham Hughes thought it ‘contrived and impractical’. The Assistance to Craftsmen Scheme Committee twice declared that it lacked artistic merit and therefore was not exempt from Purchase Tax. The fact that it was designed by the Royal College of Arts Professor of Silversmithing and Jewellery was of no consequence. No one wanted it. The arrangement between Robert Goodden and its maker Leslie Durbin is not known, but in the 1950s Durbin placed it with Payne’s of Oxford to sell for £1,250. There were no takers, so in 1961 Durbin consigned it to Christie’s and Paynes bought it for £400, a sum that the trade thought outrageously high. In 1970 Paynes sold it for a sum just into four figures. In 1976 it was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, but lacking the sugar tongs. Leslie Durbin made a replacement cast from the original moulds which he donated to the museum. When it lent the service to Paynes in 1988 for an exhibition at the Ashmolean, it was on the basis that it had to be insured for £18,000. The lost sugar tongs turned up in 1996 and were gifted to the museum. The height of the hot water jug is 25.7cm. London 1950-1.

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forming the service in his obituary of Goodden in The Independent 4 as, ‘a profoundly personal statement. Witty, anachronistic in both form and decoration, they embody a strand of British eccentricity that challenges the commonplace through the means of the past.’ However, there were also those with less enthusiasm. Graham Hughes considered it contrived and impractical. The Company’s Assistance to Craftsmen Scheme Committee did not consider that it had artistic merit, so therefore it did not have the advantage of being offered at zero Purchase Tax. Certainly an idiosyncratic service, after the Festival of Britain it was offered for sale both in the UK and USA, but without success. In 1958 Payne & Son of Oxford offered it for sale on behalf of Durbin. In 1961 Christie’s auctioned the service. The only interest was from Payne & Son who acquired it and eventually sold the service in 1970 for a modest sum. It was subsequently acquired by the V&A. Goodden directed his creative talent to a good breadth of media. Following a competition between the RCA and the Braintree silk weavers, Goodden’s design was chosen for the silk hangings to decorate Westminster Abbey during the 1953 Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II. The near 1,400 metres of cloth with its floral design was woven by Warner & Son of Braintree. In Coronation year he designed the altar set of cross and candlesticks for Downing College, Cambridge. Like the Festival of Britain tea service, the altar set was made by Leslie Durbin. He also won a prestigious competition to design a cup for the Company to commemorate the Coronation. Made by Wakely and Wheeler, it was used by the Queen at the Mansion House Coronation Banquet in 1954. Two years later Prince Philip asked him to design a silver electric kettle as a Christmas gift for the Queen. The kettle was made by Tom Boucher, the School’s Craftsman, while its base was made by Gerald Benney. His other silver commissions included designing the Sword of Honour for presentation by the Corporation of London to Field Marshall Viscount Alanbrooke of Brookeborough; the Badge of Office for the Chairman of the Royal Society of

4. 13 April 2002.

5. 26 March 2002.

6. A remark made during a conversation with Stuart Devlin, Chichester 17 May 2011.

7. Though an appointment had to be made.

8. Welch, Robert Hand & Machine – Robert Welch: Designer * Silversmith (Chipping Campden 1986).

9. An industrial designer, interior designer and architect who came to the UK from Azerbaijan in 1912 aged two years. He was a powerful international influence on designers from the 1930s. He died in 1977.

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Arts; ceremonial items including the RCA’s College Yardstick and a centrepiece and cruet set for British American Tobacco. His design work in other media included Wedgwood porcelain for Grosvenor House hotel; murals in metal foil for SS Canberra; together with Hugh Casson and HT Cadbury-Brown the RCA’s building in London’s Kensington Gore; and finally his home at Higham in Suffolk. Sadly the latter has been demolished.

In her obituary in The Guardian,5 Fiona MacCarthy described Goodden the designer as ‘both modernist and mannerist, with a great feeling for surface decoration’.

There is no disputing Goodden’s influence on the world of silver. During his inaugural address he said that if just half a dozen trained designers could be infiltrated into industry, metalworking would be transformed within five years.

However, not all students at the time were enamoured with the teaching in the RCA’s School of Silversmithing and Jewellery. The fact of the matter is that there was none.

Teaching at that time was not considered to be a function of the RCA. Professor Goodden gave his students the maximum opportunity to develop their own direction with the minimum of interference.6 In fact, it was rare for Goodden to even enter the studio, but he was always available when needed.7 Philip Popham was the School’s Senior Tutor and he had a bench in the studio. He was the link between the students and the Head of the School.

Students could consult with Popham or Tom Boucher, the School’s Craftsman, on the practical and technical aspects of making silver. Gerald Benney, who succeeded Goodden as Professor in the School wrote a personal memoir for Goodden’s obituary in the Goldsmiths’ Review 2001/2002: ‘Robert has been described as a teacher but the funny thing is that he didn’t appear to teach at all. What he did to such good effect was to encourage his students to design and make things unaided. I don’t think he ever advised a student to bend this handle one way or for the shape of a beaker or teapot to be slimmer or fatter, but we all wanted our work to match up to and be approved by Robert. I Opposite: BAT Tableware Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This condiment comprising four open salts, pepper shakers and mustard pots together with a pair of sugar casters are identical to the one commissioned by British American Tobacco (BAT) in the early 1960s. However, the centrepiece differs as the BAT example has the form of tower as opposed to a vase. The condiments and casters were acquired in 2005 and the centrepiece a year later. The pieces were made by Wakely & Wheeler but are engraved Designed R Y Goodden. Length of centrepiece 42.6cm. London 1961-2.

remember so well his often-repeated remark, having listened to a well-reasoned design argument, “I’m sure you’re right”.’

Gerald posed questions about Goodden’s period at the RCA by asking, ‘What did he do?’ and ‘What did he achieve during this period?’ These he answered with: ‘His achievements were many and are well-documented but for those of us who were there, the memory remains of a man presiding over a bush fire of excitement during that heady period of the emergence of wonderfully original design, British in character and yet international in appeal.

Robert realised, more than anyone, that if the British silver industry was to survive, it had to employ designers who had a good knowledge of engineering and who were not afraid of quantity production. In the 1940s, silver had consisted mainly of period reproduction, and stainless steel was only just emerging, so Robert’s students were sent off to the main industrial centres such as Sheffield and Birmingham to assess the possibilities.

David Mellor convinced Walker and Hall that modern design would pay and Robert Welch, at Old Hall, had a similar success. Viners of Sheffield were one of the first companies to take on stainless steel in a big way.

take part in what was beginning to be the most promising development in the silver trade and Robert Goodden made it known that the School of Silversmithing at the Royal College of Art was the place to go.’

Robert Welch described Robert Goodden8 as, ‘a most sensitive and helpful teacher’, he added, ‘His philosophy was to leave his students pretty much alone on a day-today basis, so that varying talents worked and reacted on each other, and together they simmered in a gentle stew with only an occasional stir from the Professor, aided by a number of firm directions that he had established.’

The ‘directions’ included work experience.

Professor Robert Goodden was Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths for 1976-7. It was appropriate, having designed the Queen’s Cup for the Company to mark the Queen’s Coronation, that his period of office should coincide with Her Majesty’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. In 2000 he was awarded the Sir Misha Black9 Medal for Distinguished Service to Design Education.

AVAILABILITY Silver designed by Robert Goodden only very rarely appears on the secondary market.

Several students from provincial art schools wanted to 245

ANTHONY HAWKSLEY In the late 1960s he began to develop a more natural style and explore new techniques such as carving and chasing, experimenting with molten forms, texturing and what became his speciality, acid etching. In the second half of the 1970s he developed the innovative use of enamelling in three-dimensional designs – the ‘silverscape’.

He would have been better known if he had not buried himself in the depths of Cornwall.

Gerald Benney

Anthony Paton Hawksley was born in 1921. From 1938 to 1940 he trained at the Maidstone School of Art in Kent and returned after his war service to study again from 1946 to 1948. From 1948 through to 1951 he attended the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery at the Royal College of Art under Professor Robert Goodden with Leslie Durbin being a visiting tutor. In his commencement year there was a very small intake of just three. His contemporaries were Brian Asquith, who was in the year above him, as well as Eric Clements and Jack Stapley, who started the course a year later. Eric Clements recalls Hawksley to be a very quiet and contained man who rolled his own cigarettes as he worked at his bench. After graduating from the RCA he spent a short period as foreman for the ecclesiastical silversmiths Blunt and Wray before moving on to the Design and Research Centre1 at Goldsmiths’ Hall, where he was a design assistant. His first major commission appears to have come soon after he graduated.

In December 1951 he was summoned to Goldsmiths’ Hall together with five other designers and/or silversmiths.2 The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths had received an enquiry from St John’s College, Cambridge. In 1943 the College had received a large bequest from Sir Joseph Larmor (1857-1942), the physicist and mathematician who became a mathematics lecturer there in 1885 and was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge in 1903 (he retained this post until his retirement in 1932).

The bequest was to provide awards each year to no less than three junior members of the College ‘deemed most worthy on the ground of their intellectual qualifications,

1. See footnote 3, p. 255, in the Reginald Hill chapter for details of the Design and Research Centre.

2. Eric Clements, Robert E Stone, Cyril Shiner, Reginald Hill and Jack Stapley.

Source Eric Clements: Silver & Design 1950-2000 (Birmingham, 2001) 3. Information supplied by Peter Payne of Payne & Son Limited of Oxford.

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moral conduct and practical activities’. Apart from a sum of money, the awards also included a piece of silver engraved with the College’s arms and the words, ‘Sir Joseph Larmor’s Plate’ adjacent to the year of the award.

In addition to representatives from the Company and the six it considered suitable to work on the project, the Reverend Boys Smith, the College’s Senior Bursar, attended the meeting. Because of World War II and problems with Purchase Tax, there was a need to commission 34 pieces of silver. The stipulation was that each piece should not cost more than £30 and be suitable for a number of home settings.

In 1952 Anthony Hawksley established a workshop at his home in Maidstone. However, by the mid-1950s he had moved to Great Rollright in North Oxfordshire where he combined making silver from his home-based workshop with lecturing. From 1956-8 this was at the Birmingham College of Art and from 1958-73 at Oxford College of Technology, which in 1970 became Oxford Polytechnic.3 During the 1950s, in common with many of his contemporaries, his work was influenced by Scandinavian design.

During this era the majority of his work was of small size

Opposite: Abstract Flower in Amethyst and Silver Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This amethyst and silver abstract flower study is always admired when it is exhibited. Set on a stone naturally encrusted with amethysts, the stylised flower heads are polished irregular forms of the stone set against a cluster of polished silver ‘leaves’. This semiprecious stone was popular in the 1960s and early 1970s and was regularly used by Stuart Devlin. Traditionally amethysts were used as an amulet, particularly for the protection of those in battle.

It was often used in ecclesiastical rings and indeed is still worn by Catholic bishops. The stone is also claimed to have healing properties and has been used to open the spiritual and psychic centres. Anthony Hawksley received this commission through Payne & Son of Oxford, but the company cannot recall the story behind the order. Height approximately 25cm. London 1972.

ANTHONY HAWKSLEY

ANTHONY HAWKSLEY

Above: Cream Jug Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett During the 1960s decorating the surface of silver with texturing such as ‘bark effect’ or with the use of molten silver became the norm. Anthony went down a different route and decorated some of his surfaces with an ‘acid etched’ technique. Payne & Son of Oxford commissioned Anthony to design and make a collection of silver as a proposal for Wolfson College. Although the College liked the design, they only bought a few pieces. Only two milk jugs were made, of which this is one. Height 9.5cm. London 1974.

Left: Pair of Candlesticks Courtesy Payne’s of Oxford This pair of candlesticks were commissioned in the second half of the 1960s. Weighing nearly 1.8 kilograms, they are robust and well-made. Apart from the small amount of texturing below the sconces and above the bases, their design is relatively traditional.

Carefully looked after by their owners for 45 years, they then decided to sell them. Height 33cm. London 1967.

Opposite: Cruet set Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This elegant three piece cruet with its slender tapering salt and pepper has a lidded mustard with spoon. The surface of the silver is spot hammered all-over. While the interior of the pieces are gilded so as to prevent corrosion, it is not advisable to store salt long term in a salt pot. This set purchased at auction in 2010, the total price being a few pence over £795. Height of pepper 10.3cm.

London 1963.

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and comprised candlesticks, boxes and bowls.4 However, by the early 1960s, the scale of his work had increased. Indeed, in 1962 he was commissioned to make a pair of candelabra for the Council of Rural Industries. By now his style had evolved to a more abstract form but nevertheless with a clean graceful line. His jewellery had also come to the attention of the Victoria and Albert Museum and it purchased a silver collar for its collection. Towards the end of the 1960s, he started to undertake work for Liberty’s of London. In 1969 he was one of the first artists to exhibit at the then newly formed Oxford Gallery.

However, it was with another Oxford outlet that he formed a special relationship. Payne & Son, the fine jewellers and silversmiths was established in 1790 and is still run by members of the founding family. The Oxford shop has been in the city’s High Street since 1889. From the beginning of the 20th century, the business has developed associations with contemporary designers and makers. Over the years Payne & Son commissioned many pieces from Anthony Hawksley both for private and college collections as well as stocking examples of his silver and jewellery. It was during the 1970s that Hawksley become more prolific. From the late 1960s he began to develop a more natural style and explored new techniques such as carving and chasing, experimenting with molten forms, texturing and what became his speciality, acid etching. In the early 1970s he also

combined silver with a geode and semi precious stones to form a stylised flower arrangement. By the second half of the 1970s, he had developed an interest in enamelling.

There can be no coincidence that this voyage of discovery was triggered a few years before he took early retirement from teaching.

His distinctive acid-etched form of decoration on the surface of silver began to appear in the 1970s. Wolfson College had recently been founded5 and was in the process of being built in north Oxford near to the river Cherwell. The College decided that it would like a collection of distinctly designed silver for use in its modern home that reflected the character of the new College buildings. In the early 1970s Payne & Son commissioned Anthony Hawksley ‘one of the top designer/silversmiths at the time, who toured the new buildings while they were under construction, then designed and made a collection of silverware which was inspired by his impression of the new College’.6 Each piece featured acid etching. The College approved the

4. In 2002, Payne & Sons offered a pair of Hawksley candlesticks made in 1954.

With a height of 5.7cm the weight of the pair was just 175g. The attractive design comprised a circular receiver pierced with stars on a circular drip pan supported by shaped tripod legs.

5. The college was founded in 1965 for graduates. Its construction was completed in 1974.

6. Payne & Son Ltd, Another Century of Silver, its fixed price catalogue for 2000.

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design, but acquired only a few pieces. Payne & Son stocked a range of Hawksley’s acid-etched silver and also retailed the pieces made for Wolfson College that the institution did not acquire. In 1972 he made a limited edition of 25 rose bowls for Payne to mark the Silver Wedding Anniversary of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Although Hawksley moved away from Oxfordshire in 19747 he continued his relationship with Payne & Son. Indeed, in 1977 he designed and made a limited edition of 25 sugar casters for the company to mark the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.

1977 was also Hawksley’s 25th anniversary of establishing his first workshop. He featured in the August 1977 edition of the Illustrated London News. Written by Ursula Robertshaw, the article was entitled Silverscapes from Cornwall. The article focuses upon his innovative use of

ANTHONY HAWKSLEY

enamelling in three-dimensional designs. Basically he would create a scene using several layers of silver that was enamelled or engraved. For example, the furthest layer from the viewer may be the sky and the sea, a little nearer there may be a boat, while the nearest layer may rocks, trees or the shore. He used this technique for a range of jewellery such as rings, brooches and pendants as well as for the lids of boxes. The scenes were either pastoral, floral or seascapes and Hawksley called them ‘silverscapes’. The feature concluded, ‘They are pretty without being twee, beautifully made and highly original.’ Today they are rare.

Indeed, at the time of editing (March 2014), the authors have only encountered three ‘silverscapes’ – the box illustrated here, another enamelled one featuring a cat looking out of a window at a bird in a tree (1973) and an engraved one with a cat asleep on a windowsill with a rustic scene beyond (1979).

Interestingly, in the ILN feature Hawksley stated that he was at the RCA with Gerald Benney,8 who had a high opinion of his work. However, Benney also said, according to his wife Janet, that Anthony Hawksley Above: Silverscape Box Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett When this was offered at auction, there was no reference in the catalogue that the silver and enamel cover of this small box was three-dimensional. We later discovered that they are called ‘silverscapes’. The vendor, a resident of Suffolk at the time, purchased it from a crafts fair in the county and believed it was inspired by Covehithe Church. It is quite charming in the flesh.

The box is wood-lined and it is signed on the underside of the silver cover. Length 6cm. London 1986.

Opposite, left: Larmor’s Cup Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This is one of Anthony’s earliest commissions. He was obviously held in high esteem at Goldsmiths’ Hall at the time as he was selected together with Eric Clements, RE Stone, Cyril Shiner, Reginald Hill and Jack Stapley to discuss a commission for 34 pieces of silver for St John’s College, Cambridge. This followed the College receiving a large bequest. The silver was awarded to junior members of the College, but the war had delayed their making and presentation. The arms are those of the College, the openwork wording reads SIR JOSEPH LARMOR’S PLATE 1947 (the year of the award). The pieces had to be made for less than £30 each. This piece was secured in 2009 for £425. Anthony appears not to have been supported by the Hall later in his career.

Height 12.5cm. London 1952.

Opposite, right: Silver Jubilee Castor Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett A castor chased with a thistle, daffodils and a rose, its top surmounted by a model of a stylised rose. Designed and made for Payne’s of Oxford to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II. It was offered as a limited edition of 25 pieces – this is number two.

Height 12cm. London 1977.

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would be better known, ‘if he had not buried himself in the depths of Cornwall’. It has been said that Hawksley’s relative obscurity is because, apart from his involvement with Sir Joseph Larmor’s Plate and the Goldsmiths’ Hall Festival of Britain exhibition, the Company did not support him. Neither was he a Freeman. However, his work was exhibited widely over the years including the Oxfordshire Museum at Woodstock in 1978 and the Westminster Gallery, Boston, USA during 1981. It is also represented in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum as well as many Oxford Colleges. In the late 1970s, his son Stephen Hawksley worked with him.9

7. He lived in Cornwall from 1974-9, Devon from 1979-83 and in Suffolk from 1983 until his death in 1991. All his homes had a workshop.

8. Gerald Benney started his course at the RCA in the September as Anthony Hawksley graduated in the July of 1951.

9. The source is a leaflet hand-dated June 1978 from the Archive of Payne & Son of Oxford. It is possible that this was printed for the exhibition at the Oxfordshire Museum at Woodstock. It reads, ‘Stephen Hawksley trained at Banbury School of Art and then at Loughborough College of Art, he has also worked with Anthony.

He has recently set up his own workshop. His jewellery shows his interest in fine wrought iron work. His designs are often intricate, and he enjoys the challenge of making pieces.’

AVAILABILITY He was not a prolific maker, though his output did increase in the 1970s. His later work does appear on the secondary market periodically, but his earlier work is more difficult to find.

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REGINALD HILL He was apprenticed as a silversmith and then undertook a course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. After World War II he combined teaching design with a career as a designer. He excelled at both. He was very influential as an educationalist, with those he had taught decades before still holding him with the highest regard in the 21st century. His ouput of designs was prolific.

He was the leading designer from the late ’40s, the ’50s and to some degree the ’60s.

Christopher Lawrence

When this chapter was written, around 40 years had elapsed since Reginald Hill had passed away. However, despite this passage of time his legacy was very much alive. Grant Macdonald certainly places the foundation for his successful business squarely in Mr Hill’s court.

He was taught by him in the 1960s. As Grant explained, ‘I had been fortunate in learning the proper way of rendering drawings. Reggie Hill taught me how to be professional, even if it was just a little napkin ring you were making. Today, everything is costorientated, but I still think that the presentation of drawings and your presentation to people, even on the telephone, is very important. I think a lot of my current standards come from those times and the strictures of Reggie Hill’s teaching.’

Over 50 years after he had been taught design by Mr Hill, Christopher Lawrence stills regarded him as his main mentor throughout his successful career. He also made the point that he still uses the techniques of presentation he learnt from him while a teenager.

Norman Bassant regards Reginald Hill not only as ‘A brilliant educationalist’, but ‘a fantastic designer, a gentleman and a gem of a man.’ Ian Haigh and John Bartholomew, who both completed their full-time careers at the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery at the Royal College of Art, were also taught by ‘Mr Hill’ in the 1950s. Ian referred to him as, ‘A generous spirit, the last true professional designer.’ The advice that he still recalls was, ‘Don’t leave anything to the craftsman’s imagination. Detail down to the last wire in your design.’ John simply says he was, ‘An incredible teacher who was a master of what he did.’

Reginald Hill was born in 1914 and started a full-time silversmithing apprenticeship after leaving school.

Although he completed this, he told Ian Haigh in the 252

1950s that his experience as an apprentice had not been good. However, he clearly excelled and wished to continue working with silver as he secured a place at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. While there he held all of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ scholarships. The Company took an early interest in his work, purchasing a cigarette box he had made in 1936 to commemorate the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the following year.

During his time at the Central School he was greatly influenced by HG Murphy, who as well as being one of the most important British silversmith of the Art Deco period, lectured at the School and became its Principal in 1936. Murphy was also President of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society and on hearing that that Adolf Hitler had decreed that there was to be an international handicraft exhibition in Berlin during 1937, decided that although the British government was not participating, there should still be a UK presence.

Opposite: Cup and Cover for Norman Vander Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This cup and cover was commissioned by Norman Vander for presentation to the Goldsmiths’ Company to mark his year as Prime Warden in 1973-4. Its body is beautifully engraved with the Company’s arms and its cover and knop both feature leopards’ heads. The head of the leopard has been associated with the Company since 1300 when Edward I passed a statute defining metallic standards which had to be assayed by the ‘Guardians of the Craft’ (i.e. the Company) with ‘the leopard’s head’. It is was supposedly chosen as it formed part of the royal arms. Today it is still the mark of the London Assay Office. Sadly this was the last piece of silver Reginald designed and he died just before it was completed. It is fitting that the person who was very influential in teaching design to so many should design his last piece of silver for the person whose family company gave many craftsmen the work experience at the bench, resulting in a high level of technical skills. Height 40cm. London 1975.

REGINALD HILL

George Hughes recalls1 that, ‘Reginald Hill, a senior student at the Central School at that time, held the Company’s travelling scholarship and happened to be in Germany’. Murphy and Hughes travelled to Berlin on 27 May 1937 with exhibits from Women’s Institutes and the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society as well as ‘transparent photographs’ of the Company’s historic and modern plate. Reginald Hill had been there for a week on his own and George Hughes recalls that Hill ‘was asked to lay a wreath on the German Cenotaph on behalf of Great Britain … a skilful piece of Goebbels’ propaganda.’ After graduating from the Central School, Reginald Hill started working as a freelance designer.

His first important commission was designing the Ascot Gold Cup of 1939 on behalf of Elkington. This was the last year of the Ascot races before World War II. Compared to earlier elaborate cups, Hill’s was very plain having a rounded form with the only decoration being a faceted foot. There was private work too, including a small cocktail goblet with a hemispherical bowl and a gadrooned stem with alternate texturing shown at the exhibition ‘Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths as patrons of their craft 1919-53’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1965. This was made by Wakely and Wheeler, but inscribed RH Hill.

After the war Reggie Hill started lecturing in silver and jewellery design, initially at the Central School and later at the Sir John Cass School of Art. However, his teaching was on a part-time basis as he had his own design practice. This immediately got off to a good start with a commission in 1946 to design dishes for the Bank of England to present to various bodies. Other 254

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important commissions followed from livery companies, Cambridge and Oxford colleges, the Company, public bodies, institutions and corporate clients as well as individuals. In Christopher Lawrence’s opinion, Reginald Hill was the leading designer of the late 1940s, the 1950s and to some degree the early 1960s.

‘He had wonderful commissions during the 1950s and was the best-known silver designer of these times.’ By the 1950s he was designing for CJ Vander. His output was prolific. Ian Haigh recalls ‘Mr Hill’ telling him that over one weekend he had designed 10 items. While

Above: Box made while Reginald was a student Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company, photographer Bill Burnett Reginald Hill was born in 1914 and this is one of his student pieces hand-crafted by him while he was studying at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. While not ‘post-war silver’, it is interesting to note not only the design skills of the young Reggie Hill, but also his skills at the bench. It was entered into a competition organised by the Goldsmiths’ Company where the brief was to design a commemorative object for the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Being a student piece, it bears the School’s mark as opposed to the maker’s. Length 18.1cm. London 1936.

Opposite: Dish for the Bank of England Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This shallow fluted bowl with some martelé finish turned up at an auction in Cornwall during 2000. We knew Hill’s work was of the highest quality so it was bought unseen. It was not until researching this book that we realised that it was part of his first commission after World War II – making dishes for the Bank of England ‘to present to various bodies’. It appears that one of the officials at ‘a body’ took a shine to the one they received. Diameter 19.3cm. London 1946.

Reginald Hill’s style was modern for its time, the 1950s was a period when new designer-silversmiths like Benney, Clements, Mellor and Welch were establishing themselves as a breath of fresh air in post-war Britain.

Times were changing. Reggie Hill certainly played his role in the transition from traditional to modern silver.

Indeed, in 1948, together with John Farleigh the woodengraver he was a founder member of the Crafts Centre of Great Britain.2 Also, from 1946-1954, he was the Design and Technical Adviser to the Design and Research Centre3 headquartered at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

From 1947 through to 1951, the US refiners and bullion dealers Handy and Harman’s Craft Service sponsored five annual summer workshops. These were the brainchild of Margaret Craver, a pioneer in the American Studio Jewellery Movement and an accomplished silversmith. Their primary objective was

1. The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths as patrons of their craft 1919-53 (London 1965). George Hughes was Assistant Clerk of the Company from 191939 and Clerk from 1939-53.

2. The Crafts Centre of Great Britain was an amalgamation of societies formed in the past to act as a voice for various crafts as well as being guardians of standards. It had a retail outlet in central London. The standard of exhibits in the showroom was not high and the organisation had financial problems.

3. The Design and Research Centre was established in 1946. The Prime Warden’s report to the Livery of May 1946 stated that it was the most farreaching development for the whole jewellery and silversmithing industry. The Centre was supported by grants from the Company, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Council of Industrial Design (Board of Trade) and the trade associations. The report continued, ‘It is the first post-war attempt made by an industry to link up scientific research, in the use of new materials and alloys and in methods of production in the factories, with problems of producing articles which in their designs are fresh and likely to compete in the world markets.’ In The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths as patrons of their craft 1919-53 (London 1965) George Hughes stated that although the principle of the Centre was simple, it ‘was never really grasped or accepted by the industry’. The Centre’s greatest success was thanks to Dr GE Gardam, a research scientist from Woolwich who was its Director of Research. He invented a silver cleaning solution that was made by Goddard’s under a royalty arrangement – it was retailed as Silver Dip. It was so lucrative that the Centre established new offices in Dover Street during 1954. The Centre survived until 1976 when it became part of the Design Council.

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REGINALD HILL

Only a dozen participants were selected from around 45 applicants each year and many of them became leaders in their field, establishing courses that benefited a complete post-war generation throughout the US.

to educate art teachers in universities, colleges and art schools about silversmithing. She invited ‘European masters’ as guest lecturers: William Bennett from Sheffield,4 the Swedish Baron Erik Flemming5 and Reginald Hill, who was chosen to participate in the one held in 1950. Co-ordinated by John Prip,6 the workshop was held at the Rochester School of Technology, for American Craftsmen. According to Prip’s CV, the 1950 one was a joint event with Fleming. The workshops are regarded as having been instrumental in revitalising and renewing interest in silversmithing in the United States after World War II.

Above: Cigarette Canister Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington A cigarette canister also bearing the badge of the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. Height 12.5cm. London 1959.

Right: Hill Covered Bowl Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Reginald Hill also designed quite ordinary pieces. This bowl and cover bears his maker’s mark; however, it must be remembered that the greater part of his design work was for the silversmithing companies and subsequently the pieces bear those companies’ marks without ‘Reggie’ being acknowledged. This piece was purchased from a dealer in 2010 for £965. Diameter 8.5cm. London 1953.

Opposite: Tazza and Marks Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Normally when Reginald’s maker’s mark was used on a piece he designed, he added ‘Reginald H Hill’ in title or upper case.

Occasionally he would add ‘fecit’, as here, which is the Latin for ‘made’. The tazza bears the badge of the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. Diameter 21.6cm. London 1956.

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Reginald Hill’s journey across the Atlantic was but a small part of his influence on future silversmiths. In the UK he appeared to have a knack of encouraging young silversmiths embarking upon their career. For example, Eric Clements vividly recalls, some 60 years after the event, that on seeing his design for a candelabrum he submitted to the Company’s Festival of Britain competition (see Clements, p.132), Reggie said to him, ‘I wish I had designed that’. On occasions, he went beyond giving encouragement and gave direction. While Christopher Lawrence was serving his apprenticeship at Vanders, Wednesdays were his day-release to the Central School, where the highlight was the design classes with ‘Reggie’, as he was affectionately known by his students (who would always, of course, address him as ‘Sir’). After the Coronation, HRH Prince Phillip the Duke of Edinburgh decided to present a communion set to the Archbishop of Canterbury as a ‘thank you’ for his role in the ceremony.

The commission was given to Reginald Hill, who according to Ian Haigh ‘Got on quite well with the Duke, but did not appreciate the 7am meetings at the Palace to discuss the designs’. These he showed to Christopher Lawrence, then aged about 18. Designed to be made in 18-carat gold and crystal, the bowl of the chalice was supported by ears of wheat that required very fine piercing. Christopher recalls,

‘He talked to me about the commission and added “Vanders don’t pierce, they use an outside contractor. Do you enjoy piercing?” I said that I did and he suggested that I make something to show Vanders. I made a small silver cross which I duly showed to Norman Vander. He asked, ‘Did you make this?’ When Vanders was given the commission, I was given the job of doing the piercing. It was tremendous encouragement.’ Perhaps the most amazing story of Reginald Hill’s influence also occurred around this time.

During a radio programme he spoke enthusiastically about a silversmithing course at the Central School. This

4. WE Bennett had been apprenticed to Omar Ramsden with Leslie Durbin and later taught silversmithing at the Sheffield College of Arts and Crafts. Bennett taught Keith Tyssen.

5. Baron Erik Fleming was Court Silversmith to His Majesty King Gustav VI of Sweden. Fleming was an expert technician and talented designer.

6. John Axel Prip (1922-2009), also known as Jack Prip, a master silversmith known for setting standards of excellence in the US. 7. His earliest pieces bear the maker’s mark of the Central School – items made by a student normally bear the college or school’s mark as opposed to their own name. The Company’s Archive indicates that the 1946 Bank of England dishes were made by RH Hill and AG Brooker, but the example in the Pearson Silver Collection just bears Hill’s maker’s mark and is inscribed ‘Reginald H Hill’. An ashtray in the Company’s collection dated 1949 bears the maker’s mark of the Central School and is inscribed ‘Designer RH Hill’. This may have been made by Francis Adams, who taught there – see the chapter on Leslie Durbin pp.186-93.

resulted in Brian Fuller giving up the prospects of a commercial course to become a silversmith.

Unfortunately Reginald Hill did not enjoy good health.

His last commission was from Norman Vander, who was Prime Warden of the Company from 1973-4. This was a cup and cover for presentation to the Company. Sadly Reggie died shortly before it was completed in 1975.

AVAILABILITY Pieces bearing Reginald H Hill’s maker’s mark are rarely encountered. Indeed, as far as we can ascertain, only four items bearing his maker’s mark and which are also inscribed with his name, appeared at auction from 1999-2013. His early designs were made by various makers,7 including RE Stone and Wakely & Wheeler, but from the 1950s, he favoured CJ Vander. His designs, when bearing another maker’s mark (and indeed his own) may also be inscribed ‘Designer RH Hill’ or ‘Reginald H Hill’.

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ADRIAN HOPE Famous for his paper-embossed bowls, there is nevertheless far more to Adrian Hope.

Having fabricated his work for many years, he returned to raising during the second half of his career, adopting a gentler Danish-influenced way of forming silver with a hammer and stakes in the mid-1990s. He now designs and makes teapots of ‘friendly, useable shapes’, which are becoming as well-known as his bowls.

I like my work to be, for want of a better word, friendly. The reason for using silver at all is because it is a wonderful, forgiving, pliable material that I can manipulate with complete sympathy. I want the owners and users of my work to enjoy it, so it has to be direct and approachable and tactile. Preciousness is a hindrance. Usefulness is a happy bonus.

Adrian Hope Adrian Kruse Anthony Hope was born in Edinburgh during 1953 and was brought up in Ann Street in the New Town. The late Queen Mother would often instruct her chauffeur to make a detour along this charming street as she returned to Holyrood Palace. Adrian takes up the story, ‘We lived with my grandfather, a civil engineer who had worked in Burma. My father was an architect who had studied under Alan Reiach1 and he worked for Basil Spence during the period of the Festival of Britain Exhibition. We had a workshop in the basement and my father’s design ‘study’ was there too. Discussions in the house were always about design.

My grandfather was of course retired, but he would do odd bits of carpentry and my mother was interested in working with wood too. We all engaged in making things2 – my father, fond of Calder’s3 work, liked to make mobiles. He would have architectural samples such as formica in his studio as well as fabrics. It was only when we went to an exhibition a couple of years back that I realised his fabric samples were designed by Henry Moore. I would have followed in my father’s footsteps and gone on to be an architect, but he did not seem too happy with his profession. It seemed a natural progression to go on to art school.’

1. From 1940-6 Reiach was Senior Lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art. He established a small architectural practice to complement his teaching. The practice grew over the years and in 1964 merged with that of Eric Hall to create Reiach and Hall.

2. Adrian recalls that Arthur Dutch of Lonsdale & Dutch, tinsmiths and lantern makers in Howe Street, Edinburgh New Town, introduced him to metal work.

3. The American sculptor and artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976), who invented the mobile – i.e. the ones suspended from the ceiling or above a child’s crib as opposed to the mobile phone.

4. The college merged with the Brighton College of Technology in 1969 to form Brighton Polytechnic, which was re-designated the University of Brighton in 1992.

5. Author of The Craft of the Silversmith in the ‘How to do it series’ (London 1954 and three subsequent editions) and The Art of the Silversmiths (London 1954).

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Adrian chose to do his art foundation course at Brighton College of Art4 from 1970-1. He had no intention of becoming a silversmith, until he started the silversmithing option. His tutor was Geoffrey Holden.5 One of his tasks was a hand-raising exercise. ‘We were using gilding metal and I got a crease like a fold into my work: a terminal fault but part of the learning curve. The task involved standing on one leg operating the double bellows that generated the airflow to turn a useless soft gas flame into a focused point. I became absolutely fascinated by the colour changes of the metal caused by the heat from the flame. From that moment, I wanted to work with metal.’ In 1971 he headed north to undertake the Silversmithing and Three-dimensional Design course at Sheffield College of Art. His tutor here was Cameron Maxfield, known as Max. ‘I didn’t like it at first’, Adrian confessed. ‘Sheffield was very much an industrial approach. Indeed, the department was part-sponsored by the industry for training people. We certainly had the machinery – tough presses and spinning lathes – as well as good support staff in the form of technicians. One of the exercises was to design a piece which was then made by a technician.’ This is certainly an indication that students were being groomed for an industrial post as opposed to that of a designer-silversmith.

Opposite: ‘House-shaped Shrine’ Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Technically a tapering rectangular box, Adrian calls it a ‘houseshaped shrine or reliquary’. Asked what you keep in it, he responds, ‘Anything you want to remember or forget.’ Constructed from sheets of silver that have been passed through Adrian’s rolling machine, its body features eight arches and its peaked roof as many triangular forms. This was purchased at auction in 2011 for £1,820. Length 11cm. Edinburgh c.2002 (no date letter).

ADRIAN HOPE

Adrian only raised one piece of silver while at Sheffield, but there was plenty going on. Malcolm Appleby came as a visiting lecturer and introduced students to both engraving and carving. There was also work with presses and Adrian became interested in the various mechanical aspects of the craft, such as hinges and the different ways of opening items such as boxes. ‘Barbara Krann also came from the University of San Luis Obispo’,6 he added. ‘She was a “metalsmith”, a term we had never heard before. Her work was certainly different. For example, there was a breast that opened by lifting the nipple – it contained models of dead soldiers. It was a statement about the Vietnam War. She introduced new aspects to us. We had never heard of reticulation, mokume gane, or any of the other Japanese alloys, yet alone worked with them.’ He experimented with various alloys, their patterns and textures. Adrian considers that the two most important things he learned at Sheffield were tool making and experimenting. When he graduated in 1974, his girlfriend Linda Lewin was two years below him, so he stayed in Sheffield taking a ‘grim workshop in West Street’. The following year he undertook a postgraduate diploma from the Edinburgh College of Art.7 However, the department was in the process of moving and it was not an ideal time to attempt to study there. Indeed, Adrian, with the permission of the Head of Department,8 spent most of his time drawing in the city’s Royal Botanic Gardens. However, he did raise a coffee pot.

After Edinburgh, Adrian spent a three months on another postgraduate scheme working for David Mellor at Broom Hall in Sheffield, where he became familiar with the processes undertaken in the cutlery workshop. By now Linda had graduated and the couple soon married. One of 260

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Linda’s tutors at Farnham, where she undertook her foundation course, heard that the Gold and Silver Studio in Bath wanted help in its workshop. ‘We went along and started picking up the jobs the two previous people had

Above: Partially Gilded Box Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This is one of a small series of boxes Adrian made in the early 1980s. Partially gilded, it has a ‘push button’ mechanism for opening the cover which features the Eye of Horus (left) and the base an abstract design (right). Adrian had asked the gilder not to polish the box, but he did not follow the instructions. He kindly donated it to the Collection. Diameter 5cm. Edinburgh, 1984.

Opposite: Teapot The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Adrian Hope When Adrian gives a talk on silversmithing, he jokes, ‘Whenever I take a break from work, I don’t make a cup of tea, I make a teapot.’ While he was on his art foundation course in 1970-1, it was during an exercise of hand-raising a disc of metal into an object with a hammer, that he decided he wanted to become a silversmith. This is ironic as he only raised a further couple of pieces during his student days. Indeed, when he started his silversmithing business in 1979, initially he only ‘fabricated’ his work. This meant he made a piece’s component parts and then soldered them together. However, in the early 1990s he met a Danish octogenarian who introduced him to a different handraising technique than the one used in the UK. He preferred the Dane’s approach and added hand-raising to his repertoire, initially by making teapots and later bowls. He regards making a teapot as a test of his competence. So as not to destroy the perfection of the hand finish of the metal’s surface, he has to ensure that his soldering is perfect first time. This teapot has a holly wood knob and handle. The height to the top of the knob is 14.5cm. The making of the piece was recorded with 500 photographs. Hallmarked in Edinburgh but bears no date letter (which since 1999 has been voluntary). Made in 2013.

left. This gave us a great deal of experience, from setting stones to making catches and some notion of business. We also worked on exhibitions of well-known jewellers staged in the showroom and gained experience talking to customers.’ After a year, they decided to set-up on their own in Edinburgh. The workshop opened in 1979. This was above a jeweller’s in what was a ‘wobbly building’ in West Bow, one of the oldest streets in the city just below Edinburgh Castle. ‘We made jewellery for quite a few years. During the week we worked, but Saturday was “play time” when we experimented.’ Clearly Barbara Krann had left a deep impression on Adrian. However, his ambition was to be a silversmith as opposed to a jeweller.

Like many smiths before him, he established his business with jewels and then moved to silver.

circular demon faces in boxwood that he set in the lids of the boxes. A variant was a ‘head and shoulders’ placed on the side, the arms of the man resting on the edge of the box. This was opened by twisting the shoulders to release the figure’s neck that formed the ‘stopper’. The National Museum of Scotland secured three of the boxes. Having contemplated David Mellor’s 17-stage cutlery production at Sheffield, Adrian put his tool-making ambitions to use and made the dies for five different sized spoons, adding these to his silver repertoire. A fly-press was used for making the spoons that were then hand-finished. This proved to be a very popular range9 and the spoons are still a stock item. A major commission during this period was a crucifix made of silver and gold with the figure of Christ being carved from ivory.

Initially he started with smaller pieces of silver. His earliest was a little series of boxes that were in the form of a gentleman’s pocket watch. Drawing on his experience of mechanisms from Sheffield and Bath, each had a different way of opening. One ‘popped’ open, one ‘snapped’ shut and another had a bayonet fitting. He carved humorous

6. Most likely to be the California Polytechnic State University (known as Cal Poly) which is at San Luis Obispo.

7. Three generations of Hopes have studied at this college – Adrian, his father and more recently his daughter.

8. Ian Davidson, whose work one occasionally encounters.

9. The Scotsman ran a readers’ offer of the smaller spoon in a box made by a wood turner friend of Adrian’s. The take-up was almost over-whelming.

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this on a sheet of silver and pass the two between a roller and the hole in the paper will appear as in relief on the surface of the silver.’ Of course coffee pots, boxes and vases require more than one sheet of silver and therefore a technique had to be developed for joining them together without damaging the embossed designs.

The first of the larger silver pieces was a commission for a coffee pot in the early 1980s.10 He recalls, ‘The back and the smaller front were two parallel flat surfaces with the two sides bellied to a cylinder. The pieces were “fabricated” as the prepared component parts were assembled and then soldered together. This was particularly difficult as the coffee pot comprised three separate parts which tended to “walk” during the soldering process as the item had no structural integrity until the whole was assembled.’ Technically the piece presented tremendous challenges and it was only through lack of knowledge that such a risky approach was taken. The risk paid off entirely with a very successful piece that many would have stumbled over.

However, it did not put him off making coffee pots.

Indeed, he later made several coffee services where the main body for each of the pieces was made from one sheet of silver with just one edge to solder. One of these is in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

After about four years in West Bow, the couple moved to the appropriately named Silvermills part of the city, an area where small workshops were located.

In 1984 he won a design competition organised by the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh11

10. Possibly 1983.

11. The Incorporation was established in the mid-15th century and today it is Scotland’s oldest consumer protection organisation. The Incorporation administers the Assay Office, Scotland.

12. The Society actively supports living artists by purchasing their work and presenting it to museums. It has been doing this since 1910.

13. He was born in 1911.

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with a pair of candlesticks with ebony stems. The first pair sold to an American couple at an exhibition in the city. At about this time he started to experiment with paper embossing. ‘Silver is a soft metal’, he explained, ‘and if you place a skeleton of a leaf on a sheet of silver and pass the two between steel rollers, it leaves an impression of the leaf on the silver. Steel is hard and it won’t give, but being softer, the silver will. Take a sheet of paper and create a hole with a paper punch and place

Above: Standing Dish Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Goldsmiths’ Company encouraged Adrian to develop his paper embossing technique. In 1992 he made a standing dish for the Company with a diameter of 51.2cm, the largest piece he had made using this technique at that time. It has straight panels.

Bulgari commissioned a similar example. In the 21st century Adrian wanted to develop a dish with curved panels. This is one of three made and is the first one that was constructed using TIG welding (see also Miller, pp.346-55) resulting in the explicit seams having no sharp edges. The gold embellishment is bi-metal, which is 22-carat gold on sterling silver. It is soldered to the centre of the standing bow as opposed to a gold disc being inserted into the centre of the piece so that is visible upon the underside. Diameter 36cm. Edinburgh c.2005 (no date letter).

Opposite: Bowl, 2000 Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This is the first piece the Collection bought from Adrian. It was commissioned following the ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’ exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2000. We were intrigued as to how running cut paper with sheet silver through a rolling machine could decorate both sides of the metal. He explained the technique and we still find the process fascinating. Height of the tumbler bowl 10.2cm. Edinburgh 2000.

Remembering the phrase from his student days, ‘If you can’t solve a problem, make it a design feature’, he did just that by making the seams that joined the patterned panels together an integral part of the design. The first explicit seam piece, a circular box with both the body and the lid both comprising six or so panels, was purchased by the Contemporary Art Society12 and was presented to the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.

On certain pieces the seams were really emphasised by being bordered with loud geometric patterns. Nicola Bulgari commissioned a three-piece coffee service and tray with the bold seams being bordered on either side with triangles. When Christopher Lawrence saw one of his coffee services he remarked, ‘You have found a completely new way of making hollowware’. On certain pieces, the seams were more discrete, for example with his rectangular boxes and rocking vessels the seams are placed at the sides. ‘A good analogy is linking the seam to stitched leather on a handbag’, Adrian neatly explained, ‘The front is completely flat, the stitching being out of view at the sides.’ The rocking vessels proved extremely successful. Designed almost by default, they have their origins in a centrepiece he was working on to ‘balance’ a couple of tall jugs he had made for an exhibition. He did not like the centrepiece he had made in copper, so he bent it in half and threw it across his workshop to the scrap bin. The folded reject was of ‘melon slice’ form.

It landed and of course rocked until it came to rest. Thinking that he had inadvertently created something different, he worked on the concept and the rocking vessel and all its various cousins were born.

residential block. They discovered an old smithy in the village of Stobo, Peeblesshire in the Scottish Borders.

What was to become their studio had been the village Post Office and came complete with an old counter.

Adrian’s work underwent two significant changes in the second half of the 1990s. The first was triggered by a visit to an exhibition at Edinburgh’s Danish Institute in 1992, where the work of various Danish contemporary silversmiths was on display. Adrian left his card and said that he would be pleased to meet any of the silversmiths. A week or so later Mogens Bjørn-Andersen called at Adrian’s workshop. Then in his eighties,13 he had trained at Georg Jensen before establishing his own studio in 1935. ‘He told me that he did not like my hammers as the handles were the wrong shape. I did not quite understand what he meant as they were the same as those used by all the silversmiths I knew.’ The following year with the assistance of a Development Award from the Scottish Arts Council, Adrian visited Mogens at his studio on the outskirts of Copenhagen.

He soon discovered what Mogens meant regarding hammers as his had rounded ends to the shafts that easily swung in the palm of the hand. ‘The reason for the difference’, he explained, ‘was that Mogens had a far gentler way of raising involving the movement of the fingers and wrist with the blow directed from the elbow in a “tap, tap, tap” sound. I had been taught to wield a hammer like a tennis racket from the shoulder with a “wack, wack, wack”! Also the stakes were completely

In 1994 with their third child on the way, Linda and Adrian decided to move to somewhere that could have a workshop in or near the house.

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different shapes. They had long arms so that you get right down inside the pieces.’ Back in Scotland Adrian stocked his workshop with tools based on those used in Denmark. With hand-raising enjoyably back in his repertoire, Adrian’s work developed a new dimension.

The first piece he raised after his Scandinavian visit was an oval teapot. ‘Making one of my teapots is extremely testing,’ he explained, ‘this is because the techniques required are so exacting. It is a test of my competence, a challenge to myself, soldering all the planished components together. It has to be done discreetly and be right the first time, as I cannot solder it and then clean up scuffs and blobs of solder as this would destroy the planished surface. I sometimes joke when I am giving a talk by saying that whenever I take a break from work, I don’t make a cup of tea, I make a teapot’, Adrian said smiling. He has certainly become most prolific making these quintessentially British domestic pieces. As luck would have it, the Company’s 1998 summer exhibition was ‘Silver and Tea a perfect blend’14 and Adrian exhibited two teapots. He wrote in the catalogue, ‘My aim in creating these pieces was to produce an informal group, playing with the basic forms, oval and circular in plan. I wanted to make friendly, useable shapes that reflect an occasion when we sit down with friends and relax around a very British ritual.’ The teapot of circular cross section had a holly wood hoop handle while the same wood was used for one of the oval sections to create a ‘swan’s neck’ handle opposite the spout.

The Development Award had a second element relating to developing his embossing technique. Adrian wanted to increase the size of his embossed work. He was allowed to experiment with a large rolling machine at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow in March 1996.15 The rollers had a diameter of nearly four times and a breadth of three times the size of Adrian’s machine. It

14. Goldsmiths’ Hall, 28 May – 3 July 1998.

15. Adrian recalls driving back listening to details of the Dunblane massacre on the radio.

16. Goldsmiths’ Hall, London 25 May – 21 July 2000.

17. The Company stipulated that all pieces should sell for a maximum of £100.

An example of each piece was displayed and visitors to the exhibition could place their order.

18. The smallest bowl had a diameter of 9cm. They increased in size by increments of 0.5cm to a diameter of 19cm. When placed edge to edge, the bowls extended to a line of 294cm, which is 9.65ft. With a reasonable space between each, this would be 12ft.

19. When the bowl has been hand-mallet-raised into a hemisphere, the procedure is reversed by hammering metal down from the top towards the bottom of the bowl until there is sufficient metal to hammer out a foot.

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was tall, the width of a car, and was extremely powerful.

It produced the effect that Adrian wanted. The only problem was that such a gigantic machine was totally out of the question for his workshop – even if he could afford one! Adrian spoke to an engineer who lived locally and he took up the challenge of designing something that was compact but also extremely powerful. After a great deal of experimentation, what seemed impossible was produced – the largest hand-operated rollers in the UK. As the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths had encouraged him to develop his embossing technique, it is no surprise that it purchased the first of his larger scale embossed works. These were a bowl and a pair of plates.

Like his range of patterned nesting bowls, these were raised with wooden mallets on wooden stakes so as to preserve the decoration. Adrian was commissioned by Asprey to make a tea service for an exhibition of contemporary British silver by Asprey during 1997-8.

Called ‘Living with Silver’, it was staged in both London and New York. Adrian designed and made a stunning embossed three-piece tea service with explicit seams.

The teapot was featured on the front cover of the catalogue and the service sold in New York.

By the Millennium, Adrian was developing the technique further. Although a master of soldering, he had until now always used explicit seams to join the paper-embossed panels as joining them directly would result in a lack of continuity in the pattern. He designed polygonal vessels and made models of them in paper. He then carefully unwrapped these to a flat piece of paper.

The result looked like a crown a small child might make – a ‘headband’ from which uniform shapes projected.

Let us call this the ‘template’. He embossed a sheet of 1mm silver with a pattern made with strategically placed binding wire and cut the sheet of silver in the shape of the ‘template’. The only part of the sheet that had not been cut was what would be the top of the vessel (i.e. the ‘headband’ in the crown analogy). Having joined the two ends together and placing the unfinished piece upside down on the bench, a steel ring was placed

Opposite: ‘Bottle Vase’ Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Adrian calls this the ‘bottle vase’. Its classic shape has been handraised. Ideal for small posies of wildflowers, lilies-of-the-valley, snowdrops or primroses, it has a timeless appeal and is a delight to handle. This was first exhibited at Goldsmiths’ Fair in October 2012 and retailed for £1,150. Height 12cm. Edinburgh, but no date letter.

over the panels to bring them together. Adjustments were made so they fitted so close as to barely allow a cigarette paper to be slid between each adjoining panel.

The seams were then discreetly soldered. The result was Adrian’s range of Polygon Vessels. They were produced with seven, nine or eleven sides. ‘People always thought they were hexagonal or octagonal and then realised no panel was directly opposite another. The interior of the base was bi-metal, 22-carat gold fused on to silver, domed and fitted inside the foot of the vessel – from above, a polygon of white with a yellow centre.’

For the exhibition ‘Treasure of the 20th Century’,16 Adrian’s dish commissioned by the Company and designed and made by him in 1992 was displayed. With 20 paper-embossed panels and a diameter of 51.2cm, it is one of the largest pieces Adrian made before his new rolling mill was installed. For the exhibition’s shop17 he designed a small bowl and nearly 100 sold. Adrian had started making sets of five, seven and nine bowls that nested into each other. In 2003 he demonstrated his

skills by raising a set of 21 patterned bowls that snugly fitted perfectly into each other. Congratulating him on this feat brought the dismissive reply, ‘It’s just geometry.’ Exhibited in Edinburgh, the set remained unsold, but they were snapped up in London at the Chelsea Craft Fair. Adrian recalled, ‘On the first day a lady looked at them and said she would buy them. I remarked that they needed a large dining table for when placed in a line they stretched for 12ft [3.7m].18 She gave me a strange look and simply said, “We have quite a large dining table.” When I looked at the cheque I recognised that the family probably did have an extremely large table.’ Although Adrian has a wide repertoire, bowls remain an important part of his work.

While raising a teapot in its earliest raw stages, his wife Linda remarked that she liked the shape of the body. In the second half of the 21st century’s first decade, he added Snowbowls to his range. These bowls have no pattern. The whole point of the Snowbowl is no embellishment at all, its beauty is in the shape alone.

This is achieved as simply as possible with no planishing, no finishing whatsoever. Snowbowls have a diameter of up to 32cm and have a foot that is incorporated by back raising.19 ‘I like to do things simply’, Adrian remarked adding, ‘even though simple to look at often means harder to make.’ This has certainly been achieved and Adrian Hope’s work is distinctive. While he likes the limited palette of simple pieces, remember that these may well be, as he says, ‘tricky to make’. While he does make pairs of items (though they will usually be equal and opposite) note that throughout this chapter a common theme is odd numbers – sets of five, seven, nine and twenty-one vessels with odd numbers of sides – and he is not averse to including an element of surprise in his work, such as boxes with double hinges and interesting ways of opening them.

AVAILABILITY A few retailers currently stock Adrian Hope’s work.

His vintage work is beginning to emerge on to the secondary market. Purchases can also be made direct from him, or pieces commissioned. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact and website details.

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SARAH JONES She went to interview a silversmith for an article she was writing and was inspired to make something herself. After a day in the workshop she decided that she would like to be a silversmith and eventually had two shops in London from which she sold her work.

Over the years I have bought a number of small pieces for my wife, ranging from rings to necklaces, to ornaments. Each of them has been slightly quirky without being eccentric and each one has been personal. Walking round Sarah’s ‘showroom’, I am always inspired by something.

Michael Pearce, 2004

Sarah Jones was born in Sussex in 1948. ‘Growing up then, making things was the norm.’ She continued, ‘There was no television and you had to amuse yourself.

I also had a very creative mother. Being a silversmith was certainly not on my agenda, although I developed an interest in medieval metalwork when I read the history of medieval art at the University of East Anglia. While there I learnt how to observe detail and compare styles.’

After graduating she worked for the Greater London Arts Association and in the early 1970s was sent to interview Michael Murray, the ecclesiastical silversmith,1 for the Association’s magazine. He had worked with Dunstan Pruden in Ditchling and crafted metal in the traditional way with a hammer on an upturned log.

From all accounts he inspired both students and clients of all ages and from all walks of life.2 ‘I met him and he insisted on me making something in his workshop. So I went along for a couple of days and made a box and a ring. The ring I sold for £12 and that single sale made me think that I could make a living as a silversmith.’ Initially she trained part-time with

1. He also worked with bronze and aluminium. Although primarily an ecclesiastical silversmith, he would also undertake secular commissions, one piece being a stirrup cup in the form of a horse’s head, but designed so it could be slipped into a pocket.

2. Anne Nicholson, author of Michael Murray’s obituary in the Independent on 8 February 2005. When artist-in-residence at Cromarty, the townsfolk called him the ‘wild man’ whose door was always open for passers-by to watch or pick up a hammer and join in.

3. Michael Murray was instrumental in founding the Clerkenwell Green Association. Its objective is to encourage and support craftspeople and designermakers in the most appropriate ways. These include workspace provision and professional development programmes.

4. In 1971 two young businessmen leased unwanted industrial buildings and a timber yard from the British Waterways Board. In 1972 they sub-leased some of the buildings as craft studios and soon afterwards established the weekend market in the nearby cobbled yards. Sunday trading was permitted as it was a private site, while it was not allowed at many places elsewhere. The market soon became very popular because of the quality merchandise and the ambience of the area.

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Michael, but she soon took the plunge renting the workshop next door to his at 27 Old Street in Clerkenwell. She had access to his tools as by then he was setting up the Clerkenwell Green Association3 to save the area for craftsmen. When it was announced that Camden Lock Market was to open in 1974 she took a stall4 on the first day. “For eight years I was making stock all week and selling it there at weekends. Very quickly I learnt what people wanted and, more importantly, how much they had in mind to spend.’

Sarah’s main stock at this time was jewellery and boxes.

However, in June 1975 when the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths held its first-ever selling exhibition ‘Loot’, Sarah participated. This not only spread her net from Camden Lock to the City of London, but it was the platform that brought her talents to the fore. It was no coincidence that the following year the Company decided to purchase an item for its collection. This was a pair of hand-raised salts in the form of water lilies. She is particularly fond of making salt cellars.

Indeed, over the years, she has brought a new dimension to this essential feature of the dining table.

What initially may look like variants of the traditional

Opposite: Goblet Inspired by Arthur Rackham’s Drawing Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington This was conceived and made to be a wedding goblet. Its design was inspired by an Arthur Rackham drawing for his daughter’s wedding invitation in 1935. The book illustrator from the golden age is certainly known for his gnarled trees where human form and nature seem to entwine. However, this goblet appears to have been purchased for a corporate marriage, for an inscription around its base indicates it was a gift from Lazard Brothers, the advisory investment bank, to Glaxo, the global healthcare company, upon its merger with Wellcome’s pharmaceutical business. Sarah made four in the 1990s and later another, ‘which I shall give to my son if/when he ever gets married’. Height 16cm. London 1995.

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salt cellar in fact do not have traditional feet, but those of ducks, while their small spoons terminate with the bird’s head. Then there are salts without feet where playful dolphins encircle the rim and the terminal of the spoon is a smaller version of the fish. Her repertoire over the years has included the Alberich and Mime,5 Mermaid, Birdbath, Fish Knop and Chinese Fish salt cellars. It was at ‘Loot’ that she launched what has proved to be a very popular range: small silver-rimmed glass vases filled with bunches of silver/silver-gilt and enamel flowers.6 As a result of the ‘Loot’ exhibitions she received orders for 250. Over the years these have included bunches of flax, harebells, violets, gentians, dandelions, daisies, buttercups, cranesbill and daffodils.

The buttercups incorporate a bee, the daisies a wasp.

These are very reminiscent of Fabergé’s flower studies.

Indeed, one of Sarah’s was considered an appropriate gift to HM Queen Elizabeth II when she visited Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1979 as she has the world’s largest collection of Fabergé flowers. Sarah’s creation for the Queen features a rose, thistle, daffodil and a shamrock, the national flowers respectively of England, Scotland,

5. The chief dwarfs in Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung).

6. The flowers are part-cast and saw-pierced.

7. After the Millennium, a number of large financial institutions have moved their HQs east of the City to the old docklands area at Canary Wharf.

8. She obtained a licence from Disney for a series of Winnie the Pooh characters including Pooh and Honeypot, Piglet with Violets, Eeyore and Tigger. There were also four characters from Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows: Badger, Mole, Ratty and Toad. Edward Lear’s nonsense poem was also captured with a miniature of the Owl and the Pussycat in their boat.

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Wales and Northern Ireland, the constituents of the United Kingdom. It is understood that Her Majesty keeps this gift on her dressing table. The Company commissioned a replica for its collection.

Although Sarah had cast her net wider by exhibiting annually at ‘Loot’, she was now effectively catering for two separate markets. ‘With the roaring inflation of the 1970s, my Camden Lock Market customers were seeking smaller, less expensive items, while I really wanted to make some larger pieces. So, I decided to open a shop.’

Above: Duck Salt Cellars Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington This pair of salts are typical of Sarah’s work – they are whimsical.

The webbed feet and the duck’s head terminals to the spoons bring a smile to those that see them. A stock item for many years, in 1993 these retailed at £1,150 a pair. Length of spoons 7cm.

London 1986.

Opposite: Bee and Buttercups Courtesy Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Sarah’s flower studies may not be in the same league as Fabergé’s, but they are nevertheless charming. Indeed, one featuring the national flowers of the three countries that comprise Great Britain was considered an appropriate gift when the Queen visited Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1979. It is understood that Her Majesty displays it on her dressing table. This example of buttercups with a bee hovering on one of the flower heads was purchased at a provincial auction in 2008 for a few pence over £195 including all auction costs and shipping. Another example sold at Bonhams Post-war Silver sale in May 2010 for a couple of pounds over £800. Height 10cm. London 1982.

Of the London-based silversmiths working during the final four decades of the 20th century, less than a handful have had street-facing retail outlets in the capital. She chose the City of London or the ‘Square Mile’ as London’s financial district is called,7 as the location for this venture. The shop opened in 1980 at 14 Basinghall Street beside the Guildhall and a stone’s throw from the Bank of England. Her landlord was the Company and her customers were bankers, stock, commodity and insurance brokers, currency and other dealers, secretaries, clerks and other office workers.

Although not on a main thoroughfare, the shop was well positioned in the heart of the City and was spacious with large windows on two aspects. The stock ranged from gold and silver jewellery (including cufflinks for men) to candlesticks, from models of animals and characters8 to

water jugs. Her series of dogs are exquisitely modelled and include an American cocker spaniel, bulldog, cocker spaniel, corgi, fox terrier, King Charles spaniel, Labrador, long-haired dachshund, retriever, small dachshund, springer spaniel, Staffordshire bull terrier, and West Highland terrier. The menagerie of animals was far more extensive than canines, with felines, ponies and everything from mice to elephants.

‘During the nineties I put on a series of exhibitions based on English sayings, which were hugely successful.

There were around 200 pieces in all. Most were one-offs, but the more popular ones became stock items such as the “Drinking like a Fish” goblet which I still make.’

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and silver-gilt merry-go-round for presentation to the Worshipful Company of Saddlers. Although not motorised, it can be set into motion with a very gentle push as its mechanism incorporates ball-bearings.

The condition when purchased.

After being restored by the craftsman, who made it 27 years previously.

bottles on the sea bed. Other larger pieces in the series were the ‘Barking up the Wrong Tree’ pair of candlesticks, where the stems were a tree trunk with branches, the dog with front paws on one trunk looking upwards and barking, the cat being perched on a branch on the other candlestick. Another was the ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’ candlestick where the devil has chained a mermaid to a rock with the sea below. Smaller items included the ‘Lame Duck’, ‘The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg’ and ‘Book Worm’ miniatures. During the 1980s, her Old Street workshop had six to eight craftsmen working at the bench.

Despite having a retail shop, Sarah remained very hands-on. ‘Those in the workshop were taught to do everything from cleaning the place to doing the books to running the shops. In a way they were trained to be self-employed and indeed this is what Andrew Metcalfe and Andrew Buckingham went on to do. I employed someone in the shop full-time, but I was there every lunchtime, which of course was the main trading period for retailers in the City. People like to meet the maker.’

opened in 1986 and closed a respectable 12 years later.

Although the shop at Piccadilly Arcade may not have been as successful as the one in the City, the fact remains that it was the only occasion that a silversmith had operated two street-facing retail outlets concurrently in London during the second half of the 20th century.

Sarah’s workshop was also involved with important commissions. After the opening of her first shop, her future nearby neighbours, the Corporation of London, commissioned her to make a standing cup for presentation to HM The Queen Mother on the occasion of her 80th birthday. For the 500th anniversary of the founding of the Dublin Assay Office in 1987, the Company commissioned her to make a loving cup. When HM Queen Elizabeth II re-opened the refurbished Royal Exchange in October 1991, Her Majesty was presented with a silver, silver-gilt and enamel casket by Guardian Royal Exchange9 that was designed by Sarah and made in her workshop. Her most fun commission was a silver

The workshop was so productive that by the mid-1980s Sarah decided that she needed another outlet. ‘I looked towards the West End on the basis that I would then reach the wives of the bankers and brokers when they came up to town, as well as the American and Japanese and other visitors to London.’ In 1986 another shop was opened at 12 Piccadilly Arcade, which links the busy thoroughfare of Piccadilly to Jermyn Street. Fortnum & Mason’s is nearby, the Royal Academy opposite and Mayfair and St James’s on the doorstep. The shop

9. The building of the first Royal Exchange was completed soon after 1567. It was a bourse for merchants, together with offices and shops. While the purchase price of the land was raised by subscription, Sir Thomas Gresham, a prominent merchant, paid for the building itself. A grasshopper was part of the Gresham crest and the insect featured prominently as a decorative motif on the building.

The Exchange was lost in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and was rebuilt, but fell victim to a fire again in 1838. The present building was opened in 1844. The original function of the Exchange ceased in 1939 and the building became the offices of the Royal Exchange Assurance Company. The bourse was used as an exhibition space, save for a brief period in the 1980s when it became home to LIFFE, the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange. The central courtyard is now an upmarket shopping centre.

10. ‘Goldensilver: 60 years a smiting’.

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‘A great deal of my work is influenced by nursery life, which was a result of a happy childhood.’ She sees her work as falling between two stools. Although she had retail outlets, she does not see herself as a commercial silversmith, nor does she claim to be an artist-goldsmith like Kevin Coates. More comfortable with smaller works rather than large pieces, she is a superb modeller and

Opposite: Miniature Silver Paintbox Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographers Woolley & Wallis (unrestored)/ Bill Burnett (restored) Buying something which has seen better days at auction and having it restored to its original glory is a joy. This miniature silver paint box was bought at auction in 2011 for a few pence over £370. Sarah put us in touch with Andrew Buckingham, one of her former craftsmen. It transpired that he had originally made it in 1984. He undertook the restoration for £60, including replacing the paints and re-gilding. It was returned as good as new. Length 6cm. London 1984.

Above: Jeremy Fisher Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher was written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and has long been a favourite of small children.

The story is all about Mr Fisher, a frog, going on his lily-pad boat across the lake to fish. He encounters all sorts of setbacks, but finally being nearly swallowed by a trout, he swims ashore and hops home, declaring he will never go fishing again. Sarah’s silver model of Jeremy Fisher has a whimsical charm that will bring childhood memories flooding back. This piece was retailed in 1993 at £545. Height 3.8cm. London 1997.

Right: Unicorn Goblet Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett When full, one would probably need to hold two of the unicorn handles to guide it steadily towards one’s lips. The spiral grooved stem is a nice touch. Height 19.6cm. London 1990.

produces charming animal and exquisite flower studies, as well as fictional characters. Her work also has a unique quirky element that is aesthetically pleasing while at the same time being amusing. When the lease of her Basinghall Street shop ended in 2000 she decided not to renew it. However, two years before it closed she did stage an exhibition of Michael Murray’s work there, as well as pieces by his many students.10 She continues to work from her north London home, her studio and workshop being converted from a small factory at the end of her garden where parts for spitfires were made during World War II.

AVAILABILITY Sarah Jones’ work does appear occasionally on the secondary market. She still works to commission and sells through her website – see Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact and website details.

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ROD KELLY At school Rod came 26th out of 28 in metalwork and had no formal art instruction.

Inspired by an article about Gustave Doré he became interested in art. He is now one of the country’s leading chasers of silver and gold objects and is also a coin designer.

His is an unusual story, for everything at which he excels he appears to have stumbled upon by complete chance.

Being creative is a mixture of personality, ability and flair – it has to be led by a vision and results only come from hard work and a determination to produce a piece of work better and finer than the last. Creating is such a visual experience. Makers have to be inspirational about how they collect their research information and then have the ability to use the visual research to create a design. Soaking up an atmosphere, letting yourself be open to as many visual experiences as possible is vitally important but it is in the privacy and quietness of the studio that the thoughts and experiences start to simmer and distil into a design or series of drawings.

Rod Kelly

Rod Allan Kelly was born at Reading, Berkshire in 1956.

Unusually for anyone whose professional career has been entirely dedicated to creativity, it was not until his late teens that Rod decided that his life would evolve in the artistic world. ‘I had no formal art education until I was 19’, he said in his usual modest way. ‘I studied economics, history and sociology at A-level. However, I became fascinated by an article in the Sunday Telegraph on the work of Gustave Doré,1 one of the most prolific and successful book illustrators of the 19th century. I also loved the work of Aubrey Beardsley,2 the leading British illustrator of the 1890s. I liked the intensity of the black lines and the vivid movement in both artists’ work.’ In 1975, he was accepted on to a one-year foundation course in art at Preston Polytechnic.3 ‘On the strength of one drawing’, he added with a smile. ‘I found myself surrounded by new influences and a wide range of media.’ At the end of the year he was accepted for a three-year degree course in 3-D design at Birmingham Polytechnic’s Faculty of Art and Design.4 ‘I stumbled upon the technique of chasing by chance’, he revealed. Indeed, in the summer of 1978 he 1. Paul Gustave Doré 1832-1883 was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor who worked primarily with wood and steel engraving. There was a major exhibition of his work in London in 1867 2. Aubrey Vincent Beardsley 1872-1898 drew in black ink. His work was influenced by Japanese woodcuts and emphasised the erotic, the decadent and the grotesque. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement that saw art as a refined sensuous pleasure rather than a means to convey moral or sentimental messages.

3. It became Lancashire Polytechnic in 1984 and the University of Central Lancashire in 1992.

4. In 1988 the Faculty absorbed the Bournville College of Art to form the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.

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borrowed the Faculty’s chasing tools and experimented by chasing several beakers in gilding metal. Chasing looks very much like engraving as it involves producing a linear design upon the metal. However, the metal is not cut away, but is pushed by a tool into the desired pattern, moving the surface of the metal. The technique involves the use of hammers and punches. He continued, ‘I liked the lines, controlling the metal and the black and white colours of silver. Those early influences of Doré, Beardsley and others led me to try and create experimental low relief forms in silver using lines and low relief depth. Everything fell into place.’ It was during his final year at Birmingham that he won a design competition and received his first commission. This was for the Cadbury’s National Amateur Swimming Association Trophy that he delivered in 1979.

Opposite: Water Jug Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett In 1993, Garrard celebrated 150 years of being Britain’s Crown Jewellers. One of the events to mark this landmark was an exhibition entitled ‘Royal Goldsmiths: Garrard Design and Patronage in the Twentieth Century’. Its aim was to show examples of trends in British design and technique in the 20th century through objects made by, or made for, Garrard. The first part was a retrospective, while the second featured the work of 17 contemporary British silversmiths, ‘to encourage the continuing and evolving skills of the silversmith into the 21st century’. This water jug was one piece commissioned by Rod for the exhibition. Chased with horse chestnut leaves, it bears Garrard’s special hallmark celebrating the 150th anniversary as opposed to Rod’s maker’s mark. With Rod’s approval, the rim of its base has been engraved ROD KELLY SILVERSMITH. Height 22cm, London 1993.

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While in Birmingham he was introduced to Bob Bates5 an artist who was at the Royal College of Art with Malcolm Appleby, the engraver. Bob told him how Malcolm lived alone in a disused railway station in Crathes east of Banchory in the Aberdeenshire region of Scotland. Having obtained a BA degree with 1st Class Honours, Rod secured a place at the RCA in London. At his interview he showed his chased beakers and said that he wanted to do more chasing. As was the custom, he took a year out before starting his course. In the summer of 1979 while on a family holiday in Scotland, Rod recalled being told of Malcolm engraving metal in an abandoned railway station and the Kelly family called at Malcolm’s studio and workshop at Crathes. Rod recalls, ‘We only stayed about 20 minutes. My father asked all of the questions on my behalf. I was far too embarrassed, after all I was with my parents!’ During the summer of 1980 he cycled 2,000 miles round France with a friend.

Rod Kelly was at the RCA from 1980-3 where he studied under Gerald Benney, who was then Professor of Silversmithing. ‘This gave me a wonderful opportunity to hone my skills as a chaser of silver and to develop ideas and line forms that would adorn pieces of hand raised silver’, said Rod. He recalled, ‘Gerald Benney once said to me that the best craftsmen are those who can get out of their own unfortunate 274

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mistakes. That is quite true – very little goes exactly according to plan.’ He also remembers the help he received from a former working silversmith while at the RCA. ‘I was very fortunate to be taught by John Bartholomew who had worked at Wakely and Wheeler.

He was a superb silversmith who Professor Benney recruited as Chief Silversmithing Instructor to teach the finer points of the craft, although he thought my ideas were quite strange and unconventional.’ During the summers of 1981 and 1982 he benefited from work experience with Malcolm Appleby, one week on the first and a fortnight on the second occasion. Rod remembers writing to Malcolm and receiving a postcard back that just gave a date and a time for his arrival. Having taken the train to Stonehaven, Rod, a keen cyclist who had taken his bicycle with him from London, rode the last 20 miles to Appleby’s workshop, studio and home.

In 1982 while at the RCA, Rod made the Hawk Bowl, which Rod regards as his first competent work. It was exhibited the following summer at the Degree Show, at which graduating students display their work. Mrs Jean Schofield, who was a volunteer at the Victoria and

5. Robert Bates was born in Wolverhampton. His work is small in scale, of minutely observed and intricately executed landscapes. He died in 2009.

Albert Museum and involved with the silver at the Merchant Taylors’ Company, purchased it. At a later date Rod can remember Mrs Schofield using it to serve

Opposite: Carp Vases and detail Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Remarkably Rod can turn shapes in his mind like a 3-D computer.

Nevertheless, it took him several days to design this pair of vases, each featuring three carp, which were commissioned by Garrard.

His first major commercial commission, they are still among his favorite creations. The detail of the fish with its head breaking the water’s surface took many hours to execute. Rod normally only completes one square inch of chasing per hour. When these vases were exhibited at the Craft Council’s 1993 exhibition ‘20th Century Silver’, Rod was introduced to John Keatley in front of the cabinet in which they were displayed. John became an ardent admirer of Rod’s work. The vases were purchased at auction in 2006 for just under £18,000. Height 34.4cm. London 1987.

Above: Hawk Bowl Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington The Hawk Bowl was made by Rod during his last year at the Royal College of Art. The piece was designed according to the Golden Proportion (see Glossary) and the wings of the bowl acted as handles to pass it from one person to another. The feathers have inlaid gold details, as does the hawk’s head which is featured in the centre of the bowl. It was bought by Jean Schofield who was curator of the silver collection at the Merchant Taylors’ Company. It originally had a matching serving spoon. Width 20cm. London 1982.

mashed potatoes when he and his wife were guests at supper with Jean and her husband Patrick. She retained all of the correspondence from the young Rod Kelly, as well as his original designs, and cherished the bowl during her lifetime. Following her death, the bowl, designs and letters appeared at auction, but without the accompanying spoon that he had made for it.

For a year after his graduation he shared a workshop in Brick Lane. However, when his wife-to-be Sheila McDonald the enameller graduated from the RCA the following year, they both shared a workshop with Jane Short, Clive Burr and Alistair McCallum in London’s Old Street. In 1987 Rod and Sheila moved out of London to set up a joint workshop and studio in the stables of what is still their Norfolk home. Today, Rod’s work is owned by members of the Royal Family, livery companies in the City of London, is used at 10 Downing Street, in churches and cathedrals, is displayed in museums and owned by collectors throughout the world. His first commission after graduating was for the P&O Makower Trust. This was established in 1974 and is primarily concerned with the promotion and exhibition of contemporary silver and the support of young silversmiths. The commission was to make a chased vase for presentation to the Victoria and Albert Museum. This was delivered in 1985. The museum must 275

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have been pleased as three years later Sir Roy Strong commissioned him to make a rose bowl for presentation to Her Majesty the Queen Mother upon the opening of the Museum’s Pirelli Garden.6 Generally Rod develops a close rapport with his clients. This is well-illustrated by the fact that until 2010 he was a trustee of another organisation in the Makower fold. This is the Bishopsland Educational Trust which runs the silver and jewellery workshops at Bishopsland in South Oxfordshire. Bishopsland is a postgraduate training workshop for high-flying silversmiths and jewellers. Its one-year course provides a bridge between college and professional practice. Rod Kelly is a Bishopsland Senior and Visiting Fellow. He gives an annual master-class at Bishopsland. After John Bartholomew retired from the RCA, he was Bishopsland’s Technical Tutor for many years.

Rod maintains that the key to his ability to design and produce pieces of modern silver is drawing. He explained, ‘The way that I naturally draw with powerful lines, is a perfect vehicle for chased images to be created in low relief on silver or gold.’ The vessel on which they are to be used also has to be carefully considered – the shape and size of the vessel will be carefully raised by hand and hammered to shape by Rod. It is very unusual to find a silversmith who makes his own pieces as well as decorating them in low relief and inlaying them with gold. He continued, ‘Initially I start on paper, having usually discussed a brief with a client or customer.

Formulating a brief is one of the most important steps because it is where the parameters are set.’ Rod normally works to commission. He likes to match the personality of the client with the object that he is designing for them.

‘Understanding their needs and interests is very important and can be very inspiring’, he added.

His first stage is to reference images that he intends to use. ‘I prefer to see and draw the real thing rather than to consult other illustrators’ images that can mislead and be incorrect. Anything I can collect and bring back to my studio will hopefully be drawn and studied. It is very instructive to study something like an ear of wheat, to see how it is formed and to absorb its shape and line.

Having drawn a plant or image, I then like to shelve the original sketches and start to use my imagination to subtly change how things look. I do not want to copy something slavishly just so that it might be recognised. I prefer to juxtapose several items or images to produce a frieze – of patterns – that when studied can reveal the context of the decoration.’

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‘Ideas are usually formulated in my mind following some research that will have resulted in a collection of many images, possibly encouraged by a visit to a museum or due to reading about a subject that might be relevant to a design brief. A long walk can be very stimulating – my mind turns shapes around rather like a 3-D computer and I can see all the detail and how the item might be made. Visualising both the object and the detail can often save me a lot of drawing time. I can eliminate the shapes that will not work in my mind rather than on paper. I like to imagine how it will function – the images decorating the form also appear in great detail and then I am often fired up with excitement and enthusiasm.

Sadly, when executed on paper some wonderful ideas that I thought would work well become very disappointing and it is easy to become very disillusioned.

It is at this point you can resolve the problems that are purely visual – it is a case of aesthetics and proportion, decisions to be made and possibly models to be constructed to see how the form is going to develop.’

Creativity in Rod’s view is a mixture of personality, ability and flair. Nevertheless, the creative process has to be led by a vision and that only comes from hard work. There also has to be a determination to produce a piece of work that is better and finer than the last. He firmly believes that for the output to be of the highest

Opposite: Silver Binding for The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer Courtesy The Keatley Trust Rod was approached by John Keatley who wished to commission a silver binding for the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, hand-printed in 1896 at William Morris’s Kelmscott Press as a memorial to his mother. John had previously worked with James Brockman, a distinguished bookbinder. James had developed an idea for a fully articulating metal binding, but was not a specialist metalworker.

Rod explains, ‘John introduced us and we started to work together on a model. It was very technical and James rejected my first prototypes in metal as they could not flex sufficiently. Having discussed the idea with Ian Calvert, a good friend and a fellow silversmith, I finally produced a model for an articulating hinge that would work perfectly when finally made in silver. The design on the front cover is based upon original Morris designs and the panels reflect the stories of some of the Chaucer Tales. The images were inspired by the pencil sketches of Burne-Jones who illustrated the original book. The spine has a Morris acanthus design chased in low relief. The reverse cover features a dying knight with a shield lying in repose staring at the heavens with an image of the White Tower of London in the background. There are chased roundels on the front with the initials G.C. for Chaucer and W.M. on the reverse for Morris. Many of the details are inlaid with pure gold. The inside of the silver has gilt edges and the doublures and boards are covered with vellum. Height 43.5cm. London 2000.

standard, the input in the sense of the information collected has to be high and inspired. He sums this up by saying, ‘A maker needs to be equally inspirational in how he collects his research information as well as how he might incorporate it into his own work.’

It was fascinating to listen as Rod’s explanation of how his design of the 2008 £5 crown to celebrate the 450th Anniversary of the Accession of Queen Elizabeth I developed. ‘I had been reading an architectural book on the building and construction of Europe’s largest cathedrals. My attention was drawn towards the mathematics of the buildings. The four main pillars of the nave and choir crossing set out the proportion and foundation of the building. As Elizabeth was often in conflict with the Church, I thought the four roses symbolising the four pillars would be the pivotal part of the design. The arches are struck from these four points within the design creating a mandorla, which is the Italian for almond. In traditional Christian art, the Virgin Mary is often depicted within a mandorla and this signified, amongst other things, that she was a virgin. I considered this the ideal shape for a framework to encompass the head of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. Of course, her relationship with Robert Dudley, her loyal servant, was suspected to be more than just platonic. Dudley ended up in the Tower of London. Before he lost his head he carved a floral pattern in the stonework within the Tower. It seemed fitting to include this, as in the design the leaves give movement and complete what is quite a tight structure.’

‘The lettering came from an Elizabethan text. The Roman capitals have scrolls and tails, quite unlike a more traditional Roman alphabet. The scrolls and tails reflected the movement of the leaves and I feel that the lettering becomes part of the design, rather than just an addition placed around the circumference. The portrait of Elizabeth was based upon the painting by George Gower,7 but to give a little insight in to the modern age, I digitally reversed the image so that she is looking the other way. The selected images arrive after a great deal of research. I start with so many ideas and images and slowly select details that I know will interact, and produce what I believe to be an exciting design based upon historical fact.’

His first success with coin design was the Brunel8 £2 that was issued in 2006. ‘With Brunel, I had the evocative black and white photographs that I had seen during my History of Art lectures at the RCA. I felt his portrait was synonymous with his work and I based his image for the coin on one of the photographs, changing

6. The Pirelli Garden is the courtyard of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was designed by Douglas Childs from the Department of the Environment in an Italianate style to coincide with a garden exhibition staged by the museum.

7. George Gower c.1540-1596, became Serjeant Painter to Queen Elizabeth I in 1581.

8. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the English civil engineer who built bridges, tunnels, dockyards, railways and a series of steamships including the Great Britain, which is considered the first modern ship as it is constructed of metal and was driven by a propeller rather than a paddle wheel.

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the detail but keeping the outline. With this particular photograph, huge chains hang in the background as a backdrop. This was a very powerful detail – I believe they were used to slow down a new ship’s entry into the water during its launch. I considered the chains would be perfect for the frame around the portrait of Brunel.

This feature also works well, as a bimetallic coin is divided into two distinct parts.’

‘Brunel of course is known for his huge engineering projects. I wanted to illustrate the scale of his achievements on the coin, so I selected a part image of his Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash in Devon and a wheel from one of his drawings. I used these in the background. The lettering used on the coin for the date and denomination is the same typeface used for Brunel’s name and dates on the bridge’s two main supports. I thought that the perfect vehicle for both the date and the denomination would be the rivets used in the bridge’s construction. Little details like this I believe are important. In all my designs I want everything to have a reason and a purpose.’

Rod goes to great lengths while researching. When Sir Simon Hornby9 commissioned a silver jug, he asked for it to be chased with Californian poppies. Rod went to his local garden centre, bought one and planted it in his garden. This allowed him to draw the foliage and the flowers. The jug’s design has interwoven stems, leaves and poppy heads inlaid with fine gold details.

Unfortunately the plant was killed by an autumn frost and Rod has not seen a Californian (Romneya Coulteri) poppy since! In 2002, the Duke of Devonshire, then the Marquess of Hartington, the Queen’s Representative at Ascot10 asked him if would be willing to design a gold cup for the Golden Jubilee Stakes. This was the new

9. Although not related to the founding family, Sir Simon was the third generation of his family to head the newsagents and booksellers WH Smith. He was chairman from 1982 to 1994 and also held other directorates. From 19861992, he was Chairman of the Design Council and from 1994-97, Chairman of the Company’s Modern Plate Committee. Gerald Benney introduced Sir Simon to Rod. 10. A position he held from 1997 to 2011. For this period he was responsible for all aspects of the Royal Enclosure and the Royal Family’s attendance at Ascot.

11. John Tradescant the elder (c.1570s – 1638) was an English naturalist, gardener, collector and traveller. His son, John Tradescant the younger (16081662) followed in his father’s footsetps.

12. Elias Ashmole (1617-92) was born at Lichfield in Staffordshire and trained in the law, first becoming a solicitor then a barrister in London. During the Civil War (1642-49) he went to Oxford where his studies embraced alchemy and astrology. He returned to London in 1649 and established his own residence with his wealthy second wife. His interests moved away from chemistry to antiquity and in 1661 he became a founding member of the Royal Society.

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name given to the Cork and Orrery Stakes in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Rod naturally was delighted and set about drawing. He decided upon a square shape with a strong wide base for recording the names of the winners, the base and the cup being connected by a black walnut section. For the chasing on the cup, Rod featured the four wrought iron finials on the Spagnoletti Royal Ascot race board that is muchloved by the Queen, as well as aspects of the Royal Arms, Her Majesty’s favourite sports and images associated with her long reign. The cup received the Queen’s approval.

A milestone in Rod’s career was in 1987 when he received his first sizable commercial commission. This was for a pair of vases for the then Crown Jewellers, Garrard’s and they remain one of his favourite creations.

It usually takes Rod an hour to chase a detailed square inch. He reckons it took him several days to finalise the designs for the vases and that the chasing then took him five weeks. Each features three carp swimming in water with the head of two just breaking the water line, the whole framed with pond weeds. The fishes’ eyes are embellished with inlaid gold detail. Rod recalls drawing the design. ‘I actually bought large rainbow trout and froze them in the freezer in contorted curved forms so that I could capture the movement of the fish – then I ate them! The line drawings were used as a basis for the swirling carp. I visited the River Itchen and plucked some of the weed of various species so that I could represent the weed in swirling patterns.’

Opposite: Ashmolean Ewer and Basin Courtesy of Rod Kelly This set was commissioned for the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford

by The Friends of the Ashmolean to celebrate the opening of the Museum’s new wing. Rod comments, ‘In considering such a wonderful opportunity to produce a piece of silver I wanted to incorporate the history of the collection, the Museum and the celebrated Cockerell building.’ The central roundel and panels of the basin are enamelled by Rod’s wife Sheila McDonald. Although they met in the early 1980s and have shared a studio for many years, this is their first collaboration. The fruits are inspired by John Tradescant’s early 17th-century watercolour sketches now in the Bodleian Library. The collections of the Tradescants (father and son) were gifted to Elias Ashmole who in turn gave them, together with his own collection, to Oxford University on condition that a building was constructed to house the material. The Ashmolean opened in 1683. The central roundel is surrounded by a frieze of ash leaves and if you look carefully, you can see the snout and paws of a mole emerging from under them. Yes, it is a rebus of Ashmole, the Museum’s founder. Height of the ewer, 27.5cm. London 2008.

Interestingly, although Rod is now one of the country’s leading goldsmiths and silversmiths, he did not excel in metalwork at school. ‘I have a wonderful old school report in which I came 26th out of 28 in metalwork.’ His introduction to the world of coin design was also not encouraging. Kevin Clancy, Secretary of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee on the Design of Coins, saw his work at an exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall. He subsequently invited Rod to submit designs for the Brunel £2. ‘He told me not to hold my breath as I was an outsider. So there is always hope for anyone’, Rod added.

He has continued to develop his ideas but mainly prefers to work to commission rather than design and produce pieces for exhibition. It is the process of engaging with clients that inspires him to produce interesting new pieces of silver. He often deals with challenging design briefs and he often feels that this is what brings the best out of him. He has a wonderful archive of letters spanning the last 30 years. They include ones from the late Princess of Wales, the late Sir Edward Heath MBE, Sir Simon Hornby, Harry Oppenheimer, Cherie Blair, the Dean of St Paul’s and many more individuals who have enjoyed working with him on commissions. Pieces produced over the last five years include a large dish and ewer made to celebrate the centenary of the merging of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford and the University Galleries to create the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in 1908. Tim Wilson, Keeper of Western Art at the Museum said of Rod, ‘For me to help this genius of chased metalwork in devising suitable iconography for the Ashmolean silver commission was a huge pleasure.’

The outline shape of the piece related back to several medieval and later ewers and basins in various materials already in the Museum. The decoration includes images of griffins and balusters from the carved freezes found on the outside of the building designed by Charles Cockerell in 1839. The griffins grasp fruits that are based upon those in watercolour sketches known as ‘Tradescant’s Orchard’ by John Tradescant the elder11 now in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. The watercolours of fruits were part of the original collection made by John Tradescant and his son that was displayed in a museum at their London residence in Lambeth. The Tradescants were the first to open their collection of plants, minerals, coins and curiosities to the general public upon payment of a fee.

John Tradescant the younger gifted the collection by deed to Elias Ashmole12 then an antiquary of repute. Possession of the collection passed to Ashmole when Tradescant died.

In 1677 Ashmole gave his collections, comprising the contents of the Tradescants’ museum and the pieces he had gathered in addition to books and manuscripts to Oxford University. This was conditional upon constructing a building to house the material. This gift formed the basis of the Asholmean Museum that opened its doors to the public on 24 May 1683. If you look carefully in the centre of the dish, emerging from a ring of ash leaves are the feet and nose of a mole thereby celebrating Ashmole as the founder of the Museum. The enamelling was undertaken by Rod’s jeweller wife Sheila McDonald and are interpretations of the ‘Tradescant’s Orchard’. This was the first time the two had collaborated on a commission.

They have since made several beakers and tumblers together.

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Above: Clothworkers’ Cruet Courtesy Rod Kelly This cruet was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers to mark the Shearmen’s Company receiving its Royal Charter in 1508. It subsequently amalgamated with the Fullers’ Company (granted a Royal Charter in 1480) to form the Clothmakers’ Company. The piece consists of a large tray with base supports for two grinders, one for salt and the other for pepper. There are two smaller containers with hinged lids and glass liners, one being for mustard and the other for salt crystals.

They all have tops enamelled by Sheila McDonald, Rod’s wife. The decorative themes include threads, cloth, silk, material, two ram’s heads, thistles, and the shears used to cut the knap of the cloth as well as aspects of the Clothworkers’ Company’s Royal Charter granted by Henry VIII in 1528. Length 46cm. London 2009.

Left: Wedding Gift for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Courtesy Rod Kelly The invitation from the Royal Warrant Holders Association inviting Rod to submit a proposal for a wedding gift to HRH Prince William and Catherine Middleton came as a surprise and also with a request to send the drawings by e-mail as soon as possible. The Association represents around 800 individuals or companies holding Royal Warrants of Appointment as a mark of recognition of supplying goods or services for five years or more to the Households of HM The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh or HRH The Prince of Wales. They represent a wide cross-section of trade and industry ranging from traditional craftpersons to global corporations working at the cutting edge of technology. Although a diverse group, their common denominators are impeccable standards of service together with the provision of quality and excellence. Rod prepared the drawings at his small studio in the Shetlands. These incorporated images relating to the varied activities of the Warrant Holders ranging from stonemasonry to tapestries, from quills to engineering. Further images and symbols were then added to complete the decoration. Once approved, Rod raised the goblet by hand, then chased it in low relief adding inlaid gold highlights. Height 22cm. London 2011.

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In 2009 The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers gave Rod a major commission to make a cruet for the Master’s High Table. The pieces stand on a large four-sided chased dish featuring images relating to the Clothworkers’ Company, including two rams’ heads at each end. There is a central framework for receiving a salt, mustard and two pepper grinders (one for black, one for white pepper).

The individual containers have enamelled finials indicating the contents and are chased with thread

Above: Agincourt Charger Courtesy The Keatley Trust The Agincourt Charger is the first in a series commissioned by the Keatley Trust commemorating great British battles. The second will celebrate Flodden. The arms at the centre of the Agincourt Charger are those of Henry V and were enamelled by Rod’s wife Sheila McDonald. The surface of the charger is chased with a multitude of images to represent the participants in the battle, the arms on their banners, the weapons of early 15th-century warfare and the landscape of the battlefield. Each of Rod’s commissions requires a great amount of research before the actual design of the piece begins. Diameter 51cm. London 2012.

patterns. Rod has also made, over the last ten years, silver for the chapel at New College, Oxford: two altar vessels for wine and water, a lavabo bowl with three swimming fish, a paten for bread and most recently a pair of silver chalices with small patterns. In 2011 the Royal Warrant Holders Association approached Rod with a view to commissioning a goblet as a wedding gift for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The design includes images associated with the Royal Warrant Holders and is chased in low relief with inlaid pure gold details. He has recently completed a large charger celebrating the Battle of Agincourt. It features a large gilt cross as well as many images of billmen,13 fletchers,14 arrows, bowmen and cavalry horses to symbolise the battle and trees to represent the landscape of the battlefield. The cross is made up of the flags of the French aristocracy and the arms of the English lords. The enamelled arms of Henry V are placed in the centre of the dish which has been

13. Soldiers armed with a double-headed axe.

14. Arrowmakers.

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ROD KELLY

THE SHETLAND WORKSHOP For a period of eight years from 2005, Rod Kelly and his wife Sheila McDonald restored a small stone croft on Muckle Roe in Shetland, around 170km (110 miles) north of mainland Scotland. Called South House, it enjoys wonderful views of the sea and is set in spectacular surroundings. The wild environment is inspirational and there is an array of bird and sea life. Set in a relatively isolated position, the wind can certainly blow and occasionally the rain is horizontal. Although they had a small room in the croft used as a workshop, this was not a viable proposition for the long term and it was proposed to custom build a workshop a short distance from the croft.

hand raised with a hammer from a flat sheet of silver. It was commissioned by the Keatley Trust in 2011 and completed in 2012. Rod continues to develop ideas and pushes his skill as a silversmith and designer to new heights as pieces become larger and more complex.

However periodically he enjoys making small pieces for exhibition such as a hand raised 18-carat gold beaker with chased imagery. Those fortunate enough to own one regard these pieces as beautiful treasured heirlooms.

It is quite incredible that an article by Gustave Doré triggered Rod’s career. It set into a train a series of events that has enriched objects of both gold and silver over his career.

Above: Gold Beaker Courtesy The Keatley Trust This was commissioned to mark the Christening of John Keatley’s first and so far only grandson. It is chased in low relief with oak leaves and Seville oranges as he has an English father and a Spanish mother. The knop is engraved with an extended version of the Keatley Latin motto, Persequens audax, possidens sagax, perpetuo tenax which translates, ‘In pursuit bold, in possession wise, at all times steadfast’.

The base of the interior bears an enamelled shield. The piece is on long term loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Hand-raised from a circle of 18-carat gold, it has a height of 11.5cm. London 2007.

Right and opposite: The Shetland Workshop Courtesy Rod Kelly Interior and exterior views of the South House Silver Workshop at Muckle Roe, Shetland. On the right are students enjoying a weeklong course; Colette Bishop (right) and Kyanna Gordon (foreground).

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Over the past 30 years both Rod and Sheila have developed many skills such as chasing, hammerwork, silversmithing, enamelling, making jewellery, gold inlay and engraving. They both felt that the time had come to share these skills with the next generation. Their generous vision was a fully equipped workshop where they could invite young graduates, along with friends and enthusiasts, to attend courses and master classes. The project was financed from their own resources, but there was help towards some of the building costs from a Shetland Islands Enterprise Grant. Past clients and the Pearson Silver Foundation, each sponsored one of six workbenches.

The first week-long workshop took place in March 2013 with seven students from Bishopsland. Rod commented, ‘They worked really hard, all making a copper form by hand and then chasing the piece with different decorative designs. We covered the technique of chasing in great detail, the making of tools, pitch and how to lay out a design. We had roving conversations about soldering, commissioning, hammer-work and design. I was also able to see their recent work and give each of them a constructive tutorial. It is a real privilege to work with such enthusiastic and talented young silversmiths.’

The South House Silver Workshop is now a registered charity. Rod and Sheila plan to divide their time between Norfolk and Shetland.

POINTS TO NOTE Pieces made for Garrard & Co. The pieces Rod Kelly made for Garrard & Co. do not bear his hallmark, just Garrard’s hallmark. This was upon the insistence of Garrard. However, some pieces may be engraved, ‘Designed by Rod Kelly for Garrard & Co. 112 Regent Street’. Others may have been discreetly engraved with Rod Kelly’s name by subsequent owners.

Limited edition electroform beakers Braybrook & Britten commissioned a set of four beakers – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter – each chased with appropriate images. For example, Spring features snowdrops, horse chestnut buds and daffodils. With Rod Kelly’s approval, this original

was electroformed and hand finished by him.

Electroforming is a technique of electro-depositing metal (in this case silver) on to a mould made from the original. The metal is then separated from the mould and the free-standing metal replica is the ‘electroform’. The pieces were sold as numbered limited editions (1/10, 2/10 etc.) with a certificate explaining that they were replicas of Rod Kelly beakers, but were not themselves hand chased. The pieces do bear Rod Kelly’s maker’s mark. To distinguish the electroforms from a completely handmade beaker, Rod engraved his initials on the base of each beaker. It should be born in mind that on the secondary market these beakers may be sold without their certificates and have both Rod’s initials and the limited edition numbers (1/10 etc) erased.

The beakers bear London hallmarks for 2003. This is the only series of electroforms of his work that have been made. One was offered at Bonhams in December 2008 with its original certificate.

AVAILABILITY Very little of Rod Kelly’s work has appeared on the secondary market. A water jug chased with horse chestnut leaves was offered at Christie’s South Kensington in November 1999. A pair of goblets sold at the same sale. The next known offering was in October 2006 when the large pair of vases featuring carp mentioned above were auctioned at Bonhams.

Interestingly all these three pieces were made for Garrard & Co. The Hawk Bowl was offered by Ewbank of Woking in June 2008. A freedom box, one of four commissioned by Poole Borough Council, was offered at Christie’s South Kensington in March 2009. The recipient’s name, as well as a magnificent engraving of Poole’s coat of arms by Stanley Reece, had unfortunately been erased.15 The illuminated freedom scroll was missing, presumably being kept by the recipient or his/her family.

Commissions may be placed direct with Rod Kelly.

See www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact and website details.

15. Rod has subsequently reworked areas of his chasing that had been damaged during the erasing of the engraving of the arms and the recipient’s name.

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CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE Unlike the majority of the post-war silversmiths who made a name for themselves, Christopher Lawrence started at the bench straight from school. He later became a designer-silversmith. The defining characteristics of his work are subtle lines and shapes as well as the use of texturing. He is the only silversmith to win three coveted Jacques Cartier Awards for ‘craftsman of the year’.

I feel fortunate as a designer in having had a thorough training as a craftsman. The pencil automatically adjusts to what the hammer and the metal will do. In this way, the medium cannot be mis-used.

Christopher Lawrence

Christopher Nigel Lawrence, the second son of a Congregational minister, was born in 1936. His claim to first using a hammer, which is the smiths’ most essential tool, was at the age of three. According to family tradition he nailed pieces of wood to the floor.

When recounting this story he would add with a laugh, ‘I obviously had this thing about hammering.’ It became clear as time progressed that he was more inclined to craft than academic topics. At the age of nine or 10 he won a competition at school for making a model of a Tudor house. The prize was ‘a commission’ to make the manor house and church for the planned model village.1 Much to his parents’ horror, he did not pass the 11-Plus so went to the local secondary modern school. In his second year he started metalwork classes.

He still has the copper and brass box he made for his parents at this time. It was featured in the local press and was his first piece of publicity. The teacher had an engineering as opposed to craft background, which was not ideal for his role. Thankfully he was intrigued with Christopher’s experimentation and gave him a free rein. The young Lawrence made a tea service in copper, complete with a tray and had it chrome plated.

Although it was not long before he regarded it ‘as absolutely appalling’, in his defence he would point out that nobody was teaching him, but that ‘I was just getting on and doing it.’ As Head Boy in his final year, Christopher was given complete freedom to excuse himself from lessons. Needless to say, he did and would work in the metalwork room.

1. He still has the model of the manor house that he rescued from a local antique/secondhand shop in the late 1950s after his parents had a clearout. He has owned it ever since. The shopkeeper was initially reluctant to sell it, as people liked looking at it in the window.

2. It was where the Sainsbury HQ is now.

3. Approx. £1.87 in decimal money.

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So how did he progress from the appalling to the magnificent? The scoutmaster at his father’s church was Norman Vander. Christopher had no idea what line of business he was in, but clearly Mr Vander had been discussing his future with his father and had discovered he liked metalwork. It was suggested that Christopher should travel with his scoutmaster from his hometown of Westcliff-on-Sea to London by train and go to the silver workshops of CJ Vander in Fetter Lane.2 The young Lawrence could not believe what he saw: over 20 people working with metal. He was told he could watch, but must not make himself a nuisance. ‘It was absolutely wonderful!’ he recalls. ‘On the return train journey he asked me, “Would you like to be a silversmith?” All I could do was gasp, “Oh, yes”.’ So, in September 1952 aged 15¾ Christopher Lawrence started work at Vander’s for the princely sum of £1 17s 6d3 a week. The following year he officially became an apprentice. He was indentured to Bill Cassley, one of Vander’s two flat workers or tray makers. Christopher caught the 6.19am train to London and after a bus ride got to the workshop for 8am. He had a day-release on Wednesdays at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts and had evening classes from 7-9pm three days a week, when he would arrive home at 11pm.

Opposite: Reed Warbler Candelabra Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This pair of silver and silver-gilt candelabra each feature a reed warbler’s nest suspended at its centre. The cover of the nests lift to reveal a silver-gilt bowl. Each nest took the silversmith 70-80 hours to weave. The pair were shown at Christopher’s exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1973, but later became separated. The Pearson Silver Collection purchased one in London during 2001 and the second in Dorset in 2005. The second was was just £25 more. Of course, a pair is more valuable than two singles. It is a joy to reassemble a set or reunite a pair of objects that have been split.

Height 33cm. The pair weigh just over 5¼ kg. London 1972.

CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE

CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE

first day he asked me to draw a vase.

When I’d finished it he looked at it for a while and said, “Yes, you’re going to be alright.” At 16-17, I had made my mind up that I wanted to be a designer-craftsman and not just a craftsman. I wanted to work all the way through from picking a pencil up to the finished piece. I asked Norman Vander, “Could I do your presentation drawings for you?” He said no, until I said I would do them at home! I wanted the experience. When discussing a commission with a client, you only have one chance and drawings are your showcase. Reggie thought this was a brilliant move. My own ideas began to creep into the designs.’

Despite the long hours, he loved it.

However, it was not all plain sailing. In his words, ‘Bill took me on as he was given threepence an hour extra. It would be unfair to say he wouldn’t teach me anything, but he had this thing about passing on too much knowledge and then losing his job to the person he taught. He had been through the 1930s recession and was insecure. It was sad. Flat work is one of the most difficult hammering processes. As a lot of City companies had suffered losses with their silver during the war, a great deal was being remade in the fifties. I first learnt how to hammer dinner plates. I took to it readily and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately Bill was a smoker and would have six weeks off every winter with bronchitis. Needless to say, the other tray maker would not help me, as I knew the boss.’

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Christopher completed his apprenticeship in 1958 and after eight months qualified as a craftsman. Norman Bassant, who had trained with RE Stone, joined Vanders after his National Service instead of returning to the business where he had been an apprentice, as Mr Stone was renowned for his economy.4 During a conversation with Christopher, Norman suggested that having mastered flat work, he really should acquire experience of hollow raising and planishing. Ian Calvert, another of Stone’s apprentices had also not returned to his part-time work with Mr Stone after his National Service and there was a vacancy at the workshop. ‘RE Stone was so puritanical that everything was raised – even if it could have been spun’, Christopher enthused. He added, ‘Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Albert Phillips, what a craftsman, what a hammer man! A complete chalice raised, planished and chased in 28 hours.

You really learnt to hollow hammer.’ It was while at RE

‘The defining moment was when we had an order to remake all the meat and fish dishes for a bank. The job was given to me and as I looked up I saw the other experienced flat workers sniggering. My first task was to make a three-foot long salmon dish. I was 18 and knew I was being tested to the absolute limit. When you have a piece of metal of this length, all the tension is down the length and virtually none in the width. Every time you hit the metal it goes like a banana. Over those five or six weeks on that order I grew up. By trial and error I learnt to control the metal. After that I got all the large dishes to make.’

Opposite: Decanter Set Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett At first glance this decanter set and tray could be mistaken for the work of Gerald Benney. However, there are differences in the two smiths’ styles. The most obvious one is the textured surfaces. Here Christopher has used what has been described as ‘an onion skin’ texture, which is softer than Gerald’s ‘Benney Bark Finish’. Both smiths liked to use a good gauge of silver – this set weighs in at nearly 3kg. Height of the decanter 26.7cm. London 1973.

‘At this period in my life a major influence was Reginald Hill. He was the leading designer from the late forties, the fifties and to some degree the sixties. He had his work made at Vanders. Reggie was my design teacher at the Central School. He was brilliant and a lovely man. On my

Above: Napkin ‘Rings’ Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Christopher recalls a press review of his work in the 1970s where the journalist made reference to his rectangular napkin ‘rings’ having the advantage of never rolling off a table. He also made some in the traditional shape. These rings are 5cm wide. London 1969.

Stone that Christopher won his first Jacques Cartier Award5 for making a rose bowl designed by Alex Styles.

In 1961 Gerald Benney, who had been approached by Coventry Cathedral regarding the largest ecclesiastical commission of the century,6 contacted Christopher.

Gerald only had one craftsman at the time and he was not a flat worker, a skill required for the large bread plates for the cathedral. Having heard of Christopher’s reputation – and the fact that he had won a Jacques Cartier Award – Christopher was the obvious choice. The two men formed an excellent working relationship and had the greatest respect for each other. For Christopher, it was an opportunity to move away from traditional to modern design. It was during his time at Benney’s that Christopher gained his two other Jacques Cartier Awards. The first was for the mace for the University of East Anglia in 1965 and the second for an 18-carat gold decanter a couple of years later. Gerald had asked Christopher what was the ultimate challenge in raising.

‘Repeating right-angled tapering fluting, rather like the bellows of a concertina’, was the response. Both items feature this design, but the decanter is a real tour de force of the hammer man’s art as the flutes change direction twice. It was originally made for the opening of

4. Norman Bassant was paid more by Vanders than RE Stone had offered.

5. While always referred to as the Jacques Cartier Award in the industry, it is in fact the Jacques Cartier Memorial Award. This is the UK’s premier craft award for gold and silversmiths. It is given at the discretion of the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council. This was founded in 1908 with the remit ‘to encourage, stimulate and promote the pursuit of excellence in craftsmanship and design amongst all those in the United Kingdom engaged in Silversmithing, Goldsmithing, Jewellery and the Allied Crafts.’ This remains its remit today. The criteria for the Jacques Cartier Award is for exceptional and outstanding craftsmanship. It is only awarded when, in the Council’s judgement, an entry achieves a standard to justify the honour. The winner’s name is inscribed in the Jacques Carter Memorial Award Gold Book and he or she also receives a gold replica of the book, plus a cash prize. This is currently £1,500.

6. A later, and possibly greater ecclesiastical commission, was for Lichfield Cathedral in 1990, when 17 silversmiths were commissioned to make a complete suite of contemporary silver.

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CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE

CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE

the metal and will therefore appreciate how subtle changes can reduce the making time and therefore benefit the client financially. This completely dispels the myth held by some that a silversmith should not design and make. Christopher explained, ‘A client inevitably has a budget. A silversmith owes it to him or herself, as well as the client, to give value for money. If you do understand the making process, you are then in the best possible position as a craftsman to draw the line that is going to be the most efficient to make. Therefore, if you design cleverly, you can give the client the best possible value and make a profit.’

During the 1960s, the Benney workshop’s output was prolific. A start had been made on the silver for the Reading Corporation. Reading’s Town Clerk was friendly with his counterpart at Southend-on-Sea, the borough in which Christopher lived. When Christopher learned this he decided, as a local resident, to talk to the Clerk, design a collection of civic plate and submit it. He clearly saw this as the ultimate step in his quest to become a designercraftsman. Although Southend was in discussions with other silversmiths, the submission from a very competent local resident brought matters to a dramatic conclusion.

The first Christopher knew about it, as he had left home before his post had arrived, was when Gerald showed him a letter from the Town Clerk at Southend advising him that Christopher Lawrence had been given the commission.

Although Gerald’s initial reaction was fury, no doubt realising he was about to lose a fine craftsman, the two men parted on good terms. Indeed, he even offered Christopher workshop space as a temporary measure.

Andrew Grima’s Jermyn Street shop.7 The Government acquired it to present to President Pompidou to mark Britain’s entry into the European Common Market.

Although Benney designed the pieces that would ultimately bear his maker’s mark, he saw the benefit of discussing concepts with Christopher, who was his righthand man and General Manager, before the drawings were presented to a client. The craftsman who is hands-on at the bench has a greater understanding of 288

Left: Silver and Silver-gilt Vase Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This was another piece of silver that just had to be secured. It was offered at Bonhams’ ‘Distinguished Designs and Post-war Silver’ sale on 1 December 2010. The description read, ‘A silver and silver gilt vase, circular form, disc form rim, slender neck, fluted silver-gilt body’. The piece was estimated at £400-£600, one that can only be described as a tease. Another bidder was also attracted to the piece.

The bidding soon reached £1,000 and continued at a gentle pace through £2,000 to £3,000. The bid was with the opposition. The hammer fell at £3,100, which with all the add-ons meant a payment of £3,828.50 was required. Height 27cm. London 1973.

Opposite: 600-piece Dinner Service Courtesy Christopher Lawrence This part of the 600-piece dinner service made for a Middle Eastern prince that stole the show at Christopher’s one-man show at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1973. Visitors found his tableware ‘astonishing’.

So, in 1968 Christopher Lawrence left Gerald Benney to establish his own business. Initially he had a small workshop in the garden of his home, but four months later he opened his own design studio and workshop at nearby Leigh-on-Sea. As well as the Southend Civic plate that comprised 30 pieces for £12,000, he only had three other commissions. These included a dinner service for a private client and Reginald Hill’s design work for Tessiers, the Bond Street jewellers. However, it was not long before others began to flow in. In 1970 a large exhibition of his work was held at Galerie Jean Renet of 1 Old Bond Street that had been established by Sydney Rogers, chairman of Watches of Switzerland. The gallery was entirely devoted to contemporary silver and jewellery. Christopher Lawrence’s silver was a great success with rave reviews in publications ranging from the Financial Times to Harpers Bazaar.

Christopher was featured in the Craftsmen series on BBC2 and many other TV and radio interviews followed. Large exhibitions in Europe during 1971 and 1972 helped to establish his international reputation. Indeed, his old company of CJ Vander even asked him to undertake design work, which considering Norman Vander was not too happy when Christopher left his firm, was a clear indication that they acknowledged his merits as a designer. The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths gave him a one-man show in 1973 to commemorate ‘five years of meteoric artistic and commercial development’. By now Christopher had

established a workshop with an impressive number of very fine craftsmen. Graham Hughes, the Art Director of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths remarked after the exhibition, ‘It was his silver tableware that astonished visitors.’ Certainly part of a 600-piece dinner service made for a Middle Eastern prince stole the show. One of the Hall’s highly polished mahogany tables was laid for a dozen diners with everything, including the soup bowls, in sterling silver. The revolving centrepiece from this service won Norman Bassant the Jacques Cartier Award that year.

The most extravagant object in the exhibition brought the Award the following year to Michael Winter, Christopher’s first workshop manager. This is a fantasy piece called the Pumpkin Perfume Bottle comprising four caskets that fit inside each other until the perfume bottle is revealed.

Made from 18-carat gold, it weighs over 140 ounces and is studded with 32 diamonds and 76 sapphires. It took 1500 hours to complete. The catalogue for the exhibition states,

7. Andrew Grima started jewellery design in 1946 when he joined his future father-in-law’s London jewellery business. His interest was in the organic possibilities of jewellery design. He moved away from the classical jewellery style of the day favouring textured gold and unconventional stones such as grained quartzes and exotic stones. He was an artist-jeweller in the sense that the visual impact of his creations outweighed their monetary value. When precious stones were used, they were an integral part of the overall design as opposed to the focus of the piece, as in the case of traditional jewellery. In the 1960s he won a dozen De Beers Diamonds International Awards. His Jermyn Street shop opened in 1966. In the 1970s he opened galleries in New York, Sydney and Tokyo.

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‘Rarely does today’s goldsmith have the opportunity to cast aside commercial restrictions and make an object of unashamed luxury. To commemorate his Goldsmiths’ Hall exhibition, Christopher Lawrence has created this astonishing piece of fantasy to show his versatility and skill.’ Having described the piece, it continues, ‘Each casket will only give up its secret when hidden catches are gently pressed. More than an object of great beauty, the perfume pumpkin incorporates feats of craftsmanship which have rarely before been attempted. For the first time the decorative effects of multi-coloured gold, precious stones and modern textures are seen together in an object of great intrinsic worth.’ Galerie Jean Renet purchased the piece, but Christopher Lawrence does not

CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE

Above, left: Pumpkin Perfume Bottle being made Courtesy Christopher Lawrence In 1972, the year the work on the Pumpkin Perfume Bottle began, gold peaked at US$70 an ounce. However, during the late 1970s gold rose in value. The peaks for 1977-1979 were US$167.95, US$242.75 and US$512.00. However, in January 1980, the gold price peaked at US$850.00 an ounce (approximately £373 at the then current exchange rate of £1 = US$2.28). Sadly, quite possibly the piece was scrapped for its gold value, as it is believed that Galerie Jean Renet acquired the piece for £8,000 in 1973. The gold alone would have been worth over £39,000 at the January 1980 peak. If this is the case, one of the 20th century treasures of the goldsmiths’ art has been lost, which is a tragedy. Alternatively, it could have been cast to one side by a subsequent owner as a brass novelty and today may be forming the function of a doorstop or be gathering dust in the back of a cupboard.

The image shows the piece being made in the Lawrence workshop.

Above, right: Pumpking Perfume Bottle Courtesy Christopher Lawrence The completed Pumpkin Perfume Bottle, the whereabouts of which is unknown. Perhaps one day it will appear on the Antiques Road Show. Its owner will certainly be shocked with its value today.

Left: Salt Shaker and Pepper Mill Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett These limited edition pepper mills and salt shakers appear periodically on the secondary market. The planned run was 250 pairs marketed in a smart leatherette covered case. The pieces were made as an exclusive offering to Diners Club International.

Weighing well over 0.5kg a pair, these are certainly ‘chunky’ objects. An uncased set sold at Bonhams’ post-war silver sale in June 2013 for £1,430. Height of pepper mill 10.2cm. London 1973.

Opposite: Coffee Service Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This coffee service with its rectangular form is typical of 1970s design. Christopher, who worked for Gerald Benney from 1961-8, used texturing for the surfaces of his silver, but he developed variants to the ‘Benney Bark Finish’. This service was purchased in 2000 and had seen little use. The auctioneer advised that it was a wedding gift to the vendors. This supports John Keatley’s view that a good rule of thumb is that on average crafted objects acquired new are retained for about 30 years and are then moved on. Height of the coffee pot 25.7cm. London 1972.

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know its whereabouts today. Our researchers have also drawn a blank. It is quite possible that its intrinsic worth was its downfall.

Silver from the Lawrence workshop was very popular. ‘I have a thing about practicality’, Christopher told me. ‘The coffee pot must pour correctly, for if not is causes embarrassment, and the cutlery needs to be perfectly balanced. I believe this need to reconcile the practical and the beautiful produces the best result. There is a temptation for a designer to go on repeating his best ideas, but I think this tends to be a rather lazy and unimaginative approach. Each new commission gives one an opportunity to start afresh using new influences, but based on the central design philosophy.’ Christopher Lawrence’s silver is generally of good weight.8 He uses subtle lines and shapes. He has never been tempted to ‘gild the lily’, considering that the economy of the design

effect is vital. Although ideas have always come easily to him, he considers the only ones that work are those based on forms or textures that have been created or amended by man over a long period of time. It is a simple and direct formula, but one that works.

Although his series of mushrooms were popular with collectors in the late 1970s to late 1980s, indeed they are keenly sought today, they are not among Christopher’s favourite creations. Just as Stuart Devlin had his eggs, Christopher was looking for an idea that would generate cashflow, so he developed the mushroom theme. The idea came to him when he was driving past a roundabout from his Essex home to London and saw fungi growing there.

8. The exception are the mushrooms, coffee service and silver and silver-gilt flowers in Orrefors Crystal vases he made for the Heritage Collection in which he used a thinner gauge silver than the one he used for his own pieces.

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to those craftsmen who wished to continue with him. No longer employees, they became self-employed, working for Christopher as sub-contractors.

During the 1980s commissions flowed in principally from the UK. These included some important ones from numerous City Livery companies. For example, there was a particularly splendid ‘lily’ centrepiece for the Worshipful Company of Coopers,9 together with a pair of vases. Commissions also flowed in from a range of prestigious institutions, such as the Middle Temple.10 Additionally, he designed a range of cutlery called Tulip for Viners of Sheffield. During the 1990s, his work was demanded in the Middle East. The highlight was a 14ft high and 6ft wide silver-gilt cake stand for the Sultan of Oman. Containing 36 dishes and made-up of 300 separate pieces it weighed approximately one ton. It was delivered in 1998 and was used for a number of years on National Day celebrations.

Initially he produced cast models of mushrooms that he retailed through the Galerie Jean Renet. Later he sold the idea to Michael Cansdale of the Bristol-based Heritage Collection and the mushrooms were developed to include surprises. For a period of six years he made two limited editions a year, one at Easter, the other at Christmas.

They proved very popular and all sold out, much to Christopher’s relief as funds were required. The cash was needed because of a venture with his elder brother called the House of Lawrian. The company was a retailer and wholesaler of silver and provided design services.

Christopher supplied the creative input while his brother managed the business – unfortunately not very well.

Christopher picked up the pieces. At the peak, Christopher had a workforce of about 20 individuals. So that he could keep as many of his team together as possible, he took the lease of a workshop at Southend-on-Sea and rented space

9. The first surviving mention of the Company is 1298. Henry VII granted the Company a Royal Charter in 1501. The craft of cooperage, which is the making of wooden casks, has waned over the years and the Company’s emphasis is now on charitable work and educational support.

10. The Middle Temple is one of London’s Inns of Court, the voluntary unincorporated societies of considerable antiquity that have the exclusive right in England and Wales to confer the rank of Barrister. The Inns are: the Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Gray’s Inn and Lincoln’s Inn. 11. The piece was entered into the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council’s 2009 Awards. It did not win the Jacques Cartier Memorial Award, but it did win the Goldsmiths’ Company Award. This is awarded at the discretion of the Council to ‘the piece of finished work that is judged to have achieved the highest standards of both craftsmanship and design. Christopher Lawrence and Fred Rich shared a cash prize of £4,500.

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Above: Novelty Mushrooms Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington It was seeing mushrooms growing on an Essex round-a-bout while en route for London that inspired Christopher Lawrence to turn his attention to this form of fungi. Initially he produced botanical specimens for Galerie Jean Renet (the boxed example on the left with another large specimen on its top – 1975-6). Just as Stuart Devlin had his novelty eggs, Christopher developed the concept of novelty limited edition mushrooms to generate needed cash flow following a business venture with his brother. These were issued each Easter and at Christmas over a six-year period from the late 1970s through to the early 1980s. Popular then and still in demand today, they were not Christopher’s favourite creations, however. Heights from 4cm to 28.5cm. London 1975-1983.

Opposite: Cream Jug Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Throughout most of the second half of the 20th century there was little interest in post-war British designer silver on the secondary market and prices were low. As the 1990s progressed dealers were becoming interested, but the numbers were still relatively small. In 1998 Phillips established a Modern Design department that spearheaded the auction house’s interest in post-war British designer silver. Phillips and Bonhams merged in 2001. This jug was offered at Bonhams 20th-Century British Art and Design sale in September 2002. The Pearson Silver Collection loved the design which the auction house’s expert described as ‘a peach’. It just had to be secured. The Collection paid just short of £725 for it, which at the time was an unprecedented sum for a 1970s cream jug at auction.

When the Family Reserve Collection of Gerald Benney was sold at Bonhams ‘Distinguished & Post-war Silver’ sale in December 2010 a typical stock Benney cream jug made in 1978 sold for just under an eye-watering £1,730. Perhaps we were just ahead of our time in 2002, but on the other hand, all it takes is two equally determined bidders for a lot to soar in price. Height 20.3cm. London 1970.

However, the pièce de résistance of his career is the ewer and rose water dish he made with the enameller Fred Rich.

They decided to work on a joint project as both had won three Cartier Awards.11 Launched in 2008 at British Silver Week, Christopher designed the bowl as the ultimate challenge of his skills as a flat hammerer. It imitates ripples of water, his superb hammering making the silver dance and play. Considering that Christopher was prepared to rise to the challenge when he was well past retirement age is remarkable. Apart from requiring the skills to undertake all the difficult techniques he had built into its design, the physical effort of manipulating such a hefty piece of silver would have been challenging for anyone at the zenith of physical fitness let alone an individual in their seventies. Fred Rich designed the three-sided tilted ewer as if swaying in a make-believe breeze to sit in the centre of the dish. Christopher made this. Fred’s enamelling continues the aquatic theme with reeds and a reed warbler. The design of the enamel, including the hidden surprise, features in the chapter devoted to Fred Rich. The dish and ewer took each craftsman 600 hours to make. It sold on the first day it was exhibited at a Mayfair gallery for a sum well into six figures.

During his 56 years at the bench, Christopher Lawrence has won 28 Goldsmiths’ Craft Council awards. He will long be remembered for the many magnificent pieces of silver he has created. His design formula may be simple and direct, but the results are stunning and timeless.

He was working up until 2011.

AVAILABILITY Christopher Lawrence was prolific with his output of silver during the 1970s and early 1980s. A wide range of his objects made during this period appear at auction periodically and dealers who specialise in post-war British silver normally have some pieces in stock. In more recent decades his work has generally, though not exclusively, been commissions for institutions such as City livery companies and Middle Eastern clients. His more commercial ventures, apart from the novelty mushrooms mentioned above, include silver items commemorating the 300th anniversary of the Bank of England (1994) and limited edition pieces from the late 1990s for the Royal Mint. He also designed the Tulip cutlery range for Viners, but this currently seems to be either elusive on the secondary market, or unrecognised as the work of Christopher Lawrence.

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MICHAEL LLOYD A silversmith who is passionate about the natural world, who loves the malleability of silver and gold, Michael Lloyd chases objects he handraises as homage to nature to be enjoyed rather than owned.

There is something primeval about the challenge of taking an inanimate material, working with it, feeding it with your energy, bringing it to life. I love working metal by hand, responding to its malleability, coaxing it into forms and imagery. I find that by working the metal directly with no machine to intrude upon it, allows me to be direct. I work with it, I understand it and I’m close to it. And like many natural materials they are not just of the moment – they are timeless.

Michael Lloyd

Michael Lloyd was born in 1950 at Salisbury to parents with Scottish roots. He lived on the Breamore Estate in the New Forest where the Estate Manager, who was his godfather, taught him his first lessons of keen observation. He also instilled in him a love of the natural world and this has been a strong thread running throughout his life and therefore his career as a silversmith. Michael had a passion for art, but otherwise disliked school. Upon leaving his general education he undertook a foundation course at the Wolverhampton College of Art. While there he won a competition to design an exhibition of the history of Liberty and Co, the London department store, which had a close connection with the college. An element of the prize was a visit to Merton Abbey, originally a village on the River Wandle in Surrey, now part of Greater London, where William Morris’s design work and manufacturing was undertaken, it was also where Liberty’s fabric was made.1 This was Michael’s first introduction to the Arts and Crafts Movement, which did not feature in the art colleges’ syllabuses of the 1960s. His researches resulted in Michael taking a fundamental change of direction from his intended career in industry towards studio production. He commented, ‘I think studio work is about a passion. It’s an intimacy, a desire to celebrate making. That wish to make is of more importance to me than the object itself.

Without a desire to make, we will just be left with old

1. William Morris secured the Merton Abbey Mills in 1881. Liberty & Co had its fabric made at Merton Abbey by Littler & Co in the 19th century, but acquired the site in 1904. In 1940, they also acquired the Morris site too. Liberty continued to manufacture there until 1972. Merton Abbey Mills are now used as a weekend craft and farmers market and a centre for various events.

2. Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) was a German photographer, sculptor, teacher and artist famous for his close-up photographs of plants.

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objects in museums like pinned butterflies – beautiful but extinct.’ It was also during this period that he discovered Karl Blossfeldt’s2 Urformen der Kunst (The Original Art). Michael still regards this volume as one of the finest testaments to the beauty of nature. While at Wolverhampton he also became interested in folk music and initially played the guitar in a group before taking up the flute, an instrument he still plays.

After the completion of his foundation course, he started his planned two-year industrial design course at Birmingham. However, following his growing passion for studio work he quickly transferred his studies to the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery in Birmingham’s Vittoria Street at the heart of the Jewellery Quarter.

The city has more canals than Venice, so instead of the normal student garret, Michael lived on an old wooden narrow boat on the Southern Stratford Canal so as to retain his ‘rural seeing eye’. Waterways later featured very much in the early years of his career. At Birmingham he studied silversmithing under Ralph Baxendale and Derek Birch. He graduated in 1973 with

Opposite: The Northumberland Clock Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This is an early piece of Michael’s work. It is a strange fact that some collectors tend to be drawn to an early example of an artist or craftperson’s work, whereas the creators normally tend to prefer work undertaken in maturity. However, as Michael philosophically states, ‘If we were satisfied with everything we produced, we would never progress.’ This clock was made while he and Mary were living on a narrow boat and was commissioned by a fellow bargee.

He calls it the Northumberland clock. The casing is chased with trees, some bearing gold fruit. It chimes on the hour and half hour and has an alarm. Michael has made seven clocks: three in copper and four in silver. Height 15.2cm. London 1978.

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first class honours and proceeded after the summer break to study silversmithing at the Royal College of Art, first under Professor Robert Goodden and then Professor Gerald Benney. Guest tutors during his period of study were Leslie Durbin and Malcolm Appleby. His time at the RCA was fruitful and he certainly held both of his professors in high regard. He also found Malcolm Appleby particularly inspiring. However, although through his interest in natural history he wanted to introduce imagery to his work, he did not follow in Malcolm Appleby’s footsteps and turn to engraving.

Instead, he decided that chasing was the vehicle for him. ‘I love the malleability of silver, whereas with engraving I feel that the metal is not being used.’ While engraving and chasing are both means of introducing images to the surface of metal, with engraving the metal is cut away with a sharp tool called a graver, while with chasing the decoration is achieved by using tools to push the surface of the metal to achieve the ornamentation. To produce their work, chasers use hammers and punches. When the later are used, the pattern also may appear on the inside of the article.

Although chasing has been a speciality of Michael’s for many years, he describes himself as a silversmith as opposed to a chaser. ‘Form is as important as the decoration’, he explained. Again, it is the malleability of the metal that appeals. ‘I moved from industrial design as I loved the freedom of the craft of the silversmith.

With industrial design you are working twodimensionally and a machine produces a threedimensional object. With handraising you start with a flat disc of silver and you are hands on with the form. I am as excited now with hand-raising as I was when I started. It involves 100 per cent of my being.’ Naturally his graduation show from the RCA featured chasing, in this case a series of bowls. These were the first pieces of chasing he had undertaken. The Victoria and Albert Museum purchased all of them.

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Above: Tumblers Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington ‘These are from my Rousseau period’, Michael observed, referring to Henri Rousseau the French post-impressionist painter in the primitive manner. ‘I could be very critical, but a craftsman should not dismiss his early work. I was finding a way to communicate and wouldn’t do shapes. However, the pieces do show enthusiasm which may be lost in my later work. They are objects of the 1970s.’

Height of beaker on the right, 6.3cm. London 1981and 1980.

Opposite, upper: Beech Bowl Courtesy The Keatley Trust ‘Each autumn I come across leaves and I am struck by their incredible beauty’, reflected Michael. ‘I regard my work as an act of homage to the spirit of nature. Whenever I finish an autumn leaf bowl, I think, “Well, that’s it”, but the next year I do another. I converse with the metal while I work. All materials carry their own energy. Gold is wonderful as it has that extra sense of malleability and an energy that base metals just do not have.’ The bowl is worked in 22-carat gold and features beech leaves. Interestingly Michael suggested another bowl bearing oak leaves to John Keatley, as he thought it the stronger piece. John did not agree and bought the one he liked more. The fact that his home was surrounded by beeches was also a factor. He made the point that this bowl has a delicacy, whereas Michael’s other chasing is bold. Height 9cm. Edinburgh 2003.

Opposite, lower: Thorn Bowl Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Despite the symbolism of thorns, Michael emphasised that this bowl is not an ecclesiastical piece. ‘Thorns are most visually powerful’, he said.

The Thorn Bowl was made speculatively. ‘When a work is commissioned, the commissioner becomes a strong part of it, whereas a piece that is not is my undiluted homage to nature. I go out with my sketch book with no preconceived ideas. I make a botanical drawing of what I see and then I stylise it, picking out the aspects of it that interest me. I am a decorative artist and want to avoid cliché. My initial drawing is botanically correct, then I simplify it. When I raise a bowl or vase I have a good idea of the shape I want, but I let it evolve as opposed to following a prescribed engineer’s drawing. When it is finished to my satisfaction, I apply designers’ gouache, which is like white paint, and draw the design on to it. If I make a mistake, I just paint over it and redo it. When you start chasing, you have to carry on, as errors cannot normally be corrected. So, to make sure I have got the design right, I only start decorating the surface when I feel I have got it absolutely right. In other words, “I sleep on it” – several times’ he said with emphasis on the last two words. Height 7.7cm. Edinburgh 1994.

The commissions began to flow in as soon as he graduated. Indeed, one of his first was from a city institution for presentation to the Queen Mother. Desperate for a bench from which to work, his request to his old alma mater in Birmingham resulted in his return for a couple of weeks. While there he met Rod Kelly, who quite coincidentally had also decided that chasing was his vehicle for introducing imagery to silver. 1976 was clearly quite a year for Michael as he also married Mary Thomson, who he had met while she was studying jewellery at the RCA. She is now a painter and bas-relief carver. Instead of a conventional studio on terra firma, the two decided to live a nomadic life on the waterways of Britain with the direction of Michael’s work being his ‘homage to nature’. Michael explained, ‘I am motivated to work from a profound sense of gratitude for nature, our sense of creativity and our quality of life.’ The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths purchased two bowls from Michael in his graduation year. The first is chased with two trees and the words, ‘Morning after morning the same succession year after year. The same old and loved things let me find them.’

In 1978 Michael won the British Craft Award for metalwork in a competition sponsored by the Sunday Telegraph and John Player & Sons. In 1981, the Lloyds considered that they wanted more space than their British narrow boat could offer, so they purchased a 30m Dutch barge that they converted into a large studio and a small school. Michael explained, ‘We designed the craft to accommodate 10 students. I imagined cruising the continent having philosophical discussions. I certainly liked the idea of teaching in the studio environment. However, it was not very practical – though we did have students on board for two summers before we decided it was too much of a commitment after our daughter arrived.’ During their continental sojourn the couple did cruise the waterways of France, Belgium and Holland working en route. In 1982 Michael won an award from the Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst e. V. (Society for Goldsmiths) based at Hanau in Germany. Founded in 1932, the Society originally

focussed its activities within Germany, but later became an international institution. The Society’s objectives include the promotion of contemporary design in jewellery, hollow and flatware regardless of the material or technique.

Michael was delighted with the recognition, but also surprised as he felt his work was deeply rooted in the tradition of British decorative design. While this may be the source, his work has certainly been and indeed still is of the time it was made.

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MICHAEL LLOYD

Above: Vases for the Silver Trust Courtesy The Silver Trust This formal commission by the Silver Trust for a pair of vases dictated the imagery that could be used. While Michael submitted a design in which all constituent parts of the UK were represented, the committee chose the one that featured just dog roses and thistles for England and Scotland. Michael adopted his usual approach of studying from nature before stylising the images. Although the vases are more complex than his usual forms, he did not first make a model. ‘I rarely use them’, Michael explains, ‘as the energy goes into making the model as opposed to the object.’ The stands for the vases have been forged by Michael wielding a hammer. ‘So my energy is in the pieces’, he said with a smile. He then pondered, ‘I wonder what will happen if Scotland choses independence?’ There are certainly a great number of symbolic thistles south of the border. The diameter of the vases (including the stand) is 29.5cm. Edinburgh 1991.

Left: Spring Vase Courtesy Birmingham Museum Trust Michael is very modest. When asked what he considers is the best piece in his latest collection, he will respond ‘I am least ashamed of this one’. The Spring Vase falls into this category. He visualised it while he was living in France during the mid-1980s. ‘I had listened to the Revel String Quartet that is so full of energy. It is about the renewal of life. It was around the time my daughter was born. The vase was made much later.’ In fact it was made nearly 20 years later. ‘It is beautiful to raise large vessels’, Michael commented. ‘This is the first form I made that has facets (i.e. is shaped as opposed to round).’ Height 21cm. Edinburgh 2004.

Opposite: Lichfield Cathedral Salver © Lichfield Cathedral Photographers This is the offertory salver Michael made for Lichfield Cathedral. ‘This was a very special commission’, he recalled. With silversmiths from 17 workshops gathering at the cathedral on 14 February 1990, he continued, ‘There were so many people involved, so much creativity going into the collection, it made it extra special.’ Michael did not introduce a motif or was inspired by the building but, ‘Wanted to introduce nature into the cathedral space.’ At the centre he placed a crown of thorns, while oak leaves to symbolise the strength of faith decorate the border.

The rim is chased with thorns and inlaid with a band of gold. Michael was clearly inspired by the enthusiasm of John Lang, Dean of Lichfield, who commissioned the work. Diameter 33cm. Edinburgh 1991.

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In 1989 the couple did return to Britain, or rather to a farmhouse in Dumfries and Galloway, a beautiful part of southwest Scotland. ‘We have hills, coastline, mountain, estuary, woodland, wilderness – we’ve got it all. It is a wonderful visual dictionary of form, colour and texture.

All this on our doorstep to draw, study and enjoy’, he commented with great enthusiasm. Their new home not only gave them a permanent address, but a converted barn for a workshop. This of course gave the possibilities for larger and more formal commissions that he could select with care. He added with conviction, ‘I am not your man if it’s a large impressive object to boost the corporate image. I love ecclesiastical work.’ Indeed, his graduate show included a chalice that he had made for a small church in Hampshire. One of his earliest commissions on returning to the UK was a joint collaboration with the jeweller Ros Conway for a silver and enamel processional cross for the Church of St Francis of Assisi, Sheffield. The offertory plate for Lichfield Cathedral followed this in 1991 and later, so did work for other cathedrals.

His work is also in number of museums in the UK as well in some overseas. Prestigious commissions include a pair of fruit bowls for Downing Street; a pair of water jugs for Bute House;3 the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes Trophy (for De Beers in 1995) and of course the mace HM Queen Elizabeth II presented to the Scottish Parliament on 1 July 1999. Indeed, the display of the mace for the first time was the high point of Michael’s career. He was chosen from a shortlist of 10 craftsmen to make what is the Scottish Parliament’s symbol of authority, and which rests on a plinth on the Presiding Officer’s desk in the Holyrood debating chamber when the Parliament is in session. Michael chose to inlay the silver with a band of gold panned from Scottish rivers4 to symbolise the marriage of Parliament with the land and the people. He confesses to have not initially taken a

3. The official Edinburgh residence of Scotland’s First Minister.

4. The gold was donated by 23 panners.

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MICHAEL LLOYD

THE SATISFACTION OF COMMISSIONING

great deal of notice to selection panel’s stipulations. He continued, ‘I just personally thought what the mace meant to me and what it should mean to everyone else and then read my brief. I was certainly three-quarters of the way through the design before reading it. It had to be quite a personal piece – not something made to command because you had to put so much of yourself into it. I felt enormously privileged to have been able to choose the “four virtues of Scotland” – Justice, Compassion, Wisdom and Integrity – these became the inspiration of the piece and led to its torch-like form.’ The words are woven into the four thistles which decorate the head of the mace.

Michael was only given three months to make the piece and the task totally absorbed him for that period.

reference to the countryside by which he is surrounded he commented, ‘Visually it is much more beautiful than anything I can make. I don’t try to copy it. I try to make objects that pay homage to it. I place all my appreciation of it into a vase, a bowl or goblet to go into someone’s home to add to the ambience and spiritual dimension.’ Profoundly he continued, ‘Most artists are supposed to be tortured souls, but we do have a choice. We can respond to the inhumanity of mankind by making dollops of brutality, to shock us out of our complacency, or we can produce works to refresh and heal – we can make weapons of peace. Since 9/11 my raison d’etre has been to make weapons of peace – I am naïve enough to think a vase of flowers on the kitchen table makes the world a better place.’

Michael loves silver related to family history and it is therefore not surprising that he also has a great passion making silver for individuals. Indeed, a project he started in the summer of 2009 was making a vessel for 12 different patrons, with each one sponsoring a specific month. When he began he thought that each vessel would just feature some seasonal aspect of nature, but energised by the enthusiasm of his patrons, the objects are now also becoming personally orientated. The result is that they are now more than three dimensional vessels – they are the celebration of something special to each of his patrons. However, his work is still dedicated to a respect for nature despite the incorporation of memories special to individuals.5 Making

In 1995 the Arts Foundation6 nominated Michael Lloyd for a Metalwork Fellowship. The 19 new pieces he made during this year were exhibited in 1997, together with past creations, at a one-man show at Goldsmiths’ Hall. It is an accolade to Michael that the lenders included Malcolm Appleby, Gerald Benney and Rod Kelly, all of whom feature in this volume. Then as Michael says, ‘I don’t make items to be owned, I make them to be enjoyed.’

5. Michael Lloyd Twelve Vessesls were displayed at The Whitely Galleries in the Victoria and Albert Museum from 31 October 2012 to 7 July 2013.

6. The Arts Foundation was established in 1990 through an anonymous bequest.

In 1993 the Fellowship programme was initiated. It was specifically designed to support individual artists who had shown commitment to, and reached some professional standing in, their art form. The Fellowships, which take the form of a £10,000 award, give recipients relative security to explore new avenues, or to consolidate existing work.

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Above: Thorn Bowl and detail Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The approach of acquiring this piece for the Pearson Silver Collection was a little strange. The instructions to Michael were simply, ‘You choose’. Having been shown the piece he was ‘least ashamed of’, it was purchased. Michael explained, ‘I pushed the sense of decoration a stage further. I chose symbols previously used. The inspiration were thorns but I played with them making them more abstract and altering the proportions. The fact it was not commissioned gave me an element of freedom. Making it was a less stressful process.’ Diameter 17cm. Edinburgh 2013.

After George V died in 1936, George VI commissioned six large candlesticks in memory of his father. They were presented to what is now the Guards’ Chapel at Wellington Barracks in London. After World War II, many families commissioned chalices in memory of loved ones who had fallen during the hostilities. Although asking a silversmith to make a piece in memory of a departed one is not as common as in the past, the tradition still continues today, as it does for marking anniversaries and other events.

In April 2013, there was an enchanting evening at Goldsmiths’ Hall when Michael Lloyd informally spoke about his life and work. Two patrons of Michael also recalled the experience of commissioning a piece of silver. The first was Alexander Scott, a near neighbour of the Lloyds in Galloway. He participated in Michael’s Twelve Vessels project in the latter part of the first decade of the 21st century when a dozen individuals/couples, commissioned Michael to make a vessel appertaining to a month. Alexander and Lucinda Scott chose March as it was the month of their marriage and they were celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. The theme of their work was love.

Although the Scotts’ commission was regarded by Michael as one of the most sensual pieces that he had created, it was the second talk that captivated the audience.

Indeed, it was so moving that after the spontaneous and rapturous applause at the end, many people stood and moved towards the speaker, not only to see and handle the piece, but also to speak to her regarding the commission. If there was a story to promote the satisfaction of commissioning an object, then this is certainly it. So, with no more ado, here is Minnie’s story, which is largely based on her talk at Goldsmiths’ Hall in April 2013.

In Minnie Scott Russell’s words: ‘I wanted to commemorate the life of Hector, my son, with a sort of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Holy Grail in the Morte D’Arthur sense. I wanted the object to be awarded to a boy at his school as an end of year prize – to a boy who has shone in the year either by declaiming, debating or acting – for a boy who is shy, but is also brave and who suddenly flies when given a voice. Not for music, but for a voice.’ This reflected Hector’s great love of drama. ‘So I did some research and then thought I would phone the Goldsmiths’ Company for advice. I explained what I wanted and was given a few names by Rosemary Ransome Wallis, the Company’s curator. Then as a last minute thing she said, “There’s always Michael Lloyd, but you won’t get him.” ’ Human nature is such that being advised that someone is unlikely to enter your orbit

makes one the more determined that they will.

Minnie continued, ‘So Michael came to see me. I remember discussing the possibility of Utopia for Children, which his lovely daughter Zoe was searching to provide – it should be possible. He asked for things – for Hector’s diary, which he said later on was quite “earthy”. He wanted to know what music Hector liked and his favourite book. This was Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Then the letters arrived from Galloway – Michael doesn’t like e-mails. Every handwritten letter from Michael is an artwork in itself – and they are very precious.’

‘You never recover from a child’s death – you never accept it but you do learn to live with it and you realise that you are never alone – perhaps there are parents, brothers, sisters and friends here who have lost someone close – but you can act to make you feel better. Plant a tree, engrave a pebble and throw it in the sea, cry up to the sky on top of a mountain or simply commission a piece of silver.’

‘So Michael heard me and Hector and his sensitivity became tangible as he accepted the commission and then the journey began. He totally absorbed the boy – I was so touched that he should be so interested – this engagement must be the mark of a great artist.’

‘Hector committed suicide – he was 21.’

‘The first thing that had to be established was that I had to respect his decision to end his life to sleep.’

‘We began with the speech from Prospero towards the end of Act IV of The Tempest. This was Hector’s Shakespeare play for A-Level. It fitted well. It just came to me – as these things sometimes do. He was at a gorgeous school with a lovely chapel and a great theatre – it was his world – he despised it a little I think (I rather agreed with him but never let on!). Remember – “Our revels now are ended”? He loved parties.’

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

‘The Tempest – the ethereal, the magic and the lyricism – seem to match the light touch Hector had on this earth. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is 301

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rounded with a sleep. Put this against the reality that parents and teachers expect of children which is a solid.’

‘Then Michael thought we should have the First World War poets – represented by the poppies on the piece – as another earthing dimension and with poetry that so affects the young. I wonder whether these poems are still part of the curriculum? Hector would recite “Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori” as an understood.’

‘So to silversmiths now – and of the future – you can have the ability to describe somebody in four dimensions – the face, the depth, the representation and then the essence and magic of love – by wholly absorbing your subject – like Michael has. Thinking lightly but very deeply.’

‘There is a final verse from a poem by the American poet Billy Collins which is Hector – was Hector. It is called On Turning Ten: It seems only yesterday I used to believe there was nothing under my skin but light.

If you cut me I could shine.

But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life, I skin my knees. I bleed.

‘Hector, my beautiful, bright, intelligent, loving, artistic, sensitive, mysterious, complicated boy wise beyond his years, has been understood ... so this is something for a boy, something for me – caught in this beautiful piece of shining silver by this extraordinary silversmith – from Michael Lloyd.’

The chalice and the prize Minnie and Michael first met in September 2007 and the chalice was finished in April 2009. Before the design of the actual chalice began, Michael immersed himself in Hector’s world. He listened to his favourite music: Minnie recalls there was a lot of David Bowie, Radiohead, Johnny Cash and Manu Chao. In addition to his diary, Michael read Hector’s favourite book so as to discover, in Michael’s words, ‘what he was about’. With Hector’s passion for drama the knop took the form of a stage, a theatre in the round. Below the knop, poppies cascade down to the base, which has the evocative words of Prospero from The Tempest: ‘We are the stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep.’

The chalice is awarded as a prize at Hector’s old school – Radley College at Abingdon near Oxford. ‘It is given as a prize but not actually removed from the school’, Minnie explains. It is used as a communion cup in the school’s chapel, and also as a prop in school plays when appropriate.

The annual winner additionally receives a financial award and is also presented with a book in which to inscribe their 302

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dreams and aspirations. Having completed the page, the book is then returned to the school and the following year the next winner pens his ‘wish list’. The prize will be awarded for a period of 40 years. It was first awarded in July 2010. The book will make fascinating reading in the future.

Michael also designed what he calls ‘Hector’s Book of Dreams’. The page for the each winner to inscribe is hand-pressed white paper and the binding, which was undertaken by Christian Ribbons, a local craftsman and friend of Michael, is impressed with poppies. It also bears the same quote as the chalice.

This work on post-war British designer silver contains accounts of several pieces that have been commissioned to mark specific events, or purely so as to obtain an object that is designed in a way to meet the wishes of the person undertaking the commissioning. Nevertheless, commissioning objects whether it is a piece of silver, furniture or jewellery is on the wane compared to previous generations.

In today’s world with shops stocking a cornucopia of merchandise, to buy the readymade has become the norm.

Consequently, the satisfaction of being involved in commissioning something so that it really means something to the acquirer, such as featuring unique personal touches, is now rare. By becoming an integral part of the design process, a successful commission adds a fourth dimension to an object that differentiates it from being another mere possession as opposed to something that is an integral part of one’s being. I once asked a lady why she had decided to sell a particularly desirable object from her collection. ‘Oh that is quite simple’, she immediately responded. ‘It is the only piece that I did not commission and it means nothing to me.’ So, buck the trend and think carefully about commissioning silver for special occasions or for the memory of a loved one.

As Minnie remarked, the Scott Russell family’s ‘association with Michael and his way of sensitive interpretation [of Hector’s chalice] has greatly helped to soften the gash of grief.’

Opposite: Hector’s Chalice Courtesy Minnie Scott Russell, photographer Andrew Callaghan Height of chalice 20cm, Edinburgh 2009.

AVAILABILITY Michael Lloyd’s vintage work occasionally appears on the secondary market. Commissions may be placed direct with him. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for contact details.

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FRANCES LOYEN Her father was an artist, but her mother wanted her to have a good academic background that would lead to a financially stable career. Although en route for the London School of Economics, thankfully Frances had a change of heart and a compromise was reached. While best known for her plique-à-jour enamel, she is a very competent silversmith as well.

If you want to learn more about the art of silversmithing then I can recommend the book The Thames & Hudson Manual of Silversmithing by Frances Loyen.

Bryan Douglas, Silver Dealer London Silver Vaults

Frances Loyen was born in London during 1951, but spent the first five years of her life in Northumberland until her family returned to the capital. Reflecting on her early life she said, ‘My father was the painter Robert Buhler RA,1 so I took it for granted that this was a way to earn a living, albeit a difficult one. My mother wanted me to have an academic career and I was set to go to the London School of Economics. However, I had different ideas and turned down the place, opting instead for art school. I had always painted and drew a lot and I wanted to make things. We compromised, I wasn’t going to get textiles past her, but sculpture was a possibility and silversmithing (or possibly jewellery) won her over as she considered I should be able to earn a living at that.’

So, in 1971 Frances applied to Sir John Cass School of Art2 (the Cass) to study silversmithing. ‘I was interested in three-dimensional work. As soon as I got there I was asked if I really wanted to do silversmithing as opposed to jewellery. When I said that I did, I was told that I could switch at the end of the first year if I wanted to.’

Even while a student, Frances showed that she was not slow in seeking opportunities. ‘In my second year I undertook a commission for Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, which was the local authority for the Cass. In fact I wrote to them saying that I was on a

1. Frances recalled that in her father’s later life they discussed their work over dinner and discovered that both had been commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Mercers; her father for a pair of pictures, Frances for a piece of silver. In 2011, while her husband Hector Miller was Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, Frances recalls, ‘I sat down with a cup of coffee in the Breakfast Room of Mercers’ Hall and there were the two paintings, which I had never seen, opposite me on the wall. It was a lovely reminder of my late father.’ Her father was born in 1916 and died in 1989.

2. Now the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design of the London Metropolitan University.

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silversmithing course at the Cass and asked what I could do for them on the basis that all they would pay for was the metal. I thought it was a good way of getting some silver to work with. The borough was twinned with Puteaux, a Parisian suburb, and they commissioned a rose bowl to present to its French twin. I based the design for it on the White Tower at the Tower of London, from which the borough took its name. As its coat of arms incorporated a sprig of mulberry to signify the silk making that historically went on in its area, I also included some enamelled mulberries.’ Frances’ request did a good turn for her successors as the Tower Hamlets started commissioning a student from the college each year.

Opposite: Plique-à-jour Candlesticks Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett During the second half of the 1970s, Frances was a successful exhibitor at ‘Loot’, staged annually at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Apart from sales at the event, it also led to commissions. One of Frances’ regular clients was Lady Gibberd, wife of Sir Frederick, the architect, town planner and landscape designer. His most notable projects included Harlow New Town (regarded as the most successful of Britain’s post-war new towns), the terminal buildings at Heathrow Airport, London Central Mosque and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. These plique-à-jour candlesticks of hexagonal shape with alternating pierced and enamelled panels of stylised flowers and foliage in blues and greens were commissioned after Sir Frederick’s demise in January 1984. Lady Gibberd passed away in September 2006. In her obituary in the Harlow Star she was described as being, ‘extremely kind and supportive to young people during her life. She helped a lot of young artists by buying their work or just encouraging them.’ She certainly helped Frances early in her career. Possibly you could support a silversmith whose work you like by buying their pieces and giving them commissions during their career. It will be far more rewarding that you can ever imagine. The Collection purchased these candlesticks at a Bonhams auction in July 2007 for £3,705. Height 23.5cm. London 1985.

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she set up a workshop in a spare room at her home. Will Andrews, a friend, had been teaching watch-making at Eton College’s School of Mechanics, but was leaving to become Keeper of Clocks at Greenwich. He indicated that the College may well be interested in jewellery classes. Frances put the suggestion forward and established a jewellery course there that continues to this day. She taught parttime at Eton for a while, leaving only when she decided to set-up a permanent workshop away from her home.

‘My love of colour naturally led me to enamelling, as it is one of the only ways to introduce colour on to silver. I was taught first by Fred Barnes and then his son Phil. I graduated in 1976 and sold all the pieces that I had made at the Cass to Liberty’s and went away on holiday. I remember thinking, “This is really easy!”’ Back in London

Above: Whisky Tots Courtesy Frances Loyen, photographer Rosalind Miller The whisky tot on the left is called Sea, while the one on the right is named City. Heights 6.5 and 6cm. London 2004.

Left, upper: Plique-à-jour Goblet Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Frances explains, ‘My plique-à-jour enamel is produced by piercing through the metal form to leave an empty shape into which the enamel is laid and then fired. The enamel is not backed and during the first firing much of it drops out, with only a little remaining through surface tension. Subsequent firings fill the holes and the surface is then ground down and a final firing given to polish the enamel. The colour is seen in a subtle way. For example, when a reflection of light on the inside of a goblet placed on a table bounces back through the enamel to the person looking at it. On the other hand, the drinker sees the light shining in from the outside. Then there is the ‘stained glass window’ effect when the enamel is part of a candlestick. Reflection is an important part of plique-à-jour. Height of this goblet 14.5cm. London 1981.

Left, lower: Orange Juice Cup Courtesy Frances Loyen, photographer Rosalind Miller Hector Miller, Frances’ husband, has a penchant for freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast. Frances made this cup featuring stylised oranges with leaves from an orange tree for his 50th birthday. As Frances was expected to fill it with freshly squeezed oranges each morning, she felt she had made a rod for her own back. Strangely, for some unknown reason, it is now used as a toothpick holder. Height 7.5cm. London 1995.

Opposite: Sherry Goblets Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This pair of goblets with tapering bowls were designed for sherry.

Because the shape is also used for larger flutes to serve bubbly, Liberty’s referred to them as champagne flutes. In fact Frances has never made plique-à-jour flutes for champagne. Now those would certainly bring an extra sparkle to serving bubbly. This pair of goblets were offered by Bonhams in June 2013. They sold for £1,820. Height 14cm. London 1987.

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With the help of a Craftsman’s Setting-up Grant from the Crafts Advisory Committee, she was able to set up her workshop at 27 Clerkenwell Close. Frances recalls her first visit, ‘The position of my proposed workshop was marked out in chalk on the floor. Work was yet to start on building the walls. The services you wanted would be taken to the door and the rest was up to me. The Crafts Advisory Committee3 paid my rent for the first year and would help towards equipment on a matched basis up to a certain sum. The place was like a rabbit warren, but from memory, the rent was only about £10 a week.’

In her final year at the Cass, Frances had worked two days a week at Wright and Davis in Rosebery Avenue. They were the smallworking4 studio for Cartier. ‘I learnt a great deal from the workshop manager, Arthur Withers, who I sat next to at the bench, constantly being told to hold a piece of work in a different way, or when it wasn’t up to scratch, to “scrap it”.’ This working relationship was to continue later when Cartier closed the Wright and Davis workshop, giving the machinery and equipment to Arthur Withers with contracts to make their one-off custom gold work. He moved to the Clerkenwell Workshops where Frances had by this time established her own workshop.

She started selling to Liberty’s again, but also contacted the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. She spoke to Rosemary Ransome Wallis, Curator of the Collections at Goldsmiths’ Hall who suggested that she should speak to Graham Hughes, then the Company’s Art Director. The Company was

3. Now the Crafts Council.

4. Smallwork includes the making of boxes, watchcases and ornaments generally. While this may involve some forming of the sheet metal, it is mainly concerned with fitting and soldering pieces of metal together.

5. This was ‘Explosion’, a very large exhibition with an emphasis on the recent past and the present, rather than an historical survey of the Company’s vast collections.

6. Spink, founded in 1666, was then located at King Street in St James’s. Famed for dealing in coins, it in fact was then also the world’s largest antiques shop.

Now Located in Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, its business is purely collectables – coins, stamps, banknotes, share certificates and bonds as well as autographs mainly by auctions. It has overseas subsidiaries.

to celebrate its 650th anniversary in 1977 with a special exhibition.5 Frances’ role was to demonstrate her speciality, plique-à-jour, which is a method of creating transparent enamel that has no backing so that it may be viewed from both sides. In a way, it is like a stained glass window.

‘I find plique-à-jour a seductive technique with the light shining through the enamel’, she said. ‘It’s a lovely transient light. The traditional way of creating this form of enamel is to make cloisons from gold or silver wire. These are fused together and placed on a thin layer of copper as a backing.

The powdered enamel – which basically is finely ground glass – is laid in the cloisons with water and subsequently fired in a kiln so that the powder fuses and becomes solid glass again. The copper is etched away with nitric acid and the enamel is then polished. My approach is different in that I form the piece – for example, it may be a goblet. I transfer the design onto the metal, drill holes and pierce out the metal and it is these holes that take the transparent enamel.

I mix the ground enamel with water and lay this into the holes, firing it quickly in the kiln. The enamel is built up over five subsequent firings and the excess enamel is ground off the surface, re-fired and then the piece is polished.’

Her plique-à-jour goblets proved very popular. Typically with swirling areas of different coloured enamel formed by a series of dots around the bowl, but her designs also featured flowers, clouds and trees. The effect of the light through the enamel when drinking the contents is quite magical. Indeed Spink6 purchased 18 on one occasion and 307

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Liberty’s once phoned her with the very exciting news that they had sold the ‘champagne flutes’ to Bette Midler.7 In the second half of the 1970s, she exhibited with the Company in Chicago and Palm Springs and was also a successful exhibitor at its ‘Loot ’ 8 events until 1981. She recalls, ‘I sold a lot through Loot and was on the selection committee for ‘Super Loot’.’ 9 On average, exhibitors displayed 2-3 pieces in cabinets and visitors would either purchase the item on display, a repeat or request the maker to contact them to discuss a commission. Interestingly, Frances was soon among the exhibitors with a larger number of items; in 1979 she exhibited six. Her plique-àjour range included two cups at £98 each and two goblets at £100 each (a detail of one was illustrated in colour on a full page). There were also two boxes: an enamel and silver one at £45 and a silver and mother-of-pearl creation at £95.

Frances’ work generated considerable commissions. In addition to the retail outlets already mentioned she was also supplying Asprey, a shop in South Moulton Street, Hester Clarke the Buckinghamshire county jewellers based at Aylesbury, Grey-Harris an antique and modern retailer in Bristol and the Am Graben Gallery in Vienna. Am Graben then took her work in a mixed exhibition of enamelled work that toured the world.

Despite a heavy workload, when asked by Brian Newble, a fellow enameller, what she would really like to do, she responded, ‘write a book’. Brian’s Practical Enamelling and Jewellery Work had recently been published and this could have been her inspiration. In due course Brian contacted her to say that Thames & Hudson were interested in her idea and wanted a synopsis. The publishers liked what they saw and signed Frances to write what became The Thames and Hudson Manual of Silversmithing. ‘I was

7. American singer, actress and comedian. Frances recalls that they were in raspberry and cream. They were of the same shape and size as the sherry goblets on the previous page.

8. Loot, an annual summer selling exhibition, was part of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ programme to encourage good craftsmen. It started in 1975. In 1983 it was superseded by the Goldsmiths’ Fair, which continues to be held each autumn.

9. Loot had a price cap at £100 while Super Loot, which started in 1979 was the ‘expensive’ section where prices started at £500. The top price for Super Loot in its inaugural year was £10,000.

10. Brick Lane has attracted refugees from the 17th century – first Huguenots, then the Irish, followed by Ashkenazi Jews and in the 20th century the Bangladeshis. The Brick Lane Market developed in the 17th century for fruit and vegetables. It was given a dispensation for Sunday trading when the area became a Jewish community.

The market is centred around its intersection with Cheshire Street and Sclater Street. Today bric-a-brac is sold as well as fruit and vegetables and other items.

11. The shop was originally set up in 1935 to sell well-made quality shoes inexpensively to the Jewish community. It buys stock from factories when business is slow. It passes on the benefits to its customers.

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given a reasonable time to write the manuscript, but three months before the deadline, I had done nothing. I worked from 8am through to 10pm everyday and the manuscript was delivered on time. I was sharing a flat with a photographer, which was handy.’

The volume was a great success and it is still sought, despite the fact that it has long been out of print. The manual was designed to enable the student to master the processes of silversmithing and also to help the practising silversmiths to perfect his or her skills. It is a well-written book with a detailed and comprehensive text in what later became known as ‘plain English’. There are 176 illustrations. Although aimed at aspiring silversmiths or those already in the craft, the volume is certainly recommended to collectors of post-war British designer silver as it gives an excellent and readable insight into how works are made and includes a useful glossary. However, more importantly it is well illustrated with designer silver from the 1960s and 1970s and one piece from the 1950s.

Included are familiar names such as Malcolm Appleby, Brian Asquith, Gerald Benney, Jocelyn Burton, Anthony Elson, Brian Fuller, Sarah Jones, Michael Lloyd, Robert Marsden, William Phipps, Michael Rowe, Robert Welch and, of course, Frances Loyen. There is an intriguing pomander

by Frances with ivy leaves soldered to tendrils and all riveted to the body of the box, which has a wooden cover in the form of a door with hinges riveted to it as well as a door knob to facilitate opening it. Where is this now? There are also less familiar names and even some unknown ones today: Joyce Boyd, Susan Fortune, Robert Glover, Diana Hobson, Lindsey Middleton and Karina Payne.

In the early 1980s, Frances moved from her Clerkenwell Close workshop to Cheshire Street just off the northern end of Brick Lane.10 ‘It was an old cardboard box factory with a flat above’, she explained. ‘An old lady lived in

Opposite: Candlesticks for ‘Living with Silver’ Courtesy Frances Loyen, photographer Rosalind Miller This pair of candlesticks were made for Asprey’s exhibition ‘Living with Silver’ held in 1997-8. The event was organised by Sofia de Souza-Girao and George Williams, who did a great deal to promote post-war and contemporary silver during the 1990s. The work of 12 of Britain’s leading designer-silversmiths, including Asprey’s own were featured. Frances wrote of her candlesticks in the catalogue, ‘By using highly polished geometric forms, together with colour and candlelight, I have aimed to create an illusion of delicacy and ephemeral movement.’ The inspiration for the pliqueà-jour enamel is the snake from Paradise Lost. Frances is a great fan of Milton’s epic poem. Height 29cm. London 1997.

the flat, the factory had been owned by her family and she was the last of the line. She was finally selling up and moving into residential care. The street was derelict apart from the factory and Blackman’s Shoes11 next door. I said that I would buy the factory if I could get permission to convert the front of the ground floor to a shop as I could rent it out for the Brick Lane Sunday Market and convert the flat into two – one for my brother, the other for me. The local authority was delighted and even gave me a grant that I had to match pound for pound.

‘I knew the local police and it was very quiet, except for Sundays. I had fire-eaters performing outside the front

of the shop one day. The only scary occasion was when I woke up in the small hours and realised two people were trying to break into Blackman’s. I rang the police and hysterically explained the situation. The person who answered the phone shouted to his colleagues, “Its Frances, get round there, there’s a couple breaking in to Blackman’s.” He kept me on the phone talking and said after a few minutes, “In a moment there will be a knock on your door – its us, go and let them in.” They ran up to my bedroom to look out the window to see what was going on. There were police vans and dogs everywhere – they caught the pair.’ From her workshop at the back of the old cardboard box factory, Frances continued supplying her private clients and retail outlets.

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FRANCES LOYEN

In the 1990s an opportunity arose for her to teach at Berkshire College, Maidenhead. For around six years she taught on a BTech course in jewellery and fashion. The College was affiliated to London’s Central St Martins College of Art and Design. Through her client Lady Gibberd, wife of the architect Sir Frederick Gibberd,12 she was introduced to the Irish architect Richard Hurley13 who was undertaking work at the Saint Francis Roman Catholic Church in Maidstone, Kent. Frances designed and made the four-foot high bronze and enamel Paschal candlesticks for the church.

Later, the Order of St Benedict at Elmore Abbey14 decided it wanted a tabernacle, so telephoned the Victoria and Albert Museum to ask for a suggestion about who to approach.

Frances took up the story, ‘I was the only person the Museum knew who had recently made a tabernacle, so, they passed on my contact details. When the Abbey telephoned and explained what they wanted they said, “We have to have a Loyen”. Frances duly designed and made the piece.

As well as being in the Company’s collection, her pieces have also been commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Mercers and St John’s College, Cambridge, as well as many private individuals. In 2000 she married Hector Miller, a fellow silversmith. As well as her own collections, she and

Left: Paschal Candlestick Courtesy Frances Loyen, photographer Rosalind Miller Over the years the Vatican has made changes to the way in which Catholic churches are arranged. When the interior of St Francis Roman Catholic Church at Maidstone was re-ordered in the 1990s, Frances was commissioned to make a paschal candlestick as well as a tabernacle. A new paschal candle is blessed and lit every Easter. Its flame symbolises the risen Christ as the light of the world. As well as being lit over Easter, it is used on special occasions such as baptisms and funerals. The candlestick is made of bronze which is champlevé enameled. With this technique the enamel is placed in etched or engraved depressions on the metal’s surface. With a height of 1.25m, it is the largest of Frances’ creations. It was made in 1994.

Opposite: Tabernacle for Elmore Abbey Courtesy Frances Loyen, photographer Rosalind Miller Although the tabernacle which Frances made for the St Francis Roman Catholic Church at Maidstone was a debut, it was not her last.

When the Order of St Benedict at Elmore Abbey wanted one, it approached the Victoria and Albert Museum to ask for suggestions as to who to approach. As the Museum only knew of the one made for Maidstone, it recommended Frances. Under the impression that she was the only person in the UK who could make a tabernacle, in which the consecrated cup is stored when not in use, it telephoned the Hector/Loyen studio and advised Hector that it ‘needed a Loyen’.

Hector commented following such a call, that Frances could not possibly turn down the commission. Again made in bronze that is champlevé enamelled, it has a diameter of 60cm. It was made in 1999.

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Hector have worked together on joint pieces including items for ‘ARTMATTERS 9’ an exhibition at McNay Art Museum at San Antonio, Texas and for the the Armory Show in New York City and, more recently, the Company’s exhibition ‘Silver with a Pinch of Salt’.15 Frances is currently developing a series of plique-à-jour pieces and a jewellery collection.

AVAILABILITY Frances Loyen’s work is beginning to trickle on to the secondary market. She may also be commissioned direct. Her contact details are the same as for Hector Miller – see Miller, p.355.

12. 1908-1984, his notable projects were Harlow New Town, London Central Mosque, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and Didcot Power Station.

13. Of Richard Hurley & Associates, Dublin who co-authored Contemporary Irish Church Architecture with Wilfrid Cantwell.

14. An Anglican Religious Community then located at Speen, Berkshire in a beautiful Grade II Listed country house, the main part of which was built in the early 18th century. There were additions in the 19th and 20th centuries. The house was converted for use as an abbey in 1987. It was sold in September 2010, the new owners converting it back to a country house. However, they wished to retain the oratory and private chapel, so purchased the tabernacle from the Order. The Order moved to St Benedict’s Priory in The Close at Salisbury.

15. At Goldsmiths’ Hall, 30 March to 25 April 2009. Other notable joint pieces include the ‘Snail’ cake/pie slice in the Benton Seymour Rabinovitch Collection (now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London) made in 1995/1998; the Salamander Chocolate Pot of 2005; and Frances’s favourite, the Octopus Bowl which is believed to be in a private collection in Louisiana, USA, that was also made in 2005.

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GRANT MACDONALD Grant Macdonald Silversmiths is possibly the largest manufacturing silverware workshop in London and probably the UK. It uses both traditional craftsmanship and the latest technology. The man whose name it bears was Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths from May 2008 to May 2009.

I get a huge buzz out of designing silverware. I love working with my dozen or so craftsmen. I was trained as a craftsman-silversmith, so I know that I can make the item that I am designing with my own hands. I feel so proud to be surrounded with such talent … you can almost smell the creativity here.

Grant Macdonald

Grant Macdonald was born at Palmers Green in North London during 1947 and was the fourth generation of a medical family to bear the initials GGM. ‘At school I was good at three things: metalwork, woodwork and drawing’, Grant said adding with a smile, ‘the rest of it was a bit of a challenge.’ One of his father’s patients, Fred Ingram who ran a building company in East Finchley, London, had a passion for silversmithing and was self-taught from a book. One Saturday afternoon, having made arrangements with his father, he invited the 14-year-old Grant to his workshop above his garage for an introduction to the world of silver. Grant made a spoon and was delighted. Over the next couple of years Grant became a regular visitor to Fred’s workshop and made a wide range of items. In 1964 when he applied for a place on the pre-apprenticeship course at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts he showed these to Mr Emmerson, the Principal. Having the options of staying on at school for year to get some qualifications, or sitting an entrance exam, he chose the latter. ‘Given the choice of school or swinging London in the 1960s with a college full of attractive girls, it was not a difficult decision’, Grant said with a smile. Unfortunately at the end of the first year he discovered to his great dismay that he was marginally too old to be accepted as an apprentice.

Enterprisingly, while at the Central School he had secured a Saturday and holiday job at W Hinds, the retail jewellers in Palmers Green. There he gained real hands-on experience sizing rings, soldering charms on bracelets and undertaking repairs. He did this at the workshop he had established at home beneath his father’s surgery. Amusingly, when his father wanted to listen to someone’s chest while Grant was working, he would stamp on the floor for a moment of peace and 312

quiet! Hinds gave him his first experience of interacting with people as well as his first taste of salesmanship.

‘They told me that when a person came in for a new watchstrap, it was my job to try and sell them a new watch. It worked a good few times.’ In 1965, as an apprenticeship was not an option, Grant decided to continue studying at the Sir John Cass School of Art. ‘The Cass taught me to survive as a craftsman’, he commented. ‘We had some wonderful tools in those days at the Cass. In fact we had the best and they were looked after properly.’ The Cass also had some superb teachers, with Grant noting, ‘that all the staff were earning a good living in the trade and the true quality of craftsmanship rubbed off on us.’ It was while he was at the Cass that he received his first major commission – a mace for the Worshipful Company of Barbers. This was commissioned by his father to celebrate the life of Grant’s grandfather, who had been Master of the Barbers in 1948.1 He also made some candlesticks for the Royal College of Surgeons.

In June 1969 Grant’s diploma show at the Cass comprised an impressive 20-30 examples of his work.

Over the past five years with the income he generated from Hinds, he had been able to fit out his workshop in Palmers Green and continued to work there for a while after graduating. ‘I did three kinds of work. I made pieces, I undertook repairs and I also did subcontract work such as filing castings – I filed thousands of chess pieces for Paul Podolsky the manufacturing jeweller. I was certainly diverse.’ Grant soon outgrew his parents’ basement (as the ceiling was only 5ft high, he maintains

1. Grant’s father was Master in 1958 and Grant in 2000.

Grant Macdonald’s Court Cup Courtesy Grant Macdonald In 2000 when Grant became a member of the Court of Assistants, the governing body of the Goldsmiths’ Company, he was entitled to a wine cup for his exclusive use when at the Hall. ‘I saw the Court Cup as a statement and I was also putting down my marker. I wanted it to be characteristic of what my workshop was producing at that moment in time, so in the future people could look back and say, “So that’s what they were doing in the early 21st century.” The cup had to incorporate rapid prototyping which then was in its infancy.’ He explained what he wanted to his son George who translated his father’s sketch of the stem into a design on his computer using CAD/CAM. The stem unscrews from the cup’s bowl for easy cleaning. The Company’s crest of the demi Virgin holding a gold balance and a touchstone was engraved by George Lukes. ‘But there is a bit of me in it’, confessed Grant. Look carefully and the Virgin has a Mary Quant 1960s haircut to remind Grant of the fashion during his student days during the Swinging Sixties. Height 18cm. London 2007.

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paper knife. Although his work was being exported, Grant began to look at overseas markets at this time. ‘I started to travel, first to Canada and then to the States. We did RJA [Retail Jewellers of America] shows in New York and other ones in Toronto with help from people like the Design Research Centre. I think you learn a

this is why he has a slight stoop today). In the early 1970s a fellow graduate from his Cass days joined him for a while. Later Grant was invited to rent 500 sq ft from Podolsky in Benjamin Street in Clerkenwell.

Initially working on his own, he gradually built up the business and took on employees. It was at this period that he developed a process known as electro texturing and electro forming. He explained, ‘I have always been fascinated by silver and gold plating. To get a beautiful smooth finish everything must be physically and chemically clean, otherwise you get bumps and lumps.

However, if you actually introduce dirt, dust or filings these touch the pieces being plated. As the deposit builds up it will accelerate the look of the introduced matter and creates a texturing.’ It was used on a variety of items from cufflinks to the stems of goblets. Unlike textures created by hand, this was not an expensive process and items could be attractively priced.

Having married a jeweller the business also made jewellery as well as silver. The latter range embraced letter knives, boxes as well as dining items and was retailed at quality jewellers throughout the UK as well as Asprey’s, Collingwood and Dunhill in London. ‘At first, I designed what I wanted to sell to people.’ Grant remarked. ‘This lasted about two years before I realised I had to design 314

what people wanted to buy.’ Business boomed and it was not unusual for Grant to work seven days a week. By the mid-1970s he was employing five silversmiths and three jewellers and had almost outgrown his workshop. A move was made to accommodation comprising 900 sq ft at Benjamin Street. From this point he started to concentrate on silversmithing. In common with his competitors, the Silver Jubilee of 1977 resulted in a dramatic rise in turnover. His number of employees grew and it was clear that larger premises were required. Gerald Benney’s workshop at 36 Bear Lane in Southwark was placed on the market having been empty for 18 months. Comprising 10,000 sq ft and having two car parks, Grant considered it too large. ‘The Goldsmiths’ Company and Grant’s surveyor said, “Don’t touch it with a barge pole” ,’ Grant revealed.

‘Anyway, we took it on against all advice and we are still here. It was an easy move and I think we only lost about three days’ work, since our lathes and polishing machines dropped straight into existing mounting points.’ The number of employees was now a dozen.

The move proved to be very beneficial. It was not long before he received a large commission from the UK for a complete dining service comprising a canteen with 200 pieces and 60 other items. In 1978 the mail order company Clarendon Fine Art marketed a range of Grant’s domestic silver, as well as gifts such as a pen set and a

Opposite: Smokers’ Companion Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Smokers’ sets comprising cigarette canister en suite with a lighter were not uncommon in the 1970s. What makes this different is that there is also a cigar canister and both canisters are surmounted by a piece of iron pyrite, a common mineral, but one which is unusual to find combined with silver objects. When we were offered the canisters in 2009, they looked familiar. We recalled an entry in a provincial sales catalogue prior to going abroad. We checked and the lot sold in the low hundreds. We were being offered the canisters for a low fourfigure sum. The somewhat large mark-up was mentioned to the dealer.

‘You know how it works – we could never buy anything if we didn’t agree’, was the response. We did not, but the penny then dropped. At the sale there was a ring, meaning that at the public sale, a group of potential buyers agreed not to compete against one another when the lot was offered. It was subsequently re-offered at an illegal auction at which only the members of the ring could bid. The resulting profits were shared among the ring members. It is a criminal offence to participate in an auction ring and the vendor has the right to annul the sale to the buyer at the original sale. We bought the canisters providing the lighter was included at no extra charge. Sadly the provincial auction house’s vendor missed out. Sellers, as well as buyers, beware.

The height of the cigar canister is 18cm. London 1976 and 1972.

Above: Cigar Box Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Grant’s relationship with the Middle East started to flourish in the late 1970s, starting in Qatar and then spreading to the rest of the Gulf region. His largest commission was a 3.35m high cake stand weighing 508 kg (half a ton). On occasions he has had to order so much gold for his work that his company’s purchase is believed to have affected the gold price on the London market. Over 90 per cent of his output is exported. Of course, not everything is on a monumental scale. The cover of this cigar box features a map of Qatar, its state crest and flag. It is 20cm wide, but nevertheless weighs 1.4 kg (including the wood lining). It surfaced in a small sale in the southeast of England in 2008. London 1993.

lot going to shows and seeing how people sell things. It got us out of our environment and we usually sold enough to pay expenses. We didn’t make any vast amounts of money but it was enough and this broadened our outlook.’

Grant registered his company on the then Board of Trade enquiry card system. When the Board received an enquiry for something specific that fell into a registered company’s remit, the company would be sent a copy of the request.

Grant continued, ‘I received an enquiry from a palace in the Middle East, wanting to buy some gifts for presentation to the President of France. When I contacted the gentleman he explained that the order had long since been fulfilled, but I was welcome to drop by as there were other orders which they were considering.’ Two days later Grant went to the State of Qatar. ‘I got to the hotel, phoned my contact, who said, “Right, stay where you are in the hotel and I will get back to you.” I stayed in the hotel room for four whole days. I never moved and lived on room service. Eventually he phoned and we went to the palace yet it took about a year and three further visits before I

Right: Cruet Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett After a couple of years of making what appealed to him, Grant realised that he should design and make what people wanted to buy. He sold through London luxury retailers as well as county jewellers throughout the UK. As well as domestic dining silver he produced boxes as well as letter knives and business boomed. It was not unusual for him to be working seven days a week. By the mid-1970s he was employing eight craftsmen. Height of salt and pepper, 8.3cm. London 1973.

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actually got any significant work.’ On one occasion he was kept waiting in a palace office for four solid days. Whereas a less determined man would have given up waiting, Grant persevered and was eventually seen and it changed the very nature of his business. ‘From then on, that country and others like it have actually become the backbone of our business. I have become a purveyor of royal gifts, so if they have a special occasion, I will design a unique piece, make it and take it out there. The best thing about selling gift items that end up in palaces or royal collections is that there are no returns and no repairs – nirvana.’ His reputation spread quickly round the Gulf region.

The world certainly became Grant’s oyster. He quickly discovered that British workmanship is held in the highest regard in the Gulf. Indeed, Britain with its centuries-old traditions, historic reputation for quality silver and a hallmark system that is 700 years old is a big help generally when seeking business overseas. Grant also plays the quintessential Englishman wearing a finely tailored dark pinstriped suit even when the temperature is a scorching 47 degrees. He also offers a superb service.

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Above: Candelabra for Livery Hall Courtesy Grant Macdonald This pair of candelabra was made to celebrate Grant’s year as Prime Warden of the Company. ‘I wanted length so two pairs could spread the light completely along one of the long tables at a dinner in the Company’s Livery Hall. I also wanted a WOW factor.’ The design may look simple, but each candelabrum is complex to make as the curved main body is hand-formed from two sheets of silver using a steel former and a hammer. The two pairs took several hundred hours to make. One of the most significant events during Grant’s period of office was the agreement to build the Goldsmiths’ Centre on the western edge of the City of London. The candelabra discreetly commemorates the event. The building is five storeys high and cost £17.5 million.

Each candelabrum has a width of 17½in and a width of 5in. It was funded by a bequest made over 500 years ago to the Company

by Agnes Harding with instructions that it was to be used for promoting goldsmithing. Her husband Robert Harding was Prime Warden of the Company in 1473, 1477 and 1489. When his widow died in 1504 she left a plot of land just north of Fleet Street to the Company, which still owns the freehold. In 2005 its lease expired and the Company decided to invest the proceeds from the sale of a new lease to finance and build the Centre. The company still enjoys an income from the property in the form of a ground rent.

Height 36cm, perhaps symbolising the address of his workshop, 36 Bear Lane. London 2011.

Keeping a packed suitcase in his office, he has responded to a telephone call suggesting a meeting by being available for one at 9.30am the next day at a palace in the Gulf travelling overnight and hopefully way before his competition could get organised. He also designs while he travels, so there is no scenario of having to return to London to brief a designer. His selling motto is always to say ‘Yes’. So when he received a telephone call one evening saying a private jet would be at Heathrow the next day desperate to collect 500 glass bottles of Volvic water for a VIP, he ensured they were there. On this occasion, George, his son, had to drive to Calais to make the purchase as glass bottles were not available in the UK. The majority of Grant Macdonald’s work in the Gulf takes the form of ceremonial swords and daggers, clocks, medals, sculptures and complete dining services. On occasions his company has purchased so much gold for a commission that it may have affected the gold price. His largest piece to date for the Middle East was a cake stand 3.35m high made from silver and silver-gilt in the form of a palm tree. It weighs 508kg (half a ton).

Although Grant trained as a traditional craftsman, he has always been prepared to explore new techniques and to embrace new technology. In the 1970s he experimented with electro-texturing and electroforming. In the early 1980s he turned his attention to cutting silver with lasers.

‘I firmly believe that you can blend tradition with technology’, he commented. ‘I used to do a lot of inlay work.

One of the things about using traditional piercing methods

Above: Electroformed Goblets and detail Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Electroplating had always fascinated Grant. In the early 1970s he developed electro texturing and forming. Instead of ensuring that everything was absolutely clean so as to achieve a smooth finish, he introduced dust and filings. The extraneous material is attracted to the surface being plated and the result is a textured gilded surface. He used this process for his jewellery and for the stems of goblets. These goblets were purchased in 1999 for £440.

They were sold with original invoices stating that they cost £47.50 (total £380) new in 1973. The 1973 cost of the purchase at 2012 prices would be £3,952. Height 16.3cm. London 1973.

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with a saw, for example inlaying a piece of hand-cut yellow gold into the centre of a piece of hand-cut white gold, you get the result, but also land up with a great deal of scrap.

However, using a laser, the piercing is absolutely perfect and the scrap is virtually nothing as the laser is perfect to a tolerance of 25 microns.’ Apart from being far more accurate, lasers are also quicker. Furthermore the process can be used for other things than inlay work; for example making pierced work such as bowls and for cloissonné enamelling.2 His first Nd:YAG laser3 was 60 watts – his latest in 2009 is 4-kilowatts. Grant Macdonald Silversmiths has a subsidiary, Capital Lasers, making bespoke components by five lasers for the subcontract market, such as parts for machines. This operates at his Southwark site as well as from an industrial unit near the Thames Barrier.

Since the Millennium his company has increasingly relied on CAD/CAM,4 especially since his son George joined the firm. Having a degree in photography, he produces all of the company’s graphic design material and is developing the business’s technology. This has recently resulted in the installation of two rapid prototyping machines.

Basically this process allows for computer-generated designs to be translated into resins that can be used for directly casting items in gold or silver. The exact technical process is beyond the realms of this book and certainly

2. This is where enamel is fired in ‘cells’ – in this case a laser-pierced strip soldered to a flat piece of metal to create the ‘cells’.

3. Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet) is a crystal that is used as a lasing medium for solid-state lasers. They are optically pumped using a flashlamp of laser diodes. They are one of the most common types of laser and are used for many different applications.

4. CAD/CAM software uses CAD (Computer-Aided Design) drawing tools to describe geometrics used by the CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) portion of the programme to define a tool path that will direct the motion of the tool to machine the exact shape that was drawn.

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the full understanding of its authors. However, it was used to make the Court wine cup Grant Macdonald designed in 2002 that is illustrated on p.313 and is also used for the silver handles of the range of cutlery produced by the workshop, including bespoke pieces that may incorporate an initial or even a musical score threading its way along elegant forks and spoons.

Above: Centrepiece for Hill Samuel Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Although from the 1980s, most of Grant’s creations are exported, he nevertheless undertakes a good quantity of work in the UK, especially for livery companies in the City of London and the Corporation of London (he made the casket for the scroll containing Nelson Mandela’s Honorary Freedom of the City of London). He also made a considerable number of small centrepieces for Hill Samuel that was a leading British merchant bank before it merged with the TSB Group and subsequently became a subsidiary of Lloyds TSB. The bank presented them to employees who completed 25 years service. Examples regularly appear on the secondary market. We have seen the discreet central HS roundel removed and replaced by a spherical piece of lapis lazuli. It may look good, but it is not authentic. Diameter 19.3cm. London 1990.

Opposite: Aston Martin Bowl Courtesy Grant Macdonald This is the first piece made under a worldwide license granted to the company by Aston Martin under the name Silver by Aston Martin.

The collection was launched in February 2012. Grant’s objective was to have a non mass production piece that was of a decent size which did not take hundreds of hours to make. This bowl is constructed from eight spun shapes that have had their sides cut away. The pieces were then cleverly soldered together. As one would expect from an object emanating from Grant’s workshop, it is beautifully made and finished. It can be used in a variety of ways. For example, placed as it is to sit on a table as a centrepiece, filled with water and used for floating flower heads or candles, for a flower arrangement or for ‘nibbles’. Diameter 40cm. This example, London 2012.

Although 93 per cent of Grant Macdonald Limited’s output is exported – in 2006 he became the first silversmith to win the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade – the UK is certainly not forgotten. He is driven by work for livery companies in the City of London, at the last count having made 22 Sheriffs’ Badges. He has also made many silver caskets for the scrolls presented to visiting dignitaries who are presented with an honorary Freedom of the City of London, such as Nelson Mandela. Furthermore, his exports are not all to the Gulf. Undoubtedly his biggest challenge was making the 1.5 ton, 7m high Orb and Cross that the people of Britain presented to the people of Dresden in 1999 as a gift of reconciliation. The orb was hand raised from copper sheet, while the cross was made from surgical steel.

Grant commented, ‘It could have been made using modern techniques; however, the specification was for the work to be carried out using traditional methods.’ The piece now sits on top of the rebuilt Dresden Cathedral.

Towards the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Grant Macdonald teamed up with SCI Luxury Trading to launch the first Grant Macdonald showroom in the Middle East. The location was Dubai. The opening celebrations on 16 December 2009 were held at the One and Only Royal Mirage. The reception was followed by dinner and the evening concluded with a performance by Hayakel Dance flown in from Lebanon. In July 2011 Grant Macdonald was officially named as silversmith to Aston Martin under the name Silver by Aston Martin. The collection was launched in February 2012 at the Ambiente trade fair in Frankfurt.

The Grant Macdonald Silversmith workshop is unique.

Employing over 20 people, the company’s workshop has been expertly managed by Alan Smith since 1976. Grant and Alan have known each other since their days sitting at the bench of the Central School. And as for Fred Ingram who started Grant’s interest in silver? While at college, Grant repaid his kindness by passing on the skills and techniques he had learnt at his classes. Grant also still has the pieces he made in East Finchley in the early 1960s.

Gerald Benney is not forgotten either. A huge influence in Grant’s working life, he, as Prime Warden gave the Eulogy at Gerald’s Memorial Service in Southwark Cathedral and they still use Gerald’s stainless steel Studio pattern cutlery at 36 Bear Lane. In May 2013 he opened a boutique in Harrods’ Luxury Rooms.

AVAILABILITY Grant Macdonald’s work is periodically available on the secondary market, particularly items made in the 1970s. His most available work is the bowl with the openwork gilt cover designed in 1983 for Hill Samuel to present to long-serving employees (see illustration opposite). Grant’s stock items can be bought and commissions can be placed direct with him. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact and website details.

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ALISTAIR McCALLUM This is a remarkable story of how a student at the Royal College of Art in the late 1970s was soldering different coloured metals together so that he could make jewellery that was different. Having a love of materials and a playful approach to design, he took an off-cut and put the ‘metal sandwich’ through a rolling machine. He filed into the top surface of the flat sheet that emerged and was fascinated with the pattern that resulted. With no knowledge of the old Japanese technique, by instinct he was walking in the footsteps of a craftsman who had discovered Mokume Gane in the 17th century. With no formal training, is he now one of the few people making large-scale Mokume Gane in the world.

One of Britain’s finest studio craftsmen, this metalsmith is particularly known for his use of the ancient Japanese technique Mokume Gane.

Rebecca de Quin Silversmith Alistair McCallum was born in Middlesbrough, Cleveland during 1953. ‘I am dyslexic so concentrated on the practical as opposed to academic subjects’, he explained. ‘I was OK at art, but I was not a star. However, I enjoyed making things, particularly during metalwork classes.’ He left school at 16, went to the local further education to boost his qualifications so he could go on to art school. In 1972 he started his foundation course at the Teesside College of Art.1 Having decided to undertake a Diploma in Art and Design, he was unsure as to his main subject, but considered sculpture and graphic design. ‘In those days I had a Lambretta scooter and a small group of us went to Jersey for the summer. I went into this tiny shop. There were two small showcases at the front and at the back a man was making silver jewellery. That was it – I wanted to study jewellery. To me it was new and exciting: silversmithing was traditional.

Having made the decision he applied to study at Loughborough College of Art.2 ‘At Loughborough I worked with natural materials such as ivory and tortoiseshell. So politically incorrect these days’, he said wincing. As his course neared its end, one of his fellow students decided to apply to the Royal College of Art, so Alistair decided to do the same. His application was successful and in 1975 he started his postgraduate degree course under Gerald Benney in the RCA’s School of Silversmithing and Jewellery.

‘I saw it as an opportunity to start to do something new.

However, it was not until late in my second year that I achieved my goal. I started to play with some scrap metal. I

1. Now the Cleveland College of Art and Design.

2. It later became the Loughborough College of Art and Design and in 1998 merged with Loughborough University.

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laminated different metals to make a “sandwich”, then put it through a rolling mill until it had roughly doubled in length.

I then cut it in half and resoldered it, therefore doubling the number of layers. Filing at different depths revealed different layers of the metal “sandwich” and a pattern emerged. I thought it was amazing.’ A fellow student then told him that what he had ‘discovered’ was Mokume Gane, which literally translates from the Japanese as ‘wood grain metal’, due to the fact that one of the patterns the Japanese developed looked like the grain in wood. It was an art form that the Japanese had been practising for centuries. It is believed to have been invented by Denbei Shoami (16511728). He developed the technique towards the end of the 17th century to decorate the sword handles and sheaths of samurai swords. The quality and amount of decoration on such swords was a status symbol and Mokume Gane became one of the ways to decorate them.

Above: McCallum’s Mark The maker’s mark of Alistair McCallum. Note that Mokume Gane is not hallmarked.

Opposite: Mokume Gane Vases Courtesy Alistair McCallum An issue with Mokume Gane for makers is that the scale of their work is restricted by the size of the rolling mill through which the ‘sandwich’ of metals is fed. To overcome this restriction, Alistair made each vase of this pair in two seamed parts – note the ‘waist’ at the horizontal join. The vase on the left is made from a sheet of five layers of silver and copper, the one on the right from five layers of silver and gilding metal. The sheet is not patterned before the vases are fabricated. To disguise the solder seams, both vases are filed lengthways to produce a linear faceted pattern. As well as masking the soldering seams, this also assures the surface pattern is consistent and gives the surface of the vases a pleasing tactility. Height 34.5cm. Made in 2010.

ALISTAIR MCCALLUM

ALISTAIR MCCALLUM

too difficult to roll with the other metals. I started using Mokume Gane in jewellery and later, wanting a bigger canvas, started making bowls – but they were very small with a diameter of no more than eight centimetres. One of them had 128 different layers of metal.’

Having re-discovered a Japanese technique, Alistair found there was then little technical information available and even visuals were in the form of diagrams. He continued, ‘I worked on a trial and error basis. As I had no access to the old Japanese techniques, I had no preconceived ideas. I approached the subject from a silversmith’s viewpoint and decided that the way to laminate the metals was by soldering strips of them together. John Bartholomew, the School’s technician gave me a great deal of help as to how this could best be achieved. As I now know, this was not the way that the Japanese worked.3 I started very simplistically and made jewellery. I used the materials that were commonly available to me such as silver, copper and gilding metal. I did try nickel as well, but it proved

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Alistair graduated in 1978 and was also awarded a Royal College of Art Major Travel Award. He used this to visit Japan. Assuming that he went to study Mokume Gane, the response was an emphatic, ‘No, I did not. I visited metalworkers, many temples as well as museums. I did travel to the north to see Norita Tamagawa, a sixth generation metalworker and doyen of the art of Mokume Gane, but my visit lasted one day only. We certainly talked and I saw his work, but I received no instruction. The most significant contribution to my work from this visit to the Far East was the realisation of the importance of an element of balance. Mokume Gane produces highly decorative surface patterns and I strongly believe that this is best used on simple forms, where the relationship of pattern to the form is in harmony.’

In 1979, Alistair joined Clive Burr and Jane Short, both the year below him at the RCA, to establish a workshop at Hope Sufferance Wharf, Rotherhithe. During the year, Alistair received three awards, a Research Grant from the Camberwell College of Art,4 the Littledale Award5 from the Company and a New Craftman’s Grant from the Craft Council. In the same year he also started teaching part-time at Camberwell, a post that he held until 1999. Indeed, Alistair has combined his craft with working as an educationalist throughout his career.6 However, he continued to work at the bench. Together with Clive and Jane, he moved to Old Street in the City of London in 1983 where the following year they were joined by Rod Kelly and his partner, the enameller Sheila. However, by 1988 everyone had gone their separate ways, with Alistair moving to a workshop on his own in south London. Alistair first exhibited his work during his Loughborough days7 and after graduating from the RCA he became a prolific exhibitor both in the UK and continental Europe. For example, in 1983 his work was included in two exhibitions in the UK, a touring one of five German cities and another in Ghent, Belgium. He had solo exhibitions in London at the Electrum Gallery in 1980, at Cobra & Bellamy during 1981 and at the Crafts

Council Shop at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1986.

After the RCA he continued experimenting with the technique. Given that he has had no formal training in Mokume Gane, he has a completely independent approach. He experimented with an adaptation of the traditional Japanese method of fusing the metal together (see footnote 3), but still favours soldering the strips.

Unlike the traditional Japanese, who used squares of metal, he uses strips as the rectangular shape facilitates soldering. Whereas typically the Japanese use 36 layers of metal, he generally uses no more than six. He comments, ‘You never cut the pattern into the sheet metal more than 20 per cent of its thickness. This means that while there are 36 layers, you only reveal around six of them.

Typically I use four to six layers of metal. I solder the 3mm-thick sandwiched strips on to a sterling silver bar that is 15mm in thickness. The resulting bar of laminated metal is known as a billet. This is then fed through a mill to produce a sheet that is ready to pattern.’

Right: Mokume Gane Vase Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This vase has been made from a sheet of six layers of copper and gilding metal backed with a thick sheet of silver. It is cut, formed and soldered to make the conical tapering shape. At this stage the metal is undecorated. To disguise the solder seam Alistair has filed vertical flat facets into the surface of the metal, therefore cutting through the different layers of the metal and revealing the different colours. Height 23cm. Made in 2001.

Opposite, upper: Silver and Copper Bowl Courtesy of Alistair McCallum This bowl was a walk down memory lane for Alistair as he was revisiting the first pieces he made at the Royal College of Art some 30 years earlier. Alistair wondered what the results would be, for then he was beginning an adventure, whereas three decades later he was undertaking the work with years of experience. The bowl is made from a sheet comprising 32 layers of silver and copper with a twisted pattern which is then hand-raised resulting in a ‘rock strata’ effect. He liked the result in the late 1970s and he still does in the 21st century. Diameter 8.6cm. Made in 2010.

Opposite, lower: Fused Copper and Gilded Metal Bowl Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company From the very beginning, Alistair soldered his ‘sandwich’ of metals together. However, for a brief period he fused them and this is an example of 13-14 layers of fused copper and gilded metal. The block was then milled into a square sheet 2mm thick and the pattern is produced by engine turning using an angled guide. While cutting the pattern on the flat sheet, Alistair has to consider what will happen when the object is hand-raised, as the pattern will distort when the metal is stretched and compressed.

Mokume Gane translates from the Japanese as ‘wood grain metal’ and this piece is a good example of how it got its name. Height approximately 9.5cm. Made c.1982.

3. Traditionally the Japanese fused their chosen metals together. They would cut these into squares, clean the surfaces of each and then stack them. The stack would then be placed in an open box, which is a metal box with a base and sides but no top. A heavy steel plate with a thickness of 5-6mm would then be placed on top of the stack and tied together with iron binding wire. The whole would then be almost buried in a blacksmith’s forge or hearth so no air was present. It would be left to heat until the point where the metal was slightly sweaty, then taken out of the box and the stack forged – i.e. flattened with a hammer. This traditional method has been developed by some contemporary practitioners with a temperature-controlled furnace replacing the blacksmiths’ forge and the use of mechanical aides such as a hydraulic press or torque plates (bolted clamps).

This not only allows the metals to be fused at a lower temperature, but also for the use of non-traditional metals such as titanium and platinum.

4. Camberwell College of Arts is now one of the six colleges that form the University of the Arts London.

5. Major HP Littledale left a bequest to the Company of a freehold property, the ground rent from which was to be used to provide annual bursaries to assist with students’ or apprentices’ training. The charity was closed in 1997 as the value of the ground rent had fallen below the cost of its administration.

6. In 1982 he was a part-time lecturer at Sir John Cass School of Art, in 1983 at West Surrey College of Art and Design, from 1983 to 1997 an Associate Lecturer at Middlesex University, from 1995-6 a part-time lecturer at London Guildhall University, Loughborough University 1999-2005 and from 2005 at the School of Jewellery, University of Central England, Birmingham.

7. ‘Organic Jewellery’, a touring exhibition organised by East Midlands Arts, 1975.

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ALISTAIR MCCALLUM

finally given a matt surface using pumice powder. It is then ready to be patinated, which is a way of chemically enhancing the colour difference of the metals.’

During the mid-1980s, Alistair abandoned Mokume Gane for a short period. ‘I started fabricating boxes in silver and gilding metal, using patination of the latter to give it a black finish. However, I started again after a

Alistair continued, ‘The pattern can be produced in a variety of ways, but all, with the exception of twisted patterns, involve breaking the top layer of the metal into the ones below. When I first started I only filed the top surface. I then progressed to twisted patterns that require more layers. This involves making a billet with a square cross-section, placing one end in a vice and twisting the bar a quarter turn. After it has been forged and milled, half of the sheet has a stripey pattern, while the other is plain.

Later I began carving patterns using a chisel and also used machine engraving techniques. The latter were primarily the pantograph and engine turning. Making shallow ‘V’ cuts into the surface exposes the various layers and produces a complex striped pattern. For example, if a series of parallel lines are cut across the surface and then the same thing is repeated horizontally, it will form a surface of shallow pyramids. When milled into a smooth sheet, this will produce a pattern of striped squares. As most patterns are produced in a flat sheet, it is vital, as a designer, to consider what will happen to the pattern when the object is formed. This is particularly relevant when hand-raising or spinning high-sided pieces where the pattern will distort while being stretched and compressed. Once the piece is made, it is finished using wet and dry abrasive papers and

Upper, left: Photo Frame Courtesy Alistair McCallum In 2012 Alistair was commissioned to make his first frame and has since made others to the same format, but with different patterns.

Designed to stand either portrait or landscape, the back is silver while the front is Mokume Gane. It is made from five layers of silver and gilding metal with a punched and filed pattern.

Ingeniously designed for the ease of changing the picture as well as cleaning, they are made with a degree of accuracy that would have been acceptable to Peter Carl Fabergé. As a result their crafting is a time-consuming process. Height 8.3cm. Made in 2012.

Upper, right: Caddy Spoon Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This caddy spoon was formed from a section of Mokume Gane sheet.

The sheet was made by taking a square bar with 128 layers of metal, which is the most Alistair has ever used. The bar was twisted a quarter turn and forged – i.e. struck with a hammer – before being fed through the rollers. The shape of the spoon was then pierced out of the resultant sheet and its curved form achieved using a hammer and stakes. The spoon was then cleaned and finally patinated using ammonia vapour. The piece was made in 2011.

Left: Beaker, 1990 Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company In the mid-1980s Alistair took a break from making Mokume Gane and concentrated on making boxes in silver and gilding metal.

However, at a workshop he gave in Edinburgh, an experiment with a student triggered a new way of creating patterns which rekindled his interest in the Japanese technique. Using a flat triangular shaped steel punch, he punched into the metal recessing the triangular image into the surface. The resulting raised areas were then filed away to reveal the pattern. This piece, which has six layers of copper and gilding metal, was spun into the shape of a beaker. Note how this process elongates the triangles as the metal is stretched towards the top of the beaker. The gold rim was then applied and this is the result. This methodology produced patterns with a clear graphic quality. Height 6.5cm. Made in 1990.

Opposite: Dish Courtesy Alistair McCallum This dish is made from a sheet of metal comprising six layers of copper gilding metal and silver. First it is engine turned with concentric circles. It is then milled into a smooth patterned sheet before being re-patterned using a circular punch. The sheet was then cut following the distorted circular pattern of the engine turning so as to produce an asymetric edge. It was then handraised to form this dish. Diameter 26cm. Made in 2008.

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giving a Mokume Gane workshop in Edinburgh. I wanted the students to create something personal, so I asked them to bring images of surface patterns and textures that they liked with the aim of recreating this in Mokume Gane. One girl was interested in prehistoric cave paintings and Aboriginal art and brought images of primitive figures to the class. I suggested that she make models of these in different gauges of binding wire.’

‘We then roller printed the image into the surface of the unpatterned sheet of layered metal. The resulting embossed sheet was then curved and the raised surface filed. This left a clear figurative image surrounded by a contrasting mottled pattern. This made me think that traditionally most of the patterns in Japan are created by punching from the reverse side using a domed steel punch. The raised bump is then filed to leave a wood grain type pattern from which the technique gets its name. What would happen if I used a flat shaped steel punch and punched this image into the top surface covering the whole surface and then filed the raised areas in between? It was so obvious but this opened up a whole new way of creating patterns producing a clear graphic quality. This rekindled my interest in Mokume Gane.’

Today, Alistair McCallum is one of the few people making Mokume Gane on a large scale. Typically his vases are up to 30cm in height and his bowls with a diameter of up to 20cm. His normal repertoire includes bowls, vessels, vases and small boxes, but the world is his oyster. He has made sleeves for disposable lighters and a ladle for the Millennium Canteen commissioned by Sheffield City Council in 1997. He was even commissioned to make the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes Trophy8 in 1997. At the request of De Beers, this took the form of a tea caddy, complete with caddy spoon. However,

most of his pieces are made speculatively. His work is in a great number of private collections and in a considerable number of public ones.9 His most unusual award was The Elle Décor International Design Award, India. This was in the table-top section and was made for a set of bowls he designed for Ravissant in New Delhi. From 2003-6 he was the Designer and Technical Advisor (Mokume Gane) for Ravissant, spending a month in India’s capital each year. I guess he never thought he would be doing that when he decided he wanted to be a jeweller while in Jersey all those years ago.

8. Now known as the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, it is run at Ascot in late July each year. This is the UK’s most prestigious flat race open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run over 1 mile and 4 furlongs (2,414 metres). It was first run in 1951 as the Festival of Britain King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The ‘Festival of Britain’ association was removed the following year. The diamond company De Beers sponsored the race from 1972 through to 2006 and from 1975 until 2006, the word ‘Diamond’ was included in its title.

9. Victoria and Albert Museum; Crafts Council; Worshipful Company of Goldsmith’s; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; Royal Museum of Scotland; Leeds City Art Gallery; North West Arts; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Shipley Art Gallery; Brighton and Hove Museum; Manchester City Galleries; Manchester Metropolitan University, Museum for Kunst and Gewerbe, Hamburg; and The Pearson Silver Collection.

AVAILABILITY As at April 2014, we are only aware of a pair of chopsticks on a stand by Alistair McCallum having been sold on the secondary market. Pieces may have been sold unrecognised by a dealer/auction house. His work will appear eventually, but meanwhile purchases can be made direct from him or pieces commissioned. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact details.

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ANGUS McFADYEN He established his own workshop immediately after his studies were over and initially concentrated on making jewellery. He sold this at exhibitions throughout the UK. It was not long before he discovered he was a frustrated silversmith, so also started making vases. Having almost entirely abandoned jewellery in 1989, the following year he taught himself to engrave and the rest, as is said, ‘is history’.

My interest in silversmithing stems largely from an enjoyment of using traditional methods of working metal. In the early 1990s, I became very interested in engraving. These are techniques I have learned because I like … hand engraving. I find the tools and their use as appealing as the effect they achieve. Beginning to engrave a piece of silver has the same thrill as beginning a drawing on a clean sheet of paper.

Angus McFadyen Born in Bristol in 1962, he was craft-orientated from an early age. His father was a consulting engineer, but his pastime was crafting items in his woodwork shop. ‘I was always in there making things and my grandmother taught me to embroider’, Angus recalled. There were no woodwork classes at his school, so Angus studied art. ‘Drawing was the foundation of my art education. I was lucky in having an art teacher – Ian Black – who was a practising artist who taught “old school” art, both practice and theory.

Observational drawing was vital as well as proportion/ ratio. He taught us all about the Golden Proportion and the Fibonacci Series, both of which I always try to bear in mind and apply to things I make. He is one of those people who has turned out to be a much greater influence than I could have foreseen.’ However, the course was not all drawing. It also embraced painting and the history of art.

The natural progression for Angus was an art foundation course. This was undertaken in his home city from 1980-1.

At this stage, possibly because of all the time he had spent in his father’s woodwork shop, Angus was interested in furniture and decided that he wanted to undertake a 3-D Design degree course. Of all the syllabuses he researched, the one at Manchester Polytechnic had the greatest appeal to him. It also had an extremely good reputation. ‘Despite the fact that my 1. Initially this was in the Manchester area. To quote Angus, ‘For the first year I worked from home while Jane, who is now my wife, was invited to work for an established jeweller who kindly allowed me to use his workshop periodically. After that, Jane and I moved into our first workshop together in Manchester before moving to another in the yard of the home farm at Capesthorne Hall near Alderley Edge in Cheshire. We later established a studio in the cellar of our home in Stockport.’

2. Selling exhibitions of contemporary jewellery that started in 1981. Currently there are four events a year. As well as jewellery, small useable objects and wallhung work are sold.

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tutor at Bristol told me I would never get in, I applied and was successful’, Angus revealed. His first year at Manchester was divided between wood, metal and ceramics. ‘We started with the basics and spent most of the time in the workshop with a tutor’, Angus explained.

For the second year one subject had to be dropped: for Angus this was ceramics. For the third year, another had to be abandoned. Despite all those years working at home with wood, metal was the subject that he decided should be his chosen one in his final year.

He graduated in 1984. Despite his formal training in silversmithing being minimal, he decided to establish his own studio after his degree.1 ‘To begin with I made jewellery as it was easy, not in the sense of making it, but easier to build the foundations of a business with smaller pieces. As it was far less expensive to make than larger silver objects, the retail price of jewellery made it more accessible to a wider public. There was also a good demand for silver jewellery. I exhibited at ‘Dazzle’,2 doing two to three exhibitions or more a year at places like Edinburgh, Bath, Glasgow, London, Manchester and Wigan. It certainly got the business going. In five years I did 21 ‘Dazzles’. However, while I was making jewellery, I Opposite: Vase for the Goldsmiths’ Company Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This is one of the first pieces that Angus made using fine silver.

‘Due to its softness, fine silver is easier to raise and therefore is suitable for students to learn with. However it is no substitute for the more robust sterling standard required for functional silver.

Being harder, that is more difficult to raise’, he commented. He continued, ‘Ferns were a common theme of my work when the Goldsmiths’ Company commissioned this piece. I also feel that ferns lend themselves to tall vases.’ Height 30cm. Edinburgh 2009.

ANGUS MCFADYEN

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containers’. By 1989 he had decided to concentrate entirely on making larger silver pieces.

also realised that I was a frustrated silversmith’, he confesses. His jewellery was successful and despite being busy preparing for shows, he did find the time to make larger silver pieces as well. ‘I started with vases – you don’t have to think hard about those’, he said with his usual modesty. ‘Mine were very plain. I rebelled against polishing, as we had to do that at college. Although texturing and patination was popular at the time, I used a matt finish, though I did experiment with patination, which is the colouring of the silver’s surface with chemicals.’ The vases sold well at events such as the Chelsea Craft Fair, Creative Eye3 and the Harrogate Craft Fair as well as Goldsmiths’ Fair in London. He also made what he describes as ‘decorative rather than useful small 328

There was another change too.

‘Suddenly engraving appealed to me as a technique.’ He continued, ‘I have always been drawn to low relief-carving in stone, such as the Elgin Marbles and the carvings all over the Egyptian temples in Luxor. It is not just the carving, it is the monotone quality that appeals. It is the same with sculpture – plain stone or marble carving has a huge attraction and it also makes me want to touch and feel it. The appeal of monotone is very strong to me and it is, almost without exception, an artist’s drawing that is of much greater interest to me than their painting. If I had the means, I would collect pencil drawings, figurative drawings. I think a lot of the time I am trying to reproduce drawings on silver. Low relief carving is really another way of drawing.’ He stressed that he was not interested in heraldic engraving or engraving pictures on silver. Asked whether he had studied engraving in Manchester, the response was a stunning, ‘No, I went out and bought a book, Engraving on Precious Metals.4 A strong element of my work philosophy is, by necessity, “try it and see”. This applies to most aspects of making a piece, whether forming a hollow handle for the first time, or teaching myself to engrave.’

Angus considers that the most important thing about engraving on metal is learning how to sharpen the tools used. He added ‘When you are taught to do anything, there is a danger that you might end up mimicking your tutor.

When you teach yourself, you learn by trial and error. The first piece I engraved was a vase. It was deeply carved and with my inexperienced enthusiasm I unwittingly cut through the metal. The problem was that I did not realise this and exhibited it a few times before I decided to display

flowers with it. When I filled it with water it leaked. You only make a mistake like that once.’ Even after a cursory glance at Angus’s work, it is quite apparent that the inspiration for his engraving is nature. ‘I walk every day with the dog and I keep my eyes open and I love looking at old botanical illustrations. I am interested in plant forms,

Opposite: Desk Clock Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett ‘Recycle, reuse, reduce’ is a useful mantra to concentrate the mind for turning the discarded into new products. This desk clock is a superb example of recycling. In February 2012 when gold peaked at £1,132 per troy ounce, Angus noticed that gold pocket watches were being scrapped and good quality movements were available on the market for reasonable sums. The movement in this clock was made by Longines in 1916 for a pocket watch. It has been fully overhauled and will probably be good for a further 100 years.

Its new case has been engraved with small foliage, gold plated and then laboriously polished back so that the gold only remains in the sunken engraving. Height 8cm. Edinburgh 2013.

Above: Chrysanthemum Tea Service Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Angus’s chrysanthemum design teapot was entered into ‘Silver and Tea: a perfect blend’ staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1998. The engraved pattern was inspired by a pot of chrysanths at a garden centre. Unbeknown to him, the exhibition was also a competition and he won joint first prize. This teapot was made the following year with a moonstone finial that beautifully reflects in the hoop handle, giving it an almost transparent look. The teapot was purchased at auction in 2008 for a shade under £6,800. The cream sugar and spoon were commissioned from Angus in 2010 and were delivered in 2011. Height of teapot 17cm. Edinburgh 1999 and 2010.

stems and leaves and particularly in the forms that plants make, such as the surface covering of leaves’, he explained.

In the study of phyllotaxis, or leaf arrangement, it has been discovered that there is a connection between the placement of leaves around a stem and the Fibonacci Series.5 Could Ian Black, his art master, have sown his seed for Angus’s interest in leaf arrangement some 15 years earlier? This we shall never know, but what we do know is that his first piece of engraving featured irises, but blackberry bramble leaves with their vines and thorns certainly soon became a recurring theme. Whereas when engraving vases and bowls, the work was on the object’s flat surface, his approach for rose bowls was different. ‘I wanted the piece to look good when there were no flowers in it, so I pierced out the design and made the foliage three-dimensional with the vines weaving above and below the leaves as it occurs in nature’, he explained. The leaves, vines and thorns were then realistically engraved. In 1996

3. A trade fair that was arranged by the Crafts Council each January. It no longer takes place.

4. First published in 1958 by NAG Press (London) ‘For professionals and others who wish to learn hand engraving as a hobby or a trade’. The authors for editions up to 1975 were A Brittain, S Wolpert and P Morton, while from the 1980 edition, it was just Messrs Brittain and Morton. There was a US edition in 1977 (Arco Publishing).

5. When looking down on a plant, the leaves are frequently arranged so that those above do not hide the ones below, and they all get a share of the sunlight.

The connection is encountered when counting the number of times one has to go round the stem, going from leaf to leaf, as well as counting the leaves en route until a leaf is found that is directly above the starting one. See Fascinating Fibonaccis: Mystery and Magic in Numbers by Trudi Hammel Garland (Palo Alto, USA, 1987).

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his cake slice for the Rabinovitch Collection6 also featured ‘brambles’ in the same way, with the leaves gilded in a shade of gold that is certainly autumnal.

Benton Rabinovitch must have liked the piece7 as he also commissioned a double-skinned goblet with grape vines rather than brambles, though Angus is quick to point out that the concept for the design was Professor Rabinovitch’s idea rather than his. Although the majority of Angus’s work is now to commission, this was not always the case. A keen advocate of Goldsmiths’ Fair for its work in bringing established and up-and-coming silversmiths’ to the attention of a wider public, in 1995 he decided to make a gold bowl to show at the Fair. ‘After all, it is Goldsmiths’ Fair, so I thought it would be nice to exhibit a sizable gold object’, he said with a smile. ‘So, I went out and bought the largest possible good gauge sheet of gold for that I could for £1,000 and had a pact with my wife that if the piece did not sell within a year, I would scrap it. Despite the cost of the

6. The Collection was given to the Victoria and Albert Museum. See Contemporary Silver: Commissioning, designing, collecting by BS Rabinovitch and H Clifford (London, 2000), page 70-71 for a description and image. This book is devoted to the Rabinovitch Collection of Servers.

7. Indeed, he wrote in the book of his Collection, ‘His [Angus McFadyen’s] original and unique style made his creations stand out [at Goldsmiths’ Fair].’

8. Held at Goldsmiths’ Hall 28 May to 3 July 1998.

9. Now known as the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and run at Ascot in late July each year, this is the UK’s most prestigious flat race open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run over 1 mile and 4 furlongs (2,414 m). It was first run in 1951 as the Festival of Britain King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

The ‘Festival of Britain’ wording was removed the following year. The diamond company De Beers sponsored the race from 1972 through to 2006 and from 1975 until 2006, the word ‘Diamond’ was included in its title.

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metal, it is nevertheless quite a small bowl, having a diameter of 7cm. I engraved it with chrysanthemums.’ Imagining that the inspiration for the decoration could be Japanese, the response as to what was the trigger could not have been further from the truth, ‘It was a potted chrysanthemum bush with a diameter of about 30cm in a local garden centre’, was his reply. He continued, ‘A lady bought the bowl at the Fair. When she heard that I had made a second one, she thought she had better have that one as well! Sadly, both are kept in a bank vault.’ Perhaps the piece that brought him to the attention of a wider public was his ‘chrysanthemum design’ teapot that he submitted for inclusion in the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ 1998 exhibition ‘Silver and Tea – a perfect blend’.8 He designed and made a spherical teapot with a semi-hoop handle sufficient for just two cups. Its lid, handle and spout are of plain polished silver, while its main body is engraved with a host of small chrysanthemum blooms. What Angus did not realise when he submitted it was that the exhibition was also a competition. He won joint first prize. ‘The first I knew about it was one Saturday morning when I opened an envelope and inside was a cheque and a letter from Goldsmiths’ Hall’, he said with a chuckle.

Since 1990, Angus has been an engraver. As he explained, ‘As far as the engraving goes, I like nothing better than to spend weeks making one piece, for me to go back to making unadorned form would be a real challenge and something I would struggle with. I can appreciate other people’s work and obviously don’t feel the need to decorate everything, but I get the same thrill from a new piece of metal or a newly planished vase as I do from a new sketchbook. When I look at other people’s work, the thing I relate to more than anything else is the craftsmanship involved in making it. I love the making process, in any material, and maybe that’s why I prefer drawings to paintings, because you can see the process. I believe those of us who make things do so because we love to make, possibly even have to make, and that a maker’s craftsmanship adds something to a piece to which others respond or relate.’ He makes the majority of the silver he designs by hand-raising, but he does have some pieces spun by third parties (to his design and specifications) when there are time constraints for making the item. This happened where one large commission was concerned.

This was the 2001 trophy for the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.9 Angus suggested that the trophy should take the form of a large rose bowl with its three-dimensional lid with ‘thorn-stem like brambles’. It has a diameter of 30 centimetres and obviously had to be ready for the race. The three-year-old Galileo, ridden by Michael Kinane, won the race. It was the last Ascot attended by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (the Queen Elizabeth in the race’s title). HM Queen Elizabeth II presented the trophy to the horse’s owner, Michael Tabor. A person with shares in the horse commissioned Angus to make a duplicate rose bowl after the race. In the past Angus did undertake a certain amount of batch-produced work for both the trade and retail markets. Today, while he still makes pieces for the selling events he attends, most of his work is commissioned. Most of these are by private patrons.

He has lived at Buxton in Derbyshire since 1999, which is not a great distance from Chatsworth, the principal home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. The Dowager Duchess and the current Duke and Duchess of Devonshire have a

Upper, left: Lid of Mustard Pot Courtesy Angus McFayden The Duke of Devonshire commissioned Angus to make seven lidded mustards and eight salts for Lismore Castle, his home in Ireland’s County Waterford. Largely rebuilt in the mid-19th century in the Gothic style, the residence includes features designed by the leading architect of the day AWN Pugin. Here we show one of the mustard covers engraved with shamrocks. The other imagery on the condiments include motifs that are specific to the Cavendish family. This includes an Irish ‘D’ for Devonshire, strawberry leaves and ducal coronets. The pyramid-type motif at the centre of this cover was inspired by the shape of one of the towers at the entrance to the castle. Diameter 7cm. Edinburgh 2005.

Opposite: Bowl for Goldsmiths’ Fair Courtesy Angus McFayden On the basis that it was called ‘Goldsmiths’ Fair’, Angus decided that he would make a bowl in 18-carat gold. He decided to buy the biggest piece of the metal he could for £1,000 and should the item not sell within a reasonable time, he would melt it down and recoup his outlay. Thankfully a visitor to the Fair fell in love with the piece and bought it. She later bought another Angus had made so that it would not feel lonely. The surface of the bowl is deeply engraved with stylised flower heads. Diameter 7cm. Edinburgh 1996.

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penchant for contemporary silver and support silversmiths, including those who live locally. His work does feature in the private collections of the Devonshires. The Duke usually exhibits items from his contemporary collections in a cabinet on the Great Stairs landing for visitors to Chatsworth to view. The Company commissioned Angus to make a vase engraved with ferns for its modern collection.

This was delivered to Goldsmiths’ Hall in January 2010.

Angus’s maker’s mark is registered in Edinburgh. When asked if this was because of his Scottish roots, the response was pragmatic. ‘My grandfather was the last of

Opposite: Chrysanthemum Vase Courtesy Angus McFayden This is one of the few pieces of work for which Angus kept a time sheet. It took him seven days to hand-raise the vase in four sections.

The engraving of the chrysanthemum heads then took 22 days. On the basis of a five-day working week, from start to finish the piece took approximately six weeks to make. Height 25cm. Edinburgh 2004.

Above: Oval Rose Bowl Courtesy Angus McFayden Angus has made many rose bowls during his career at the bench.

He favours an oval as opposed to the traditional round form as he he feels the shape is more versatile for varied locations. The body of the bowl is engraved with general foliage while the openwork cover has thistle head at its centre. The design of the cover is cut from a sheet of silver using a saw. The surface of the silver is then engraved. Diameter 25cm. Edinburgh 2003.

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our family to live in Scotland – on the Isle of Tiree.10 I registered at Edinburgh as my wife was working with a jeweller at the time. Edinburgh was then considered the least expensive but the most efficient of the Assay Offices.’ It is easy to forget that the hallmark is an integral cost of a silver object. Despite his leaning towards self-teaching, Angus has lectured. He taught at Wrexham College of Art and Design for a brief period in 1989 and from 1994-8 he lectured at Manchester Polytechnic/Manchester Metropolitan University11 while he was undertaking his doctorate there.

10. The most westerly island of the Inner Hebrides, measruring just 12 by 3 miles.

11. Manchester Polytechnic became Manchester Metropolitan University in 1992.

AVAILABILITY Angus McFadyen’s vintage work currently rarely appears on the secondary market. Commissions may be placed direct with him. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact details.

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DAVID MELLOR While studying to be a silversmith, he visited Scandinavia and began to see himself not as a traditional silversmith, but as a designer exploring other media. His design ability appeared to have no bounds: from silver to traffic lights, from stainless steel to street furniture, with anything from tools to telephones thrown in for good measure. However, he became the Cutlery King.

Having trained as a silversmith, I tend to think of myself primarily as a maker. My work as an industrial designer, developing prototypes for quantity production, has been balanced by my work as a craftsman, making special one-off pieces of silver. My approach to design is still, to some extent, that of a craftsman, in my involvement in directing all the detail and in making a design concept work from end to end.

David Mellor, 1984 David Rogerson Mellor was born in Sheffield in October 1930 to Colin and Ivy (née Rogerson) Mellor. During the 1930s the city was the UK’s major steel producer, but it was also famed for its cutlery. Indeed, half of its workforce was employed in the cutlery and steel producing industries.

David’s father was a toolmaker working for the Sheffield Twist Drill and Steel Company,1 while his maternal grandfather was a master baker. The young Mellor was therefore brought up in an environment where making was second nature. His father was certainly a great influence in his formative years, for being a practical craftsman, he made toys for his children. From a picture in the Mellor Family Archive showing David playing with a sizable toy train, it is clear that it was a sophisticated and well-made plaything. When his son was confined to his bed with measles, Colin Mellor painted tulips on the bedroom door, which makes one wonder whether the toolmaker could have been an artist who was never given the opportunity to explore his talent. However, what we definitely know is that David disliked all lessons at school apart from art. It was therefore no surprise that for Sheffield’s War Ships Week early in 1942, he decided to enter a model ship into the competition sponsored by the city’s ship breakers, Thomas W Ward. David won the first prize. He was duly

1. The company now trades as Dormer Tools Limited and is part of the Swedishbased Sandvik Group. Dormer Tools became part of the Sheffield Twist Drill Company in 1913.

2. The Education Act 1902 established junior versions of art, commercial and technical schools to provide vocational training for those aged 13-16.

3. The bombing took place on the afternoon and night of 12 December and the night of 15 December. The target was the steel and armaments factories. Over 680 people lost their lives, 1,500 were injured, 40,000 were made homeless, 3,000 homes were destroyed, 3,000 badly damaged and a further 78,000 impacted by the bombing.

4. GH Glover became an eminent educationalist. His Teaching for a New Age, which was based on his experiences in Sheffield, became a post-war classic.

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summoned to the company’s imposing offices and presented with his reward by Sir Ashley Ward. However, there was more to come. Sir Ashley commissioned the then 11-yearold David to make a model of every ship that the company had broken up and paid him £3-15s (£3.75) for each one.

David made approximately 20 models, which Sir Ashley displayed in a showcase in a mahogany panelled room he had saved from the liner Olympic prior to it being broken up. This was David’s first paid employment.

In the autumn of 1942 David started at the Junior Art Department2 (affectionately known as JAD) of the Sheffield College of Art. The course embraced the practical aspects of metalwork and pottery, as well as home decorating and standard academic secondary school subjects. Miraculously JAD had survived the ‘Sheffield Blitz’ of 1940,3 whereas the College of Art next door was destroyed. The JAD’s headmaster was a Mr GH Glover who was not only ahead of his time, but also greatly admired by his pupils. He was a great proponent of project led-courses.4 As appropriate for the time, many of

Opposite: Candleabrum for the City of Sheffield Courtesy David Mellor Design, photographer Helen Mellor This 16-light candelabrum was commissioned by the City of Sheffield at the beginning of the Swinging Sixties. It is impressive and has the gravitas required for civic use. More than half a century after it was designed it still has a modern appearance.

Undoubtedly when it was produced at the first civic dinner it would have caused quite a sensation. It is very spatial compared to a traditional candelabrum and its use of thin arms for the candles gives the impression that the source of light is ‘floating’ in the air. It is also very practical as it can be seen through as opposed to diners having to look round it to see those on the opposite side. Height 60cm (excluding candles). Sheffield 1960.

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these were inspired by wartime themes. The one that most excited David was called ‘The World of Plenty’ – the young students had to visualise what Sheffield might look like at some future time when the war was over. The students mounted an exhibition in the City Library. This project had a significant impact on David, but another aspect of his work at JAD was to show his aptitude for metalwork. In his first year he made a sweet dish in gilding metal with a twisted handle. It was an extremely competent piece for someone who was not yet a teenager.

In 1945, David enrolled at the Sheffield College of Art, which because of bombing was located in temporary accommodation on the top floor of a building owned by a firm of drysalters.5 William Bennett taught him silversmithing,6 but more importantly, another of his tutors was Donald Milne Williamson, a professional cabinetmaker. He had just returned from the war and David was impressed by Williamsons’ vision of a new and modern Britain. In 1946 David visited ‘Britain Can Make It’, organised by the Council of Industrial Design that had been established two years previously with Government finance. Its objective was to both promote the improvement of the designs produced by British industry7 and to stimulate the public’s demand for products that were better designed. No doubt inspired by the exhibition and encouraged by Williamson, David made a sideboard in the Gordon Russell modernist style.8 However, this was not his only brush with modernism at Sheffield. In the silver workshop he also made some spoons tapering to a very thin stem before they joined the bowl. During 1948, 336

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David’s last year at the Sheffield School of Art, Robin Darwin, who wrote the introduction of the catalogue for the CoID exhibition, was appointed Rector of the Royal College of Art. Clearly the British establishment had been looking at the RCA’s role in improving design. The new Rector introduced courses where the emphasis was on product design9 and was anxious to secure students with talent to attend them. He visited art colleges in the

Above: Embassy Canteen Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett David Mellor Designs still offer Embassy Cutlery but as an eightpiece setting: there is no longer a four-pronged fish fork. An Embassy canteen comprising 12 nine-piece place settings, four table spoons and three ladles was ordered direct from David Mellor in October 1972. With the exception of the knife handles, which are hollow, the silver was hand-forged. Apart from one ladle which is dated 1966, the pieces are hallmarked for 1971/2. The total bill was for £806.19, but who ever prepared the invoice only charged for two table forks, making an error of £104.85 in the purchaser’s favour. The complete canteen of 115 pieces was offered at Bonhams in June 2008. The Collection paid £18,525 to secure it. Sheffield 1971/2, except one ladle which is 1966.

Opposite: Exhibition of Embassy Tableware Courtesy David Mellor Design, photographer the Design Council The Embassy tableware with its silver designed by David Mellor was commissioned by the British government for all its embassies in a drive to give Britain a more forward-looking image. Considered very important, it was unveiled in 1963 at the Design Centre in London’s Haymarket. Following a change of government in 1965, the order was cancelled. Only two embassies received the new tableware. The cut glass was designed by Professor Robert Goodden under whom David Mellor studied while at the Royal College of Art.

provinces. At Sheffield he was impressed with David Mellor and personally recruited him to the RCA.10 However, first David had to undertake his National Service. He was posted to the 8th Tank Regiment at Catterick, but he managed to make good use of his time.

He was able to get himself assigned to the sign writing department and changed all the camp’s signage to Gill Sans.11 He also obtained special leave to continue his silversmithing studies at Newcastle College of Art.

what was also an ideal time to be studying silversmithing at the RCA. Professor Goodden had a significant influence on silversmithing in post-war Britain. As David Mellor’s wife Fiona MacCarthy has stated, ‘There is hardly a metalworker in the country not touched at some point by the Goodden influence.’ 13 Brian Asquith, Gerald Benney, Eric Clements, David Mellor, Jack Stapley and Robert Welch all overlapped at

In the autumn of 1950 David started his silversmithing course at the RCA under Professor Robert Goodden. He rented a room in Westbourne Grove at the heart of the capital’s now fashionable Notting Hill.12 This he made his shrine to modernity as his visual environment was becoming of increasing importance to him. The RCA’s School of Silversmithing and Jewellery must have been a shock for at that time as it was housed in World War I army huts off the Cromwell Road in South Kensington.

However, the buzz at the College was more than compensation for the lack of aesthetics, as preparations were in full swing for the Festival of Britain that took place the following year. The new team of professors Robin Darwin had appointed were its designers and they recruited their students to help in transforming their ideas into reality. This was an added bonus to

5. As well as traditionally providing salt or chemicals for preserving food, drysalters usually dealt in a range of items such as glues, varnishes and dyes.

6. He had been apprenticed to Omar Ramsden, the famous Arts and Crafts silversmith, at the same time as Leslie Durbin.

7. In the hope that stylish design would increase British exports.

8. The British 20th-century furniture designer Sir Gordon Russell (1892-1982) whose work ranged from furniture in the Arts and Crafts style in the early years to cutting-edge modern design.

9. While Robin Darwin initially went along with the Ministry of Education’s emphasis of the teaching to be directed towards ‘the training of the industrial designer’ he was of the view that the RCA had to teach design in an art environment and art in a design environment. In other words, the fine arts were an essential adjunct to studies in design. Certainly the RCA’s fine arts areas grew in strength during the 1950s.

10. In 1948, Robin Darwin also personally recruited another contemporary of David’s, the painter Derek Greaves. Brian Asquith, who had also attended Sheffield’s JAD and College of Art (and was a contemporary of David Mellor), had obtained a scholarship to the RCA in 1947 to study sculpture, but he also studied silversmithing.

11. A typeface developed by Eric Gill in the second half of the 1920s.

12. The rent was 15-shillings a week (75-pence). He painted the walls white and furnished it as far as he could within his budget with stylish contemporary articles.

13. Robert Goodden’s Obituary, The Guardian, 26 March 2002.

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and he was in his element. Although he later travelled extensively, Italy remained his favourite destination.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, David was working on his graduation thesis. He chose ‘The Development of the Cutlery Industry’, an appropriate subject for a Sheffield

the RCA during the early 1950s,14 making it a hotbed of talent and creativity. At this period Britain was being influenced by Scandinavian design and in particular Sweden, where art had made a great impact on industrial design. David was no exception as is wellillustrated by the first David Mellor acquisition made by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths for its collection in 1950: a hand-raised coffee pot and cream jug with elegant clean lines.

In 1952 David was awarded a Travelling Scholarship from the Company and not surprisingly, Sweden and Denmark were his chosen destinations. The visit had a considerable impact on his life and work, for it was there that he began to see himself not just as a traditional silversmith, but also as a designer working in other media, such as stainless steel and aluminium, making stylish quality objects to be produced in quantity.15 The broadening of his horizons was a consequence of the Scandinavians’ use of these ‘new’ materials. He was also impressed with the Scandinavians’ public buildings, street furniture and both the quality and design of the wares offered in the shops. The following year the opportunity was offered to two RCA students to spend six months at the British School in Rome. David and the glass designer Geoffrey Baxter were selected and the two set off for Italy in David’s 1936 open-top Morris. As in Scandinavia, he was impressed with the Italians’ sophisticated retail outlets and their generally stylish approach to life, from dress to street lighting. Add the stimulating company of the painters16 and archaeologists 338

Above left: Faceted Pepper Mill Courtesy David Mellor Design, photographer Helen Miller When David Mellor opened his shop in London’s Sloane Square, it attracted global media attention. In the UK Janet Street-Porter wrote in the Daily Mail that it, ‘does for scrubbing brushes and kitchen equipment what the uplift bra did for B. Bardot’. It opened its doors at the end of the swinging 1960s, a decade where individual shopkeepers came to the fore. However, what made Mellor different from say Habitat (founded 1964) was that its founder designed and made many of the stock items. This included silver. Here is an example of the pepper mill from his faceted range. Height 17.5cm. Sheffield 1973.

Above, right: Powder Bowl Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company In the 1960s David became interested in the possibilities of texturing silver. The 1963 cross for Southwell Minster with its bands of silver is one of his first experiments, followed by a cup for the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers with an engraved stem. In 1966 he designed a group of boxes with textured lids as well as this powder bowl with a cover enamelled by Cameron Maxfield. While Gerald Benney preceded David with an interest in texturing, David led the way with enamelling. However, he did not commercially pursue a range of objets d’art or textured silver.

Diameter of powder bowl 2.7cm. Sheffield, 1966.

Opposite: Coffee Pot and Milk Jug Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company David was among the first group of students to study at the Royal College of Art under Professor Goodden at the start of a period when there was a new focus on design. There was an enthusiasm to create a new contemporary look. Generally there was a tendency to look to Scandinavia for inspiration. Certainly these early pieces by David have a Nordic feel. However, by the end of the 1950s he was developing a very British style of his own.

Height of coffee pot 27.5cm. London 1950.

man born and bred. The thesis illustrated cutlery from the 18th through to the early 20th centuries.

He later commented, ‘Cutlery is one of the hardest things to design. It easily dates and it is surrounded by the mystique of tradition.’ 17 David had been engrossed with both the making and shape of cutlery since his Sheffield days. His approach was not to reinvent eating implements, but to draw on the aspects of the past that he considered worthy, and to interpret these for the present. At the RCA he had been developing the spoons he had designed and made while a teenager at Sheffield and the result was what became a modern classic – his elegant Pride cutlery with the gently tapering handles of its spoons and forks.18 Pride had been designed with a view to being machine produced. A part-time student at the RCA fortuitously watched its development. This was Peter Inchbald, who was the maternal grandson of Sir Albert Bingham of Walker and Hall, the large Sheffield firm that produced silverware in silver and EPNS. The company was one of the city’s leading manufacturers, it was old fashioned with both its manufacturing and marketing and certainly was not design-led. Peter Inchbald was working at the firm’s Oxford Street shop to acquaint himself with the marketing and retail side of the business. He was also studying silversmithing one-day a week over a two-year period at the RCA and had met David. Clearly he was impressed as he approached the Board of Walker and Hall, not only suggesting that David Mellor was appointed design consultant, but to place Pride into production in EPNS. David graduated from the RCA in the summer of 1954.

He was awarded the College’s Silver Medal as the most outstanding student of the year. After his graduation his appointment at Walker and Hall was formally confirmed with a salary of £1,000 a year. Professor Goodden considered the appointment as the highlight event of the mid-1950s. David headed back to Sheffield, established a studio-workshop on the first and second floors of a former Georgian rectory in Eyre Street, just a stone’s throw from the Walker and Hall factory.

Despite being involved with the production of Pride, David found time to teach part-time at the Sheffield College of Art.19 When Pride was launched, it was far more successful than David could possibly have hoped.

In addition to the EPNS version, it was also available in silver. The British were now beginning to become design conscious. In 1956, the CoID established the Design Centre in London’s Haymarket where exhibitions of contemporary design were staged. The following year the Design Centre Award Scheme was established, in which 12 domestic products were chosen as examples of good design. David received his first Design Centre Award in 1957 for his Pride cutlery. Considerable publicity followed in magazines, daily and Sunday

14. The dates for the six students at the RCA are: Brian Asquith 1947-51; Gerald Benney 1951-4; Eric Clements 1949-52; David Mellor 1950-4, Jack Stapley 1949-52 and Robert Welch 1952-5.

15. While at the RCA, he did make a prototype kettle in cast aluminium with a coiled steel handle.

16. His Sheffield contemporary Derek Greaves was also there.

17. Said during an interview for a publicity bulletin issued by Francis Butler Limited in 1964.

18. The knife handles were originally in bone, but later xylonite (a plastic resembling ivory) was used. Today the handles of the knives are available in a number of finishes, including silver plate.

19. During this decade he was also invited to help establish a silversmithing department at the University of Albuquerque and he spent a couple of months in New Mexico.

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newspapers. In 1958 a four-piece tea service was added to his Pride range. Walker and Hall produced it in EPNS as well as silver. The silver tea and coffee pots initially had black leather handles, whereas the EPNS version had black nylon ones. Possibly because the leather handles were impractical, they were later replaced by nylon ones. The service also received a Design Centre Award. Indeed, David Mellor became such a regular at the annual Award ceremonies that the Duke of Edinburgh, who presented winners with their certificates, joked with him about his repeated presence.

David Mellor was not solely concentrating on silver in the years immediately following his graduation. Inspired by the street lighting in Rome, he designed a street lamp when he returned to the RCA. He managed to interest a company in the East Midlands, which eventually became Abacus Lighting. A range of lighting columns followed as well as street furniture ranging from bus shelters to litter bins and even a solid fuel room convection heater for the Grahamston Iron Company. There were also changes at Walker and Hall. Peter Inchbald had recruited a young team of managers and plans were underway for a new factory at Bolsover, some 12 miles from Sheffield, for the production of stainless steel. David was very involved with this project.20 Changes were also being made with David’s business. Having acquired an orchard at Broomhall, one of Sheffield’s leafy suburbs, the architect Patric Guest designed a long modern building for him with large windows that served as his workshop, studio and living accommodation for the next 12 years. He moved to 1 Park Lane in 1960. It was not long before his team had grown to include a draughtsman and model maker, a secretary and three silversmiths. He certainly needed the smiths as the commissions for silver were coming in thick and fast.

It began with an 18-light candelabra for the City of Sheffield in 1960 and continued with ecclesiastical and university silver, a series of boxes for the Company that demonstrated his interest in textured surfaces, corporate commissions and a very large order for a complete service of silver for British Embassies around the world.

The Ministry of Works made this commission in 1962 with the objective of demonstrating the best in British design. Coincidentally this was the year that David was elected to the Royal Designers for Industry.21 What became known as ‘Embassy tableware’ was unveiled at the Design Centre in 1963. The CoID enthusiastically stated that it was, ‘the best of its kind that has been produced in this country for many years’. Comprising 340

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everything from candlesticks to condiments, it covered all that a British Embassy could possibly need – including tea-kettles with heaters and toast racks. All the pieces were made at Park Lane with the exception of the Embassy cutlery. This was forged by hand22 under David’s supervision at the specialist Sheffield company of CW Fletcher and given a satin finish. With a rectangular profile, it is more modern in shape than Pride and has a functional, but nevertheless informal, solid appearance.

The prongs of the dinner and desert forks are unusual as he adopted the 17th-century approach of using three as opposed to the subsequent convention of four prongs, but unlike their 17th-century counterpart, with a ‘W’ formation as opposed to straight tines. The embassies in Warsaw and Mexico City were duly supplied with Mellor’s Embassy silver range, but then disaster struck. Following a change of government in 1965, the project was abandoned. So as to make the design economic, Embassy tableware was sold for a while to the general public through Harrods and was always available to private clients direct from David’s workshop. Nevertheless, original examples are currently rarely encountered in the secondary market. David Mellor Design Limited retails newly made Embassy cutlery in polished stainless steel as well as candlesticks in silver plate.

Although the cancellation of the Embassy order was disappointing for David, 1965 was certainly not all doom and gloom. Indeed, it was a year of new opportunities. He started a five-year consultancy with the Ministry of Transport to design a national traffic light system and halfbarrier railway crossings. Additionally, the Ministry of Public Building and Works commissioned him to design stainless steel cutlery for government canteens.

Commissions in silver continued to arrive too. An important ecclesiastical commission in the late 1960s was a silver

Opposite: Altar Cross for Southwell Minster Courtesy David Mellor Design, photographer the Design Council During the 1960s David received a number of ecclesiastical commissions. The first was in 1961 for a pair of brass candlesticks for St Silas’s Church in Sheffield. It was not far from his then Park Lane workshop. This was followed with this altar cross and candlesticks for Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire. He had long admired its fine Norman nave and 13th-century chapter house containing some of the country’s finest naturalistic carvings. David believed that the sensitive infiltration of modern work into an ancient building was the best way to give an old building life. He designed the cross to be constructed from bands of silver in such a way that a separate cross is formed at its centre so that there is a ‘cross within a cross’. Height of altar cross 91.5cm. Sheffield 1963.

crucifix and pair of candlesticks for the Lady Chapel of the Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral at Liverpool. Sir Frederick Gibberd designed the Cathedral in the early 1960s. He was one of 300 architects from around the world who submitted designs to the open competition for ‘a Cathedral in our time’. It is a circular building with the altar at the centre and has been dubbed ‘the wigwam’. The crucifix was a collaboration with the sculptress Elizabeth Frink, who modelled the figure of Christ. A tour de force of the early 1970s was a large bowl with a diameter of 45cm commissioned by the Company of Cutlers to celebrate the bi-centenary of the Sheffield Assay Office in 1973. Twohundred-and-one forged silver segments radiated out from its base, each engraved in ascending order with the years from 1793 to 1973. In the year a new monarch ascended the throne, the sovereign’s name is engraved on that segment.

Having been at 1 Park Lane for 12 years, it was time for

a change. David was now a family man. Fiona MacCarthy, then Design Correspondent of the Guardian wrote an article on him in 1964. Two years later the couple married; their son Corin was born in the December of the same year and their daughter Clare in 1970. In 1973 David purchased Broom Hall, a mansion dating from the 15th century. A few minutes walk from his current home and studio, he had watched it decay

20. His association with Walker and Hall Limited ended in 1963 when the company amalgamated with Mappin and Webb Limited and Elkington & Company Limited to form British Silverware Limited. However, the Pride tea services continued to be made by Mappin and Webb and then Elkington throughout the 1960s.

21. It was established by the Royal Society of Arts in 1936 to honour designers of excellence and promote design in the manufacturing industry. David Mellor was 31 when he was elected and was then the youngest ever member. He was elected for silver, cutlery and light engineering.

22. With the exception of the hollow knives, which were pressed.

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and be vandalised. This was an era when the sympathetic adaptation of old property for modern use was very much on the agenda. A great advocate of combining living and working accommodation, David also saw the potential of undertaking manufacturing in Broomhall. Having spotted a gap in the market for welldesigned top-of-the-range cutlery, David saw an opportunity to draw on his interest in cutlery and the experience of manufacturing he gained while working with Walker and Hall and developing cutlery for largescale production for the government. His application to the Sheffield Planning Department was approved, subject to the residential accommodation being for the Mellor family use, meaning it was not transferable to any new owner of the property. The converted Georgian ‘L-shaped’ wing served as the cutlery workshop while the 15th- and 16th-century central and east wing was home for the family as well as offices. His Park Lane home and studio became a Grade II listed building in 2000, while the Georgian wing of Broom Hall received a European Architectural Heritage Award in 1975.

Furthermore, in 1981 the business received an accolade relating to the working conditions at Broom Hall: a Royal Society of Arts Design Management Award. David commented when Broom Hall became operational: ‘at a time when the specialist skills of the trade are disappearing, and the scope for experiment and innovation becoming increasingly rare, the need for new organisation of this kind, small enough in scale for freedom of manoeuvre and aiming for a really high standard of production, is more and more pronounced.’

The best modern machinery was employed and instead of the division of labour so favoured by traditional factories, each cutler undertook every task in the making of a piece.

At the end of the 1960s, David had established a retail shop in Sloane Square in London’s fashionable Chelsea.

Initially the concept for the shop was an updated and sophisticated version of a traditional ironmonger’s. The décor would have been described at the time as ‘cool’, with its white walls, natural woods and tiled floors. It certainly generated considerable media interest, but a store selling nails, screws, nuts and bolts as well as a range of cooking utensils and brushes was not the most commercially viable of enterprises at the end of the King’s Road. The emphasis gradually changed to professional kitchen and tableware and became an outlet for David’s cutlery, now produced at Broom Hall as well as other items made there such as the brass 342

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bowls David designed and which were spun by his craftsmen, or products which were designed by David and made elsewhere, under supervision, to his specification. It was at this period that he designed a range of silver to be made at Broom Hall by traditional silversmithing techniques. This included a tea service where the bodies of the teapot, sugar bowl and milk jug were faceted and the handle and knob of the teapot were made from buffalo horn. Horn also featured in the range of silver cutlery and a paperknife made for the Sloane Square shop. Naturally, with the exception of the paper knives, the knives had stainless steel blades. In all cases the tangs23 ran the whole length of the handle.

Now called David Mellor Design Limited, the business grew from strength to strength. Further shops were opened. In 1980 David Mellor opened retail premises at Manchester’s King Street and the following year at Covent Garden’s James Street. His retail pièce de la résistance opened south of London’s Thames a stone’s throw from Tower Bridge at 22 Shad Thames, Butler’s Wharf near the Design Museum. The five-storey building was commissioned by David Mellor and the shop, which occupied the whole of the ground floor, opened in 1991.24 However, north of the capital, there was another building project – the Round Building. It was David Mellor’s opinion that industrial architecture can enhance a rural environment rather be a blot upon it. The business had outgrown its Broom Hall workshops and there was not the possibility to expand on the site. Wishing to retain his staff for continuity, he naturally wanted to be in striking distance of Sheffield. He therefore looked to rural

Opposite: Embassy Tea Service Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The Mellor Embassy range of tableware was sold exclusively through Harrods after a Government change in 1965 saw David’s commission to design a complete range of silver for British embassies worldwide being cancelled. The Embassy tea pot with its beautiful simplicity and fluency of form has come to be regarded as quintessential Mellor. The Collection acquired this service in 1997 and only realised exactly what had been acquired when it was entered in the inventory later in the day. Sadly it had not been looked after and needed polishing professionally. We would have preferred this to have been undertaken in the Mellor workshop, but at that time it could not be done. The Goldsmiths’ Company has an example, but we have not seen one on the market since 1997. In 1965 the complete tea service retailed at £266.68, which is just over £4560 at 2013 prices. David Mellor Designs are currently offering a limited edition of nine silver Embassy Tea Pots, which like the originals, are hand-raised. As at 2013 the price is £6,500 each.

Height of tea pot 18cm. Sheffield 1965.

Derbyshire and located a 5-acre site owned by British Gas just 12 miles from the city of his birth in the Peak District National Park.

It was where a gas works had been built in Edwardian times to supply gas to the village of Hathersage, but it became redundant when North Sea gas came on-line.

The circular gasholder was demolished in 1986, but the stone-built Retort House25 and administrative offices were intact. Unusually the Peak Park Planning Board gave approval for the reuse of the site, but as was the case with Broom Hall, this was on a restricted occupancy basis. The Michael Hopkins Partnership were the appointed architects and suggested using the foundations of the gasholder for the construction of Mellor’s new factory.

While the symbolism of a modern building rising like a phoenix from the ‘ashes’ of the old had a certain appeal, it was the fact that four main manufacturing processes could be arranged in a circular progression round the factory floor that sold the concept to David Mellor. The ‘Round Building’ as it is known became operational in 1990 and it won many awards26 and accolades, including the rarest one of all – the Prince of Wales’ approval of a modern factory building. David Mellor was most proud of the 1990 BBC Design Award for the Environment as there was no panel of judges, the award being made following a nationwide vote by viewers. The Retort House was converted into a design office and living space and the other buildings to offices. In 1992 the David Mellor Country Shop opened adjacent to the Round Building and in 2006 the David Mellor Design Museum opened on the site.

Although David Mellor did not produce a major new range of silver after the mid-1970s, silver continued and still features at David Mellor Design Limited. In 1992 David was approached by the Silver Trust to design silver cutlery for 10 Downing Street. Using Georgian cutlery as his inspiration, David submitted his designs. Although he had suggested that the handles of the knives should be made from lapis lazuli, this was vetoed on the grounds that blue was the colour of the Conservative Party. Green malachite was accepted as an alternative. The silver handles of the spoons and forks were to be engraved with

EIIR.27 However, the commission did not proceed as the Committee thought David Mellor’s design was too plain.

David Mellor responded: Whether the Downing Street table in fact needs yet more decorative pieces in addition to those already commissioned is, I should have thought, an arguable point! However if a more decorative approach to the cutlery, which has already been under discussion for many months, is now being demanded I am afraid that I am obviously not the man for the job.

His designs for the Downing Street table became the basis for the pattern English that was launched in sterling silver, silver plate and stainless steel in 1993.

The company also retails Embassy pattern sterling silver toast racks and in 2006 launched a limited edition of Embassy teapots in sterling silver.

David Mellor died on 7 May 2009. Corin Mellor joined his father at David Mellor Design Limited in 1990 after graduating from Kingston University and is now the company’s Creative Director.

23. The projection from the metal part of the item of cutlery that holds it in the handle.

24. The project progressed slower than anticipated because of David’s perfectionist approach to the design and construction. By the time it was completed, the recession of the 1990s had kicked in. The Butler’s Wharf development as a whole had been affected and it did not prove possible to let the office space on which the financial viability of the building relied. The Mellors reluctantly decided to sell. It was eventually sold to Sir Terence Conran and is the Conran Organisation’s HQ with Sir Terence’s office located on the third floor.

25. Used for processing the gas.

26. These included awards from the Royal Institute of British Architecture, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, the Civic Trust and The Sunday Times/Royal Fine Art Commission.

27. An abbreviation of Elizabeth Regina II, that translates from the Latin Queen Elizabeth II.

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DAVID MELLOR AND CUTLERY He was known as the Cutlery King and is regarded as the most outstanding designer of British cutlery in the 20th century. He became preoccupied in making and shaping the knife, fork and spoon in his late teens. The cutlery he first made when at the Sheffield College of Art (1945-8) was further developed when he was at the Royal College of Art, where it was perfected in 1953. Walker and Hall (W&H) subsequently produced it in silver and silver plate. In 1957 it was included in the first collection of Design Centre Awards. Probably for the first time in history, a place setting of cutlery had become a ‘hit’ topic for newspapers and magazines. It certainly established David Mellor’s name. It was not a two-minute wonder either – it is still in production!

After the war, Facette stainless steel cutlery by Gense28 proved popular in the UK. Neither Old Hall (OH) nor W&H, the two British companies most likely to produce a rival to the Scandinavian import, seemed willing to commit to the cost of launching into stainless steel cutlery. The Council of Industrial Design suggested that the two companies pool their resources. It was agreed that as W&H was active in supplying the catering trade that they should sell the proposed range on a contract basis, while OH should retail it. It was also proposed that the pattern should be a collaboration between the two companies’ designers – Robert Welch for OH and David Mellor for W&H. While it was proposed that W&H would manufacture the range and OH would finish and polish the pieces, all the work was in fact undertaken by W&H. The cutlery was designed in 1956 and launched the following year. It was the first stainless steel cutlery to be made in the UK. OH marketed it as Campden and W&H as Spring.

Despite the branding confusion, the cutlery sold very well. Conceived as a product for everyday use, its style is plain, but nevertheless very distinctive with its innovative satin finish. In 1959 Robert Welch and David Mellor received a joint silver medal at the Twelfth Triennale in Milan.29 Harrison Fisher made a silver version.30 Unlike the stainless steel knives, the silver ones had hollow handles.

28. Based in Sweden, it is one of Europe’s largest suppliers of cutlery.

29. La Triennale di Milano is a design museum in Milan.

30. Harrison & Fisher & Co Limited, Sheffield cutlers, purchased Taylor’s Eye Witness, the Sheffield knife makers, in 1975. The latter company was founded

by John Taylor in 1820 and registered the Eye Witness trademark in 1838.

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In the early 1960s, David designed Symbol for W&H and this received a Design Centre Award in 1962.

Made in stainless steel, it was the first high quality stainless cutlery to be produced in this metal in the UK in great quantity. The only cutlery he designed which was hand-forged was embassy which was supplied to British embassies in Warsaw and Mexico City. After the order to equip further British embassies with Mellor silver was cancelled, he was asked to design stainless steel cutlery for Government canteens. The result in 1965 was a fivepiece place setting called Thrift. As the conventional setting was then 11 pieces, Sheffield’s traditional cutlers were not pleased. David’s comment was, ‘I think of myself as the person who finally abolished the fish knife and fork.’ At the end of the 1960s he designed disposable cutlery for Cross Paperware.

Having acquired Broom Hall in 1973, David turned his attention to both designing and manufacturing cutlery. Over the decades he designed many new patterns including Black Provencal, Chinese Ivory, Café, Classic, Flute, Odeon, Savoy, Hoffmann, English, Paris, City, Minimal and London. He had spotted a niche market for relatively specialist and expensive cutlery that was well-designed and made to a high specification. While in the early days of manufacturing David Mellor Design had to outsource certain processes, these are now almost all undertaken in-house. Public enthusiasm for the Round Building has had an impact on the business in many ways, one of which has been to increase demand for the cutlery made there. Hathersage is unusual in that the cutlery can be bought where it is made. Although the company is at the cutting edge of modern technology, human skill and judgement are at the heart of its cutlery production.

His friend Roy Hattersley31 commented after David Mellor’s death, ‘His place in history is confirmed by his decision not even to ask the Cutlers’ Company of Hallamshire, if a works, 12 miles from the city centre,32 entitled him to stamp his knife blades “Made in Sheffield”. He knew, like Hannibal, that his name alone would be enough.’

Harrison & Fisher changed its name to Taylor’s Eye Witness in 2007.

31. The Sheffield-born Labour politician, writer and journalist, created a Life Peer in 1997.

32. The Round House is located 12 miles from Sheffield. Hallamshire is an ancient administrative unit centred on the medieval parish of Sheffield.

Pride Tea Service Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Immediately after David Mellor graduated in 1954, he was appointed a design consultant by Walker & Hall and his Pride cutlery he worked on when a student was placed into production. In 1958 the Pride tea and coffee service followed. The Scandinavian influences have gone but instead ‘the particular quality of Englishness’ which a small group of silversmiths were seeking emerges. Produced in EPNS and sterling silver, it was an immediate success. The Collection initially purchased an EPNS example, as a silver one appeared elusive in the 1990s. However, silver services did start to emerge in the 21st century – we secured ours in 2000. They are less common than the EPNS versions. We bought a silver tray a year later as we thought it suitable for our recently secured silver Pride service. It was a long time before we realised that it was also designed by David Mellor as part of the Pride range! Height of coffee/hot water pot 17cm, width of tray 50.8cm. Service made by Elkington, Sheffield 1965/8/9 and the tray by Walker & Hall, Sheffield 1961.

FURTHER READING David Mellor: Master Metalworker (Hathersage, 2013) Available from Mellor Design Limited. This book is an expanded and updated version of the book originally published to accompany the Sheffield Galleries & Museum Trust retrospective exhibition of the same title that opened at the Design Museum London in 1998.

David Mellor: Design by Teleri Lloyd-Jones (Woodbridge, 2009) THE DAVID MELLOR VISITOR CENTRE The Visitor Centre is located just outside the village of Hathersage near Chatsworth. The David Mellor Cutlery Factory in the Round Building is open on weekdays and it is usually possible to see cutlery being made; tours of the building are given each weekend at specified times.

The Design Museum is open daily. A good range of David Mellor’s silver is displayed. The Centre includes the Country Shop and there is also a café. Opening details are on the company’s website.

AVAILABILITY The most readily available vintage David Mellor items are his Pride tea services in silver plate. These were initially made by Walker and Hall and later by Mappin and Webb followed by Elkington and Company. These are regularly offered at auction and on eBay. Silver examples are occasionally offered by dealers and at auction. The services made in silver or silver plate, or indeed other items designed by David Mellor for Walker and Hall, do not bear David Mellor’s name (or in the case of silver, his maker’s mark). Very occasionally his Embassy silver appears on the secondary market. His 1970s silver produced for the Sloane Square shop is currently elusive.

Perhaps this volume will flush them out.

New David Mellor designs are available direct from the company. See David Mellor Design’s website for details.

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HECTOR MILLER He was introduced to the craft of silversmithing through studying to be a flautist. Over the decades his output has been prolific. Since the Millennium he has perfected a revolutionary craft technique for the 21st century.

I decided at the beginning of the new millennium to return to my first ambitions and concentrate on the creation of sculptural silver, making up only one or two of each piece. Inspiration for this new work has come mostly from my love and concern for the natural world. Although none of these objects are in any way copies of animal or plant forms, they all attempt to capture a feeling for their subject using clean shapes with little or no decoration, the reflectivity of the metal providing surface complexity.

Hector Miller Hector Miller was born in West Sussex during 1945. Both his parents were teachers in a village school. His father was a scientist and beekeeper whose great interest was the evolution of insect societies. He conducted many experiments based on these studies to establish a system for controlling the swarming of his hives which ultimately proved to be very successful. Hector’s mother was a musician. She was the local church organist and at Rusper school formed an orchestra which at one time included every one of their pupils. Naturally all four of the Miller children played musical instruments and their mother composed music for each of them.

‘When people ask me where I learnt to be a silversmith, the answer really is from very early conditioning, not just from my time at art school’, volunteered Hector. His was a childhood of setting up camps in the woods, making all of his toys and model aeroplanes, using his initiative and being creative. He tells the story of a friend who was given a manufactured aluminium catapult when the norm was ‘a Y-shaped hazel twig and elastic bands’. Not wishing to be upstaged by his friend, Hector made his own metal version with an alloy piece cut from an abandoned Qualcast mowing machine in his father’s shed. ‘These early experiences of metalwork were, I think, as vital to my creative development as all of the sophisticated training that came later. As our parents were not well off, mine had to be an if you need it, make it, childhood.’

Hector was torn between a career in music or art. His sister was studying the oboe at the Royal College of Music, while Hector was a flautist. ‘My flute teacher was an experienced professional who had played in many of the leading orchestras. He said that once you’ve played Beethoven’s Fifth for the twentieth time, it tends to become 346

just a job. He knew there were other artistic things I could do, so his advice was to leave music for people who have no choice but to follow a career as musicians. I have always been grateful for that wise advice.’ However, the flute did introduce him to silver. When 15, Hector was struck by a motorbike and received £700 in compensation for his injuries. He decided to use this to have a silver flute handmade by the Flute Makers’ Guild in London. Over three or four exciting visits to Broadwick Street, he watched the instrument being made and was fascinated by the craftsmanship and techniques employed to fashion precious metal, so different from those used in the blacksmiths forge he knew so well back in Sussex.

Hector was selected to study painting at Bath College of Art, but his local education authority would only provide a grant if he studied locally, so he undertook a pre-diploma course at Worthing College of Art. The

Opposite: Salamander Chocolate Pot Courtesy Hector Miller, photographer Rosalind Miller It is called the Salamander Chocolate Pot. Hector explained why, ‘Our second home in France is in a limestone area. As there are no springs, all the rainwater is collected in cisterns of which there are several on the property. We opened one for cleaning and there in the bottom was a salamander. As they have become so rare it was a great pleasure to come across one. Later, while we were not at the house, there was a flash flood and the builders e-mailed some pictures of the damage.

One was of the flooded kitchen and among the various bits of debris floating around was a piece of polystyrene with the salamander sitting upon it. In a later picture we saw he had a spider as a companion. The next in the sequence showed a happy salamander sitting alone – the spider had disappeared!’ As salamanders were now featuring in his life, their form inspired him when designing this chocolate pot, all the components of which were assembled by using TIG welding. His wife enamelled the thumb-piece with the markings and colour of their spotted salamander. Height 32cm. London 2005.

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jeweller Peter Hauffe was teaching jewellery and silversmithing there and inspired Hector to gravitate towards metalwork, the seeds possibly having been sown with watching his flute being made. In silver he made a bowl and spoon and started a coffee pot, but it was never to be completed.

In 1965 he started studying three-dimensional design at Hornsey College of Art,1 which was then regarded as ‘the place to go’. He chose silversmithing as his main subject.

The department’s tutors were Tony Laws and Keith Redfern, though Atholl Hill the designer also taught him.

Indeed, one summer Hector worked for Hill at British Rail’s design offices in Marylebone. Hector described his time at Hornsey as ‘“very buzzy”. There were a lot of commissions coming into art schools. I made a trophy for British Rail2 and another for Clairol3 as well as several individual commissions. There were also competitions organised to make pieces for corporations. It was a very good way of learning by taking on real projects’, Hector explained. David Mellor was his external examiner at Hornsey, where he graduated with a first.

At this juncture, Hector’s life fundamentally changed.

He married young and three children followed. He had also been accepted at the Royal College of Art, where he studied from 1968-71. Although he had a small grant, it was not enough to cover family commitments so he had to work his way through the College. Initially he undertook mostly manual work during the holidays and weekends, but eventually found that he was winning enough commissions to be able to make ends meet as a silversmith. So he teamed up with Peter Musgrove, who had been in the year below him at Hornsey. Peter had undertaken a traditional apprenticeship with CJ Vander4 before his studies and after he graduated took a studio at 27 Old Street that he and Hector then shared.

Hector rose early and did a couple of hours work before going to the RCA, then returning to the studio after college. He is grateful to this day for all the help with making skills that Peter, with his trade training, gave him during their time working together.

1. Now part of Middlesex University.

2. British Railways, which later traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the UK’s rail transport from 1948-97. British Rail was gradually privatised in stages from 1994-7.

3. The company famed for its hair-colouring preparations. It is now the personal product division of Proctor & Gamble, a Fortune 500 US multinational corporation.

4. A large firm of silversmiths that was based in London’s Fetter Lane. Part of the site is now Sainsbury’s HQ.

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Opposite, upper: ‘Toucan’ Paper Knife Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Is it a sculpture, part of a doorknocker or, given its nickname (the toucan), a bird’s beak? A clue is that it is made to grace a desk and is in fact a letter knife that is tactile, aesthetically pleasing and practical. Its sculptural and flowing lines are achieved by using TIG welding, which produces ‘invisible seams’ where the four component parts are joined. But what inspired the form? ‘A visit to Zürich’s succulent museum’, came the unexpected reply. Hector’s wife, Frances Loyen, is half Swiss and when in Switzerland, the Zürich Succulent Plant Collection by the side of the city’s lake has become a favourite place to visit. Hector became fascinated by the shapes of the plants and the paper-knife just grew out of the strange forms he so admired. As there are approximately 6,500 succulents, it has proved to be a rich vein of creativity. Length 20cm. London (no date letter) c.2008.

Opposite, lower left: London Marathon Trophy, 1981 Courtesy Hector Miller, photographer Hector Miller In 1981 Hector was asked to design a trophy for the first London Marathon by Gillette, sponsors of the event. His design features a band of runners in silver gilt against a pierced, stylised London skyline. Hector cycled round much of the 26-mile route to take reference photographs; it was such a distance that ever since he has had great respect for marathon runners. He remembers that at the time the route went through what was then undeveloped Docklands where he found the old cranes in the derelict docks very photogenic. As can be seen in the image, they were included in the skyline cut into the edge of the bowl of the cup. The stylised G on the knob of the cover is a cut-card version of the Gillette logo. It was only at the very last minute that the sponsors remembered to commission another trophy for the winning woman! Height 30cm. London 1981.

Opposite, lower right: Court Room Jug Courtesy Hector Miller, photographer Rosalind Miller The project for this water jug started in 2011, but as Hector was Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company for 2011-12, it was not completed until 2013. It was commissioned for use in the Court Room at Goldsmiths’ Hall, which is where the Assistants, the Company’s Governing body, meet. Hector considered it should be designed in a rather more formal version of his current style so as to be in keeping with its grand environment. Nevertheless, it incorporates the convex and concave forms used in earlier pieces, but is perhaps less sculptural in form. Its seamless construction was only made possible by using TIG welding, a technique which Hector pioneered as a silversmithing process and which he has now introduced into many other workshops. As he wanted elegance and a simplicity of form, the decorative element is minimal, taking the form of a small Goldsmiths’ leopard’s head applied to the jug’s pierced lid. This cover is kept closed during use holding back the ice cubes to prevent water from being splashed onto the ancient Courtroom table. Height 34cm. London 2013.

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profession, and his business partner Len Whiter, sales manager for Spode. They had the idea of making commemorative goblets in silver for cathedrals and wanted Hector to help with the design and manufacture. After the RCA show, Hector was headhunted by Stuart Devlin for whom he started working in 1971. ‘My first year at Devlin’s was very useful. Stuart suggested I work one year in the workshops to get my making skills up to scratch. It was excellent training – I even made some jewellery’, Hector added with surprise. Later he helped with designing for Stuart, but added that this required working very much within the Devlin idiom rather than using his own style.

‘I was fortunate to have a great number of commissions, including the Ceremonial Baton for the Commonwealth Games.’ There was also one from Atholl Hill, who was designing major pieces in the 1960s. This was in fact a joint commission with Peter Musgrove for a silver and enamel cruet stand and altar set for St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church at Wool in Dorset. Hector continued; ‘the RCA was great experience. David Mellor and Robert Welch were our visiting lecturers. Both were inspirational, often very busy and having to dash off to client meetings.

Sometimes they would tell us what was happening in their professional lives, showing us the projects they were working on; it introduced a vital element of the real world into our college studies. Because he was able to borrow back many of his commissions, Hector ended up with an enormous amount of work for the RCA degree show. Most graduates exhibited just a few pieces but a photograph of his display looks rather like a Bond Street showroom. It certainly impressed Stuart Devlin.

However, before the degree show he had encountered John Sutherland-Hawes, a successful graphic designer by

5. The ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire during the Achaemenid dynasty (c.550-330BC). It is situated 70km northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in Iran.

6. This flagship store for fine china, crystal and cutlery is based in an historic building dating from 1434 in York’s Stonegate.

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Aurum Designs, the vehicle for the Sutherland-Hawes and Whiter venture was established in 1971.

Stuart allowed Hector to work on the first Aurum commission in the Devlin workshops. This was for the 500 limited edition York Minster goblets and

Above: Vine Pattern Service Courtesy Hector Miller, photographer Rosalind Miller The Vine Pattern Service was designed for a private English customer. As this client liked to see the colour of his claret, the suite of stemware is a combination of silver and crystal. All the modelling was undertaken by Ernie Wright, who been apprenticed to Omar Ramsden. ‘He was amazing’, Hector recalled. ‘For the handle pattern he just sat down and chased from my sketch design and the cutlery dies were made from that original prototype.’ His coasters in this form were to became a popular stock item. This service was contemporary with the work Hector undertook for Aurum. London 1986.

Opposite: Tazza and detail Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Hector designed and made this tazza for Aurum Designs to commemorate the quincentenary of the College of Arms. Its base and bowl has a gilt border of oak leaves and Tudor roses. The bowl is supported by an openwork arrangement of gilt oak leaves with three lions rampant holding shields below. Hector’s limited edition creations for Aurum are well-designed, with good proportions and of excellent craftsmanship, but at the time of writing, like Aurum pieces designed by other silversmiths, are not in demand. Indeed, an identical tazza, together with a pair of goblets marking the College’s quincentenary sold at Bonhams in June 2012 for £780, then a small margin over the value of the silver from which they were made. The tazza’s diameter is 14.5cm. London 1985.

1,000 bowls that were launched in 1972 bearing Hector Miller’s hallmark. Len Whiter was arranging a porcelain dinner service for the Shah of Persia at about this time. The Shah already had a Spode service but wanted a more contemporary style based on the ancient reliefs at Persepolis.5 Whiter suggested a full silver service to accompany the porcelain and Aurum received the commission. It was an extensive service designed by Hector and superbly made in the Devlin workshop but bearing Hector Miller’s maker’s mark.

In 1974 Hector left Devlin’s employment to set up on his own in a backroom at the family home in Crouch End. He took on Alan Yates, who had been at Blunt and Wray and who was to became his workshop manager until retirement. Apart from the Aurum projects, he also took on pieces for other designers such as Jocelyn Burton, personally making up her design for a Platinum Cup, the first large piece to be stamped with the new platinum hallmark at a ceremony in Goldsmiths’ Hall.

Needless to say, making silver at a residential property was not ideal, as the hammering inevitably caused trouble with neighbours. Susan Hare, then Librarian of the Company, put him in touch with Leslie Durbin who was in the process of downsizing. By the beginning of 1975, Hector had moved into Durbin’s studio at 62 Rochester Place in northwest London. There were a few months’ overlap, but then Hector bought the building, many invaluable tools but most importantly inherited Ernie Wright, who like Durbin had been an apprentice of Omar Ramsden. ‘He had superb engraving and chasing skills that were needed for the Aurum pieces. Although Aurum wanted a contemporary design feel, they also wanted their pieces to have a decorative richness. It was Ernie’s craftsmanship that made this possible’, Hector recalled.

While Aurum provided a good throughput, there were commissions from retailers like Asprey and also from

City livery companies including the Goldsmiths’ Company, various trophies, corporate, college and ecclesiastical commissions including a ewer and flagon for the Old Kirk in Edinburgh that Hector designed but which was made jointly with Peter Musgrove and the artist-engraver Malcolm Appleby, a contemporary of Hector’s at the RCA. Additionally, if a goblet of Aurum’s proved popular, there was often a follow-up piece such as a tazza or bowl, as well as other projects with the company such as items for the prestigious Mulberry Hall retailer.6 However, during the second half of the 1980s the limited edition market in which Aurum specialised had run its course. Nevertheless, he did some further project work with Aurum and their American associate before going his own way.

Hector then started working for Michael Reese who ran a very successful company of interior designers based in Texas, specialising in the interiors of yachts, aeroplanes and palaces. He worked on a series of very exciting projects commissioned by the Sultan of Brunei and his family, some for what were technically described as 351

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‘personal transportation’ but were in fact large aircraft with beautifully designed interiors. Everything had to be perfectly finished to the very highest specification.

Although Hector was designing and making silver and silver-gilt services from cutlery to caviar bowls, he was also producing vanity sets, medals, awards and ornaments, including artwork made of different coloured metals and even interior carved metal doors. Hector found himself working with Bernardaud Porcelain in Limoges and Baccarat Crystal in Paris. Technically it was often very challenging work, for instance titanium was specified for some of the projects and Hector had to familiarise himself with the sophisticated manufacturing techniques needed to work in this difficult refractory metal.

Although Hector did not have a design given to him for these projects, he always had to work within the design company’s brief, which in turn was dictated by the wishes of their clients. However, there were occasions when Hector was given a free hand to design certain objects in the style that he wished. Whereas the Aurum designs had a decorated European flavour, the US work required more flowing lines. The sculptural shapes encouraged him to remember what he had intended to design and make following on from his student days. At

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this point in the interview we were in Hector’s strong room and as an example of late college era work he pointed towards a piece made for his parents in 1969. It was a box for a honeycomb, hand-punched with a sculptural interlinked hexagonal pattern. It had been exhibited at his Graduate Show in 1971.

After 10 years working on exciting American projects, the Texas interior designers sold their company and retired. The work from Brunei then went to Asprey in London. Hector continued to undertake some work for Asprey, which Prince Jefri, the brother of the Sultan, had bought. However, the subsequent difficulties within the Bruneian royal family meant that this vein of work was not to last for much longer, either for Hector or the London goldsmithing trade in general. Although he continued with similar work for a while, Hector began to wind down his business. At its height he was employing 18 people, but over the next few years the craftsmen left, joining other companies or becoming self-employed.

‘Without the need to find work for a team of silversmiths I was able to concentrate on developing the more sculptural and personal work that I had been undertaking in the US’, he remarked. In other words, Hector had decided to rediscover his original creative

Above: Project Individual Coffee Service Courtesy Hector Miller, photographer Rosalind Miller This chased, wave-pattern individual coffee service is of silver gilt and enamel. If you look carefully, the knobs and feet of the vessels, as well as the handle of the spoon, are a transparent yellow enamel – a very subtle touch. This service was for the royal cabin in a private aircraft belonging to a client from the Far East and was part of one of the many projects Hector worked on with a Texan design company. His designs needed to co-ordinate with the crystal, porcelain, table linen, furniture and soft furnishings so these commissions were very much a collaborative effort. ‘It was a great privilege to work with an international group of companies who produce such high-quality items’, Hector commented. Height of the coffee pot 14cm. London 1994.

Opposite: Diamond Stakes Bowl Courtesy Hector Miller, photographer Rosalind Miller This rose-water bowl was commissioned by De Beers as the prize for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes in 2004. A five-sided faceted form to reflect the sponsor’s involvement with diamonds, it is a multilayered piece with seamlessly applied flying buttress forms. The equestrian theme is achieved with a horse and jockey appearing on each side set with six diamonds weighing 1.2 carats to meet De Beer’s requirement that the design incorporated six carats of the gem. While initially these race horses may appear to be enamelled, they are in fact pierced, the colour seen by the eye being the gilded interior of the bowl, which ranges from bright yellow to brown as a result of the light, or lack of it, in the bowl’s interior. Hector had arranged for a photographer to be posted to capture Her Majesty presenting the trophy. The winner was Doyen owned by Godolphin, the Maktoum family’s private stable headquartered in Dubai.

Unfortunately, at the moment of presentation most of the trophy was lost behind a large lectern placed in front of the Queen and the event sadly was not recorded for posterity. Diameter 35cm. London 2004.

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intentions. He explained that his wish was to create fluid sculptural shapes that would be well nigh impossible to make satisfactorily using conventional techniques. For instance, one way of making a vessel would be to take two halves and join them together.

‘The normal way of doing this, he explained, ‘is to use solder, which is a mixture of silver and another lower melting point metal. While it makes a perfectly good joint, the solder is always a different colour and slightly softer than the silver, so, when you polish the piece a line is always visible. The very worst thing to see on shapes designed to have a continuous integrity of form is that tell-tale join. Look at any piece of antique silver and where there is a solder seam, there is always some form of step, wire or decoration to disguise the joint.

Having to build such features into a piece is a major constraint for the contemporary designer.’

We moved into the workshop where Hector continued, ‘Being an inventive sort of person, in 1989 I was working with complex castings that were having to be scrapped because of very small flaws. Welding was the logical way to make the necessary repairs but it had never been made to work well with silver, so I started developing a technique with modern equipment that could cope with the very heat-conductive precious metals. The results were so promising that I quickly realised the process had a potential to do far more than 353

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just repair work.’ He pointed to a sculptural candlestick.

‘This, for instance, is made by fusing two halves together. So I am actually joining silver with silver creating a completely invisible seam, in effect the piece becomes seamless.’ Another problem with traditional soldering is that when joining castings which are more open-grained, the seam is very prone to having pin holes, ‘a problem that doesn’t exist with a welded joint.’

Hector said that he normally ‘forms-up’ the two halves of a piece. He explained, ‘I use a hybrid technique which involves making wood or resin tooling. The shapes are created by placing a silver blank into the tooling and using a hand press to get a general impression of the form, then hand-working the parts with a hammer to achieve the definitive shape. Finer detail such as a sharp line will be chased in. Often additional elements of a piece are modelled and cast, all parts then seamlessly welded together. It is a wonderful way of being able to produce flowing sculptural forms.’ This fusion technique is called TIG welding, which stands for Tungsten Inert Gas. ‘It was a process invented in the 1930s for use in the aerospace industry for welding aluminium, a process not possible with conventional arc welders as inert gas is also needed to stop the oxidisation of the aluminium.

Silver suffers from the same oxide problem, so it was a good bet that the TIG process could also be made to work with precious metals.’

Having pioneered the development of the TIG welding process for joining silver components, Hector has transformed his own designs since the Millennium.

Although his output over the years had been prolific, the majority, but by no means all of the time, had been devoted to product design in a client’s required idiom.

He has now returned to the personal creative vein of his student days and is devoting his time to concentrating on the design and making of sculptural pieces in small numbers. The results are absolutely stunning. Whether it is a paperknife or large candelabra, the clean fluid lines resulting in complex reflections cannot but impress. With such tactile pieces, it is no surprise that Hector perfects his designs by making threedimensional models rather than drawing. He has indeed perfected the art of sculptural silver.

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Above: Condor Salt and Pepper Mills Courtesy Hector Miller, photographer Rosalind Miller This pair of pepper and salt mills were inspired by the California Condor which was sacred to the native American Indians and is the largest bird in North America. It was for a US client Hector revealed, ‘a man who shares my concern for endangered species’.

After decades of decline, these magnificent creatures neared the point of extinction in the late 1970s but were saved by a captive breeding programme. The grinding mechanism in the base of these table sculpture mills is operated by holding the wing-like form and turning the enamelled ‘beak and neck’ handle. Height 14cm. London 2002.

Opposite: Candle Lamp for Hector Sedge Courtesy Hector Miller, photographer Rosalind Miller Hector’s Sedge range of Candle Lamps were introduced as a practical solution to al fresco dining and coping with air conditioning indoors. As everyone knows who has placed even non-drip candles on a table in the garden during the most still of summer evenings, it is not long before wax is dripping down the candleholders and on to the table; the same happens in draughty dining rooms. The ‘fingers’ that hold the glass in place were inspired by reed-like plants around Hector’s home in France and are hand-forged and welded to the cast base, therefore retaining their ‘springiness’. This is Sedge 2, but there are more, all of which have removable heat-resistant glass funnels. Height 34cm.

London 2006.

AVAILABILITY Hector Miller’s work that he did for Aurum is readily available on the secondary market. However, his private commissions from the early years are rarely encountered. As most of his work from the mid-1980s through to the end of the 20th century comprises either commissions for UK livery companies and other institutions, or for customers overseas, it does not find its way onto the secondary market. Commissions for his 21st-century sculptural pieces can be placed direct with him. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact details.

POINT TO NOTE Hector Miller and Peter Musgrove registered a joint maker’s mark in the early 1970s. It was only used on a few commissioned items.

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LOUIS OSMAN He wanted to be an artist, but trained as an architect. Then in his forties he turned his attention to silver and quickly developed his own very distinctive style.

Osman starts with an idea and then finds out how to interpret it in metal.

Graham Hughes When Art Director of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

Louis Osman was born in Exeter during 1914 and was educated at the city’s Hele’s School.1 At the age of 12 he decided he wanted to be an artist, but was advised by his father that he would have to earn his living. It was suggested that he train as an architect. Rejected by Liverpool, he settled with his second choice, the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. During his first year he also studied drawing at the Slade School of Art. The British Museum and the British School of Archaeology offered ‘a foremost architectural student’ to join an expedition to Syria and Chagar Bazaar travelling via the Simplon Orient Express so as to savour the countries en route. Louis joined the expedition in both 1936 and 1937. On his second visit, Agatha Christie was also part of the team. It is believed that she planned her novel Murder in Mesopotamia while on the expedition.

There is no doubting that Louis excelled at his architectural studies. Indeed, while at UCL he won several prizes, the most prestigious being the Donaldson Silver Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. He won this in 1935, having been highly recommended by his professor, Sir Albert Richardson. When he qualified in 1937 this award gave him the confidence to start his own architectural practice. One of his earliest commissions was a squash court for Agatha Christie’s home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire.

During the war Louis was posted to the Intelligence Corps.

One of his early duties was to visit a Mrs Ethel Roberts who had reported a low-flying aircraft circling a particular area each night at 2am. In 1940 he married Mrs Roberts’ daughter Dilys. By the end of the war he had reached the rank of Major and worked at the Combined Operations Headquarters and with the Special Air Service. In 1944 he helped select beaches for the Normandy invasion.

1. Established in 1658 by the trustees of the trust established by Elize Hele. It remained an endowed school until 1959 when it became a grammar school. In 1973 it became a comprehensive.

2. Rule books.

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Released towards the end of the year to return to his practice, he initially concentrated on the pre-fabricated houses (‘Homes for Heroes’) that Britain urgently required as part of its post-war reconstruction programme. Perhaps his most significant work after the war was the renovation of the Convent of the Holy Child in Cavendish Square, London, and the Principal’s Lodge for Newnham College, Cambridge. In the first half of the 1950s, Graham Hughes, at the time Exhibition Secretary of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths was organising a series of exhibitions featuring modern silver at provincial museums. Louis happened to visit the one at the Birmingham Art Gallery and met Mr Hughes, who had just bought a knife by Robert Welch. Louis Osman was a man who spoke his mind and in no uncertain terms expressed his dislike of the piece to Graham Hughes. He called it ‘mechanistic’ and with ‘no personality’. Graham retorted that if he felt so strongly about the matter, he suggested that he turn his attention to designing silver.

Instead of being annoyed, Mr Hughes was indeed impressed at Louis’s ability at critique. Indeed, when he heard that Buckfast Abbey, the Benedictine monastery in Devon, required magnificent new bindings for its canons,2 he proposed Louis should design them. Graham

Opposite: Louis Osman with the Cross made for Ely Cathedral Courtesy Keystone Press Agency, London This photograph was taken at Goldsmiths’ Hall on 5 May 1964 by the Keystone Press Agency. The Agency’s caption for the image read, ‘The four foot high altar cross which will be the focal point for tens of thousands of worshippers and sightseers who visit Ely Cathedral. The cross has ben made jointly by Graham Sutherland and architect goldsmith Louis Osman over the past three years. A substantial part of the cost of the Cross – several thousand pounds – is being met by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, the balance being met by public subscription.’ Unfortunately, it was rejected by the Cathedral. The cross is shown being admired here by Louis Osman.

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It was not long before a commission came his way. Sir Leslie Gammage, chairman of the General Electric Company was approaching his 70th birthday and his colleagues at GEC wanted to present him with a gift.

They approached Louis who in turn had conversations with Sir Leslie. He designed a whisky decanter with four goblets, complete with a leather box to assist transportation. The terminal to the decanter’s amethyst monde4 that formed the decanter’s stopper was a peregrine falcon with outstretched wings that David Wynne modelled. The entire piece was made at Gerald Benney’s workshop at Whitfield Place in 1956.

Hughes even suggested that he use Philip Popham3 as his silversmith. Although the Abbott favoured Louis’ designs, they had to be declined on the basis that they exceeded the budget. Graham Hughes is of the view that the dislike of the knife was the start of Louis Osman’s career as a silversmith.

However, Gerald Benney also claims to have been instrumental in the change from architect to silversmith.

The Osmans’ home was an open house and they had a wide circle of friends, which included the young sculptor David Wynne. He introduced Louis to Gerald Benney. The two men were both very sociable and became friends. In 1956 Gerald suggested that Louis should be invited to assist in the judging of a competition held each year at the Company’s hall. Perhaps Graham Hughes anticipated what would happen. Louis was extremely critical of the entries adding that he felt sure he could do better. Gerald Benney immediately challenged him to try and placed his workshop at his disposal. Louis accepted both the challenge and the offer.

3. Senior Tutor in the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery at the Royal College of Art. 4. A faceted sphere.

5. Source, page 88, Louis Osman (1914-1996) – The life and work of an architect and goldsmith by Jenny Moore (Tiverton, 2006).

6. The dish was cast by The Morris Singer Company Limited. Following the merger of Burleigh Arts and Nautilus Fine Art in 2003, Art Founders Limited was formed. It acquired the Morris Singer name in 2005. The company now trades as Morris Singer Art Founders. The business operates from Braintree, Essex.

7. The skilled task of forming the edges with a hammer was undertaken by Desmond Clen-Murphy.

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Although Louis had started a new career, he never actually gave up being an architect. He studied silversmithing and it was not long before he had found his own style. Interestingly, he favoured a strong medieval look like Michael Bolton, the other self-taught silversmith who also features in this volume. Louis wanted his work to be hand-crafted and to look as if it was made by hand.

Indeed, he was proud of the fact that the tool marks were visible even on his most prestigious pieces. Another characteristic of his work was that he favoured the finer Britannia standard silver that has a richer colour and is also more malleable, and therefore easier to hand-raise, than sterling silver. Similarly when using gold, he favoured 22-carat and fine gold, which is the purest

Above, left: Tizard Cup Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This cast cup may have the form of an 18th century tumbler cup, but there is a twist: it is firmly held on the horizontal by a model of Bacchus, the Roman god of the grape harvest, winemaking and of course wine. It was commissioned by Sir Henry Tizard as his Court Cup for his exclusive use at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Height 8.5cm.

London 1957.

Opposite: Alms Dish Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Probably one of the heaviest alms dishes ever made, this monumental work was commissioned by the Company for a major exhibition that toured North America from 1959-60. Alpha and omega, the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet, are carved on its surface. This is a reference to the book of Revelations in the New Testament of the Holy Bible where it is stated, ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.’ (1:8).

Most Christian denominations regard these symbols as appellations of both God and Jesus Christ and therefore of profound meaning. In the catalogue for the Treasures of the 20th Century exhibition, the cataloguer writes that Louis Osman uses, ‘the emotional impact of the richness of the precious metals like a composer approaching music’. Width 44cm. London 1958.

available. Throughout his entire career as a silversmith, he generally only worked to private commission. Louis established a workshop near Toad Hall, his Sussex home, employing Malcolm Green as his first silversmith.

though not all were successful – his design for an altar set for Westminster Abbey reached an impasse and Ely Cathedral rejected the altar cross that was a collaboration between Graham Sutherland and Louis Osman.

Louis’s distinctive style began to emerge in 1957 with one of the first cups produced under the Company’s Court Wine Cup scheme for use at Goldsmiths’ Hall by members of the Court of Assistants: Sir Henry Tizard, a former Prime Warden, commissioned it. The Company commissioned five pieces of experimental ecclesiastical silver from various makers for the ‘British Artist Craftsmen: an exhibition of contemporary work’, sponsored by Washington DC’s Smithsonian Institute, that toured North America during 1959-60. Louis was commissioned to make an alms dish. The result was probably one of the heaviest alms dish ever made.5 It was cast by the Morris Singer Foundry from a wax pattern that was made by Louis ‘kneading’ it as one would dough, purposefully leaving the indentations of his fingers visible.6 After its edges had been hand-forged,7 the Greek letters alpha and omega were carved across the dish and then gilded. Many ecclesiastical commissions followed,

His secular silver ranged from cutlet frills to large centrepieces, from the humble caddy spoon to a large covered rice bowl that the British Government presented to the Sultan of Brunei on the occasion of his coronation in 1968. The latter featured the Sultan’s enamelled insignia as a finial that was the work of Dilys Osman, his enameller as well as his wife. Not satisfied with being an architect and silversmith, Louis also turned his hand to jewellery. He was successful in this medium, winning two second prizes in the De Beers British Jewellery Competition held in 1961 with the objective ‘to advance British jewellery design’. His most unusual piece of jewellery was made in 1971. It was a silver, gilt and leather dog collar. It is for another jewel-encrusted ornament that Louis will be best remembered, however – the Crown for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales on 1 July 1969. This is the only crown of a contemporary design to have been made in the 20th century.

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Elizabethan manor house in Northamptonshire. Louis’ workshop was the property’s former brewhouse that was cold, damp and hung with cobwebs. As the shape of the wearer’s head is crucial, Louis sought permission from the palace for David Wynne to make an exact model of the Prince’s head. The Queen did not finally approve Louis’s design until 4 February 1969, which meant that the crown had to be made in less than five months. Traditionally crowns are either cast or made from sheets of metal, the various components being soldered together. Louis decided to make the body of the crown by electroforming. This involves building up an object by electrodepositing the metal, in this case fine Welsh gold, on to a suitable mould.8 Although the technique was then being used for making small objects, this was the first occasion in the 20th century that the technique had been used for a large piece.

It was at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth and Empire Games at Cardiff in 1958 that the Queen announced Prince Charles would become Prince of Wales. However, Her Majesty said the investiture would not take place until the Prince was old enough to appreciate its significance. There had not been an investiture since 1911 when Prince Edward (later Edward VIII) had been crowned Prince of Wales. The regalia used some 50 years before was considered serviceable. However, Prince Edward was crowned with a circlet that was no longer considered appropriate. The Company offered to gift a suitable crown to the Queen and the offer was duly accepted. Although Louis Osman was renowned for failing to deliver commissions on time, he was nevertheless chosen for the task. Prince Charles made it clear that he wanted a contemporary design. Louis undertook his research and discovered a warrant of Charles II that stipulated the Prince of Wales’ coronet should include crosses, fleurs-de-lys, have one arch and be surmounted by an orb.

The Osmans had sold both their Sussex and London homes and were now renting Canons Ashby, a 40-room 360

With the exception of the electroforming, which was undertaken by a specialist 9 firm, all other work on the crown was undertaken at Cannons Ashby. At times the team would comprise over 15 people and periodically they worked through the night. The orb, which was engraved with the Prince’s attributes, was the work of the then 23-year-old Malcolm Appleby. Indeed, the whole crown is steeped in symbolism. Even the 13 diamonds set on the enamelled horizontal and vertical band are arranged in the pattern of the constellation of Scorpio, the Prince’s star sign. The crown is set with 75 diamonds and 12 emeralds, which are small because as the Company explained, ‘a show of huge stones to imply wealth would be out of keeping with today’s duty-burdened monarchy’. The crown was delivered on time, despite numerous traumas en route and the progress of it being made was filmed.

The crown was publicly exhibited for the first time at the ‘Louis Osman Gold Exhibition’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1971.10 In a letter published in the catalogue Prince Philip wrote, ‘Great craftsmen have always been rare, and a successful combination of artist and craftsman is rarer still. I can think of few people who deserve this title and a one-man show at Goldsmiths’ Hall more than

Louis Osman.’ The exhibition was a retrospective for his work from 1956-70 and a showcase for new gold pieces ‘never shown before’. The most spectacular piece was a gold cup fantastically engraved with ‘a fanciful version of the heraldic symbols of HRH The Prince of Wales’ by Above: ‘Medieval’ Cups Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett They look medieval and they certainly feel it! With each one weighing around 425g and with a gauge that only be described as gigantesque, it is like supping wine from a miniature cauldron.

They are made from Britannia standard silver. Height 8.4cm.

London 1973-4.

Opposite, upper: Futuristic Cutlery Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company While Louis ‘favoured a strong medieval look’, very rarely there were flickers of modernity. This knife, fork and spoon is futuristic as opposed to having an ambience of the Middle Ages. Indeed, the pieces look futuristic even in the early years of the 21st century and must have been regarded as very avant-garde in the Swinging Sixties. Length 16.2cm. London 1965.

Opposite, lower: Paper-knife Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This sturdy paper-knife is hand-forged. It features initials in Gothic within an incuse carved rectangle. It was purchased at a provincial auction in 2011 for a little over £430. Length 19.8cm.

London 1969.

Malcolm Appleby. Graham Hughes wrote in the exhibition catalogue,11 ‘The new gold pieces show the softness and richness of this lovely metal, so often hidden nowadays beneath a hard commercial shine.

Louis finds gold inspiring: he chooses the colours of his alloys, he organises his hammering and hand-burnishing and strong shapes all with the same aim: to allow this noble metal to be itself.’

Unfortunately the next large gold work was a financial disaster for the Osmans. In 1975 Louis was commissioned to make the Magna Carta Golden Box that the British Government was to gift to the Government of the United States of America on the occasion of its bicentennial celebrations of 1976. When ‘opened, it is about the size of an average kitchen table and a glass divider automatically rises, on which is engraved a translation of the Magna Carta. For one year, one of the original 1215 copies of the document was to be housed in one half of the box, after which time it was to replaced with a gold replica. The other half was lined

8. Louis Osman modelled the crown in wax from which a resin mould was made.

9. Engelhard Industries.

10. 17 February – 11 March.

11. In a short essay entitled ‘Golden Art’.

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with gold jewels and enamelled models of symbolic significance to the UK and USA. It is now on permanent display in the Great Rotunda of the Capitol, Washington DC. The project bankrupted the couple in 1977 as the costs exceeded the agreed price of the commission.

After an unsatisfactory year in Ireland at the Kilkenny Workshops, Dilys and Louis returned to Britain. Up until 1982, when the bankruptcy was discharged, the couple had several temporary homes. However, in that year they rented Byford Court, Herefordshire. It was here that the very ambitious Victoria and Albert Lectern was mainly made, but it was finished at Harpton Court, their final rented home near Radnor in the Welsh Marches. Louis enthused that it was the ‘largest piece of Fine Art engraving since Hogarth’.

Unfortunately, its mechanism did not work, it was difficult to manoeuvre and it has never been used. On occasions Louis could not pay the team of five silversmiths who worked on the project, declaring that the experience of participating on the project would stand them in good stead. The Lectern took five years to design and make. Wally Gilbert worked with Louis Osman from 1982-9. He recalls some of his experiences in Gilbert, pp.230-7.

Below: Trencher Salts Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company In 15th-century England the ‘great salt’, its size and ornateness reflecting the status of its owner, was placed in the middle of the table.

Noble guests sat above and those of lesser status below the salt. It later became the custom for a separate salt container to be placed next to the wooden or metal trencher (from the Old French tranchier ‘to cut’) from which the food would be eaten. These were known as trencher salts. From about 1600 in England these were triangular or round but by the early 18th century they had become an octagonal oblong form with curved sides. This is Louis’s contemporary take on a medieval trencher salts, complete with tray and unusually large spoons compared to those that developed during the 19th century.

Crafted in Britannia Standard silver. Width 18.4cm. London 1969.

Opposite: Osman Candelabrum Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington This unique Britannia standard candelabrum centrepiece was commissioned direct from Louis Osman. It is a very untypical piece of his work. It is included in the list of his silver work in Jenny Moore’s book on Osman, where it is described as a ‘geometric form 4-branch table candelabrum’. It was sold at Mallams of Oxford in December 2012, together with a letter and drawings giving some ideas for its presentation on the table. This included flower arrangements, fruit and a display of crystals being placed in the rectangular void. The letter reads, ‘There is something rather nice about geometry related to natural objects: and this piece of silver has a carefully related geometric form – all the measurements and parts relate. Abstract – just like music.’ The piece was estimated at £600-800 but was contested by two dealers. It sold with all add-ons at a shade under £3,500. Width 52.5cm. London 1968.

After the V&A Lectern, although in his early seventies, Louis continued to work on commissions. His last one was in 1991 when he designed a lavabo and flagon for Lichfield Cathedral. He died in 1996. Some of his tools are still used by Ndidi Ekubia (who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1998), a craftsperson with a penchant for hand-raising and pushing silver to its limits. Louis would be pleased that they had gone to a good home.

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AVAILABILITY Louis Osman’s work only rarely appears on the secondary market.

FURTHER READING: Louis Osman (1914-1996) – The life and work of an architect and goldsmith by Jenny Moore (Tiverton, 2006).

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PADGHAM & PUTLAND Born in the same year, this duo was independently introduced to silversmithing at secondary school. They met at college, set up their workshop while still studying and when they finished college immediately started a partnership. They design and make silver for Bulgari and have had their work blessed by the Pope.

It is a remarkable achievement that this modest duo, who started out as working silversmiths, are now renowned internationally as silver designers and manufacturers whose work is sold around the world.

Karin Paynter Goldsmiths’ Review 2011/2012

Carl Padgham was born at Kent’s historic village of Wye in 1963 and went to the North School for Boys in nearby Ashford. ‘Mr Kay was the metalwork teacher and when I was around 14 he suggested I could blend my interest in art and metalwork by becoming a silversmith. Two pupils from the school had previously become silversmiths, Andy Bray and Robin Beresford’, Carl explained. ‘He pushed me towards Medway College of Design.’ 1 Unfortunately he was only 15 years old when he applied to the College. He was offered a place on the pre-apprenticeship course until the college realised that he was below the minimum age, so he returned to his secondary school for another year and started the course when he was 16. Andy Putland was also born in 1963, but at Eastbourne on the Sussex coast.

Coincidentally it was at secondary school that he became interested in metalwork. ‘We were given a fantastic crafts education embracing woodwork, metalwork and technical drawing. The metalwork teacher was Mr Stewart and he encouraged me to make things in copper. For O-level I studied metalwork and technical drawing on the crafts side and so as to combine art, technical drawing and metalwork I was directed towards Medway College of Design’s silversmithing course. To this day I can remember the interview with Robert May. Thankfully he thought my work in copper was to a decent standard as there were 45 applicants and just seven places’, he recalls.

Aged 17 the two enrolled on Medway’s three-year diploma course in silversmithing and became friends. However, at the end of the second year there was a change in the qualifications being offered and they were given the

1. Founded as the Medway College of Art, now the University of Creative Arts, Rochester, generally abbreviated to UCA, Rochester.

2. Carl won First Prize for the Junior Silversmithing Section in 1984.

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opportunity to switch to a two-year Higher National Diploma. It is clear that both considered that they received the very best tuition, as the silversmiths Norman Bassant and Ian Calvert (see Stone pp.454-6), were each visiting tutors for two days a week. In his final year Andy worked a day a week on an industrial release basis for Norman Bassant, while Carl worked in the summer holidays for Grant Macdonald (see Macdonald, pp.312-9).

As well as this vocational tuition, the atmosphere on the course appears to have been one where the camaraderie was such that the students also learned from their peers.

Nevertheless, there was a healthy competitive edge as well and it is clear that both Andy and Carl were high flyers.

They entered competitions as students. Andy won first prize in the Goddards’ Silverware Awards and another in the annual Johnson Matthey competition, while Carl won a De Beers Design Competition for a pocket watch, and both won one or more prizes in several categories of the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Awards.2 As the courses at Medway were vocationally orientated, it was traditional for those leaving to begin working in the trade.

This was not going to be the course that Carl and Andy were to take, though both had been headhunted: ‘During the last year of our studies we looked at setting up a workshop. We found one in Aylesford just before the Opposite: Chandeliers Courtesy of Prime Development Limited The design for this pair of silver chandeliers in Bulgari’s hotel in London’s Knightsbridge was inspired by a swirling dress. Each weighs 250kg with 100kg being silver. But what about cleaning it?

‘It has been lacquered by hand with a very special lacquer’, the silversmiths explained. As at April 2014, this is possibly the largest piece of silver to have been made in the 21st century for a client in Britain. Each chandelier has a diameter of 2.4m and contains 250 LED lights. London 2012.

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Andy takes up the story. ‘I designed the tea service that won the Goddard’s Silverware Award in my third year (1982-3) and made it during my fourth year (1983-4) at Medway. It was a very contemporary design.’ There is no doubting the latter statement, as the basic form of the three pieces is hemispherical on a collet foot. The handles of the teapot, milk jug and sugar basin encase a coloured resin at each side.

In the case of the teapot, the handle rises from the collet foot opposite the spout, sweeps above the pot to form a hemispherical ‘hoop’ handle and continues its downward journey either side of the spout to end at the collet foot. The cover of the pot is lifted by a similarly constructed, but smaller handgrip that mirrors the curve of the main ‘hoop’ handle. The handles of the milk and sugar only partially overhang their bodies, while the edge of the circular tray is trimmed with the same coloured resin. In the case of the competition piece, this is of a lime-green hue. The result is a tea service that appears richly encircled in lime green. ‘The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths Christmas of 1983’, Andy said. ‘It had been set-up as a craft workshop. We negotiated a reduced weekly rent for the period January-July 1984 while we continued studying at Medway, using our combined prize money to pay it.’

Carl added, ‘We didn’t realise it at the time, but only one other person had left the college and set up on their own.

It was a big step.’ ‘We felt we had nothing to lose if we went ahead – we certainly had no debts’, Andy intervened.

Carl explained, ‘We touted for work and we certainly did not receive any start up subsidies or grants.’ The duo left college on 16 July 1984 and the following day set to in their workshop. Initially the new partnership undertook outwork from the established silversmithing trade.

Having worked for Grant Macdonald, Carl secured work from him while Norman Bassant initially gave the new partnership of Padgham & Putland antique pieces to restore and later work on the projects connected with pieces Norman was making. In the year following the establishment of their partnership an event occurred that changed the nature of Andy and Carl’s fledging enterprise, which emphasises that competitions not only have the potential to result in prizes, but can open doors too.

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Left, above: Prize-winning Tea Service Courtesy Andy Putland Andy Putland designed this tea service in his third year at college and it won the Goddard Silverware Award. He made it in his final year, being very innovative by using a resin for the distinctive lime trim. ‘It’s used in the boat industry for coloured boats like catamarans and is very hard and can be polished’, he says. Given that his parents still have the service, it has certainly stood the test of time. When Nicola Bulgari saw a photograph of it he was looking for young designer-silversmiths and immediately made tracks to Padgham and Putland. The company is still working for Bulgari. Overall height of tea pot 21cm. London 1984.

Opposite: Bulgari Tea Serviece Courtesy Padgham and Putland Nicola Bulgari was clearly impressed with what he saw at Padgham and Putland and commissioned three rose bowls. Later he suggested a complete new range of silver. Carl designed a salt and pepper of octagonal form and the Olympia range was born.

This tea and coffee service is part spun and then hammered to shape. The range was made over a 14-year period, the last piece being produced in 2002 to commemorate HM Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee. The height of the tea pot is 18cm, the coffee 23cm.

London 1988.

obviously saw the piece as the competition was judged and the prizes awarded at Goldsmiths’ Hall’, Andy continued. ‘The Company decided to commission a service for its modern collection, but with royal-blue resin. This was made by P&P and delivered to the Hall in 1985. The following year the late Susan Hare, then the Company’s Librarian, telephoned to say that Nicola Bulgari, Vice-Chairman of Bulgari, had visited the Company and was most taken with the tea service, “Could he visit you the next day?” Of course I said yes, but had no idea who Mr Bulgari was’, Andy confessed.

By the following day Andy and Carl were fully aware that Bulgari was an Italian jewellery firm of considerable renown.3 While the company is now a household name, it did not begin expanding as an international luxury goods brand until the 1990s and certainly was not represented in London during the mid-1980s. Nicola Bulgari arrived at the workshop. He saw a rose-water bowl designed by Carl that they had made for a private client, liked it and immediately ordered three. Although it was Andy’s student piece that attracted him to Aylesford, it was clear that he liked P&P’s then current classic, but modern, style. After Carl had designed a cruet for Mr Bulgari, he asked the partnership to design a four-piece tea and coffee service. Carl chose an octagonal form and submitted what he calls ‘initial sketches’ followed by models. Traditionalists will tell you that the presentation of designs is all-important in securing a commission. Carl’s sketches are certainly not pencil doodles, but works of art in their own right: alluring, hand-painted designs in watercolours and gouache reminiscent of a more graceful age. After the design and model was approved, the first prototype was made using a good gauge of silver, with the interiors of the four pieces heavily gold-plated. Nicola Bulgari demanded a high level of craftsmanship and was not disappointed with what he saw. Indeed, it resulted in his ordering a complete range of domestic pieces in the same

style. Called Olympia, it included champagne flutes, table bowls, ice buckets, candlesticks, candelabra and centrepieces – everything that one could possibly want for the table, with the exception of cutlery. ‘From 1986 through to the present, there has not been a year when we haven’t been designing and making items for Bulgari for at least several months’, Andy revealed. This work is sold worldwide, but under the Bulgari brand as opposed to their mark.

Very quickly the partnership established itself not only for producing silver of superb craftsmanship, but also for having design capability. It is therefore not surprising that P&P started receiving prestigious commissions. To commemorate the 90th birthday of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1990, the Worshipful Company of Butchers chose Carl and Andy to design and make a pair of loving cups. Andy explained, ‘The piece had to reflect her interests of horse racing, salmon fishing and breeding Aberdeen Angus cattle, as well as Smithfield Market and the Castle of Mey,4 together with the arms of the Butchers’ Company as well as Her Majesty’s.’ Keith Raes engraved the arms, the market on one side and the castle on the other, while Carl skilfully worked Her Majesty’s interest in horse racing into the base, salmon fishing into the stem

3. Its Greek founder was Sotirio Voulgaris who became a jeweller in his home village of Paramythia, where his first retail outlet still exists. In 1877 he left for Naples via Corfu. In 1881 he moved to Rome where he changed his name to the Italian Bulgari, establishing his second shop in 1884. The firm’s current flagship store in Via dei Condotti was opened in 1905, attracting the wealthy and discerning. Outlets were established during the 1970s in New York, Paris, Geneva and Monte Carlo. Today the company has more than 290 stores worldwide. It was in 1984 that the founder’s grandsons Paolo and Nicola Bulgari were named Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Company. On 6 March 2011, the French luxury group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA announced that it was acquiring Bulgari SpA for Euro 4.3 billion.

4. The Queen Mother’s residence located in Caithness, on the north coast of Scotland, approximately 9.7km west of John O’Groats. She bought it in 1952 after she became a widow and restored it as her holiday home. She stayed there each August and October from 1955 until 2001.

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and models of Aberdeen Angus surmounting the handles.

The latter particularly pleased the Queen Mother. Another exciting project at about the same time was participating in a collection of contemporary silver for the splendid medieval cathedral at Lichfield. On 14 February 1990 representatives from 17 silversmithing workshops gathered at the cathedral to discuss this high profile commission. P&P in the form of Andy and Carl were the youngest silversmiths involved. The partnership’s task was to design and make a flagon. Carl decided to surmount his elegant design with a delicately chased finial, inspired by the carved roof bosses of the edifice, while its base echoed the form of the Cathedral’s central columns.

It soon became apparent that their first workshop was becoming insufficient to cope with their growing business.

Towards the end of 1989 they spotted a piece of land in the idyllic village of Pluckley about five miles west of Ashford. This is where the British comedy drama The Darling Buds of May5 was filmed and it had the dubious honour of being recorded in the 1989 Guinness Book of Records for being the ‘most haunted village in Britain’.

This is not what attracted P&P to the village, however.

For them it was simply the ‘most economical building plot in Kent’, in the sense that their purpose-built two-storey workshop snuggly fits into its dimensions. The duo moved in during August 1990. The timing was perfect as this decade was a very busy one for the partnership. Grant Macdonald was keeping P&P busy with work from the Middle East. Andy recalls, ‘During the decade we made 45 368

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models of the same building for one of his clients. Some were just “straight” models, others incorporated a clock.

Each one took 90 hours to make and on one occasion we had a batch of 10 to work on.’ Add to this the growing demand from Bulgari and other trade requests and one can appreciate that the workshop was positively humming. ‘At times we were working 12 hours a day, seven days a week’, Andy recalled, ‘sometimes there were 10 of us working away.’ Nevertheless, it did not stop the business taking on two apprentices. The first, Kevin Hart, was bound to Andy in 1991. After completing his five years he stayed on until 2009, worked on his own for a while and then became the full-time technician at UCA Rochester, Andy and Carl’s former college (see footnote 1).

Bret Symonds followed him in 1997. Despite the heavy workload, when Norman Bassant retired from Rochester in January 1995, Andy took his place. ‘I enjoyed the interaction with the students’, he commented.

Though they were very busy during the 1990s, private commissions continued. Perhaps the most unusual of these was an Arabic perfume bottle stand for a member of the Saudi Royal Family. ‘It was ordered by a princess for her 14-year-old daughter’s birthday’, Carl revealed. It is a most elaborate item. The stand has been beautifully crafted in wood by a master cabinetmaker. The curved arms rise one to the left and the other to the right and each has a silver and enamel box upon a plinth, which opens as a drawer. An overhanging cushion of carved stone mounted with gold braiding and tassels surmounts each.

Opposite: Padgham & Putland Cruet Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This pair of cruets on stands were gifted by a gentleman on the occasion of his retirement in 1995. The condiments and the carrying handle are all six-sided, while the stand is 12-sided. The royal blue resin edging is a striking feature. So too is the weight. The pair are a hefty 1272g, which is around 20 troy ounces each. They were purchased from the London trade in 2012 for £2,400. Height to the top of the carrying handle 10.1cm. London 1995.

Upper, left: Lichfield Flagon Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Carl and Andy were delighted to be asked to participate in the Lichfield Cathedral Silver Commission. The inspiration for the design of this flagon was the building’s immense arches, but with a twist.

The arches have been inverted so that their apex is at the base of the vessel. They were applied to the hand-raised body by line chasing, which involves moving the metal by a hammer and punches into the desired pattern. The finial is inspired by the bosses in the vaulted ceiling of the nave. The flagon had been dropped and the force of the impact tore the silver either side of the hinge to the lid. The piece was returned to its makers for some tender loving care. This is the beauty of silver – accidental damage can normally be made good, so to the eye of the novice, it looks as good as new. Height 30cm. London 1991.

Upper, right: Water Jug Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This hand-raised water jug was commissioned by the Goldsmiths’ Company. The brief comprised the dimensions and ‘make it in your own style so that it is typical of your work’, said Carl. So what inspired the design? ‘It is natural for any vessel used for pouring liquid to have a fluid look. Just think about rain drops, blobs of mercury or molten metal’, he responded. The effect of fluidity on this piece has been achieved by line chasing. Height 26.5cm. London 1991.

Upon each of these graciously sit a pair of glass perfume jars with bejewelled silver-gilt overlay and an enamelled domed cover. The jars are surmounted by an elaborate bejewelled finial. The lower central arm has a crystal bowl with a gold ornament upon a cushion of stone. However, the ultimate commission of all those undertaken by P&P was started by the partnership towards the end of the decade and it was for Bulgari. However, it was not for retail but was a very special gift from the company.

In 1995 the Diocese of Rome declared that there were to be 50 new churches in Rome’s suburbs as a celebration of the Holy Year of 2000. One of these was to be the Dio Padre Misericordioso (God the Merciful Father) designed by Richard Meier, the American architect who makes prominent use of the colour white.6 Described by the architect as ‘the crown jewel of the project’ and later by Lonely Planet as ‘Rome’s first minimalist church’, Bulgari decided to present a collection of silver to the Bishop of Rome, who of course is His Holiness the Pope, for Meier’s combined church and community centre. P&P were duly commissioned to design and make 40 pieces of silver in

5. Broadcast on the ITV network from 1991-3, it was set in rural Kent of the 1950s (Pluckley doubles for Sidcup) and was based on the novels of HE Bates involving the Larkin family. Among others, it starred David Jason and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

6. The concrete walls contain titanium dioxide, which absorbs ultra violet light making it powerfully reactive. It breaks down pollutants that come into contact with the concrete, therefore keeping it white.

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initial collection, it was decided that those pieces that were not on open display in the church would be placed in a glass safe that could be viewed both from within the church as well as externally.

Britannia standard for the church. Carl developed his design of the original Olympia range and the result is a modern under-stated classic look with plain simple lines. A common theme of the pieces is faceted bases. ‘The design approval process was quite fascinating’, Carl said. ‘It had never crossed my mind that the designs would be scrutinised at a very high level at the Vatican. Cardinals annotated the designs with their suggestions and concerns regarding practicality. The items covered a wide dimensional spectrum ranging from a processional cross 2m in height down to an aspergillum or holy water sprinkler that was just some 15cm in height. The items of course would be in regular use, hopefully for a long period of time. They were designed so that anything which suffered a mishap could be repaired easily. So, instead of soldering pieces together, the pieces were constructed so that they could be easily taken apart – for example using bolts or threads – so that any one part could be repaired quickly.’

When completed the collection weighed more than 46kg.

The pieces were delivered on time in October 2000. It was arranged that His Holiness Pope John II should bless the pieces in the December. ‘Andy and I were invited to the ceremony’, Carl said with pride. ‘It was a grand and emotional event. When we entered the room the entire collection was displayed on a large marble-topped table.

We were introduced to the Pope: it was a very special moment. For some reason an Irish Pipe Band was also present and when they played the sound was absolutely fantastic. It was a very memorable day.’ Although P&P delivered on time, the church itself did not open until 2003.7 Just before this happened, the Vatican commissioned P&P to design and make a reliquary that was to used to contain the ashes of several important saints. After it had been consecrated, it was buried in the altar behind a keystone. Although the commission included a fitted presentation case for each piece in the 370

The big commission of the early 21st century was the pair of chandeliers for the luxurious Bulgari Hotel that opened in Knightsbridge, almost opposite Hyde Park in May 2012.

Three silversmithing firms competed for this commission from Prime Development Limited, who managed the hotel project. Located in the ballroom, the hotel’s brochure describes this room as offering, ‘a rare glamour that is all the more powerful because it is refined, and as such forms the perfect place to celebrate a wedding, anniversary or another special event. Features include a dramatic large oval dome into which are set two hand-crafted solid silver chandeliers, designed and made exclusively for Bulgari by Padgham and Putland Silversmiths, and thought to be the most impressive pair of silverware pieces made this century.’ Made from sterling silver and stainless steel, each weighs a total of 250kg including a silver content of 100kg. At one point P&P had all the 0.8mm gauge sterling silver on order that was available in the UK. Their construction involved CNC tube bending8 and TIG welding.9 P&P submitted a choice of four different designs. An actual size model was then made in card and plastic of the one chosen so that the development team could see exactly what it looked like and so that P&P fully understood its construction. A lighting engineer

7. The partnership became a limited company in this year.

8. Computer Numerically Controlled precision bending machines ensure the high quality of bending tubular metal and repeat accuracy at all times.

9. TIG stands for Tungsten inert gas. TIG welding was a process invented in the 1930s to help the aerospace industry weld aluminium, which cannot be joined by conventional arc welding, as you need an inert gas to stop the oxidisation of the aluminium. It is also brilliant for stainless steel. When two pieces of silver are traditionally joined together with solder, which is a mixture of silver and a metal that melts at a lower melting point than silver, the solder is always slightly softer than the metal being joined. This means when the piece is polished, it leaves a telltale line at the place where two pieces of silver have been joined. Using TIG welding produces a ‘seamless seam’. Hector Miller pioneered the technique – see Miller, pp.346-55.

10. Light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source, meaning that it does not use a metal conductor. Current conduction in a semiconductor occurs via mobile or ‘free’ electrons and holes collectively known as charge carriers.

Doping refers to the introduction of a small amount of impurity atoms that considerably increases the number of charge carriers. They are energy efficient and have low heat emission.

11. Founded in 1798 as Boodle & Dunthorne, the company is run by the sixth generation of the family in the business. In addition to London, the company has stores in the north of England as well as Dublin.

was consulted regarding the actual illumination and each chandelier contains 260 LED10 lights. These are the only pieces of silver made for Bulgari that bear Padgham & Putland’s mark. Both chandeliers are also branded Bulgari and one also bears the mark SB in honour of Sotirio Bulgari, the company’s founder.

The fact that so much of the partnership’s work is for third parties (such as the retailers Bulgari and Boodles11 as well as other silversmiths), means that its mark only appears on private commissions and direct sales. The consequence is that P&P is often perceived as a manufacturer as opposed to designer-silversmiths. ‘We had been making items for a gallery to their designs for Opposite: Silver for a Church in Rome Courtesy Padgham & Putland These are some of the 42 pieces made for Nicola Bulgari to present to Pope John II for Rome’s first minimalist church. Carl and Andy looked at Richard Meier’s drawings and as asked by Nicola Bulgari, took the Olympia range with its Queen Anne octagonal feature, which they have liked since their college days, as the starting point.

The resultant form is more modern, but the inclusion of a chased line with a tear drop gives it a more classical feel. Normally Carl makes full-size drawings of proposed pieces, but given the number on this occasion, he produced ‘thumbnail’ ones for speed. The drawings were initially approved by Nicola Bulgari and then by various officials at the Vatican, who generally commented on practical aspects such as the size and weight. The two silversmiths were introduced to His Holiness when he blessed the silver at the Vatican. The pitcher has a height of 22.2cm. Made in 2000.

Above, left and right: Mace and detail Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company, photographer Richard Valencia The Goldsmiths’ Company has had contacts with Imperial College since 1907 when Edward VII granted it a Royal Charter. In 2007 Queen Elizabeth II granted it a Supplemental Charter making it a university in its own right. The Company decided to give it a mace to mark the occasion and the design competition was won by Padgham & Putland. Its stem is a stylised helix representing human DNA, to acknowledge the College’s link to science and medicine. This is surmounted by what Carl calls ‘a grand gesture’ – the harp, lion and book from the College’s Arms in gilt within an open work crown. Its base features the coat of arms of the Goldsmiths’ Company engraved by Ewmet Smith. Apart from the motifs from the Arms which are cast, the mace was hand-forged and took eight months to complete. The piece won a Gold Award in the Senior Silversmith category of the 2010 Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Awards. It weighs 7.1kg and is 1.2m in length. London 2009.

years and when I asked why they did not retail our work, the owner replied, “But you don’t design” ’, said Carl with a smile. Although P&P was given every encouragement to participate in the annual Goldsmiths’ Fair, the partnership was too busy to do so. When it did find time in 2009 there was an initial perception by the public that they were newcomers and by others that P&P was a manufacturer who had just branched into direct selling.

This view is beginning to change. Meanwhile P&P continues to design everything from maces (following winning an open design competition, in 2009 it made the 7kg mace for Imperial College, London, for which it won a Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council’s gold award in 2010) to caddy spoons. Nevertheless, the fact remains that a high proportion of the work the partnership designs and makes goes unrecognised.

AVAILABILITY Padgham and Putland’s work rarely appears on the secondary market. Commissions can be placed direct with P&P. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for contact details and website address.

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DON PORRITT His peers hold him in very high regard, many of whom cannot believe the lengths to which he will go to achieve perfection. Don Porritt is a designer who is passionate about silver.

Since the 1990s, he has developed a very distinctive style that draws on decades of observations and his leaning towards a curvilinear line reflects his love of the countryside.

My challenge is to a create significant sculptural form out of the white, ductile metal and by so doing, produce unique functional silver that has a distinctive, strong dynamic line.

Don Porritt

Don Porritt was born at Pudsey, West Yorkshire in 1933.

His family worked in the textile industry. From an early age, Don had an interest in making things. Although he did not realise it at the time, he also had a leaning towards design. ‘The first indication’, though he stressed that this was in retrospect, ‘was at infant school. We were given five or six pieces of wood, a hammer and nails, but at that tender age, no chisel or saw. We were asked to make something. Most of my fellow pupils tried to make an aeroplane, but I responded differently.’

Although he would not have used these words then, he realised there was a certain limitation with the size and proportion of the materials, but there was nevertheless potential. So, he constructed a gate and much to his embarrassment, his teacher was so thrilled that he was taken to the headmaster to be congratulated. Looking back at the exercise decades later, Don commented, ‘I suppose I was making a design decision to utilise the material in that particular way.’ At secondary school he received a good grounding in woodwork and metalwork both of which were taught in the arts and crafts tradition.

Upon leaving school he obtained a trainee position with a local cabinetmaker. However, he soon felt that he could achieve more than was being taught. He left a year later to work for a family jeweller in nearby Leeds. Initially he worked as a junior shop assistant, but was quickly given the opportunity to undertake a five-year apprenticeship at the bench with Marcus Thain. He obtained hands-on

1. Leeds College of Art had a good reputation for silver in the 1950s and early 1960s. Occasionally pieces assayed at Sheffield bearing the College’s LCA sponsor’s mark appear on the secondary market. Loughborough College of Art has the same initials for its sponsor’s mark, but its silver was assayed in Birmingham.

2. The Pearson Silver Collection has a bowl and cover by Alann Fisher. Bearing the Leeds College of Art sponsor’s mark, it is engraved, ‘Wrought by Alann G Fisher’ and bears the Sheffield date letter for 1949.

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skills as a jeweller, silversmith and diamond-mounter during the day, whilst also studying jewellery, engraving and later silversmithing at the Leeds College of Art’s evening classes.1 Alann Fisher, a very accomplished Sheffield-trained silversmith,2 was in overall charge of the course and encouraged Don to work in the college’s silver workshop. He set him such tasks as raising a bowl in nickel – a very hard metal – and making a condiment set in the same material.

In 1954 this routine was interrupted by two years of National Service. Don joined the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers. After service in the UK, during which time he was trained as an armourer, he served in Malaya. Attached to a Ghurkha infantry battalion, his skills were put to the test when he was required to

Opposite: Water Jug Courtesy Don Porritt The origin for the concept of this water jug can be found in a sketch that featured in the catalogue of Don’s retrospective at the Platform Gallery, Clitheroe, in 2005. Three years earlier he had designed and made a pair of water jugs for Lord Hartington, now the Duke of Devonshire. The interpretations of the flowing action of liquids when poured from a vessel fascinate Don and after the commission was completed he had further ideas. ‘These flowing forces’, he says, ‘in part imagined, but also directly observed, are initially captured in freely drawn sketches and then further developed into models, in paper, card or wood.’ The result was this jug. Note the repoussé techniques used at the back of the jug to simulate the flow of water.

The wavy, highly polished line slanting vertically to the top of the jug further accentuates the concept of flow. Of course, the simulations of the water flows become horizontal as the liquid is gently poured into a glass. When looking at a completed piece of silver, the thought process and the different stages of the design from a free-flowing sketch to a more refined version and subsequently a three-dimensional model are not apparent. The jug has a height of 23.5cm and a capacity of 70cl. Sheffield 2008.

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service and repair both small and large weapons in the difficult conditions of field workshops. Don still draws on the techniques acquired during this period. Back in civilian life in the UK, he returned to the bench at Marcus Thain’s. Not only was he given higher-grade work, but he also found himself in a life-changing situation. He resumed his evening classes at the LCA. Upon reflection Don now realises that Alann Fisher was following his progress with special interest. One evening, Mr Fisher walked into the classroom with a beaming face, walked straight to Don, shook his hand and congratulated him.

At the age of 25, Don had been awarded the First Prize Bronze Medal for the brooch he submitted as part of his City & Guilds of London Institute Examination in Diamond Mounting. Naturally this was a great achievement for Don, but also prestigious for the LCA. The prize convinced Don to move away from the trade side of jewellery and become a full-time design student – with the aim of ultimately combining the creative careers of a designer and teacher. The award was his breakthrough as it was accepted as his portfolio requirement for entry to an art and design course. Don 374

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applied to and was accepted by the LCA. However, there was a hiccup. It was a four-year course and the local authority offered to provide funding for just three years.

The initial solution was to place Don straight into the second year. Very quickly he realised that this was a mistake. He had superb craft experience, but not the grounding in a classical art college education.

Thankfully the local authority relented and agreed to fund the entire length of the course.

argument and practice was a significant experience – it effectively shaped my future artistic careers even if, at the time, I was not fully aware of the influence being exerted.’ In his third year as part of their main National Design Diploma, Industrial Design students were required to design and make one item of silver.

Although the early 1960s was an era when sharp edges prevailed, Don’s 1962 teapot illustrated here abounds with curves and is so tactile.

‘Those four years were the best years of my life’, Don enthused. ‘Leeds was buzzing and I was not the same person at the end of the course. Life drawing was one of the major influences in my training. The model is a living entity, there is movement, so you have to capture this collection of forms that is the human body. You are looking for structure, and lineal rhythms. It is not about technique. It is really about the study of form. When you can transfer that feeling for form – the plastic form – to paper, it is that much easier to create forms in hard materials like wood and metal. It’s the one thing that turned me from being a craftsman into a designer.’

‘One continuous characteristic in my work’, Don observed, ‘is a curvilinear line rather than just a straight rectilinear line. Nature is full of curvilinear lines rather than straight ones, so possibly I relate more to the countryside in preference to a city with its dominant reliance on rectilinear forms. My creative imagination is stimulated by nature – but not just to the extent that naturalistic motifs are directly incorporated into the design. Flowing water, rapids and coloured surface patterns invoke a response which – after much experimentation – can produce fluid and dynamic interpretations in metal.’

Leaving the LCA in 1963 aged 30 with a NDD in Industrial Design and an Intermediate Certificate in Silversmithing, he initially worked as a trainee designer with Crompton Parkinson, the electrical manufacturing company, where he worked on industrial and commercial light fittings. In 1964 he established his own business as an industrial designer, silversmith and sculptor, in 1965 becoming the first qualified industrial design lecturer at the LCA. In just eight years he had achieved both of his ambitions. Additionally, from 1962 to 1964 he won five awards.

In 1965 he moved 12 miles northwest of Leeds to the village of Menston on the edge of Wharfedale, one of the Yorkshire Dales’ longest and most beautiful valleys.

This is where he still lives and works. Also in this year, with the assistance of a bursary from the Royal Society of Arts, he visited Holland and Finland. The latter country was to later have a significant influence on his work as a silversmith. However, in the late 1960s he began to receive commissions for a variety of presentation pieces and achievement awards. These

The LCA was a cutting-edge institution for design in the fifties and sixties with leading lecturers in the field.

Don’s course was closely based on Bauhaus influences that championed the stark simplicity of functionalism.

These were indeed formative years and Don sums them up by saying, ‘Exposure to this heady mixture of theory, Upper left: Repoussé Water Jug Courtesy Don Porritt Don confesses that this water jug is a slight divergence as he wanted to create a plainer body, while still retaining the curvilinear line. The top repoussé-worked section of the jug is inset into the plainer oval body form. The junction between these two contrasting surfaces is emphasised by a curved step line which flows upwards from the rear of the jug into the tip of the pouring lip. Don summarises his design principles, ‘I have always sought to create a unity of form in the design of a single vessel. Spouts are designed to flow smoothly from the body shape and handles are configured to spring out in a positive and elegant manner. These individual elements should reflect their functional roles but must also contribute to a fused aesthetic totality.’ Height 20.4cm. Sheffield 2004.

Opposite: Teapot, 1962 Courtesy Don Porritt Don designed and made this teapot while at Leeds College of Art. Students were expected to produce one item of silver in their third year of study as an extension to their main NDD Industrial Design project work. With its organic form and profusion of curves, it is still one of Don’s treasured possessions. Height 12.6cm. Sheffield 1962.

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imagery.’ Having seen modern silver in Scandinavian museums and galleries, it re-awoke Don’s interest for the medium. Back in the UK he started making domestic silver by the traditional technique of handraising. The following year he had a one-man exhibition at Menston’s Goosewell Gallery.

It was not until Don relinquished full-time teaching in 1992 at the LCA3 that he was able to devote the time that he would like to his true passion – silver. When Grace Whowell wrote the Foreword to Don Porritt’s 2005 retrospective ‘Design in Fine Metal’ at the Platform Gallery, Clitheroe, she started, ‘In the large expanse of England, north of Sheffield and stretching up to the Scottish Borders, there are few serious designers in silver’. Certainly Don felt he was working in isolation and not only wanted a wider audience, but also technical and social interaction with his fellow silversmiths. In 1996 he joined the then newly formed Association of British Designer Silversmiths (now renamed Contemporary British Silversmiths), which he describes ‘as a most fruitful relationship’. It has certainly been a vehicle that has brought Don’s work deservedly to the fore and to an appreciative wider audience.

In the last two decades, free from his teaching commitments, his work has transformed. Don neatly summarises

were well received and it was not long before his reputation in this field was firmly established. This led to commissions for sculptural work from a variety of local sources. Needless to say, this work, which was in addition to full-time lecturing, meant that silver was not his first priority. Nevertheless, it was not forgotten as can be seen by the 1969 coffee pot illustrated here.

However, all this changed in 1973. The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths awarded Don one of its prestigious three-month research Travelling Fellowships. Don visited Poland, the USSR and Scandinavia where the tour was greatly enhanced by 376

the exchange of homes with a Finnish family. The experience, particularly in Finland, was to have a profound effect on his design work. His observations of colour, texture and form and especially an appreciation of the special quality of the Northern light, remains a strong influence on his work. Don remarks, ‘People have said, “Oh your work looks Scandinavian in character or quality.” But, if it does, it is a very, very deep subconscious stream of influence which emerges as a particular feeling, rather than any defined stylistic

3. By then the Leeds Metropolitan University.

Opposite: Coffee Pot Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This coffee pot was presented to PQH Simon, the retiring chairman of the Guild of Yorkshire Craftsmen by members of the Guild in 1967. Mr Simon was not a craftsperson, but worked for the Council of Small Industries in Rural Areas. The Collection acquired the piece in 1997. In 2012 Don asked if it would be possible to see the pot again. When he visited the Festival of Silver in July at the Goldsmiths’ Centre in London, it was temporarily reunited with its creator for the first time in 45 years. Height 17.2cm. Sheffield 1967.

Right, upper and lower: Flagon/Jug and Miniature Flagon Courtesy Don Porritt The water flagon above is in the collection of the Goldsmiths’ Company, while its miniature version below with a part-textured body is in a private collection. Both these vessels are an extension of the curvilinear jugs that Don originally designed in 2000. Both are without handles, but have been designed so that their oval bodies can be easily grasped by one hand. Subconsciously Don feels that the overlap technique of the construction of his curvilinear vessels could have been influenced by the beautiful lines of the Viking longships which he so enjoyed seeing when visiting museums in Scandinavia. Height 19.7cm and 15.5cm respectively. Sheffield 2008 and 2007.

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his approach. ‘I create my pieces with no particular market in mind. Just as an artist paints with no regard to a specific gallery or price range, I follow my inner compulsion to create a statement, a significant piece of silver, rather than conforming to a market-led demand.’ As the Millennium approached, he started designing and making a series of vessels with a curvilinear4 formation based on the pouring action of liquid. Don explains how he achieves this ‘ripple effect’. ‘It is created by the overlap technique, which is used to build the body section by section. The process involved is similar to clinker boat-building practice (that of fixing wooden planks to each other, so they overlap) – but in reverse – the development progressing internally as opposed to the external surface. The surface detailing and textural quality of the finished designs evolve in a natural manner, directly from the process of construction.’

The explanation of the technique is one thing, having skills to actually undertake the work is another. How does he know all the overlapping pieces will fit? Don always smiles when he is asked this question. He starts

Opposite, upper: Curvilinear Jugs Courtesy Don Porritt When these jugs were first exhibited at Goldsmiths’ Fair in 2000 they received considerable exposure in both the media and marketing material. They are the first of a related series of vessels with a flowing curvilinear formation based on the pouring action of liquid. Don’s objective was to make something that was different and there is no doubting that he achieved his aim. They certainly had a significant impression on visitors to the fair, as they had not seen the likes before. Don explained, ‘The sharply modelled lines are created as a result of the overlap technique which is used to build up the body, section by section. The process involved is similar to clinker boat-building practice – but in this application is reversed – the development progressing internally, rather than on the external surface.’ Height 15cm and 12cm respectively. Sheffield 2000.

Opposite, lower: Tea Service, 2010 Courtesy Don Porritt The biennial Museums Sheffield National Metalwork Award was launched in 2008. The prize was £10,000. Its organisers were looking to reward the best examples of bold, brave and innovative metalwork design. Although an exciting competition, it was quite a commitment for participants. Don calculated that he worked on designing and making this tea service over a three-month period for the 2010 competition. Although he undertook some other tasks, this was his main project. Don was one of the 10 finalists and although his service was greatly admired, it did not win.

However, it was acquired by a UK collector when it was exhibited at Pangolin London, the fine art gallery. The event was part of British Silver Week 2011. Height of tea pot 10.9cm. Sheffield 2010.

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by making the outer shell in silver, including the spout.

Using cardboard he then makes a provisional template for the first overlap. However, it is not then just a case of replicating this in silver. The actual overlap is cut from the silver, after allowances are made for the different thickness between the card and the metal – it is trial and error. ‘It’s patient work but you get quicker’, Don explained. Having cut the silver and ascertained that it will fit, it then has to be soldered into place. This difficult process requires heating the jug to a high temperature and using high-melting solder to ensure the two sheets fit together as closely as a hand in a glove. By repeating the process with solder melting at decreasing temperatures, Don builds-up the layers. It all sounds deceptively simple, but rest assured it is not.

He is a master of soldering. ‘Why torture yourself?’ his colleagues ask. ‘Because it is the only way to get a crisp line’, Don responds. No wonder he no longer uses time sheets. On average, each jug takes up to 50 hours to make. For a master craftsman who is a perfectionist, it takes as long as it takes to make.

Then of course there is the light. Even before Don witnessed the quality of the Northern light in Scandinavia, light has fascinated him. Indeed, for a brooch he made in 1951, he abandoned the traditional highly polished surface for a satin, scratch-brush finish so that the white metal really contrasted with the darker stone of the amethysts. In subsequent decades he has explored the effect of light on silver. When he designs and subsequently makes a piece of silver, the effect of light on it is always considered. Interestingly he hardly ever polishes silver today, favouring the satin finish with which he first experimented over a generation ago. However, we are entering realms on which artists can converse for hours…

The subject of light is beyond the scope of this work.

However, do bear it in mind when looking at Don’s work.

4. Formed, bounded or characterised by curved lines.

AVAILABILITY Very little of Don Porritt’s work has appeared on the secondary market. His work is stocked by selected retailers and can be commissioned direct. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact details.

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DUNSTAN PRUDEN Undoubtedly the finest ecclesiastical silversmith of his time, he made a prolific amount of objects for churches in Britain, the United States and continental Europe. He combined this with teaching at Brighton College of Art, where Gerald Benney and Anthony Elson were among his students.

I have often been asked, but have always refused, to copy famous works from the past. Neither will I design for mass-production, because I could not be responsible for something that passed completely out of my hands. People have produced all sorts of cogent reasons why it was my duty to design dies for medals and patterns for mass-produced crucifixes, but I could not be persuaded, even when I was assured that it would both raise standards and make my fortune.

Dunstan Pruden Alfred Charles Pruden, known as Dunstan,1 was born in 1906 and was brought-up in Hammersmith, a borough in West London. His father, who was of Huguenot descent,2 was an insurance agent and ‘had some property in the area’ Dunstan recalled,3 ‘He seemed to spend most of his time playing tennis and cricket (in later life golf and bowls) and drinking with AP Herbert4 in the Black Lion, where he also played skittles.’ His mother’s family was Scottish and although his grandfather was a kilt-wearing Stuart, the family had intermarried with the Italian Bonfadinis. Prior to his marriage, his mother had ‘plied her needle at the Royal School of Needlework, where she helped to embroider Queen Victoria’s funeral pall.’ With both parents interested in the arts, resulting in family visits to the 1. Saint Dunstan is the Patron Saint of armourers, goldsmiths (and silversmiths), locksmiths and jewellers. He served as an advisor to several Anglo-Saxon Kings and was Abbot of Glastonbury and Bishop of both Worcester and London. While at Glastonbury he showed great skill while working with metal and made bells and vessels for the abbey.

2. The Huguenots, being Protestants in a predominantly Catholic country, started fleeing France in the mid-16th century to escape religious persecution. Their destinations were mainly America, England, Holland or Prussia. Although they were eventually given protection by Louis XIII in 1629, which was confirmed by his successor Louis XIV in 1643, he revoked this in 1685. This increased the number leaving France. The Huguenots were renowned for being craftsmen, with skills ranging from silk-weaving to watchmaking, including silversmithing.

3. In ‘So doth the Smith’ by Dunstan Pruden, his unpublished autobiography. All the quotes in this chapter are by kind permission of Anton Pruden, his grandson.

4. Sir Alan Patrick Herbert the English humourist, novelist, playwright, law reform activist and Member of Parliament (representing Oxford University for 15 years). His novels included The Water Gypsies (1930) and his play Bless the Bride (1947) that ran in London’s West End for 2¼ years.

5. The Paris-based Ballets Russes (French for the Russian ballet) was created by Sergei Diaghilev in Paris during 1909 and featured the best dancers from St Petersburg and Moscow. As well as nurturing new talents, it was famous for its collaborations between great choreographers and composers (Rimsky-Korsakov, Satie, Stravinsky) as well as artists (Bakst, Benois, Picasso). On occasions the ballets were performed against a backdrop of experimental modern art. Dunstan regarded the Ballets Russes as one of his major introductions to avant-garde art.

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theatre, the Russian ballet5 (which ‘dazzled’ Dunstan), galleries and museums. Indeed, when a teenager and their parents were on holiday, Dunstan and his sister Edith, ‘spent all our money on yards and yards of socalled Ballets Russes material, from which we cut out and made up loose covers’, transforming their parents’ Edwardian drawing-room to one ‘swathed in exotic colours and Cubist designs.’

It is not surprising, considering that he was possibly descended from a Huguenot craftsman on his father’s side and given his mother’s leaning towards an artistic craft, that Dunstan himself chose to study the arts.

Having been awarded a Senior Arts Scholarship, he was given the choice of studying either at two London places

Opposite: Gold Chalice Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company and the permission of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral In his unpublished autobiography Dunstan Pruden wrote, ‘I am often asked which of my works I like best. An artist’s favourite work is nearly always his last. He is rarely completely satisfied with any, but if he never felt some glow of satisfaction he would have no incentive to continue. I was reasonably pleased with the Christ in Majesty relief of the Liverpool gold chalice, though I would have preferred the bowl to be the dominant element of the design.’ The size of the chalice Dunstan made for the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral was dictated by the amount of gold available for the project. It was made from 300 wedding rings given for the purpose. The Latin inscription on the base reads, ‘pray for those from whose rings this chalice is made’. The rings arrived at Ditchling by post ‘rattling about merrily in a box without padding’.

Dunstan cannot recall if the parcel was even registered. Not wanting to leave nearly 2lb of gold in the workshop, even in a safe, while it was being made, it was kept in a wardrobe at a colleague’s house when the workshop was empty. London 1959.

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of learning: the Royal College of Art or the Central School of Arts and Crafts.6 ‘I chose the latter because I had been advised that those who wanted to teach went to the Royal College; those who wanted to do went to the Central’, Dunstan revealed. It was while at the Central School that his insecurity regarding his position in the Church of England began to crystalise. This appears to have been triggered by his discomfort at the placing of ‘tawdry religious trinkets’ in Anglican churches. However, having discovered Westminster Cathedral,7 he observed, ‘I began to think, perhaps there need not be any hostility between religion and art’. He later converted to the Catholic faith,8 but retained affection for the Church of England. He also started his love affair with France and another of a different nature as he met Anne Cox, an evening student at the Central School, whom he later married. She was the only daughter of EA Cox, the mural and poster artist.

Although he was encouraged to concentrate on painting while at the Central School, ‘I was more attracted to a medium which held less appeal for amateurs and dabblers … you can’t play at being a silversmith’, he declared. Of his fellow silversmithing students, he held the Swiss Meinrad Burch-Korrodi in the highest esteem.

Although he never met him after his student days, in his autobiography he wrote that Burch-Korrodi, ‘became one of the greatest goldsmiths in the world’. He was also instrumental in Dunstan becoming a follower of Eric Gill.9 One day he encountered Burch-Korrodi working on the bowl of a chalice which was to be decorated with enamel. On his bench there was a small paper-bound book illustrated with wood engravings by Eric Gill. The subject was Stations of the Cross,10 a series of 14 low relief carvings by Gill that were erected in Westminster Cathedral in 1918. Dunstan recalled, ‘This was the first time that I had seen any of Gill’s work, although more than one lecturer had spoken enthusiastically of the Ditchling craftsmen.’ 11 While still studying at the Central School, Dunstan established a workshop in the old part of Hammersmith near the river, initially sharing with a friend who eventually became an Anglican priest.12 However, before taking up his craft in a selfemployed capacity he became ‘a sort of student assistant’ at the workshop of F Morton Crookes so as to acquire, ‘the basic skills and traditional methods of my craft’.

When he did begin working at the bench in Hammersmith, most of his output was undertaken for established silversmiths, including HG Murphy13 who was 382

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an assistant in the Department of Silversmithing at the Central School during Dunstan’s student days. As Murphy’s workshop was then geared more towards jewellery, he tended to pass his silver commissions to other smiths. Dunstan recalls making ‘a processional crucifix for Lichfield Cathedral,14 to Murphy’s design and specification. In the early 1930s when his initial workshop sharer became ordained, his place at

6. Now Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, a constituent college of the London University of the Arts.

7. London’s Catholic cathedral.

8. It was at this time he adopted the name Dunstan.

9. The English sculptor, engraver, writer and typographer.

10. The Stations (station in this context means a stopping place, a time for prayer) were commissioned in 1914, the year Gill converted to Roman Catholicism and the year after he moved to Ditchling Common where he experimented with farming and self-sufficiency.

11. In the early 1900s the South Downs in the vicinity of Ditchling had begun to attract artists from Hammersmith. In 1921 Eric Gill together with Hilary Pepler and Desmond Chute formally constituted the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, a Catholic community of work, faith and domestic life. It attracted craftsmen (and women) until it was disbanded in 1989.

12. This was Ralph Wallace. In an article entitled ‘Dunstan Pruden – Silversmith’ by Guy Roddon published in the Sussex County Magazine for November 1954, it is stated that Wallace was a silver box-maker who had gone to Crookes to ‘gain experience in wrought work and chasing’. This article is inconsistent with Dunstan Pruden’s autobiography stating that Dunstan was an apprentice at Crookes in 1921 before going to the Central School. We have adopted the chronology of the autobiography.

13. Henry George Murphy, who was known as Harry, was a jeweller and silversmith who became Head of Silversmithing of the Central School in 1932 and its Principal in 1936. See Arts and Crafts to Art Deco – The Jewellery and Silver of HG Murphy by Paul Atterbury and John Benjamin (Antique Collectors’ Club, 2005).

14. We have been unable to locate this item at Lichfield Cathedral.

15. Dunstan wrote of the League, ‘…. this organisation is remembered by nonmembers as a bunch of romantic three-acres-and-a cow cranks, singing bawdy songs and swilling gallons of beer in a Fleet Street pub called the Devereux, with GK Chesterton beating time.’ He goes on to say, ‘It was based on the ideas promulgated

by Pope Leo XIII … God gave the world, its resources and recurring fruitfulness to mankind but to no one in particular. It was left to man to devise a way in which these resources could be shared with justice and equity; but avarice and greed had brought about many injustices and inequalities. If too much property, land and power had fallen into too few hands, which was undoubtedly the case, the obvious thing to do was to set about the task of “distributing” such things more equitably, and get them into more and more hands.’ Members of the League included the poet TS Eliot, whose work Dunstan greatly admired, and Eric Gill.

16. A publication founded by the writer GK Chesterton (a member of the League and one-time President). It was published from 1925 until his death in 1936.

17. The writer and poet Hilaire Belloc, who was also a member of the League, loved Sussex. He adopted the county as his home and it featured in his work.

18. He became a full member in 1934.

19. According to the Sussex County Magazine for November 1954 (see footnote 12 in this chapter), Gill promoted Dunstan’s work and gave him every encouragement over many years. Towards the end of his life, Gill wrote to Dunstan regarding a sanctuary lamp he had designed for him, ‘Words fail me when I try to express my appreciation of your work. It really is as good as it could be and absolutely the right thing for the place.’

20. A large diamond secured in 1849 by the British when they confiscated everything in the treasury of the Punjabi capital, Lahore. Then weighing 186 carats, it was later re-cut to give it more fire and it currently weighs 106 carats.

Having been set in various Crown Jewels, in 1937 it was transferred to a new crown to be worn by Queen Elizabeth as Queen Consort and Empress of India at the Coronation of her husband King George VI. In April 2002, the crown was placed on her coffin for both her Lying-in-State and her State Funeral.

Hammersmith was taken by Robert Stone, a contemporary of Dunstan’s at the Central School. He is better known today as RE Stone. A frequent visitor to the workshop at this time was a Tony Foster who Dunstan had met at a meeting of the Distributist League.15 He had been apprenticed to Eric Gill and subsequently was employed by Gill as one of his assistants. Ever since Dunstan had seen Eric Gill’s book Stations of the Cross, he had been researching his life and work. He gave a talk on Eric Gill at a meeting of the League. This was reported in G.K.’s Weekly16 and as a result, Gill invited him to Pigotts, his home and alternative community near High Wycombe. Dunstan recalled, ‘Eric asked me if I would like to join him at Pigotts, but although his presence there made the proposition attractive, the variety of crafts practised at Ditchling appealed to me more: also I was young enough to be enchanted by the magic which Belloc had invested the word Sussex.’ 17 In 1932 Dunstan was provisionally accepted as a member of the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic at Ditchling.18 Dunstan recalled, ‘The postulant duly arrived with his tools and belongings in a van, to add a silversmith’s workshop to the complex of sculptors, hand-printers, silk weavers and woodworkers … When I first came to Ditchling I lived in several makeshift dwellings, my favourite being a gamekeeper’s shack in a wood, surrounded by nightingales.’ This sounds as if Dunstan had found his idyll or Eden. Indeed, he wrote, ‘Life at Ditchling proved to be everything that it promised.’ From the moment he arrived at Ditchling, Dunstan no longer did work for other silversmiths, but worked solely on his own account. His first important

Upper right: Washington Cup Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company During the 1950s Dunstan’s work was exhibited and featured in periodicals in France, Germany, Italy and the United States.

Consequently his work became quite widely known. He writes in his unpublished autobiography: ‘A patron who became a friend was Father Thomas Phelan, President of the Catholic Art Association of America and Chaplain of the Rensselaer Newman Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York. Besides commissioning my work for himself, he introduced me to a number of other clients… When in England, he spends most of his weekends at Ditchling, and at various times commissioned work from most members of the Guild.

A member of the same circle was Graham Carey who publicised my work in the quarterly Good Work.’ This photograph in the archive of Dunstan’s work at the Goldsmiths’ Company is of a communion cup. The reverse of the image is inscribed ‘Washington, USA, 1951/2’. It is known that Dunstan made silver for the Washington Theological College at about this time. London early 1950s.

commission was secured through Eric Gill.19 This was for a cross for Exeter College, Oxford. A Mrs Jackson had bequeathed £250 to the College for this purpose, a sizable sum in those days. The bursar of the College had requested that the cross should be in the style of the existing altar candlesticks. Feeling that the sum could also cover a pair of new candleholders, Dunstan offered, ‘to throw in a couple of candlesticks at no extra charge’.

However, he was advised that the bequest specifically referred to the cross and it was suggested that he ‘design a cross of this value by using sufficiently precious materials’. He commented, ‘I certainly tried to give value for money by putting everything except the Koh-i-Noor20 into it, including lapis lazuli.’ Dunstan did not make the cross in the style of the candlesticks, nor the architecture of the chapel. He added, ‘I said at the time, and still believe, that if things are good of their kind they will always harmonise, whatever the period.’

Hilary Pepler, a printer and founder of the St Dominic’s Press asked Dunstan to write a manual on silversmithing.

Printed by hand on handmade paper and illustrated with woodcuts, its full title is Silversmithing, its principles & practice in small workshops. Dunstan had intended to 383

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undertake the illustrations himself, but half way through, the commissions were piling-up, so he handed the task to Philip Hagreen, the wood-engraver. The 38-page book was published in 1933. Early in his career, the greater part of Dunstan’s output was chalices, including one in silver, gold and lapis lazuli for Madrid Cathedral. Despite having a heavy workload, when the master who taught at the then School of Art21 retired, it was suggested that Dunstan took his place. Although it was initially a full-time role, Dunstan managed to persuade the authorities that this was not good for his craft and he taught nine classes over half the week. An assistant took the remaining classes, with Dunstan being available by phone in case of need.

Each year Dunstan would take his students for a day in London to visit museums and galleries. Following lunch in Soho he would take them to Kettner’s,22 where, against a background of bins and bottles, he would deliver a short lecture on wine. On occasions he also scheduled a visit to his old haunts in Hammersmith, including the skittle alley at the Black Lion.

Just before the outbreak of World War II, the Abbot of Buckfast Abbey had commissioned a crozier. In due course, Dunstan applied for a commission in the Royal Navy, but he was turned down on medical grounds. He served in the Home Guard and continued teaching at Brighton, but the commissions for silver had almost dried up. His finances were boosted by £1,000 a year for designing occasional pieces of costume jewellery. When he became involved with the Army Education Corps, there was only time for teaching and no progress was made on the crozier during the hostilities. His acceptance of this commission coincided with his growing interest in figurative work. Early in his career he used sand-casting,23 favouring ivory to make his models. ‘My silver castings from a carved ivory pattern

21. It became the Brighton College of Art in 1947. In 1969 it merged with the Brighton College of Technology to form Brighton Polytechnic, which was redesignated the University of Brighton in 1992.

22. One of London’s oldest restaurants, it was opened in 1867 by Auguste Kettner, chef to Napoleon III. Refurbished in the later years of the first decade of the 21st century, it is still located at 28 Romily Street, Soho.

23. A model is pressed into loam (a mixture of sand and clay) so as to make an impression of the pattern and then the loam is baked. Molten silver is then poured into the cavity and the pattern is reproduced in silver.

24. Dunstan had planned 12 chapters for his autobiography, but died two days after writing the first five pages of Chapter 11. His widow completed a final chapter called ‘Epilogue’. This is quoted from that chapter.

25. The art of Western Europe from about 1000AD to the 12th/13th centuries.

26. First used by the Renaissance artists to mean ‘barbaric’ or non-classical styles of medieval European art. It was used approximately in the period from the 12th to 15th centuries.

27. When he did so, he was never pleased with the result.

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seemed to me not so much works in silver, as silver records of an ivory carving’, he commented. Dunstan in fact carved the central motif of the Buckfast crozier in ivory and the actual silversmithing was confined to small pieces of silver joining the ivory parts together.

Over the six years that the crozier was in gestation, its design had completely changed. He would have liked

Opposite, left: Crucifix Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Dunstan Pruden probably designed more crucifixes than any other British silversmith in the second and third quarters of the 20th century. He recalls in his unpublished autobiography: ‘I made a start with crucifixes, and the first of these with which I was reasonably satisfied was one with raised line drapery on a long loin cloth. It was some time before the long loin cloth became acceptable to the general public. I was told that some critics in France said that the design was inspired by my inability to draw or sculpt legs. This was not the reason, though my wife maintains that I am bad at legs, in common with many other artists including Eric Gill and Graham Sutherland… It was not until 1964 that this design was given a seal of approval by being chosen for the three dozen novices’ cells at the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani in the United States.’ Anton Pruden of the Ditchling based silversmiths Pruden & Smith still sell crucifixes designed by his grandfather. They are cast by the lost wax technique using models carved by Dunstan Pruden. When the Goldsmiths’ Company purchased this one for its collection, there was great consternation as it was discovered that Dunstan did not hallmark his crucifixes as he thought it spoilt their appearance. He was encouraged to mend his ways! Height 19cm. London 1952.

Opposite, right: Ontario Cup Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company Although primarily an ecclesiastical silversmith who made some domestic silver, Dunstan also had a brief encounter with civic plate. In the early 1950s he designed and made the mace for Wye College, then the University of London’s School of Agriculture.

When the University of London decided to gift a mace as well as a cup and cover to the university in London, Canada, Dunstan was their natural choice. Founded as the Western University of London Ontario in 1878, it was renamed the University of Western Ontario in 1923. Dunstan wrote in his unpublished autobiography, ‘The Canadian mace was decorated with reliefs and surmounted by a stag suggested by the arms of the university.’ This image of the cup and cover is in the archive of Dunstan Pruden’s work at the Goldsmiths’ Company. Its reverse is inscribed, ‘Western Ontario University, Canada, 1951/2’. Crafted from silver and ivory, it was illustrated in a feature on Dunstan in the Sussex County Magazine for November 1954. Dunstan wrote, ‘Afterwards I was asked to make an identical mace for the City of London, Ontario. I suspect that the City had borrowed the university’s mace on a number of occasions and had got so used to it they could not bear to have any other design. Only the arms were not identical. Those of the City of London incorporated a beaver and a naïve representation of a puffer-train.’ Cup and cover: London, early 1950s.

the motif to be in silver, but casting was unsatisfactory to him and he ‘had not yet mastered the technique of making it directly in silver’. This he did after 1952, the year in which the Buckfast Abbey crozier was hallmarked. During the 1950s he perfected a way of shaping the silver with polished hammers. Dunstan’s second wife Winifride wrote, ‘His work was conceived as metal, and as it grew under his hands he could judge exactly how it would look when finished. His method takes more thought, time and skill than most silversmiths can offer, so few have adopted it.’ 24 For many years his figurative work was not hallmarked, for in Dunstan’s words, ‘I felt that figurative work was defaced by this addition’. However, when the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths purchased a crucifix for its collection, it was horrified to discover the omission.

Dunstan promised to mend his ways.

Essentially Dunstan was an ecclesiastical silversmith with an international reputation. Indeed, he ranked as one of the most highly regarded ecclesiastical smiths of his generation. His great love was Romanesque Art25

and his pet aversion Gothic Art.26 Consequently his preference was for clean lines. While he did occasionally make chalices set with ivory and stones including semiprecious, so as to meet clients’ wishes,27 generally his forms became simpler over time. He did influence the shape of altar vessels over his working life. In his words, ‘by insisting that a chalice is a drinking cup, not some sort of flower vase or sports trophy’. He was most bemused when browsing through a catalogue for a company of ecclesiastical suppliers to see stock designs based on his recent output to be described as ‘the new vogue’. Novelty was of no interest to him. Winifride Dunstan wrote, ‘His own designs were based on suitability for use, not on how they may look in a museum a thousand years hence.’ His figurative work also changed over time with his later crucifixes 385

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becoming symbolic, as in Christ the Priest28 or Abor Vitae, where the cross is a living tree. Dunstan’s workshop was not large. He preferred to handle the work himself assisted by his students. Nevertheless, his ecclesiastical output was prolific. There was regular demand from the States, the UK and of course continental Europe. He did have a brief encounter with making civic plate. He had already made a mace for Wye College, then the School of Agriculture within the University of London,29 so in the early 1950s when the university wanted to present a mace and cup and cover to the University of Western Ontario based in London, Canada, it commissioned Dunstan. A spin-off was a commission for a mace from the City of London, Ontario. While some domestic silver emanated from Dunstan’s workshop, these items were few and far between.

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Towards the end of his life Dunstan was asked what was his favourite work. His son-in-law Philip Lowery considers it was the crozier he made for the Bishops of Guildford, which was hallmarked in 1962. Dunstan commented of its motif featuring St George and the Dragon in silver, ‘Technically this work was interesting and important because it was entirely wrought with the hammer and chasing tools. Most work of this kind involves cast elements.’ He was also ‘reasonably pleased’ with the Christ in Majesty relief on the gold chalice for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral in 1959.

However, he added, ‘… though I would have preferred the bowl to be the dominant element of the design’.

This piece was made from 300 donated wedding rings weighing 2lb. As one would expect from a man who had adopted the name Dunstan, he carried on working to the end. In the last year of his life he accepted a

commission for 22 items in silver and bronze for the new church of St Edward at Keymer, the next village to Ditchling. Although ill, he worked on the designs with the help from his family and assistants and indeed, on making the pieces. However, towards the end, he could only work for a matter of minutes at a time. A few items were finished posthumously. Dunstan Pruden died in 1974.

Covered Bowl Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington Small covered bowls seemed popular in the early 1950s. The card work surrounding the tapering knob is of its age. A plain but wellcrafted piece. Made in Coronation year, it has a diameter of 13.5cm. London 1953.

Toast Rack Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Primarily Dunstan Pruden was an ecclesiastical silversmith with an international reputation. However, he did produce domestic pieces. This is a toast rack that he made for his own use. It is basic, the ‘hoops’ to hold the slices of toast literally being pushed into drill holes in the wood. Length 21.5cm. London 1954.

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28. Jesus is clothed in a chausible, the outer vestment worn by Roman Catholic clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist.

29. In 2000 Wye College (based at Wye, Kent) merged with Imperial College London and was renamed Imperial College at Wye. The Wye campus was closed in September 2009.

AVAILABILITY By its very nature, it is unlikely, though not impossible, that Dunstan Pruden’s most prolific output will be offered on the secondary market. His output of domestic pieces was small and pieces rarely appear on the secondary market. His grandson, Anton Pruden, carries on the tradition at Ditchling as a silversmith in the partnership Pruden & Smith. Commissions may be placed direct with Anton. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, the Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for the contact details and Pruden & Smith’s website.

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MARTYN PUGH He’s a perfectionist who has been described as an engineer in precious metals. His designs employ the geometry of natural form and often seem to soar with effortless grace towards infinity. He emanates from a fascinating gene pool and designs from his student days are still as popular as they were decades ago.

‘Simple lines, graceful curves and strong confident forms comprise Martyn Pugh’s designs and underpinning them are control, attention to detail and mastery over material. All these qualities are combined to produce functional, beautiful decorative tableware. His inspiration is rooted in the purity of natural form, in combination with the man-made geometry of engineering and architecture.’

Mary Ann Simmons, Silversmith

Born in Birmingham during 1951, he was brought up in rural Worcestershire, south of the city, and still lives in the area. He comes from a lineage that is strong in creativity and commercial acumen. His maternal great grandfather came from an engineering background and made his living as an inventor, while his maternal grandfather was a journeyman engineer responsible for the machinery in one of the button factories for which Birmingham was famous. His paternal grandparents ran corner shops in the West Midlands, while his father Raymond Pugh, who had a managerial background, was also an inventor. In the 1940s he invented the paint roller1 and in the 1950s was responsible for the invention of a fish de-scaling machine. His brother William was an engineer, and following World War II, his father’s parents financed the establishment of an engineering company, Pugh Bros. & Neale Limited. It was run by their two sons and their son-in-law Edgar Neale, a panel beater at Austin Motors, Longbridge. Combining their expertise, the venture produced copper and brassware and, of course, the paint roller and tray. Unfortunately, after five successful years, William unexpectedly died causing Martyn’s father to decide to wind-up the business.

Ray then began a successful career as a salesman. After two or three positions he became self-employed, acting

1. According to Wikipedia and the website The History of Hardware Tools, the basic paint roller was invented by the Canadian Norman Breakey in 1940, but he was unable to make it in sufficient quantities to profit from the invention before others manufactured it. The idea is unlikely to have crossed the Atlantic during World War II. Pugh Bros. & Neale Ltd offered their paint roller at the Ideal Home Exhibition in Birmingham after the war and it too was quickly copied by others.

2. UK manufactured plastic scale models of aircraft, ships and cars sold in kit form. The parts were glued together and then the model painted by their owners.

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as an agent for Charles S Green & Co. Ltd and AT Cannon Ltd, both of which produced a range of sterling silver and plated wares, as well as William Griffiths & Sons, jewellery makers, all based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. Martyn seems to have unconsciously absorbed an understanding of the precious metal industry through seeing and handling his father’s sales samples, experiencing visits to the ‘Quarter’ and eventually owning his first piece of silver – a small rectangular clipping that came from the end of the tines of a fork produced at the Angora factory in Vittoria Street, the heart of the Jewellery Quarter.

Brought up in the architecturally contemporary home that his parents had designed and built in the early 1950s in the village of Rowney Green, Worcestershire, Martyn recalls that during his schooldays ‘I was always making things, my own models as well as Airfix kits,2 and of course damming streams and building increasingly complex dens. My father had a workshop at home and I can remember him teaching me to use a power drill before I was a teenager.’ He needed that skill as Martyn’s

Opposite: Linear Design Coffee Service Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Because of its shape, it is not surprising that this coffee service is known as the Linear Design. It is the first of a proposed limited edition of 50, but in fact only five to six were made. Both the coffee pot and the cream jug typify Martyn’s unconscious search for lines that don’t stop, ‘but appear to travel on invisibly to infinity’. He believes that a piece should appear to have sprung into existence without any apparent effort. This belief requires a level of technique and attention to detail that disguises the difficulty of its execution. The height of the coffee pot is 29.2cm.

This example, Birmingham 1998.

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of the Polytechnic’s School of Industrial Design and was heavily involved with the formation of the Faculty, which was headed by Gerald Whiles.6 The structure of the course was the typical ‘pyramid’, with students undertaking a broad course of studies in their first term, gradually reducing the range over the following two terms, specialising in specific categories in the second year and just one subject in the third and final year. At the end of a first year during which many different materials and processes were experienced, Martyn realised that his goal was to have total control over every design and making detail of objects in metal of a silversmithing scale. It was at this point that he consciously chose his future, that of running his own silversmithing business which would put contemporary silver into as many homes as possible.

first commercial venture was to make a ‘soap box cart’ for his sister’s friend for £4. After Beoley Village School he went to Redditch County High where he leaned towards the arts as opposed to the sciences. Due to the odd combination of subjects in UK schools during the 1960s he found himself choosing art as opposed to physics; commerce rather than chemistry; engineering drawing instead of biology and was steered into woodwork rather than his favoured metalwork. At this point in his life Martyn’s dream was to become a designer of cars but no such course existed, so after sixth form he, together with three friends, were the only students from Redditch County High to enter the art and design world through attending the Foley College of Further Education and College of Art3 at nearby Stourbridge, where he undertook his art foundation course. As Stourbridge was historically a glassmaking centre,4 the course boasted an excellent glassblowing studio where Martyn spent many happy hours ‘eventually leaving as a silversmith!’ Glass, he discovered, was not for him, ‘I preferred working with metal – it’s controllable, it can be precisely formed, it behaves itself.’

Having finished his foundation course in 1971, he decided to go down the route of industrial design and study at the Faculty of Three Dimensional Design at Birmingham Polytechnic.5 Eric Clements was the head 390

During the second year, although projects in other disciplines were undertaken, silversmithing began to dominate, and the final year was spent purely on silversmithing. He well remembers a project whose brief was to design and make a container for a specified substance. Martyn decided that this was an opportunity to learn hand-raising, so he designed a speaker’s carafe together with a beaker that would hang upside down over its mouth when not in use. As now, students tend to experiment with gilding metal as it is less costly than silver. Martyn worked with such enthusiasm that the noise emptied the workshop.

Furthermore, the perspiration from his labours reacted with the copper in the gilding metal and turned both his hands and the hammer’s handle green. As he reached the planishing stage, Gerald Whiles and Eric Clements came to the workshop. Eric’s maxim was always ‘You cannot tell a craftsman to do anything, unless you can do it yourself.’ Gerald teasingly suggested that Eric show the young Martyn how it was done. When they had gone, Martyn examined his superior’s handiwork and made some adjustments.

3. Formed in 1958 through the merger of the Stourbridge College of Art (founded 1848) and the Stourbridge Technical College (founded in 1891). It is now called Stourbridge College.

4. Firms including Stuart Crystal, Thomas Webb, Webb Corbett, Kinver Crystal and Brierley Hill Crystal were among the firms that operated in Stourbridge and its environs during the late 1960s and ’70s. Sadly by the end of the 20th century, the industry had declined significantly.

5. Now the Birmingham City University.

6. He designed many pieces of silver during his career. He started teaching fulltime at Birmingham in 1962. He became Head of the city’s School of Jewellery and Silversmithing in 1975.

However, this was not the most significant aspect of his learning curve from the project. As he wanted a very smooth surface on the object, he filled the carafe with hot pitch, allowed it to cool and then undertook a final delicate planishing with a small hammer. When he was satisfied with the resulting smooth, accurate finish, he heated the

Opposite: Moon and Sun Jugs Courtesy Martyn Pugh, photographer Keith Layton When a client first asked Martyn, who refers to himself as a gold and silversmith, if he could make a pure gold claret jug, he quite rightly replied that pure gold is too soft to stand up to the rigours of use. A couple of years later he heard new alloys were being developed. After researching these he decided a gold and titanium 990 micro-alloy had sufficient strength to function, while being 99% pure gold. The ‘impossible would become possible’ if Martyn could conquer the technical barriers of making a large object in the alloy.

He combined traditional and innovative techniques, including the seamless laser-welding of the two halves of the body at the waist by specialist Dr Ann-Marie Carey of the Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre at Birmingham City University. This task took nearly a week to complete. The jug became a reality 10 years after Martyn’s client commented, ‘I’d like one of those in pure gold’. As the making process was entirely experimental, it resulted in a paper being presented on Martyn’s project to the globally recognised Santa Fe Metallurgical Symposium in 2010. In the same year there was more technically ground-breaking work being undertaken by the pioneering silversmith, this time using palladium (a metal in the platinum group). Martyn combined art and science to make a matching piece, working collaboratively with the specialist, sciencebased global company Johnson Matthey Metals. Again requiring different working techniques to traditional silversmithing, the metal was TIG welded, spun and hammered to achieve its smooth, apparently seamless form in a white-satin finish. As at 2013, the Sun and Moon Jugs are the largest decorative items made in their respective metals. The height of the jugs is 36cm. The Sun Jug is Birmingham 2008, the Moon Jug Birmingham 2010.

Right: ‘Arc 4’ Jug Courtesy Martyn Pugh As at January 2013, the ‘ARC 4’ Jug from his ARC series is Martyn’s latest pouring vessel. It continues his quest to imbue sculptural forms with practical characteristics and is even more sculptural than its predecessors. With its forged handle extending over the top of the jug and beyond its lip, it accentuates the feeling of the form travelling ‘invisibly to infinity’. While the jug is completely user-friendly and is a perfect pourer, its ultra sculptural form does stretch its functionality.

Drama is added to its use when the tip of the handle almost touches the glass into which the liquid is being poured. Its white-satin finish emphasises the seamless shape. Matt finishes started to become popular during the first decade of the 21st century, but their disadvantage is that they mark when handled. However, Martyn overcame this issue through his development of an innovative, complex textured surface which, when combined with heating the metal and then dipping it in acid, builds a fingerprint-resistant layer that only requires washing with soapy water to maintain its elegant finish. Height 39.5cm, capacity: 1l. Birmingham 2012.

vessel to remove the pitch. Unfortunately there was a loud explosion. He had started heating the neck with a flame but when the pitch stopped coming out, moved onto to the body, little realising that a plug of solid pitch had blocked the neck. Sufficient air pressure built up behind this plug to push the formerly concave base convex. Surely just metal distortion, thought Martyn, shortly before the pitch plug blew out, launching the carafe into the air and spraying hot pitch over the workshop and Martyn, who’s skin immediately blistered. The carafe landed on the concrete floor, putting a large dent in the lower edge of the body. So did this mean that months’ of work was ruined?

‘Oh no’, was Martyn’s immediate reply. ‘All mistakes can be put right. I believe that an expert isn’t someone who doesn’t make mistakes, it’s someone who knows how to fix the ones he makes.’ After an interval to recover from the shock, disappointment and blisters, he simply made a stake, got a hammer and smoothed out the dent.

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excellent seller. So, what is Martyn’s secret for a sustained demand? ‘I have been commercially aware since my schooldays, he said recalling his first venture making a ‘soap box cart’. He added, ‘Combining that with the creative drive to make pieces intended for my clients to use means that I design not only for myself, but more importantly, for other people. In other words, “I design in a language that people understand.” Furthermore, the trick is to design these pieces to be made in the most economical way, so the thought process involves a mental visualisation of not just the form but also the making

The students themselves set the design brief for the final year project: Martyn chose to design and make a claret jug that ‘everyone would like’. This was an unusual requirement for an art college and caused his tutors some consternation, but subsequently proved to be a noteworthy event. Not only have silver-mounted crystal claret jugs had a significant role in Martyn’s career, this particular design, with some modifications, continues to sell. After the completion of his diploma, he continued at the polytechnic with graduate studies. Although the course was titled Industrial Design (Engineering), it encompassed a wide range of disciplines from furniture, through car design to jewellery. Martyn of course studied silversmithing. An unusual commission during the course was for a baton made in silver-gilt, wood, cork and leather to be presented to the conductor of the year of the Midland Youth Orchestra.7 His final project was for a range of decanters and goblets. Before he chose which items to design, he asked his father what would sell and the response was, ‘Anything to do with wine’.

Nevertheless, he spent some time analysing his father’s sales and, needless to say, this is exactly what the data confirmed. He graduated in 1976 and in keeping with the family tradition, started his own business.

During his first year he used his father’s garage workshop and although his first two commissions were for an accurate scale model of an industrial floor cleaning machine and an ecclesiastical wine flagon, like many starting in the craft, initially most of his livelihood came from making jewellery. It was not long before he moved to a workshop in Redditch and although his accommodation has increased in size over the years, he is still in the same complex. Following on from an early commission from a Frenchman with a heart condition for a silver pillbox that 392

featured hidden mechanisms to access the pills, he was asked to make a ring with an intriguing secret. It was to be an 18-carat gold ring set with a specially commissioned Ronald Pennell intaglio-cut onyx, underneath which were two hidden compartments. This required not only skill, but also great precision, involving accuracy to 1/100th of a millimetre. Not only is he a perfectionist, Martyn also likes a challenge and despite all the problems he encountered during the creation of the ring, after two years and 400 bench hours, they were solved and the result was an item of beauty that was completely functional.

Martyn’s passion is designing and making objects in precious metals. The different challenges presented by the varying scales and making complexity of silverware and jewellery provide a wide variety of challenges that he finds energising. He enjoys combining silver with other materials and although making glass is not for Martyn, designing objects using glass is very much his forte.

Indeed, his combination of silver and glass certainly appealed to the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, which included one of Martyn’s ships’ decanters as well as his original claret jug in its 1983 summer exhibition.8 It is therefore no surprise that when he exhibited at the inaugural Goldsmiths’ Fair in that year, this claret jug also featured on his stand. Indeed, his first sale at the event was one of these. But what is quite amazing is that he designed this jug in the 1970s while a student and yet in the second decade of the 21st century it is still an

7. Then the leading independent symphony orchestra for young players in the Midlands, it was founded in 1958 by Blyth Major, the General Manager of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). It became the CBSO Youth Orchestra in October 2004.

8. The Goldsmith & The Grape – silver in the service of wine, 11-28 July 1983.

Opposite: Flow Tureen Courtesy Martyn Pugh, photographer Lynda Medwell As the Millennium approached, Martyn was commissioned to make a complete dining service (see also p.396). This soup tureen from the service is of ovoid form and has the colouring and mathematically formulated lines in common with the rest of the pieces. The black, enamel-striped T-shaped insulated handles enable the piece to be moved without protective cloths, typical of the client-specific, practical details of all the pieces in the collection. The foot and crystal-finialled knop are similarly insulated with ebony. Objects that are static on the table or sideboard during the serving of the meal, such as this tureen, are unusually heavy. However, those that are handled by guests are of a lighter weight for practical purposes. For instance, the rim of this tureen is 4mm thick throughout. It therefore is far thicker than a traditional edge-wire generally used to provide an illusory thickness on stock pieces. The underside of the base is engraved with the words ‘Tara Coomber helped make me’ in acknowledgement of Martyn’s then assistant who worked on hand-raising the piece. Length 53cm.

Birmingham 2002.

Right: Claret Jug Courtesy Martyn Pugh, photographer Lynda Medwell The most popular items of silverware Martyn has made during his career are undoubtedly jugs, consequently there are four illustrated in this chapter. He made his first claret jug in 1975 as a final project on his Diploma in Art and Design course. It resulted from an analysis of his fathers’ silverware sales that revealed wine-ware as the best-selling items. His unusual design objective of ‘making a jug that everyone likes’, was clearly successful as the elegant and functional jug is still selling 38 years later. ‘At the time I was influenced by Art Nouveau’, Martyn recalls. ‘I studied the history of claret vessels and concluded that the body should be clear glass to show the wine’s colour and therefore its quality and the lid should not be air-tight so that the wine can breathe.’ The handle’s ‘stirrup’ is designed to give the vessel strength and although its shape originated in functionality, it became a central design feature. It is a good example of Martyn’s desire to make practical pieces that are meticulously researched and thus ‘fit for purpose’. This early example of Martyn’s work expresses his design philosophy of producing elegantly practical, timeless designs that enable his ambition, which was, as he explained ‘to introduce contemporary silverware into as many homes as possible and thus make a living as a working silversmith.’ Height 36cm, capacity, 0.75l. This example is Birmingham 2000.

process.’ This is interesting, as another successful maker of a slightly earlier period – Christopher Lawrence – similarly said, ‘If you do understand the making process, you are then in the best possible position as a craftsman to draw the line that is going to be the most efficient to make. Therefore, if you design cleverly, you can give the client the best possible value and make a profit.’

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But there is far more to Martyn’s work than giving value for money. Interestingly he confessed that as a student he never had the confidence to trust his eye with regard to proportions. Instead he would use French Curves, the Golden Proportion or the Fibonacci Series, even developing his own mathematical formulae to ensure that the proportion was correct. It was not until the mid-1980s when he drew a perfect French curve freehand that he felt confident to trust his instinct. The fact is that he does have ‘the eye’. As the fellow silversmith Mary Ann Simmons says at the heading to this chapter, ‘Simple lines, graceful curves and strong confident forms comprise Martyn Pugh’s designs.’ So what is his design philosophy? He seeks simplicity, grace, precision and poise. Certainly clean fluid contours flow without effort through his silver. Handles and spouts fly seemingly ever upwards without interruption – his designs are not cluttered or complicated.

Pieces are not just pleasing to the eye, but also to the hand, for although graceful in appearance, there is also a solidity to the objects that he creates. However, they are not just beautiful, they are also functional. A claret jug will hold a bottle of wine with breathing space and whether it is a teapot, decanter or jug, it will pour without dripping.

Martyn is interested in the subtlety of form. ‘I like the pieces I design to seem to have sprung into existence without any particular effort. I consciously draw shapes that extend beyond their edge – that include the space around them. Unconsciously, I seem to be searching for lines that don’t stop, but appear to travel on invisibly to infinity.’ His vehicles for thought, from which his creations begin, are a pencil and a sheet of paper. Where commissions are concerned, Julia Sweetman, who has been his business manager9 since 1987, accompanies him to meet the client. He considers the initial information gathering as the most important stage of the exercise, for it is here that he will ascertain the client’s exact requirements, their likes and dislikes regarding styles and their interests. He may sketch while he is chatting and both Julia and he will make notes. Back at the workshop, the two will then analyse the information that has been gathered after which Martyn produces detailed life-size drawings. ‘They are not impressionistic sketches’, Martyn emphasises, ‘but life-like engineering drawings. I believe that clarity should be in place from as early in the commission as possible. In that way the client will have

9. Martyn commented, ‘I well remember the advice of John Makepeace during a talk on running a business, “When your business grows, administration will take you away from the bench. That’s the time to start employing a business manager.” ’

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enjoyed the journey towards owning a piece of silver that has nothing but pleasurable associations.’

Martyn has certainly had many commissions, including a pair of 18-carat gold water jugs for the Birmingham Assay Office in celebration of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, the Mace of the University of Hertfordshire, every feature of which has symbolic meaning, and twelve butter dishes and knives for the Silver Trust Collection mainly used at 10 Downing Street. As the Millennium approached, he received a commission for a complete dining service. The gentleman was a collector with wide interests, one of which was ancient Greek amphora. Martyn’s Curve Claret Jug, where the sweeping handle accentuates the amphora form of the crystal, naturally appealed to him.

As he was also a wine connoisseur and he had very specific requirements for the jugs in the service. His claret needed to be decanted two days before drinking to allow the sediment to settle; therefore the jugs had stoppers to keep them airtight before being removed to allow the wine to breathe for precisely one hour before drinking.

Additionally, as he preferred the jugs to be light and he personally served the wine, they each have a separate heavy silver foot from which the jug is lifted and to which it is replaced after pouring. The client collects and breeds exotic pheasants, his favourite being the Silver Pheasant that is native to Southeast Asia and South and East China. To provide the essential individual connection to a client that Martyn believes is necessary in all commissions, he chose the progressive mathematical line of this particular pheasants’ curved tail feathers, together with the black and white colouring of the male, on which to base the forms, lines and materials of the service. Over

Opposite: Pair of 5-Branch Candelabra Courtesy A Private Collection, photographer Martyn Pugh Commissioned by a private client in 2009, these candelabra are designed to be ‘talked past, rather than through’ as well as providing a dramatic central feature for the dining table.

Although the positioning of the candles may look random, they are in fact arranged in a mathematically exact spiral. The arms are not joined together, but are each individually secured to the base by three bolts. This construction method results in an uninterrupted play of reflected light between the inner surfaces of the arms within the column and also allows for dismantling, when necessary, to ease cleaning. Usually sconces are positioned at the end of a candelabrum’s arms, but in this case they rest on the inner surface of each towards their highest point, thus not interrupting the arms’ appearance of travelling invisibly to infinity, a recurring theme in Martyn’s work. Height 77cm.

Birmingham 2009.

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MARTYN PUGH

a period of four years, Martyn supplied some 50 pieces for the service, and although choosing not to make the cutlery in order to reserve his concentration for the major pieces, he still collaborated on the hand-forged cutlery’s’ design with its’ maker Darren Bowden. During the period the service was being made, the then recently graduated Tara Coomber was assisting him in the workshop. Martyn made sure her contribution would be recognised through the engraving in discreet places on a number of pieces the words ‘Tara Coomber helped make me’, which was a very nice touch. It is good to know that in an age when formal dining at home is generally declining in the United Kingdom, one British individual was prepared to commission a contemporary silver dining service – and use it. It has proved to be the largest such commission in the UK in recent years.

Throughout his career, besides his workshop activities and being a father of two children, Martyn’s enthusiasm for his craft has been displayed in his involvement with several industry organisations. A founder member and vice-chair of Contemporary British Silversmiths, he went on to become the first designer/silversmith to be

MARTYN PUGH

Below: Dinner Service Courtesy A Private Collection, photographer Martyn Pugh Between 1999 and 2004, Martyn undertook what is believed to be one of the largest silverware commissions for a private client in the UK at this time – the design and making of a full sixty-piece dining service. The design was inspired by the black and silver plumage of the Silver Pheasant with its distinctive curving tail, a favourite species in the clients’ collection of rare pheasants. The forms of the service reflect similar flowing Bezier curves with black enamel, ebony and rock crystal elements. Designed to function around the clients’ specific dinner party hosting requirements, it comprises everything from meat-carving and fish platters, a bread basket, candelabra, coffee and tea services to claret jugs, underplates, condiment sets and sauce boats. Expressing Martyn’s philosophy of the importance of form and function, any piece of silver which sits on a stand or a tray has small neoprene rubber studs or ‘feet’ so that no damage occurs though metal on metal contact and the pieces cannot slide when carried. Inspired by the client’s connections with the Middle East, the water jugs are of silvermounted terracotta, a material that has been used for water-cooling vessels in hot countries for centuries. By way of natural evaporation through its pores, the temperature of the water inside the vessel drops as the temperature outside rises, keeping the water inside cool without the need for ice.

chairman of the British Jewellers Association, a member of the British Hallmarking Council and a warden of Birmingham Assay Office. Over recent years he has enthusiastically pushed the boundaries of his

Above: Orbit Tea Service Courtesy Martyn Pugh, photographer Lynda Medwell The Orbit Tea Service has its origins in 1998 when the teapot was entered into ‘Silver and Tea: a perfect blend’, a design competition and subsequent exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Martyn met the challenge of designing an elegant but necessarily squat form by the use of pure geometry – the sphere. His research revealed that the best tea is made in pots that have the largest surface open to the air and that the sphere is the most economic compact form for a given volume. He chose a semi-spherical form with an overhead handle providing perfect balance. He then tilted it for dramatic effect. In keeping with his belief that the pleasure of using something should equal its visual appeal, when lifted the teapot becomes horizontal and thus ‘pours the tea itself’. Designing the complete service in 1999, he continued the theme of the ‘purity of the circle’. The tilted milk jug and the more appropriately horizontal sugar bowl sit within the orbit of the silver studs inlaid in the ebonised wooden tray. The largest silver buttons form the tray’s feet and echo the knops and feet on each of the vessels, therefore forming a unified whole. The set has both style and humour. When seen it certainly has a WOW factor. Teapot height 15.5cm, capacity six cups (0.75l). Birmingham 2001

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craft by combining the latest technology with traditional techniques to produce the largest objects yet made in palladium and 990 gold, a recently developed microalloy of titanium (1 per cent) and gold (99 per cent).

AVAILABILITY Martyn Pugh’s work is beginning to trickle on to the secondary market. Additionally, a few retailers stock his new work. In the late 1980s he designed for Garrard & Company Limited, but this work bears Garrard’s maker’s mark as opposed to his own, although most pieces have his logo stamped discreetly underneath the base. However, work he later undertook for Boodles bears his maker’s mark. For the Millennium he produced a full range of tableware as a limited edition series for George Pragnell of Stratford-upon-Avon bearing Pragnell’s maker’s mark but Martyn’s facsimile signature. Martyn still makes one of the largest ranges of contemporary silver in the UK and commissions may be placed direct with him. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact and website details.

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KEITH REDFERN He wanted to be an artist, but although he still paints, he studied silversmithing instead. From the beginning of his career he combined being a designer with being an educationalist. In the field of education he established courses of international status and reputation in silversmithing and jewellery. Examples of his work are owned by HM Queen Elizabeth II, can be seen in Westminster Abbey and are used at State Banquets in Downing Street.

My designs are not burdened with self-conscious conceptual baggage. I attempt to make silverware and jewellery that embodies beauty, original design and fine workmanship. Through my experience and understanding of materials and process, together with carefully balanced visual judgements, I hope my work has strength, presence and versatility.

Keith Redfern

Keith Redfern was born in Sheffield during 1935. When he was at primary school it was suggested to his parents that as he showed an aptitude for painting and drawing, they should consider enrolling their son at the Junior Art Department1 of the Sheffield College of Art. Keith started at what was affectionately known as JAD. He recalls, ‘There was a great deal of opportunity for visual based work but the general education was not too good with no science subjects. It suited me, though it was a doubleedged sword.’ After five years at JAD he automatically progressed to the Sheffield College of Art to study for the National Diploma in Design with painting as the major subject. ‘In my final year, I had one goal and that was to study painting at either the Royal College of Art or the Slade.2 However, I failed to get into either.’ Competition for places on fine art courses at these prestigious London establishments is very fierce. Keith continued, ‘As far as I could see I was faced with two years of National Service and then oblivion. However, in addition to studying painting at Sheffield, you also had to study a craft and I had chosen silversmithing, which I had first undertaken when I was 14. David Mellor was a visiting lecturer and he and William Bennett, the Head of Silversmithing, encouraged me to continue studying silversmithing for a

1. The Education Act 1902 established junior versions of art, commercial and technical schools to provide vocational training for those aged 13-16.

2. The Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.

3. In Art and Design: 100 years at the Royal College of Art by Christopher Frayling, Keith Redfern’s dates at the RCA are given as 1956-61. While he was accepted in 1956, the start of his course was deferred two years to undertake National Service.

4. He designed many pieces of silver during his career. He started teaching fulltime at Birmingham in 1962. He became Head of the city’s School of Jewellery and Silversmithing in 1975.

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further year at Sheffield. Fortunately for me, John Harwood, the Principal of the College agreed. I put together a folio and applied to study at the RCA’s School of Silversmithing and Jewellery and I was accepted, mostly on the strength of my graphic work and models.’

However, first he had to complete his National Service.

He started at the RCA in 1958.3 Keith Tyssen, another Sheffield man was a year ahead of him, as was Gerald Whiles,4 while his contemporaries were Stuart Devlin, Tony Laws and Ronald Stevens. ‘The RCA was marvellous!’, Keith enthused before adding on a more serious note, ‘But I had to work hard. I was surrounded by brilliant people who were streets ahead of me, particularly in practical skills. However, I think it was the making of me.’ The fact of the matter was quite simple, whereas the others had concentrated on silversmithing, most of Keith’s previous studying was centred on his love of painting and drawing. Keith

Opposite: Trophy for The Times Crossword Championship Courtesy Keith Redfern Designs The Times Crossword Championship is Britain’s ultimate competition for testing the ability to solve cryptic crosswords. The first was held in 1970 and Keith won the design competition for the trophy to be awarded to the winner. Up until 1981 the event was sponsored by Cutty Sark Scotch Whisky and on this trophy its logo appears on the base just above the hallmarks. In 1970 about 20,000 people completed the first stage of the Championship. After several eliminator puzzles, 36 contestants competed in the finals.

The winner was Roy Dean, a Foreign Office diplomat, who also won in 1979. He later became a crossword setter for The Times.

The height of the trophy is 26cm. London 1970.

KEITH REDFERN

KEITH REDFERN

Left: Water Jug Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Keith made a name for himself not only as a designer, but also as an educationalist, establishing courses of international reputation in both silversmithing and jewellery. He established his business, Keith Redfern Designs, in 1970 and one of his first commissions was for a pair of water jugs that the Goldsmiths’ Company wished to present to the University of Sussex. When he retired from teaching in 1990, the Company commissioned a water ewer for presentation to the Haberdasher’s Company. This triggered a string of commissions for water jugs from elsewhere. In the first 12 years of the 21st century he made over a dozen. This one he designed and made speculatively. Initially he did not like the pronounced spout, but he later changed his mind. Height 28cm. London 1992.

Below, left: Mustard Pot Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett There is nothing conventional about this piece of domestic silver. It is in fact a mustard pot in silver and yew wood. When the cover is removed it reveals a ceramic liner with two partitions, presumably one for English and the other for French mustard. There are two silver mustard spoons. The piece was made shortly after Keith graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1961. It was not hallmarked until later – the spoons in 2008 and the cover more recently, but it does not bear a date letter. Height 28cm. London c.1961.

Opposite, upper: Vintage Car Headlight Clock Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This quartz timepiece in the form of a vintage car headlight pod on a pedestal base was made for the exhibition ‘Living with Silver’ staged at Asprey in Bond Street during late 1997 and early 1998. Keith had designed and made a three-piece desk set in rose-wood and silver as well as a silver reading lamp. Following financial problems at Asprey and Garrard (the two companies merged in 1998), a quantity of modern designer silver was offered at auction in November 1999.

This clock, together with another with a different face, failed to sell and did not find a buyer when re-offered in January 2000. Quite simply the secondary market for modern designer silver was then in its infancy and this was happening to Stuart Devlin and Gerald Benney’s work at this time too. Both of Keith’s clocks were bought after the second sale by the Collection. As far as is known, as at 2013 the timepieces are the only silver bearing Keith’s maker’s mark to have been auctioned. Height 23.5cm. London 1997.

Opposite, lower: Workshop Teapot Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Keith received the commission for this teapot with its laminated teak veneered handle through the Silver Workshop. It was commissioned by the Law Society to present to its retiring President. While at the Royal College of Art in the late 1950s, Keith developed an interest in the often-used overhead handles on Eastern tea vessels and developed the theme in British silver.

Bearing the Silver Workshop Limited maker’s mark. Height 16.5cm. London 1966.

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explained, ‘Although I was confident in my design ideas and judgement, I really had to improve my technical performance and smithing skills, to be sure of progressing through to the second year of the course.

However, the most significant experience of my first year was noticing very early eastern tea vessels, kettles and pots usually cast in bronze or iron. I particularly liked the often-used overhead handles and gave myself the design task of developing this theme in silver. This study definitely stimulated my interest in hollowware vessels.’

One of the set projects at that time was for each student to have a design made by Tom Boucher, the College’s legendary technician. ‘It was not a case of handing over the design and the work being made, but you worked alongside him’, Keith explained. This was an excellent way for the experienced craftsman to pass on knowledge learnt from years of being ‘hands on’ at the bench. Keith gave the impression that he gained a great deal from this tutoring.

Certainly his design for a matching set, i.e. milk and coffee pot, had an impact as the RCA secured the pair for its own collection, the service being destined for use in the Senior Common Room. This was certainly an accolade, but more was to come. The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths commissioned an identical pair. These again were made by Tom Boucher and like the RCA pieces they bear his mark,5 but they are also both engraved ‘Des Keith Redfern’. The coffee pot was exhibited in ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall from 25 May to 11 July 2000, the Company’s exhibition to mark the Millennium, indicating that nearly 40 years after they were delivered to the Hall, the Company regard them as important examples of 20thcentury design.

All of Keith’s hard work during his three years at the RCA paid off for he graduated with a first in 1961. He also won the RCA’s Three Dimensional Design Prize (for the milk and coffee pots) and a Travelling Scholarship.

He used this to visit Georg Jensen, Henning Koppel and Eric Magnussen in Denmark and Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik in Germany.6 During some vacations 5. Tom Boucher’s mark was registered at Chester as well as London. The coffee service was the last item to be hallmarked at Chester when the Assay Office closed on 24 August 1962.

6. Founded in 1853 as Metallwarenfabrik Straub & Schweizer it became WMF in 1880. By 1910 the company employed 4,000 workers, printed catalogues in 12 languages and had established subsidiaries in London, Warsaw and Vienna.

Although it lost its overseas assets after World War II, in 1945 a concerted effort was made to reconstruct the business. With subsidiaries being established in Austria, Canada, Holland, Italy and the US. WMF established itself as the world’s largest producer and exporter of household metalwares. By 1960 its main factory in Germany employed 5,800.

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KEITH REDFERN

KEITH REDFERN

Yacht Britannia; and in 1965, a tobacco box for Harold Wilson and a fruit bowl for the Company to present to Edward Heath. In 1975 he designed and made a further commission for a member of the Royal Family: a set of silver teaspoons that were given to HM the Queen Mother when she opened the new Civic Centre in Enfield.

from the RCA, Keith worked for David Mellor in Sheffield and became involved in the design work David was undertaking for Walker & Hall, including the SS Canberra project7 and a variant on one of Mellor’s flatware designs. It is therefore not surprising that when he started looking for work in the UK during 1961, he secured a post designing three days a week for Elkington & Co. Ltd, which later became part of British Silverware.8 ‘I was there for about three years. I designed hundreds of items for stainless steel production as well as silver plate for its hotel ware range. Stainless steel meat and vegetable serving dishes as well as a tankard went into production. It was a very valuable experience. Of course Elkington was in competition with Old Hall, WMF as well as the Scandinavian producers.’ The early 1960s were very busy for Keith, for his other two working days were immediately filled with teaching two days a week at Hornsey College of Art.9 ‘I was lucky’, he said, ‘as I got in as changes were going on with the courses. In 1963 the Diploma in Art and Design superseded the NDD. A new syllabus had to be prepared and submitted for approval, together with huge changes to workshops and studio facilities. I put the silversmithing course together while Gerda Flockinger worked on the jeweller’s one.’

Despite being employed five days a week, Keith found the time to become involved elsewhere. In 1962, together with David Mellor and others, he assisted in staffing the Company’s exhibition in Stockholm. Later he was the sole representative of the Company at exhibitions of silver at T Eaton Co. Limited stores in Toronto and 402

Winnipeg.10 In 1963 he became an equal shareholder in the Silver Workshop Limited (see p.405) and around the same time he was persuaded to teach full time at Hornsey, therefore relinquishing his position at Elkington. However, he still managed to design for the Silver Workshop and to undertake other commissions.

Some of his earliest design work included a ceremonial trowel in 1963 for Sir Keith Joseph;11 the following year a communion set for the Chamber of British Shipping to present to HM Queen Elizabeth II for use on the Royal Above: Fruit Bowl Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Although the Silver Workshop, a joint venture with three others, did not cease trading until 1972, Keith was also designing on his own account as well as for the Workshop, even before he established his own design company. This fruit bowl on a yew wood base, has a finely textured abstract pattern engraved to its side. Bearing Keith’s maker’s mark, it also has a Keith Redfern Designs label adhered to its base. Diameter 24cm. London 1969.

Opposite: Coffee Urn Courtesy Keith Redfern Designs On 3 November 1978 Dominica, which has been nicknamed the ‘Nature Isle of the Caribbean’ gained its independence from Great Britain and became an independent island nation within the Commonwealth. As was customary on such occasions, gifts were later made to mark the occasion. The House of Commons presented a Speaker’s Chair to the House of Assembly of Dominica in 1981. In 1979 Keith was approached by HM Government’s Services Agency regarding designing this silver coffee urn, together with a cream jug, a sugar bowl and two dozen coffee spoons for the British Government to present to the Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica. The urn is engraved with the Royal Coat of Arms. Height approximately 38cm. London 1980.

In 1970 Keith established his own practice, Keith Redfern Designs. One of the first commissions for his new business was a pair of coffee pots for the Grenadier Guards. The following year there was a commission from the Company that was to become significant for Keith: a pair of water jugs for the University of Sussex. When the Government announced in 1960 that it intended to establish a number of new universities, the Company recognised that, unlike their long-established counterparts, the newcomers would not have any silver. It therefore decided to gift silver to the new universities so they had a nucleus of a collection to which they could add or to which others could be encouraged to donate. In the case of Sussex it commissioned six pairs of jugs, each to be made by a leading silversmith of the day.12 However, it was not until the 1990s that large jugs featured again in Keith’s repertoire. Meanwhile there was ecclesiastical silver, items ranging from a table lectern to a water ewer for various City livery companies, a large coffee urn, cream and sugar made in 1987 for the UK’s Department of the Environment to present to Dominica, and items ranging from cruet sets for the University of Essex to a pair of candlesticks for the John A Bonnington Partnership13 as well as trophies for the Woman magazine

7. Keith recalls a silver-plated table water jug that went into a small production run.

8. In January 1963 Elkington merged with Mappin & Webb and formed British Silverware Limited. Not long afterwards, the newly formed company acquired Walker & Hall, Adie Brothers and Gladwyn Ltd. 9. Now part of Middlesex University.

10. Founded in 1869, at one stage it was Canada’s largest department store. It went bankrupt in 1999.

11. The son of Sir Samuel Joseph who headed the construction and development finance company Bovis, he inherited the baronetcy upon his father’s death in 1944.

He was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament in 1955, he served in the Cabinet under Harold Macmillan, Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher. Macmillan appointed him Minister of Housing in 1962 and Sir Keith introduced a massive campaign to build council housing. He is regarded as the father of Thatcherism.

12. The other five were Gerald Benney; Neil Harding; Atholl Hill; Robert Welch and Gerald Whiles.

13. A multi-disciplinary architect and design consultancy practice based at St Albans, UK. The current practice was formed from the earlier Sir Basil Spence, Bonnington & Collins Partnership, which was formed from the original (Sir) Basil Spence Partnership.

14. This was won by Mike Hailwood, the British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer, generally regarded as one of the greatest racers of all time.

15. Prince William and Catherine Middleton signed the register in this Chapel at their wedding on 29 April 2011. It was the only part of the service that was not televised.

fashion awards and the Castrol Challenge Trophy.14 However, the commission for the period 1970-90 of which he is particularly pleased, is the altar cross for the Chapel of St Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey.

Containing the shrine of St Edward the Confessor, King of England from 1042-1066, the Chapel is located east of the Sanctuary at the very heart of the Abbey.15 403

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of the late 1980s and early 1990s recession. However, every cloud has a silver lining. The option to take early retirement came with a generous payoff and pension.

Keith was not only making a name for himself as a designer, but also as an educationalist. Early in his teaching career he was appointed as a senior lecturer and then, as he puts it, ‘I was lured to take over the whole thing and become Head of Three-Dimensional Design. In those enlightened days, college staff were encouraged to

16. One of London’s Inns of Court known as the Inner Temple, the voluntary unincorporated societies of considerable antiquity. All barristers practising in England and Wales must join an Inn of Court. The Inns are: the Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Gray’s Inn and Lincoln’s Inn. 17. In 1966 at Hallmark RCA, Royal College of Art, London and in 1972 at the Smithsonian Institute North American Touring Exhibition of British Crafts, Design Centre, London, organised by the Smithsonian Institute.

18. The School moved out of Gravesend in 1965 to merge with the Medway College of Art at Rochester.

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maintain close contact with the “real” design world.

Commitment to course work was four days each week, leaving time for ones own design practice.’ As early as 1965 Hector Miller chose to study at Hornsey as it was then regarded as ‘the place to go’. Both at Hornsey and the University of Middlesex (Middlesex) as it became, with the help of a superb teaching team Keith established courses of international status and reputation in both silversmithing and jewellery. In addition to Hector, among his notable students were Richard Fox, Rebecca de Quin, Alex Brogden and Roger Taylor. His final appointment was as Head of School of Product Design at Middlesex.

Because of his success as an educationalist, like many others at the top of their pay scales, Keith became a victim

Being free of his commitment to teaching allowed Keith to further expand his design work, but with the luxury that he could pick and choose his commissions. ‘Since retiring, my most significant work in silver has been based on large jugs’, Keith commented. After nearly two decades it in fact started a year before his retirement in 1990. The Company commissioned him to design and make a water ewer for the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, the eighth of the ‘great’ City livery companies. Goldsmiths’ Hall was so pleased with the piece, it commissioned a further water jug for its own collection. The following year Lichfield Cathedral requested a communion flagon and this was followed by a commission from the Silver Trust for Downing Street, which later ordered a second. There followed a number of commissions for water jugs including the Middle Temple,16 the Keatley Trust and various individuals. All the designs were different but had obviously evolved from the same theme. Over a 12-year period more than a dozen were made. The commission from the Middle Temple triggered an order for 90 water beakers in the late 1990s that took until the Millennium to complete as each was engraved with the Temple’s crest, the member’s own crest if they had one, as well as their name and date of election. As at March 2011, Keith was working on the last of a further batch of 47 beakers.

However, ‘bulk’ orders such as this are uncharacteristic of Keith’s output. Usually his work is made up of one-off commissions such as a cigar box for Downing Street (1992), a pair of candelabra for the Company (1999) and a ceremonial lamp for the scientific publishers the Taylor & Francis Group (1995, with an 18-carat gold version in 2002). The lamp is based on the company’s logo. Up until the 1990s Keith had shown at just two exhibitions;17 from 1992 to 2002 his work appeared in 13 in the UK and overseas. Recently Keith has been concentrating on designing and making jewellery.

Opposite: Candelabrum Courtesy Keith Redfern Designs This candelabrum was commissioned by personal friends of the Redferns. Keith explained, ‘They wanted a table candelabrum to use as a centrepiece or as spaced units. Furthermore, the couple have three children, so in due course each will have one part as a memento. I particularly like the contrast of the minimal, architectural nature of the silver, with the colour and organic forms of the flowers.’ Height 28cm. London 2001.

AVAILABILITY Keith Redfern’s work does periodically appear on the secondary market. Pieces can also be commissioned from him direct. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, the Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact details.

SILVER WORKSHOP LIMITED This design and manufacturing company has its origins in the early 1960s when Ronald Stevens and Tony Laws who had studied at both Gravesend School of Art18 and the Royal College of Art took a studio at 18 and 20 Garrick Street on the floor below Stone’s workshop and above the retail goldsmiths D & J Welby. They used Ian Calvert, who was then working at Wakely and Wheeler to make up some of their work. One of the first designs to emanate from the studio was a sculptural three-piece condiment set designed by Tony Laws that was retailed by Welby. In 1963 Keith Redfern, who had studied with Stevens and Laws at the RCA was invited to join Messrs Stevens, Laws and Calvert in forming the Silver Workshop, each taking an equal share. In 1964 the lease on the building ran out. RE Stone closed his workshop and moved to Scotland and Welby to the West End. The Silver Workshop Limited took over the ground floor and basement, registered its mark and started trading. As well as making the designs of Messrs Laws, Stevens and Redfern, the Silver Workshop also made work for others. For example, when the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths commissioned Gerald Whiles to design a pair of water jugs for presentation to the University of Sussex, the Silver Workshop made the pieces. The company also made jewellery and items in pewter as well as silver.

The company stopped trading in 1972 and the four shareholders went their separate ways. Keith Redfern of course was Head of Three-Dimensional Design at Hornsey College of Art and by that time had established Keith Redfern Designs. Ian Calvert set up on his own – see the section on Ian Calvert in The Apprentices in the RE Stone chapter. Tony Laws and Ron Stevens combined designing with teaching.

AVAILABILITY: Periodically pieces by the Silver Workshop Limited appear on the secondary market.

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FRED RICH At school he leaned towards the sciences and planned to study geology at university.

However, he changed his mind and eventually went to art school. In his late twenties he became a jeweller with a penchant for enamel. In the early 1990s the then Crown Jewellers exhibited one of his beakers and Fred’s life was completely changed.

One of Britain’s finest enamellers, Fred Rich’s colourful, beautiful pieces are universally admired.

David Beasley, Librarian, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

Fred Rich was born in 1954 in Rio Tinto, Andalucia, Spain, where reputedly the oldest mines in the world are to be found. His British father was a mining engineer and in the late 1950s he returned to the UK with his Spanish wife and his son. Fred undertook his schooling in England and at his sixth form college his main subjects of study were sciences and languages, but because of his natural ability to draw, he also sat A-level art as an ‘extra’. He continued, ‘Coming from a mining background, art school was not on my radar. Indeed, I planned to read geology at Imperial College. At a standard career’s interview I was asked what attracted me to the subject and I replied “sparkly gemstones”.’ Following a conversation with the careers adviser, Fred did not apply to Imperial College.

Being unsure what career to pursue, he undertook a number of non-skilled jobs. However a couple of things acted as a catalyst to launch him on a creative career.

First a friend living in Cambridge was making jewellery, which Fred found fascinating. Then the brother of a friend from his sixth form college started teaching jewellery at night school in Woking and Fred joined the course. After a while, it was suggested that he apply to art school.

‘I asked which was the best one’, Fred said with a smile, ‘and was told it was the Central School.1 So I phoned them and was asked if I had done an arts foundation course. Of course the answer was no. As I had no work to show them, I was asked to do some drawings and to get back to them.

On the strength of my work, I got a place on the 1977-8 foundation course at the Central School. It was brilliant! It

1. Central School of Arts and Design, London. Now Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

2. Then the Sir John Cass School of Art, London. Now the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design of the London Metropolitan University. In 1965 the College’s Department of Fine and Applied Art merged with the Department of Silversmithing and Allied Crafts from the Central School of Art to form the Sir John Cass School of Art.

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opened my eyes to new ways of thinking and it allowed me to focus on my talents.’ His course over, aged 24 he started a Jewellery Design course at the School. ‘I did a lot with colour’, Fred recalled. ‘I dyed feathers and hand-printed my own polyester ribbons by painting paper with a special ink and then ironing it in to the fabrics. I also got into doing enamelling – all kinds – and developed a strong affinity with this form of enhancing metal with colour.’

‘I found the richness and depth of enamel to be absolutely amazing. Because light reflects through enamel, it seems to glow and gives the feeling that light is emanating out of it. To me, anything with enamel on it has a type of magic or mystery about it – the lustre and quality of colour is just not possible with any other medium. And in terms of permanence and durability, enamel is the most satisfying. The colour that you see today will be exactly the same 300 years from now. I was never worried about the technical aspects of the craft.’ Enamel, it has been said, is one of the most unpredictable materials known to man as the process requires powdered glass to be fused to the metal’s surface at a high temperature in a kiln. The smallest of miscalculations in either the temperature or the period for which it is in the kiln can result in weeks of work being ruined. Fred lost his fear when he saw George, one of the teachers, fire enamel on to steel mesh, take it out of the kiln and bash it with a hammer while it was red hot. He continued, ‘I had access to everything. I asked if I could go to engraving and enamelling evening classes at the Cass.2 I didn’t follow the rules at College – I

Above: Fred Rich’s Mark The maker’s mark of Fred Rich prior to 2000. In that year he formed Fred Rich Enamel Design and his mark became FRED. Opposite: Detail of dragon Candelabrum See next page for full image and caption.

FRED RICH

FRED RICH

enamelling techniques. The piece was then hand-polished to a matt finish. The following year he started exhibiting at Goldsmiths’ Fair, but his offering was mainly jewellery with some small pieces of silver. His reputation was growing. In 1984, De Beers purchased one of his necklaces for the trainer of the winner of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes. Commissions arrived from the British Museum, De Beers,7 Lambeth Palace,8 Sotheby’s and the World Gold Council. Towards the latter half of the 1980s, Fred decided to gradually wind down his work for others and to concentrate on his own projects instead.

even experimented enamelling mokume with nickel and 30 years later the enamel is still fused to the metal. I always wanted more knowledge than was available and my questions would be answered with “Just try it out”.’

Like Jane Short before him, he was encouraged by Patrick Furse.3 Jane Short also taught at the Central School part time, as did Kevin Coates.4 In 1980, Fred won various awards including a bursary from the Royal Society of Arts and another from Goddard’s.5 His degree show was predominantly enamel and included an 18-carat gold plique-à-jour bowl that was nearly a disaster.6 Fred graduated in 1981 with first class honours. Whereas he may have been indecisive when he left school, he knew exactly what he wanted to do when he had finished his studies – be self-employed. Together with Annabel Eley and Tom McEwan, both fellow jewellery graduates from the Central School, he set up a workshop in Portobello Green. Here Fred made jewellery and some silver. His services also began to be used by third parties who wanted the specialist skills of an enameller. Over the years, Fred has undertaken work for the silversmith Grant Macdonald and the jewellers Roger Doyle, Leo de Vroomen and Stephen Webster as well as others. He continued, ‘This was a real fast track for 408

acquiring skills as I was doing difficult tasks and using all enamelling techniques. The only problem was that I was so busy, I really could not get on with doing my own work.’ This did not mean that he was exclusively working for others. The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths acquired the enamelled vase for which he won another prize from Goddard’s in 1982. Of irregular form, it is decorated with Japanese figures addressing the sea and its creatures. Here he used cloisonné and champlevé

3. Pat Furse (1918-2005) taught enamelling part time at the School from 1959-1983.

4. When Fred was asked by Craft & Design magazine whose work he admires, he replied, ‘I admire René Lalique (past) and Kevin Coates (present).’

5. Goddard’s range of domestic silver cleaners were acquired by SC Johnson in 1968.

6. Fred bought the gold, but could not afford the gold solder. The College said it would supply it, but wanted to own the finished bowl if it did. Fred declined the offer, so used silver solder to join the gold wires to form the ‘cells’, making the whole on a copper bowl. When the enamelling was completed the copper could be etched out using a strong solution of nitric acid. Fred left this last task to the morning of the show opened. It took longer than usual for the reaction to start, so he added more acid. When it did start, the acid was boiling and also ate away the silver solder, the whole being held together just by the enamel.

7. The company commissioned the trophy for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes in 1988.

8. In 1989, following the restoration of the Palace’s Chapel, three enameller’s were each asked to design and make oval badges for insertion into the backs of the chairs for each Primate of the Anglican Communion Synod. These were either a coat of arms, a symbol, or a combination of the two. The jeweller Wendy Ramshaw and the enamellers Jane Short and Fred Rich were asked to design and make eight each. Fred was later asked to provide a further seven.

Opposite: Dragon Candelabra Courtesy Fred Rich Enamel Design The brief from the client was to create a pair of candle candelabra which celebrated ‘The Spirit of Catalunya’. They were for the client’s Barcelona apartment overlooking one of Gaudi’s landmark buildings. The creative process was to be ignited by Gaudi’s inspirational work without being a pastiche. Fred chose the Dragon Gate from the Güell Pavilions and the multi-coloured mosaic salamander at the entrance to Park Güell as his starting points. He looked at the fables that inspired them and developed his own ideas. The dragon of the gate refers to the myth of the Garden of Hesperides, the latter being three sisters, nymphs of the setting sun, whose main task was, with the dragon’s help, to guard the garden where the golden apples grew. The result is the candelabra on the left. The salamander is in fact Python, a monster serpent said to guard the Park’s water cistern. Fred has turned it into a sea monster for the candelabrum on the right. Its symbolism is more complex as it focuses on Barcelona’s inception and history as well as the development of its identity. It involves Apollo, who took delight in the founding of new cities, and Aphrodite to symbolise Barcelona’s love of the sea. Aphrodite caused Eos (goddess of dawn who is often depicted opening the gates of heaven to the chariot of the sun) to have an irresistible love for Orion. The candelabra therefore also represent sunset and sunrise. They face each other as if in dialogue. Height 37cm. London 2006.

Right, upper and lower: Goblet and Marks Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This goblet was made for Garrard and features a cockatrice, a mythical beast with a dragon’s body and rooster’s head. According to an English legend, one was incubated by a toad in the cellars of the now long-gone Wherwell Priory near Andover. It terrorised the area by killing people with its stare. A reward of land was offered to anyone who slayed it. Those who attempted it were killed by its withering look until a servant lowered a polished steel mirror into its cellar lair. While looking at its reflection was not lethal for the beast, it became exhausted fighting off what it thought to be a rival. When it became exhausted, he entered the lair and killed the cockatrice with a spear. Fred’s work for Garrard’s is hallmarked bearing the company’s mark, but the pieces are normally signed.

Height 20cm. London 1996.

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In the 1990s, there was a complete change in Fred’s work.

At the ‘Rising Stars’ exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1990, Fred was one of the four exhibitors.9 David Beasley recalled,10 ‘There was a spontaneity and exuberance about his jewellery, a deliberate asymmetry combined with unusual shapes in the necklaces and jabot pins.’

Interestingly, there was only one piece of silver exhibited – a small cup. Fred was back at the Hall in 1992 for the exhibition ‘British Goldsmiths of Today’, where he only showed jewellery. His entry in the catalogue, which was initially drafted by Fred, states, ‘Fred Rich’s work is all about playing with colour in some way or other. He uses enamel extensively as he feels it allows him to achieve the greatest range of colours and he can explore other qualities, such as depth and brilliance. Added to this Fred thinks the work should have a feeling of exuberance: clean, crisp lines leave him feeling cold.’ In 1993, Garrard, then the Crown Jewellers,11 celebrated its 150th anniversary of being appointed to the position. To mark the occasion an exhibition was staged at the company’s imposing premises at 112 Regent Street.12 Entitled ‘Royal Goldsmiths – Garrard Design and Patronage in the Twentieth Century’, in addition to vintage pieces, the company also commissioned contemporary silversmiths.

Included was Fred’s lobster beaker. This was probably the first time that a larger piece by Fred had been given such exposure. As it was something completely different to what had been exhibited before, it attracted considerable attention. Such was the interest in the piece that there were repeat orders for a further four or five.

Fred’s work impressed the then Managing Director of Garrard, Richard Jarvis.13 Richard supported a one-man show by Fred to be organised by Corinna Pyke and Ann Weston. Fred continued, ‘I was given free reign to create whatever I wanted and spent two years making pieces that 9. The others were the silversmiths Richard Fox and Rod Kelly and the jeweller Gerry Summers.

10. David Beasley is the Company’s Librarian and Editor of its Goldsmiths’ Review. The comment was made in an article on Fred Rich published in the 1995-1996 edition.

11. It was announced in the Court Circular on 15 July 2007 that the company’s services were no longer required.

12. Garrard’s London premises are now located at 24 Albemarle Street, the building it occupied from 1911. The company moved to Regent Street in 1952 when it amalgamated with the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co. Limited, the latter’s building. The combined company adopted the Garrard name.

13. In 1999 Richard Jarvis opened his own showroom Richard Jarvis of Pall Mall at Quebec House, 60 Pall Mall, London SW1, which is immediately opposite St James’s Palace. There he pursued his passion for promoting the finest of British craftsmanship. In 2011 he moved to N & I Franklin, 11 Bury Street, St James’s, London, where he continued to trade as Richard Jarvis.

14. The surface of the metal is engraved with a pattern or image. A transparent enamel is then fired on to the surface.

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allowed me to express my ideas, competencies and skills.

With that show I was able to fast track my development and it probably took 10 years off the typical process of establishing a reputation through commissions.’ Fred has a very fertile imagination and is a keen observer. What he sees in everyday life, whether in the countryside, walking down the street, or in books or films, he may draw into his current rough sketchbook in ink. These evolve over time. He may progress a form, borrow ideas from another image, tweak here or there, or simply keep the drawing for inspiration in the future. However, when he feels confident with what he has developed, he will paint it in watercolours. Fred describes his enamelling technique as, ‘a cross between cloisonné and basse-taille.14 Fred explains the

Opposite, upper: April Showers and Summer Breezes jugs Courtesy Fred Rich Enamel Design The clients wanted a ‘water theme’, so Fred provided eight to ten ideas ranging from a conceptual design inspired by waterfalls to another with images reminiscent of a water meadow. ‘They liked that and another I called April Showers featuring bluebells. I came up with a hybrid of the two. In a way they express the “joie de vivre”,’ he remarked. They certainly do capture the joy of life. To me they are reminiscent of walks when a boy alongside the river Severn on a summer afternoon in the 1960s, when the meadows were full of dragonflies, butterflies and wild flowers. A pair of kingfishers darting across the river added to the wonderment of the beauty of nature. I remarked about the jugs tilting forward. ‘A lazy summer day look’, Fred commented. I closed my eyes and thought of Pimm’s. He added, ‘The ladybirds at the bottom of the handles are there to hide the rivet used to strengthen the attachment of the handle.’ This comment drew attention to the handle which is certainly out of the ordinary. Was it ergonomically designed? There was no need to ask as they were a delight to hold. I recalled a lady wishing to sell a piece by a leading silversmith. Asked why, her response was, ‘Because it is the only piece I did not commission.’

These jugs and that comment speak volumes for commissioning silver rather than buying a stock piece. Height 45cm. London 2012.

Opposite, lower: Four Seasons Vases Courtesy Fred Rich Enamel Design These four vases were originally commissioned by Garrard and were to be the highlight of a second one-man show. Unfortunately it never materialised as Asprey and Garrard merged in 1998 and operated from Asprey’s Bond Street premises. As Garrard’s intention was to market what are four very impressive vases in the Middle East, the brief stipulated that the design should include no animal or human form. ‘This really just left flowers, which is great for me as I simply love plants and flowers’, Fred explained. ‘My images of flora and fauna are botanically correct.

Each vase is devoted to one of the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. The colour palette for each is very different and colour manipulation became an important element of the project.’ The result is a gardener’s delight. Although the exhibition never materialised, the vases did sell. Height 37cm. London 2005.

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making process as follows, ‘I start with the form, a vase for example. The enamelled design has to be scribed onto the surface before 22-carat gold wire is applied and soldered on.

This “draws” the design on to the vase. However, each piece of gold wire has to be cut and bent to shape before being soldered on. This can mean that hundreds of small pieces of gold wire are used in one design. Once the design is in place, the metal is hand-carved in relief. This not only removes the fire-stain from the metal, but gives the enamel definition and vitality and the resulting play with light makes a huge difference to the pictorial effect – transparency gives the whole piece life.’

He continues, ‘The application of the enamel is an extremely painstaking process. Several layers of enamel have to be applied, working in sections at a time and each layer has to be fired at extremely high temperatures. The surface of the enamel is then ground back to reveal the gold wires and then the piece is given one last “flash” firing to give a brilliantly glossy and smooth surface. This whole process can mean that larger pieces are fired in the kiln up to 40 times! You cannot cut corners with enamel and I do get hyper-critical with my work – it’s the only way I know to maintain a standard. One good thing about enamelling is that the process is so pedantic that I find myself working in a kind of “automatic pilot” mode.

Although still focused on the job, the back of my mind stays open and allows me to gestate new ideas. Working on the piece at hand often provides little bits of inspiration for the ideas floating around my head. While I work, the ideas come flooding through and one thing leads to another. Suddenly I find that I have the answer

to a problem that I had been working on, or a spark comes that ignites a whole new creative process.’

The fact that Fred was working towards a one-man show was kept secret. He delivered the pieces to Garrard when they were finished and was paid. The exhibition was staged in 1995. The dozen pieces were displayed along with his drawings and watercolours.

The exhibition was an absolute success – it was a complete sell-out. David Beasley commented after seeing the show, ‘The reaction of visitors, customers and staff was universally one of admiration.’ 15 However, that was not the end of the matter. Such was the demand for his work that it resulted in Fred receiving commissions for pieces that took him two years to complete. It is no coincidence that in 1997 Fred received four major accolades including the coveted Jacques Cartier Award.16 He went on to receive a further two, making a total of three, which is the same number as awarded to the silversmith Christopher Lawrence. Following the success of the one-man show, it was not surprising that Garrard planned another where the highlight was to be a suite of four vases, each of which featured one of the seasons. Unfortunately, the exhibition never materialised,17 but by now Fred’s reputation was firmly established and the commissions continued despite Garrard not being a conduit for them. The variety of his commission work knows no bounds. Some clients want a very specific theme, such as a vase featuring anatomically correct native British butterflies, through to capturing ‘the spirit’ of a particular theme, leaving the actual design to Fred, it being subject, of course, to the client’s approval. Designs have embraced hobbies such as golf, sailing, shooting, skiing, a client’s passion for frogs, the origins of cricket, the countryside, flowers or marine themes, to mention but a handful. Quite often Fred adds a ‘secret’ humorous reference to the client’s life, passions or hobbies.

However, not all of Fred’s work is commissioned. The largest speculative piece he has undertaken was a collaborative one with Christopher Lawrence. This is a rose water dish and ewer completed in 2008. While Christopher designed and made the bowl, Fred designed and enamelled the ewer, which features a pair of bearded tits and a reed warbler portrayed in their natural habitat – see the illustration. Lift the ewer and there is a surprise: a reed warblers’ nest viewed from above, complete with four eggs, one of which is a cuckoo’s. It was exhibited at the launch of the very first

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British Silver Week in June 2008 at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

During the show it formed part of Fred’s exhibition at Barbara Tipple’s Albermarle Street gallery in the heart of London’s Mayfair. It quickly sold for a sum well into

Above: Tea Dance Tea Service Courtesy Fred Rich Enamel Design It was not until the Tea Dance Tea Service had been delivered to his clients that Fred and Adrian saw it in situ on its tray. ‘It has a mirror finish and obviously I wanted it to be perfect when delivered. When the clients arranged the pieces on the tray there was just an explosion of colour and we both gasped at the result’, Fred revealed. The figures featured are caricatures of the married couple who commissioned the piece, together with their children and pets. On the side of the teapot out of view, the cat sits on the piano attempting to take a swipe at the dog below. Height of teapot 20cm. London 2003.

Opposite: Mermaid Salt Courtesy Fred Rich Enamel Design This salt was made speculatively for the exhibition ‘Pinch of Salt’ staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall in the Spring of 2009 when 180 salts dating from 1589 to the present were displayed. It features three mermaids picking salt out of the sea and placing the grains into shells. The terminal of the salt spoon is the head of another mermaid. Turn the spoon over and there is her hand. ‘So the mermaid hands anyone using the salt the seasoning for their meal’, Fred said with a smile. Length 16.5cm. London 2009.

six figures. This was the highest value sale for an object during the inaugural British Silver Week and to date it has not been exceeded.

Fred uses a broad colour palette. Because of the developing style of his work, he uses the complete spectrum of colours and intensities as each piece dictates.

In 2007 he started to develop a new style. Instead of

15. Goldsmiths Review 1995/6. David Beasley is the Company’s Librarian.

16. While always referred to as the Jacques Cartier Award in the industry, it is in fact the Jacques Cartier Memorial Award. This is the UK’s premier craft award for gold and silversmiths. It is given at the discretion of the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council. This was founded in 1908 with the remit ‘to encourage, stimulate and promote the pursuit of excellence in craftsmanship and design amongst all those in the United Kingdom engaged in Silversmithing, Goldsmithing, Jewellery and the Allied Crafts’. This remains its remit today.

The criteria for the Jacques Cartier Award is for exceptional and outstanding craftsmanship. It is only awarded when, in the Council’s judgement, an entry achieves a standard to justify the honour. The winner’s name is inscribed in the Jacques Carter Memorial Award Gold Book and he or she also receives a gold replica of the book, plus a cash prize. Fred’s other Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council awards that year were: 1st Prize Silversmithing Design, Best Senior and 1st Prize Enamelling (Senior).

17. Garrard and the Bond Street jeweller Asprey were acquired by Prince Jefri, a younger brother of the Sultan of Brunei, in 1995. The companies merged in 1998 to become Asprey & Garrard. It traded from the Asprey store in Bond Street. In 2000 Asprey & Garrard was acquired by private investors. The two companies demerged in 2002 with Garrard moving to Albemarle Street. Garrard was acquired by a US private equity company in 2006.

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FRED RICH

Opposite: Leaping Salmon Beaker Courtesy Fred Rich Enamel Design This beaker is an iconic example of the style Fred developed in 2007 whereby he features the design against a silver background instead of enamelling the entire surface of the piece. The objective was to reduce the number of hours it takes to make his creations. However, as the surface is hand-crafted in a different way, in this case carved, as opposed to engraving the surface to be enamelled, it is in fact more labour intensive than enamelling the entire surface. Fred’s two styles are totally different, but equally appealing. In this case the movement of the leaping salmon is complemented by the carved surface of the silver, which is evocative of running water. In addition to the visual appeal, another sense can be experienced – the tactility of the silver’s relief. Height 12cm. London 2011.

Above: Reed Warbler Bowl and Cover Courtesy Christopher Lawrence & Fred Rich This is a joint collaboration between Fred Rich and Christopher Lawrence. Christopher tested his skills to the limit with hand-raising the bowl, while Fred designed the ewer and undertook the enamelling. Themed around reeds and a reed warbler, lift the jug and there is a surprise – a nest containing eggs. The piece took 600 hours to make and it sold for a sum well into six figures on the first day it was exhibited in a Mayfair gallery. In 2008, the piece received the Goldsmiths’ Company Award for being of the highest standards of craftsmanship and design. Height of ewer 30cm. London 2008.

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covering the entire surface of an object with enamelling, he began to feature the design against a silver surface.

One of the most recent, the Leaping Salmon Beaker, feature applied enamelled images of the fish against a hand-carved background. The combination of the pose of the salmon against a rippled water effect gives the pieces a feeling of movement. They were very popular with clients. Fred’s name is quite literally stamped on each of his creations. In 2000 he established a partnership, Fred Rich Enamel Design, with Adrian Butcher. The initials of the partnership of course are FRED, which became the new partnership’s maker’s mark.

AVAILABILITY As far as we are aware, as at 2013, only one piece of Fred Rich’s work has appeared on the secondary market. More will appear eventually, but meanwhile purchases can be made direct from the enameller or pieces can be commissioned. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for Fred Rich Enamel Design’s contact and website details.

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MICHAEL ROWE He has combined teaching with being an artist and designer in metal for his entire career. His work has extended the boundaries of traditional silversmithing and today he is regarded as one of the most significant figures in the development of contemporary applied art1 in Britain. The radically conceptual2 approach to his work has attracted an international audience.

‘The conjunction of Rowe and Pratchett in those mid-teenage years is not in fact surprising: “We were both odd-balls” says Rowe (an independent stance important for Rowe’s career), and while the latter “devoured Lord of the Rings whole”, Rowe was “responding to the magical thing of making something in metal”. Pratchett’s witty drawings of Rowe in a “Wagnerian Valhalla” were apposite: “I was steeped in all that” says Rowe – the alchemical and mythological world of making in metal.’

Martina Margetts Senior Tutor in Critical and Historical Studies, Royal College of Art From her essay ‘Strangely familiar’ in the monograph Michael Rowe3

Michael Rowe was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire during 1948. His passion for metalwork was sparked while a pupil at High Wycombe Technical High School where metalwork was taught alongside woodwork, art and technical drawing.

Michael gravitated towards art, metalwork and technical drawing, opting to study these three subjects beyond the normal ‘O’ level to the advanced ‘A’ level.

This was unprecedented at the time and Rowe was considered something of an eccentric. Another ‘eccentric’ pupil at the school was Terry Pratchett, the novelist and inventor of Discworld.4 They quickly became friends. Michael says of these early years ‘I was also lucky to have sympathetic parents who always encouraged my brother David and I to follow our love of art and craft. My father was an architect and my mother a keen amateur potter and as children we were always encouraged to draw. My father would bring home piles of discarded architectural drawings torn into pages and we would draw on the backs.’

1. The application of design and aesthetics to objects of function and everyday use.

2. Michael explains, ‘My use of “conceptual” refers to the processes of investigative research and analysis and the imaginative creation of new strategies for form-giving, which is very bound up with the physical business of making in metals. For me each project is a kind of testing ground in objectmaking. This is a practice of thinking through making, and thinking about thinking through making, making objects that open thinking.’

3. Michael Rowe by Martina Margetts and Richard Hill (Birmingham and Aldershot 2003) 4. A comic fantasy book series by Sir Terry Pratchett. The Discworld is a flat world balanced on the backs of elephants, which in turn stand on a giant turtle.

5. Now Buckinghamshire New University

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With his passion for metalwork and art firmly established, Michael went on to study for degree in silversmithing and metalwork design at High Wycombe College of Art and Technology.5 It was here he found a sympathetic teacher who was to prove important in the next stage of his development as an artist and craftsman. Graham Arthur was head of the silversmithing and metalwork course and a master silversmith. Rowe says of Arthur’s teaching, ‘Graham Arthur was an early influence. A kind and generous man, he could see that like him, I had a real passion for metal. He was un-pedantic and encouraged

Opposite: Box Courtesy Michael Rowe. Collection: Crafts Council, London.

Photographer: David Cripps From the moment he graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1972, Michael was widely regarded as the enfant terrible of British silversmithing. The newly formed Crafts Advisory Committee, eager to encourage new ideas, in 1978 offered him an exhibition. Provocatively titled ‘Michael Rowe: Objects in Metal’, he presented a group of silver boxes that broke all the rules. The lids were not functional, the angles were skewed and, perhaps most shockingly of all, Michael had committed the sin of soldering a base metal, copper, onto silver. This attracted the attention of the Goldsmiths’ Company, which quickly sent an official to the Gallery to inform him that what he was doing contravened the assay laws and that he was liable for prosecution. Michael continued to combine metals for his own aesthetic meanings and it led to a trend in the art metal movement that seemed impossible to stem. The response from the Assay Office was to insist that silver used in combination with other non-precious metals could only be sold as ‘white metal’. Height 29cm. Crafted in sterling silver and copper, it was made in 1978.

MICHAEL ROWE

MICHAEL ROWE

Opposite, left: Box Courtesy Michael Rowe. A Private Collection. Photographer: David Cripps Searching for new sources of form, Michael found what he was looking for in the ‘projective geometry’ of the object-viewer relationship. Writing about the genesis of the box series he said, ‘Working with cubic forms in such an immediate way, responding to the evidence of my own perceptions and transforming these back through geometry in new configurations, created works whose authority took me by surprise.’ In the exhibition notes for ‘Michael Rowe: Objects in Metal’, 1978, he wrote: ‘the use of projection unlocks the boxes’ spatiality from the commonplace and proposes the potent notion of the articulation of form by perception, a sort of reflex process where object is imbued with subject, sensation made metal... The remove that projection creates challenges the expectation of shape and seems to me to actively involve the viewer.’ Height 21.7cm. Made in copper and sterling silver in 1978.

designs to evolve from working processes, always seeking the essentials in a design. This set the path conceptually, breaking things down to fundamentals – that has always been a fascination.’ Michael graduated from the course with First Class Honours and went on to study at the Royal College of Art. He studied under Professor Robert Goodden and graduated in 1972. It was while at the RCA that Michael came into contact with established figures such as David Mellor and Robert Welch, who came to the College as visiting lecturers on a regular basis. He remembers some ‘interesting conversations’ with these designers whose own practices were centred in silver and metalworking traditions, but who were directing their energies towards product design. Michael was one of a new emerging generation of craftsman who were looking for new directions for their craft, questioning the nature and role of craft practice at that time.

The 1970s were a time of radical changes across the applied arts, changes that Michael spearheaded in the field of silver and metalwork. He looked at the history of metalwork and marvelled at the extraordinary inventiveness in designs and the rich and extensive body of technical knowledge accumulated over the ages. His vision was for a broader definition of contemporary fine metalwork, embracing a wider territory and framework of interests. Setting aside modernist design’s pre-occupation 418

with production methods, which Michael saw as limiting in the context of the craft’s wider potential, and eschewing the expectations of traditional luxury markets for silver, which he considered ‘ostentatious and out of touch with the exciting developments going on in other areas of the visual arts’, he proposed an alternative working method.

This was a more experimental and conceptual approach, demanding new ways of thinking about designing, making and marketing contemporary fine metalwork. In doing so he discovered new ways forward for the craft as an artistic activity and presence in the visual arts. As the applied arts writer and curator Ralph Turner has commented, ‘The silversmith, Michael Rowe, almost single-handedly re-invented his craft in the seventies.’ 6 On graduating from the RCA in 1972, Michael set up studio at 401½ Studios in south London. From this base Rowe’s work began to emerge on the gallery scene.

London’s Electrum Gallery, known for showing innovative jewellery design, made an exception in exhibiting almost all the silver and other metal pieces in Rowe’s degree exhibition in the autumn of 1972. From this he began to sell pieces and obtain commissions. His work attracted the interest of the newly formed Crafts Advisory Committee,7 which commissioned a piece of silver for ‘The Craftsman’s Art’, a major survey and exhibition of contemporary crafts at the Victoria & Albert

Opposite, right: Box Courtesy Michael Rowe. Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum.

Photographer: David Cripps In his book The History of Silver, published in 1987, Claude Blair invited Graham Hughes, Art Director of the Goldsmiths’ Company, to contribute a chapter on contemporary silver. Hughes wrote ‘The trend in Britain is clear: it is towards more elaborate, more decorative and less useful pieces in silver. Michael Rowe, for example, is one younger artist who has refined this movement of silver into the realms of pure art... Just as many young painters prefer to work on huge canvases whose only possible buyer is a museum, some young craftsmen prefer the useless to the functional, since the imagination can thus be given free reign – perhaps as a form of social protest ... silversmithing in Britain has diminished in the past decade, both in the size of pieces and the scale of production, but the art may nevertheless be more creative, its spirit more fun, and the future more specialised and artistically more bright.’ This box has a height of 25cm. It was crafted in sterling silver and 9-carat red gold during 1978.

Upper right: Bowl Courtesy Michael Rowe. Collection: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Photographer: Ian Haigh The developments that Michael spear-headed in the 1970s in British silver proposed new ways of thinking and working, opening what he terms a ‘fourth way’. He says, ‘There was prestige, highend silverware from luxury brand names such as Garrard and Asprey’s. Linked to this was a steady trade in antique reproduction work. Then there was the tradition of studio silver, individual silversmiths creating hand-made one-off pieces, mostly to commission and augmenting this activity with small run production. I envisioned a much more experimental, conceptual and open-ended practice, a “fourth way” independent of the traditional markets for silver and the constraints that commissioned work brought with. I saw my work as a kind of research and thought of my studio as something more akin to a research laboratory, an artorientated studio-cum-laboratory!’ This bowl has a width of 40cm. It was crafted in sterling silver and copper during 1980.

Museum in 1973. Michael worked on a massive silver pomander for this project for over a year, but missed the deadline for the V&A event and had to substitute other pieces to be shown instead. The pomander was finally unveiled in the inaugural exhibition at the Crafts Advisory Committee’s newly acquired premises and gallery in Waterloo Place off Piccadilly later in 1973.8 In 1974 Michael was invited to show at the First World Crafts Exhibition organised by the World Crafts Council.

The organisers selected the silver pomander commissioned by the Crafts Council for this seminal show at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. He was subsequently awarded a Diploma by the Council. Under the auspices of the Crafts Advisory Committee his work was included in other highprofile government-backed exhibitions around the world.9 The following year, Liberty & Co decided to celebrate its centenary with a major exhibition at the V&A. Michael, along with a handful of other craftsmen, were each commissioned to create a work especially for the occasion.

He made another silver pomander and following the exhibition the piece was displayed as a solo item in one of Liberty’s famous curved windows on Regent Street.

Destined for the retailer’s permanent collection, it was subsequently taken to be fitted for a custom-made case for its safe-keeping, but, ironically, was stolen from the casemakers and to this day has never been seen again.

6. Ralph Turner in his catalogue essay for the exhibition ‘3 Decades: objects selected from the Crafts Council Collection 1972-1999’.

7. Later to become the Crafts Council.

8. Michael’s work was shown alongside Paul Astbury’s ceramics and Faith Shannon’s bookbinding.

9. These included ‘Europalia 73’ in Brussels and ‘Collab ’74: British Design and Craft’ in Philadelphia, USA.

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these perceived angles back into the fabric of the boxes, strangely new and interesting forms were created. I was fascinated that the physical relationship between an object and the viewer could be used to shape the forms in a very direct way. You could say that here form was being created by the mechanisms of visual perception and the viewer’s experiencing of these encounters.’

Left, upper: Bowl Courtesy Michael Rowe. Collection: Leeds Museums and Galleries.

Photographer: Ian Haigh The form of this bowl derives from observations of the physical effects of gravity on spherical bodies. Michael translates the slippage of an imagined ‘phantom’ flange that, on becoming loose and fragmented, slides down to provide a foot for this gently rolling hemispherical bowl. The piece was purchased by Leeds Museums and Art Galleries in 1983. Michael created this bowl with a dark brown patination during the period he and Richard Hughes, a friend and teaching colleague at Camberwell College of Art, were carrying out extensive research into metal colouring. The results of this four-year investigation were published in 1982 as a book entitled The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals. It has become the standard work on the subject, inspiring generations of artists and designers in metal across the world. Length of bowl 44cm. Made from brass patinated dark brown in 1981.

Left, lower: Conditions for Ornament 24, conical vessel Courtesy Michael Rowe. Collection: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Photographer David Cripps Since 1984, Michael has been Senior Tutor in the Jewellery and Metalwork Department at London’s Royal College of Art, a role which affords him an overview of silver as a subject within the wider context of the applied arts. It is his belief that for silver design to survive as a subject in art education today, it must ground itself in the wider context of metal. He himself has experimented using brass, copper and tin, and developed new applications of traditional finishes such as gold leafing and tinning. In reviving interest in these metals and finishes and transposing them into avante-garde territory, Michael gave new impetus and energy to the field. In creative and economic terms it gave the freedom to work in much more experimental and speculative ways and on a much larger scale than in silver alone. This large brass vessel with gold leaf finish is one of two pieces purchased in 1997 by the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. Michael’s work attracts an international audience and has been acquired for public collections across the world. The piece has a height of 30cm. Crafted from brass embellished with gold leaf, it was made in 1994.

Opposite: Conical Vessel Courtesy Michael Rowe. Collection: Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

Photographer, David Cripps Michael’s work has received critical acclaim in the Far East, including Japan. In 1993 he was awarded a Japan Foundation Artist’s Fellowship, which enabled him to travel extensively in the country studying traditional and contemporary Japanese metalwork. He visited the studios and workshops of master craftsmen and gave lectures at universities and art colleges. In 1994-5 a major survey exhibition ‘A New Century in European Design’, organised by the British Council, toured Japanese city museums in Tokyo, Yamanashi, Koriyama, Fukuoka, Hokkaido, Kumamoto and Niigata. This is one of three of Michael’s pieces purchased by the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo in 1995. It has a height of 37cm. Crafted from brass embellished with gold leaf, it was made in 1993.

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In 1978 Michael showed this box series in his first solo show at the Crafts Council: ‘Michael Rowe: Objects in Metal’. These boxes were to have an influence and fuel developments in contemporary crafts at home and internationally, attracting reviews in specialist journals worldwide. The box series was followed with an equally radical exploration of bowl forms in silver, copper and brass. Searching for the essential attributes of the hemispherical bowl as the basis of these designs, he discovered in the force of gravity a physical generator for expressing these archetypal forms. The series was shown in the four-person exhibition ‘Approaches to Metal and Cloth’ at the British Craft Centre.10 A selection of these boxes and bowls were to be seen again two years later in the Crafts Council exhibition ‘The Maker’s Eye’, an important survey exhibition of cutting-edge contemporary crafts. His work was now being acquired by public collections.11 During this period Michael was also beginning to show internationally with exhibitions in the USA, Canada, France, Belgium and Germany.

In the two years that followed there were rapid changes and developments in Michael’s work. In 1977 he began work on the series of boxes in silver and other metals that would launch his career internationally. His approach to designing these silver objects was quite novel. He had been researching visual perception and how we see objects and had the idea to create forms from the physical attributes and characteristics of a box as perceived by the viewer. He explains, ‘We know that a cubic form such as a box is composed of flat sheets placed at right angles, but what we actually see when looking at such a form are angles more or less than right angles, they constantly change as we move around and about the cube. We know they are right angles but only at relatively rare moments do we actually see right angles. In noting these changes and then projecting

The originality of his approach quickly attracted the attention of art colleges and Michael found himself in demand as a lecturer. Teaching has played an important role in his career over the years. On graduating in 1972, Wycombe College was quick to invite him back as a visiting lecturer and in 1976 Laurence Sparey, Head of the Metalwork Department at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, invited him to join his staff team12 in building a new Honours Degree course in silversmithing and metalwork. These were one and two-day a week appointments. However, two years later in 1978 the RCA joined the list of colleges asking for his input. It was a whirlwind of activity travelling from one institution to another. This continued until 1983 when staff retirements at the RCA prompted changes.

10. The other three exhibitors were the engraver Malcolm Appleby and textile designers Diana Harrison and Eng Tow. 11. Acquisitions at this time included three boxes by the Crafts Council in London, a bowl by Leeds City Museum and a commission by West Midlands Arts of a silver dish for Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

12. This included Andrew Bray, Richard Hughes and later Alistair McCallum.

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relevant way of taking the subject and craft forward. This is not to say that his silver and fine metalworking was becoming fine art as such – the interest in designing useful objects was not being abandoned – it was more about re-thinking the whole approach to designing and making in metals and the relevance of this as a subject and sphere of activity in this day and age.

Professor Gerald Benney stood down and soon afterwards Philip Popham, the long-serving Head of Department and Senior Tutor, also retired leaving two posts vacant. It was at this point that the jewellery artist David Watkins was appointed Professor and Michael was invited to become Senior Tutor. Michael recalls, ‘I was sad to leave Camberwell and Wycombe with their vibrant undergraduate atmospheres, but I had been teaching four days a week and needed a bit more time for my own practice. The Royal College allowed me to consolidate teaching commitment. It also provided a new challenge.’ In 2014 Michael is still in this post after an unbroken 36 years.

Michael Rowe is known principally for his innovative thinking exploring the fundamentals of holloware, but his research into first principles was not confined to form. Surface finish plays a significant role in determining how we relate to objects and read their meanings. Looking into the historical use of colour and surface treatments in metalwork, Michael saw a neglected area of the craft and a rich potential for development. In 1979 he embarked on major research into colouring, patination and bronzing techniques with friend and teaching colleague at Camberwell School of Art, Richard Hughes. Initially funded by Camberwell as staff development, they later received further support from the Crafts Council who subsequently commissioned a book of the findings, The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals, published in 1982.

The launch of this book was accompanied by an exhibition of the test samples at the Crafts Council Gallery that subsequently toured to 15 museums and art galleries around Britain. The book was re-issued in 1991. This volume, which has never been out of print, is recognised as the standard work on the subject, its influence in the field and beyond is far-reaching.

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Together with other colouring methods such as the anodising of aluminium and titanium, these finishes enabled three obvious but important developments in contemporary fine metalwork to take place. First, they gave artists the freedom to make objects on a more exploratory and speculative basis with metals such as the relatively inexpensive brass, copper and bronze, so allowing runs and variations to be created and shown in exhibitions and retail outlets in quantities impossible to imagine with precious metals. Stock presents a constant cash-flow problem for silversmiths. The gap between making and selling can be very inhibiting in terms of keeping the development and flow of ideas moving into the making of new objects. Secondly, the use of non-precious metals makes it possible to increase the physical size of objects and thus also extend the range of objects possible. Finally, the use of non-precious metals offers greater affordability to the consumer, opening up a much broader-based market than for silver alone. For Michael, the publication of the book led to some unexpected consultancy work in areas outside silversmithing design. Companies in Europe, America and the Far East sought his advice on patinated finishes for product design, and in the field of architecture he has consulted on a number of projects with architects.13 Traditionally the market has understood silver as a ‘luxury good’. Rowe’s work was proposing a turn away from this perception, questioning the design strategies and conventions associated with this sector and re-thinking silver and fine metalwork within another quite different framework. This approach was more akin to the fine arts, where explorations in creative thinking and developments in working methods seemed to him a more exciting and

13. These include Michael Hopkins Associates, Terry Farrell, Ron Arad Architects and Richard Rogers Associates.

Opposite: Trayplateboxbowlspoon Courtesy Michael Rowe. Private Collection. Photographer Michael Rowe In this more recent piece, Michael shows his continuing interest in radical experimentation. Trayplateboxbowlspoon, as the title implies, represents an extreme conflation and deconstruction of generic silver forms. Here we see specific silver typologies reduced to a point where individual identity merges and fades away leaving only faint traces of their former selves. Michael is also asking basic questions about the nature of order and chaos. Close inspection of the apparently casual scatter of elements in this piece reveals hints of composition and some of the plates are found to be slotted together in a fixed relation. Deconstruction to this level of basicity allows a glimpse of the foundational structures underpinning all artefacts and creates for Michael what he calls a ‘state of nascence’ from which new trajectories of ideas take shape. The piece was shown in ‘Age of Experience’, a major touring exhibition in 2009 seen in Ruthin Craft Centre, Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh and the Harley Gallery, Nottingham. Height 40cm. Crafted in silver, copper, brass and aluminium, the piece was made in 2008 Right, upper: Cornerwork: night and day Courtesy Michael Rowe. Private Collection, photographer Michael Harvey The International Design Yearbook is regarded in the design world as a barometer of innovation in design. Each year a worldrenowned designer is invited to be its guest editor. Past editors have included Philippe Starck, Mario Bellini, Alessandro Mendini and Andrée Putman. Michael’s work has been selected six times for inclusion since 1987, the most recent being this silver candlestick/flower vase in 2005 when the guest editor was Marcel Wanders. Height 34cm. London 2003.

Right, lower: Cornerwork: candle/flower holder Courtesy Michael Rowe. Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Photographer Richard Davies Robert Bell, Curator at the National Gallery of Australia wrote, ‘Michael Rowe’s continuing series Conditions for Ornament has followed a strict programme of formal investigation of the vessel, characteristically abstracting its qualities of containment and relation to the surrounding space. Cornerwork: candle/flower holder is a recent extension of these investigations, with the precise placement of the object on a wall corner creating a tense spatial relationship to interior space, a placement given even more tension through its positioning in place with a single nail.

While the experimental and exploratory spirit of the Bauhaus pervades Rowe’s work, his form and material references to the traditional trades of the tinsmith and silversmith add other, more vernacular, historical nuances to work that is nonetheless wholly contemporary in its presentation.’ Height 63cm. London 2004.

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domestic metal objects was to stretch right through the 1980s and 1990s. This series was first collected together as a body of pieces for an exhibition in 1988 under the title ‘Conditions for Ornament’, launched as a major solo exhibition at London’s Contemporary Applied Arts Gallery, where it made an impact on object-making in the contemporary craft world of the time, a preoccupation with the ‘abstract vessel’ being seen across a number of areas, especially in studio ceramics and glass. Other solo exhibitions followed, including a retrospective at the Museum het Princessehof, Leeuwarden in the Netherlands, in the same year.

It was when Michael was invited to teach at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam that life was to take another unexpected turn, for it was here that he met the love of his life, Iene Ambar, a young Chinese woman

Michael noted that it was while working with the projecting rims on the bowls series that he was reminded of the fact that domestic vessels and containers, seen in terms of their shapes, are a complex cluster of elements, each one originated to fulfill a purpose: lids, spouts, feet, handles etcetera. It was these fundamentals that inspired the major series of exploratory pieces that followed the work on boxes and bowls. In 1983 he started work on the series of pieces that took the cylinder and later the cone as the basic body form and starting point for exploration, looking at a range of generic holloware form types – vases, vessels, canisters, lidded containers, dishes and the like. From his explorations into the formal relations within an object’s own boundaries, he began to look beyond at the objects’ relation to their physical surroundings and their relation to other objects. This is reflected in pieces whose shapes reach out and physically engage with the corners and edges of the surfaces they sit or hang upon. In his work we also see how this relationship is projected back into the pieces, shaping and re-shaping their forms.

Michael has said of the work he produced at this time ‘In looking at a metal object as a thing in itself, about itself and about its contexts, I opened new perspectives on the issues of representation in objects, and in objects of use in particular, and it prompted questions concerning ornament in the wider contexts of abstraction and representation in the applied arts and design.’ For Michael, the long and in-depth investigation into visual analogy and metaphor in the design of 424

Left: Conditions for Ornament 6: conical vessel Courtesy Michael Rowe. Private Collection. Photographer David Cripps Conditions for Ornament is Michael’s longest running project stretching from 1983 to1999. It turned out to be the umbrella under which a number of sub-projects exploring new strategies in creative thinking developed. Michael wrote, ‘One of the aims of the project was to look into the “conditions”, in the broadest sense, that give rise to the existence of particular forms of metal vessel and container, and linked to this, the nature of ornament as found in objects of this kind. The work explores the morphology of a particular type of container whose geometries – cylinders and cones – are seen contextually in relation to the geometry of interiors, the space of architecture. The project also explores the notion that two kinds of geometry operate in the human mind; the logical, abstract space of Cartesian geometry and the experiential “geometry” of space perception and visual orientation, the emotive space of the viewing subject. My interest was in exploring ways that form-giving can be achieved in the tension between these two polarities, a “condition” which at the same time provides a mutable framework for the invasion of other thematic material.’ Entitled Conditions for Ornament 6: conical vessel, the piece has a height of 55cm. Crafted in brass and copper with a tin finish, it was made during 1988.

Opposite: Pre-genus 1 Courtesy Michael Rowe. Private Collection. Photographer Michael Rowe Michael showed this and another from the Pre-genus Series in the exhibition ‘Raising the Bar: influential voices in metal’, which toured galleries in England, Scotland and Wales. Commenting on the series in his catalogue essay, Eric Turner, Keeper of Metalwork at the V&A wrote, ‘Michael Rowe applies a searing, ruthless intellectual approach to his work, giving it immense formal dignity.

He is currently interested in investigating both the spatial quality and the spatial context in which his work resides. The geometry of the cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, ellipse etc. are explored, both for their own values and contextually, in relation to the geometry of the interior space.’ Height 20cm. Crafted in silver and aluminium, 2008.

born in Indonesia, who had come to the Academie to study on the jewellery and objects course run by Onno Boekhoudt, the renowned Dutch artist-jeweller. They met when Boekhoudt invited Rowe to give lectures and run a one-week workshop in December 1984. Together they began to travel extensively, using every available vacation as an opportunity to visit Europe, Scandinavia and the Far East. They were fascinated with local cultures and customs and it provided them with a source of inspiration for both of their careers as artists.

The late 1980s were a hectic period of exhibitions, teaching and workshop invitations.14 Opportunities to participate in group exhibitions proliferated at museum and gallery venues both at home and internationally.15 In 1988 he won the £10,000 Sotheby’s Decorative Arts Award for three metal vessels. Sir Terence Conran, one of the judges wrote of his pieces, ‘They are the perfect example of contemporary design, craftsmanship and art all rolled into a group of entrancing objects.’ 16 Also during the 1980s Michael’s work had begun to be acquired for public collections internationally, while at home the demand was increasing.17 Into the 1990s Rowe continued to develop the Conditions for Ornament series. Invitations to participate in exhibitions and give lectures and workshops nationally and internationally reached new levels.18 Commissions during this period included a pair of five-light candelabra for Downing Street. Norman Bassant (see Stone, pp.454-5) made these in 1994 to Michael’s design. The branches were constructed with great precision to join the central column. In 1992 the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst in Cologne invited Michael together with two other leading metal artists Werner Bunke (the distinguished German contemporary silversmith) and Robert Foster (an Australian smith known for his experimental work on holloware) to participate in the three-part exhibition ‘The Eloquent Vessel: 3 Countries, 3 Silversmiths’. This toured to the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Gera, and the Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus, Hanau, where it is remembered as having a discernable influence on the contemporary silversmithing scene in Germany.

In 1997 the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths commissioned a silver vase for their permanent collection.

The piece consists of conic, cubic and spherical forms. The containing section of the vase is a cone based on ellipses.

The techniques used in making the piece are typical of

Michael’s crafting of holloware. The shapes were translated from geometrical drawings through pattern developments into silver sheets that were then constructed to form the vase by soldering and then hammered true. The piece was hand-finished using carborundum and polishing papers. It was delivered in 1999.

In the field of studio silver and metalwork ‘Metalmorphosis: tradition and innovation in British Silver and Metalwork 1880-1998’ was perhaps the most important survey exhibition of British silver and metalwork of the decade. This was the brainchild of Irena

14. In 1985 he was invited to give lectures and a workshop at the National College of Art and Design in Oslo. Also in 1985 he was invited as a guest speaker at the annual Conference of the Society of North American Goldsmiths, held in Toronto, and the following year travelled the globe again, this time at the invitation of the Jeweller’s and Metalsmiths Group of Australia as guest speaker at their annual conference in Perth, stopping off on the way to give lectures at Sydney and Melbourne. In 1987 together with Richard Hughes, Michael was invited to give lectures and a workshop at the Bezalel College of Art in Jerusalem.

15. These included venues in Hamburg, Munich, Amsterdam, Vienna, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Berlin, Saltzburg, Linz, New York, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo, Kyoto, Sydney and Perth. Notable were ‘The Maker’s Eye’, the seminal survey exhibition at the Crafts Council, London in 1982, the British Council’s ‘British Art and Design 1986’ at the Kunstlerhaus in Vienna, ‘Contemporary British Craft’ a British Council exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto in 1988 and ‘European Metal – Jewellery and Objects’ at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth and the Power House Museum, Sydney in 1989.

16. Sir Terence Conran quoted in the press release ‘Sotheby’s Decorative Arts Award 1988’.

17. Purchases were made by the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; and closer to home the Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery; and the Crafts Council, London.

18. These included the following: Lectures at the ‘First International Metal Arts Symposium’ at Won-Kwang University in South Korea in 1995; in 1999 he was invited to show at ‘World Contemporary Craft’ Now Chongju International Craft Biennale, Chongju, South Korea; in 1998 Rowe was a Prize Winner in the World Crafts Council ‘Europe’s European Prize for Contemporary Art and Design Led Crafts’ shown at the Palais Harrachi, Vienna, also touring to museums in Sweden and Belgium; Lecture and workshops at The Harbourfront Studios in Toronto and Rhode Island School of Design in New York State in 1991.

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the horizontal context of surfaces such as tables and shelves, creating a range of table silver including jugs, cups, bowls, vases, platters, cake and fish servers. After Euclid also explored the use of vertical surfaces for silver,

Goldscheider, Chief Curator of Applied Art at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. A book published to accompany the exhibition included a chapter written

by Michael Rowe, who also gave a lecture when the exhibition toured to the Brohan Museum, Berlin, in 1999.

Following from the Conditions for Ornament series the After Euclid project saw a return to domestic silver and specifically to functional silver. Using the geometry of the ellipse as the principal form generator, Michael explored the relationship of these curved container shapes against

Left, upper: After Euclid: small jug Courtesy Michael Rowe. Collection: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Photographer David Cripps In 2003, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, in collaboration with the Crafts Council, presented a major retrospective exhibition of Michael Rowe’s work. Michael created a new body of silver for the event. He comments, ‘In the After Euclid series of domestic silver vessels, which includes jugs, bowls, plates and vases, the morphology of these ancient vessel typologies is opened up and the formal relations and functions of its component parts re-presented in unexpected ways. In this jug, for example, the traditional elements: body, spout and foot, are playfully reconfigured such that the spout becomes both the container and the handle, and the foot defines the space of a non-existent body. These visual ambiguities are intended to jolt our expectations but the form still retains its identity as a pouring vessel.’ Height 11cm. London 2002.

Left, lower: After Euclid: jug/bowl Courtesy Michael Rowe. Private Collection. Photographer, Michael Rowe Visual ambiguity plays a major role in the deceptively simple After Euclid series. The visual uncertainties seen in this ambiguously titled jug/bowl are intentional – seen one way it is a bowl but equally it can be seen as a jug. Michael comments, ‘Ambiguity opens questions, ambiguity holds identity at a tipping point. I like the way this object’s identity curiously switches back and forth between these two different readings. I also like that this ambiguity allows us a glimpse of the pure geometric figure at the core of the design, an elliptical cone.’ The After Euclid silver series is both for and about function. These designs were never intended as one-offs and several size variations of the jug have been produced as well as a number of versions of the jug/bowl. Height 11cm. London 2004.

Opposite: Wry Vita Courtesy Michael Rowe. Private Collection. Photographer Michael Rowe With the insertion of a silver box structure into a packaged crispbread product, Michael imports the language of packaging and the everyday into silver for the table. He uses this colliding of a branded crispbread product with more traditional forms of container to remind us how far we have moved in our dining habits and protocols. The first paper and card food packaging with branding and advertising copy printed on it appeared in the first half of the nineteenth century. Since then it has gradually and almost imperceptibly invaded the territory of dining in many shapes and forms. Michael’s pieces comment on this phenomenon while inter-weaving other related narratives: the history of the British inch; seed grain as a metaphor of growth and of propagation, tracing connections in lineages of his own family history. These pieces formed a section of Michael’s presentation titled Wry Vita in the exhibition ‘Mindful of Silver’ at the Goldsmiths’ Company in 2011. Length of the installation 160cm.

Crafted from silver, ‘barleycorn pattern’ aluminium, it features barleycorns, cards, a shoe and a Ryvita packet. Created in 2010.

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with candle and flower holders assuming unexpected relationships with the surfaces of walls and corners.

Included in this series is the silver fish server commissioned by Seymour Rabinovitch as part of his collection of silver slices and servers, now in the V&A. In 2002 the Sheffield Assay Office commissioned a silver cup as part of the Millennium Commissions Project for the Millennium Art Galleries in Sheffield.

In the same year Michael received the Golden Ring of Honour of the Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst e. V. (Society of Goldsmiths) based at Hanau in Germany. He was the first Briton to receive this award, internationally regarded as the highest honour in the world of gold and silversmithing. In 2003 Michael was invited to stage a major retrospective of his work at Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. The exhibition, which was part of the ‘Show 5’ programme of individual retrospectives of five senior figures in British craft initiated by the Crafts Council, toured to three other museum venues in the UK: Manchester Art Gallery, The City Gallery Leicester and Aberdeen Art Gallery. It was accompanied by the publication of a monograph co-published by Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery and Lund Humphries. Following the retrospective at Birmingham Rowe received two commissions for public art.19 These projects, under the title SUBJECTivity/OBJECThood, provided the opportunity for Rowe to explore ideas of inserting site-specific works in museum and art gallery settings; these ideas are now being

19. An installation at the National Museum of Art at Lisbon as a participant in the exhibition ‘Mais Perto/Closer’, and a permanent installation at MIMA, the new Institute for Modern Art at Middlesbrough. These projects continued Rowe’s fascination with foundational abstract structures and led him to further speculations about boundaries, both physical and mental. In the MIMA project, celebrating the right angle and the orthogonality of architectural structures, he created a configuration of lines of pure white light using fibre-optics, setting up ambiguities that question conventions and challenge the way we determine whether something is to be identified as art, design, architecture etc. Rowe took these explorations in the permeability of boundaries in things, and in thinking about things, back into the work on silver containers in the series SUBJECTivity/OBJECThood and further in the current and on-going Pregenus, Behind Glass and Wry Vita series.

developed further in the current and on-going Pre-genus, Behind Glass and Wry Vita series. All these projects are a continuation, he says, of his ‘fascination with foundational abstract structures, seeing parallels and making connections between the physical/material world and the workings of the mind and the processes of creativity.’ For him products of human facture are conceptualised as ‘a second nature, the world of artefacts seen not as the other of nature but rather as extensions of it, functioning as reflexive mirrorings of mind, human thinking and subjectivity imbued in inanimate materials, in objects.’

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Participation in numerous international group exhibitions took place during the first decade of the new century.20 Additionally, Michael participated in various exhibitions at home.21 The most recent of these was the Company’s ‘Mindful of Silver’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2011.22 This exhibition challenged the public’s conception of the modern day silversmith and illustrated the intellectual and practical design process involved in the making of innovative, design-led contemporary silver. Michael looked at the relationship between containers and their contents. The humble Ryvita provided the vehicle for an exploration of measurement systems and geometric proportion in silver for the table; the dimensions of this cracker follow the Golden Proportion. This formula is followed back to the packaging and economic use of space in their manufacture and transportation. Together with other geometric ratios and explorations into topics as diverse

AVAILABILITY The authors have not encountered any of Michael Rowe’s work on the secondary market. He may be contacted via the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.

20. Highlights included ‘Cheongju International Craft Biennale’, Cheongju, South Korea in 2001; ‘Torino 2002: Masterpieces 1902-2002 Centenary exhibition’; Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin; ‘Innovation and Design: Silver from Goldsmiths Hall’, London Museet På Koldinghus, Denmark in 2002; and ‘Crafts Now: America, Europe and Asia’ World Crafts Forum, Kanazawa, Japan in 2003; ‘Transformations: The Language of Craft’, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra in 2005; ‘Talking Hands – International spectrum of Contemporary Metalwork’, Museum of Art at Seoul National University 2009.

21. UK exhibitions included the Goldsmiths Company’s Treasures of the 20th Century at Goldsmiths Hall in 2000 that toured to Nottingham, Sheffield and Birmingham. Silver Servers: The Seymour Rabinovitch Collection, V&A Museum in 2006 [following a tour to museums in the States that included Winnipeg Art Museum, Schneider Art Museum and the University of Ashland, Southern Oregan]. Raising the Bar – influential voices in metal at the Dovecot, Edinburgh, Ruthin Craft Centre Gallery and MIMA at Middlesbrough in 2008-9 and the exhibition Age of Experience at Ruthin Craft Centre Gallery and touring to the Dovecot, Edinburgh, Harley Gallery near Nottingham in 2009.

22. 27 May to 16 July.

23. This is the site of South Crofty, the last operating tin mine in Cornwall that closed in 1998 after 400 years of continuous mining, it will form a gateway location where the historical importance of Cornwall’s 4,000 year tin mining industry is celebrated as a World Heritage Site.

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as grain farming and the history of the British unit of measurement, the inch, these researches formed the basis of his group of inter-related containers treated as a site-specific display. His silver commissions to date in the 21st century include a silver jug for the Goldsmiths Company in 2006 and a three-part silver work for the Crafts Council Collection completed in 2007. In 2010 he created a silver bowl for New College, Oxford, and in the same year was engaged on a commission from Cornwall Council for a wall installation at the Cornwall Heartlands Project, a new visitor centre that opened to the public in the spring of 2012.23 Michael has received two academic accolades in recognition of his contribution to the field: Honorary Doctorates from Buckinghamshire New University in 2004 and the University of Hasselt in Limburg, Belgium, in 2010. He was conferred an RCA Fellowship in 1983.

FURTHER READING Michael Rowe by Richard Hill and Martina Margetts (Birmingham, 2003).

Opposite: Behind Glass1 Courtesy Michael Rowe. Private Collection. Photographer, Michael Rowe Writing about Behind Glass, Michael describes the project as, ‘Investigating a number of issues associated with the display and presentation of artworks and artefacts, asking questions about conventions relating to their presentation in art gallery and museum settings. It is a project looking at the values and meanings we assign to things, and the different kinds of attention we give to objects according to the contexts in which we see them.

In the piece Behind Glass1, I capitalise on silver’s precious qualities as an especially appropriate material and vehicle for exploring these questions.’ The piece was shown at ‘Collect 2010’, the international applied arts exhibition organised by Britain’s Crafts Council and held annually at London’s Saatchi Gallery.

Height 145cm. Crafted in sterling silver and acrylic, the project includes an MDF showcase. Created in 2009.

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JANE SHORT She is an artist-enameller, passionate about both nature and colour, who combines engraving with enamelling with stunning effect.

Jane Short has engraved and enamelled a tour de force of the enameller’s art. It will be seen as one of the great pieces of enamelling of this century.

Richard Jarvis,1 2007

Jane was born in South Molton in North Devon, ‘the gateway to Exmoor’, with stunning landscapes. ‘My earliest memories of being creative’, she recalls, ‘were when I was a child. I used to make quite a lot of things.’

Knitting, dressmaking, craft, painting and drawing were everyday activities. After her schooling she undertook a foundation course some 20 miles away at Bideford School of Arts and Crafts. From 1972 through to 1975 she studied jewellery at London’s Central School of Art and Design.2 ‘I was probably a mediocre jeweller, but once I started enamelling that was something that really grabbed me.’ It was in her second year of the course that Patrick Furse3 opened a whole new world to her. Having made a silver cube, the surfaces of which were enamelled with feather patterns and mottled hues, she remembers ‘liking the rich quality of the colour and the way the light reflected through it. I fell in love with the technique.’ From then on, although she continued with the course, she began to ‘enamel everything’. ‘I love the colour and pattern of feathers’, she confesses, adding, ‘I have boxes of them.’

After graduating from the Central School she proceeded in the following year to the Royal College of Art to study silversmithing under Professor Gerald Benney. Her interest in enamelling was naturally encouraged as Gerald had introduced colour in the form of enamel to his work a few years earlier. Indeed, Alan Evans and Robert Winter, enamellers from the Benney workshop at Beenham, were visiting tutors at the RCA and this was useful from the technical aspect. Jane still uses the technique for spreading large areas of enamel learnt at this time. In the early days she had a penchant for 1. See Introduction, p.39.

2. Now Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design.

3. Patrick Furse (1918-2005) taught enamelling part time at the School from 1959-1983.

4. A London jeweller.

5. See Burr, p.118.

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cloisonné, but while at the RCA she explored all enamelling techniques. She was in the same year as Clive Burr and upon graduating from the college in 1979 they, together with Alistair McCallum who was one year their senior, established a workshop at Hope Sufferance Wharf, Rotherhithe. From the start Jane combined her business as an enameller with lecturing part-time at the Central School. Indeed, until 1992 when she became a mother, she taught as a visiting lecturer at many institutions including the RCA, Middlesex Polytechnic, Loughborough College of Art, the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem and West Dean College near Chichester. As well as working to commission, she has undertaken enamel outwork for both jewellers and silversmiths such as Malcolm Appleby, Roger Doyle4 and Clive Burr.

Indeed, she has had a close working relationship with Clive since their RCA days. They have collaborated together on clocks such as the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ Mystery Clock.5 Additionally, because Clive has practical experience of the exacting requirements needed to produce a piece of silver that can withstand the high temperatures in an enamelling kiln, he also makes most of the silver that she enamels.

Jane’s career quickly established itself after the RCA. Thanks to a major travel scholarship from the College in 1979 she was also able to make a short visit to Japan. In 1980 her work was exhibited at the Company’s ‘Passing

Opposite: Albatros Water Jug Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This water jug was commissioned by the Goldsmiths’ Company for presentation to Warren Benbow upon his retirement as Assistant Clerk to the Company after a period of just under nine years. From a naval background (he was an aviator and had been in command of two warships), he was fascinated by the albatrosses he saw while at sea and he asked Jane for the bird to feature in the design. She enjoyed both the range of colours and the techniques used for the enamelling. Height 26cm. London 2009.

JANE SHORT

JANE SHORT

working three dimensionally, you do have to be quite careful that it does not dribble where it shouldn’t. I usually adjust the amount of water by using a brush. You don’t make up your own enamel colours. They are bought ready-smelted with various metal oxides giving the colour.

Usually I build up the enamel in two or three different layers. Each layer is fired in the kiln before putting on the next.’

She continued, ‘My present work combines the techniques of engraving with enamelling in the form of champlevé and basse-taille, where areas of metal are removed and filled in with enamel after the background has been carved with detail that shows through the enamel. This produces a rich and ‘painterly’ effect. Although in the past I have tended to cover as much of the surface as possible with enamel, I am currently exploring the effects of contrasting areas of Out’ exhibition and she was awarded a Crafts Council New Craftsman Grant. In 1982 she received her first commission from the Company. In that year Professor Sir Robert Honeycombe had been appointed to the Company’s Court of Assistants, and in keeping with tradition was given a sum of money to commission a silver wine cup for his personal use at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Sir Robert chose Jane to make his. The following year under the Crafts Council’s Advanced Training Scheme, she instructed the jeweller and silversmith Rosamond Conway.6 Also in 1983, the three silversmiths moved their workshop from Rotherhithe to Old Street in the City of London. A few years later she moved from there to workshops in Berwick Street, shared with the jeweller Martin Baker. In 1987 Jane left the capital for Brighton where she still has her workshop. However, although her studies were now well behind her, Jane has never stopped experimenting with her chosen medium. She explains, ‘I see my work as a continued exploration into the possibilities within the techniques of enamelling and indulging in the wonderful range of colours available to me. In some of my work I am interested in soft subtle harmonies of colour, reflecting observations from nature. At other times the richness and vibrancy of colours provokes a more personal imagery.’

Most, but not all of Jane’s own work, is commissioned.

6. Ros Conway’s jewellery was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1984 and is represented in the Company’s jewellery collection.

7. An Austrian make of enamel.

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This may be to mark or celebrate a special occasion such as a wedding anniversary or to other landmark event. Some may be commissioned for presentation to a dignitary or simply by an institution or individual that would like to own an example of her work. The piece could be a vase, a box, a bowl, a decorative plate or charger, a tazza or a bowl. Whatever the piece or reason for the commission, the client will usually have some view as to what they would like. Jane explained what happens next, ‘After coming up with the initial idea and discussing it with the client, I then make some more finished drawings and also a test piece of what the actual enamel will look like. I also usually make a mock-up of the piece itself to give some idea of what it will look like in three-dimensions. It’s very difficult to see how a pattern is going to work over a form without seeing it in 3-D.’ The detailed drawings for a large piece could take days. The mock-ups are made of card or wood, the latter possibly with gilding metal too.

The piece of silver then has to be made. So that she can work on it while it is held securely, she requires a wooden jig. She then traces the detail from her original drawing on to the surface of the metal to act as a guide for the engraving. ‘Enamel is a form of glass’, she explains. ‘It is ground to a fine sand-like consistency. Then you lay it into the areas that you have engraved out. This process usually takes quite a long time. I could allow a full day to sit and lay the colours. The enamel is applied wet, so if you are

Opposite: Group of Jane’s Early Work Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This is a small group of Jane’s early work. The covered bowl on the left was made in 1977 when she was at the Royal College of Art, while the others were made in 1980-1 at the workshop she shared in Rotherhithe. At this period she was using thin (0.1mm diameter) gold wire with thin layers of enamel. Both bowls had a flux, that is transparent enamel, applied before the colour. The decoration for both bowls was taken from observational drawings. This was not the approach for either of the boxes. This was what Jane calls her ‘playful period’ where the themes were from her imagination, or based on colours. Jane knew exactly what she had in mind and made sketches. In both cases, the enamel was placed directly onto the metal, producing a graphic effect. Jane describes the pieces as ‘being from a particular period’. She became very adept at using 0.1mm gold wire and wanted a challenge, so by mid-1981 was exploring different techniques. Height of toothpick box 6cm. London 1977-81.

Above: Large Enamel Dish Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Jane likes to explore what enamel can do. At the time this piece was made, her work was very formal, being meticulously thought through, with the enamel being generally applied upon engraved metal. Jane likes to visit exhibitions to see the work of such artists as Patrick Heron, Mark Rothko and Howard Hodgkin. She wanted to undertake a piece of enamel that had a painting effect rather than her usual illustrative work. She worked on drawings. She wanted something abstract with blocks of colour. As she had a new Japanese red enamel (the most difficult colour in the enamellers’ palette), it had to feature that hue. She worked on proposals for the piece and this is dish is the result. It is displayed in a room in which abstract Islamic art is hung. Diameter 30.8cm. London 2001.

carved and engraved metal with areas of enamel. Some current work also focuses on more geometric or abstract patterns, playing with contrasts of shape and colour. As an antidote to this very controlled and labour-intensive work, I have also been exploring ways of using enamel in a freer and more spontaneous way.’

Enamelling is all about colour. In the design studio at the House of Fabergé in the early years of the 20th century there were two palettes or ‘samplers’ each containing 144 different enamel colours. Ask Jane how many colours she has in her ‘palette’ and she does not know. ‘I have what I need. I could count them for you’, was the response. Rest assured, it is a great deal as she is passionate about colour. A keen gardener, she has an appreciation of nature with its range of colours from the subtle to the strong as well as the shifting tints. ‘I have a favourite Schauer7 blue and use quite a lot of particular shades of grey, as they have subtle, varying hues. I also love the vibrancy of some of the reds, many of which are no longer manufactured’, she added with disappointment. It is very clear that she likes contrast. ‘The subtle with the brighter and richer, the soft and subtle with the stronger hue’, she pondered. Her work is a feast for the eye.

Jane’s work has been exhibited both in the UK and overseas. Her first ‘one woman show’ was at the Oxford Gallery in 1983 and her work has been displayed at 433

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JANE SHORT

Opposite: Millennium Charger Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This engraved charger with champlevé and basse-taille enamel was one of the commissions of the Goldsmiths’ Company to mark the Millennium. Its richly enamelled centre features the symbols of celebration: the yellow and orange flames represent bonfires and the stars fireworks. The swirl of the flames, the sparkling stars and the blue sky were partly inspired by a family camping holiday in the Rockies. ‘I spend a lot of time looking at water and rocks and that was my starting point’, Jane commented. However, its central void represents the “mote in God’s eye”. In Jane’s words this summarises that, ‘time is vast, and that our celebrations are important to us but lost in the larger perspective.’ The rim of the dish is subtly engraved and features small, subdued enamel highlights in pastel hues to represent ‘the tiny place of humanity within the vastness of the universe of all time, as well as the elements of water, earth, fire and air, so vital to life and its circle.’

The catalogue entry in the catalogue for the ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’ exhibition ends, ‘Her thoughts are lyrically expressed in her artistry and mastery of technique, in a piece that will always remain one of the treasures of the 20th century.’ The charger was made by Clive Burr. Diameter 35cm. London 1999.

Goldsmith’s Hall on numerous occasions, including ‘British Goldsmiths of Today’ (1992), ‘The Art of the Enameller’ (1994), ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’ (2000) and ‘Creation’ (2004) as well as museums galleries spread geographically from Aberdeen to Bristol. Her work has also been exhibited in Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany and the United States. As well as the Company, her work is in other permanent collections including the Crafts Council, the Victoria and Albert Museum and her local Hove Museum and Art Gallery.

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Her commissions are numerous and include the Silver Trust for 10 Downing Street,8 Lichfield Cathedral9 and a vase for presentation to HM Queen Elizabeth II upon the opening of the Millennium Bridge.10 However, there are two commissions that particularly stand out. In 1999 to celebrate the Millennium, the Company commissioned four silversmiths to each make a significant piece for its collection. Jane’s object was an engraved charger with champlevé and basse-taille enamel – see illustration above.

Because of the piece’s proportions, Jane had to purchase

a larger kiln. A detail of the piece appeared on the front cover of the catalogue for ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’ an exhibition staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 2000. The image was additionally used to promote the event. The description of the item in the catalogue ends, ‘[the dish] will always remain one of the treasures of the 20th century’. That is indeed praise.

In February 2004, Jane was approached by The Keatley Trust to discuss the possibility of making a charger

8. Jane Short and Clive Burr collaborated on a Mantle Clock in 2003. Clive made the silver casing, the panels of which Jane champlevé and basse-taille enamelled. The clock has a width of 100cm and a height of 23.5cm. The clock has a German electronic movement that is controlled by a radio receiver linked to the National Physical Laboratory at Rugby, which broadcasts the national standard time for the UK. 9. A wafer box enamelled with a dove, wheat and poppies.

10. Commissioned by the Company and the Millennium Bridge House Trust.

Above: Clock for the Silver Trust Courtesy The Silver Trust The form of this clock was designed and made by Clive Burr.

When at Downing Street it is placed on the mantlepiece in the small oak dining room for less formal dinners. He wanted something impressive, so went for length as opposed to height, as this was more appropriate for a smaller room. The circular central clock is ‘supported’ by two rectangles, cut at opposing corners for the lower half of the clock to fit. The design was to convey that Britain was an island nation. Jane’s task was to undertake the enamelling of the timepiece. The dial has had a flux, that is transparent enamel, applied over its engine-turned surface. The chapter ring is decorated with oak leaves. These represent the Hearts of Oak from which British warships were made. The enamelling of the rectangles feature the choppy seas over which Britannia ruled the waves. Come to think of it, the political waters of any nation are generally far from smooth. Could it be that the choppy seas have a double meaning? Width 100cm. London 2003.

Right: Beaker with Frost Pattern Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Jane likes looking at patterns in nature. She considers that frost has extraordinarily interesting patterns. Here Jane integrates the frost pattern both with the metal and the enamel. Technically this is difficult to achieve. Height 6cm. London 2009.

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where the theme was to be the four seasons. ‘I realised that this would take quite a time to complete’, Jane explained, ‘and I took a long time to weigh up the pros and cons of such an undertaking before deciding to go ahead.’ Despite her work, family and coping with a ‘voracious snail population’ in her garden, she did decide to proceed with the project. While it was obvious to Jane that summer should be represented in a bowl, it was difficult to combine the other seasons with a cohesive whole. However, after she decided to elevate the bowl on four columns, what became the Four Seasons Tazza began to form. Having the seasonal plants and flowers for the various seasons selected by her client, she proceeded from concept stage to detailed drawings. Having made a model in wood and gilding metal to see how her proposed design worked, her client’s comments were sought, tweaks were made and the design approved. Clive Burr then made the seven components of the tazza to her specification, but it was not assembled until Jane had worked all the parts.

In the catalogue for the ‘Creation’ exhibition, Jane humorously wrote, ‘My recipe for creation: take the following ingredients: colour, texture, shape, materials, 436

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ideas, observations, exploration, wit and expedience. Mix together in one craftsperson in varying proportions to taste. Put in a quiet place and allow to simmer until done.

Results may vary!’ How long should it ‘simmer until done’?

Above and Opposite: The Four Seasons Taza Courtesy The Keatley Trust, photographer Clarissa Bruce It is this piece that Richard Jarvis considers will be seen as one of the great examples of enamelling in the 21st century. There are four components to the tazza (above): the bowl resting upon a disc, which is supported by four panels rising from a base. Winter is represented on the inward-facing sides of the panels by inky bluey-black basse-taille enamel with a few glinting stars. Spring is depicted on the outward facing panels with snowdrops, croci, primroses, irises, cyclamen, bluebells, fritillaries and daffodils. Jane explains, ‘Summer, the season of abundance, is represented by a tangled garland of many different plants.’ In the bowl’s interior (opposite) you will be able to identify wheat, poppies, roses and peonies chosen by the Trust and the clematis, honeysuckle and raspberries that Jane looks forward to seeing each year. ‘Autumn is to my mind’, she explains, ‘the rich reds, browns and yellows of leaves and berries, the season of spectacular sunsets over the dark hills of the Sussex Downs and a drawing-down into winter.’

Jane represents this season by the disc with its rich autumnal colours suspended above the inward-facing dark panels of winter. The tazza was made by Clive Burr and enamelled by Jane using the champlevé and basse-taille techniques. Diameter 37.5cm. London 2007.

Jane kept no record of the time it took to design the piece, but before she lost count, she estimated that she spent over 2,000 hours engraving and enamelling the tazza. She comments, ‘The majority of the engraving was carried out by hand and it was this work that took most of the two years and more that were taken to complete the piece.

Engraving the inside of the bowl was the biggest challenge, but the slowness of the pace of progress gave plenty of thinking time to get the details correct.’ However, there was one unforeseen problem that is not uncommon for craftspeople – repetitive strain injury. For this reason, the disc representing autumn that supports the bowl on the column had the metal to create the recesses for the enamel removed by computer-aided technology. This was undertaken by Jack Perry Limited. While Jane sees that technology has potential, she adds, ‘However, I am relieved to see that all those hours spent cutting back the majority

11. The piece also won two Golds in the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Craftmanship and Design Awards in 2008. Jane Short received a Gold Award in the Enamellers (Senior) category and Clive Burr in the Silversmiths (Council Special Award) category.

of the recesses by hand were worthwhile and appropriate for the style of the design.’ The Keatley Trust has lent the piece to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. It is this tazza that Richard Jarvis called a tour de force, and it will be seen as one of the great pieces of 21st-century enamelling. In 2008 the piece won the Jacques Cartier Memorial Award for outstanding craftsmanship.11

AVAILABILITY Smaller pieces of Jane’s work are beginning to very slowly trickle on to the secondary market.

Occasionally she exhibits new pieces for under £2,000 at selling exhibitions such as the Craft Council’s ‘Collect’, which is staged annually in London, usually in the Spring. Commissions can be placed direct with her. See her entry in the threedimensional work section of the Gallery on the British Society of Enamellers website at www.enamellers.org for her contact details.

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GRAHAM STEWART His most prestigious of many commissions was a large abstract sculpture that HM The Queen presented to the Scottish Parliament when she opened the new Holyrood building in 2004. Normally he is intuitively inspired by nature, regarding continuous flowing lines as important. He ingeniously has devised a way of incorporating words that rhythmically flow into his work.

A visit to the workshop and gallery of Graham Stewart, the Dunblane silversmith and jeweller, is an enriching experience. I write as one who always visits his stand at Goldsmiths’ Fair to select from the range of beautiful hammered spoons that he regularly shows there. To enter the gallery, nestled in the sloping crook of the road in Dunblane, is to see his display at Goldsmiths’ Hall writ large with other craft objects that exemplify his aesthetic taste and his support and appreciation of fellow craftsmen.

David Beasley, Librarian, Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths Writing in The Goldsmiths’ Review 2005-6

Graham Leishman Stewart was born at Bridge of Allan, the historical spa town near Stirling in Scotland during 1955. From 1960-73 he was educated at Dollar Academy in Clackmannashire.1 His father, William Morrice Stewart, was a great influence in his life. He was initially trained as an optical instrument maker at the Military College of Science during World War II, before being commissioned in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. He later became an industrial designer for Salter, which for many years was the UK’s number one brand for weighing scales.

He registered 11 patents during his career. ‘My father always had a workshop at home. He liked to make things.

I think it was a form of therapy against the declining industry in Scotland. He went to silversmithing classes at night school and when the tutor left, he asked my father if he would like to take over’, Graham recalled. He sat in on some of his father’s classes.

Graham also enjoyed his art classes at Dollar Academy and it was suggested that he apply to Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen.2 He duly did, but unsure as to whether his application would be successful, in the summer of 1973 he became an apprentice to Norman Grant, the very successful Scottish jeweller. When he was accepted at Gray’s, which happened to be Norman Grant’s alma mater, he nervously broached the subject. The jeweller said he must seize the opportunity. In 1976 Graham was a finalist in the Young

1. Founded in 1818, it is the world’s oldest co-educational boarding school, but only a small percentage of its pupils board.

2. It is now an integral part of the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.

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Designer of the Year competition. The following year he gained his Diploma in silversmithing and jewellery and from 1977-8 continued with his post-graduate studies in art and design at Aberdeen. While studying he was asked by Malcolm Appleby to help him during the weekends in his workshop at Crathes. Prior to graduating, he spent the summer at the jewellery workshop of Roger Doyle in London. With support from the Scottish Development Agency and help from his father and brother, later that year he began renovating a derelict building in Dunblane, which became both his workshop and living accommodation.

The building overlooked the back of his father’s workshop, his parents having established a small gallery in Dunblane during the early 1970s that sold his father’s work as well as that of other local craftsmen and items of Harris Tweed. Graham designed and made a range of jewellery, including a series of bird brooches that proved to

Opposite: Jug, 2002 Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Graham designed this jug in the second half of the 1990s. Tweaks have been made to it over the years, but the basic form has remained unchanged. It is not unusual for visitors to his shop to ask if they can ‘test run’ a jug before purchasing it. Those who do are not disappointed, for as with everything that emanates from his workshop, the practical aspects are an integral part of the design. Several different sizes of this jug are made. This one has a ‘to the brim’ capacity of one litre, so it will take a bottle of wine with ease, or it could be used as a water jug. This is one of the few pieces of Graham’s work that has appeared in the sale room. It sold in November 2012 for £2,860. Height 17cm. Edinburgh 2002.

GRAHAM STEWART

GRAHAM STEWART

15 August 2010, Sir Tom Farmer presented this to the Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh at Saint Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral in Edinburgh on behalf of the benefactors of the Cathedral. The mace bears the coats of arms of Queen Margaret of Scotland, the Papacy, the Archdiocese, and the Archbishop’s own Coat of Arms, each within a deeply recessed window. The Arms were built up in relief within the recess. The parcel-gilt silver mace is topped with the Cross of St Andrews, which is designed in such a way that it may be viewed from all angles. The mace’s shaft, which was turned by Tim Gellaitry, is in African Blackwood

be extremely popular. Their simple stylised forms, sometimes enhanced with semi-precious coloured stones, had an indefinable quality that was charming. He also undertook work for other silversmiths while establishing his business. Clearly he was building up a reputation because commissions materialised. His work reached a wider audience from 1986 when he started exhibiting each year at the Goldsmiths’ Fair in London. One of his more unusual commissions of the 1980s was to design and make the Great Quaich for the Keepers of the Quaich3 at Blair Castle. Although it sounds as if this is a body steeped in history, it was in fact only founded in 1988. However, the quaich, Scotland’s small bowl for drinking whisky, dates from the 17th century. Its ancestor was the scallop shell from which drams of whisky were drunk in the Highlands and Islands. Graham has a great respect for tradition and appreciates early Scottish silver, but he likes to bring something fresh to his forms. Although the basic shape of the quaich has been established for centuries, Graham does not reproduce what went before. The handles may vary, or its interior may be engraved with anything from salmon to barley. Of course, clients will not necessarily use a quaich for its traditional purpose. Indeed, one client uses his for his daily porridge and not surprisingly its interior is engraved with oats.

Shortly before speaking to Graham for the purpose of this chapter, he had just finished a commission for a mace. On 440

Left: Beehive Courtesy Graham Stewart, photographer Shannon Tofts It is sometimes strange how objects originate. Graham had made money boxes in the form of pillar boxes for a client to give to his grandsons. When granddaughters arrived, the client felt that money post boxes were not appropriate for little girls. After some thought, Graham proposed one in the form of a beehive. The client liked the idea and ordered three. A beekeeper saw one and commissioned a honeypot in the same style, designed to take a standard pound jar of honey. When exhibited at Goldsmiths’ Fair in 2011 it was greatly admired by visitors. When one three-yearold saw it, she immediately exclaimed, ‘Look, Winnie the Pooh!’

The interior is gilded and the inside of the cover features a honeycomb. Height 18cm. Edinburgh 2011.

Opposite, upper: Candelabra Courtesy Graham Stewart, photographer Shannon Tofts Over many years Graham had made numerous large pieces for the family who commissioned this piece. Having decided that they required a pair of candelabra to set off their table, they made a visit to Dunblane. While chatting away, Graham sketched a design that met with immediate approval. He likes the spontaneity of working with private clients. The design was the easy part, working out how to make it took a little longer as each of the arms for the candles only has one seam. Graham likes a technical challenge. Always with an eye to the practical aspects of the pieces he creates, each candelabrum can be dismantled for the ease of cleaning. Height 38cm. Edinburgh 2011.

Opposite, lower: Sculpture Courtesy Graham Stewart, photographer Shannon Tofts This is undoubtedly Graham’s most prestigious commission and as it is located in a prominent place in the Main Hall of the Scottish Parliament Building. It is also probably the piece of his work that has been the most viewed. Having won the Incorporation of the Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh’s competition with his design, the sculpture was duly commissioned. When Buckingham Palace advised that the Queen wished to make a presentation to the new Parliament, the Incorporation responded that a piece was already being made.

Graham’s silver model of the sculpture was shown to Her Majesty.

It met with Royal approval and Her Majesty formally presented the Honours of Scotland when she opened the Scottish Parliament on 9 October 2004. Height 86cm. Edinburgh 2004.

trying to get there was a lengthy process.’ The three elements to be incorporated were the Crown of Scotland, which dates from 1540 when the original crown was refashioned, the Sceptre of Scotland, which was given to James IV by the Pope in 1494, was remodelled and lengthened in 1536, and the Sword of States of Scotland, which was also a gift from the Pope in 1507.

‘My objective was to get these three elements in one flowing whole’, Graham said. ‘Some of my earlier drawings were too aggressive, or there was too much sword. There is a great deal of symbolism in the constituents of the crown, the sceptre and the sword. I was searching for something simple which could be “read” at a distance. I can remember Elizabeth, my wife who works with me and who is also very good visually asking, “What’s the message?”’ Eventually they made the breakthrough that they wanted. He had the idea of a Möbius strip.4 This is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. Graham had explored

chosen to represent the Cathedral’s connection with Africa.

‘It has been a wonderful privilege to make this ecclesiastical mace’, Graham commented. It is believed that it is only the third mace to have been assayed at the Edinburgh Assay office over a period of some 25 years.

However, it was not the first mace that Graham had designed. He was one of the 10 craftsmen invited to design the mace Her Majesty the Queen presented to the Scottish Parliament on 1 July 1999. Unfortunately Graham’s design was not chosen as that honour was awarded to Michael Lloyd. Nevertheless, Graham did secure an equally prestigious commission for the Parliament – the Honours of Scotland sculpture that is now situated in the Main Hall of the Parliament Building.

It is so symbolic of Scotland’s history that it can be no coincidence that the guided tours of Holyrood, the home of the Scottish Parliament, begin where it is positioned. ‘The brief was very imaginative’, Graham explained. ‘It was for a large abstract sculpture in silver inspired by the Honours of Scotland – the Scottish Crown Jewels. I knew the potency of the piece. I knew what was wanted, but 3. This is an exclusive non-profit making society where the membership is by invitation only for people with a positive record of association with Scotch whisky.

Its membership includes leading representatives of the Scotch whisky industry.

4. Named after August Ferdinand Möbius, a 19th-century mathematician and astronomer.

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this fascinating form in the past, ‘Basically you just take a long rectangular strip, turn one end through 180 degrees and join the two ends together. The result is a one-sided continuous circle with a twist in it’, he explained.5 ‘The Scottish Crown has four golden arches, which were retained from the original crown when it was remodelled. The Möbius strip is symbolic of two arches from the crown, but also represents renewal.’ With one of the constituents out of the way, he tackled the sword. It had been damaged in 1652 and the tip had broken off.

Graham used his interpretation of this element of the Sword of State piercing the Möbius strip at two points.

The whole is completed by Graham’s interpretation of the sceptre. Here he has taken oak leaves from the arches of the crown to adorn its surface. As the original, it is surmounted by a piece of rock crystal. The whole is mounted on a Kemnay granite base.

Delighted to have had his design accepted, Graham continued, ‘Then we had to work out how to make it! It was a big piece to tackle. It contained 30kg of silver. It was a collaboration on all fronts.’ His brother Iain Stewart, an engineer, joined Graham 10 years or so ago when he retired. Thankfully he has the expertise to devise any form of hydraulic press, which is not a piece

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Below: Golden Jubilee Bowl Courtesy Graham Stewart, photographer Shannon Tofts Bowls have been an integral part of Graham’s repertoire since the mid-1990s. They have been a vehicle for two of his passions: words and lettering. His interest in the latter was sparked by his art master while at school. This bowl was commissioned by the Caledonian Club in London to present to HM Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee. It is engraved with a Gaelic blessing: May the road rise with you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sunshine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields And until we meet again may God hold you in the palm of His hand Graham’s bowl are immediately recognisable as being the output of his workshop. Diameter 38cm. Edinburgh 2002.

Opposite: Bird Song Bowl Courtesy Graham Stewart, photographer Shannon Tofts While listening to Desert Island Discs (the castaway was Emma Thompson), Graham sketched the stylised bird that now features in this bowl. ‘It was made speculatively’, he added, ‘so is a one-off.

The lettering in the bowls is very important to me. My objective here was to make the wording lyrical to be appropriate to the words “Bird Song”.’ An appraisal of the piece would certainly include ‘objective achieved’. Diameter 21cm. Edinburgh 2010.

of apparatus generally associated with silversmithing.

However, it was required on this occasion to form certain constituents of the sculpture. There was also a great deal of vigorous hammer work required to forge the element of the sword and sceptre – that was Graham and Neil Fellows’ role. Neil is a largely selftaught smith (but with help from Graham’s father).

Norman Ward, who while specialising in jewellery acquired a wealth of experience in the trade before joining Graham in the 1990s, completes Graham’s team at Dunblane. The sculpture was commissioned by the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh6 and was presented by HM The Queen as her gift to the Scottish Parliament when Holyrood was opened on 9 October 2004. Graham was presented to Her Majesty on the day. The piece sits extremely well with the architecture of the building.

Graham has the highest regard for the Incorporation.

Certainly it has done a great deal in promoting contemporary Scottish silver such as the Millennium Collection for Bute House7 and the highly successful ‘Silver of the Stars’ 8 project. Graham participated in both, designing and making a pair of claret jugs for Bute House and partnering with the late Alexander McQueen to

design an absinthe goblet and spoon that he subsequently made. ‘Claret jugs are lovely to make’, he commented.

‘You can express a lot with a jug – generosity, a convivial gathering – they are such an expressive thing.’ The body for his jugs for Bute House are of inverted conical form with a flared base and tall cylindrical neck. Their sweeping handles follow the line of the body into the neck

5. You can prove this for yourself by taking two strips of A4 paper cut from long edge (best cut from a sheet typed on one side). Stick them together to make a long strip, give the paper a twist, then tape the two ends to make a continuous strip with a kink in it. Run your finger round the ‘ring’ without it leaving the paper and it will trace over both the plain side and the typed side.

6. The Incorporation was established in the mid-15th century and today it is Scotland’s oldest consumer protection group. The Incorporation administers the Assay Office, Scotland.

7. In 2000 the Incorporation formed the Scottish Goldsmiths’ Trust to promote and support the education, art and craft of Scotland’s gold and silversmithing heritage. As well as assisting Scotland’s art colleges towards this end, the Trust is also responsible for one of the largest collections of modern working silver in Scotland – the Millennium Collection for Bute House. It is on permanent loan to Scotland’s First Minister to promote the quality of craftsmanship and confidence in Scotland today. Bute House is his official residence.

8. Silver of the Stars was when 10 Scottish international celebrities (Nicola Benedetti, Robbie Coltrane, Sir Sean Connery, Billy Connolly, Lulu, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Ewan McGregor, Alexander McQueen, Ian Rankin and Sharleen Spiteri) paired with 10 of Scotland’s finest silversmiths to collaborate on the design for a piece of silver on that most beautiful moment, ‘a drink with a close friend’. The subsequent array of drinking vessels, from goblets to teapots, has been touring the world since 2007, together with the Millennium Collection for Bute House and has been seen by hundreds of thousands or people.

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into a bowl. However, unlike the listing in this paragraph, Graham makes his selection and arranges the words with the flow of a poet. Of course although these ‘word bowls’ started with the Shipping Forecast, they have progressed to include other themes.

When speaking of the forms of his silver, Graham uses such expressions as ‘One continuous line is important’, ‘I pare down the essentials to get a flowing line’ and ‘Building the elements to bring it together so that it sings’. He then added that his favourite lines of Seamus Heaney are: And that moment when the bird sings very close To the music of what happens10

and immediately the eye is led on to the curve of the spout. From whichever angle it is viewed, it is aesthetically pleasing. Is the spout a bird’s beak? ‘I certainly get my inspiration from nature. I am fortunate to live in such a beautiful place’, smiles Graham. ‘I am filled with a sense of wonder – the more so as I get older. I don’t know how, but it all feeds into what I draw. It’s intuitive, I don’t analyse it.’ Graham’s work does not replicate nature, but is organic. ‘I often find ideas when we’re out walking the dogs’, he says. ‘Elizabeth will point out an interesting seed head, or perhaps the shape of a crocus flower, then I’ll go home and start sketching out designs.’ Following alterations over the years, the former accommodation is now Graham’s studio, a haven where he designs and engraves. In addition to a variety of drawings, objects lie on his desk from which he draws inspiration, while the couple’s whippets look-on. ‘I once said that dogs haven’t made it into silver yet, but Elizabeth then pointed out the necks on some jugs.’

were plain polished silver, Graham is now partially chasing the bodies of his claret jugs, but with a simplicity that does not detract from the flowing lines of the pieces. Since the beginning of his days as a smith, beautiful, tactile hand-forged spoons have been a stock item. Graham has a great respect for words and likes reading poetry and also going to readings. One poet whose work he greatly admires is the Irishman, Seamus Heaney.9 Learning that his favourite piece of prose was the BBC Radio’s Shipping Forecast eventually resulted in a series of bowls that have become admired by Graham’s clients since the mid-1990s. Anyone who has listened to the forecast cannot but be impressed by the almost hypnotic sound of the names: West Viking, East Viking North Utsire, South Utsire, East Forties, West Forties, Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, West Dogger, East Dogger, Fisher, Northwest German Bight. Graham engraves his selection on to a circular disc and raises it

Claret jugs are a more recent part of his repertoire, with the pair he produced for British Silver Week in 2009 being greatly admired. Whereas those for Bute House

9. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, ‘for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past’. He died in August 2013.

10. From Song.

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Graham added with a sigh, ‘If you get as close to that, you are doing well!’ In the summer of 2010, Graham Stewart received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stirling for ‘his outstanding contribution to Scottish arts and craft’. That is doing better than ‘well’.

AVAILABILITY Graham Stewart’s work is beginning to trickle on to the secondary market. Of course, commissions may be placed direct with Graham. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact and website details.

Opposite: Pair of Claret Jugs for British Silver Week Courtesy Graham Stewart, photographer Shannon Tofts These claret jugs were made for the first ever British Silver Week.

Over a four-week period a dozen pieces from the Pearson Silver Collection were featured in the State Rooms at Chatsworth, while the latest examples of the work of a dozen of the country’s leading silversmiths were exhibited in the Great Dining Room. Graham’s jugs featured on the cover of the guide that was given to each visitor to the stately home and became synonymous with the event. ‘The chasing helps take the eye round the body of the jugs’, Graham commented. ‘I wanted handles with a fuller grip than achieved by a forged one, so they are hollow.’ The sweep of the handles to the necks of the jugs and seemingly into the pronounced elongated spouts certainly give the vessels great fluidity. Height 38cm. Edinburgh 2008.

Silver Wedding Anniversary Vase Courtesy Graham Stewart, photographer Shannon Tofts Following an article on contemporary British silver in the Financial Times’ ‘How to Spend It’ magazine, which featured Graham’s work, a commission for this piece was received form Singapore. An Anglo-Irish gentleman living in the city state was soon to be celebrating his Silver Wedding Anniversary. He wanted something very special to present to his Chinese wife. Having looked at the websites of the silversmiths featured in the article, he decided Graham was his man. His requirements were discussed by phone and e-mail and Graham was sent images of the couple’s minimalist home, even of the table on which the piece was to be placed. It was decided that the commission was to be a vase. Given the recipient’s nationality, Graham decided it should be in the Chinese style. It had to bear the recipient’s name and feature a peony. The lady’s name is applied to the neck in gilt upon a chased ground, while the peony appears in a gilded recess.

Its reverse is also gilt. The resulting gold bouncing off gold results in an intense golden hue. Graham suggested that the vase’s reverse feature a Celtic knot within a recess to indicate the donor’s nationality. A few months after the initial discussions, Graham was delighted to receive an image of the vase in its new home. Height 56cm. Edinburgh 2012.

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ROBERT EDGAR STONE Had his mother not intervened, Robert Stone may never have become a silversmith, for following an accident, a doctor recommended amputation of his arm. As it was, had he not fainted on the morning of his interview for a trade scholarship, he could well have become an engineer. Directed towards silversmithing by an unknown official, he not only became one of the country’s finest craftsmen, but he is also regarded as an excellent teacher.

When the history of twentieth century British silversmithing comes to be written, it is certain that Robert E Stone’s achievements will not be neglected. His skill, embodied in many surviving pieces, was consummate and his quiet ambition to work through his pupils towards a continuity of craftsmanship was amply fulfilled.

John Culme, Editor, Silver Society Journal, 1, 1990

Robert Edgar Stone – who is almost without exception referred to as RE Stone – was born during 1903 in the former Metropolitan Borough of Paddington,1 famed for its London rail terminus of the same name. The second of five children, he had a happy childhood, spending his school holidays with his maternal grandparents at the village of Cossington, which is five miles north of Bridgewater in Somerset. Had his mother not objected, he could have had his arm amputated when 11 years old. While trying to rescue a cat, he fell through the roof of a greenhouse. The first doctor who saw Robert advised that the only way forward was to remove the injured limb, but his mother did not agree so took her son to a local hospital. The doctor2 there agreed to try and save the arm and for nine months Robert had to endure the limb being in a saline solution. The treatment worked and the arm was saved. The long spell in

Therefore, in 1917 on the direction of an official, Robert Stone was directed to being a silversmith and despatched to London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts for two years’ basic training in the Silver

1. Which since 1965 has been part of the City of Westminster.

2. Jean Breckenridge (RE Stone’s daughter) in ‘Robert E. Stone (1903-90)’, The Silver Society Journal 15 (2003) states on page 150 that he saw Dr Marie Stopes at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, and that she agreed to treat him. However, there appears to be no reference to Dr Marie Stopes being at St Mary’s Hospital, or in fact of being involved in general medicine. Mrs Breckenridge has subsequently spent some considerable time researching the matter for inclusion here. She writes: ‘In 1912 Louisa Garrett Anderson, together with Dr Flora Murray, founded a Hospital for Children at 688 Harrow Road, Paddington. It would have been to this hospital that Robert would have been taken by his mother to be seen by Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson. Having agreed to try and save the limb, she would have referred him to St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, where he spent nine months with the arm suspended in a saline solution.’

3. Source: Jean Breckenridge in ‘Robert E. Stone (1903-90)’, The Silver Society Journal 15 (2003), page 150.

Opposite: Hand-raised Tankard Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett ‘RE Stone was so puritanical that everything was raised – even if it could be spun’, so commented Christopher Lawrence when explaining why after his apprentice at Vanders he went to work for Stone. This hand-raised tankard certainly demonstrates that those in the workshop were very adept with hammers. As Purchase Tax on luxury items rose to 110 per cent in 1946, from 1947-1962 a Scheme operated exempting items considered to be of artistic merit from the punitive tax. This tankard, like most designer silver of the day, was sold under that Scheme. The hallmark includes the Coronation mark of Queen Elizabeth II’s head in profile. Height 11.7cm. London 1953.

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hospital meant that Robert missed his chance to sit the grammar school entrance exam, so when he returned home he attended the local Droop Street School, which was a School Board for London establishment.

Aged 14, Robert was given the opportunity of a trade scholarship. Accompanied by his father to the interview, Stone senior was asked by the examiner if young Robert was fit. He responded that his son had fainted that morning, whereupon the official decreed that he did not think a career in engineering would be a suitable for him, so ‘he had better train as a silversmith’.3

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Department.4 In 1919 he started his apprenticeship, possibly with the Tudor Art Metal and Plating Company,5 but continued attending classes at the Central School in the evening. When his apprenticeship was over, he was awarded a senior arts scholarship at the Central School where Dunstan Pruden was one of his contemporaries.

Stone certainly enjoyed the social aspects of the School, performing in plays and attending the Chelsea Arts Ball, dressed as an Egyptian slave on one occasion. However, he also worked hard at his studies and clearly showed considerable talent. Indeed, at the end of his second year, Stone was asked if he would like to undertake a summer job in Scotland tutoring aspects of silversmithing to Mr Brooman-White of Ardarroch House on the shores of Loch Long. The gentleman had a general knowledge of the craft, but required further assistance to perfect the skills already acquired. It was during the summer that Stone met his future wife, Dorothy Rae, daughter of James Rae, the Head Gardener at the neighbouring property.6 Stone would not have been offered this post if W Augustus Steward, the head of the School’s Silver Department, had not held him in high regard. The fact that he did was recorded for posterity by Steward in The Watchmaker & Jeweller, a publication that he edited. He wrote of the altar cross RE Stone made in his final year at the School: ‘This is the result of training impossible in any workshop.

But it is absolutely essential for one who aspired to become an excellent craftsman, a works manager, or an employer. Only too, by a thorough knowledge of materials can a satisfactory design be made and completed.’ 7 This is indeed praise and a very public accolade too.

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The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths rewarded Stone with its first ever Travelling Scholarship. This was for a very generous two years, which not only allowed him to visit many capital cities, but also to work for silversmiths in both continental Europe and Scandinavia. He spent a year with a silversmith in Paris and two months with one in Helsinki. Upon returning to Britain, he duly started his own business in London. Dorothy Rae had moved to the capital, initially to work as a book-keeper for the sheet music publisher Campbell Connolly and then for the Jekmoth Home Store in South Kensington.

In 1929, the couple married and moved to Wembley in northwest London. Stone converted a garden shed into a workshop. However, in the early 1930s he shared Dunstan Pruden’s Hammersmith workshop until 1932 when his former colleague at the Central School left for Ditchling. He then established his own workshop at 36 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith8 and as the business became established, he started to take on workers and an apprentice.

Despite Steward’s splendid plug for him in The Watchmaker & Jeweller, it was not easy for an artistcraftsman to become established as mass-produced silver was less expensive. Stone’s first order came from John Hodges,9 the Chairman of Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co. Limited in Regent Street, for some bonbon dishes. It was a small start, but the business remained loyal to Stone, even after it amalgamated with Garrard & Company Limited in 1952. Conveniently, King George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935 brought a

demand for souvenirs and Stone did not hesitate to supply a range of quality commemorative pieces.10 This range was adapted for the planned Coronation of Edward VIII in 1936 and for the crowning of George VI in 1937. By the end of the 1930s, the business was on a firm footing. RE Stone exhibited at the 1938 British Industries Fair. The Anglo-Latin Traders’ Review issued in May of that year described Stone’s work as: ‘goods making a very strong appeal to the quality trade; Mr Stone is an artist in modern silver and his designs are both original and beautiful. They are made true to the fine London tradition and are well worthy of the British silversmiths’ craft at its best.’

Opposite: Candelabra Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett While Stone’s Hammersmith workshop reopened after World War II, in 1950 he moved it to the top floor of 18 Garrick Street in central London. The ground floor of the building was occupied by the retail jewellers D & J Welby Limited. Stone made good use of his neighbours, for this pair of candelabra were retailed by them.

Their style is typical of Stone’s designs at the time, which have a Jensen influence. Height 17.3cm. London 1950 and 1951.

Above: Tea Service Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington This is one of the first pieces of silver produced by the Stone workshop following the closure of the business during World War II. All of his workers joined the armed forces during the hostilities.

One did not return. Robert Stone spent the war working in a torpedo factory in Scotland. This elegant tea service is superbly crafted to the highest of standards. The tea pot handle and knob are of ivory stained green. Height of tea pot height 15cm. London 1946.

The late 1930s were good for Stone. George VI commissioned six large candlesticks in memory of his father for presentation to the Royal Military Chapel,11 just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace. They were presented to the Chapel in 1938.12 Tragically, at 11am on Sunday 18 June 1944 when the service was in progress, a flying bomb entered the western end of the building. The Chapel was virtually destroyed and 121 worshippers, both military and civilian, were killed and

4. King George V visited the School while Robert was undertaking his preapprentice training. A fellow student who was deaf and dumb was presented to the King. Robert had to translate His Majesty’s questions by sign language, a skill he had learnt while in hospital.

5. In Jean Breckenridge’s 2003 article in The Silver Society Journal 15 (2003) page 151, it is stated that he was apprenticed at the Tudor Art Works. After further research, Mrs Breckenridge advises it was in fact the Tudor Art Metal and Plating Company based at 2 Sandland Street, London WC1, which was conveniently just round the corner from the Central School.

6. This was Finnart House. The lodge gates to both small estates were only a few yards apart. Finnart and Ardarroch had been built in 1832 and 1837 respectively by two brothers who had married two sisters. In the 1920s, both were well known for their horticultural achievements, the gardens at Ardarroch being particularly famous. The gardens have been lost as both estates are now part of the Finnart Ocean Terminal.

7. The Watchmaker & Jeweller, 27 February 1927.

8. Jean Breckenbridge advises that this is the same workshop her father shared with Dunstan Pruden.

9. John Hodges employed Alex Styles in 1946 as a designer.

10. He produced caddy spoons, book marks and two-handled bowls set with a 1935 Jubilee crown. A common theme for this Silver Jubilee range was cast crowns as handles or terminals, some with a red enamel background to the crown. They were retailed by Asprey and Wilson & Gill as well as others.

11. Now known as the Guards Chapel. It is located at Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk, London SW1. Originally built in 1838 to the design of Colonel Sir John MF Smith in consultation with the architect Philip Hardwick, its interior was beautified by George Edmund Street in the late 1870s.

12. Queen Mary commissioned a pair of miniature candlesticks of similar design to commemorate her husband, King George V.

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many others were injured. Incredibly, the apse was undamaged, the candlesticks did not even move and the candles still burned despite the rest of the Chapel having crashed into a ruin. Together with the silver cross that was on the altar, these items are still used at the present Chapel, which was rebuilt in the early 1960s and rededicated in 1963.

The Stones, blessed with the births of daughters in 1932 and 1936, would holiday at Dorothy’s parents at Finnart.

Robert Stone combined this with business, calling off to see retailers in both the north of England and in Scotland’s principal cities.13 Following the outbreak of World War II, the London workshop was closed and the family first moved to the Lodge on the Finnart Estate and then to a house not far away in Portincaple.14 Indeed, this became the Stones’ Scottish home for many years. During the war, Stone worked at a torpedo factory at Arrochar at the northern end of Loch Long where the missiles were tested and repaired. Noticing that they were often being damaged when being loaded or

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unloaded on to the submarines, he designed a piece of apparatus that prevented this from happening. After the war, the Stone family returned to Wembley and in 1946 the Hammersmith workshop was reopened. Two of his workers recruited in the 1930s returned, together with his first apprentice Albert Phillips, as well as other new trainees – see the ‘Apprentices’ section at the end of this chapter and footnote 20. As he had done before the war, Stone continued to design the majority of the pieces that were made in the workshop and qualified for the Assistance to Craftsmen Scheme (see Introduction, p.12) that operated from 1947-62. One of the conditions of the Scheme (which exempted pieces of silver from Purchase Tax) was that the designer’s name should appear on the work. In the mid-1930s Stone added his facsimile signature to some of his pieces.15 All of Stone’s post-war work bears a facsimile of his signature as required by the Scheme and like Alex Styles, he continued the practice for the majority of the pieces he designed during his working life. Because the Stone workshop was renowned for the quality of its output, pieces were made up for other top designer-silversmiths such as Reginald Hill, Cyril Shiner16 and Alex Styles. However, the majority of the work was making up Stone’s own designs.17 In 1950 Stone moved his workshop from Hammersmith to Covent Garden in central London. The premises Opposite: Travelling Communion Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett ‘We made a lot of chalices after the war; people were commissioning them in memory of loved ones they had lost’, recalled Norman Bassant who started his apprenticeship at Stone’s in 1947. This travelling communion set was made at the time Christopher Lawrence was working at Stone’s. He recalls, ‘Albert Phillips, what a craftsman, what a hammer man! A complete chalice raised, planished and chased in 28 hours.’

Throughout his life generally Stone had his facsimile signature placed on pieces that left the workshop. These pieces only bear his maker’s mark, but the paten also bears the maker’s mark of J Wippell and Company Limited, the ecclesiastical suppliers who retailed the set. Height of the chalice 14.5cm. London 1959.

Above: Cream Jug Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This elegant cream jug with its curved overhead open handle certainly broke with tradition. Arguably not as easy to use as a handle on the side of the body that allowed for a steady grip, but as with all of Stone’s work it is beautifully crafted. Hand-raised, this would certainly have been viewed as a breath of fresh air in 1950s Britain. Height 12.6cm. London 1955.

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comprised the top floor of 20 Garrick Street above the retail goldsmiths D & J Welby Limited.18 Stone remained there until 1964 when Welby’s lease on the building ran out.19 At this juncture RE Stone, who was in his early sixties, decided to move out of London. He closed his London workshop and settled with his wife and his daughter Jean at the family home in Portincaple. Stone registered his mark at Edinburgh and continued making small pieces of silver for sale at the Scottish Craft Centre there until it closed in 1980.

Jean, who had established her own jewellery business, closed that at about the same time.

13. The marketing of his talents did work, for in 1938 he made a fruit stand for Hamilton & Inches of Edinburgh, its design being inspired by Johan Rohde, an associate of Georg Jensen.

14. Just south of Ardarroch, also on the shore of Loch Long but also overlooking the entrance to Loch Goil.

15. For example, the commemorative pieces made for Asprey, which bear the retailer’s maker’s mark.

16. Cyril Shiner (1908-89) was a major British silversmith and industrial designer of the mid-20th century. He had an excellent reputation as a gifted teacher and craftsman. He taught at the Vittoria Street School of Jewellers and Silversmiths in Birmingham.

17. Source: Jean Breckenridge. In ‘Robert E. Stone (1903-90)’, The Silver Society Journal 15 (2003) page 153, it is estimated at 95 per cent. However, no record of the percentage exists.

18. The company’s mark was registered in London. Although it retailed new silver bearing its mark, the silver was supplied by Edward Barnard & Sons Limited and CJ Vanders Limited and others – source, John Culme’s The Directory of Gold & Silversmiths, Jewellers & Allied Traders 1838-1914 (Woodbridge, 1987).

19. D & J Welby moved to Mayfair, but the business closed in 1973/4.

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Stone produced a range of domestic silver from condiment sets to candelabra. As Christopher Lawrence comments in his chapter, ‘RE Stone was so puritanical that everything was raised – even if it could have been spun.’ Arthur Negus, the auction house specialist who became a TV personality in the 1960s with his appearance on programmes about antiques, once took an RE Stone cream jug along to a programme as he considered it would be an antique of the future. There was far more to Stone’s repertoire than domestic silver.

He did a considerable amount of ecclesiastical work for all creeds and denominations. Mention has already been made of the candlesticks commissioned by George VI that survived the flying bomb that left the Royal Military Chapel in ruins. He also made and designed a pair of candlesticks and an altar cross for the Temple Church in London, which was built by the Knights Templar in the Middle Ages, and an altar cross to match the Wren candlesticks in the Wren Chapel at Pembroke College, Cambridge. In 1954 the Corporation of London commissioned Stone to make a casket for the scroll bestowing the Freedom of the City of London upon the Emperor of Ethiopia. Three years later the Merchant Taylors’ Company commissioned him to make 24 menu holders for presentation to HM Queen Elizabeth II for use on the Royal Yacht Britannia. Stone’s work is in the collections of several City livery companies as well as British universities, including Oxford and Cambridge colleges, Aberdeen, Dundee and Queen’s, Belfast. He also made a gold cup for the Grand National.

Towards the end of his life Robert E Stone confided to his wife that his proudest achievement was not a piece of silver, but that he had trained 10 excellent apprentices.20 The fact that three of these had sons who became silversmiths would have pleased him even more. Although RE Stone was considered renowned for his economy, Christopher Lawrence was prepared to work for Stone after his apprenticeship at Vanders for wages he could have bettered elsewhere purely to obtain experience of hollow raising and planishing in the

20. ‘Obituary of Robert E Stone: Master Silversmith’, The Silver Society Journal 1 (1990). The 10 is possibly made up of the seven in The Apprentices section of this chapter, together with Fred Davis, Ronald Spayne and Charles (surname unknown – he is believed to have been killed in World War II) who were not bound, but whom RE Stone trained.

21. Then organised by the International Vocation Training Organisation, it was known colloquially as the international apprentices’ competition. The competition was for youths aged 17 to 22 to demonstrate their excellence in skilled professions. The IVTO is now known as WorldSkills International and the event as the WorldSkills Competition.

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master craftsman’s workshop. The fact that several of Stone’s apprentices had won prizes in the global competition colloquially known as the ‘Skills Olympics’ 21 and that most years one of his craftsmen and one of his apprentices won the top prize respectively in the senior and junior Art Council Awards had secured Stone’s reputation as an excellent teacher. Therefore, when the Company decided to make a promotional film that inter alia showed the various steps undertaken by an apprentice training to be a silversmith, it featured the teapot designed and made by Ian Calvert, who had been an apprentice with Stone from 1954-8. This was his masterpiece for which he subsequently received his Freedom of the Company in 1959. The film A Place for Gold was released in the same year.

Robert Edgar Stone died aged 87 on 21 April 1990.

Although his London workshop closed in 1964, as at 2013, three of his apprentices were still working at the bench and additionally the sons of three were also working silversmiths.

AVAILABILITY Pre-war pieces, particularly the royal commemorative pieces, appear relatively frequently on the secondary market. The post-war items have always been more difficult to find.

Opposite, upper: Vesta Box Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The top of this silver and wood vesta box has a finely engraved alpine scene featuring three chamois, a goat-antelope species native to mountains in continental Europe. The drawer slides open for accessing the matches. The two long sides have surfaces on which to strike matches and each feature two silhouettes of chamois. Length 12.2cm. London 1958.

Opposite, lower: Sauce Boat Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company From the mid-19th century onwards, very few designs of sauce boats were produced. The prevailing form had three feet. By the early decades of the 20th century the single oval foot of the 18th century had returned and by the early 1930s different shapes for boats were being developed. After World War II the transformation continued.

This RE Stone example, without the stand and ladle, appeared in Modern Silver, published by the Goldsmiths’ Company in 1959.

Height of sauce boat 9.5cm. London 1955.

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THE APPRENTICES RE Stone’s apprentices were: Albert Phillips, Raymond Archer, Norman Bassant, Ian Calvert, Alan Evans, Michael Winter, Peter McMillan Albert Phillips was Stone’s first apprentice and was recruited before World War II. According to Norman Bassant, ‘He was like a working machine – whether he was hammering or soldering he was a joy to watch.’ Christopher Lawrence who was a craftsman at Stone’s for around two years in the late 1950s/early 1960s was equally enthusiastic, ‘Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. What a craftsman, what a hammer man! You really learnt to hollow hammer [with him].’ Phillips left the craft when Stone closed his London workshop and went on to make weighing machines with zero tolerance, even though Stone had secured him a position in another leading silver workshop.

Raymond (Ray) Archer was the first of the post-war apprentices. He completed his apprenticeship, but because of an accident in which he lost the use of one hand, he ceased to practice the craft. He emigrated to Canada and as at 2011 still lives in Ontario. Jean Breckenbridge, Stone’s daughter comments, ‘An excellent apprentice, his work being on a par with Norman Bassant.’

Alan Evans became an enameller at Gerald Benney’s workshop and as at 2013 is an enameller in Simon Benney’s workshop. Simon is one of Gerald’s sons.

Michael Winter worked at Gerald Benney’s workshop for many years. Afterwards he went to work for Christopher Lawrence where in 1974 he won the Jacques Cartier Award for making Christopher’s fantasy piece, the Pumpkin Perfume Bottle (see Lawrence, p.290). Later he set up on his own. In addition to making up designs for Asprey and others, he specialised in making miniature models. His son Jonathan served his apprenticeship with his father before becoming an independent silversmith trading as Winter Silversmiths. Michael Winter has retired to St Lucia.

Peter McMillan was Irish, but had been brought up in the UK. Not long after his apprenticeship had been completed he decided to settle in Ireland.

The craftsmen who worked for RE Stone included Fred Davis, Ronald Spayne, Sidney Sparrow,22 Christopher Lawrence and John Limbrey (who went on to work for Robert Welch).

In addition to giving training to apprentices, RE Stone was very sympathetic to young students wishing to 454

obtain workshop experience. As he had had the opportunity to work in both Paris and Helsinki, this was especially so with those from overseas. After World War II, because of trade union rules, it was difficult to take on foreign students. However, Stone’s workshop was non trade union, so the rules did not apply. The first student was Lars Carlson from Gothenburg, Sweden. He spent several months with Stone not long after the war. The next student was Einar Christopherson from Sandnes, Norway. He worked alongside Stone’s daughter Jean making jewellery. Both these men returned home to help run family silver and jewellery businesses.

THE UNSUNG HEROES OF THE SILVERSMITHING WORLD It is not a fact that is unique to the world of silver, but if a piece of silver bears the maker’s mark (technically the sponsor’s mark) of say, Fred Blogs, it does not mean that Mr Blogs actually made it. The piece may have been made by a craftsman employed in the said Blogs’ workshop, or Mr Blogs may have designed it and had the object made up by an independent silversmith. However, Mr Blogs or his deputy may have supervised its making and certainly would have approved the final piece. There is an army of craftsmen in the world of silver who are unsung heroes. They get no recognition for the work designed by others that they make up. Here are the lives of two of RE Stone’s apprentices who have served the craft for decades in the 20th century and into the 21st.

Norman Bassant Norman Victor Bassant was born in Northfleet, Kent, during 1932. Having passed the entrance exam for the Gravesend School of Art23 he found during his studies there that, ‘working with metal seemed to gel with me’.

Sidney Sparrow, one of RE Stone’s craftsmen, came to teach part-time at the School and seeing that his young student had an aptitude for silversmithing, suggested that Norman seek a position at Stone’s. ‘I started my apprenticeship on 1 September 1947. My daily routine was to catch the 6.32am train from Gravesend to Charing Cross, change to the underground and arrive to start work in Hammersmith at 8am.’ Some evenings he attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts (including Reginald Hill’s design classes) and did not arrive home until 10pm.

Norman fondly recalls his time spent at Stone’s: ‘There was a family atmosphere. His wife worked there doing the paperwork a couple of days a week and Jean his daughter was also there training to be a silversmith. Mr Stone was more a mentor than a teacher. He was one of

the last Victorian governors – you feared but also loved him. I owe him so much – he was fair and true. He loathed spinning of any sort. We made a lot of chalices as after the war – people were commissioning them in memory of loved ones they had lost.’ 24 In 1953 the rose bowl that he made was his masterpiece that resulted in him being granted Freedom of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. That was not all. It also secured Norman his third Arts Council Award in the Apprentice’s Section.25 The Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company Limited in Regent Street purchased the piece.

His apprenticeship over, Norman undertook his National Service and returned to Stone’s a married man. However, he decided to leave after a couple of years, ‘I made the break – you can’t stay where you’ve been an apprentice’, he explained. So, he moved to CJ Vander.26 Having worked on production work for six months, he was promoted to a Senior Craftsman and was directly involved with makingup the designs of such notables as Reginald Hill, CJ Shiner (see note 16) and Alex Styles as well as others.

Upon hearing of his promotion Stone contacted him and offered him the same money as he was receiving at Vanders. As he was enjoying his time at his new workplace, he declined Stone’s offer. He started teaching one day a week at Medway College of Art.27

Above: Rose Bowl Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington This is the rose bowl which Norman Bassant designed and made as his masterpiece for submission to the Goldsmiths’ Company for the purpose of obtaining his Freedom of the Company. It bears RE Stone’s maker’s mark. The bowl demonstrates that the young Norman had mastered a range of skills from hand-raising to piercing. Even the ivory finial was carved by him. It also brought him his third Arts Council Award. Competition was tough in the apprenticeship section and to win an award in three consecutive years was exceptional. The piece was purchased by the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company Limited. From the inscription that has subsequently been added to the cover, it seems it was purchased by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company Limited to present to Lord Riverdale upon his retirement as a director. Diameter 24cm. London 1950.

After Christopher Lawrence had left Gerald Benney’s, he asked Norman to join him as workshop manager at Leighon-Sea. He worked for Christopher from 1972-5. The Lawrence workshop in the early 1970s was very busy. One large project was a 600-piece dinner service made for a Middle Eastern prince. The revolving centrepiece from this service won Norman Bassant a Jacques Cartier Award in 1973. During the mid-1970s Norman, who enjoyed teaching, was offered two-days a week at Medway. Having secured a

22. Jean Breckenbridge supplied this information: ‘Sidney Sparrow was a part-time teacher at Gravesend School of Art and was able to pick out the most promising boy to be apprenticed to RE Stone. Raymond, Norman, Ian and Alan were all recommended by him.’

23. The School moved out of Gravesend in 1965 to merge with the Medway College of Art at Rochester.

24. Unlike domestic and other silver, which was regarded as a luxury, there was no Purchase Tax on these.

25. In his second year he won third prize with a biscuit barrel, in the third year first prize for a tea service that was purchased by the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company Limited. Norman recalls walking down Regent Street with his ‘young lady’ to see the service displayed in the window. There was stiff competition in those days in the Apprentice’s Section and for Norman to have won prizes in three consecutive years was exceptional. The pieces for the competition were made while he was on day release at Gravesend. Additionally after his work was finished on Saturday morning (there was a 48 hour week in the 1950s), he would stay on in the afternoon to work on his piece for the annual competition. He purposefully included techniques into the pieces to demonstrate his skill. He did not enter the competition in the final year of his apprenticeship.

26. One also suspects that Stone would not increase his wages despite the fact that he was a married man. At Vander’s he suggested that Christopher Lawrence, who had finished his apprenticeship there, should move to Stone’s where he would gain experience of hollow raising.

27. Later Rochester (Medway) College of Art that became part of the Kent Institute of Art and Design (KIAD). In August 2005 KIAD merged with the Surrey Institute of Art and Design, University College to form the College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester. It obtained University status in 2008 to become the University for the Creative Arts.

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regular income, Norman decided that the time was right for him to set up on his own. He established a workshop at Sevenoaks and built his own house. Given his reputation as a craftsman, there was no shortage of work making up designs for others as well as undertaking restoration work.

One of the many interesting pieces Norman worked on was a 50-foot long table covered with silver tiles that he made in 1985 for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Saudi Arabia.

‘When I started as an independent craftsman, Vanders asked me to keep in touch with them and I did quite a bit of work for them. The table was designed in Sweden and the designer could not find anyone to make it. He approached Vander, who in turn got in touch with me. I made-up a sample leaf and after it had been approved, I took six students28 from Medway together with all the workshop equipment out with me that summer to construct it on site.

It looked like a snake when the lights were dimmed. After Sir Geoffrey Howe29 saw it, he wrote to thank me for exporting British craftsmanship.’ The table resulted in many other commissions from Saudi Arabia including models of mosques, palaces and dhows, the traditional Arabic boats. Norman also worked on items for Prince Jefri of Brunei ranging from gold tea services to a large model of a helicopter. There was also plenty of work in the UK, including making the large candelabrum Michael Rowe designed for Downing Street and the pair of candelabra Richard Vanderpump30 gave to the Company to mark his period as Prime Warden (1998-99).

It was not until the 21st century that Norman worked on a commission directly as opposed to through a third party such as another silversmith or a retailer. In 2002 HM Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Golden Jubilee. The Royal Hospital Chelsea,31 the home of the Chelsea Pensioners, decided to commemorate the event by having the statue of its founder Charles II, which had stood in the Hospital’s Figure Court since 1692, re-gilded. As the Royal Hospital had never had colours or other distinctive device, the property developer and philanthropist Ronald Gerard OBE commissioned a mace. The Queen presented what is known as the Sovereign’s Mace to the Hospital in July 2002 when she reviewed the Pensioners on the lawn of Buckingham Palace. The Sovereign’s Mace is now carried at all of the Chelsea Hospital’s ceremonial events, such as the annual Founder’s Day. Designed by Lt Col Charles Webb32 and Aubrey Bowden,33 Norman was commissioned to make it. As it is such a large piece, his son John assisted him. John Bassant served his apprenticeship as a goldsmith at McCabe McCarty Limited in London. He worked for the company for 20 years before going independent in 2000 as both a

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goldsmith and silversmith. Initially he shared the Sevenoaks workshop with his father, but the two were not in partnership. It was the first piece of silver that Norman made which carried his maker’s mark. Needless to say, it was a very proud moment when Norman and his family saw Her Majesty present the Sovereign’s Mace at Buckingham Palace. Norman attends the Founder’s Day ceremony at the Hospital each year.

In the second half of the first decade of the 21st century, Norman was commissioned to design and make 10 pieces of silver for the chapel of the new Lady Thatcher Infirmary at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.34 This state-ofthe-art infirmary is a residential care and outpatient facility. HRH The Prince of Wales opened it in March 2009. These pieces also bear Norman’s mark.

Furthermore, the Sovereign’s Mace, which is kept in the Hospital’s Museum, is clearly labelled as having been made by Norman Bassant – and quite rightly so too!

Ian Calvert Ian Calvert was born in 1938 and at 13 years he attended the Gravesend School of Art (see note 23). He was inspired

by Jack Stapley35 a visiting lecturer at the School. Stapley encouraged Ian to undertake extra evening classes. By his third and final year at Gravesend, he was sure that he wanted to become a silversmith so he applied to RE Stone for an apprenticeship. He became articled in 1954. Both Albert Phillips and Sidney Sparrow tutored him at the bench, but he also attended Reginald Hill’s evening classes for design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. He achieved top marks in his City and Guilds examination.

Stone encouraged him to make up some of the pieces he designed. Stone particularly liked a tea service and had a total of eight made. In 1957 Ian was chosen to attend the 1957 ‘Skills Olympics’ (see note 21) in Madrid. He won first prize in his category for silversmithing and was presented with a cup by General Franco. Upon his return, Ian was offered a part-time teaching post at Gravesend, but felt that at 19 years, he was too young. Back at the Stone workshop he made up a mace designed by Cyril Shiner.36 Mention has already been made of his apprentice masterpiece that featured in the Company’s 1959 film A Place for Gold. The Company purchased this for its collection. Incidentally, Ian was asked to go for a screen test for a part in the film, but it was felt that, being near the end of his apprenticeship, he looked too old!

His apprenticeship over, Ian had to undertake his National Service that had been deferred. He was mainly based at RAF Wyton near Cambridge. ‘I was able to get

some reasonable shifts so I could continue to do a couple of days a week at Stone’s, so at least I could boost my meagre earnings’, he explained. However, returning fulltime to the workshop where he had been an apprentice proved difficult, so like Norman Bassant before him, he made the break and went to work elsewhere as a craftsman. He applied for a position at Wakely and Wheeler and was successful. Freddie Bush managed the workshop and Ian worked with Frank Beck, one of Eric Clements’ favoured silversmiths. One day he met two former students from his Gravesend days, Tony Laws and Ronald Stevens. Both had studied at the Royal College of Art from 1958-61. They had taken a studio at 20 Garrick Street on the floor below Stone’s workshop and asked Ian if he would make-up some designs for them. Later Keith Redfern, who had been at the RCA from 1958-61, was asked if he would like to join a design and manufacturing company with each of the four taking an equal stake. The Silver Workshop Limited was formed in 1963 and its mark registered at the London Assay Office the following year. Ian takes up the story, ‘I ran the workshop and the others did the design work. I took on Alan Smith37 as an apprentice. We were very busy and I took on other former students including Trevor Goodfellow, now an independent craftsman who undertakes work for me.’ The Silver Workshop ended in 1972 with everyone going their separate ways.

Ian started his own business, initially with commissions for just two trophies and a small model. However, as with all good craftsmen, it was not long before other orders arrived.

The question, ‘What are the most memorable pieces you worked on?’, brought the response, ‘A box for watercolour paints for HRH Prince Charles; a bowl for Sir Edward Heath; a rosewood box with a silver cover featuring her portrait for Baroness Thatcher; one of the water jugs I designed and made was presented to Tony Blair; a staff for one of the Archbishops of Canterbury – sorry, I can’t remember which one; a font for Leeds Cathedral; cricket trophies for when Cornhill and then NatWest38 were sponsors; the covers of a large book on the life of Edmond Safra, the billionaire banker who died when a fire was started at his Monaco home; a replica of the Professional Golf Association trophy; two very large models of mosques for a client in Oman and more recently a rosewood box for David Cameron with a silver cover featuring a view of the Palace of Westminster on the occasion of his moving into Number 10 as Prime Minister.’ The list of silversmiths for whom Ian has undertaken work is equally as impressive and includes Stuart Devlin39 and Anthony Elson.40 He also undertook a considerable amount of work for both Asprey

and Garrard. While Ian is an ‘Unsung Hero’, he has designed objects that he has subsequently made and which bear his own maker’s mark. For example, when Garrard & Co. Limited celebrated 150 years of being the Crown Jewellers in 1993, it staged an exhibition of 20th-century silver, including specially commissioned contemporary pieces by 16 designer-silversmiths.41 Ian Calvert was one – however, he also made up the work of five fellow designers who were contributing to the exhibition.

For many years Ian taught as a visiting lecturer at Medway College of Art (see note 27). His son Justin was there before starting an apprenticeship with McCabe McCarty. In 1999 Justin joined his father and they traded as Ian Calvert and Sons Limited. In 2003 they had to move to larger premises at Fawkham in Kent. Perhaps one of the more unusual recent commissions was for two pairs of serving trolleys made for a client in Oman. There were two caviar trolleys (with bowls) and two dessert ones made in brass that was silver- and gold-plated. They were so large that the inner doors of the workshop had to be removed to get them outside – and it took four people to lift each one.

As at 2013 Ian continues to undertake silversmithing, but his son is working for another silversmith.

28. Four of these students now have their own silversmithing businesses.

29. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 1983-89. Since 1992, Lord Howe of Aberavon.

30. He joined his family’s business CJ Vander in 1949. The company was sold to a large US firm of silver manufacturers in 1996. Mr Vanderpump stayed for three years, retiring in 1999.

31. A retirement and nursing home for British soldiers unfit for further duty because of either old age or injury. It was founded in 1682.

32. Formerly with the Medal Department at Spink.

33. The amateur historian whose long term loan of court uniforms in the early 1980s established Kensington Palace’s Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection.

34. These comprise a cross 1.2m in height; a pair of large candlesticks; a pair of smaller altar candlesticks; two chalices; two ciboria (vessels for the communion wafer) and an alms dish.

35. He was a contemporary of Eric Clements at the Royal College of Art where he won the Company’s competition for a rose bowl to commemorate the Festival of Britain of 1951. He combined silversmithing with teaching. As a silversmith he received many large commissions for institutions such as universities, corporations, councils, livery companies and ecclesiastical ones as well as maces for two overseas parliaments. He was a very successful post-war designer silversmith, but by its very nature, his work rarely comes on to the market. As an educationalist, he was a fine and respected teacher. Eventually he headed the Silver Department at the Sir John Cass College in the City of London. He died in 1981 in his mid-50s.

36. Cyril Shiner (1908-89) was a major British silversmith and industrial designer of the mid-20th century. He had an excellent reputation as a gifted teacher and craftsman. He taught at the Vittoria Street School of Jewellers and Silversmiths in Birmingham.

37. Since 1976, Alan Smith has managed Grant Macdonald’s workshop.

38. National Westminster Bank Plc, which came part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group in 2000.

39. This was the triangular teapot Stuart designed in the UK in 1958, which was made-up at Wakely and Wheeler in 1963. It bears the mark of Stuart Devlin. See footnote 10 in the Stuart Devlin chapter.

40. Ian made the four candelabra designed for the Inner Temple in 2007.

41. ‘Royal Goldsmiths: Garrard Design and Patronage in the Twentieth Century’.

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ALEX STYLES Although he trained as a silversmith, Alex Styles decided that he wanted to be a designer as opposed to working at the bench. He spent 40 years as a designer, first for the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company Limited and afterwards for Garrard & Company Limited, at that time the Crown Jewellers. During those four decades he designed a prolific array of regalia, domestic and corporate silver as well as presentation pieces, trophies and medals.

Alex Styles must have designed as much handmade silver as any person alive.

Chris Walton When Assistant Director, Design & Technology Department, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

Alex George Styles was born in Stratford, London, in 1922, but was brought up at Gravesend in Kent. Like many of his contemporaries who wanted to become craftsmen or designers, he started his education with an Arts Scholarship. He spent half the week at the Gravesend School of Art and the other half on his regular studies at the Gravesend Technical College. At this time teaching at the School of Art was still influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement. Indeed, Alex’s tutor was Reynell Huyshe who had recently been in partnership with his half brother George Hart of the Guild of Handicraft in Gloucestershire.1 Huyshe was more academically inclined and so he left the Guild to enter teaching. Indeed, because of Huyshe, Gravesend was a well-known silversmithing centre attracting teachers in metal work from afar.2 The curriculum at Gravesend not only embraced life drawing and classical art training, but also sculpture, modelling, drawing, cabinet making and silversmithing. After his scholarship, Alex continued at Gravesend for a further two years of more advanced study. During this period it became evident that silver plus design was his favoured direction of study. It was during this period that he made his first silver piece, a chalice and paten. A cup and cover followed this and then a processional cross for Christ Church in Whittington, Kings Lynn. Despite making these and other pieces in his student days, Alex never registered his own maker’s mark.

1. George Hart was one of the original silversmiths who moved with Charles Ashbee when the Guild moved from London to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds.

2. A summer school was also held every year.

3. Now Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, a constituent college of the London University of the Arts.

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From Gravesend, Styles won a High Exhibition to the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.3 Here he studied the craft of silversmithing under AR Emerson, S Hammond and Francis Adam as well as more life drawing and life modelling. During the war, the Central School was to be evacuated to Northampton. As Styles knew that his call-up to the Royal Air Force was imminent, he joined the staff in a munitions training scheme, learning machine shop practice in the process, including from such luminaries as E Bottomley from the National Physics Laboratory. He was called-up to the RAF at the end of 1941. Initially involved with torpedoes, he was ‘headhunted and joined like-minded people’ at the Modelmakers’ Section of the Central Interpretation Unit. This comprised artists and craftsmen, including the silversmith Leslie Durbin whom he had met in London while at the Central School.

Following his basic training, he served in Egypt and then Italy making topographical models. After this he was in India to work on the Japanese campaign, but when the Above: Styles’ Signature Alex George Styles never registered a maker’s mark. His designs were made up by various silversmithing companies. Generally his facsimile signature appears on each piece.

Opposite: Trophy for the Rugby Football Union Courtesy Alex Styles When ‘Retrospective Alex Styles’ was staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1987, nearly half of the exhibits fell into the categories of regalia and trophies. Both had their own sections in the exhibition. Alex’s approach to both subjects was revolutionary, but this was particularly so regarding trophies where he really broke the mould. To quote the catalogue for this trophy designed for the Rugby Football Union. ‘Again, a departure from the conventional cup and cover, this Centenary Award depicts a group of formalised rugby players in a line out, which distinguishes the union game from that of rugby league football.’ London 1971.

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atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,4 all preparatory work ceased. An Educational and Vocational Training was introduced. Alex organised an art-modelling course, using Indian members as models. He later worked with the Southeast Asian Museum in Delhi, measuring the many old temples that surrounded the city and preparing models and drawings of the sites.

In 1946, back in Britain, he had the opportunity to return to college. However, Alex’s preferred option was to practise design. His intention was to seek freelance work. His visit 460

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to Wakely and Wheeler5 with his portfolio of designs proved fruitful. Although AE ‘Bertie’ Pittman6 could not give him work, he recalled when an adjudicator some years earlier the chalice and paten that Alex submitted for his City and Guilds at Gravesend. He also noticed a photograph of an Indian’s head Alex had modelled in wax while in the sub continent. He relayed what he had seen to John Hodges, the chairman of the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co. Limited7 and in due course an appointment was arranged for Alex. He recalls, ‘I was hoping to do freelance work on a regular basis, but he proposed that I join the company with John Day, the present designer, but to be independent with my own separate studio. I accepted. A few days later I had a separate offer from Garrard & Co. Limited, the Crown Jewellers of Albemarle and Grafton Streets! Goldsmiths & Silversmiths was preferred for its more forward-looking design policy.’ When John Day retired, Alex was offered his position. The appointment lasted 40 years. When Goldsmiths & Silversmiths amalgamated with Garrard’s in 1952, Alex Styles became Head Silver Designer for the new concern. Garrard’s left its premises at 24 Albemarle Street and 17 Grafton Street and moved into Goldsmiths & Silversmiths’ impressive building at 112 Regent Street. The

Opposite: Tea and Coffee Service and detail Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographed by Bill Burnett Preparations for exploration of space really got underway in the 1950s, though it was not until 4 October 1957 that the Soviet Union sent Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite, into orbit.

Nevertheless, throughout the decade the interest in space was growing with the appetite being satisfied with movies and fiction.

Even the covers and supports of this service are interspersed with stars. When this picture was shown to Alex, he denied it was his, until he was later shown his signature on one of the pieces. It was made by Wakely and Wheeler and retailed by Garrard and Company. Height of hot water pot 19.1cm. London 1955.

Above: Coffee Service Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett In the early 1960s, Alex had a penchant for tea and coffee pots with long graceful spouts. By the end of the decade he was favouring the ‘beak-like’ spouts of the milk jug shown here on the left. Note the brushed finish, which is reminiscent of the satinfinished stainless steel of the era. The service was sold by Garrard’s in a fitted case. It is interesting to see how Alex’s style had progressed over eight years by comparing this to the tea service also illustrated in this chapter. This coffee service was acquired at auction in December 2009 for a shade under £4,675. It weighs just over 2.5-kilo. Height of coffee pot 25.5cm. London 1963.

amalgamated companies adopted the Garrard’s name, becoming Garrard’s the Crown Jewellers of Regent Street with John Hodges as its chairman. Hodges backed Alex Styles’ design philosophy for the new concern and 112 Regent Street soon became the only place to find a selection of modern British silver. One of the earliest pieces that Alex designed for Garrard’s was a bowl with lion and unicorn handles. When asked whether the style was ‘British postwar modernism’, he responded, ‘I suppose it is, it was certainly of its time.’ Another early piece was the Pears Trophy for Achievement.8 This was bestowed annually for

4. A nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Monday 6 August 1945 and on Nagasaki three days later.

5. Wakely and Wheeler Limited was one of the large London-based manufacturer of silver at this period. It executed many important commissions from retailers such as the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company Limited and Garrard & Company Limited as well as many leading silver designers such as AE ‘Bertie’ Pittman (see footnote 6), Robert Goodden and Eric Clements. The company employed superb craftsmen during the post-war era including Frank Beck, Leonard Burt and Stan Holland.

6. Arthur Wakely’s partner who did most of the firm’s designing.

7. A large London retailer of jewellery, silver and gifts.

8. In 1789 Andrew Pears produced, sold and invented Pears’ first transparent soap. In 1839 his grandson joined the company and AF Pears Limited was formed. In 1917 the company was acquired by Lever Brothers, which in 1930 became part of Unilever.

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outstanding British achievement in any field. In 1953 it was awarded to Col Sir John Hunt, who led the British assault on Mount Everest in May of that year when Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first to reach the mountain’s summit. The following year it was awarded to Sir Roger Bannister, the British athlete who became the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes.

Although Alex Styles designed silver in all forms, he is particularly noted for his presentation pieces and trophies. Indeed, he revolutionised the whole concept. In his view, the most important piece was the one commissioned in 1963 by Massey Ferguson (UK) Limited9 for a National Award for Services to UK Agriculture. He managed to persuade the company to depart from the traditional cup and cover for something more imaginative and more related to the purpose of the award. The result, which is abstract, represents two protective cupped hands. ‘The outsides are machine smooth’, Alex explained, ‘while the insides are rough to signify the earthy nature industry. They are protecting an emergent new growth in gilt.’ The company was very pleased with the result and the design was thought to be sufficiently dynamic for it to be used graphically. Another interesting opportunity presented itself when representatives approached him from the Rugby Football Union wishing to commission a Centenary Award for 1971. ‘I suggested a trophy based on the line out. This is the only moment when there is a pause in a very active game and a moment that distinguishes the rugby union game from rugby league.

They agreed to this form and the formalised figures in the line out, the only stipulation being that the rules of the RFU should be obeyed.’ The result is stunning. Styles’ trophies cover all sports and companies ranging from Midland Bank (now HSBC) to Nikon.

There was another design first in 1954. In this year Alex designed his first mace. St Ives Town Council in 462

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Cornwall commissioned this. Over the following decades he designed numerous pieces of regalia, including badges and chains of office that are still in use both in Britain and many other parts of the world. Although design ideas rarely came quickly to this quietly spoken and thoughtful person, the exception was when he designed the mace for Lisburn in Northern Ireland. Quick drawings usually ended up in the bin, but on this occasion inspiration and the design came to him on the journey home. The longest design in gestation was the one for the mace for the American College of Physicians. The shaft was to be made from the wood provided by the college. This apparently came from the tree beneath which Hippocrates had sat and preached. Needless to say, Alex Styles eventually did not follow convention with regards to maces. For example, his mace for the Borough of Slough10 differs considerably from the House of Commons Mace. ‘Since the mace was originally a weapon of war, I have tried to restore some of the earlier vigour’ he said, pointing to an image of the Slough Mace. He was also innovative with mayoral chains. These traditionally grow over time as each person holding the office adds medallions that are inscribed with their name and the dates of their tenure.

The badge chain for Slough is one continuous design of determined length, there being no medallions. Instead, the names and dates of the holders of the office are inscribed in a special book kept with the regalia.

Alex Styles designed contemporary domestic silver over four decades, including virtually all anyone could want for

the home from tea and coffee services to the humble caddy spoon, and everything from candelabras to cigarette boxes. Unlike many silversmiths of his era who adopted a ‘look’ and stayed with it, Alex’s styles changed through the decades. Whereas in the 1950s his contemporaries were generally significantly influenced by the Scandinavians, post-war modernism prevails with Alex’s work. Having made this observation to him, the immediate response was ‘We were all influenced by the Scandinavians’. Indeed, some Scandinavian influences are apparent in his work as late as the early 1960s, for example in a centrepiece he made for the Royal College of Radiologists in 1962. However, by this time he was also producing styles that sat comfortably with the emerging ‘Swinging Sixties’, as is demonstrated by the 1961 centrepiece with its abstract cover that is illustrated here.

In the 1970s when customers from the Middle East became important buyers, Styles’ studio was ‘enlivened’ by the Islamic influence.

The most intriguing aspect of Alex Styles’ career is that after spending five years in the RAF, when silver can hardly have been the first thing on his mind, he returned home and immediately became a designer of silver. Alex explained, ‘Although silversmithing was not possible at this period, being part of a Section with like-minded people who were in art and crafts of one sort or another, one was therefore fortunate in that one’s awareness and development went on.’ More than 20 years after Alex had retired, we listened fascinated as he gave his views on domestic silver and design in general. These were equally pertinent to today’s designers as they were in his day.

‘Domestic silver has been called “functional sculpture”’, he said. ‘In other words, it has to have the essential quality of sculptural form and its effect on the space around it – but

9. Manufacturers of agricultural machinery.

10. Slough Council was granted a Royal Charter of incorporation of as a municipal borough in 1938, becoming Slough Corporation. This was abolished by the Local Government Act of 1972. On 1 April 1974 it became Slough Borough Council.

it must also be fit for purpose – it must function.’ He showed us an image of what he called his ‘POW service’, the four-piece coffee service he made for the people of Caernarfon to present to HRH Prince Charles on the occasion of his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969. He added, ‘You can’t design without knowing silversmithing techniques.’ He demonstrated his knowledge by referring to a parcel-gilt wine cup made for Thomas Smith after he became a member of the Company’s Court of Assistants.

The stem of the cup featured the Company’s arms using the ‘cut card’ technique and was then carved. This involves slipping a heated, thin outer sleeve over the stem. Alex explained: ‘It has to be marginally smaller than the diameter of the stem, because when heated it expands. After it

Opposite, upper: Enamelled Cigarette Box Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Alex designed table cigarette boxes with enamelled sides from the late 1950s into the early 1960s. This box was made by Padgett & Braham. Greg Denis, an apprentice with the company at the time, identified it to have been made by Vic Le Bossart. The enameller of the side panels has not been identified. It was acquired in 1999 from John Jesse the Decorative Arts dealer of Kensington Church Street, London. His stock gallery and pieces from his private collection were sold at Sotheby’s in 2006. Length of box 16.3cm. London 1957.

Opposite, lower: Square Cigarette Box Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This square silver cigarette box with its black concentric abstract decoration is ‘typical 1960s’. Note the contrast to the 1957 box featured at the opposite upper. Alex was a very versatile designer who moved between varying styles in an apparently seamless way.

By the middle of the 1970s he was designing in the Islamic style for the Middle Eastern market. The box is 10.2cm square. London 1968.

Above: Centrepiece and detail Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This small boat-shaped centrepiece has a superb openwork cover featuring an abstract elongated star design. The silver contrasts well with the bowl’s gilded interior. The design was not achieved mechanically with a die and a press, but by a skilled craftsman using a piercing saw to cut the silver. Length 31.75cm. London 1961.

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has been slipped on, it shrinks so tightens up. It looks simple, but bringing the sleeve on to the stem is difficult.’

He immediately added, ‘However, I would never dream of telling a silversmith how to make anything.’ What fascinated us was the transition from the drawing to the object made by a third party. ‘I would go to the workshop’, Alex explained, ‘and say essentially what I wanted with regard to the underlying shape and the proportions. If it was a large and complex piece such as a mace, I may have said that I wanted to see it at a particular stage to check the proportions. Whenever I drew anything, I could also see it three dimensionally in my mind.’ His advice to new assistants joining his studio in Regent Street was also equally relevant to today’s new silver designers: ‘By all means be aware of the different periods of silver, but go round galleries and become aware of modern pictures and sculpture too.’

Alex Styles’ designs have been exhibited throughout his long career. The first was in April 1963 when Garrard’s decided to mark the ending the previous year of the Assistance to Craftsmen Scheme (see Introduction, p.12).

The Scheme had begun in 1947, the year that Alex had started at Goldsmiths & Silversmiths. The exhibition featured 80 pieces of Alex’s work that had been made under the Scheme, one of the conditions of which was that approved objects had to be signed by the maker or designer.

The abolition of the Scheme meant that Alex Styles’ facsimile signature was no longer required to appear.

However, at Garrard’s, pieces designed by Alex Styles continued to feature his signature, indicating that in just 16 years he had become an integral part of a company that could trace its history back to 1735. Another exhibition followed in 1968. This was a very busy time as commissions were being received from the newly established London Boroughs. ‘There were badges and civic plate to go with them, it was a very busy time for all of us’, Alex recalls. In 1974 ‘Teatime at Garrard’s’ was staged at 112 Regent Street. This was far more than just a commercial venture for the company. Garrard’s involved Twinings, the tea merchants, the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich 464

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with its knowledge of the part British tea clippers played in the world tea trade, and the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths which lent its early 18th-century painting showing a family taking tea. Alex Styles was asked to contribute and suggested a tea service. The initial reaction of his colleagues at Garrard’s was that this was unimaginative, until be explained that he was not contemplating an ordinary service. He proposed a four-piece service in 18-carat green gold, the hot water jug and teapot to have ruby finials and for it to be placed on a gold tray.

The directors approved the expenditure. Admittedly the rubies are industrial as opposed to gem quality. It is unusual in Styles’ oeuvre as it has a textured surface.

However, this was not achieved by hammering with a striated hammer, but was hand-engraved. ‘I wanted a fine sparkly texture’, Alex explained, ‘and you do not get that with using a hammer.’ It is alleged, though Alex cannot recall this, that the craftsman charged with making the piece had to take two days leave half way through the work to avert a nervous breakdown, as he was so concerned at working on such a high-profile project.11

Above: Lion and Unicorn Coronation Bowl Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington This Lion and the Unicorn bowl was no doubt designed by Alex to mark the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The heraldic animals are the symbols of the UK as they are supporters of the coat of arms of the British monarch. The lion represents England and the unicorn Scotland. The mutual ill will between the two creatures is recorded in the traditional nursery rhyme: The lion and the unicorn Were fighting for the crown The lion beat the unicorn All around the town.

Some gave them white bread And some gave them brown; Some gave them plum cake And drummed them out of town.

Given that this was made under the Assistance to Craftsmen Scheme, only a maximum of six could have been made. Therefore, it is a truly limited edition, though it was not retailed as such. It bears the Coronation mark. When asked whether the piece is ‘British post-war modernism’, Alex replied, ‘I suppose it is, it was certainly of its time.’ Width 15.5cm. London 1953.

Opposite: Sauce Boat Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett It may only be a humble sauce boat and stand, but it looks as if it is a jet plane on a runway getting ready to fly. The simple lines of its form certainly convey the impression that it is a ‘flying sauce boat’. Its price certainly flew in 2003 when it was offered at a Christie’s South Kensington Modern Design sale, as it sold for a shade below £1,570. Length 19.8cm. London 1967.

Alex Styles retired from Garrard’s in 1987. However, before he did so there was a major retrospective of his work at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

Although there were 116 exhibits, this was a minute percentage of the objects that Alex Styles had designed. The introduction to the catalogue was by Professor Robert Goodden.

After noting that Alex’s career was over a period when there was ‘a resurgence of vitality in the design of British silver’, he wrote: ‘Garrard’s alone of the retail silversmithing trade have, in the work of Styles and the small group of designers which he has gathered around himself, shared whole-heartedly in the enthusiasm for this striking

Alex Styles’ ‘Signature’ Although Alex Styles trained as a silversmith, he never made silver commercially and never registered a maker’s mark. However, during his 40 years as a designer, the majority of the many pieces he designed for either the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company Ltd or for Garrard & Company Ltd, bear a facsimile of his signature, either preceded by DESIGNER, Designer or Des, the latter two being in the same ‘hand’ as the signature. The signature, which was hand-engraved by a specialist firm, is normally found on the bases of the objects.

Makers’ Marks on silver designed by Alex Styles Both the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company Ltd and Garrard & Company Ltd had their silver made by various firms including Wakely and Wheeler, Edward Barnard, Padgett and Braham and RE Stone as well as Garrard’s subsidiary Nayler Brothers. The pieces will either bear the sponsor’s mark (i.e.

Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company Ltd or Garrard & Company Ltd), or the maker’s mark of the actual maker. Generally the items will also be engraved with the name of the retailer (i.e. the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co Ltd or Garrard & Co Ltd) together with the address 112 Regent Street W1.

change of direction in design and so have added fresh lustre to their famous name.’

On 7 March 2011 Alex Styles won the Lifetime Achievement Award Medal at the Goldsmiths’ Craftsmanship and Design Awards.12

AVAILABILITY Alex Styles was a prolific designer and domestic silver made for Garrard’s stock is generally available on the secondary market. Very occasionally one-off trophies and presentation pieces are offered. Although up to six of any one design could have been made under the Assistance to Craftsmen Scheme that operated from 1947 to 1962, it was unusual for Garrard’s to have made more than one piece. Even after the Scheme ended, with the exception of commemorative items, the production runs of Alex Styles’ designs were normally not large.

11. The service was consigned to a Christie’s jewellery sale by a family trust on 18 June 2003. It sold for £17,925 (hammer price plus Buyer’s Premium).

However, in addition to VAT being payable on the Premium at 17.5 per cent, VAT was also payable on the hammer price. The total cost of the service to the buyer was therefore £21,091.88. From Christie’s catalogue we know that the service’s gross weight is 3145g, that the height of the coffee pot is 21cm and the length of the tray 38cm. Unfortunately the service was stolen, from premises in London’s West End on Sunday 29 August 2010. In the reward advertisement in the Antique Trade Gazette on 10 December 2010, it was revealed that several other valuable items were stolen including a pair of carved emerald earrings weighing 60.2ct, a diamond, malachite and onyx ‘mystery’ clock and a couple of expensive gent’s wristwatches. A reward of up to £50,000 was offered. As the scrap value of the gold tea service was more than this, sadly with the then soaring price of gold bullion, it could well have been consigned to the melting pot.

12. The award is part of the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council’s programme to promote excellence among all engaged in silversmithing, goldsmithing, jewellery and allied crafts in the UK. The Council was founded in 1908.

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KEITH TYSSEN His grandfather gave him a sound grounding in learning to observe, resulting in his developing a ‘suitably’ critical eye. Combining a career in education with that of a designer and silversmith, for decades he has produced significant well-designed pieces that are elegant, simple and useful.

Any design should be apt, well conceived and realised through a well-managed combination of invention, good technique, material, construction and thoughtful finish. It happens that silver in particular, is a naturally responsive, purifying and almost magical material to touch, to work with and to use. Its many natural and material qualities are complementary to my best efforts to capture presence and appeal within the work.

Keith Tyssen Keith Tyssen was born in 1934 at Stannington, west of Sheffield. Brought up in beautiful countryside, it is not surprising that he developed an early interest in natural history. However, this was but one significant influence upon his later life as he explains. ‘I was blessed in the 1940s and 1950s, to have my maternal grandfather’s perceptive concern for my well-being by providing singularly happy experiences. His informed personal interest in art and in the evolution of human creativity, together with his gentle way of teaching, was profoundly important in opening a child’s mind to context and to the world of nature, art, architecture and the elevated craft of making. Time spent with him was full of engaging activity.’

The man that inspired the young Keith was the largely self-taught Ernest Dawson, a stonemason with his own business. Keith continued, ‘Our “expeditions” by bus, tram and train, with a bag filled with hefty drippin’ sandwiches, a flask of sweet tea and a bottle of pop, took in everything.’ Having concluded his long list from Stone Age sites to museum collections, Keith summed it all up with, ‘My grandfather taught me to observe, to be curious about materials and to want to know how things are made and to observe the marks left by the craftsman’s tools.’ Well before Keith Tyssen left Ecclesfield Grammar School in 1949, he knew what he wanted to do – be either an architect or an artist of some sort. Although he enjoyed metalwork lessons at school, silversmithing was not yet on his radar.

1. The famous Arts and Crafts silversmith.

2. William Bennett also taught at the workshops sponsored by the US refiners and bullion dealers Handy and Harman’s Craft Service in the United States from 1947 through to 1951. See the Reginald Hill chapter, p.256. His influence therefore spread well beyond the UK.

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Secondary education over, he won a scholarship to the Sheffield College of Art. Thanks to his grandfather, he started his art education with an advantage. After a foundation year he began his four-year course for the National Diploma in Design. Core Studies for the first two years were strong in drawing and painting, but later other crafts were explored from lithography to terracotta. WE Bennett, who was an apprentice with Leslie Durbin at Omar Ramsden’s1 workshop, taught silver. Keith was attracted to the idea of working with silver and as William Bennett was a good teacher, he elected to take silversmithing. Although Bennett was a good all-rounder, students also benefited from being taught periodically by trade silversmiths who were invited from the industry as part-time instructors.2

Opposite: Exeter University Candelabrum Courtesy Keith Tyssen In the mid-1960s Graham Hughes telephoned Keith and asked if he would like to put forward a design for a ‘splendid pair of candelabra for the Company to gift to the new University of Exeter’. The resulting 15-light design was inspired by a visit to a French château.

Keith recalls, ‘It was a wonderful building which though stripped bare of most furnishings, led the visitor to discover a brilliant and humorous architectural trick. On the ground floor one enters a large reception room with windows all along one side. On the wall opposite there are two significant doorways some distance apart. Each opens directly onto curving stone stairways leading to the upper floor(s) and people exit through either doorway to proceed up the stairs.

‘At the top, visitors find themselves entering another huge room through one of two doors sited side by side. At this point everyone does a double-take, astonished to on seeing those they had last seen leaving the room below but by the other door.

‘My candelabra describe, in a sense, two rising stairways working together and lending a line of upward movement to the merging candles at the top.’ Keith cannot remember the name of the château, so if you know, drop a line to the authors c/o the publisher. Height 56cm. Sheffield 1966.

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to the Sheffield City Council. Keith’s design won the national competition and he made the box at the college. During a conversation with David Mellor, he mentioned that this was not an ideal arrangement because although working in his own time, there were nevertheless interruptions with college matters. David had just moved into 1 Park Lane, Sheffield which was both his studio and home. He kindly gave Keith workspace there and a key so he could come and go as he pleased.

Keith graduated from Sheffield in 1955 with first class honours in his NDD and gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Art. However, his studies were deferred for two years because of his National Service. Keith started his studies at the RCA under Professor Robert Goodden in 1957. Leslie Durbin was a visiting tutor.

Interestingly, in his second year, like Leslie Durbin 20 years before him, Keith Tyssen was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths to design silver for Guildford Cathedral: in his case a Bishop’s Morse and a Verger’s Wand. In 1959 he designed a mace for the Furniture Makers’ Guild and the following year a cigarette box for Stockport Grammar School. While studying in London, he married Brenda, whom he had met at Sheffield College of Art. Most of Keith’s year group at the RCA went into teaching when they graduated. In 1960 he was invited to apply for a lecturer’s post at the Sheffield College of Art. When offered the post, he accepted with conflicting emotions as it meant severing many valued ‘southern’ connections a well as then unfurling opportunities for business across London. At Sheffield he taught art, design, silversmithing and jewellery, but continued to design and make in silver. One of his first commissions was for a cigar box that the local steel manufacturing company, Hadfields, wished to present 468

This arrangement continued into 1963, by which time Keith had established his own workshop in Sheffield. Despite his teaching commitments, there was a steady and impressive flow of commissions. Indeed, in 1965 Keith took on his first apprentice and by the end of the decade he had hired another. As well as silver, he found opportunity to design for the mass market, for example the prototype pieces for stainless steel cutlery for the Co-operative Wholesale Society. During this project, Keith was greatly assisted by and formed a threeyear working partnership with Jack Spencer, an experienced silversmith who had trained at Walker & Hall, where he made many of the prototypes for David Mellor’s products.

In 1968 Keith commented about his silver work, ‘I particularly enjoy designing candelabra. There is great freedom here – only loosely tied to function, but the prime considerations are spatial and sculptural.’ In addition to the monumental – one candelabrum centrepiece made in 1966 and now in the Company’s collection weighs approximately 5kg – he also produced a range of smaller items suitable for gifts, such as jewellery, candlesticks, paper-weights, letter knives and caddy spoons. For part of his solo exhibition at the Crafts Council in 1968 he produced a range of pieces from spice-casters to table lighters and candlesticks based on a repeating 2in cube form. As his wife Brenda was a talented jewellery designer, the workshop sometimes assisted production of her silver jewellery.

A major commitment during the late 1960s was building a home. Having secured a typical steeply sloping plot in Endcliffe, one of John Betjeman’s favourite suburbs of

Opposite: Prototype Candelabrum Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett In the mid-1960s Keith entered a design competition for the Topham Trophy Steeplechase. This event was part of the Grand National Meeting at Aintree. Mirabel Topham advised entrants that ‘any sculpture or any piece of silver suggesting motion or achievement may be appropriate, useful ornaments such as jugs, dishes and trays would obviously be welcomed by any racehorse owner.’ The competition attracted an enormous number of entries each year and was considered a superb opportunity for young designers. Keith’s entry for a low six-light candelabrum with each candleholder set in a concave square accompanied by two pairs both of four and six hors d’oeuvre dishes in the same form and format.

The entry did not win, but the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths commissioned the piece for its Modern Collection. Keith explains, ‘The candelabrum featured here is the first, a prototype made solely to test our practical approach to making this tricky form prior to constructing (especially soldering) the larger pieces for the Goldsmiths’ Company. It was made during the two and a half years when Keith was in partnership with Jack Spencer and it bears their joint makers’ mark. It was purchased by the Collection in 2011 for £3,500. The base measures 17.5cm x 17.5cm. Sheffield 1966.

Above: Paper-weights Courtesy Keith Tyssen ‘As I recall’, mused Keith, ‘I made these nine 1in solid cubes as “desk toys”, in gilded sterling silver during the early 1970s at the request of Graham Hughes. He had seen the gilt-brass originals I had made as “teaching aids” in the College of Arts & Crafts at Sheffield. Those brass cubes evolved when I was teaching first year students the basic processes of metalworking which those hollow brass versions embodied: accurate measuring, marking-out, cutting, sawing, filing, fitting, soldering, polishing and generally some simple techniques for surface enrichment. My students were learning how to make hollow cubes. Those I made in gilded sterling silver were solid and, therefore, marvellously heavy. I sold several to collectors, including Sir Richard Powell, then Chairman of the Institute of Directors. One of his was in 22-carat gold and being solid, was amazingly heavy … and today worth a small fortune.

Each 2.54cm x 2.54cm x 2.54cm. Sheffield early 1970s.

Sheffield, Keith worked with the talented local architect RV Walker to design a house. Keith oversaw its construction. ‘It was an “upside down” property,’ Keith explained, ‘the entrance being at the middle level, one went upstairs to the spacious living accommodation and downstairs to the bedrooms.’ The result was stunning. As the Sheffield Morning Telegraph commented, ‘it is almost unbelievable that the view through a labyrinth of trees on to rolling country is barely a mile from the centre of Sheffield’.3 The building had been designed to convert bedrooms into a studio-workshop when the couple’s four children had left home. However, his dream was not to be as Keith and Brenda separated and the house was sold when the last child had left the nest.

Keith’s reputation was firmly established by the end of the 1960s. Indeed, in 1970 the British Government commissioned him to design a ceremonial mace as the UK Parliamentary ‘Independence Gift’ to the Parliament of Mauritius. Commissions flowed in from livery companies and institutions as well as from individuals.

For example, in 1974/5 Mary, Duchess of Devonshire commissioned him to design and make a large display dish in which flowers of camellias, her favourite bloom, would float. She presented it to the University of Exeter to mark her retirement as its first Chancellor. The Duchess asked to see how the material form was being achieved at key stages during progress from raw sheet silver into the finished piece. In 1976 Lady Elizabeth Cavendish commissioned a champagne mug for Sir John Betjeman’s 70th birthday. On the day, he telephoned

3. 26 February 1968.

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Keith saying ‘He adored it and would use it every morning for his champagne – “essential to get me started” – and each evening for his Horlicks.’ Keith recalled how a few weeks later, ‘We were invited for lunch and when Sir John’s silver mug was filled, he passed it across the table inviting me to take the first sip.’

In 1990, the first of his then new ‘experiments’ with pewter was a 12in bowl with a double skin that gave it ‘visual weight and a nice sense of volume’. In that year he exhibited this at ‘Top Drawer’, a trade exhibition held regularly in London.4 The bowl won the Best New

Keith enjoyed teaching in the 1960s and 1970s, but this changed in the 1980s. The art college transformed into a polytechnic, which in turn became incorporated into Sheffield Hallam University. Keith had progressed through the various lecturers’ grades to become Head of an expanded Design Department. Many administrative aspects of the role were not to his liking and the fury of battling for funds in an era of cutbacks was certainly not. Also his observations were that the students’ learning experience was moving perceptibly in the wrong direction. In 1988, the Principal told Keith he was ideally placed for a professorial post but he was by then determined to take early retirement, believing it was time to concentrate on designing and making.

Opposite, upper: Double-skin Bowl Courtesy Keith Tyssen Keith’s design for this double-skin bowl was first shown in 1995 at Top Drawer, a regular London trade exhibition, where it was awarded ‘Best New Product’ in the whole show. That piece was in pewter, but this example is one of perhaps seven made to date (2013) in Britannia silver since 2005. Another is in the Goldsmiths’ Company Collection and has a darkly oxidised ‘moody’ finish. There are two others combining copper and Britannia silver, both darkly patinated and hallmarked under the revised Hall-marking Regulations of 2007. Diameter 17.5cm.

Sheffield 2007.

In his RCA days, Keith was introduced to pewter when the then International Tin Research Association organised a competition to encourage ‘fresh’ ideas for pewter. In recent times pewter has not contained lead. Today the alloy is usually 90-95 per cent tin, with the remainder being largely copper and antimony. While teaching he worked with Robert Welch as a juror on the Royal Society of Art’s Design Bursary committee to encourage students to think in terms of products for manufacture in pewter. However, the alloy can be a disaster if used carelessly in a silver environment, because if tin comes into contact with silver that is being heated (e.g. annealed or soldered) it burns into the surface of the silver, creating a ‘crater’ that is impossible to disguise. Understandably colleges therefore do not encourage working with pewter in silver workshops. However, Keith enthuses over what he sees as positive qualities in pewter, ‘It is an enjoyable material in that it has a quietly calming stillness in its “personality”.

It is easier and quicker to work than silver and is tactile and warm, whereas silver seeks attention and is colder to the touch’. He says this is why sometimes he turns his attention to working in pewter, a metal that he considers an ‘undeservedly sidelined material’.

4. The events provide retailers with the opportunity to source new design-led products.

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Opposite, below: Camellia Bowl Courtesy Keith Tyssen This large silver dish is intended to be placed on a dining table to display floating camellias. Keith recalls, ‘Lady Mary, Duchess of Devonshire chose to commission a silver piece to mark her retirement as the first Chancellor of Exeter University and made contact with me because she “loved my two candelabra given to the University by the Goldsmiths’ Company”. She invited me for tea at the Dowagers’ House at Endsor, where she explained the sort of gift she had in mind. Over a few weeks we discussed my sketched ideas and when “final drawings” were ready, Lady Mary announced she would like to see the proposed design in the location where it was conceived. The chauffer-driven Bentley duly eased into the driveway of 53, the house I built at Endcliffe, and out stepped Lady Mary together with Lord and Lady Cecil, all of whom made an immediate hit with my three small daughters. My best “presentation drawing” met with enthusiasm and in giving her approval to proceed to make the piece, Lady Mary expressed her wish to see the silver in most of its transitional stages from flat sheet to the final form of this design in silver. It was a joy to have a client so interested in the processes and this resulted in many meetings at Endsor, occasionally including her daughter Lady Elizabeth. It was at one of those several afternoon teas that I was introduced to Sir John Betjeman. The dish progressed well, but over such a wide rim, the challenge was to achieve a taut surface. My idea was to convey fluidity and the tension one observes in the meniscus surface of water, and to do this by using both flat, linear chasing and smooth-planished repoussé, the embossed relief close to the upturned “scalloped” outer rim. In this I was greatly assisted by a masterly silver chaser, Bill Richardson. The engraving at the centre is by the masterly engraver George Lukes. You are asked to imagine this dish with several camellias floating and a multitude of sparkling droplets of water clustering around the rim and the embossing. It was my pleasure in 1975 to see Lady Mary handing over the silver dish to Lord Amory during a formal luncheon at her London home in Eton Square, the inner courtyard bordered by many camellias in bloom.’ Diameter 43cm. Sheffield 1975.

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Product Award and gave Keith valuable publicity in Elle Decoration. Keith has his pewterware made locally in Sheffield. Being determined to have it done properly, he not only hand-makes his prototypes, makes most of the forming tools and oversees the production process, but also personally hand-finishes each piece. Five years later he won the same prize, this time for a doubleskinned pewter beaker. Making items with a double skin has become a speciality of Keith’s, with the first significant one being a silver bowl in 1973. In 1997 Keith’s pewter flower vases, bowls and beakers were selected by Anouska Hempel, the renowned British designer, for her luxurious five-star Hempel Hotel, one of London’s premier designer boutique hotels. ‘Suddenly pewter was being enjoyed again’, beamed Keith.

Throughout the 1990s, Keith reckons that perhaps 65 per cent of his time was devoted to developing new products in pewter. Nevertheless, silver was not forgotten as he undertook some private and ecclesiastical commissions (both Christian and Judaic), further candlesticks for Wolfson College (Cambridge) and the ceremonial mace for Humberside University. As the millennium approached, the Assay Master in Sheffield invited Keith, Alex Brogden, Chris Knight and Brett Payne to consider a great silver commission. The result was the Millennium Punchbowl and Ladle.

Since the Millennium, Keith has been giving greater attention to silver. Unlike his pewter work, he principally makes every silver piece himself, except of course when it is necessary or logical to use a specialist out-worker such as a spinner, caster or engraver. Despite his years, Keith enjoys experimenting. In 2009 he said, ‘I am working on a thought to “mellow” the popular notion that silver is a 472

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bother because it requires constant cleaning. Therefore, I am darkening (oxidising) some pieces of silver and then highlighting those surfaces or areas that will naturally become rubbed during years of use. In a way this mimics the appearance of a well-used ancient artefact.’ He is also combining silver with mixed metals. Since 2007, UK hallmarking regulations have been modified to equate with EU conventions, so the silver portion of a mixed-metal item may now be hallmarked, as long as a further mark ‘+ METAL’ is also added. One of the first silversmiths to explore these new regulations, Keith has designed and made two 7in diameter double-skinned bowls where the rim and the interior is silver, the underside copper and

Above: Cube Condiments Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett In 1968 Keith had a solo exhibition at the Crafts Council in London. Many of the pieces, which ranged from condiments to candlesticks, were based on a 2in cube, the larger pieces such as sugar castors being formed from two cubes. These condiments, although made later, are part of the ‘cube range’. The interior of the salt is gilded to prevent the salt corroding the silver. Keith designed a ‘bayonet’ fitting closure (underneath) especially for these ‘cube’ pieces. The top of both pots is slightly convex.

Measurement 5 x 5 x 5cm. Sheffield 1978.

Opposite: Chocolate Pot Courtesy Styles Silver Hungerford, photographer Michael Pilkington Keith designed this chocolate pot while in his second year at the Royal College of Art. One of the set projects was for each student to have a design made by Tom Boucher, then the School’s legendary Technician. It was not just a case of handing over the design and sitting back, but of the student working alongside the master craftsman. The purpose of the project was two-fold. First, that the student experienced preparing the technical specification for a craftsman and also communicating his wishes as the piece was being made. Secondly, it provided the student with an opportunity to benefit from the practical knowledge built up by an ‘old pair of hands’ through working at the bench for many years. Keith decided to part with the pot in 2011. It was purchased by a gentleman who was looking for a teapot for making just two cups of tea. Keith was delighted it had at long last found a home where it would be used on a daily basis, albeit not the original purpose for which it was designed. It bears the maker’s mark of Tom Boucher. Height 16cm. London 1958.

the foot is silver; the copper has been oxidised to give it a dark bluish-brown hue. He calls this approach, ‘metal that has moods’.

very core, he explained.’ We are now benefiting from the grounding his grandfather gave him 70 years ago.

So how does Keith view his role as a silversmith? ‘It functions like an obsession and I take it seriously. I’m not commercial enough I suppose. I’m not especially efficient, and spend far too long toying with aspects of the design’, he responded. ‘I don’t like “flashy” designs, I usually prefer the quietly beautiful as being something one can enjoy to live with forever. Ideas always bubbling in my head lead the way. It gives me pleasure to mooch in museums.’ He then waxed lyrical about a Minoan silver bowl he had seen. ‘It has “mood” and there is love at its

AVAILABILITY Keith Tyssen’s work is not easy to find on the secondary market. Commissions may be placed direct with him or seen at the various events at which he has stands in the UK. See Who’s Who in Gold and Silver, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Directory at www.whoswhoingoldandsilver.com for his contact and website details. His website features a useful archive of his work.

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GRAHAM WATLING He became an arts and crafts teacher but also spent a great deal of his free time following his passion of silversmithing. His output was such that he was able to exhibit at major exhibitions in the UK as well as prestigious events overseas.

However, when he reached a senior position he found that more of his time was taken with administration. After 17 years he left teaching to establish his home and workshop in the idyllic National Trust village of Lacock in Wiltshire.

Many years ago, when a young teacher and living in the Cotswolds near Burford, I had the privilege to live near and know J. Robertson Scott.1 On the wall of his house he had the following quotation from Virgil carved on a plaque: ‘O more than happy countryman, if he but knew his good fortune.

Perhaps we never know our good fortune – but I think I’ve found mine!’

Graham Watling, 1982 Silversmith of Lacock

Born at Hull in North Humberside in 1930, Graham Watling undertook his National Service with the Royal Marines after leaving school. Afterwards he studied silversmithing at Loughborough College of Art.2 His course over, in the mid-1950s he decided to become a teacher of arts and crafts. Whereas many craftsmen who become educators tend to move away from their own workshops, once established in his teaching role, Graham spent a great deal of his spare time silversmithing. His mark was registered at the London Assay Office in 1959.

He made a good range of domestic pieces as well as jewellery. His output was sufficient for him to exhibit at most of the major crafts exhibitions in the UK, including the Craft Council of Great Britain and London’s Craft Centre. His work was also exhibited overseas, most notably at the World Fairs in Montreal (1967) and Tokyo (1970). By September 1969 he had been appointed Head of the Art and Craft Department at the new comprehensive at Melksham, Wiltshire. It was in the spring of that year while in Wiltshire that he caught a glimpse of

1. Founder of the Countryman magazine.

2. This institution dates back to 1909, when the Loughborough Technical Institute was founded in the centre of the market town. After World War II, the Institute fragmented into four colleges including the Loughborough College of Technology, Loughborough Training College and the Loughborough College of Art. The first of these, then known as the Loughborough College of Advanced Technology, received university status in 1966. Although the training college became part of the University of Loughborough in 1977, the art college (then named the Loughborough College of Art and Design) did not do so until 1998.

3. A ‘chocolate box’ village, it has been used on many occasions for filming, including the Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Moll Flanders and Harry Potter movies and more recently the BBC series Cranford.

4. Lacock, 1982. The book features reproductions of a series of superb series of drawings of Lacock and it environs.

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something that made a lasting impression on him – Lacock,3 one of England’s most idyllic villages, untouched by modern development.

Graham’s first glimpse was from the by-pass on the main Melksham-Chippenham. In his book, Discovering Lacock: An Illustrated Guide and Personal Tribute4 he wrote: ‘I saw the weathered limestone houses nestling down within the little Bye Brook valley; the spire of the church pushing up amongst them, the gentle swell of Bowden Hill in the distance. This view made an impression, because even today I frequently take this route past the village when returning home.’ The Watlings fell in love with the village where, ‘the buildings stood cheek by jowl, almost timeless, a harmonious huddle of simple forms and proportions, despite the variety of styles.’ They had hoped to buy a house there. At that stage they did not know that most of the homes in the village were owned by the National Trust. Although a house was for sale, it was not to become their residence and they settled in Melksham, though they made frequent visits to Lacock. After an Opposite: Pot Pourri Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This relatively early pot pourri by Graham Watling was acquired by the Collection in 1990, when it was sold as being by Gwendoline Whicker. It was entered in the inventory as such and was regarded as a Whicker piece until Derek Styles spotted that it was incorrectly catalogued on the website. It is certainly unlike his later style. The openwork cover surmounted by a crown resting on leaves features dog roses and foliage. It looks good displayed in a home. Height 13cm. London 1966.

GRAHAM WATLING

GRAHAM WATLING

In the July/August 1974 issue of House & Garden, John Manners wrote a double-page feature on Graham Watling. Although entitled ‘How to get away from it all and do your own thing’, the article was in essence devoted to the making of a silver teapot. However, it does briefly cover what is described as Graham’s ‘oneman break-out’ from teaching. The feature explains how,

Opposite, upper: Bowl, 1973 Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington There is a fluidity in this bowl that one does not normally associate with Graham Watling’s work. Was it inspired by a boat upon the ocean’s waves? We shall never know. The ‘Benney bark’ texturing to the ‘wave’ foot gives British modernity to a bowl that has Scandinavian influences. Width 32cm. London 1973.

interval Graham started making enquiries with the National Trust regarding a possible workshop in the village. Coincidentally the Trust had been considering sponsoring a craftsman to live in Lacock. They asked to see examples of his work and much to his surprise, they not only offered him a workshop, but a house as well.

The only condition was that he should live in the village and make himself available to visitors.

He had been teaching for about 17 years by this time, had secured a senior position and realised that if he stayed in education, there was every possibility of further promotion. Teaching gave him a steady income, a good

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pension and satisfaction, as he enjoyed his role, ‘which had become a complete way of life’. However, he also realised that he was spending more time on administration and less time silversmithing. The fact of the matter was that he was passionate about silver, so he decided to give up teaching and become a self-employed craftsman in a village that he also loved. In 1972 the Watlings moved to Lacock, the stone-built house being on the corner of East Street. Initially there was some opposition to a business moving into the village, where the only retail outlets were the Post Office and the National Trust shop, but this did not last for long. His workshop and small showroom opened for business in the late summer.

Opposite, lower: Coaster, 1987 Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Graham’s use of an applied polished stalactite-type texturing against a frosted ground with a polished surface below is a simple but effective decoration. Diameter 11.9cm. London 1987.

Above, right: Cream Jug, 1973 Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This hand-raised cream jug seems to belong to no particular era.

With the exception of the handle, it could be Georgian. However, it forms part of Graham’s ‘modern classical’ silver that has a timeless appeal. Height 10.7cm. London 1973.

Below: Bangle Box and detail Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett The ‘Bangle Box’ is a clever concept, but one wonders whether it was purchased for its practicality, or just an interesting novelty.

Diameter 7cm. London 1983.

having designed the teapot and obtained the required silver for its making, Graham goes about making it in the traditional way – raising the main body by hand and having to anneal it at regular intervals; making and then soldering on the base; soldering the constituent parts of the lid and spout together (and soldering the spout into place); polishing the finished piece and sending it for hallmarking. With cardboard cut-outs of various parts and a plasticine prototype model of the spout, it certainly gives an interesting insight for the general public into the process. More fascinating from our viewpoint is the time taken to make it, the cost of the silver and the retail price. The silver is estimated at ‘about £40 at today’s [early 1974

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prices]’,5 the making time ‘approximately 60 hours’ and then there is ‘hallmarking £1’. The retail price is given as ‘at least £150’. In 1974 the average weekly wages in the UK were £41.70.6 This gives an interesting insight into the cost of new silver objects in the mid-1970s. It also demonstrates that Graham Watling was very much a true craftsman.

He was a ‘hammer man’, a person who enjoyed working at the bench and was passionate about silver. About five years later the Watlings had their original wish to buy property in the village fulfilled. The old butcher’s shop opposite the National Trust property they were occupying became vacant. It was one of the few freehold properties in the village that did not belong to the Trust. The timing was fortuitous because after five years of trading, the Watlings’ business was fast expanding its premises, with both the volume of silver being made and the number of visitors growing beyond expectations. An offer was made, accepted and the finance secured. As well as living accommodation and a large shop, there was a barn and a slaughter-house to

5. Silver was then approximately £2 a Troy ounce.

6. Source Hansard, 6 December 2004, Written Answer from Mr Stephen Timms to Mr Michael Meacher.

7. It was founded by Ela, Countess of Salisbury in 1232, the daughter of William, Earl of Salisbury. The manor and village of Lacock formed the Abbey’s endowment. With the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, the Abbey, manor and village was purchased by William Sharrington (the High Sheriff of Wiltshire and courtier at Henry’s Court). It later passed to the Talbot family by marriage. Charles Henry Fox Talbot, the pioneer of photography, bequeathed the estate to his niece Matilda Gilchrist-Clark in 1918. She gave it to the National Trust in 1944.

8. The clipping in the Library at the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in London is dated, but does not have the name of the publication.

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Opposite, upper: Condiment Set Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This is an example of Graham Watling’s collet texturing, which was part of his repertoire at the same time as his ‘filigree’ range. It is a light horizontal texturing, which unlike the ‘Benney Bark’ finish, is later polished. When this condiment set was purchased in 2000, we were pleased to see that the original spoons had survived, but disappointed that the blue liners to the mustard and salt were missing. Specialist firms can make bespoke replacements, but do not under-estimate the likely cost. The liners cost 20 per cent of the price of the condiments. Either liners or gilding are required to protect the silver from salt or mustard, though on occasions Watling used green ceramic liners, which were also fit for the purpose. Height of the mustard 4cm. London 1975.

Opposite, lower: Group Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington By the mid-1970s Graham had progressed from his ‘modern classical’ style to texturing and the use of ‘filigree’. However, although influenced by the leaders in the field, he did not emulate their earlier output, but stamped his own mark on his work. Devlin introduced filigree in the late 1960s, initially achieving the effect by hand-working with wire that was painstakingly soldered. By the 1970s, so as to reduce costs, Devlin had largely replaced this by piercing silver with the flame of an acetylene torch to achieve a similar but less glamorous effect. Graham was the only other silversmith to produce a significant body of work incorporating filigree. However, at Lacock there were no short cuts with an acetylene torch, though Graham did combine openwork filigree with placing ‘filigree’ shapes on silver, which would have saved some time. The work is not as fine as Devlin’s. Unlike Devlin, he seemingly did not make shades for lighting. Filigree can be easily cleaned using silver dip. If the piece is too large to be dipped into the solution, it can be applied with a shaving brush. Wash the piece well in warm soapy water afterwards, otherwise the chemical will discolour the silver. The rose bowl (centre of image) has a height of 12cm. The pieces in the group are London 1975-80, with the exception of the rose bowl which is 1995.

convert into workshops. Graham Watling wrote in his book, ‘We moved into these premises just before the Silver Jubilee of our Queen in 1977; quite a celebration for the country and ourselves. We have never looked back, enjoying a whole way of life which involves pursuing a wonderful craft in one of the most beautiful and traditional of English villages.’

Graham’s book was published in 1982, a date that coincided with the 750th anniversary of the foundation of Lacock Abbey7 and, coincidentally, of the Watlings’ 10th anniversary of living in the village. It prompted the publication in October 1982 of a one-page feature in an unknown magazine.8 Entitled ‘A place in the country’, its author Michelle Burns visits the Watlings at what is now called the Lacock Gallery at 15 East Street, Lacock. The showroom then had the old butcher’s stable door type. Here Graham Watling’s range of silver including goblets, rose bowls, boxes and candlesticks was on display together with his gold and silver jewellery. The showroom, which was run by Jean his wife, also included work by other craftsmen and women, embracing jewellery, engraved lead crystal, brasswork and hand-crafted country furniture. It was open every day with the exception of Christmas Day

and attracted over 50,000 visitors annually.

The Lacock Gallery maintained a reasonable array of small stock items. Generally the pieces were modern in design with Graham having a penchant for texturing from the 1970s, which make take the form of a ‘basket weave’, ‘bark effect’ or ‘frosted icicles’ against a polished surface. On the other hand, the simplicity of plain handraising with hammer marks being evident was part of his repertoire too. While the stock items were made with a price range in mind, he also undertook commissions for special occasions for private, commercial and ecclesiastical clients.

Graham Watling died in 1996. His children Jane and John have taken over the workshops and gallery, which they run as Watling Goldsmiths of Lacock. They design and make their own range of quality jewellery.

AVAILABILITY Graham Watling’s work periodically appears on the secondary market.

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ROBERT WELCH He trained as a silversmith and loved the craft. However, he combined a professional career of designing silver with designing for industrial production. His creative output was very diverse, ranging from stainless steel for Old Hall Tableware to bathroom fittings. As he once remarked, ‘the silver workshop can become the laboratory of design and research for industrial forms’.

All aspiring silversmiths, it would appear, begin by a careful consideration of single everyday objects and from this emerges the type of silver at which English silversmiths have always excelled. Unpretentious, functional and usually simple and forthright in conception, it is the hallmark of Robert Welch’s work.

Chris Walton When Director, Design & Technology Department, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

Robert Radford Welch was born at Hereford in 1929 where his mother, Dorothy Perkins, had attended the local art school from 1914-7. In 1925 she married Leonard Welch and after Robert was born, the couple moved to Malvern, Worcestershire. Although Dorothy had given up painting at about the time of her marriage, the home in which Robert was brought up was filled with her canvases, watercolours and drawings, as well as past copies of The Studio magazine.1 Writing in his 1986 book,2 Robert recalls that the combination of it all ‘added a strange excitement to art for me’. He attempted to emulate his mother’s work and received every encouragement to explore the world of art. Having completed his education at the nearby Hanley Castle Grammar School, the natural progression for the young Welch was art school. He started at the Malvern School of Art in 1946 and sat the intermediate examination for the National Diploma in Design in the summer of 1950.3 The course at Malvern followed the then tradition of life classes and studying anatomy. He later commented, ‘who is to say, even today, that this was not the most excellent

1. An influential British publication founded by Charles Holme in 1893 as an informative monthly periodical featuring contemporary fine and decorative art.

2. Welch, Robert, Hand & Machine – Robert Welch: Designer * Silversmith (Chipping Campden 1986). All quotes from Robert Welch in this chapter are taken from this book with the kind permission of the Welch family.

3. His studies were interrupted from 1947-9 with National Service – he served as a wireless operator in the Royal Air Force.

4. A Birmingham silversmith who began designing for Liberty in 1900. In 1910 he was appointed Head of the Metalwork Department at the Birmingham School of Art in Margaret Street.

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training, if not the most perfect introduction to design?’

However, students were given the opportunity to study other disciplines. Robert chose the weekly metalwork class taught by a Miss Ballard who had studied under Bernard Cuzner.4 In Robert Welch’s words, ‘It was with her encouragement that I decided to embark on a career as a silversmith.’

From 1950-2 his studies started in earnest at Birmingham College of Art where his NDD course was taught by Cyril Shiner and Ralph Baxendale. One of his fellow students was John Limbrey, of whom we shall

Opposite: Candelabrum Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This is perhaps Welch’s most iconic early piece of silver. In the late 1950s the Goldsmiths’ Company agreed to participate in an exhibition showcasing the best of modern British craftsmanship that was to tour the States over a two-year period. Three silversmiths were approached: Benney and Osman made ecclesiastical pieces, while Welch suggested a domestic candelabrum. Normally he would draw his proposal for a design, but on this occasion he made a model. He took wooden doweling rods and turned them on a lathe in a random series of rounded and waisted shapes of varying lengths, and constructed it using a series of randomly shaped cross bars. His break with convention was inspired by visiting a major exhibition of ‘action painting’ by the US painter Jackson Pollock, where the paint is dribbled, splashed and smeared as opposed to being carefully applied to the canvas. The result is a piece that has movement. He later commented, ‘Looking back on the design, I felt elated with my pursuit of the accidental effect. It was marvellous to tackle silver in this free, casual way.’ Height 37cm. Birmingham 1958.

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learn more later. Robert recalled, ‘At the time it seemed quite impossible to contemplate being able to earn one’s living practising this craft.’ In the early 1950s, the UK was still suffering economically from World War II, added to which silver was a luxury good that attracted Purchase Tax at 110 per cent. Nevertheless, against this background, Robert proceeded to the Royal College of Art where he decided, ‘I must pursue the possibility of designing for industrial production’. He studied under Professor Robert Goodden in the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery from 1952-5. He shared a flat in Chelsea with Gerald Benney, who was the year above him and John Donald,5 who was in his year.

David Mellor was also a contemporary, being at the College from 1950-4. In the first term of his second year Robert went to the Sheffield factory of George Wolstenholm for a fortnight, where he made, with assistance, stainless steel blades with a gilt steel tang.6 Back at the RCA he fitted them into acrylic handles and they became the first pieces of cutlery he made.

During the summer of 1953, Robert was one of a group of design students from the RCA and Kingston College of Art to work for a few weeks in Norway.7 This proved to be a significant event in his life, for of all the designers of his generation, he was perhaps the one most influenced by the design style of the Nordic countries. As he wrote in 1986, ‘Scandinavia loomed large as an influence in the midfifties; the philosophy of the Scandinavians, so popular at the time, designing simple, everyday objects that were functional and beautiful and which most people could afford, greatly appealed to me,’ As Robert was the only silversmith, he worked with Theodore Olsen whose Bergen 482

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factory specialised in enamelware. He made two pieces of silver while there.

One was a vase, which he intended to enamel, but time ran out. Not only was this purchased by the Bergen Museum, but also Olsen offered him a job as a designer. Clearly the Bergen silversmith could spot talent. The following year there was another visit to Scandinavia and this was to be lifechanging. Robert won a scholarship to visit Sweden to attend a design course organised by the Swedish Council of Industrial Design. It was while walking through Stockholm that he chanced across something that added a very important aspect to his work, for in the window of the Skandinaviska Banken,8 there was a display of drawings, dies, models and finished pieces of domestic stainless steel designed by Sigurd Persson9 made by AB Silver & Stal.10 This was the first occasion when Robert saw the possibility of designing pieces to be made in stainless steel.

He decided to specialise in stainless steel during his final year at the RCA. He literally started at the very beginning of the production chain by visiting Firth Brown Steels11 and Samuel Fox & Company, both of which specialised in

Opposite, upper: Condiment Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett This condiment is a link between the range he made for Heal’s in London’s Tottenham Court Road and stock for his own studio shop at Chipping Campden. The mustard was made in 1968 when he was supplying Heal’s and the salt and pepper in 1970, the year after he opened his own retail outlet in the Cotswolds. Compare this to the 1964 condiment set in the group photograph on p.486. Here there is a move away from the sleek Scandinavian shape towards a rounded English one. Height of salt and pepper 9.75cm. Birmingham 1968 and 1970.

Opposite, lower: Tankard Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett It is unusual to find modern lidded tankards. While this is clearly influenced by the 18th-century designs, its lines have a modern elegance. Hand-raised, it is of ‘good gauge’, which is a phrase silver afficionados use instead of ‘it’s heavy’. Height 15.6cm. London 1990.

Above: Cutlery Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington It is a tribute to Robert Welch that this cutlery pattern has been in production for over 50 years. In the early 1960s he entered two cutlery designs into a competition in the US. However, having submitted his entries, he felt that they were too avant-garde, so he set about designing a modern style that paid tribute to the best traditions of English cutlery. He called it Alveston after the small, tranquil Warwickshire village just beyond the eastern outskirts of Stratford-upon-Avon where he had his home. It was launched in 1963 and received a Design Centre Award in 1965.

Originally made by Old Hall in stainless steel, it has also been made in silver. Robert Welch Designs Limited in bright and satin finish stainless steel, but it is now known as RW1. Sheffield 1967.

making stainless steel. Firth Brown introduced him to J & J Wiggin Limited12 of Bloxwich, just north of Birmingham.

The company, with its Old Hall range of stainless steel, was the only UK producer of tableware in the metal at that time. Robert made his initial visit to Old Hall during the first term of his final year at the RCA in his open 1923 Lancia Lambda. It transpired that Leslie Wiggin (Chairman) and his brother Wilfred (Managing Director) were passionate about Lancias and Robert could hardly get them to concentrate on the reason for his visit. During the Easter of 1955 Robert visited Copenhagen in connection with researching his diploma thesis entitled ‘The Design and Production of Stainless Steel Tableware’.13 His diploma

5. A jeweller who subsequently was favoured by HRH Princess Margaret.

6. The projection from the blade that holds it in the handle.

7. He used a travelling scholarship awarded when he was at Birmingham to finance the visit.

8. Scandinavian Bank 9. Sigurd Persson (1914-2003) was one of the most famous Swedish modern designers of jewellery, hollowware (i.e. goblets, jugs and vases etc.) and glass known for its elegant sculptural forms.

10. A manufacturer of high-quality household products founded in 1933 that specialised in stainless steel items.

11. Brown Firth Research Laboratories invented stainless steel in 1912. John Brown and Company and Thomas Firth & Sons established the laboratories in 1908. The two companies merged in 1930 to form Firth Brown Steels.

12. The company was founded in 1893. In the early 1920s, it replaced its chromiumplated range of bathroom fittings with stainless steel ones which it branded Old Hall. From 1928 it started exploring using stainless steel for tableware, producing the world’s first stainless steel teapot in 1930. Four years later it sub-let a stand from Firth Brown Steels and exhibited its Old Hall range, which was very well received. The steel company commissioned the silversmith Harold Stabler to design tea services for Wiggins. During World War II Wiggins made chains for the Royal Navy, but resumed work at Old Hall in 1945. In 1970 the company was absorbed in to the Prestige Group as UK companies amalgamated to resist overseas predators.

By the 1980s, the US company Oneida was the largest supplier of stainless steel. It bought Wiggins in 1982 and closed it two years later.

13. Apart from the services Harold Stabler designed for Old Hall, all the pieces illustrated were by Scandinavian designers.

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The top floor of the Mill was vacant and Robert secured a three-year lease, spending most of the summer fitting out part of the floor as a workshop and the rest as a studiooffice-bedroom where he slept on a truckle bed.

Opposite: Candlesticks Courtesy The Keatley Trust, photographer Peter Mennim When asked what appealed to him about these candlesticks, John Keatley immediately replied, ‘The basis of my collection is to acquire pieces that break new ground. I also like the connection with the pair of 12-branch candelabra made for the Goldsmiths’ Company in 1969.’

These too have beaded rods that were made with a 19th-century machine for making ball winders for hunter watches. John considers Welch was a superlative designer. If he has a mild criticism about these candlesticks, it is that they were spun as opposed to handcrafted. Hand-raising gives a certain nuance to an object: somewhat like comparing a production line car to a hand-built vehicle such as a Rolls Royce. Only five or six pairs were made. A pair was offered at Bonhams in May 2002. The Pearson Silver Collection was the underbidder. The same situation happened at Sotheby’s a couple of years later – the Keatley Trust was victor on both occasions because it wanted a set of four. Both collections did much to raise price levels in the early 21st century. Height 23.5cm. Birmingham 1972.

piece was an entrée dish with a removable three-portion liner. He won the RCA’s Prize for Design in Three Dimensions and the College’s Silver Medal.

The entrée dish design was purchased by Old Hall before Robert had left the RCA and more designs for the company followed, including a condiment set and a tea service. It is no surprise that by the time of his graduation, he already 484

had been engaged by Old Hall as a Design Consultant. As he was required to be at Bloxwich one day a week, the Wiggin brothers suggested that he should be based in the Midlands. Professor Goodden wrote to his friend, the furniture designer Sir Gordon Russell, who was based at Broadway in Worcestershire, for suggestions. Sir Gordon immediately thought of the Silk Mill at Chipping Campden where his friend George Hart,14 then aged 73, was working.

Above: Cotswold Tea Pot Courtesy The Keatley Trust. Photographer Charlotte Whitehead, Archivist at Robert Welch Designs Limited ‘It is iconic – a lovely oval shape – a most beautiful tea pot’, remarks John Keatley. ‘With the Cotswold tea pot Robert Welch has got it just right’, he added as he looked at what is the prototype for the design with the ivory handle and knob. With a beautifully made flush hinge, which is more common with a box than a teapot, it is a very special piece for those whom connoisseurs refer to as having ‘the eye’. An example is in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Craft Council’s collections, while the Pearson Silver Collection has one made in 2002. The other pieces in the service lack the appeal of the tea pot. Height 10.5cm. Birmingham 1971.

In the late autumn of 1955, with the workshop only just operational, the first silver commission was received. This was for a pair of reliquaries for the Church of St Thomas of Canterbury in London’s Fulham Road. When the two capsules containing the sacred relics arrived – one a fragment of the true cross, the other a bone fragment of St Thomas À Becket – he hid them on a beam that spanned the workshop as he had no safe. Vowing ‘not to use even the mildest oath when things went wrong lest retribution should fall on my head’, the work on the reliquaries progressed ‘slowly and painstakingly’. In the autumn of that year, there was another significant event. He received a letter from Christine Foyle, owner of Foyles Bookshop in London’s Charing Cross Road. She had seen Robert’s work in the Studio Year Book of Decorative Art for 1955 and asked if he would like to have an exhibition in Foyles Art Gallery the following year. Robert maintained that this was the catalyst for his becoming an industrial designer.

The exhibition took place in September 1956 and Robert displayed silver from his RCA days, together with a few more recent commissions and examples of his Old Hall designs in stainless steel. He shared the gallery with an artist who was a friend of Lady Edwina Mountbatten.

There were few visitors. However, Lady Mountbatten visited her friend and bought some domestic silver. More importantly, AE Halliwell, Vice Principal of London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts and Head of its School of

14. In 1902, Charles Robert Ashbee, a prime mover of the English Arts and Crafts Movement, transferred his Guild of Handicraft from London to the Old Silk Mill at Chipping Campden. George Hart, a silversmith, moved with the Guild, but stayed on when it failed in 1908. Descendants of George Hart, who died in 1973, now man the Hart Workshop.

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exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1958, my first encounter with action painting, was more than just stimulating.’19 John Limbrey arrived after the constituent parts of the candelabrum had been cast. Although Robert had soldered the candle sockets to the sticks, John finished the assembly of the piece, including cutting the connecting pieces and the task of soldering the uprights to the horizontal supports – which was no easy task. From now on John Limbrey was the principal maker of the commissioned silver that passed through the Welch workshop. In 1959, Robert married Patricia Hinksman, whom he had met while at the Birmingham College of Art.

Industrial Design, asked Robert if he would consider a post as visiting lecturer to run a course on stainless steel design. From 1957-62, he spent one day a week lecturing students of industrial design. It proved a two-way process, as Robert explained, ‘I tried to give them an awareness of craft allied to production and they in turn brought me into close contact with the world of product design.’ In 1958 his Old Hall toast rack won a Design Centre Award and it was not long before Robert was undertaking a range of design work.15 However, his industrial design is outside the scope of this book. Another visitor was his old friend John Limbrey, a fellow student from Birmingham.

In 1958 John called on Robert at Chipping Campden while on vacation in the Cotswolds. Having looked round his friend’s workshop, he said, ‘This seems to be a nice place to work, do you want any help?’ The reply was in the affirmative. The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths was assembling a collection of silver16 for inclusion in ‘Art in Craftsmanship’, sponsored by the Smithsonian in Washington DC.17 Robert suggested a candelabrum to Graham Hughes, the Company’s Art Director. ‘I began simply with a model, acquiring lengths of wooden doweling rods from the local ironmonger and turning these on my lathe in a random series of rounded and waisted forms;18 486

and then assembled the candelabrum by a series of random-shaped cross members, gluing the structure together.’ This was the first occasion that he had made a model without first doing a drawing. Upon seeing it, Graham Hughes immediately approved it. The piece has a sense of movement, even when viewed in isolation as an object. When functional on a dining table, the reflection in the silver produces a shimmering effect that adds to the impression of movement. Robert’s view of the piece was, ‘Looking back on the design, I felt elated with my pursuit of the accidental effect. It was marvellous to tackle silver in this free, casual way. There was something in the air in those days; I am sure a visit to the Jackson Pollock

Above: Group of Spun Silver Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michel Pilkington A group of spun silver by Robert Welch made from 1964 through to 1990. Up until 1965 he mainly sold his stock items via exhibition or through selected retailers. From 1965 towards the end of the decade his main outlet was Heal’s, but in 1969 he opened his own studio shop in Chipping Campden. From left to right: salt and spoon, London 1972-3; coffee pot with with ‘D’-shape rosewood handle and lid, Birmingham 1965; mustard and spoon, London 1973; pepper mill with rosewood top, London 1990; three-piece condiment set in original Asprey box and each piece engraved ‘Asprey, London’ on the base, Birmingham 1964. Height of coffee pot 19cm.

Until the mid-1960s, the silver produced at the workshop on the top floor of the Silk Mill was all commissioned.

When Chris Walton20 wrote the catalogue for the Company’s exhibition ‘British Master Goldsmiths’ in 1997,21 he stated that of the many commissions designed

by Welch for public places, two stand out. The first was the silver for the Cathedral Church of St Mary’s, Swansea, designed from 1959-65. The church had been so badly damaged by bombing during World War II that it had to be rebuilt. The altar candlesticks and cross are uncompromisingly hard-edged, with the crossbar of the latter being of elongated lozenge-shape. Together with the chalice, ciborium22 and altar vases, they are daringly futuristic. The second was six candelabra completed in 1965 for the Royal Society of Arts. The design of these had evolved from candelabra made for the University of Birmingham a couple of years earlier, but had six as opposed to five branches. However, despite having work for Churchill College, Cambridge, from 1960-5,23 commissions for civic bodies and numerous trophies (including the Tiddlywinks’ Award for 1960), Robert was concerned that in the first half of the 1960s the silver commissions were ‘rather spasmodic’. On the premise that it was possible to retail a contemporary range of domestic stainless steel, it should be possible to sell modern domestic silver using a combination of hand and machinery. He had a long conversation with Rolf Falk, the buyer at Heal’s.24 Both parties agreed to the project, with Robert saying he would ‘design and make in my workshop25 a collection of pieces that would be loosely unified by a family resemblance to each other.’ Whereas commissions from the Welch workshop were largely hand-made, the range for Heal’s was spun.26 There was also a use of rosewood for lids and ‘D-shaped’ handles mounted in silver sockets. While the end result was obviously more expensive than stainless steel, the prices were nevertheless ‘sensible’.27 Robert was particularly

pleased that Sir Gordon Russell travelled to London for the launch in 1965 and opened the evening with an informal talk. The collection was well received and generated considerable publicity. The Prime Minister of the day, Harold Wilson, selected a number of pieces to take as Government gifts to the USSR and later on other official overseas visits. To revive interest in the silver collection, there was an exhibition at Heal’s in 1967 at which a wide range of other products designed by Robert Welch was also included. In the first half of the sixties when the silver commissions were less forthcoming, Robert had turned his attention to designing cast iron.

The initial attempt of marketing the designs failed, so Robert started a venture of his own beginning with candlesticks and then designing a fruit bowl. This was

15. Until the end of the 1960s he was a designer for Westclox, the Scottish clock factory. He also designed washbasins for Doulton; items for Duchess Bone China; beer pumps for Guinness; door furniture (i.e. letter boxes, handles, latches, bolts and doorbells etc.) for Dryad; enamelware for Carl Prinz of Solingen, Germany; the Kitchen Devil Professional knife range for Harold Bearston; glassware for Bridge Crystal Glass Company of Stourbridge; lighting for Lumitron and bathroom fittings for Adie and Nephew, to mention just some of his involvement.

For further details see Robert Welch’s Hand & Machine – details in footnote 2.

16. The Company also commissioned a piece from Gerald Benney and Louis Osman.

17. After being exhibited in the capital, it toured the US and also Canada from 1959-60.

18. In the catalogue ‘Robert Welch Designer-Silversmith: A retrospective exhibition 1955-1995’ which accompanied the exhibition organised by Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museums with financial assistance from the Arts Council, Margot Coatts, its curator, described this as ‘the bollard form’. The exhibition was later displayed at Bath, Manchester and Birmingham.

19. Paul Jackson Pollock (1912-56) was an influential US painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. His most famous canvasses were during his ‘drip period’ (1947-50). ‘Action painting’ is the dribbling, splashing or smearing of paint on to a canvas as opposed to applying it with care – Pollock called this his ‘drip period’.

20. Then the Company’s Director, Design & Technology.

21. Staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall from 29 May to 28 June, the exhibition was subheaded ‘A celebration of fine design and craftsmanship by Britain’s premier makers of contemporary jewellery and silverware’.

22. The vessel for the communion wafers.

23. Sir John Cockcroft, its first Master, wanted to commemorate his new appointment with a large silver coffee service. Robert also suggested a one gallon coffee urn. The foundations of the College were being laid and Sir John was in the small site office of the architect, Richard Sheppard. He commissioned a trowel for the laying of the foundation stone by Sir Winston Churchill. Robert decided to design an object of beauty as opposed to adopting the traditional brick-laying trowel form. It had a pointed end as for trowels that are used for pointing brickwork. This appears to have been difficult to use at the ceremony to lay the foundation stone and at a subsequent Fellows’ Dinner Sir John pinned Robert’s shoe to the spot with his walking stick and lectured him on the beauties of a ‘real’ trowel as opposed to a ‘designer’ one. However, the College did commission more work from Robert Welch.

24. The furniture store in London’s Tottenham Court road that markets itself as ‘the home of contemporary furniture, lighting and home accessories since 1810’.

25. Some of the larger items were outsourced and made in Sheffield. These carry the Sheffield Assay mark – Robert Welch’s mark was also registered at Birmingham, Edinburgh and London.

26. Spinning is a skilled mechanical method of raising silver. See Glossary for further details.

27. A coffee pot was £90, a teapot £83, a milk jug £32.50 and a three-piece condiment £51.35 – the last two prices have been converted from £sd to decimal form for the purpose of this book.

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illustrated in the Studio Year Book of Decorative Art. The interest from overseas was tremendous and immediate and included an order for 36 bowls from Skjalm Petersen,28 with no mention of price. An exhibition of Robert Welch’s designs was arranged at Petersen’s shop in Copenhagen during 1967 and a request was made that the items from the Heal’s range should be included. Despite this workload, Robert managed to be a visiting lecturer at the RCA from 1962 through to 1970.

Despite attempted revival of the interest in the silver range at Heal’s, sales dropped sharply towards the end of the 1960s. However, the 1967 exhibition embracing his designs in other media gave Robert the idea of opening his own shop. The studio shop duly opened at Chipping Campden beside the Silk Mill in 1969. Robert Welch, just as William Morris had done in the 19th century, made surprise appearances as a sales assistant, thus creating a bond between the designer and the consumer. The enterprise increased the sale of domestic silver. Regular stock items were hand-raised bowls in three sizes, silver-mounted clear lead crystal decanters, napkin rings and powder bowls. The tall candlesticks made for Heal’s, as well as the pepper mills and condiment sets and other items such as coffee pots and tureens, continued in small batches for many years.

However, despite the move into retail, the private commissions continued. Indeed, for the next two decades the output was stunning. Writing Robert Welch’s obituary in the Guardian, Fiona MacCarthy29 mentioned the Churchill College urn referred to above and a pair of large 12-branch candelabra made for the Company in 1969. The tubular stem and the uprights of the branches are completely covered with small gilt spheres. Robert was mulling over how his concept could become reality while in a Welsh pub on a family holiday in 1968, when he started a conversation with another holidaymaker. He happened to be a Birmingham manufacturer who was making the bodies of some stainless steel condiments Robert had designed for Old Hall. He mentioned his candelabra ‘problem’ and much to his surprise the manufacturer had the solution – a 19th-century machine for making ball winders for hunter watches that he had recently acquired. It was adapted to make ‘strips’ of spheres, which were set into the candelabrum’s main column as well as the uprights to the branches. When the candles are lit, the golden spheres produce a magical shimmering effect. John Limbrey assisted by Paul Heneghan, then another 488

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silversmith on the Welch team, made the pair at Chipping Campden. These candelabra have pride of place on the top table at Livery Dinners beside a pair made by Paul Storr.30 However, a disaster occurred shortly after their delivery to the Company. Having been approved by the Company’s Court, one fell off the trolley used to take the pair back to the vault; it landed on a marble floor and was badly damaged, so had to be returned to the Cotswolds for rebuilding.

In the early 1970s, Robert designed a dish for an exhibition entitled ‘Craftsman’s Art’ to be staged at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1973. Called the Amethyst Dish, it is 50cm in diameter and has a gilt interior. Robert Welch wrote of this piece, ‘The making of this dish was a tour de force of fine craftsmanship by John Limbrey, as each of the tiny settings for the amethysts and the whirling rhythmic wirework had to be soldered onto the surface of a very large bowl. The problems of avoiding an accidental melt of a wire or setting can be imagined.’ John Limbrey recalls the piece, ‘It was certainly a favourite and I enjoyed working out the rippling patterns of the wires, but the soldering was very difficult. The heating was all done on the outside of the dish to avoid melting the wires.’ The piece was later sold at the studio shop and is now in a private collection.

Whereas many of Robert Welch’s contemporaries favoured textured surfaces, his preference was to mainly leave the surface unadorned. However, there were some exceptions in the early 1970s, such as the cigar box for Courvoisier and a pair of candlesticks with a matching stand for the City of Birmingham. He also did not like limited editions, but made the exception for 50 goblets to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the Tower of London in 1978.31 The last major commissions for the decade were a coffee service incorporating a bulbous urn, which was the UK’s Government gift to St Lucia upon its independence in 1979, and an altar cross and candlesticks for Canterbury Cathedral.

Whereas many silversmiths felt the impact of the early 1980s recession, the Welch workshop was very busy with its commissions. In 1980 there was a pair of candelabra for the Victoria and Albert Museum. When delivered, Sir Roy Strong observed, ‘This is the first silver the Victoria and Albert has commissioned since the days of Sir Henry Cole.32 Three years later the British Museum commissioned a candelabrum with its Director Sir David Wilson giving the most precise brief Robert had ever received: ‘It should be low and graceful, like a Viking Boat, and hold only two candles.’ The Museum ordered six. In the same year the Birmingham Assay Office wished to make a gift of silver to the Company but were stumped as to what to give an institution with a vast vault full of silver. Robert suggested a surprise clock, or in his words, ‘a clock that did not look like a clock and that could be used by the Prime Warden during banquets to keep an eye on the timing of events and speakers.’ However, the pièce de résistance of the decade has to be the dining service for the British Embassy at Manila. For 24 place settings, the result is nearly 30 years of Robert’s work on one table: the cutlery was his 1962 Alveston pattern, the condiments, pepper mills and butter dishes from the

Heal’s range and the candelabra a variant of the 1965 Royal Society of Arts ones. The only newcomer was a centrepiece in the form of a rose bowl. The service was delivered for the opening of the Embassy in 1983. The commissions continued into the 1990s, but the pace eased. A studio shop was opened in Warwick in 1991 and at Bath in 2012. Perhaps his last great silver commission was two coffee services for Downing Street.

Hand-raised by John Limbrey, all the pieces are chased with spiral flutes and have a fine-tooled surface.

Robert’s last silver design was for the ‘Hiscocks’ Loving Cup’, which was a gift to the Haberdashers’ Company for its Millennium Appeal. Robert Welch died on 15 March 2000, but John Limbrey made the cup – the last piece of silver he made for Robert.

28. A Danish interior designer.

29. Robert Welch died on 15 March 2000 and the obituary was published on 23 March. Fiona MacCarthy was the wife of the late David Mellor.

30. Paul Storr (1771-1844) started his own silversmithing business in 1796. His work has been held in extremely high regard for over two centuries.

31. They retailed at the then relatively high price of £790 – all sold.

32. The first Director of the Museum from 1857 until his death in 1873.

Opposite: Bowl Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett It would be interesting to know how many small bowls like this emanated from Robert Welch’s workshop. They are the most readily available objects of vintage Welch and they are relatively inexpensive.

Indeed, as at 2013 Robert Welch Designs Limited still continues to produce four silver bowls, though their shapes are slightly different to this one. As at April 2014, the four are small, medium, medium flared and large with prices ranging from £125 to £400. Diameter 13cm.

Birmingham 1972.

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ROBERT WELCH AND CUTLERY Today, the name Welch is synonymous with cutlery.

Indeed, sales of the stainless steel cutlery he designed are the largest category of his entire creative output, as well as the most utilised. During his life he designed over 30 cutlery patterns. Although Old Hall considered the possibility of producing stainless steel cutlery prior to World War II, nothing became of the proposal. After the war, Facette stainless steel cutlery by Gense33 proved popular in the UK. Neither Old Hall nor Walker & Hall, the two most likely British companies likely to produce a rival to the Scandinavian import, seemed willing to commit to the cost of launching into stainless steel cutlery.

The Council of Industrial Design34 suggested that the two companies pool their resources. It was agreed that as W&H was active in supplying the catering trade, they should sell the proposed range on a contract basis, while O&H should retail it. It was also proposed that the pattern should be a collaboration between the two companies’ designers – Robert Welch for OH and David Mellor for W&H. While it was proposed that W&H would manufacture the range and OH would finish and polish the pieces, all the work was in fact undertaken by W&H. The cutlery was designed in 1956 and launched the following year. It was the first stainless steel cutlery to be made in the UK. OH marketed it as Campden and W&H as Spring. Despite the branding confusion, the cutlery sold very well. Conceived as a product for everyday use, its style is plain, but nevertheless very distinctive with its innovative satin finish. In 1959 Robert Welch and David Mellor received a joint silver medal at the Twelfth Triennale in Milan.35 Harrison Fisher made a silver version.36 Unlike the stainless steel knives, the silver ones had hollow handles.

In the early 1960s, attracted by the generous prize money, he entered two designs in a competition organised by the International Silver Corporation of Meriden in the States.

As soon as he had posted his entries, he decided that the designs were too experimental and set about designing a pattern that he considered, ‘paid due homage to the best traditions of English cutlery’. Launched in 1963 at a weekend seminar for retailers in Sheffield organised by the Design Council, it was later unveiled at the ‘Watchmaker and Jeweller’ exhibition at London’s Olympia. Marketed by OH as Alveston,37 the original range of the pattern comprised 40 different pieces. In 490

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1965 it received a Design Centre Award. It was (and still is) available in satin and a bright finish and has been produced in silver. Millions of pieces of Alveston have been made since it was launched.

JOHN LIMBREY Born in Hertfordshire during 1933, John Limbrey met Robert Welch at the Birmingham College of Art. Upon leaving college with his National Design Diploma in 1953, he used his H Samuel Travel Scholarship to visit Paris and Switzerland. Back in the UK, while waiting to be called up for his National Service, he spent five months working on commissions for Ralph Baxendale, then Head of School at the College. In 1956, his National Service completed, upon the recommendation of Cyril Shiner, he applied for a post with RE Stone, whose workshop was renowned for hand-raised silver.

John reflects, ‘I joined a small team of some of the most skilled silversmiths in Britain.’ Most of the output at Stone’s was ecclesiastical. He did some designing, mainly of chalices, and during his period at Stone’s his work received commendations in the Company’s competitions. ‘Poor career prospects for designer silversmiths in the 1950s together with an unsatisfactory bed-sitter life in London’, John said, resulted in him looking for something different.

He continued, ‘An interest in design in general led to a move in 1958 to Chipping Campden, where the important field of product design could be enjoyed alongside silversmithing.’ From the very start, John was not just involved with silver. To quote Robert Welch, ‘Immediately he was engaged in the development of models for the Orient Line38 and he showed an instant understanding and appreciation of the problems involved in the designing and developing of products which are to be mass produced, in addition to commanding a superlative standard of craftsmanship in hand-made silverware.’ In 1965 John Limbrey formally took over the combined roles of design assistant, modelmaker and silversmith.

In 1967 he won joint second prize for a Viners’ International Cutlery Design Competition. Due to Chipping Campden’s historic association with the Arts and Crafts Movement, the town had flourishing evening classes. For a period of 17 years from 1968 he taught silversmithing two nights a week, ‘A dozen people all hammering away in a small room, most needing

constant vigilance to avoid disaster’, he recalled with a smile. Many of the students’ pieces were hallmarked with his maker’s mark.39 He continued, ‘For most of the last 50 years, I have lived in Chipping Campden and for over 30 years, next to the Silk Mill. I had access to the Robert Welch workshop in leisure hours. Small pieces of silver, napkin rings, spoons, bangles and jewellery for family and friends were the main private output with just a few larger items. Most leisure time has been devoted to painting. I’ve sold about 630 works in 36 years from local galleries, in London and elsewhere.’

Robert Welch wrote of their work together, ‘There can be no doubt that two people working in close harmony and understanding can more than match the creative output of larger units. We observe a steady, disciplined use of time, regular hours through success and failure.

Looking out of the windows there are fine views of Chipping Campden and the surrounding countryside and rhythm of work continues to flow. Basically, we are a couple of silversmiths who are terribly interested in industrial design and use the workshop first and foremost and the drawing board last and least you might say.’

John Limbrey retired from his full-time role in 1998. He died in April 2013.

AVAILABILITY Robert Welch’s vintage stainless steel is readily available on the secondary market. While his smaller pieces of domestic silver are offered on a fairly regular basis, his larger pieces appear very infrequently. Robert Welch Designs Limited remains a thriving concern in which two of his three children are involved. The company exports globally.

The Robert Welch studio shops at Chipping Campden, Warwick and Bath stock some new silver items. The full range of the company’s stock can be seen on its website.

FURTHER READING Hand & Machine – Robert Welch: Designer * Silversmith by Robert Welch (Chipping Campden 1986). All quotes from Robert Welch in this chapter are taken from this book with the kind permission of the Welch family. As at April 2014, copies are still available from Robert Welch Designs Limited.

Robert Welch: Design in a Cotswold workshop by Robert Welch (London, 1973).

Out of print, but periodically available from the online second-hand marketplace for books.

33. Based in Sweden, it is one of Europe’s largest suppliers of cutlery.

34. Established with government finance in 1944 to both promote the improvement of the designs produced by British industry and to stimulate the public’s demand for products that were better designed.

35. La Triennale di Milano is a design museum in Milan.

36. Harrison & Fisher & Co. Limited, Sheffield cutlers, purchased Taylor’s Eye Witness, the Sheffield knife makers, in 1975. The latter company was founded

by John Taylor in 1820 and registered the Eye Witness trademark in 1838.

Harrison & Fisher changed its name to Taylor’s Eye Witness in 2007.

37. Robert Welch lived at Alveston near Stratford-upon-Avon. The pattern, which is still in production, is now marketed by Robert Welch Designs Limited as a seven-piece place setting known as RW1.

38. From 1958-60, Robert was designing all the stainless steel tableware, from ice buckets to teaspoons, for the Orient Line’s luxury liner SS Oriana that was launched in 1960.

39. The Chipping Campden Art School registered its own mark (CAS – Campden Art School) on 24 September 1969. After 31 December 1975 all existing maker’s marks ceased to be authorised and had to be re-registered as a sponsor’s mark. From that point on, sponsors were required to re-register their marks every 10 years. The School re-registered on 1 January 1976, but did not subsequently do so, therefore it lapsed on 1 January 1986.

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JOHN WILLMIN His output has been varied. He started commercially with jewellery but after winning a prestigious prize for designing a diamond jewel, he returned to silver. As well as teaching, he undertook many commissions for a leading Mayfair retailer, universities, City livery companies and others, as well as designing awards. He also had a brush with the darker side of nature with objets de fantasie, before designing tableware in Oman for the Sultan.

The coffee urn commissioned from John Willmin in 1977 to celebrate the 650th anniversary of the Company’s first Royal Charter was a fine piece, full of symbolic and technical interest, and records the company’s history in great detail… The time must surely come when this underrated piece will be appreciated as an exciting example of 1970s silver.

Peter Jenkins A former Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

John Michael Willmin was born in Nottingham in 1943, but was brought up in Leicester, where he attended Gateway Boys’ Grammar School.1 His schooldays were not initially the happiest of his life. However, matters did eventually get better as he explained. ‘I always wanted to be a pilot. However, all that changed when the optician visited the school and it was found that I was short sighted. The bottom dropped out of my life. However, I thought, if I can’t fly planes, I’ll design them, so I went down the path of maths, physics and chemistry. I did not like it one little bit, so I went to see the Head who was pleased as he did not think the sciences were for me either.’ John switched to the arts, studying English, English literature and art. ‘The art was good at the school.

As well as art we did crafts, ceramics and engineering drawing, which was unusual in those days. I think I was a slumbering artist, as I blossomed in the sixth form.’

The Leicester College of Art was across the road, so he applied and started his National Diploma of Design course in 1961. ‘On leaving school one was under the impression that one knew everything about art and it was only when one got to college one realised just how little one knew and how much hard work was to be done! I loved every minute

1. Now Gateway Sixth Form College.

2. Lawrence Burt was born in Leeds in 1925. While metalworking in industry he attended evening classes and first exhibited professionally in 1958. His work is in the Tate Gallery; the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds; the Arts Council England and Wales; York Art Gallery, Muzeume Naradowe, Warsaw, Poland, as well as other public and private collections in the UK and overseas.

3. In 1962 Lawrence Burt made a head in fondu cement and iron, and in the same year two helmet sculptures in beaten and welded iron. The first of these is now in the Tate (London), the second in Muzeume Naradowe, Warsaw.

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although it was hard work. We started at 9.00, worked through to 4.30. After a two-hour break in the refectory we started evening classes for a couple of hours. We had visiting lecturers who were hands-on professional artists – it was a real adrenalin rush.’ The second year seemed to be less energising and one gets the impression that John was a little disappointed. He had already developed an interest in metal. In most people’s lives there are people who have a significant effect on the path that they take.

The first significant person in John’s was Laurie Burt,2 his sculpture tutor. ‘I liked him. He hammered steel’, John said with awe nearly 50 years later. ‘I was intrigued by metal. Laurie made skull shapes.3 He was working on an exhibition and he asked if I would like to help him. He couldn’t pay me, but he fed me.’

Opposite: Fungus Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett Most people when they see this ‘magic mushroom’ do not believe it is silver. In fact it is made of sterling silver, enamel, ivory and ebony. It is displayed on a silver-mounted, somewhat distressed circular mirror base. Its stem is silver that has been oxidised, a fact that its owner when selling it to Paynes of Oxford was keen to point out: ‘The stem is supposed to be black. It isn’t that way because I couldn’t be bothered to clean it.’ We are pleased she did not. John sees himself as a sculptor as well as a silversmith and this combines both of his artistic leanings. ‘I was working on my fungi when I was invited to exhibit at Loot’, he recalls. ‘I made four or five – one was bought by an Australian. They are not botanical studies but figments of my imagination.’ John made the whole piece, with the exception of the enamelling, which was undertaken by a specialist firm in Clerkenwell. It now rests in the Pearsons’ small sitting room on a circular table made by the Barnsley Workshop. Height 32cm. London 1975.

JOHN WILLMIN

JOHN WILLMIN

He started his three-year course at the Central School in 1963. His objective was to learn the technical side of working with metal. ‘We had visiting lecturers and day release apprentices from the trade joined us – there was a good mix. It was a steep learning curve for three years.’

Reginald Hill taught him design, but John did not feel he advanced the design aspect of his training at the Central School as he was more interested in problem solving. ‘One of the advantages of being at the Central School was that it has close links with the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’, he added. ‘The Company kept a benevolent eye on up and coming young designers. I owe a tremendous amount to Graham Hughes.’ 5 John won a prize in the end of year Central School exhibition and was awarded a Travelling Scholarship from the Company. He decided to visit Copenhagen and Stockholm. ‘I travelled with two others who received the same award. The Company gave us a very imposing letter stating that we were silversmithing students and requesting that we be given every assistance during our travels. In Copenhagen we visited Georg Jensen’s, but were told that the only tour of the day was over. Having produced the letter, the head of the workshop gave us a personal guided tour. As well as the workshops, I was interested in the retail outlets. In Stockholm I was particularly interested in Boda and Kosta glass.6 There was real adrenalin in Scandinavia – the sight of elderly ladies wearing modern jewellery was just amazing.’ The significant lasting impression that John brought home was that the Scandinavians did not compartmentalise their designing and they drew their inspiration from nature.

He describes the final year of his course in London as having ‘disruptive rumblings’. There were changes afoot and the silversmithing department moved to the East This was John’s first experience of what it was like to work as a sculptor. ‘My time with him was an initiation into a day in the life of such a person. It was a monastic situation’, he said. ‘Laurie would have two to three pieces on the go at once. He would tell me what he wanted me to do – “bend this” or “smooth that”. It was quiet. We just worked. Periodically Laurie would stop and just look at something. He rolled his own cigarettes and they would go out if he forgot to draw on them – every horizontal surface was covered with half smoked cigarettes. He was utterly involved in his work. There were problems to solve. I could see that self-discipline was necessary. You can’t do as you like, you have to be rigorous with the day.’ John enjoyed problem solving with metal and used lateral thinking in the process. ‘I 494

wanted to be in charge of the metal’, he confessed. As his year at Leicester College headed towards a conclusion he applied to London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts. ‘I had the idea that I wanted to do jewellery design, as at the time the work of Jensen and other Scandinavian jewellers was sculptural. However, at the interview, having looked at my portfolio, they said I looked like a silversmith. I had the audacity to ask if I did silversmithing, could I also do jewellery design in the evening. Thankfully my suggestion was treated as enthusiasm.’ His final year at Leicester College ended on a high note, for in addition to gaining his qualification, the students and staff exhibited at London’s Drian Gallery.4 John contributed two metal sculptures to the show and both sold.

Opposite: Box for John Aspinall Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This box was one of two made for John Aspinall the gambler and zoo owner. They were commissioned on his behalf by N Bloom & Sons, then a Mayfair based retailer of jewellery and silver. Both this drum-shape example and the other spherical one were crafted as openwork containers in white and yellow gold. Each bore the initials of the recipient as well as the giver. The contents are gold gem-set, swivel-mounted panels enamelled with animals that were close to extinction, including the tiger, belsa oryx and black panther. It is contained in a wooden box, the base of which gives the names of those who contributed to its creation. John was later advised that had he not been open about his collaborators, the piece would have won the coveted Jacques Cartier Award for ‘craftsman of the year’.

The whereabouts of the box is not known. London 1974.

End to the Sir John Cass School of Art’s7 brand new building. ‘It all settled down and I learnt to eat cheap curries and the Whitechapel Gallery was close by.’ At this stage John was coming a little rebellious, working in aluminium and plastic. Mr Emerson, the Head of Department, acted as the trade’s scout for recruiting the up-and-coming. John, while flattered to be approached, responded, ‘It is not for me.’ Upon graduating in 1966, together with two colleagues from the Central School/Sir John Cass, a room was taken in Soho and the trio worked and traded on their own account under the name of Silver Points. ‘My main output was jewellery.

You need 20-30 pieces for a collection and with jewellery you can make a lot out of a little’, he explained. ‘I was aiming for the few galleries interested in contemporary jewellery. This was on a sale or return basis. I was also making engagement and wedding rings for friends, but it was not really paying.’

Soon after graduating he decided to teach part-time.

Following a temporary position in a central London school, which he did not like, he secured a post lecturing half the week in the Silversmithing Department at Harrow College of Art. He clearly thoroughly enjoyed teaching. Living initially at North Harrow, he taught half the week at the College, first in the High Street and then in new premises at Northwick Park. He found the evening classes the most demanding, but confesses, ‘Yes, I did pass on my skills, which I feel is a moral obligation, but I also learnt a great deal too. One gentleman was a retired instrument maker who wanted to make a haywain. That was a challenge as there is hardly a straight edge and there is some delicate work, such as the spokes. I did most of the soldering, but he was superb at making the jigs8 that were needed to make it.

Then there was the eccentric who worked at the Natural History Museum and was an expert on bugs. He would vanish on his travels for weeks to remote parts of the world9 returning with specimens. He brought in a Goliath Beetle the size of a saucer and wanted to make a

4. Thought to be at Porchester Place, Marble Arch.

5. The Company’s then Art Director.

6. There was a merger of the Kosta, Äfors and Boda glasshouses. In 1976 they were renamed Kosta Boda. The roots of the company were established in 1746.

7. In 1965 the Department of Silversmithing and Allied Crafts of the Central School of Arts and Crafts merged with the Sir John Cass College’s Department of Fine and Applied Art to form the Sir John Cass School of Art. 8. A jig is a device used to guide a tool.

9. The Hospital for Tropical Diseases would always want to see him upon his return. He never suffered stomach upsets. His secret was to digest a tapeworm before his departure. As stated on TV, ‘Please do not try this at home.’

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cast of it. We carefully dismembered it and using the “lost wax” process of casting, re-created it in perfect detail in silver and then assembled it.’ At this time he went in for a great number of competitions and kept in close contact with the Company. Both of these tactics paid off. In 1967 he won second prize in the Senior Silversmiths section of the Arts Council Awards for a coffee pot. There was also another business venture. Peter Burton, a fellow student from his Leicester College days was an interior designer for WH Smith. Together with a few others they formed Rhombus Limited, a design group. However, the company never really took off.

Nothing may have come with the design group, but 1969 was a triumphal year for John. He entered designs into the De Beers’ International Diamond Awards10 and one was a winner. This is one of the jewellery trade’s most coveted awards. ‘My winning design was for a brooch’, he recalled. ‘It was of an uneven hexagonal shape which came to a shallow point. It was almost like filigree and was set with baguette11 diamonds.’ However, John soon discovered that being a winner of a major award is not always a life-changing experience. ‘I was flown to New York and was put up at the Waldorf 496

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Astoria.12 Naturally I wanted to make hay while the sun shone, so, I took pieces with me, but sold nothing. I also worked hard to sell them in the UK, but in the end the dealer who lent me the stones wanted them back, so the pieces were melted.’ John still has the plaque with which he was presented, but one gets the impression that it is not one of his favourite possessions. A warmer memory of the year was a commission from the Company for a wine cup.13 This, together with other pieces, was required for an exhibition in Scandinavia. John calls it the ‘Filigree Cup’, the Company the ‘Saracen Cup’.

So as to make it perfectly clear that this was not an ecclesiastical item, he engraved the knop14 with the words of Usama15 ibn Munqidh, the medieval Muslim poet, author, soldier and courtier from Northern Syria who was born in 1095 AD (488 AH), the year of the launch of the First Crusade.16 These are, ‘A man no more prolongs the appointed term by shirking than he advances it by rashness – Ousma the Saracen’, or put more succinctly

by John, ‘It happens when it happens’.

John recalls making the piece at a studio he shared with the jeweller Lawrence Wheaton (Laurie)17 in Sedley Place near Bond Street.18 Laurie asked him after a fervent bout of hammering, ‘Are you going to do that often?’ His tactic of remaining in contact with the Company paid dividends,

10. The awards were presented to the designers of the 30 most outstanding entries. In 1969 there were 1,880 designs submitted by 628 jewellery designers from 30 different countries. Six of the winners were from the UK. 11. A narrow rectangular shape.

12. An historic Art Deco landmark facing Park Avenue that is the embodiment of luxury and splendour.

13. In common parlance, a goblet.

14. The central part of a goblet – i.e. where the stem joins the bowl.

15. Also spelt Ousama.

16. Usama wrote several books, including an anthology of poetry centred on famous walking sticks. His most famous work is The Book of Contemplation, which is a part meditation of the inscrutability of God, combined with personal anecdotes as well as descriptions of life at court. Penguin Classics publish a translation by Paul Michael Cobb.

17. They met in Stockholm, where Laurie worked for Bolin, the Swedish Crown Jewellers.

18. The piece actually bears the Silver Points maker’s mark, but is also inscribed ‘John Willmin made this cup’.

19. He was Prime Warden in the term 1970-71.

for in 1971 he was commissioned to make mammoth water jugs for the Company to present to the University of Keele. The following year, there was another commission of which John is proud as this linked his home city of Leicester with the Company. Ivan Tarratt, chairman of the highly regarded jewellers and silversmiths George Tarratt of Leicester, held the unique distinction of having been chairman of the National Association of Goldsmiths and Prime Warden of the Company.19 As the nucleus of a collection of modern silver, the NAG commissioned a goblet to commemorate the two positions held by Mr Tarratt. Of hourglass form, both the foot and the bowl are plain, but the slim stem is decorated with texturing in the form of gilt wires with a triangular section. The bowl is engraved with both the Company’s

Opposite: Goblets Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett John Willmin’s work is difficult to find, with the exception of the goblet that he designed for Aurum, which bears his maker’s mark.

Ely Cathedral, with its splendid medieval octagonal Lantern, was founded by St Ethelreda in 673. To mark the 1300th year of its establishment, a limited edition of 673 goblets were produced. Its octagonal base reflects the shape of the Lantern and its wavy texturing is reference to the fact that in times past, Ely was an island surrounded by water. The bowl is applied with a mermaid holding the three keys of Ely, the Cathedral’s heraldic device. We once encountered a single goblet with no mermaid. Asking what had happened to it, the dealer replied, ‘I had it removed as I thought it looked better without it.’ Of course, it was now ruined!

Height 17cm. London 1973.

Right: Saracen (Filigree) Cup Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company ‘This is an experimental piece’, confessed John. He explained, ‘When this was made, I was sharing a studio with the jeweller Laurie Wheaton in Sedley Place near Bond Street. He did not like the noise I generated while hand-raising silver so when I was commissioned by the Goldsmiths’ Company to make this goblet, I proposed something that was less noisy.’ The main body of the piece comprises 364 pieces of cut and contoured tube, assembled as filigree. He took the lengths of tubing, cut them vertically and horizontally, bent it into angles using a chisel and a hammer, then smashed the pieces flat. He turned a piece of wood on his lathe into the shape he wanted for the goblet and made moulds into which he laid the mangled tubing. Then he painstakingly soldered the pieces together. The two halves were gilded and then rubbed back so that the gold remained in the recesses, but was removed from the proud parts. The knop, which is engraved with the words ‘A man no more prolongs the appointed term by shirking than he advances it by rashness’ by the Muslim poet Usama ibn Munqidh, conceals the join between the base and upper body of the goblet. The bowl was spun and gilded before being set into the top of the form of the goblet. The ‘black bits’ are gaps in the ‘filigree’ looking through to the goblet’s darkened interior. Height 19.8cm. London 1969.

and the NAG’s coat of arms. At the time Ivan Tarratt commented he was ‘very thrilled’ that the piece had been made by a Leicester-born silversmith who was ‘making quite a name for himself’ in London. Today, John still considers it is an important piece as, ‘It links me with Ivan Tarratt, Leicester and the Goldsmiths’ Company.’

It was during this era that John had his only encounter with the limited edition market. He was approached by Aurum and invited to submit designs for a goblet to commemorate the 13th centenary of the founding of Ely Cathedral. The edition was limited to 673 pieces and as John Willmin’s aspiration is ‘To keep boredom at bay at all costs’, it is not surprising that he sub-contracted the 497

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actual making of the pieces. In any event, he was now busy with other matters. Laurie had been undertaking work for Collingwood and was invited to move in-house.

John had pieces at Collingwood’s summer exhibition in Conduit Street and subsequently Laurie would feed him project work. Working from his own studio at his home now in Aylesbury, he recalls that one of these centred around silver electroforms20 of Greek cameos. He incorporated these into a range of items, including paperknives, napkin rings, boxes and photograph frames. A particular favourite of John’s was a backgammon set. The board was in rosewood with textured gilded silver, while the silver shakers for the dice featured gilded cameos.

The counters were turned from ivory and each had a gilded silver cameo let into its surface. He was told that Jackie Stewart21 purchased it for presentation to Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips on the occasion of their wedding on 14 November 1973.

John liked a balance between commissions and his own projects. ‘I am always drawing or photographing’, he said. ‘My inspiration is usually nature. My holiday snaps don’t generally mean anything, as they don’t reveal where I have been; they are just close-ups of flora, fauna or architectural patterns. When there is gap in my work I feel the need to take these ideas and make something from them. I am attracted to the curious and dark side of nature – orchids, venus fly traps and fungi.’

Certainly in the mid-1970s he was making a small series22 of fungi. He explained, ‘They were invented forms, not a botanical reproduction, but exotic pieces like a triffid.’ 23 His objets de fantaisie continued during the second half of the 1970s. At ‘Loot’ 24 in 1979 he exhibited three silver flower sculptures.25 However, the small number of times when commissions were thin on

20. Electroforming involves building up an object by electro-depositing the metal, in this case silver, on to a resin mould of the cameo.

21. Sir John Young Stewart OBE, the former racing driver.

22. He believes five to six pieces.

23. A highly venomous fictional plant species. Since the term was first used in John Wyndham’s 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids, the word has been used to describe large and menacing plants.

24. ‘Loot’, an annual summer selling exhibition, was part of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ programme to encourage good craftsmen. It started in 1975. In 1983 it was superseded by the Goldsmiths’ Fair, which continues to be held each autumn.

25. These were priced from £730 to £900 each.

26. It was held every three years. Since 2001 Volvo has been the owner of the race, which was renamed, ‘Volvo Ocean Race’.

27. This was a clipper, or fast sailing ship, built in 1869. As the last of the tea clippers, since 1954 she has been moored at Greenwich. In 2007 she was damaged by fire while conservation work was being carried out. She re-opened to the public on 26 April 2012.

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the ground meant that there were not many gaps for him to make objets de fantasie of this nature. A mid1970s commission was for a coffee urn to mark the Company’s 650th anniversary of the granting of its first Royal Charter in 1327. Other notable commissions included a standing salt for St Catherine’s College, Cambridge. He also made a name for himself making awards such as the 1973-4 trophy for the Whitbread Round the World Race26 for yachts. His view regarding trophies is quite straightforward, ‘It has to be very sculptural – a bowl or a cup is a cop-out.’ A satin albatross was the main feature of his Whitbread Trophy.

Although there were changes at Collingwood, its new Middle Eastern owners certainly kept him busy with commissions for models, including yachts and boats.

This culminated in a real technical tour de force – a pair of models, each measuring a metre in length, of the Cutty Sark.27 The sails were electroformed and the making of them resulted in John using both his jewellery and silversmithing skills as the work was a combination of the intricate as well larger scale. John commented, ‘The only design aspect was the base’, from which he implied that he had had enough of them at the end of 18 months.

Opposite: Coffee Urn Courtesy The Goldsmiths’ Company This is the coffee urn that Peter Jenkins regarded as an exciting piece of 1970s silver. It certainly is, though my immediate reaction upon seeing it was that it did not look like an urn, let alone a coffee one. John intimated that not everything he made was an obvious form. When he was invited to submit his design, the brief was that it had to be large and important, ‘centre stage’ as it were, and reflect the history of the Company – after all it was to commemorate the 650th anniversary of its first Royal Charter in 1327. At its centre, against an enamel ground, there are leopards’ heads, cups and buckles from the Company’s Arms. Around it are phrases in silver against a gilded ground taken from the original Charter, which is safely housed at the Guildhall. John recalls going along and photographing the document. He added, ‘I scaled up the very writing on the vellum to the size I needed and then, having printed them on paper, glued them to a sheet of silver and handpierced each letter out before they were mounted on the background. In this way I was able to reproduce accurately the calligraphic script of the 14th-century scribe. The two black knobs to the left and the right serve to lift the urn and are symbolic of the effect of the Black Death on the City. The sides are engraved with a host of images reflecting salient events in the Company’s history, from a fine in 1180 for being in existence without a Royal Charter to the 650th Birthday exhibition called ‘Explosion’ in 1977. The Committee loved the design but had reservations as to whether it could be made. John admits that its passage from conception to actual object was “testing”.’ Height 63cm. London 1977.

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JOHN WILLMIN

Left: Roaring Forties Trophy Courtesy John Willmin John regards this, his ‘Roaring Forties’ trophy for the Whitbread Round the World Race, as the most important of the numerous awards he has made. He sought to capture the emotion and the turmoil of violent winds and waves. It is also the one of which he is particularly pleased and the one that recipients just refuse to give back. Indeed, John has made three as the winners could not bear to part with them.

He sums up what he thinks a trophy ought to be by saying, ‘To my mind they must attempt to capture the spirit of the award – a bowl or a cup is a cop-out.’ The ‘Roaring Forties’ is the name given to the strong westerly winds encountered in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the 40˚ and 50˚ latitude, though the boundaries are not set in stone and shift north or south with the changing seasons.

The area is encountered in the Whitbread Race during the second leg from Cape Town to Australasia. During the first one in 1973-4, three yachtsmen lost their lives. The trophy is a column of oval cross-section set upon an oval rosewood base. There is a series of hollow silver columns nestling inside the largest, each one having been oxidised to produce a blue-black colour to represent the angry seas encountered.

These have been cut away to produce what is in effect an aerial view of the ocean with its enormous wave structures, the bright unoxidised silver exposed by the steep angled cuts representing the foam generated by waves. The whole is viewed above a satin silver Albatross with its wings outstretched, giving the piece not only perspective, but providing contrast between the bird’s serenity and the turmoil below. The second winner told John, ‘I like the way you’ve caught the albatross – there’s not a lot else to look out for down there.’

John rather cherished the compliment. The first of the two naval stripes on the base were for the name of the trophy and the one below for the names of the winners. One can understand the reluctance to part with such an award. Approximate height 30cm. London 1973.

Opposite: Transatlantic Trophy Courtesy John Willmin The Single-handed Transatlantic Race of 1976 organised by the Royal Western Yacht Club of England and sponsored by the Observer newspaper, had a tragic beginning. Mike McMullen, skipper of Three Cheers tragically witnessed his wife accidentally electrocute herself as she helped prepare his trimaran just days before the start. He nevertheless competed with a determination to win. Five low pressure systems followed one after the other for over a week, relentlessly generating a wind speed of 35 knots and a raging, chaotic, angry sea with short, broken and irregular waves producing a tumbling motion. Sadly two skippers were lost during the event, one being the recently bereaved McMullen. Only 73 of the 125 starters finished the race within the 60day time limit. These trophies are unique in the sense that they are designed to be placed like bowls on a table, or as John says ‘to be laid flat to be looked at rather like a chart would be’, as opposed to being stood up or hung on a wall. It is of equilateral triangular form with curved sides expressing lines of longitude and the Tropic of Cancer. The choppy sea is represented by crinkled oxidised silver foil on the base of the interior. The eastern seaboard of the United States and the western seaboard of Europe in silver gilt for the winner (the others in silver) are sandwiched between the two inner flat surfaces of clear acrylic, the front and back surfaces being convex. The silver line linking Plymouth in the UK to Newport, Rhode Island, USA, is customised for the winners in the various categories. Therefore, John could not complete the trophies until he had received the exact route of the winners from Rhode Island. Size of the larger, 20x20x20cm. London 1976.

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He finished teaching in the first half of the 1980s so as to concentrate on his commissions. However, in the second half of the decade, he was headhunted by Amouage Perfumery in Oman, initially to investigate technical problems for their refill containers and then to assist with establishing a workshop to create a range of high-quality souvenirs for duty free outlets where the design was inspired by the art and heritage of the country.28 He loved both the work and the country, but everything imploded with the 1990 Gulf War. He returned to the UK and picked up the pieces. After the hostilities had ended, he was invited to Oman again, on this occasion to work for Qurum Design.29 John’s initial task was to design tableware for His Majesty Sultan bin Said of Oman. Afterwards other projects came his way, ranging from display cabinets to the engraving of an automatic pistol, as well as designing a range of items for airlines such as scarves and tableware. Sadly Qurum went into liquidation and John found himself, again through no fault of his own, back in the UK. With his pay-off from the second Oman venture, he decided to

28. John added, ‘The range included small sculptures of tribesmen and women, watches, necklaces, rings, in fact a complete range of jewellery which, as Head of Design for the company, I would create and then see through to manufacture, packaging and sales in a workshop/studio set-up with the latest tooling and interior layout. Part of my brief was to train young Omanis as apprentices so all the output was made in the country.

29. Principally an architectural design team specialising in the design of very large prestige villas for Omani clients.

take time out in the mid-1990s and travel the world with the intention of producing a coffee table art and design book based on his photographs and sketches.

Sadly this did not materialise, but he was asked back to Oman to work on the illustrations for two volumes on the craft of Oman. This was published in 2004.

Now based in Leicester, John Willmin is still experimenting with metal. He is fascinated by plant growth. ‘Bulbs are a time bomb’, he said, ‘they lie there until the soil temperature is just right.’ It will be interesting to see what objets de fantaisie this produces.

He is also interested in working with copper and is fascinated with its patination.

AVAILABILITY The goblets John Willmin designed for Aurum are relatively easy to obtain, as 673 were produced. All his other work is unique and is currently very difficult to locate.

POINT TO NOTE: His very early work bears the mark of Silverpoint.

However, all his other work, whether made for Aurum or Collingwood, bears his maker’s mark.

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DESIGNERS, CRAFTSMEN, SILVER MANUFACTURERS AND ENGRAVERS

by Derek Styles with John Andrew

In this section of the book we list the names and give biographical details of all British designer silversmiths, enamellers and engravers we have encountered, who were working in 1945, or who subsequently joined the trade from that date up until 1985. These include those who are the subject of in-depth chapters in the second and final section of the book. We have excluded manufacturing silversmiths, even if they may have produced some pieces of modern design. Naturally, the fact that certain designer-silversmiths were designers for named manufacturers is mentioned in their entries.

This listing would not have been possible without the research conducted by Derek Styles over a period of years. He started trading as an antique dealer in 1974 and gradually became interested in post-war British silver. He regularly encountered maker’s marks with which he was unfamiliar. These he recorded, ascertaining the names of the makers and adding notes when he discovered information about the silversmiths.

This pioneering research, undertaken at a time when there was hardly any interest in ‘modern silver’ is the foundation of this section. Naturally, the objective has been to make it as comprehensive as possible. Others have added a few names, but the fact remains that inevitably there will be those who have been missed. We proffer our apologies in advance for those omissions.

It was our original intention to illustrate all the marks by all the makers included in this work, but for many reasons this has not been possible. Following the Hallmarking Act 1973, gold and silversmiths were obliged to re-register their marks by 1 January 1975 and subsequently re-register their marks every ten years. The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths advised that, after taking legal opinion, it was of the view that it was only possible to reproduce the marks of living silversmiths registered from this date, providing their 502

Vicki Ambery-Smith The salt and pepper of this condiment set are realistically modelled as town houses in line with both her jewellery and small silver objects such as boxes, which embrace an architectural style.

The pepper is partially plated with red gold to distinguish it from the salt. This pair was purchased at Bonhams in June 2013 for £585.

Height of the pepper 12.5cm. London 1987.

Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bonhams

written approval had been obtained. It would not release an image of a mark without the maker’s written consent.

For the 50 silversmiths included in the third section this was easy as we knew those who were alive and where to contact them. All of the smiths contacted replied with their consent virtually by return of post. We are naturally grateful to the Company for supplying images of their marks. The most commonly found mark for each maker is illustrated. However, some had more than one mark registered at more than one Assay Office. For example, Robert Welch had several different ones with different fonts in shields of varying shapes and sizes, registered in London, Birmingham, Sheffield as well as Edinburgh. In such cases, we decided to illustrate the most commonly incurred mark and remain silent as to the Assay Office from which it emanates.

For those listed in this section of the work, the Company’s requirements proved challenging. It was generally not possible to contact those who had not reregistered their mark every ten years. Some may have died, while others may have given up silversmithing in favour of another career. Contacting smiths who were making silver from 1975, but have not been active for nearly 30 years, was a daunting, if not impossible task.

For makers marks that are not included in the second section of this book you can contact the addresses below.

Please send a photograph, a digital image or an accurate drawing of the mark. If sending a drawing, it is absolutely essential to draw the initials in the correct font and within a shield of the correct shape. This is why communication with an image of the mark is recommended. If the piece of silver bears a date letter, its inclusion will also help. A good site for ascertaining the year to which most date letters relate is:

London:

Chester:

For silver bearing a pre-1975 date letter: The Library The Goldsmiths’ Company Goldsmiths Hall Foster Lane London EC2V 6BN

The Assay Office was closed in 1962 but for a comprehensive list of makers marks until then refer to: The Compendium of Chester Gold and Silver Marks 15701962 from the Chester Assay Office by Maurice H. Ridgway and Philip T Priestley, published by The Antique Collectors Club, Woodbridge 2004.

(The Birmingham Assay Office hold some records from Chester but these are very limited.)

For silver bearing a 1975 date letter, or none at all: The Goldsmiths’ Company The Assay Office Goldsmiths’ Hall Gutter Lane London EC2V 8AQ Birmingham: PO Box 151 The Assay Office Newhall Street Birmingham B3 1SB Sheffield: The crown was used pre-1975, the rose from there on.

Sheffield Assay Office Guardian’s Hall Beulah Road Hillsborough Sheffield S6 2AN

Scottish Makers’ Marks: There is an excellent website to explore Scottish makers’ marks and discover more about silver in Scotland: www.incorporationofgoldsmiths.co.uk If further help is required you can contact: Edinburgh: In the first instance try the above website: If not found contact: The Archivist Edinburgh Assay Office Goldsmiths Hall 24 Broughton Street Edinburgh EH1 3RH Glasgow: In the first instance try the above website: The Glasgow Assay office closed on 31 March 1964. Any enquiries should be addressed to the Edinburgh office above, as they hold all remaining records. However, many were destroyed.

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DESIGNERS, CRAFTSMEN, SILVER MANUFACTURERS AND ENGRAVERS

ABBO, Hussein Born in 1935, he studied painting at Brighton College of Art from 1956-60. He worked as a ceramics conservationist at the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1963-4 and as a designer for William Comyns from 1967-9. During the 1970s he became a professional graphic artist and a freelance silver designer. His silver work was highly decorated with acidetched geometric patterns. He subsequently moved to America with his family to concentrate on graphic art.

ADAM, Francis Born in Hungary, he learnt his craft in wrought iron. He worked in London for Starkie Gardner & Co, the wrought iron specialists that also worked in bronze, lead, silver and gold.

He taught at the Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1906-58.

In 1920 he opened his own workshop. Leslie Durbin was one of his pupils. Adam died in 1961.

AKEHURST, Richard Born in 1921, he studied silversmithing at the Sir John Cass Technical Institute, London. He established a workshop in Surrey and made jewellery as well as silver. A speciality was chasing natural subjects.

ALSOP, Geoffrey Born in 1948, he studied at Sheffield Polytechnic from 1967-71. He was a designer-craftsman with Jack Spencer Ltd of Sheffield from 1971-4. In June 1974 he opened his own workshop with his wife, Margaret McConnachie. He lectured at Doncaster School of Art. AMBERY-SMITH, Vicki Born in Leeds, she grew up in Oxford where she took an art foundation course at the Oxford Polytechnic from 1972-3. This was followed by a three-year Jewellery and Design Course at Hornsey College of Art from 1973-6. She established her first studio in 1977 with the help of a Craftsman’s Setting-up Grant from the Crafts Advisory Committee (later the Craft Council). She produces jewellery, boxes and cruets in silver inspired by imaginary buildings.

APPLEBY, Malcolm Born in 1946, he studied at Beckenham School of Art, Ravensbourne School of Art, the Central School/Sir John Cass School of Art and from 1966-8 at the Royal College of Art. The trigger for his interest in metal was a family connection with John Wilkes of the firm of gun makers bearing his name. The intricate engraving with which the bespoke items are traditionally decorated fascinated him. While at the Central School, he served a mock apprenticeship with Wilkes as a gun engraver. After graduating he came to the public’s attention by engraving a 24carat gold cup made by Louis Osman. Appleby decorated it with a fanciful version of the Prince of Wale’s heraldic symbols. It was the highlight of the 1971 ‘Louis Osman Gold Exhibition’ with the Illustrated London News describing it as displaying the extraordinary skill of a young genius. Appleby established his workshop in Scotland where as at 2014 he still works. A largerthan-life character, he is a multi-skilled craftsman but is best known for his engraving skills. See pp.58-71.

ARTHUR, Graham K. He was born at Chapeltown, Sheffield in 1928. During World War II his family moved to Derby and later to Stockton-on-Tees where they resided in a house with an attic. It is here that he worked for hours on clay modelling and woodcarving. Having left school at 14, he worked for an engineering

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firm but used part of his earnings to study at evening classes and by a correspondence course for his Matriculation, which he passed in all subjects. He subsequently trained as a dental technician until aged 18 when he was conscripted into the army for his National Service. He served in the Dental Corps in Austria.

Following his discharge he continued to study dentistry with a Mr Badcock, whose pastime was wood-carving. This gentleman encouraged him to study at art college. He began a course at Loughborough College of Art in 1956 and became a competent potter, but when he was introduced to silversmithing, this became his passion. Upon completing his studies in 1961 he remained teaching at Loughborough for a year. In 1962 he applied for a post running the silversmithing and jewellery element in the furniture department at High Wycombe College of Art and Technology. He was duly appointed a Senior Tutor/Lecturer and headed up the National Design Diploma course in silversmithing and jewellery.

He later played a key role in establishing the Diploma in Art and Design Honours Course in Silversmithing and Metalwork. He taught Clive Burr (see pp.114-9) and Michael Rowe (see pp.41629). Michael Rowe comments on his teaching, ‘Graham Arthur was an early influence. A kind and generous man, he could see that, like him, I had a real passion for metal. He was un-pedantic and encouraged designs to evolve from working processes, always seeking the essentials in a design. This set the path conceptually, breaking things down to fundamentals – that has always been a fascination.’ He established an excellent workshop at his home in Downley where he undertook a number of commissions including a processional cross for Wells Cathedral.

ASQUITH, Brian Born in 1930, aged 12 he attended the Junior Art Department of the Sheffield College of Art aged 12. From 1947-51 he studied sculpture and silversmithing at the Royal College of Art. He initially worked as a sculptor and then as an industrial designer, turning to silver in the mid-1960s. By the late 1960s he was producing a heavy-gauge range of domestic pieces combining production techniques with sculptural texture. In the 1970s he combined perspex with silver, resulting in goblets with interesting stems and dramatic trophies. See pp.72-9.

AULD, John Leslie Miller He was an influential teacher at the Glasgow School of Art from 1950-79. A silversmith and jeweller who first registered his mark in Glasgow and then Edinburgh. He died in 1996.

AURUM DESIGNS LIMITED The company was established in 1971 by John Sutherland-Hawes, a graphic designer, and John Whiter. Aurum commissioned silversmiths to design and supply silver pieces that were sold in a limited edition to raise funds.

Although the output was predominantly goblets, other items such as bowls and coasters were also made. Many cathedrals used Aurum to raise funds, but work was also taken for other institutions such as Shrewsbury School and the Fitzwilliam Museum. The company also produced commemorative pieces to mark royal events such as weddings and anniversaries. The first pieces, a goblet and a bowl, were designed and made by Hector Miller and were marketed in 1971 to raise funds for York Minster. Hector went on to design and supply over 30 more items for the company. Pieces were also designed by Jocelyn Burton, Desmond Clen-Murphy and John Willmin, as well as others. See image on p.535.

DESIGNERS, CRAFTSMEN, SILVER MANUFACTURERS AND ENGRAVERS

BAILEY, Oliver Born in 1945, he was self-taught except for a course with Michael Murray at Oxford Polytechnic. He made spoons and boxes, some of the latter set with agate or cowrie shell.

BAKER, Martin Ronald Born in 1952, he studied at the Central School of Art and Design from 1973-6. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1979 and then based himself in Soho. He undertook work for Liberty and was a part time tutor at Central St Martins College of Art and Design. Skilled at carving and model making, his work has been sold via Garrard’s and Wartski.

Additionally he has received many commissions including from the Royal Family, Tiffany, the Garrick Club, Walt Disney, King Hussein of Jordan and the Worshipful Company of Broderers.

BAKER, Robert John Born in 1951 he studied at Salisbury Art College and Manchester Polytechnic. He opened a workshop at Salisbury in 1973. He made silver boxes and worked to commission.

BARNES, Philip He was born in London during 1952 and undertook his apprenticeship with the family firm of CF Barnes and Co from 1967-72. His father Charles ‘Fred’ Barnes (1912-89) had been in the trade since 1926 and Phil spent a great deal of his childhood watching his father enamelling. Fred Barnes retired in 1983. Phil is an award-winning enameller who designs and creates individual pieces in silver and gold. His speciality is champlevé enamelling. He incorporates finely hand-engraved detail beneath the enamels to bring out the vibrancy and life of the subtly graded colours. ‘Even with a long and full enamelling career behind me, I still get excited about the look only enamel can bring to a piece.

Engraving plays a large part in my work through the line of design and the use of different textures. The transparency and the clarity of the enamels reflecting back from a brightly engraved background still thrills.’ Phil has exhibited his work both in the UK and across the world. In 1971, while still an apprentice of 19 years, he was the winner of the coveted annual Jacques Cartier Award for exceptional and outstanding craftsmanship. During his long career he has won many other awards too. He works in Suffolk.

BARTHOLOMEW, John Born in 1932, he studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts under Francis Adam and AE Emerson.

He was apprenticed at Wakely and Wheeler, indentured to ‘Mr. Beck’. After National Service he worked three years for Charles Edwards before going to CJ Vander. Gerald Benney recruited him in 1974 to be be Chief Silversmithing Instructor at the Royal College of Art, a post he held until 1994. He registered his mark while there, but rarely used it as he was more intent on instructing.

In 1994 he went to Malaysia to set up the silversmithing workshop for Comyns who had been bought out by the pewter manufacturer Royal Selangor. He stayed there until 1998. Upon his return Rod Kelly encouraged him to take up a day-a-week teaching post at Bishopsland. He has now retired.

BASSANT, Norman Victor Born in 1932 he studied at the Gravesend School of Art. He subsequently served his apprenticeship at RE Stone’s. Later he moved to CJ Vander’s where he became a Senior Craftsman. He started teaching one day a week at Medway College of Art. He worked for Christopher Lawrence in the 1970s and won the Jacques Cartier Award in 1973. He established his own workshop in the mid-1970s and being a superb craftsman, found

there was no shortage of work. His son is also a silversmith. In the second half of the first decade of the 21st century, Bassant designed and made the silver for the chapel of the new Lady Thatcher Infirmary at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. See pp.454-5.

BAXENDALE, Ralph Gordon Born in 1912, he was educated in Leeds. He studied at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing before undertaking further study at the Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths’ College in London. Having taught at the Maidstone School of Art, he returned to Birmingham in 1937 as Headmaster of the Erdington Branch of the School of Art. In 1948 he moved to the Birmingham School of Art where he was in charge of enamelling. In 1952 he became Head of the School of Jewellery and Silversmithing, Birmingham College of Art, a post he retained until his retirement in 1974. He undertook some design work for Mappin and Webb, Adie Brothers and George Tarratt of Leicester, as well as important civic and public commissions. He died in 1984.

BECK, Frank Born in 1909, he became one of the finest craftsmen in the London trade. He started work at Wakely and Wheeler in the 1920s. After he retired from there he was employed as a master silversmith by Gerald Benney and he also taught at Hornsey College of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. In the Goldsmiths’ Review 2004/5 the Clerk wrote, after talking about Durbin who had died the same year: ‘The light of the other silversmith, (Beck) who was made free of the Company in 1931 on coming out of his time, tended to be hidden under the marks of the designers and workshops for whom he worked, but any true connoisseur of silver will point to certain virtuoso pieces of the last century and say just two words: “Frank Beck”.’ He died in 2005.

BEDDALL, Sidney His work from the 1970s and 1980s occasionally appears on the secondary market. Some pieces have a hammered texturing similar to the ‘Benney Bark’ finish. His work is sometimes inscribed on the base ‘Designed and made by Sidney Beddall’. Pieces have been noted assayed in Sheffield, Edinburgh and London.

BEDFORD, Tony He undertook his pre-apprenticeship course at the Central School of Art and Crafts. In 1963 he became apprenticed to Nayler Brothers. In 1964 he won the City & Guilds 1st Prize Medal and in 1967 he attended what is colloquially known as the ‘Skills Olympics’ in Madrid where he won a gold medal in the silversmithing category. In 1969 he worked for Stuart Devlin, moving to Grant Macdonald in 1971 and Michael Driver in 1974. He returned to Nayler Bros in 1975 as the workshop manager. Garrard’s acquired Nayler in 1976 and Tony worked closely with Alex Styles. In 1979 he won the prestigious Jacques Cartier Award. With the merger of Garrard’s and Asprey in 1998 he had 30 craftsmen to manage. After Nayler’s closure in 2002, following the demerger of Garrard’s and Asprey, he continued with Asprey from 2003 until 2010 when he retired. He then maintained a small workshop at his home.

BEER, Simon Jonathan Educated at Bryanston School in Dorset, he was taught by the silversmith Cecil Colyer, who he found inspirational. After school he became apprenticed to David

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Mellor in Sheffield. Later he studied silversmithing at the Sir John Cass College in London. Upon graduating he established his own studio and workshop at the Old Firestation in Lewes, Sussex. He produced major pieces of ecclesiastical work for Salisbury, Hereford, Birmingham, and Southwark Cathedrals, the Sussex University Meeting House in Falmer and has smaller pieces in many English churches around the country. He also undertook domestic commissions and retailed a range of domestic items and gifts.

BELLAMY, Geoffrey Guy Born in 1922, after service in the War, he studied at the Birmingham College of Art from 1946-50 and at the Royal College of Art from 1950-3. After graduating he established a workshop in London and supplied retailers with a range of small silver pieces during the 1950s. In the 1960s he had various design roles before moving into education fulltime in 1967. He died in 1997. See pp.80-5.

BENNETT, William Ernest Trained at Sheffield School of Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. Following a period as a pupil of Omar Ramsden, where he undertook some chasing, he travelled Europe. In 1937 he was appointed Head of the Silversmithing Department at the Sheffield School of Art and remained there until just before his death in 1967. He designed and made domestic as well as corporate silver.

BENNEY, Adrian Gerald Known as Gerald Benney, he was born in 1930. He studied at Brighton College of Art from 1946-8 and at the Royal College of Art from 1951-4. He established his studio and workshop in central London and was an industrial designer as well as a silversmith. He was appointed consultant designer to Viners in 1957. In the early 1960s he started making objects with a textured silver surface. During the early 1970s he introduced colour to his work in the form of enamelling at his then recently established Berkshire workshop. From 1974-83 he was Professor of Silversmithing at the RCA. In 1974 he closed his London workshop, moving his operation to Berkshire. He died in 2008.

See pp.86-105.

BENNEY, Simon Born in 1966 he is a son of Gerald Benney. As a youngster he would amuse himself in his father’s workshop making copper bowls and plates that he then enamelled. He also made silver jewellery using scraps of the metal he found in the workshop. ‘I love jewellery and a family friend suggested that I study at the Gemmological Institute of America in Los Angeles.’

From 1989-91 he studied both precious stones and jewellery making at the GIA. Returning to the UK he worked with his father and in 1994 set-up a shop in London’s Walton Street in Knightsbridge. Initially Simon concentrated on the jewellery side of the business, while his father supplied the silver and undertook commissions. However, when his father retired in 1999 Simon became responsible for silver as well as jewellery. His workshop is in Wiltshire and his team of craftsmen include both Alan Evans and Robert Winter who worked for his father. His largest silver commission has been The Three Sisters, a massive suite of three candelabrum weighing over 50 kg. It is the largest piece of silver made in the UK for many years. He also designs and makes silver for members of the Royal Family and Fabergé. He holds three Royal Warrants.

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BENSTED, Michael Born in 1938, he studied at Canterbury College of Art and London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts. He served an apprenticeship at Nayler Brothers. In 1976 he became a freelance designer-silversmith working in Hornchurch.

BENT, ME The Pearson Silver Collection has several pieces by Bent assayed in Birmingham from 1955 to 1960.

BERESFORD, Robin Born in 1938 he studied at the Canterbury College of Art from 1954-9. Afterwards he studied at the RCA from 1961-4. In his final year he was awarded a travelling scholarship. He subsequently became a lecturer at the Canterbury College of Art. He also worked as a designer-silversmith and engraver and specialised in trophies. As at 2012 he still works in Ashford, Kent with his son Martin.

BERRY, Michael Born in 1939 he studied at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing, Birmingham College of Art from 1958-1962. After teaching metalwork at a local secondary school for a year he joined AE Jones and became a designer, producing many important commissions in the later days of the company. By 1980 AE Jones was one of the only Birmingham companies employing a full-time designer.

BILLINGS, Geoffrey Martin Born in 1945, he undertook the pre-apprenticeship course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, then worked with LW Burt and later was a craftsman at Robert Welch. It appears he later became an independent silversmith as he exhibited at Loot in 1975.

BIRCH, Derek Born in 1941, he studied at the Moseley School of Art from 1954-7, at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing (the School), Birmingham College of Art, from 1957-62, followed by study at the Royal College of Art 1962-5.

After graduating he worked for a year in Germany where he gained experience of quantity machine production of stainless steel wares. Upon his return to the UK he established a workshop and gallery in Lincoln. He undertook several important commissions for the City of Lincoln that are today displayed in the city’s Guildhall Treasury. Other important commissions include three presented to HM Queen Elizabeth II, including a replica of Richard II’s State Sword, and a triptych presented to HRH Princess Diana. He made ceremonial maces for a number of institutions including Hong Kong University. During the late 1960s he returned to Birmingham to teach full-time at the School.

His former students, such as the contemporary silversmith Theresa Nguyen hold him in high regard. She says he was ‘an inspiring teacher and mentor’ and that he has left, ‘a lasting legacy of craft skills which can be seen in the works of many silversmiths and jewellers around the country today’. He continued to design and make while teaching. Derek retired from the School in 2006 and died in 2011.

BIRCH, Robert Born in 1947, he became apprenticed in 1963 to Peter Butterworth of Butterworths (Regia) Limited, a Kent-based silversmithing and plating business. He worked as a craftsman at the Silver Workshop and Wakely and Wheeler before studying at the Royal College of Art from 1974-7. He exhibited at Loot in 1976/7 and has tutored in various colleges in the UK.

Simon Benney These beakers were designed and made exclusively for Fabergé. Inspired by constructivism, the last and most influential modern art movement of Imperial Russia, each piece is hand-raised. The 18 panels are then hand-carved to create the borders that are needed to contain the different coloured enamels. The beakers are then sent for hallmarking and, upon return, the panels are textured using chasing tools to create the desired pattern. Powdered coloured glass is mixed with gum and demineralised water and laid on to the silver with a spatular. To fuse the glass on to the surface, it is put into a kiln and heated to 800°C. The firing process is repeated on average five times.

The enamel is then polished with a pumice and finally the silver is polished. On average it takes one month for each beaker to be made. In some cases it can take two to three months if the enamel does not take. They retailed at about £14,000 each. Height 9cm. London 2012. Courtesy Fabergé 507

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BOLTON, Michael Allen Born in 1938 and given the opportunity of redundancy in his early thirties, he became a potter and parttime ceramics teacher. However he was bowled over by an exhibition of jewellery and taught himself to make jewellery and silver objects. His silver has an earthy medievalism that is immediately recognisable. Michael died in 2005. See pp.106-13.

BOUCHER, Thomas James Born in 1897, in the 1950s Tom was the resident craftsman in the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery at the Royal College of Art. He died in 1988.

BOWEN, Christopher S Born in 1954, he studied at London’s Sir John Cass School of Art from 1972-6 and was awarded a Goldsmiths’ Company travelling award. He undertook part time lecturing.

BRAY, R Andrew Born in 1938 he studied at the Canterbury College of Art from 1954-60. While there he designed the 1960 Ascot Gold Cup for Asprey. He studied at the Royal College of Art from 1960-3. He established his own studio and workshop in Kent where he designed and made ecclesiastical, domestic and corporate silver.

He also undertook industrial design for companies such as Ronson and Kitchen Devils. He lectured at the Canterbury College of Art. BROOKER, Albert George of London registered his mark in 1945. Specialising in ecclesiastical plate, he also taught at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. His last mark was entered in 1948 and the latest work we have encountered is a condiment set dated 1962. N.B. His mark ‘AGB’ in a rectangular punch is often confused with Gerald Benney’s of ‘AGB’ within a punch in the form of three conjoined overlapping circles.

BURNETT, Gordon Born in 1951, he studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. He returned to the School as a design lecturer, his special interest being in CAD/CAM technology. He produced a mace for Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, and a Freedom Casket for Nelson Mandela.

BURR, Clive Born in 1953, he studied at Loughborough College of Art, High Wycombe College and from 1976-9 at the Royal College of Art. He established a workshop in London with some fellow graduates after the RCA and has been London based ever since, making both jewellery and silver. His workshop moved to the Goldsmiths’ Centre in 2012. See pp.114-19.

BURT, Leonard William Len Burt worked as a craftsman for Omar Ramsden until he established his own workshop. In the 1950s he made up quite a number of Eric Clements’ designs.

BURTON, Jocelyn Convent educated and destined by her parents to read modern languages at Cambridge, in 1967 she fell in love with an artist, abandoned university and studied jewellery and silversmithing at Sir John Cass School of Art. She did not complete the course but undertook an unofficial jewellery apprenticeship and studied silversmithing at evening classes. She established her central London studio in 1970 and as at May 2014 is still designing silver and jewellery. See pp.120-7.

BURTON, Michael Rowland Born in 1949, he is the brother of Jocelyn Burton. In 1968 he studied at Yeovil Technical School of

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Art before moving to London to train as a silversmith at the Sir John Cass College from 1969-1973. He established his workshop at Martock, Somerset. Michael died in 2011.

BUSH, Frederick C Freddie Bush was born in 1920 and in 1934 became apprenticed to William Comyns as a silver modeller. He returned to the company in 1945 after he was demobilised at the end of World War II. From 1959 he was a craftsman with Wakely and Wheeler and later spent 11 years as a designer, chaser and specialist modelmaker and silver workshop manager at Asprey’s. He died in 1998.

CAIN, Brian R Born in 1931 and served his apprenticeship with Wakely and Wheeler. He studied on day release at the Central School of Arts and Crafts with contemporaries John Bartholomew and Lew Marlow. Payne and Son of Oxford and George Tarratt in Leicester retailed some of the pieces he designed for Wakely and Wheeler in the late 1950s. Cain later moved to CJ Vander where he was the company’s design manager.

CALVERT, Ian Born in 1938, aged 13 he attended the Gravesend School of Art. He became apprenticed to RE Stone in 1954 and also attended evening classes for design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1957 he attended the ‘Skills Olympics’ in Madrid and won first prize in his category for silversmithing. After National Service, he returned to Stone’s, but later took a position at Wakely and Wheeler. In the early 1960s, Tony Laws and Ronald Stevens, two students from his Gravesend days, who had just graduated from the Royal College of Art, approached him. They had established a workshop in central London and asked Ian to make-up their work.

Later joined by Keith Redfern, the four established the Silver Workshop Limited a design and manufacturing company. This continued until 1972 when everyone went their separate ways.

Calvert established his own business; being a superb craftsman, this was very successful. As well as making, he undertakes some design work. His son joined him from 1999-2011. See pp.456-7.

CAMPBELL, John Born in 1943, his father took him to museums and art galleries and encouraged him to attend pottery courses at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. In his early teens he made a mould of one of his tin soldiers, melted some tin on the family gas stove and made another. This was quite an achievement for someone so young, and from such beginnings John knew he wanted to make things not in tin, but precious metals. On leaving school at 15 he attended the pre-apprentice silversmithing course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1959 he began his apprenticeship with Langfords, whose workshop then employed 6–8 people. In 1964 he moved to William Comyns & Sons Limited, a silversmithing company with 50 employees. In 1969 he changed to Nayler Brothers Limited, but was ‘moonlighting’ in a workshop he established in his parents’ garden shed. From 1971-3 he worked for Christopher Lawrence. In 1973 he became a full-time silversmith working on his own account. The business expanded and in 1977 he took a workshop in London’s Clerkenwell. Further growth resulted in another move in 1985, this time just a few miles to the east in Shoreditch. At this time John realised that the interest in reproduction silver was waning and that the public wanted a contemporary product. However, his retailers warned him about being too radical, so he designed what he calls ‘a half-way designer collection, which was not “whacky”, but was certainly modern’. He called it ‘Appetite’. It proved very

Ian Calvert was working at the bench for years making-up the designs of others. It was a task at which he excelled and he was always in demand. In later years he began to design and make-up his own work. This jug is one of his creations. Constructed from eight main pieces that are then expertly soldered together, the result is a very fluid piece. Indeed, it looks as if it could waddle across the table to those who were thirsty.

Height 25.8cm. London 2011. Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection. Image supplied by Ian Calvert.

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successful and while he still makes some reproduction pieces, ‘Appetite’ is the larger seller. His son Colin joined the business in 1989 after working with Lew Marlow. As at 2012, father and son still work together, but since 2007, this family company has been located at Brentwood in Essex and trades as JA Silversmiths.

CAMPBELL-LEGG, Robert Born in 1946, he served his apprenticeship as an engraver and die-sinker in the Birmingham trade from 1961-70. The following year he started studying at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing, Birmingham College of Art. He continued his postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Art from 1976-9. He undertook many commissions including the 1983 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes Trophy for De Beers. He also worked for Grant Macdonald and undertook gun engraving for Holland and Holland and Purdey. He has tutored at various colleges in the UK. In 1988 he became a full-time educator in Birmingham.

CAMPION, Stella She studied at Salford and was awarded her Diploma in Art and Design in 1974. Three years later she won the second prize for chasing in the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Awards. Having established her workshop in Jericho, Oxford, she undertook extended studies at the Sir John Cass School of Art in 1985, winning second prize for The Goldsmiths’ Company and British Jewellers’ Association’s Competition the same year. Still based in Oxford, she has achieved many prestigious awards throughout her career and has made pieces for a number of Oxford colleges and churches. These include a hanging pyx for the University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin and a pair of chalices for Christchurch Cathedral. In 2012 Stella made the pectoral cross for the new Bishop of Winchester, using a design based on the Ixworth Cross that is now in Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. Stella specialises in chased designs on handraised work, which is mainly made to commission.

CAWTE, David He undertook a pre-apprenticeship course at Sir John Cass School of Art. In 1967 he became Stuart Devlin’s first apprentice during which he won a second prize in the Goldsmiths Craft and Design Council’s Craftsmanship and Design Awards for 1969 and 1970 and was apprentice of the year in 1972. From 197482 he was employed at Nayler Bros. (which was taken over by Garrard’s in 1980). While he was there he made wedding presents for HRH the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana; pieces for HM Queen Elizabeth II; HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the Duke of Gloucester as well for overseas rulers and other dignitaries. He started his own business in 1982 and specialised in the restoration of antique silver and has taught at Morley College, the adult education establishment in central London.

CHAMBERLAIN, Julie Born in 1958, she studied at Middlesex Polytechnic from 1977-80 and won the first prize in the Johnson Matthey Design Awards in 1979. From 1981-4 she studied at the Royal College of Art. In 1981 and 1984 she won Goddard’s Awards for Designs in Silver. Upon graduating she established her own workshop and began to produce innovative, functional tableware for exhibition as well as for corporate and private commission.

Additionally she has designed and made ecclesiastical silver and trophies, including the 1995 De Beers’ King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes Trophy. She has exhibited widely and was

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one of the contemporary silversmiths commissioned by Garrard’s to design and make a piece for its 1993 exhibition ‘Royal Goldsmiths: Garrard Design and Patronage in the Twentieth Century’. In 2011 she curated the exhibition ‘Mindful of Silver’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

CHERRY, Norman He studied at the Glasgow School of Art 196670 and worked for Louis Osman. He established his own studio and workshop at Kelso in 1971 and produced a wide range of jewellery and silver. He won the Saltaire Society John Noble Award in 1972.

CLARKE, Geoffrey Born in 1924, he was a contemporary of Gerald Benney at the Royal College of Art. In 1958 he was commissioned by the Goldsmiths’ Company to make the high altar cross for Coventry Cathedral. He later received commissions from Chichester and Lincoln Cathedrals. As well as silver he worked in other metals and with stained glass. He was also a sculptor and engraver and produced art medals.

CLAY, Elizabeth Born in 1951 she trained in Sheffield and proceeded to study at the Royal College of Art. In 1973, while studying, she designed and made a centrepiece for presentation to the City of Sheffield. In 1976 she won a Johnson Matthey Award.

CLEMENTS, Eric George Born in 1925, from 1946-9 he studied silversmithing at the Birmingham College of Art and the associated Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing. He proceeded to the Royal College of Art from 1949-52. His career combined teaching with designing silver and working as an industrial designer. In 1957 he was appointed design consultant to Mappin & Webb. His final commission was in 2005. See pp.128-35.

CLEN-MURPHY, Desmond Born in 1924, he studied at the Brighton College of Art 1946-50. He established a workshop in Brighton in 1952 and also started teaching. Later in the 1950s he undertook work for Gerald Benney and Louis Osman. A number of large commissions came his way in the 1960s. In 1975 he taught full-time at the Brighton College of Art, but continued to design and make silver. He made his last piece of silver in 1996 and died in 2010. See pp.136-41.

CLIFTON, David Hugh Born in 1941 he studied at Birmingham College of Art from where he proceeded to the Royal College of Art. A Freelance designer and craftsman, he produced both silver and jewellery. In 1966/7 he won the De Beers Diamond International Award. In addition to working with silver he also used perspex, wood and other metals. He exhibited in Europe, USA, Japan, South Africa.

COATES, Kevin Born in 1950, he studied at the West Sussex College of Design, London’s Central School of Art and Design from 1970-3 and at the Royal College of Art from 1973-6. Although the majority of his work is jewellery and jewels, from 1982 he has undertaken some stunning commissions in silver, including the Amity Cup for the Goldsmiths’ Company and the St George Centrepiece for Downing Street. He uses patination, lacquer and oxidisation to give colour to his creations. See pp.142-51.

COLLETT, Richard was born in 1954. After studying at Witney Grammar School, he read biology from 1972-5 at The University of

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Sussex. From 1976-7, he spent a year in Denmark working for a company of drainage engineers and builders. His initial career appears not to have been to his liking for from 1977-80 he studied 3-Dimensional Design, specialising in silversmithing and jewellery, at Sheffield City Polytechnic’s Faculty of Art and Design. Upon graduating he worked for Wakely and Wheeler in London where he was involved in making the Football League Cup, then known as the Milk Cup, in reference to the Milk Marketing Board being the main sponsor from 1982-6. In 1984 he set up as a silversmith and jeweller in London, teaching craft skills part-time for two years at Woolwich College. During this period his work appeared in ‘Exhibition of Pens’ staged by Waterman and in 1987 he received a Design Centre Kite Mark for pen designs in silver. He moved to Brighton in 1988 and subsequently worked at various locations in East Sussex. His clients included leading London and provincial retailers. He made a box for Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s wedding and Brad Pitt bought a pair of his candlesticks. He was interested in the rich and varied surface treatment of metals. He was constantly exploring new possibilities and often found that one form or piece led to another. His work ranged from jewellery in precious metals to larger pieces and sculpture in both precious and non-precious metals, such as steel and bronze. He died in 2013.

COLYER, Cecil Frederick was Head of Metalwork and Woodwork at Bryanston School. He registered his mark during 1965 in London and later in Edinburgh. One of his students was Simon Beer, who called him ‘an inspired teacher’.

CONWAY, Rosamund Born in Bristol in 1951, she undertook her foundation year at Somerset School of Art from 1969-70. From 1970-3 she studied at London’s Central School of Art and Design and at the Royal College of Art from 1973-5. In the year she graduated from the Royal College she won the Sanderson’s Art in Industry Award and visited Japan. In addition to silversmithing, she learnt the art of enamelling. She undertook various part-time teaching posts.

COOK, Richard F Born in 1942, he was inspired to become a silversmith by a chapter in a book given to him by a relative. He undertook the pre-apprenticeship course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1958 he started serving his apprenticeship as a spoon-maker at CJ Vander’s workshop and continued working there after his apprenticeship was over. In 1968 Stuart Devlin offered him a position and being an admirer of Devlin’s work he accepted. He stayed until 1985 hand forging Devlin’s cutlery. He later established his own workshop. The Goldsmiths’ Company has produced a CD in its Technology and Training Master Class Series. Entitled The Theory and Practice of Hand Forging, Richard Cook demonstrates making cutlery from ingots of silver using a hammer.

COOPER, Francis He learnt his craft in the workshop of his father, John Paul Cooper. One of his most famous creations is the pen the Scriveners’ Company commissioned him to design and make. HM Queen Elizabeth II used it to sign the Oath at her Coronation in 1953.

COURTS, David and HACKETT, Bill David Courts was born in London during 1945 and graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1971. Bill Hackett was born in 1949 and graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1974. In that year they established a design and

silversmithing partnership. Wartski exhibited their work in 1976 and it also featured in an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum the following year. Their work is in private and public collections.

CRAXFORD, Alan He studied silversmithing and product design at Canterbury College of Art from 1963-7 and until 1972 worked for a company as an industrial designer. He decided on a career change and studied enamelling part time at the Central School of Art and Design from 1973-4. He then proceeded to the Sir John Cass School of Art to study engraving from 1974-5. Having established his workshop, he mainly produced jewellery, but also started working on a larger scale; he developed his signature Mandala pieces into new groups of Celestial Spinning Bowls. Finely balanced, these richly enamelled pieces can be gently turned on their stone bases.

CRAZE, Lesley Born at Cardiff in 1935, she studied at the city’s College of Music and Drama. She subsequently worked as an actress, teacher and lecturer and as a jeweller and silversmith. She was mainly self-taught but had some help from Sarah Jones and Michael Murray. Initially selling her work from a stall in Camden Passage and later from a stall in the then newly opened Covent Garden Market, she started a gallery near Islington Green in 1984.

CREED, John Born in 1938, he studied at Liverpool Art School. He worked for Walker and Hall and later with Francis Cooper in Kent.

In 1970 he moved to Glasgow and lectured at Glasgow Art School for many years, as well as running his own studio. He has been a mentor to many silversmiths working in Scotland. He established an architectural metalwork forge in 1989 where he works in forged steel. He has won a number of important public commissions in Scotland and further afield. His silver is in several Scottish collections as well as in the Goldsmiths’ Company in London.

CRIMMINS, Graham Born in 1946, he studied at the School of Jewellery and Silversmithing, Birmingham College of Art from 1967-71.

After graduating he worked for a Birmingham jeweller. He established his own workshop in Edinburgh during 1974. His interest is the fusing and colouring of different metals so as to produce unusual textures and patterns. He designs and makes jewellery and his workshop has become known for simple spun copper bowls with different patinas and inlays. He is well-known for his silver spoons and letter openers.

CUSSELL, John After undertaking the pre-apprenticeship course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts he served his apprentice at Hurst Franklin Ltd. Having worked at Stuart Devlin’s workshop for three years, he set up his own workshop in Spain. He returned to the UK. CUZNER, Bernard Born in 1877, he became a leading silver instructor of his generation. Apprenticed to his watchmaker father, he studied silversmithing at evening classes. By the early 1900s he was producing a volume of his own work and is believed to have been designing for Liberty. He was appointed a teacher of metalwork at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing in 1908 and Head of Metalwork in 1927. He retired from teaching in 1942. He designed the Olympic torch for the 1948 Olympic Games in London, which he made with Stanley Morris. It is estimated that he made 500 pieces commissioned by individuals and institutions during his working life. He died in 1956.

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Australian decimal coinage and won. While at the Royal Mint in London cutting the dies, he decided to settle there as a silversmith.

He opened his Clerkenwell workshop in 1965. He decided to abandon his sterile Bauhaus and Scandinavian influences and make his work romantic. This revelation was the beginning of what became the distinctive Devlin style. The result was silver, the likes of which had never been seen before. It was not long before Devlin was employing 60 people, 40 working at the bench. He added surprise Easter Eggs and other limited editions to his repertoire.

Important commissions ensued during the 1970s. In 1979 he opened a showroom in London’s Mayfair, but closed it in 1984 and moved his retail operation back to Clerkenwell. In 1989 the London retail and workshops closed and since then Devlin has only worked on commissions from a studio at his Sussex home. See pp.152-73.

Iain Davidson This pair of candelabra were purchased from a dealer in 2010 for £2,000. The dealer had secured them from Mr Davidson, who was proud of both the design and the technical aspect of their construction. Height 11cm. Birmingham 1956. Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett

DAVIDSON, Iain AR Head of Department at Edinburgh College of Art. He designed and made items to a very high standard. His mark was registered in both Birmingham and Edinburgh from the 1950s. He passed away in 2012.

DEAKIN and FRANCIS Although it can trace its origins to Birmingham in the late 18th century, it took its present name in the 1880s. Under David Deakin the company started to expand and this resulted in a contemporary range in the late 1960s and 1970s. However, following the steep rise in silver bullion in the late 1970s, the entire stock was melted and the company became a successful jewellery producer. de LARGE, Edward Born in the UK during 1949, he studied ceramic design at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts before studying silversmithing and jewellery at the Royal College of Art from 1972-5. He became interested in titanium while at the RCA, first using it for the turned base of a gold bowl. In 1975 he designed and made a very futuristic tea service that was exhibited at Electrum. However, he made a name for himself in modern jewellery, experimenting with titanium. After studying in Japan, he introduced metal inlay and patination to his work. de Vries Winter, Tamar Born in Jerusalem during 1946, she attended the Art Teacher Training College in Tel Aviv from 1964-6.

She studied jewellery design and production at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London from 1966-9 and then became a trainee jeweller with Gillian Packard and Alan Gard in London from 1969-70. Her first post teaching jewellery was at the Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem, from 1970-3. In 1975 she established a shared workshop at Leamington Spa, UK, where she remained until 1981. She taught enamelling at the Mid-Warwickshire

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College of Further Education in Leamington Spa (now part of Warwickshire College) from 1977-86. In 1981 she moved to Cambridge where she established a studio/workshop. During 19902001 she lectured part-time on enamelling at the London Guildhall University, which is now part of the London Metropolitan University. She was a guest lecturer in jewellery at the Shenkar School of Engineering and Design, Ramat Gan, Israel, from 20012009. Tamar’s earliest inspiration came from the colour in textiles, jewellery and architecture in the Israeli Jewish and Islamic environment where she grew up. This has had a profound influence on her jewellery and silverware. ‘The art of enamelling enables me to express myself freely with colour, and combine it with designing and making jewellery and silverware. My interest in ceremony, both personal and public, has led me to create a collection of ceremonial and ritual objects. I now use digital technology – printing and fusing my own photographic images onto my objects, with enamel transfers – as an integral part of my work.’ Since 1996, Tamar has been a co-director of Studio Fusion, a London gallery dedicated to contemporary vitreous enamel. Her work is in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the Jewish museums in New York and London, the National Museum of Scotland, the Vilnius Goldsmiths and the Enamel Museum in Lithuania, as well as many private collections.

DEVLIN, Stuart Born at Geelong (Australia) in 1931, he trained as an art teacher, becoming one in 1952. From 1957-8 he studied part time in Melbourne for a Diploma of Art in gold silversmithing.

He studied both silversmithing and industrial design at the Royal College of Art from 1958-60. He went to the US where he decided to develop a career as a sculptor. Back in Australia in 1965, he was appointed Inspector of Art Schools in Victoria and hated the role.

He was asked to participate in a competition to design the

DICK, Lexi Alexandra Dick, known as Lexi, was rejected by London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, but was accepted for study at the Ravensbourne College of Art and subsequently the Royal College of Art. She shared a workshop with a fellow Ravensbourne student in London and became fascinated by wax modelling, hence casting by the lost wax process. Initially she only made jewellery then she added small figurines, particularly animals to her repertoire. She sold through retailers, a weekly stall in Covent Garden’s Apple Market and Loot. Larger pieces followed in the 1980s and some of these are in the collections of the Goldsmiths’ Collection, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Baroness Thatcher and the Silver Trust for use at Downing Street. See pp.174-9.

DONALD, John Alistair Born in 1928. When he left school he was good at drawing and golf, playing for England aged 17, but he chose a career in the arts. He studied illustration at Farnham School of Art before moving on to the Royal College of Art to study jewellery. His first studio and workshop was in a converted mews in Bayswater and although primarily regarded as a jeweller, he has designed and produced some silver. He opened a shop at 120 Cheapside in 1967.

DOYLE, Roger Born in 1947 he undertook his pre-apprentice course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1962. He subsequently became an apprentice at Cartier from 1963-8. He is a jeweller, silversmith and clockmaker. He creates collections of unusual and original pieces using semi-precious stones, cut and uncut diamonds with bright colours supplied by enamel. Inspired by organic forms and their complexities, architecture and engineering, he likes to explore textures, colours and new materials. In 1969 he worked with Louis Osman on all the platinum, diamond and emerald work, which included the construction of the top section of the crown for the investiture of HRH The Prince of Wales. London’s V&A has the Dragonfly Clock designed and made by Roger during 1976. Crafted in gold, silver, steel, moonstone and Perspex, the dragonfly’s delicate wings are the work of Malcolm Appleby. In 1979 he was awarded a bursary by the Craft Council to study the use of glass with jewellery and ornaments at the Royal College of Art. In the mid-1980s the Goldsmiths’ Company commissioned a miniature silver gilt carriage clock with alarm for its collection. Its front rock crystal doors, with a modelled and applied moth, open to reveal a steel dial inlaid with gold. The design is based on the attraction of a moth to light. The dial is the work of Malcolm Appleby. Roger works in Arundel, West Sussex.

DRIVER, John Michael Born in 1943, he studied at the Sheffield College of Art from 1961-5 and at the Royal College of Art from 19658. There was certainly no shortage of commissions so in 1970 he established a shop, studio and workshop in central London. He held two exhibitions a year – in the summer and just before Christmas.

During the 1970s, he also received a number of commissions. By the end of the 1970s he had noticed that his clientele had changed and he diversified into graphic design. In 1983 he moved his studio to Notting Hill. At this juncture, instead of making stock for retail he worked on commission, his house boxes based on actual buildings being popular. He contributed pieces to exhibitions held at Goldsmiths’ Hall in the late 1990s. See pp.180-5.

DUNLOP, Sybil Born in 1889 she learnt her jewellery making skills in Brussels and opened a shop in Kensington Church Street, London in 1920. Her work continued in the Arts and Crafts style and continued producing into the 1960’s. She died in 1968.

DURBIN, Leslie Gordon Born in 1913, at the age of 13 he secured a London County Council Trade Scholarship and was advised by his headmaster to study silversmithing at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1929 he began to serve an apprenticeship with Omar Ramsden. In 1938 he won a scholarship to study full-time at the Central School. He started to win important commissions and supposedly his call-up for service in the war was delayed as a result.

During the war he was given unlimited leave to work on the Sword of Stalingrad. After the war he went into partnership with Len Moss, his senior at Ramsden’s, and produced a wide range of work. He closed his London workshop in 1975 but established another at his home at Kew. One of his last commissions was a set of silver spoons to commemorate the millennium. He died in 2005. See pp.186-93.

EDGAR, Maureen Born in 1949, she studied at evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art and proceeded to Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee. She failed as a painter as occasionally she used her fingers as opposed to a brush and so took up silversmithing. Introduced to enamelling, she found it fascinating and she became one of the country’s leading enamellers. After the Royal College of Art she mainly worked to commission. Her output is in public and private collections.

In 1999 she became unwell and could no longer work. See pp.194-9.

ELSON, Anthony Gordon Born in 1935, after National Service he studied at Brighton College of Art from 1958-60 and at the Royal College of Art from 1960-3. He then became assistant to the Chairman of William Coymns. In 1968 he purchased Blunt & Wray the ecclesiastical metalwork suppliers. Elson soon obtained silver commissions, including the silver for the Council Rooms of the London Stock Exchange. He was also supplying West End retailers. Due to the combination of a hike in rent and silver sales being static, he liquidated Blunt & Wray and in 1981 established a studio in Clerkenwell concentrating on bespoke pieces. The number of commissions was impressive. In 2003 he moved his studio to his East Sussex home where he continues to work on commissions as well as undertaking experimental chemically colouring silver. See pp.200-9.

ELY, Victor Following an apprenticeship combined with study at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, he established his own workshop in London. He lectured at the Sir John Cass College, Hornsey College of Art and Middlesex Polytechnic.

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EVANS, Alan Alfred Born in 1937, he served his apprenticeship at RE Stone’s from 1953-8 studying silversmithing and design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts where he was a contemporary of Christopher Lawrence. In 1960, after National Service in the RAF he joined Wakely and Wheeler, but was not too happy there. Lawrence was by this time workshop manager for Gerald Benney and when a vacancy arose in 1964 for another silversmith, he suggested that Evans apply. In the late 1960s Benney decided to add colour to his repertoire and brought the master enameller Berger Bergersen over from Zurich to teach Gerald Benney, Alan Evans and Robert Winter the art of enameling. As at 2013, Alan Evans still works in the Benney workshop, but for his son Simon as opposed to Gerald.

FENN, Howard Born in 1953, he won a scholarship after Olevels to Dartington Hall School, which offered a progressive education. It was there that he developed an interest in silversmithing. He then studied silversmithing and jewellery at the Sir John Cass School of Art from 1973-7. A post as a silver designer in the US fell through because of visa problems. Having worked with a silversmith for a while, he set up on his own in 1979. Over the years he has built-up a loyal clientele and produces beautifully proportioned work with clear bold lines and an almost sculptural quality. See pp.210-15.

FISHER, Alann G An accomplished Sheffield-trained silversmith who became an educator. He was in overall charge of the jewellery, engraving and silversmithing evening classes that Don Porritt initially undertook at the Leeds College of Art. The Pearson Silver Collection has a bowl with pierced cover by him, which bears the Leeds College of Art sponsor’s mark which is engraved ‘Wrought

by Alann G Fisher’. It bears the Sheffield date letter for 1949.

FORREST, Marianne Born in 1957, after her art foundation course from 1977-80, Marianne studied three-dimensional design at Middlesex Polytechnic (now Middlesex University). She won the Topham Trophy Design competition in 1978 and subsequently made the piece while a student. This was followed by her postgraduate studies at the RCA in the Department of Silversmithing and Jewellery under Professor Gerald Benney. While there she went on to design and make the Mecca Dante Stakes Trophy in 1982 when the race was won by Simply Great, the jockey being Lester Piggott.

(The following year the trophy was designed and made by the sculptor Elizabeth Frink.) Marianne graduated from the RCA in 1983. The following year she established her own workshop. She comments, ‘I work in any material conceivable using my making skills gained from training and practise as a silversmith to make pieces in anything from platinum to plaster, gold to granite. Most of my work has concentrated on timepieces of all types and sizes but more recently commissioned work has encompassed sculpture as well as fine jewellery. A recent commission includes two 4m-high sail form sculptures in bronze with cut glass and polished stainless steel spheres. A line of lights connects the two sculptures through a shopping and cultural centre at the heart of Portishead. The Pearson Silver Collection has a suite of three of her silver candelabra, each being set on a slate base (1987) and the Goldsmiths’ Company has a pair (1994) derived from the earlier design. Marianne is based in Hertfordshire and teaches at London’s Central St Martins College of Arts and Design.

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FOSTER-JONES, Christopher Born in Oxford during 1943, he joined Stuart Devlin in 1965 as his first craftsman and became manager of one of his Clerkenwell workshops in 1970. He later worked for Grant Macdonald.

FOX, Richard Nicholas Born in 1954, he learnt jewellery making at his local technical college as an extra mural subject. He applied to study jewellery at Hornsey College of Art from 1974-7 but studied silver in his final year while this was his main subject at the Royal College of Art from 1978-81. He graduated at a difficult period, but established his own workshop and worked hard building the business. In the mid-1980s Bernie Ecclestone chose him to design the Formula One trophies. He has makes a wide range of silver from ecclesiastical to domestic. His workshop is at Croydon. See pp.216-23.

FRIEND, George T Born in 1882, he became one the most accomplished engravers of his day. As well as managing his own workshop, he taught engraving at the Central School of Arts and Crafts from the early 1900s until shortly before his death in 1969.

FROST, David Born in 1939, he studied at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing before proceeding to the Royal College of Art in 1962. There he was awarded a medal for experimental casting in silver. He taught at the Leicester College of Art and later became a Senior Lecturer at Manchester Polytechnic, from where he retired in 2000. He designed and made silver.

FULLER, Brian Leslie Born in 1942, a radio talk by Reginald Hill inspired him to become a silversmith. He began his preapprenticeship course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1958. He served his apprenticeship at Wakely & Wheeler indentured to Frank Beck. He moved to Nayler Brothers, worked for Gerald Benney, established his own workshop and was persuaded to return to Benney before establishing a large retail shop at Amersham, which included a range of silver and jewellery, including Fuller’s own work. He also taught and undertook major commissions. He retired in 2010. See pp.224-9.

GALVIN, Louis Arnold Born in 1914 and served his apprenticeship with HG Murphy. Murphy died in 1939 and during the war Galvin worked at Hawkers in Kingston-on-Thames building aircraft. In 1946 he began working for the silversmithing firm of Edward Barnard & Co. After 10 years he established his own business in Hatton Garden and produced mainly domestic pieces for retailers like Garrard’s and Mappin and Webb. At one stage he employed 10 people. From 1946 until 1976 he also taught at the Camberwell College of Arts and Crafts. When the lease expired on his workshop in 1981 he established another one in West Molesey in Surrey, where he worked as a restorer of antique silver.

GEERE, Richard Born in 1932 he served his apprenticeship with Ramsden and Roed, also studying by day release and in the evenings at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. He worked for Asprey and Stuart Devlin before establishing his own workshop.

He also lectured at Eltham College in south London.

DESIGNERS, CRAFTSMEN, SILVER MANUFACTURERS AND ENGRAVERS

GILBERT, Robert Walter Known as Wally Gilbert, he was born in 1946. Having studied at the West Sussex School of Art and Design, he went on to study sculpturing at the Chelsea School of Art. Afterwards he started making jewellery, which he went on to teach. His work was transformed when he developed a technique of fusing wire to sheet metal without solder. In the late 1970s he moved to Herefordshire to establish a workshop and to teach. In 1982 he went to assist Louis Osman, but continued his own work as a jeweller. In the 1990s he turned his attention to silver. He has an instantly recognisable style that reminds people of a contemporary feel Arts and Crafts Movement metalwork. See pp.230-7.

GLOVER, Robert Born in 1947, he studied at the Hornsey College of Art and The Royal College of Art. At the age of 21, his degree collection featured in Design Magazine.

GOODDEN, Robert Born in 1909, he trained as an architect but became interested in industrial and designed pressed glass for Chance Brothers. After the war, he returned to architectural private practice, forming a partnership with Richard Russell.

Goodden designed the Display of Sports Goods for the ‘Britain Can Make It’ exhibition and Goodden and Russell were asked to design a pavilion for the Festival of Britain. In 1948 Goodden and Russell were invited to become professors at the Royal College of Art, Goodden opting for what became the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery. He designed some silver, including the ‘Festival of Britain Tea Service’. He retired in 1974, was Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company from 1976-7 and died in 2002. See pp.238-45.

GOULD, ME Designed pieces for Garrard’s, Mappin and Webb and CJ Vander in the 1950s and early 1960s. He taught at the Twickenham School of Art. He also undertook commissions.

GRANT, George Edward Born c.1935, he undertook a preapprenticeship course at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts and subsequently served as an apprentice with Leslie Durbin. Later he worked for Michael Murray. He established his own workshop at Rosebery Avenue, London in 1959. Eventually he moved to Chelmsford in Essex where he also taught. He was a fine craftsman who produced a great deal of ecclesiastical work.

Technically superb, if other silversmiths had problems they would often ask George to ‘sort it’.

GRANT, Norman Born in 1943, he studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. He opened his own workshop in 1967 and by 1975 he had a staff of seven. He exhibited in the UK and the USA and ran a summer school at his workshop in Fife. His output was mainly enameled jewellery but he also produced boxes and spoons. Grant’s work quickly became synonymous with the psychedelic ‘Art Nouveau’ floral revival style of the early 1970s, and its luminescent flowers and candy coloured shapes provided ideal accessories for the popular clothes of the moment from designers such as Biba and Mary Quant. His work became so trend-setting that it quickly became a ‘must-have’ accessory that was worn by many celebrities including Sandie Shaw and Mick Jagger, and later Billy Connolly and Elton John.

GRENVILLE, John Born in 1918 and studied painting at Kingston College of Art and from 1938-40 at Farnham School of Art. After war service he studied silversmithing at the Central School of Arts and Crafts 1945-7. His first workshop was established in 1947 but in the 1950s he had one in London where he produced handraised silver dishes with brightly coloured enamel abstract decoration. He also produced silver and enamel jewellery, domestic silver and church plate, much of these being ‘one-offs’. He moved to Brockford, Suffolk, in 1966 and opened a shop in Clare. He later moved to Stowmarket. The 1967 Crafts Journal stated ‘John Grenville is one of the few craftsmen whose work is not subsidised by teaching.’ He executed many church silver commissions for East Anglican dioceses in an elegant, modernist style, including a chalice and paten he designed and made in 1966 that is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. He died in 2004.

GRIMA, Andrew Born in 1921 in Rome he was brought up in London and studied engineering at Nottingham University. After graduating in 1946 he became an employee of the jewellers HJ Company Limited. He opened his own shop in London’s Jermyn Street in 1966. Although primarily a jeweller, he did occasionally produce silver objets d’art. He died in 2007.

GUILD of HANDICRAFT George Henry Hart was born in 1882 and was one of the original silversmiths who moved with Charles Ashbee and the Guild of Handicraft from London to Chipping Camden in 1902. Hart served a six-year apprenticeship and was elected a Guild member in March 1908 but the Guild was woundup in September of that year. However, in July 1908 George Hart had formed a new business also called the Guild of Handicraft, with three other Guild members as partners. Today the fourth generation of Harts are still creating fine silver in the Arts and Crafts tradition. The business’s story is told in The Harts of Chipping Camden by Richard Russell (Chipping Camden, 2008).

HALL, Charles He studied at Hornsey College of Art and at the Royal College of Art. In 1972 he established his studio and workshop in Cornwall. A founding member of the Association of British Designer Silversmiths (now Contemporary British Silversmiths), he has undertaken many important commissions. In 2010 he helped Michael Galsworthy, then Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company, hand-raise a beaker in his workshop at Hayle.

HAMILTON, Patricia Jean During the 1970s, she trained at the Sir John Cass School of Art as well as under Gunilla Treen, the innovative jeweller, at Morley College on London’s South Bank. She received various awards including Goddard’s Awards for Silver Design in 1979, 1980 and 1981 and the Laureate de Presse Française while exhibiting in Paris during 1992. She has been a regular visitor at the Chelsea Craft Fair and the Goldsmiths’ Fair.

She exhibited with the Crafts Council in California and Frankfurt and has had solo shows at the Roger Billcliffe Gallery in Glasgow and at Villa d’Este in Johannesburg. Her personal clients include HRH Princess Christine of the Netherlands, a Saudi princess and Paul McCartney, for whom she made guitar buckles. Institutional clients include the Radcliffe Observatory and she has made ecclesiastical silver for Winchester Cathedral and for the new Christ of the Cornerstone in Milton Keynes. The Queen drank from one of Patricia’s chalices at the church’s inauguration service on 13 March

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1992. Her work is in the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum. In 2002 she changed her surname to Freeman, but her maker’s mark remains PJH. She currently works and teaches in the Cotswolds.

HARDING, Geoffrey Norman was a physicist, silversmith and accomplished amateur musician. He died in 2011 at the age of 91.

HARDING, Neil Born in 1937, he studied at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing, Birmingham College of Art from 1954-7 and at the Norwich College of Art from 1958-9.

This was followed by study at the Royal College of Art from 195962. Upon graduating, the College awarded him a travelling scholarship. In 1965 he won the Topham Trophy competition. He was Head of Jewellery and Silversmithing at Leicester Polytechnic and in the late 1960s and early 1970s a consultant designer to Arthur Price. He established a studio and workshop in Morcott, Rutland.

HARRINGTON, Bernard He was Head of the Department of Silversmithing and Jewellery at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee during the period 1943-1974. He designed and made silver.

HARRISON, Paul Born in 1946 he studied at West Sussex College of Art and Design and the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing, Birmingham College of Art. Upon completion of the Birmingham course the Goldsmiths’ Company awarded him a travelling scholarship and he visited Iceland and Copenhagen.

He was offered the possibility of working with Louis Osman, but as he was getting married, decided that combining teaching with silversmithing would be the steadier option. In 1968 he became an arts and crafts teacher at a secondary school in Deal. He established a workshop at his home. His work is in collections at Eton College as well as Aston and Cambridge Universities. In 1976 he established his home and workshop in an old windmill at Deal.

HAWKSLEY, Anthony Paton Born in 1921, he trained at the Maidstone School of Art from 1938-40 and after the war from 1946-8.

He studied at the Royal College of Art from 1948-51. He established a workshop at his Maidstone home in 1952 but by the mid-1950s he had moved to north Oxfordshire where he combined designing and making silver with teaching. In the late 1960s he was exhibiting at the newly established Oxford Gallery and he also formed a special relationship with Payne of Oxford who commissioned him to make a collection of acid-etched silver for Wolfson College, Oxford, as well as commemorative pieces for the 1977 Silver Jubilee. He lived in Cornwall from 1974-9, Devon from 1979-83 and in Suffolk from 1983.

An unusual aspect of his works were ‘silverscapes’ where he created three-dimensional enamel and silver scenes for jewellery and lids of boxes. He died in 1991. See pp.246-51.

THE HERITAGE COLLECTION Michael Cansdale’s successful mail-order company based in Bristol (but later with offices in Cape Town, London, New York and Sydney). It sold limited editions by Stuart Devlin, Anthony Elson, Christopher Lawrence and others.

HILL, Atholl Nairn Born in 1935, he studied industrial design and silversmithing at Glasgow School of Art. Early in his career

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he received a number of important commissions from the Goldsmiths’ Company. His commissions include a ciborium for Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford; a processional cross for the Royal Chapel at the Tower of London and bowls for Loughborough University and the University of York. He also taught design and was a designer for British Rail.

HILL, Reginald Henry Born in 1914, he undertook a silversmithing apprenticeship upon leaving school. He later studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (Central School).

The Goldsmiths’ Company purchased a cigarette box he made there in 1936. After his studies he did freelance work, designing the Ascot Gold Cup in 1939. After the war he taught design at the Central School, but continued freelance designing. His output was prolific and he was certainly the leading designer of the 1940s, 1950s and to an extent the very early 1960s. He died in 1975 having made a contribution to the transition from traditional to modern silver. See pp.252-7.

HIMSWORTH, Joyce Rosemary was born in Sheffield in 1905.

From an early age, she worked with her silversmith father, Joseph Beeston Himsworth at B Worth & Sons, making small spoons and items of jewellery. She also designed for the company. She went on to study at Sheffield School of Art. In 1925 she and her father registered their joint mark. She established her own workshop in Sheffield. In the early 1930s she studied under HG Murphy at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London and registered her own mark in both London and Sheffield. She was not a prolific maker and mostly worked to commission. Examples of her work are a pair of lily vases and two chalices for Westminster Cathedral and a silver and gold Peace Cup made for the ‘Britain Can Make It’ exhibition. She took part in many of the exhibitions of the Goldsmiths’ Company both at home and abroad and also taught at art colleges in Rotherham and Chesterfield. She retired in the 1960s. There was an exhibition of her work at the Sheffield City Museum in 1978. She died in 1990.

HOAD, Mary Born in 1925 she studied at Brighton College of Art then with Dunstan Pruden. She worked as a designer and parttime silversmith from her workshop in Hove. All her silver was handmade and often incorporated ivory, agate or wood and featured mice, cats or owls.

HODGSON, Gordon Born in 1945, he studied at Carlisle College of Art from 1962-3 and then at the Sheffield College of Art from 1963-6. He concluded his studies at the Royal College of Art. In 1969 he established a workshop in London’s Edgware Road and worked freelance, winning a Design Award the same year.

HOLDEN, Geoffrey His father was HH Holden, principal of the Birmingham Municipal School of Art from 1928-46. Holden junior trained at Birmingham and the Royal College of Art. He made a number of masterpieces and became a silver instructor at Tunbridge Wells Art School and Brighton College of Art. He designed a handbag mirror, made by Padgett and Braham that was given to ladies at a party at Goldsmiths’ Hall to mark the Coronation in 1953. In 1954 London Studio published his book The Craft of the Silversmith.

DESIGNERS, CRAFTSMEN, SILVER MANUFACTURERS AND ENGRAVERS

HOLLIDAY, Charles trained at Sheffield College of Art and joined James Dixon and Sons of Sheffield in 1927. He remained with them for all of his working life. He was the most successful designer they had, designing the Blue Riband Trophy at over 600 ounces in 1932, the American Masters Golf Trophy in the 1950s at a similar weight and 16 Grand National trophies from 1957. The latter were put to tender by Boodle and Dunthorne of Liverpool and there was only one year that he did not win the commission.

Many of these were made by Dixon’s own silversmith, Trevor Collins. In 1951 he designed a three-piece tea service for the British Industries Fair at Wembley. The Queen liked it so much that she bought one. Harrod’s commissioned a centrepiece by him for the silver jubilee in 1977. Although the company generally made traditional wares, Holiday kept in touch with contemporary design and put this to good use for the commissioned pieces.

sole remaining employee. In 1953 Bernard moved the business to Solihull where his sons John and Paul gradually took over until he retired in 1963. He died in 1987.

HOPE, Adrian Kruse Anthony Born in 1953, he undertook his art foundation course at Brighton College of Art from 1970-1 and then studied silversmithing at Sheffield College of Art from 19714 and at Edinburgh College of Art from 1975-6. Afterwards he briefly worked for David Mellor before he and his wife Linda Lewin (a jeweller) moved to the Gold and Silver Studio in Bath.

The couple established a workshop in Edinburgh in 1979 where he made small silver pieces. In the 1980s he began fabricating larger pieces. By the mid-1980s he was experimenting with paper embossing the surface of silver. In 1994 they moved to Stobo in Peebleshire. In the 1990s he started raising silver by a technique learnt from Mogens Bjørn-Andersen, a Danish smith in his eighties. Teapots became a speciality. In the second half of the first decade of the 21st century he added Snowbowls to his range.

These have no embellishment at all. See pp.258-65.

JOHNS, Peter Born in 1944, he undertook a pre-apprenticeship course at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts and subsequently served his apprenticeship with Blunt and Wray.

His masterpiece with which he secured his Freedom of the Goldsmiths’ Company was a processional cross for Canterbury Cathedral. He was subsequently employed as a craftsman in the workshop of Stuart Devlin. A part-time lecturer, he also served as a technical tutor at Middlesex University. He later worked at the Art and Design Institute, School of Art and Design at the University. In 1990 he began research on the effects of germanium additions to silver and discovered inter alia that the result was silver with a high level of tarnish resistance. Using the alloy for sterling silver – 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper and some metalloid germanium – it was called Argentium Sterling Silver. He worked closely with Richard Fox in using the new alloy as a replacement for sterling silver, but the trade has not generally favoured it.

HOUSE of LAWRIAN This was a venture by Christopher Lawrence with his elder brother during the second half of the 1970s. The company was a retailer and wholesaler of silver and provided design services. At the peak, Christopher had a workforce of about 20 individuals. He supplied the creative input while his brother managed the business – unfortunately not very well.

Christopher picked up the pieces. So that he could keep as many of his team together as possible, he took the lease of a workshop at Southend-on-Sea and rented space to those craftsmen who wished to continue with him. No longer employees, they became selfemployed, working for Christopher as sub-contractors.

INSTONE, Bernard Born in 1891 in Birmingham. Aged 12 he attended the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing. Following an invitation by the German Court goldsmith Emil Lettre, Bernard went to Berlin to study. Back in the UK, he worked with John Paul Cooper at his Westerham studio until he was called up for the First World War. In 1919 he established the Langstone silver works in Digbeth, Birmingham, with his brother Reginald. He was selling to a broad range of clients including Sibyl Dunlop who he visited every Friday at her shop in London’s Kensington, supplying her with silver jewellery she had designed. In the 1940s Liberty eventually became a customer after 25 years of his trying to sell to them.

Around this time he opened a shop in Salcombe, Devon that sold a less expensive range of his jewellery as well as paintings. In 1944 his brother Reginald left. Because of the war, he was the

IVANOVIC, Kay Born in the USA during 1943, she studied illustration at Moore College of Art, Philadelphia. In the UK she undertook a part time diploma course in silver at the Sir John Cass College and received a distinction. She works from her London home mainly on private commissions. Much of her work is either organic or etched. Her work is included in the Silver Trust (which owns the silver used at 10 Downing Street), the Millenium Canteen, the Goldmiths’ Company, the Victoria and Albert Museum and in the Rabinovitch Server Collection. She has received commissions from St John’s College and Caius College in Cambridge.

JOHNSON, Richard Born in 1949, he studied in High Wycombe (possibly at High Wycombe College of Art and Technology) before proceeding to the Royal College of Art. He worked from South London, mainly to commission, producing furniture as well as metalwork.

JONES, A Edward Limited Although Albert Edward Jones (always referred to a AE Jones) died in 1954, his son Major Kenneth Crisp Jones managed the now limited company from a distance with the help of Percy Jarvis, who his father had employed in 1913. The company brought out quite innovative designs after the war and particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to having Michael Berry as an in-house designer, it also used freelance designers such as Geoffrey Bellamy and RG Baxendale.

The company was taken over by CJ Vander in the 1990s.

JONES, Sarah Born in 1948, she read medieval metalwork at the University of East Anglia. In the early 1970s working for the Greater London Arts Association, she was sent to interview Michael Murray, the ecclesiastical silversmith. She decided to become a silversmith after making a ring in Murray’s workshop and established her own workshop in Clerkenwell. She began selling at Camden Lock Market in 1974 and at Loot in 1975. Her own style soon emerged. A popular range were small silverrimmed vases filled with bunches of silver, silver gilt and enamel

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flowers. In 1980 she opened a shop in Bassinghall Street in the City. She stocked a range of her gold and silver jewellery, domestic silver, boxes, pin trays and a menagerie of small models of animals. In the 1990s she produced a number of pieces based on sayings, such as the ‘Drinking like a fish’ goblet. Her City shop closed in 2000 but she continues to work to commission from her studio and workshop at her north London home. See pp.266-71. .

KELLY, Rod Allan Born in 1956, although he had no formal art education, an article in the Sunday Telegraph on Gustav Doré inspired him to study art. After an art foundation course at Preston Polytechnic he studied 3-D design at Birmingham Polytechnic and by chance stumbled across chasing. He studied at the Royal College of Art from 1980-3. Initially working in London, he established a studio and workshop at his Norfolk home in 1987. Normally working to commission, he likes to match the personality of the client with the object that he is designing for them. Over the years he has received many prestigious commissions. His work is in the collections of various members of the Royal Family (including most recently the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge), Downing Street, museums, City livery companies, universities, cathedrals and churches. See pp.272-83.

WINIFRED KING & Co. Winifred King and Mildred Murphy traded as W King & Co. They originally registered their mark at the Birmingham Assay Office as craft workers based at The Studio, Old Palace Chambers, Earl Street, Coventry. Unmarked spoons are sometimes boxed with an address of Winifred King, Old Palace Yard, Earl Street, Coventry. Their work has been noted with date letters from 1924 through to 1958.

KIRK, William Born in 1933 he was a student at Broughton Senior Secondary School, where he won prizes for both art and sculpture.

Upon leaving school, he became apprenticed to Charles Creswick the bronze founder and silversmith based in Edinburgh. It was when William Kirk, known as Bill, undertook his National Service that it was first noted that he was a skilled instructor. From 1950-61 he was an assistant to Creswick. It was not until 1961 that he established his own studio and silversmithing workshop in Edinburgh. The superb quality of his workmanship soon became apparent and in 1962 HM Queen Elizabeth II commissioned him to make a communion cup for presentation to Dr Selby Wright of the Cannongate Church. He is particularly remembered for his skill in hand-raising and as an engraver and lettercutter of considerable distinction. Other commissions included four maces, one being for the University of Witwatersand in South Africa and another for the University of Tennessee in the US. Heriot Watt University commissioned him to make a table centrepiece for presentation to Napier University. It is a remarkable piece. From 1961 through to 1978, he was visiting lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art and from 1980-99, he lectured at Edinburgh College of Art. Kirk was a significant influence on the nurturing and development of fine silversmithing skills in Scotland.

His work is in many collections including: Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum; Huntley House Museum, Edinburgh; the University of Edinburgh and the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh.

William Kirk died in 2009. During January 2011 The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh staged a memorial exhibition entitled ‘William Kirk: Towards Perfection’. He was indeed a perfectionist, on occasions taking a cast of the interior of a cup or bowl he had hand-raised to check that

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not only did it look perfect, but that it was indeed so when subjected to greater scrutiny. When hand-raising he would listen to the sound of the hammer striking the metal and would know by the tone whether the strength, direction and angle of his blow was ‘right’. The photographer Shannon Tofts observed him raise and listened to the explanation of his technique. In the fascinating ‘Quiet Observations’ section of the catalogue for the memorial exhibition, he wrote, ‘Each piece would have its own song and rhythm. It was the delicacy and efficiency in very movement that I found fascinating.’ George Dalgleish of National Museums Scotland stated, ‘William Kirk’s complete mastery of techniques such as hand-raising, mark him out as a silversmith who really understood the nature of the medium. His elegantly simple, yet beautiful wrought tumbler cups and larger bowls speak to me of the great Scottish masters of the 17th century, and yet are obviously of the present.’ A fellow silversmith, Adrian Hope, commented, ‘Bill made simple pieces. It is a truism to say that the simple is the hardest to achieve. But to steadfastly seek the truth of a piece and then allow it to speak for itself as he did is a lesson to every maker. There are no hiding places in his work.’

KYDD, Phillip Born in India during 1959, he undertook his preapprentice course at Medway College of Art from 1976-7. He then studied for the City and Guilds Advanced Craft Certificate in Silversmithing at Birmingham Polytechnic School of Jewellery and Silversmithing until 1979. From 1979-81 he was employed as a trainee silversmith at WH Manton Ltd in Birmingham, which he describes as, ‘one of the country’s finest box-making companies at the time’. He established his own studio and workshop in 1981 and was awarded the ‘Best Design in Silver’ at the UK Jewellery Awards, 1994.

His jewellery range includes hand-forged bangles and torques. He designs and makes small silver items, from candlesticks to his range of Radiance bowls and spherical boxes that are hand-chased and have gilded highlights. As well as supplying high-end retailers, Phillip undertakes work for royalty, heads of state and ‘A’ list celebrities both in the UK and overseas. He works in north Somerset near Bristol.

LAMBERT, Chailey Born at Watford in 1962, as a teenager he was a caddy at the local golf club. There he met Peter McCabe of the Hatton Garden-based goldsmiths McCabe McCarty Limited who gave him a tour of his company’s workshop. The objets d’art he saw left a lasting impression on the young Lambert. Leaving school he studied silversmithing at the Sir John Cass School of Art and later engineering at Kitson College, Leeds. During the early 1980s he spent a short period working for a large jewellery firm and then a Watford watchmakers before deciding to establish his own business. An early commission was a model of a helicopter and Fighter Command, Bentley Priory kept him busy with some interesting restoration work. In 1983 he received an award from The Prince’s Trust that took the form of invaluable business advice together with a loan that enabled him to invest in the equipment he required. He is now an advisor for Trust’s grant recipients.

Lambert began to receive commissions from both large and small organisations as well from private individual and collectors. Much of his work is the result of personal recommendation. Many of his clients appreciate the fact that he has a thorough understanding of engineering, which he uniquely combines with artistic talent and technical ability as a silversmith. He has always had a great interest in engineering and aviation that he draws upon when making models of aircraft and engines. For example, he made a

William Kirk One of the last pieces of silver made by this Scottish silversmith who strove for perfection.

The two semi-circular silver containers are positioned in recesses in the slate. The sloping, textured and gilded sides of the recesses are beautifully reflected in the curved surfaces of the containers, the height of which is 9cm. Edinburgh 2009.

Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett

model of a jet engine for the engineer who designed it and a model of a World War I fighter plane for a member of the Royal Flying Corps for presentation to his squadron so that it could be placed on the mess table in his absence. While he specialises in making models of vintage planes, helicopters and modern aircraft, he does cover other subjects. For example, he made a silver model of Eric Clapton’s guitar, the last Phantom Rolls Royce made by Mulliner Park Ward, the bespoke coachbuilder as well as a model yacht on a pool of agate. His domestic work ranges from salt and pepper mills to candelabra with even a honey pot or two en route. His work has been presented to royalty in this country and abroad and features in various collections ranging from Jesus College, Cambridge, to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Aviation Hall of Fame.

LARSEN, Povl Born in 1953 at Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). During 1971-2, he undertook his foundation course at Plymouth College of Art and Design and from 1972-5 studied three-dimensional design in silversmithing and jewellery at Loughborough College of Art & Design (now part of Loughborough University). With the help of an Anglo-Danish travel scholarship, he spent a year working in Denmark with Danish gold and silversmiths, including the Carl M. Cohr workshop. In the second half of the 1970s he set up his own studio and workshop in Cornwall. Over the years he has participated in many exhibitions, including the 1978 British Craft Awards at London’s Somerset House and in 1984 in Los Angeles, as part of British Fortnight, an event organised by the Goldsmiths’ Company. He has been commissioned for chalices and patens from churches in Luxembourg and Fowey in Cornwall. In 1989 he completed a postgraduate course in Computer Integrated Manufacturing and in 1994 he was awarded a doctorate for his work on Manufacturing Tools, Techniques and Technologies. Much of his silver and jewellery is highly polished with minimal decoration, but is often combined with exotic woods, shells or natural stones. He still works in Cornwall.

LAW, Anthony John Born in 1947. His father was a jeweller and silversmith who taught at the Bradford College of Art. He studied sculpture before changing to jewellery at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts. He then proceeded to the Sir John Cass School of Art where he specialised in chasing, engraving and die-sinking.

He worked at Blunt and Wray and was involved in chasing some of the silver Anthony Elson had designed for the Council Rooms of the London Stock Exchange (1971) as well as the claret jug Elson designed to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the founding of Bristol (1973). He returned to Yorkshire in 1973 to work as a freelance chaser and engraver, especially of seals. The Goldsmiths’ Company has two beakers that demonstrate Law’s exceptional chasing skills. In 1992 he designed and engraved one of 72 under plates for the Silver Trust (which owns the silver used at 10 Downing Street). In 1994 he moved to Exeter.

LAWRENCE, Christopher Nigel Born in 1936, he was apprenticed at 15¾ years at CJ Vander’s. He was greatly influenced

by Reginald Hill who taught design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts where he attended evening classes and studied on day release. A qualified craftsman in 1958, he stayed on at Vander’s for a few months before moving to RE Stone to acquire experience of hollow raising. There he won the first of his three Jacques Cartier Awards for making a rose bowl designed by Alex Styles. In 1961 he moved to Gerald Benney’s workshop as a craftsman, gaining a further two Cartier Awards. He eventually became Benney’s workshop manager, but left in 1968 to set up on his own. His output was prolific in the 1970s. His novelty mushrooms appeared in the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. During the 1980s commissions flowed in principally from the UK and in the 1990s from the Middle East.

He finished working in 2011. See pp.284-93.

LAWS, Hubert Anthony Known as Tony Laws, he was born in 1935 and studied at the Gravesend School of Art from 1951-3 and subsequently at Canterbury College of Art from 1953-5 before

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studying at the Royal College of Art during 1958-61. He established a studio in central London with Ronald Stevens with whom he studied at Gravesend and the RCA. In 1962 he designed a processional cross for Coventry Cathedral, which he made with Ronald Stevens incorporating some of the nails that had survived the bombing of the original cathedral. In 1963 Tony Laws, Ronald Stevens, Keith Redfern and Ian Calvert formed the Silver Workshop Limited – see p.405. Tony Laws taught at Hornsey College of Art and in the USA. LEON, Bernard Born in Egypt during 1953, he was brought up in the UK. He became interested in metal work while at school and showing aptitude, he was encouraged to apply for a diploma course at the Sir John Cass School of Art. He studied there from 1970-4 and was the youngest ever student on the course. His studies over, he became self-employed for a brief period before going to work for John Campbell. From 1978-85 he worked for Nayler Brothers and progressed to craftsman. In the mid-1980s he set up on his own with a large basement workshop in Wimbledon Village. At one point he was employing four silversmiths and undertook a considerable amount of work for West End retailers, including Theo Fennell for whom he made a very varied range of objects. Noticing a fall in demand leading up to and after 9/11 he decided to move from a large workshop to a retail outlet with workshop attached. He opened Assimi in Thames Ditton, Surrey, during 2001. While the shop primarily retails his jewellery, his workshop makes silver for the West End as well as jewellery for the shop and for commissions.

LESSONS, Kenneth W Born in 1933 and studied at the Sheffield College of Art before proceeding to the Royal College of Art in the mid-1950s. He opened his studio in 1957 and immediately received important commissions including a mace for the Queen Mother to present to Broken Hill in Northern Rhodesia. Early in his career, assisted by his wife, he started producing cheap jewellery in copper and once a week these were sold to hairdressers and boutiques. In the mid-1960s he manufactured acrylic novelties ranging from key rings to inkstands. Some of the latter were silver-mounted. He established two companies. One mainly made mass-produced jewellery and the other a range of items from kitchen knives to gravy boats for Oxo. The last photograph of a piece of silver in his file at the library of the Goldsmiths’ Company relates to one designed in 1972.

LIMBREY, John Born in Hertfordshire in 1933, he met Robert Welch at the Birmingham College of Art. In 1956 after his National Service he successfully applied for a post at RE Stone’s workshop.

‘Poor career prospects for designer silversmiths in the 1950s together with an unsatisfactory bed-sitter life in London’, John said, resulted in him looking for something different. In 1958 he moved to Chipping Camden and joined Robert Welch as a silversmith. In 1965 he formally took over the combined roles of design assistant, modelmaker and silversmith. For a period of 17 years from 1968 he taught silversmithing two nights a week in his adopted Chipping Camden. Many of the students’ pieces were hallmarked with his maker’s mark. He made small pieces of silver in his own right that he sold through various outlets. These also bear his maker’s mark.

He retired from Robert Welch in 1998 and died in 2013. (See Welch, pp.480-91.)

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LLOYD, Michael Keith Born in 1950, he undertook his foundation course at the Wolverhampton College of Art. He had planned to continue studying art at Birmingham, but because of his passion for studio work, transferred to the School of Jewellery and Silversmithing, Birmingham College of Art where he studied from 1970-3. He continued at the Royal College of Art from 19736. Interested in natural history, he wanted to decorate his work and chose to do this through chasing. The Victoria and Albert Museum purchased all the pieces from his graduate show, while the Goldsmiths’ Company purchased two bowls later that year.

During the 1980s he continued his craft on a barge while travelling the waterways of France, Belgium and Holland. In 1989 Michael and his wife returned to Britain and settled in southwest Scotland. He made the mace for the Scottish Parliament, the offertory plate for Lichfield Cathedral and has undertaken many other important commissions. He has a great passion for making silver for individuals. See pp.294-303.

LOCHHEAD, Gordon Born in Moray during 1950, his careerdefining moment came after graduating from Essex University in 1970 with a degree in physics. As he explains, shortly afterwards ‘I met the sculptor John Huggins, who was then experimenting with casting his own and his students’ bronzes. I have been casting metal ever since, and the themes and formal concerns engendered have carried through to the present time.’ He uses the lost wax method.

During 1972-5 he undertook research in Japan, but in 1973 he went on a course leading to a PGCE course in Sculptural Studies (Metal Casting) at Bath Academy, Bath University. ‘My first bronzes were small, abstract works’, he volunteered. ‘I also started life-drawing and made some sculptures derived from this. The following years saw the introduction of new threads, casting others’ work and making a range of cast jewellery, until commissions for small sculptural pieces came to dominate, introducing the use of silver and a naturalistic style.’ In 1991 he was commissioned by Hamilton & Inches of Edinburgh to design and make a wine cooler to celebrate the company’s 125th anniversary. This is in the form of a life-size owl eagle standing on a log. Its head lifts to reveal an ice bucket designed to take a magnum of champagne. In the same year he was commissioned by the Royal Navy to mark the decommissioning of the ‘Conqueror’ class of submarines. In 1994, he was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship (1993) and he researched casting in Japan in both 1994 and 1996. He was subsequently elected to membership of the Japanese Casting Artists Association and is its only Western member. His commissioned work covers the whole spectrum of church, military, awards and animal models. From absinth spoons to a model of Edinburgh Castle, his work from small to large.

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community near High Wycombe. She met Phillip there in 1960.

They married the following year and he became interested in silver, working for George Grant for two years. The couple moved to Gloucestershire in 1963 and Phillip continued some part-time work with Grant. Phillip and Angela worked together producing domestic and some ecclesiastical silver. They also undertook some teaching. Their work always involved hand-raising and craft skills. Phillip had a serious motor accident in 1985 and stopped working as a silversmith. The couple separated, but Angela continued to work, more often as a sculptor or carver. In 1969 Philip started researching prehistoric metal work.

LOYEN, Frances Born in 1951 and studied at the Sir John Cass School of Art from 1971-6. She received her first commission in her second year when she persuaded the borough in which the Cass was situated to commission her to make something – they provided the silver, she the labour. Loyen has a penchant for colour and it is therefore not surprising that enamelling appealed to her.

She was taught at the Cass but also obtained work experience with Wright & Davis in Roseberry Avenue, which enamelled for Cartier. Liberty bought all the pieces she made as a student. She established a workshop in Clerkenwell and began to specialise in plique-à-jour enamel that she demonstrated at Loot in 1977. Her goblets were popular with upmarket retailers in London’s West End and in other parts of the UK. In the 1990s she taught at Berkshire College, Maidenhead and undertook ecclesiastical and private commissions. In 2000 she married Hector Miller and they undertook some collaborations, while Loyen continued to develop plique-à-jour pieces and jewellery collections. See pp.304-11.

LUKES, George A master engraver used by many silversmiths.

The prodigy of T&A Wise, where he started as a tea boy, he took onboard everything that Theodore Wise taught him.

LUNN, Peter A craftsman specialising in spinning, carving and 3-D design. He worked for Devlin from 1973-83, after which he set up an enterprise with Nicholas Plummer as Peter Nicholas & Co. Ltd. This continued until 1991. He now works for himself, producing items for third parties. He has also been involved with education.

LOVESEY, Neil Phillip Apprenticed to Gerald Benney until 1974 and then set up on his own. The Pearson Silver Collection has a chess set assayed in London 1974.

LYTTON, Caroline Born in 1947, she later studied at the Sir John Cass School of Art. Initially she studied jewellery, but later developed an interest in chasing hand-raised beakers, moving from a repoussé technique to flat chasing. Today, although her main output is jewellery, she specialises in textured and chased silver and obtains her design inspiration from fragments found in nature. She lives and works in Somerset, near both the beauty of Exmoor and the dramatic rock formations of the coastline. She therefore finds that the ever-changing scene results in there being no shortage of stimulus for her creativity. Her work has been widely exhibited and is in public collections including London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. She is better known as a jeweller than a silversmith.

LOWERY, Phillip and Angela Phillip Lowery was born in 1940 and spent two years working in a foundry. Angela (neé Pruden) was born in 1937 and was initially taught by her silversmith father Dunstan Pruden before studying at the Brighton College of Art. There she was also interested in sculpture. She worked with her father before going to Pigotts, Eric Gill’s home and alternative

MACDONALD, George Grant Born in 1947 and known as Grant Macdonald. He had a passion for silversmithing and began to teach himself from a book. He secured a Saturday and holiday job at a local retail jeweller’s undertaking repairs and sizing rings etc. He undertook the pre-apprentice course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1964-5, but at the end, discovered he was marginally too

LONG, Alan An engraver.

old to be apprentice. He studied at the Sir John Cass School of Art from 1965-69. Having fitted-out a workshop in the basement of his parents’ home he designed and made new silver, did subcontract work and continued with the jewellery repairs. In the early 1970s he rented 500 square feet in Clerkenwell and, having married a jeweller, made both silver and jewellery which was sold to retailers throughout the UK. Here he invented a method of texturing silver surfaces by plating. By the mid-1970s he was employing five silversmiths and three jewellers. There had been one further move to larger premises, but in 1977 he moved into Benney’s 10,000 square feet workshop south of the river. Business boomed, initially from the UK and then from the Middle East. Although a traditional smith, he uses the latest technology from lasers to rapid prototyping machines. Today the workshop employs over 20 people and over 90 per cent of its output is exported. See pp.312-9.

MALCOLM, Peter and HOWE, Boyman The Pearson Silver Collection has an enamel box bearing the London mark for 1970 made by Peter Malcolm and Boyman Howe.

MARKEY, Paul Victor studied at the Medway College of Design.

An image of a coffee pot he made in 1975 is in the Design Council Slide Collection. In 1978 the Goldsmiths’ Company commissioned him to make a rectangular bowl engraved with the symbols denoting the various changing hallmarks since 1748, which it presented to the Birmingham Assay Office. He died in 1997.

MARLOW, Lew Born in 1932, aged 14 he started his preapprenticeship course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. He started serving his apprenticeship with Nayler Brothers in 1948 and continued studying at the Central School on day release. He became Nayler’s leading light in the 1960s when everyone wanted to emulate his skill and speed. He executed many of Alex Styles’ designs. After 20 years at Nayler’s he established his own company, Marlow Brothers. His contemporaries regarded him as a fantastic craftsman.

MARRIOTT, Helen Born in 1958, from 1975-9 she studied at Glasgow School of Art, the Notre Dame College of Education (197980) and at the Royal College of Art (1980-3). She established her studio in Glasgow during 1984 and for the following six years produced a limited amount of work while she brought three children into the world. Nevertheless, from 1984 for a period of 15 years, she taught part-time at the GSA. Helen comments, ‘As a designer-maker I have a deep understanding of my chosen materials and techniques and this has always been central to my practice. Most of my work has been produced using traditional techniques of raising, forging and fabrication and is all functional. I work mainly in silver, sometimes incorporating wood and shagreen, generally in a similar scale. I would describe my work as “Clyde built” as I like silver to feel substantial. In recent years I have been inspired by the designercraftsmen I work alongside who employ cutting-edge technology such as computer aided design, laser cutting, rapid prototyping and casting. I wanted to incorporate some of these techniques alongside the traditional skills that to me are so familiar.’ Her work focuses on form and symmetry, which is influenced by her surroundings, such as Glasgow’s architecture and the changing cycles of her garden. In 2005 she returned to teaching part-time, becoming a full-time lecturer at the GSA, a post she held until she was appointed Head of the Department of Silversmithing and Jewellery at the School in 2009.

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Helen’s work can be found in many private and public collections including that of the Silver Trust, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Aberdeen Art Gallery and The Goldsmiths’ Company.

emerging silversmiths at Yorkshire Artspace and also held various silversmithing workshops. In 2008 he won the Museums Sheffield National Metalwork Design Award for his Tea Bag Pot.

MARSDEN, Robert Born at Birkenhead in 1947, he studied at High Wycombe College of Art and Technology before proceeding to the Royal College of Art. He graduated from there in 1972. For the next 15 years he lived in both London and Sheffield where he assisted in setting up workshops. He established his own workshop in Hackney, London, in 1987. He does not design his work in a conventional way, but works through an idea that he translates into a form. The inspiration for his work owes a great deal to structural engineering as well as industrial metalworking.

He works in other metals as well as silver.

MAY, Robert Michael He studied silversmithing and jewellery at Canterbury College of Art from 1953-8 and then worked in industry for several years. In 1962 he was asked by the Medway College of Art to create new three-year courses in silversmithing and jewellery at a time when other institutions in Kent were stopping their National Design Diploma craft courses. With an emphasis on vocational training, the courses produced craftsmen of a high calibre. He remained at Medway for 30 years, becoming Principal Lecturer. He started working to commission in 1961, making as well as designing a wide range of pieces over the years.

Notable commissions include maces for the Tower of London and the University of Greenwich, a baptismal scoop for the Chapel Royal, a set of four water jugs for the Goldsmiths’ Company to present to the University of Kent and numerous trophies such as the Edward Vinson award for Apple Farmers. In 1988 he was awarded the Garrard Gold Medal by the Goldsmiths’ Craft Council as he was the person who, in the opinion of the Council, ‘has done most within the fields of silversmithing and jewellery to motivate and promote high standards, or who has made a significant contribution by encouraging others’.

MARSHALL, Brian R Born in 1935, he studied at Gravesend Technical and School of Art 1952-4, at Canterbury College of Art from 1954-6 (in 1956 he taught an evening silversmithing class in Canterbury) and continued at London’s Royal College of Art from 1957-60. He graduated with a first class degree in silversmithing and was awarded a silver medal for excellence. Having started his own design practice in 1963 he lectured at Birmingham College of Art. In 1966 he moved to the Design Council and became an Industrial Liaison Officer inter alia with responsibility for the for the silver and jewellery industries. In 1973, he moved to Cornwall and opened a shop/gallery in Truro and re-started his design practice. However, the following year he started to teach part-time at West Dean College and ran courses there several times a year. He returned to full-time teaching in 1982 at the London Metropolitan University. His commissions include gifts from the Government to Malaysia and Trinidad and Tobago on gaining their independence, silver for the Worshipful Company of Weavers as well as ecclesiastical and domestic work. He retired in 2001, but as at 2012, continues to teach on two courses of a week’s duration each year at West Dean.

MASON, Peter Born in 1927, he studied at the Brighton College of Art and at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts. He joined Nayler Brothers as a craftsman and taught undertook some teaching.

MAXFIELD, Cameron He attended the Junior Art Department of the Sheffield College of Art before studying for his National Design Diploma at the College of Art itself. His initial application to the Royal College of Art was not successful, so he worked a year for Brian Asquith as a designer and improved his portfolio. In the mid1960s, he also produced some fine enamel work on silver designed

by David Mellor. He duly enrolled at the RCA’s School of Silversmithing and Jewellery. After graduating he spent time as a freelance designer in London but during 1968 he returned to Sheffield as a lecturer at the Silversmithing Department of the Sheffield College of Art (later Sheffield Polytechnic). Throughout his teaching career he continued to work as a silversmith. For example, in 1972 he designed and made an arrangeable table centrepiece/candelabra. In 1992 the Polytechnic became Sheffield Hallam University. During the mid-1990s he became disillusioned with teaching and decided to devote half his time to being a freelance designer and silversmith, mainly working to commission, but also undertaking work for exhibitions. When he retired in 2003, he was Senior Lecturer in Metalwork and Jewellery. Following his retirement he worked as a technical design consultant with

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McCALLUM, Alistair Born in 1953, he undertook his art foundation course at Teeside College of Art from 1971-2, studied at Loughborough College of Art from 1972-5 and at the Royal College of Art from 1975-8. Having a love of materials and a playful approach to design, he made a metal ‘sandwich’ and fed it through a roller and ‘discovered’ that when the resultant sheet was filed a pattern emerged. A fellow student explained that he had ‘discovered’ the Japanese technique of Mokume Gane.

Receiving a travel award, upon graduation he visited Japan.

Apart from a brief period his career has combined teaching with making Mokume Gane. He is one of the few people in the world making large-scale Mokume Gane. See pp.320-5.

McCRORY, Michael He trained at the Belfast College of Art where in 1965 he obtained a National Design Diploma in Silversmithing. He followed this by studying at London’s Sir John Cass College of Art. When his studies ended in 1967, he returned to Northern Ireland and began a career teaching jewellery and silversmithing at the Ulster Polytechnic, which later became Ulster University. His last post was Head of the School of Fine and Applied Arts. In 1996 he was granted early retirement and has been producing silver for exhibition or to commission from his studio and workshop at Hillsborough, County Down.

He comments, ‘Silverware to me has to be aesthetically pleasing, with a sculptural visual strength. My designs are founded on a balance of line, form and proportion, which harmonize with the detail in the tactile finished pieces. I have developed an interest in deep drawing and press forming silver and CAD to bring the traditional craft to a new level. The press can be used to make objects that would be difficult to make by hand. However, it is no substitute for traditional silversmithing techniques, which I use in combination with the new technology.

The computer has revolutionised how I work. I can use the

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drawings that I construct on the computer to create the forms, although there are elements that have to be done by hand and eye. The inspiration for my designs come from looking and seeing natural and manmade objects, visiting museums and archaeology sites. I am particularly interested in the growth, surfaces and textures of plants and this has led to the development of forms and the “prickly pear” surface decoration, which I have used in my latest work. The “prickly pear” decoration, with its textured finish, also has an added function in that it hides fingerprints, which would be visible on highly polished silver.’

His work is exhibited nationally and internationally and can be found in such public collections as Dublin’s National Museum of Ireland and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

McDONALD Sheila Born in 1958 at Crail in Scotland, her interest in enamelling started when she was 13 years old. She bought herself a kiln and taught herself. At secondary school her art teacher had been a jeweller and encouraged his students to make silver jewellery. She studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1975-80. Originally her subject was textile design but she became drawn to designing silver and jewellery. Colour is very important to Sheila and has always been her main focus of interest, alongside a great love of drawing and painting. During her final year at Glasgow, she won a Royal Society of Arts travel bursary that enabled her to work at the Sturt Workshops at Mittagong, Australia, as well as to travel extensively. From 1981-4 she studied jewellery design at the Royal College of Art and after sharing a workshop in central London for three years with Clive Burr, Rod Kelly (whom she married) and Jane Short. Rod and Sheila established a workshop in Norfolk. Her work is in many private and public collections, including the Goldsmiths’ Company and Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. She has also worked on enamel details that have been incorporated into major commissions completed

by Rod. A good example is the dish and ewer commissioned by the Ashmolean Museum to celebrate the opening of its new wing.

McFADYEN, Angus Born in 1962, he undertook his art foundation course at Bristol College of Art 1980-1 and studied at Manchester Polytechnic from 1981-4. Having established his workshop, he initially just made silver jewellery, but in 1989 decided to concentrate on making larger silver pieces. Additionally he had an urge to engrave the surface of the metal so went out, bought an instructive book and taught himself. By trial and error he succeeded. The commissions arrived and he sold at various events. For the 1998 exhibition Silver and Tea, he made and designed a spherical teapot with a hoop handle and engraved it with a host of chrysanthemum blooms and won joint first prize. He mainly works to commission. See pp.326-33.

McQUOID, Denis An engraver who also made fine quality bronze boxes which he engraved.

MEILING-GARTRELL John Meiling and Mark Gartrell formed a partnership in 1971. They mainly sold to Garrard and undertook special commissions for Algernon Asprey of Bruton Street, London.

MELLER, David The Pearson Silver Collection has a coffee and milk pot superbly handraised and bearing the London mark for 1959. The maker’s mark was only registered for a period of five years. Nothing is known of the silversmith.

MELLOR, David Born in 1930, he attended the Junior Art Department of the Sheffield College of Art from 1942-5 and studied at Sheffield College of Art from 1945-8. After his National Service he studied at the Royal College of Art from 1950-4. Until 1952 his education was geared towards him being a silversmith, but in that year the Goldsmiths’ Company awarded him a Travelling Scholarship and he visited Sweden and Denmark. From that time he saw himself not as becoming a traditional silversmith but as a designer working in other media such as stainless steel.

He was generally impressed by everything Scandinavian, from the street furniture to the general quality and design of retail wares.

The following year he spent six months at the British School in Rome and liked the Italians’ way of life from dress to street lighting. His thesis at the RCA was on the development of the cutlery industry and while at the college he developed the spoons he had designed as a teenager. The result became a modern classic – his elegant Pride cutlery. Immediately upon graduating he was offered a post of design consultant at Sheffield’s Walker and Hall.

He established his studio-workshop nearby and Pride cutlery went into production in EPNS and silver. It won a Design Centre Award in 1957. Initially he was designing street furniture ranging from street lights to bus-shelters, lecturing part-time, overseeing the Pride cutlery going into production and working with W&H on extending the Pride range and was also involved with the firm’s expansion into stainless steel. He moved to purpose-built studio/workshop accommodation in 1960 and recruited three silversmiths. During the 1960s, the silver commissions certainly rolled in, including a massive order from the Ministry of Works for a complete service of silver for British Embassies around the world. This did not materialise, but there were plenty more, including a silver range for his first shop established in Sloane Square in the late 1960s. Although silver was removed from his repertoire after the 1970s, Mellor Design Limited still produces some of his earlier silver designs. After he became a cutlery manufacturer as well as a designer, he became known as the ‘Cutlery King’. See pp.334-45.

MIDDLETON, Lindsey She studied at High Wycombe College of Art and Technology before proceeding to the Royal College of Art. The Thames and Hudson Manual of Silversmithing by Frances Loyen published in 1980 features several illustrations of her work.

In 1979 she was teaching at Nene College of Art in Northampton.

MILLAR, Roger Born in Glasgow during 1942, he studied at the Glasgow School of Art and at London’s Royal College of Art. Although he initially worked at the bench and as a freelance designer in London’s fine jewellery trade, for most of his professional life he has been an educator. This was first in Wales, then the United States, followed by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, where he took over from Bernard Harrington as Head of Silversmithing and Jewellery. From 1984 to 2005 he had the same position at the GSA. In 1984 he established his own studio in Glasgow. His private commissions include works for presentation to HM Queen Elizabeth II, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and the Bute House Silver Collection.

Since 1995 his work has been shown in a dozen exhibitions, some of which have toured internationally, for example ‘Silver of the Stars’. In the Silver of the Stars project (see p.54) he collaborated with the celebrity Nicola Benedetti, the classical violinist who was

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born in Scotland. During his leadership the GSA became established as one of the most enduring and important degree courses of its kind in the UK. In recognition of his significant contribution to education in design and craft, in 1999 he was awarded an Honorary Professorship of the University of Glasgow at the GSA. MILLER, Hector John Born in 1945, he undertook his prediploma course at Worthing College of Art and studied threedimensional design at Hornsey College of Art from 1965-8 choosing silversmithing as his main subject. He continued his studies at the Royal College of Art from 1968-71. He had a number of commissions while at the College which he made in Peter Musgrove’s workshop, having met him at Hornsey. One of the commissions included the ceremonial baton for the Olympic Games. His graduate show impressed Stuart Devlin, who offered him a job that he accepted.

However, a year later tentative enquiries he had received regarding designing and making limited editions for Aurum materialised, as well as other work. Devlin kindly let him work on the commissions in his workshop and Miller established his own in 1974. In addition to the Aurum project, he undertook commissions and made-up designs for others. In the mid-1980s he started working for a Texas company specialising in interiors of yachts and aeroplanes, including jumbo jets for the Sultan of Brunei. The project lasted about 10 years. Although he continued similar work for a while, he began to wind down the business, which at its height employed 18 people. Since the beginning of the new millennium he has been working on sculptural silver thanks to his introducing a new form of welding to silversmithing. He was the Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company from 2011-2012. See pp.346-55.

MORRIS, Stanley Born in 1919, he was a student at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing and Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts. During his education he won a number of scholarships and prizes. In 1947 he established his own workshop but also taught at the BSJS part-time. He assisted Bernard Cuzner make the Olympic Torch Cuzner had designed for the London Olympics in 1948. His commissions included the making of a 30cm standing salt CJ Shiner had designed for the Worshipful Company of Salters (1951) a model of the new Birmingham Post and Mail Building (1965) as well as pieces for Birmingham, Cambridge and Oxford universities. By 1973 he felt he was one of the few remaining designer/silversmiths working in Birmingham. His workshop was demolished in the second half of the 1980s to make way for Symphony Hall. He retired to Willersley, Worcestershire.

MURRAY, David John Born in 1944, he undertook a preapprenticeship course at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts. He served his apprentice at Wakely and Wheeler. Later he was a craftsman at the Silver Workshop, but he moved to work for Gerald Benney in 1968 before returning to W&W. He subsequently worked for Christopher Lawrence. He was a parttime teacher at Sir John Cass College. Presumably he established his own business as he exhibited at Loot in 1975/6/7/9.

MURRAY, Michael He was born in 1923 at the Tolstoyan Anarchist community at Whiteway near Stroud, Gloucestershire. His family then moved to High Wycombe where his father’s ‘distributism’ was

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developed, a social vision where everyone worked their own plot of land. In 1938 Michael started a stained-glass apprenticeship with Eddy Nuttgens at nearby Pigotts, Eric Gill’s home and alternative community. He moved on to bind 10 books in two weeks with Douglas Cockerell at Letchworth Garden City and then to Ditchling to learn silversmithing from Dunstan Pruden. He moved to London and studied silversmithing at the Central School of Arts and Crafts before opening a workshop in Rosebery Avenue, then later in Old Street. He predominantly made ecclesiastical silver including pieces for Guildford and Coventry Cathedrals. However, the workshop also made other church items such as six processional robes for the 1953 Coronation and a replica of the large Romanesque relief in York Minster depicting Our Lady and Child for the Church of the Holy Rood, Oxford. In 1955 he made a bronze phoenix with a wing span of 12 feet for the tower of the restored Medieval Schoolroom at Westminster School. He worked with his apprentice William Phipps, George Grant, Richard Costain and his elder daughter Clare Murray as well as Sarah Jones who he inspired to become a silversmith. He was instrumental in starting the Clerkenwell Green Association and other organisations for securing urban workspaces at affordable rents. In 1998 Sarah Jones held an exhibition ‘Goldensilver: 60 Years a Smiting’ of his own and his students’ work at her gallery in the City. He died in 2005.

MUSGROVE, Peter Thomas Born in London during 1946, he undertook a pre-apprenticeship course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1962-3 and served as an apprentice with CJ Vander from 1963-7 where he was indentured to Norman Bassant. His apprenticeship completed, he decided to study at the Hornsey College of Art from 1967-70. Musgrove then worked with Louis Osman before establishing his own workshop in 1972 at 27 Old Street, London where he continued doing outwork for Osman and also Malcolm Appleby who had undertaken engraving for Osman but who was now working independently in Scotland.

Hector Miller, who was a year below him at Hornsey, used Musgrove’s workshop when he was at the Royal College of Art. Indeed they jointly worked on a commission for a silver and enamel cruet stand and altar set for St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church at Wool in Dorset that bears their joint mark. Musgrove has undertaken many important commissions and is the favoured silversmith of the engraver Malcolm Appleby. He has also been a technician-lecturer at the RCA. NORGATE, John Richard Born in 1946, he was apprenticed to Asprey and also studied for four years at the Sir John Cass College. He worked for RS Johnston Ltd and then as a freelance silver and goldsmith and part-time lecturer.

O’CASEY, Breon Born in 1928, he was the oldest child of the Irish playwright Sean O’Casey. He was educated at Dartington Hall where Naum Slutsky, a refugee from the Weimar Bauhaus, taught him metalwork. After National Service he enrolled at the Anglo-French School in London’s St John’s Wood and studied briefly in 1953 at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. However, most of the 1950s was spent at his parents’ home in Torquay. He moved to St Ives in 1959 and worked for a time as an assistant for Barbara Hepworth. A versatile artist and craftsman, he became a prominent member of the St Ives school of painting.

However, he was also a sculptor, weaver, printmaker, jeweller and undertook some silversmithing.

Brett Payne This silver and glass four-piece tea service is spherical in form. It was designed and made for the ‘Silver and Tea’ exhibition staged at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1998. The teapot and milk jug are of spherical form but each rest upon a stand and are further stabilised by their handles, which extend to the surface of the tray. The base of the sugar is integral to its bowl. Height of teapot 23cm.

Sheffield 1998. Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett

OSMAN, Louis Born in 1914 and trained as an architect. There are two stories of how he switched to silversmithing, both of which are plausible. He designed his first silver commission in 1956 and it was made at Gerald Benney’s workshop. Having studied silversmithing, his own style emerged. He wanted his silver to look as if it was made by hand and it has a certain air of medievalism about it. He established his first workshop near Toad Hall, his Sussex home. His work ranged from a caddy spoon to the gold crown used at the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969.

A larger-than-life individual, not all is commissions worked out.

His last one was a lavabo and flagon for Lichfield Cathedral in 1991. He died in 1996. See pp.356-63.

PADGHAM & PUTLAND LIMITED Carl Padgham and Andy Putland were both born in 1963 and met while undertaking a silversmithing and design course at Medway College of Design (now the University for the Creative Arts).

Graduating in July 1984 they formed a partnership and established a workshop at Aylesford in Kent. While they initially undertook work for the trade, in 1986 Nicola Bulgari, then the Vice Chairman of Bulgari saw an award-winning tea service Putland had designed as a student. The following day he visited their workshop and a longstanding relationship was formed with P&P designing and making silver for Bulgari. In 1990 the business moved to a purposebuilt workshop in the idyllic village of Pluckley, also in Kent. During this decade they received a great deal of prestigious work from the trade. Not only did they became recognised for the level of their craftsmanship, but also as designers in their own right. One large commission was the designing and making of 40 pieces for the Vatican weighing 46 kg. The partnership became a limited company in 2003. See pp.364-71.

PAYNE, Brett Born at Headcorn in Kent during 1959, he undertook his foundation course in art and design at Canterbury College of Art from 1977-8. From 1978-81 he read for a degree in 3Dimensional Design at Sheffield City Polytechnic majoring in silversmithing, but also studying jewellery. In 1982 he undertook postgraduate studies at the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology. In 1983 he established his own studio and workshop in Sheffield. Like many who trained as silversmiths, he initially founded his fledgling business on jewellery. He describes his pieces as being ‘silversmith’s jewellery’, in the sense that there were, ‘never any stones involved, they relied for effect on gold and silver alone’. It was very successful, being immediately accepted for exhibiting at Barbara Cartlidge’s cutting-edge Electrum Gallery in London’s South Molton Street, which was entirely devoted to contemporary jewellery. In the second half of the 1980s, his jewellery was also exhibited at London’s Design Centre and the Argenta Gallery in Chelsea’s Fulham Road as well as Tokyo’s Musée de Bellezza. His jewellery proved extremely successful, especially his range of bracelets. However, in the late 1980s he abandoned this popular range for fear of being, ‘trapped into making them forever without room to develop new work’. Although jewellery dominated throughout the 1990s, winning him several awards, as well as the early 21st century, he did not abandon silver. For example, he contributed to ‘Living Silver’, the Crafts Council’s 1996 exhibition that travelled from London to San Francisco. The following year he began work on the Millennium Canteen project and in 1998 he contributed a stunning tea service to ‘Silver and Tea’ at Goldsmiths’ Hall. In 1997 he started exhibiting and selling his work at about 10 UK retail shows in locations from Penzance and Hereford in the west of England and from Canterbury to Newmarket in its south and east. Although he 525

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had undertaken silver commissions in the 1990s, it was towards the approach of the Millennium that these increased in number as well as stature. The Lord Mayor of Sheffield commissioned plate in 1999, there was the Millennium Punch Bowl, a collaboration with Keith Tyssen, Alex Brogden and Chris Knight in 2000 and Golden Jubilee commissions from the Sheffield Assay Office and the Cutler’s Company in 2002. While showing the occasional piece of silver among his jewellery, it eventually became apparent that people would not look at his silver unless it ‘stood alone’. In 2005, he took the positive decision to stop making jewellery and to concentrate solely on silver. There were several drivers for this step change. Primarily he trained as a silversmith. Although he founded his business with jewellery, his passion has always been silversmithing. There was always an element of challenge, as there is a perceived wisdom that silversmithing is not commercially viable unless supplemented by teaching. Brett has developed the art of hand forging to a new level and has explored new applications. He is well known for his range of candlesticks and candelabra that can be displayed with seemingly endless permutations, cookware and cutlery. In 2008 he established British Silver Week with Gordon Hamme. During 2011 he was commissioned by the House of Lords to make a centrepiece to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2012. This is the most important piece of silver acquired by the House of Lords since the 1850s. Brett has undertaken many other roles relating to the craft over his career and continues to do so.

PHIPPS, William Anthony William Anthony Dominic Phipps was born in Berlin in 1936, the sixth son of Sir Eric Phipps, the British Ambassador in Germany. He served with the Royal Marines from 1954 to 1956 and briefly studied biology at the University of San Francisco. In 1957, after a drunken spree in British Columbia, he found that he had joined the Royal Canadian Navy where he became a deep-sea diver. Returning to England in 1960, being a flute and piccolo player, he applied for a job with Rudall Carte hand-making flutes but the company went out of business just before he was due to start work. Unable to find a post with another flute maker, he drifted into the workshop of ecclesiastical silversmith Michael Murray where he started a three-year mature apprenticeship at the age of 24. Murray put him in touch with the Art Worker’s Guild in 1963 and he saw Roy Wilkes of CJ Vander forge a spoon. Fascinated, he started making spoons himself in his garage. He was mainly self-taught. After a few years he established a workshop in Clerkenwell Road where he forged all types of cutlery and produced entire canteens to commission. He also handraised a range of silver including domestic, ecclesiastical and objets d’art. He undertook part-time teaching and the restoration of antique silver. Phipps exhibited in the UK and USA and his work was retailed at outlets such as Liberty in London and Nieman Marcus in Dallas. It is also in several public collections. In 2005 he was commissioned to make a wedding present for HRH Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles (the Duchess of Cornwall). This colourful character died in October 2009.

PENNELL, Ronald Born in 1935, he served his apprenticeship at William Biddle, the Birmingham engraver, and trained on day release at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing. In 1956 he studied stone engraving at Idar Oberstein with a grant from the British Jewellery Association. He became the first-full-time teacher of engraving at Birmingham.

He left teaching in 1979 to further his business and international reputation as a glass engraver and went to live in Herefordshire.

Pennell registered a maker’s mark as he made some silver pieces.

PITTMAN AE From the 1930s, ‘Bertie’ Pittman was partner of Arthur Wakely in the firm of Wakely and Wheeler. He was also a designer. While much of his work is anonymous, it is known that he designed a fine coffee set for Payne and Son in Oxford in 1951, together with a similar three-piece cruet. It of course was made by W&W. The firm stayed in the Wakely family until Padgett and Braham bought it in 1958.

PHILIPSON, Christopher Born in 1942 at Ingleton, North Yorkshire. In the early 1960s he studied silversmithing and jewellery at Birmingham College of Art. Having obtained his National Design Diploma, he went on to study silversmithing at London’s Royal College of Art, graduating in 1968. He was one of the five silversmiths employed by Louis Osman at Canons Ashby, having already worked with him in Sussex. He worked on Osman’s design for the crown for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969 (see p.360). Chris established his own studio in North Yorkshire in the early 1970s. He crafts spoons, bowls and other domestic silver as well as jewellery and the occasional weathervane. He has designed and made processional crosses, chalices and alms dishes for many Yorkshire churches. He has a long-standing interest and understanding of traditional techniques used from the early Bronze Age. He looks at surface texture and patterns formed within wrought shapes, and draws ideas from careful observation and study of landscape and natural form. Chris had a part-time teaching commitment at Harrogate College. He lives near Knaresborough at what he calls ‘The House of Many Sheds’ – and he is not wrong, as there are quite a few and one even contains a lawnmower museum.

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POELS, Anthony Born in 1950 in Surrey. After being educated at Ratcliffe College, Leicestershire, he obtained work experience in Leslie Durbin’s workshop. He then studied silversmithing at the Sir John Cass School of Art. His studies over, he formed his own company Honiton Silverware designing and making items in silver, bronze, porcelain and pewter for many companies including Royal Worcester Porcelain, Boehm Porcelain and Tiffany in New York. In 1978, his company progressed to the manufacture of fine quality reproductions. It appears to have ceased trading in 1986.

POPHAM, Phillip Born in 1919, he studied painting and drawing at Bideford School of Art in Devon and then proceeded to study at London’s Royal College of Art from 1946-9. From 1950-83 he was a member of staff at the RCA’s School of Silversmithing and Jewellery, becoming the School’s Senior Tutor. He was the link between the students and the Head of the School as well as an instructor and source of help to students. He designed some silver, including the cruets for the RCA’s Common Room. In 1971 he coauthored Silversmithing with Robert Goodden, in the series of ‘Oxford Paperbacks Handbooks for Artists’. A practical guide for those working at the bench, the technical input would have been Popham’s as Goodden was not a silversmith. Popham was elected a Senior Fellow of the RCA in 1984.

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PORRITT, Don Born in 1933, he was apprenticed to the jeweller and silversmith Marcus Thain in Leeds. He studied in the evening at Leeds College of Art. After winning a prize for diamond setting after his National Service, he decided he wanted to study fulltime. He became a full-time student at the LCA from 1959-63 with the aim of becoming a designer and lecturer. Initially he worked as a trainee designer for an electrical manufacturer but in 1964 he established his own business as an industrial designer, silversmith and sculptor. The following year he became the first industrial design lecturer at the LCA. It was not until he retired from full-time teaching in 1992 that he was to devote the time to his passion – silver. He has developed a very distinctive style that draws on decades of observing and his likeness for a curvilinear line. See pp.372-9.

RAES, Keith Born in Chatham during 1947, during the 1960s he studied silversmithing, jewellery, woodwork and graphic design at both the Gravesend and Canterbury Colleges of Art. After college he joined a family engraving business in Kent, but was later offered a position at Lukes and Hinton (see George Lukes), a top London engraver. This enabled Raes to really hone his skills. In 1971 he returned to Canterbury and established his own studio to work as a hand engraver of gold, silver and glass. He also undertook seal engraving, carving and machine engraving. The winner of many Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council awards. From 1970-88 he was also a visiting lecturer at the Medway College of Design and the Sir John Cass School of Art (then a constituent part of the City of London Polytechnic).

As at the summer of 2012 he is still working.

POYNTON, Norman Reginald George He registered his mark in London in 1936 giving his address as the Leicester College of Art. He made a number of civic items for the City of Leicester, designed by himself and Kenneth Holmes, Principal of the College. A scroll holder designed by them both jointly and made

by Poynton and DJF Hodge in 1950 was shown at Goldsmiths’ Hall in the 1951 exhibition ‘British Silver by Contemporary Craftsmen’.

RAWNSLEY, Pamela Born during 1952 in Devon, she began her two-year foundation course at the Sir John Cass College of Art in London in 1969. From 1971-3 she studied ceramics and glass at Leicester Polytechnic and from 1979-80 jewellery at Hereford College of Art. She established her first workshop in 1981. Her earlier career as a jeweller found her working in many materials, including steel, resins and silk-screened PVC, but metals had always claimed priority, especially silver. In 1996 she developed a range of gold and silver jewellery incorporating hollow forms. Two years later small vessels in silver and copper inspired by her jewellery emerged. By 2004 she was undertaking larger and more sculptural work in silver. A continuous preoccupation has been landscape in all its moods: big spaces with tiny details. More recently the ambiguity and shape-shifting nature of the light on the hills interested her. Pamela’s expressive vessel forms in silver, designed to standalone or in groups, were complemented by small collections of jewellery that often express the drawn line. Both strands of her award-winning work have been exhibited nationally and internationally, and are represented in both public and private collections. She lived and worked in Wales and her studio overlooked the landscape that inspired her. She died in early 2014 after a short illness.

PRUDEN, Alfred Charles Known as Dunstan Pruden, he was born in 1906. He studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and was a contemporary of RE Stone. Pruden became the finest ecclesiastical silversmith of his age. In his early years he made for HG Murphy. A friend of Eric Gill, he declined Gill’s invitation to join him at Pigotts, his home and alternative community near High Wycombe (see Philip and Angela Lowery – his daughter went later). Instead he was accepted as a member of The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic at Ditchling. He also taught at the Brighton College of Art and counted Gerald Benney and Anthony Elson among his pupils. He died in 1974. His grandson Anton Pruden carries on the tradition at Ditchling as a silversmith in the partnership of Pruden & Smith. See pp.380-7.

PUGH, Martyn Jeremy Born in 1951, he undertook his art foundation course at Foley College of Further Education and College of Art at Stourbridge from 1970-1 and studied at the Faculty of Three Dimensional Design at Birmingham Polytechnic from 1971-4 followed by post-graduate studies there from 1974-6.

During his first year at Birmingham, he decided that he wanted to run his own silversmithing business. Like many silversmiths, he also made jewellery until the business was established. He likes combining silver with other materials, such as wood and glass. A perfectionist, a claret jug will hold a full bottle with breathing space and whether a decanter, teapot or jug, it will not drip. His designs employ the geometry of natural form and in many cases often seem to soar with effortless grace towards infinity. His largest commission was a complete dining service comprising 50 pieces that took four years to make. Over recent years he has enthusiastically pushed the boundaries of his craft by combining the latest technology with traditional techniques to produce the largest objects yet made in palladium and hardenenable ‘pure’ gold, a recently developed micro-alloy of titanium and gold. See pp.388-97.

REDFERN, Keith William Born in 1935, he attended the Junior Art Department of the Sheffield College of Art and later studied at the Sheffield College of Art. After his National Service he continued his studies at the Royal College of Art from 195661. Upon graduating he secured a post designing three days a week for Elkington & Co Ltd. In 1963 he became an equal shareholder in the Silver Workshop. In the mid-1960s he was persuaded to teach full-time at Hornsey College of Art, stopped designing for Elkington, but undertook design commissions including those for gifts presented to HM Queen Elizabeth II, HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. He established Keith Redfern Designs in 1970 and undertook a steady flow of commissions ranging from water jugs to trophies. He was very successful as an educationalist, his final appointment being Head of School of Product Design at Middlesex. He became a victim of the late 1980s/early 1990s recession and he was pensioned off in 1990. However, since then he has been busy designing. Up until the 1990s he had exhibited at just two exhibitions – from 1992 to 2002 he exhibited at over a dozen. Recently he has been concentrating on designing and making jewellery. See pp.398-405.

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REECE, Stanley An engraver.

RICH, Fred (now trading as Fred Rich Enamel Design – FRED) Born in 1954, he undertook his art foundation course at the Central School of Art and Design from 1977-8 and went on to study Jewellery Design there from 1978-81. With his passion for colour, it is not surprising that he made enamelling a speciality.

He established his workshop in London together with two fellow jewellery graduates and started making jewellery and some silver. As he excels as an enameller, there was a strong demand for his skills from jewellers and silversmiths. Nevertheless he did have a stand at Goldsmiths’ Fair and his work was in a couple of exhibitions at Goldsmiths’ Hall in the early 1990s, but it was predominantly jewellery. In 1993, Garrard’s commissioned him to make a larger piece for an exhibition to celebrate its 150th anniversary as Crown Jewellers. The Managing Director of Garrard’s was so impressed with Rich’s work that a solo exhibition was secretly arranged for 1995 where a dozen large pieces were displayed. It was a sell-out and Rich’s order book became full. See pp.406-15.

ROWE, Michael Born in 1948, his passion for metalwork developed when he attended High Wycombe Technical High School where a fellow pupil and friend was Terry Pratchett. He undertook his arts foundation course at High Wycombe College of Art and Technology from 1965-6 and continued studying silversmithing design there from 1966-9. He studied at the Royal College of Art from 1969-72. Rowe was one of a newly emerging generation of craftsmen who were looking for new directions and questioning the nature and role of traditional craft practice.

Considering the traditional market for silver as ‘ostentatious and out of touch with the exciting developments going on in other areas of the visual arts’, he proposed an alternative working method. The applied arts writer and curator Ralph Tuner sums it up, ‘The silversmith Michael Rowe, almost single-handedly reinvented his craft in the 1970s.’ After graduating Rowe established a studio in south London and his work began to emerge on the gallery scene and in exhibitions. He soon found he was in demand as a lecturer. In 1976 he joined the team at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts on a part-time basis. In 1979 he embarked on research into colouring, patination and bronzing of metals with Richard Hughes, his teaching colleague at Camberwell. This resulted in the publication in 1982 of what is still a standard work. Although he had taught at the RCA as a visiting lecturer since 1978, in 1983 he was invited to become Senior Tutor in the Department of Silversmithing and Jewellery, a post he still held in 2012. See pp.416-29.

SCHILDER, A The Pearson Silver Collection has a pair of dishes in the Scandinavian style on three ‘sputnik’ feet bearing the assay office mark for London and the date letter for 1961.

SEATON, Colin Born in 1947, he was apprenticed to Algernon Asprey from 1963-8. He worked for Stuart Devlin from 1969-76 before setting up own workshop in East London.

SHINER, Cyril James Born in Birmingham during 1908. He attended Moseley Road Junior Art School and then progressed to the Central School of Art at Margaret Street. He was a student under

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Bernard Cuzner at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing in Vittoria Street. Shiner did much valuable work as a teacher at the Bournville and Vittoria Street Schools. He designed a wide variety of objects mainly for public rather than private use.

These included badges of office, maces, civic plate for several towns, silver for Birmingham, Cambridge Manchester and Oxford universities as well as a presentation sword for the RAF. In the 1930s he undertook a refresher course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts under HG Murphy. The Goldsmiths’ Company purchased several domestic pieces in the Art Deco style at this time ranging from a fruit bowl (1932) to a biscuit box (1939). Shiner worked as a freelance designer for Wakely and Wheeler as well as other manufacturing companies and also for retailers such as the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company (later Garrard’s). He retired from teaching in 1970. He died in 1989.

SHORT, Jane She undertook her art foundation course at Bideford School of Arts and Crafts from 1971-2, studied at the Central School of Art and Design from 1972-5 and at the Royal College of Art 1976-9. She fell in love with enamelling at the Central School and Gerald Benney at the RCA encouraged her passion. Thanks to a Travel Scholarship from the RAC, she visited Japan in 1979. Initially she worked in London at workshops she shared with former RCA students and combined working to commission with undertaking enamelling for others and teaching.

In 1989 she moved to Brighton and established her own workshop. Her work is in many private and public collections. Her masterpiece is the Four Seasons Tazza which she made for the Keatley Trust. It was completed in 2007 having been two years in the making. In 2008 it won the Jacques Cartier Memorial Award for outstanding craftsmanship. See pp.430-7.

SILVER WORKSHOP LIMITED A design and manufacturing company founded by Ian Calvert, Tony Laws, Keith Redfern and Ronald Stevens in 1963. It operated until 1972 when the four equal shareholders went their separate ways. See p.405.

E SILVER & Co The company was based in Bond Street post World War II and produced stunning designs made to a high standard of craftsmanship. The Pearson Silver Collection has a three-piece Art Deco service of a ‘streamline moderne’ style (1947) and a pot pourri engraved with stylised classic female actresses, musicians and dancers (1953).

SMITH, Alan Born in 1947, he undertook his pre-apprenticeship course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. He served his apprenticeship at the Silver Workshop Limited. He made a centrepiece as his masterpiece in 1970. He then worked as a craftsman in the workshop of Christopher Lawrence before moving to Grant Macdonald where he was appointed workshop manager in 1976. In the late 1990s he faced his largest challenge – overseeing the making of the 1.5 ton, 7m high cross and orb for the rebuilding of Dresden Cathedral.

SMITH, Frederick Newland Born c.1882 in Bridgwater, Somerset. Not a great deal is known of his life, but in 1904, while at the Bridgewater School of Art, he won a silver medal in the National Art Competition, ‘for a careful copy of “A Slave”’. He served during the First World War in France and Germany with the 1st

E Silver & Co Known by its owners as ‘the flying tea service’, the tea pot and to some extent the jug look as if they are about ‘to take off’. When auctioned by Bonhams in December 2008, it was described as an Art Deco service with a ‘streamline moderne’ design. Estimated at £1,5002,000, it took just short of £3,950 to secure it. Length of tea pot 31cm. London 1947. Courtesy The Pearson Silver Collection, photographer Bill Burnett

Battalion, the Honorable Artillery Company. In 1919 he designed and made a silver, gold and enamel casket for presentation to the Earl of Derby. For 33 years he was Head of the Gold and Silversmithing Department at the Manchester School of Art. During this period he was a member of Manchester’s Red Rose Guild of Artworkers. A silver rose bowl by Smith is in the Manchester Art Gallery. He moved to Welwyn Garden City in 1943, becoming a founder member of the Welwyn Garden City Craftworkers’ Guild in 1945 and its treasurer until 1949. He was Deputy Master in 1951-2 and Master in 1952-3. The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths has an engraved silver beaker in its collection made at about the time he retired from Manchester. He received commissions to make pieces for several churches. He died in 1969.

SMITH, Keith H Born in 1929 he taught silversmithing at Loughborough College of Art and Design for over 30 years. He was course leader of its highly regarded Silversmithing and Jewellery Department. He undertook a wide variety of private commissions and made larger pieces for the local authority and neighbouring educational institutions. In 2000 the Crowood Press published his book Silversmithing: A Manual of Design and Technique in 2000. The paperback was published in 2005.

SMITH and HARRIS Dennis Smith and Gareth Harris met in 1975 at the Sir John Cass School of Art in London. Smith was studying for a diploma in Silversmithing and Jewellery. After-

wards he went to work for K. Weiss as a gold box maker. Later he was appointed house designer at Edward Barnard and Sons, London’s oldest silversmiths. Harris attended a preapprenticeship course at the Cass. He served his apprenticeship with Padgett and Braham, and was indentured to Victor de Bossart a specialist box maker and a descendant of French Huguenots. Working together at Edward Barnard and Sons in 1980 they decided to establish their own business. In 1981 they took over the remaining lease of Richard Hodd and Son’s workshop in Hatton Garden. It had not changed a great deal since the mid-19th century. While Smith and Harris were still bolting machinery to the floor, the first important commission arrived – to make diplomatic gifts for the new incumbent at 10 Downing Street, Margaret Thatcher. Over the following years Smith and Harris moved from being a specialist trade workshop, supplying important retailers and other silversmiths, to being designer-craftsmen in their own right. Today they have a worldwide client base.

SMYTHE, Wallace Born in 1911 he became a lecturer at Chesterfield College of Art. Like many educators he was also a designer-silversmith. Mappin and Webb employed him as a freelance designer. In March 2011 the New Hawley Gallery at Kelham Island Museum, Sheffield, opened to the public with its first exhibition featuring ‘the life and designs of Wallace Smythe who will be 100 years old this February’.

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SOFTLEY, Mike (now Trading as Softley & Page) Born in 1952 he sailed dinghies and in his summer holidays lived aboard a 30foot sloop exploring the West Coast of Scotland. He learnt about silversmithing in 1968 while studying art at Oxford. He then studied silversmithing and three-dimensional design at Hornsey College of Art. After graduating in 1973 he formed Silver Three Designs with two fellow students. His first opportunity to build a silver model of a boat occurred the following year and he found the research and problem solving fascinating. In 1984 he teamed up with Gordon Evans, a keen sailor and retired physicist. They formed Softley & Page, which specialises in the production of individual models of boats. Evans deals with the administration and undertakes research, while Softley is the silversmith.

Trophies and some domestic silver are also made.

SPAREY, Laurence A Born in 1939, from 1956-60 he studied at Hornsey College of Art followed by the Royal College of Art from 1960-3. Upon graduation he was awarded a travelling scholarship.

He became a lecturer at Hornsey, Camberwell College of Arts and South Herts College of Further Education. Later he was appointed Head of Metalwork at Camberwell. He designed and made both silver and jewellery.

SPARROW, Sidney J He was one of the great silversmiths working at the bench. For many years he was employed at the workshop of RE Stone. He also worked as a part-time teacher at Gravesend School of Art. Stone’s daughter advises that each year he picked out the most promising boy for Stone who acquired four apprentices in this way. He later worked for William Comyns.

SPENCER, Jack Following his pre-apprentice course he served his apprenticeship at Walker & Hall where he made many of David Mellor’s prototypes. He attended Sheffield College of Art on day release and for evening classes. Later he worked for David Mellor as one of his master craftsmen. Keith Tyssen and Spencer formed a partnership in the mid-1960s when Tyssen was working on stainless steel cutlery for the Co-operative Wholesale Society as well as numerous silver commissions. The partnership lasted just over two years. He then worked as a silversmithing technician at Sheffield College of Art. In the early 1970s he opened a retail jewellery shop in Sheffield with his wife and established a workshop in the city, producing jewellery as well as silver items. Geoffrey Alsop worked for him as a designer silversmith. He later moved to the Cotswolds and opened a retail jewellery shop in Tetbury. He has now retired.

SQUIRES, Roger He was born in 1956 and studied silversmithing at the Sir John Cass School of Art. He subsequently worked for Brian Fuller and at the Morris Singer Foundry. He established his own workshop at Basingstoke in 1977. He has undertaken commissions for the British Royal Family, the Queen of Holland, the Sultan of Brunei the Royal Air Force as well as outwork for Asprey, Garrard’s and Mappin & Webb. He established a foundry at Andover in 2004, which he has since sold. He currently works from a workshop at his home.

STAPLEY, Jack Edward Born in 1925, he studied at the Royal College of Art from 1949-52 and was a contemporary of Eric Clements. While still a student he won the Goldsmith’s Company

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competition for a rose bowl to celebrate the Festival of Britain in 1951. The bowl was double skinned with pierced, engraved and applied roses, its finial being two entwined unicorns holding the Company’s heraldic shield aloft. It would have been technically challenging to make. Stapley’s career was that of an educator and a designer-maker of silver. He taught at the Gravesend School of Art where he built up a strong silversmithing department and was a highly respected teacher. Later he became an instructor at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and was subsequently Head of Silversmithing at the Sir John Cass School of Art. He became one of the most successful early post-war silversmith designers and craftsmen. He designed and made maces presented to the Nigerian Federal House of Representatives and for the Samoan Parliament. He was commissioned by the City livery companies of the goldsmiths, gardeners and blacksmiths and by Nuffield College, Oxford. He exhibited in the UK, Belgium and the US. He died in 1981.

STEELE, John Phillips An artist-craftsman working in Letchworth Garden City. The Goldsmiths’ Company acquired a small chased bowl on a pierced foot from him in 1936 for their modern silver collection. He was a member of the Welwyn Garden Craftworkers’ Guild.

STEIGER, Jaqueline Gruber Born in 1936, she studied painting from 1954-9 at Edinburgh College of Art. In 1959 she won the Royal Scottish Academy Award. She currently works as a sculptor, jeweller and medallist but does produce some silver. She finds casting a fascinating part of the making process, which she undertakes using the lost wax technique. She was commissioned

by Benson & Hedges to make two gold cups set with emeralds for the International Stakes at York Races in 1974. The race was then sponsored by the company and was called the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup. She has undertaken public commissions, work for universities and churches as well as for individuals.

STEWART, Graham Leishman Born in 1955, in the summer of 1973 he served as an apprentice with the jeweller Norman Grant and went on to study silversmithing and jewellery at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen from 1973-6, continuing as a postgraduate studying art and design from 1976-8. He started establishing his workshop in Dunblane in the year he graduated.

Initially making jewellery and undertaking work for other silversmiths while he established his own business, it was not long before he secured commissions. His work reached a wider audience when he started exhibiting at the annual Goldsmiths’ Fair in London. One of his most prestigious commissions was the Honours of Scotland abstract sculpture presented by Her Majesty the Queen to the Scottish Parliament when Holyrood was opened in 2004. His repertoire is wide, but since the beginning he has hand forged beautifully tactile spoons. Graham has a great respect for words and has made a series of bowls engraved with the hypnotic sounding names that feature in the Shipping Forecast. Following the pair of claret jugs designed for Bute House, he developed the design over the years and they have proved popular with his clients. As he says, ‘You can express a lot with a jug’. Stewart’s inspiration is from nature, but he does not replicate it. See pp.438-45.

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STONE, Robert Edgar Generally referred to as RE Stone, he was born in 1903, he secured a trade scholarship aged 14 and was directed to train as a silversmith. He undertook basic training in the Silver Department of the Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1917-19 and continued to study there in the evenings during the time he served his apprenticeship. He was awarded a senior arts scholarship at the Central School following the completion of his apprenticeship. Afterwards the Goldsmiths’ Company awarded him a two-year Travelling Scholarship, during which time he worked for silversmiths on the continent and in Scandinavia.

Back in the UK he started a silversmithing business in London that prospered. In addition to quality commemorative pieces for the 1935 Silver Jubilee and 1937 Coronation, he supplied retailers with domestic silver and undertook commissions, including one from HM King George VI for six candlesticks that were presented to the Royal Military Chapel in 1938. During World War II the business closed and Stone worked at a torpedo factory. The workshop reopened in 1946. In addition to designing and producing quality items of handmade silver, which in the 1960s Arthur Negus (the first star of a TV antiques programme) declared to be ‘antiques of the future’, Stone left an even greater legacy: the apprentices he trained to a very high standard. Of these, at the time of writing (2011) three are still working and in three cases, their sons are also silversmiths working at the bench.

Stone closed his London workshop in 1964 and moved to Scotland where he worked until about 1980. He died in 1990. See pp.446-57.

STYLES, Alex George Born in 1922, he secured an Arts Scholarship and spent half the week at Gravesend School of Art. He continued at Gravesend for two years of more advanced study.

He then studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, but was called up to serve in the RAF in 1941. After the war he wanted to work as a freelance designer, but was offered full-time designing posts by two leading retailers. He accepted the one from Goldsmiths & Silversmiths turning down Garrard’s the Crown Jewellers. However, the two companies merged in 1952 and traded as Garrard’s from Goldsmiths & Silversmiths’ imposing Regent Street premises. In the 1950s, Garrard’s was the only place where you could buy modern British silver. Styles designed everything from domestic silver to trophies, from badges of office to maces, from a humble caddy spoon to extravaganzas for Middle Eastern sheiks. Styles retired in 1987 and received a Lifetime Achievement Medal at the Goldsmiths’ Craftsmanship and Design Awards in 2011. See pp.458-65.

TASKER, Keith Born in 1933, he attended the Tunbridge Wells School of Art and discovered that he had aptitude for and also enjoyed working with silver. In 1955, his studies over, he ventured to London where he worked for Chilman’s, a workshop that undertook silver repairs primarily for the trade. At this juncture he also started teaching at the Tunbridge Wells Adult Education Centre, a role he continued for some 20 years. Over a number of years from 1958, he gained further silversmithing experience at Wakely and Wheeler. Following a spell with Peddefort, Bowers and Simonett, which also specialised in repairs, he moved to Asprey, the designer, manufacturer and retailer of luxury items including jewellery and silver. Founded in 1781, the company has been based at 167 New Bond Street in the heart of London’s Mayfair since 1847. Among the notable items he made while he

was at Asprey was an 18-carat gold rose bowl presented to President Eisenhower by his friends (the President sent a personal letter praising the craftsmanship to Keith); the largest was a silver globe for a shipping firm in Oslo weighing some 5080 kg; an 18-carat tea service on a tray made for stock which was purchased by a Middle Eastern sheikh; the Ascot Gold Cup in 1962 and 1963; a coffee pot for HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and in 1970 he made the Assistant’s Cup to Algernon Asprey’s own design when Mr Asprey was appointed to the Court of Assistants at The Goldsmiths’ Company. In 1974 Keith decided that he would leave Asprey and establish his own business at Tunbridge Wells. Joined by his wife, a former art teacher, she designed and he made a range of domestic silver. He also undertook a great deal of work for the army, making four or five models including a landing craft, a tank transporter and a dispatch rider. He retired in 1999 and has dedicated his time to restoring and maintaining a windmill close to his home.

TOON, Colin Born in 1929, he trained at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing from 1948-52. Afterwards he taught metalwork at a secondary school for three years then in 1961 became a full-time teacher at the Birmingham School until his retirement in 1989. Throughout that time he was involved with the design and development for production of hollowware, flatware and die cast objects as well as several important civic, ecclesiastical and commercial commissions. Harry Brown, a Birmingham silversmith who specialised in making silver by hand, often made his designs.

TOWNER, Trevor Born in Darlington during 1944, upon leaving school he served his apprenticeship with an ecclesiastical silversmith. He joined Anthony Elson in 1967, where he specialised in ecclesiastical work, but he also made a number of important trophies including one for the Daily Express London to Sydney Marathon. He also assisted in making the silver Elson had designed for the Council Rooms of the Stock Exchange.

Having gained a wealth of experience, in 1970 he joined the outstanding team of craftsmen at Stuart Devlin’s Clerkenwell workshops. While there he worked on many fine pieces of silver and jewellery for numerous heads of state as well as the British Royal Family and other important clients. Devlin appointed him as production manager for his large number of craftsmen. In 1983 Towner established his own studio, workshop and showroom in the historic town of Petersfield, Hampshire. Set at the foot of the South Downs in an area of outstanding natural beauty, the location has been a continuing source of inspiration to him. In 1996 a move was made to larger premises in the town’s High Street, from where he continues to undertake silver and jewellery commissions to his own designs or to those of his clients. Since 2002, to commemorate milestone events of HM Elizabeth II’s reign, he has designed limited edition thimbles in silver, silver gilt and precious stones that were made in his workshop. He has trained two apprentices, Simon Walker and Jocelyn Skeats, since he established his own business.

TYSSEN, Keith Born in 1934, he studied at the Sheffield College of Art from 1951-5 where, after two years of core studies, he elected to concentrate on silversmithing. He gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Art where he studied from 1957-60. After

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graduating he was invited to apply for a teaching post at the SCA where he initially taught art, design, silversmithing and jewellery, but continued to design and make silver. He established his own workshop in 1963. He formed a three-year partnership with Jack Spencer to make prototype stainless steel cutlery for the Cooperative Wholesale Society. Although he enjoyed designing candelabra, he produced a range of items suitable for gifts such as jewellery, candlesticks, paperweights, letter knives and caddy spoons. By 1988 Tyssen was head of an expanded Design Department at what had become Sheffield Hallam University and he took early retirement. In the 1990s he experimented with pewter. However, silver remained his love and in the 1990s his commissions included candlesticks for Wolfson College, Cambridge, and the Millennium Punchbowl and Ladle together with three other Sheffield smiths. In the 21st century he has concentrated on silver and experimented with oxidisation and using mixed metals. As at 2012, he was still working. See pp.466-73.

VERNON, Lawrence The Pearson Silver Collection has a threepiece tea service assayed in Birmingham during 1948. It is believed he was an electrical engineer who first registered his mark in 1943.

WAGER, Steve Born in 1961, he began silversmithing in a shed located in London’s East End when he was aged 12. His ‘tutor’ was Keith Jaden, considered to be among the top box makers at the time who worked for Padgett and Braham and Wakely and Wheeler. Following a fortnight with Michael Murray, he undertook a pre-apprentice course at the Sir John Cass School of Art. He served his apprenticeship with Algernon Asprey of Bruton Street, where he was indentured to Keith (known as Edward) Asprey. By the time his apprenticeship was over, John Asprey, who owned Asprey’s of Bond Street, had purchased Algernon Asprey’s business. Wager spent the next 25 years working for Asprey, the two Asprey workshops having merged. In 2002 he was made redundant and he established his own business with the objective of combining the highest level of technical expertise with flexibility and creativity. His clients include the British Royal Family as well as the Sultans of Brunei and Oman. He has made and designed numerous trophies including the Cricket World Cup, the Ryder Cup and many for Ascot as well as for polo matches. He has made swords in 18-carat gold and an umbrella in platinum.

He has a workshop in Hatton Garden.

WARD, Alfred Born at Dartford in Kent during 1942, he initially studied at Canterbury College of Art. This was followed by Birmingham University where he undertook the Art Teacher’s Diploma course. He subsequently studied for the City and Guilds certificate in silversmithing and engraving. From 1963 he undertook a number of teaching posts in the UK and from 19651964 was Chairman at the Department of Silversmithing and Jewellery at the City of London Polytechnic. He then moved to the US where he had several educational posts culminating in 1985-9 as Professor and Chairman, Art and Design, Winthrop University, South Carolina. He designed for UK companies, including the Barker Ellis Silver Company 1963-73 and Spink 1973-81. He undertook commissions for churches, universities and civic authorities on both sides of the Atlantic as well as designing

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trophies. The slice he made for the Rabinovitch Collection is in the British section, even though it bears US marks.

WARD, James Brent Born in 1949 in Yorkshire. After school he studied at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London. He then undertook his first degree from 1969-71 at London’s Central School of Art and Design where he encountered titanium, a chemical element that is silver in colour, which has low density and high strength. He became a technician at the Central School before going to the Royal College of Art from 1974-7, where he studied in the Department of Jewellery and Silversmithing. He specialised in original research into photo-etching of refractory metals (a class of metals that are extraordinarily resistant to heat and wear). He wrote Refractory Metals in the Workshop, a definitive technical report, for the Goldsmiths’ Company in 1977 (this is still available from the Company). After graduation he worked for several manufacturing companies and also established a workshop at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in India where he taught jewellery and worked with titanium, niobium, tantalum and zirconium for jewellery and hollowware.

He also lectured extensively in the USA and the UK. In 1982 with Edward Roseberg, he created Spectore Corporation in the USA, which is now the largest refractory jewellery manufacturer in the States. In 1986, having sold his stake in Spectore, he joined William Comyns in London as Production and Design Director. In 1992 he designed the Five Nations Rugby Trophy (the five nations were France, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and he subsequently designed the Six Nations Trophy when Italy joined the competition in 2000). The first trophy was made in Comyns’ workshop by a team of eight silversmiths. The Malaysian pewter manufacturer Royal Selangor purchased Comyns (which was experiencing financial difficulties) in 1993. James then spent eight years in Malaysia establishing Selangor’s silver workshop until 2001. Since 1980 James has run and worked in his studio and workshop in Fife, Scotland. He has spent decades specialising in the refractory metals titanium, niobium, tantalum and zirconium but he also works with gold and silver, which makes it difficult to categorise his work on a traditional basis. Although primarily a jeweller, he produces sculptural silver objects combined with refractory metals. He now spends half of his time creating specialist maxilofacial and cranial implants in titanium for a number of neurosurgeons around Britain and Europe, as well as specific bespoke commissioned articles in both precious and refractory metals.

WARWICK, James Studied at the Royal College of Art from 1936-8. While a student he entered a competition organised by the Goldsmiths’ Company to commemorate the Coronation of George VI and Queen Elizabeth. He won and the prototype of the winning entry, an engraved ashtray, is in the Company’s modern plate collection. After working for some years as a designer for Mappin and Webb, in 1950 Gladwin’s of Sheffield secured him on a retainer. He taught for several years at the Sheffield School of Art and later Rotherham College of Art and Technology before becoming Headmaster of the Belfast College of Art, which expanded greatly under him.

WATLING, Graham Born in 1930, he studied silversmithing at Loughborough College of Art and by the mid-1950s became a

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teacher of art and craft. In 1959 his mark was registered at the London Assay Office. He made sufficient jewellery and silver to exhibit at most of UK craft exhibitions. In 1970 he saw Lacock in the Cotswolds, one of England’s most idyllic villages and the Watlings fell in love with it. Two years later he gave up teaching, moved to Lacock and established his workshop and small gallery.

He designed, made and sold silver. The business expanded beyond expectations, so five years later when one of the few properties not owned by the National Trust came on the market, he and his wife bought it and moved in. It gave them more domestic and commercial accommodation. With a larger gallery, Watling’s silver ranging from paper knives to candlesticks as well as gold and silver jewellery was displayed together with the works of other selected craftsmen. He also undertook commissions. Watling died in 1996, but his two children make and retail a range of quality jewellery there. See pp.474-9.

WELCH, Robert Born in 1929, he studied at the Malvern School of Art from 1946-50, at the Birmingham School of Art from 1950-2 and at the Royal College of Art from 1952-5. In his second year at the RCA he had a fortnight’s work experience at a Sheffield cutler’s where, with assistance, he made stainless steel knife blades. During the summer of 1953 he visited Scandinavia and was very impressed with the functional and aesthetically appealing everyday objects he encountered. He returned the following year and in Stockholm saw the possibility of designing in stainless steel. In 1955 he visited Copenhagen to research his thesis regarding stainless steel tableware. By his graduation, Old Hall, then the only stainless steel producer in the UK, had engaged him as a design consultant. He established his studio, workshop and accommodation at Chipping Campden. The silver commissions arrived and in 1958 John Limbrey who was a fellow student at Birmingham joined him. His first important commission was from the Goldsmiths’ Company: a seven-light candelabrum for a major exhibition that toured North America from 1959-60. It was a phenomena in its day and is still spectacular in the 21st century. In 1963 Alveston cutlery was launched. Two years later it won a Design Centre Award and is still in production. In the second half of the 1960s Welch designed a range of silver that was not entirely handmade and therefore less expensive. It was well received when retailed by Heal’s. The venture with Heal’s triggered the idea of establishing his own retail outlet: there are now two, one in Chipping Campden, Warwick and Bath. The name Welch is synonymous with cutlery – he designed over 30 patterns. However, the repertoire of Welch’s designs ranged from clocks to lighting, glassware to kitchen tools.

Nevertheless he continued to design and Limbrey to make silver until the end of the 20th century. See pp.480-91.

WHICKER, Gwendoline Gwendoline Cross was born in Bristol during 1900 and in due course she studied at the Bristol Art School. In 1931 she married the Australian artist Fred Whicker and they lived in Clifton, Bristol. Both of them were members of the New Bristol Arts Club and they exhibited at the Royal West of England Academy annual exhibitions. After the Second World War they moved to Wood Lane, Falmouth, and she registered her hallmark in London during 1948. She made silver cutlery and jewellery boxes decorated with enamel or semi-precious stones; she also made jewellery. In Cornwall the couple joined the St Ives

Society of Artists and exhibited there until their deaths. She produced etchings, paintings, drawings and sculpture as well as silver and jewellery. When Gwen died her silver and jewellery was sent to her sister in Canada. A retrospective exhibition of the Whickers’ work was held at the Falmouth Art Gallery in 1994.

Only 14 pieces of Gwen’s silver from private collections were exhibited.

WHILES, Gerald Charles Born in 1935, he studied at the Birmingham College of Art until 1955 and at the Royal College of Art from 1957-60. In 1959 he helped man the exhibition of modern silver at Stoneleigh Abbey organised by the Goldsmiths’ Company. After graduating he undertook freelance design work and part-time silversmith teaching at Bourneville and Leamington Spa Colleges of Art. His design commissions have included the Ascot Gold Cup (1961), work for universities, civic and ecclesiastical authorities, livery and commercial companies.

His work has been included in national and international exhibitions including The Sterling Craft, featuring ‘ancient and modern masterpieces of British gold, silver and jewellery’, which toured five major museums in the US. Whiles’ very angular triangular section water jug featured on the front cover of the catalogue. He started teaching at the Birmingham College of Art full-time in 1962. Imperial Metal Industries Limited, which had perfected the process for producing titanium on a commercial basis, liaised with Whiles in the early 1960s regarding the decorative potential of the metal. From 1968-71 he undertook a design/research programme with IMI. He became Head of the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing in 1975.

During 1990, a major exhibition ‘Finely Taught, Finely Wrought’ celebrating the School’s Centenary was held at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery featuring over 400 pieces of work by past and current staff as well as past and current students.

WHITEHOUSE, Richard Born in Wolverhampton during 1945, he studied at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing from 1960-65. He subsequently worked for Elkington & Co Limited in Birmingham which was part of British Silverware Limited, making domestic silver. In 1971 he moved to London to be a craftsman in Stuart Devlin’s St John Street workshop. He established his own studio and workshop in Essex during 1976 and in addition to making a range of domestic, ecclesiastical and presentation silver, he developed a successful range of ‘working’ miniature groups. He made the models in brass and used the lost wax technique to make the miniatures in silver.

For example, the artist’s set comprised a hinged paint box that opened to reveal the brushes and paint tubes, an easel with a handpainted landscape, a large umbrella and a folding stool.

These were retailed by Fortnum & Masons, Harrods and Mappin and Webb and were exported to Europe, Japan and the United States. From 1988 to 1990 he studied industrial design full-time at Anglia Polytechnic University and subsequently worked in industry. However, later in the 1990s, he returned to silversmithing, working to commission as well as supplying galleries in East Anglia. He also designs and makes jewellery.

From 2007 he has added teaching to his activities, holding classes on jewellery making and silversmithing in his workshop. These are aimed at recreational students as well as serious students who wish to further their knowledge or improve their skills.

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WILKINS, Ray Raymond Wilkins was born in East London.

When he left school in 1954 he undertook an engraving apprenticeship that included a day release each week to study at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1971 he established his own business RH Wilkins (Engraving) Limited. The company has undertaken many prestigious commissions for a long list of discerning clients.

WILLIAMSON, Brian Born in 1949, he served a City of Guilds apprenticeship with the silversmiths Kyness Bothers and studied at the Belfast College of Art from 1964-8. From 1970-3 he studied at London’s Central School of Ars and Crafts. Soon after graduating he established a workshop in Clerkenwell with others making pieces to his own designs and undertaking restoration work. In 1983 he met Hector Miller and started working for him, initially at the bench and then in a management role. The Miller workshop during this period was producing a varied range of work at this time ranging from the trophy for the London Marathon to very large dining services complete with large centrepieces. He left in 1999 when Miller started winding down the business and established his own workshop. He designs and makes one-off pieces with the objective of achieving through the simplification of form which he calls ‘functional realism’, in other words not just being ornamental, but also ‘fit for purpose’. He sells through such events as the Goldsmiths’ Fair and galleries as well as working to commission.

WILLMIN, John Michael Born in 1943, he studied at the Leicester College of Art from 1961-3 and then at the Central School of Arts and Crafts/The Sir John Cass School of Art from 1963-6. Upon graduating he established a workshop in central London with two colleagues and made jewellery. He combined this with lecturing at Harrow College of Art. In 1969 he won De Beer’s coveted International Diamond Awards, but nothing came of it.

The Goldsmiths’ Company commissioned a wine cup for an exhibition in Scandinavia. Other commissions followed in the 1970s including a limited edition goblet for Aurum and a range of pieces for Collingwood’s summer exhibitions. He also experimented with a small series of sculptural ‘fantasy fungi’ which he sold at Loot. Commissions for a series of nautical models followed. In the second half of the 1980s the number of commissions resulted in his abandoning teaching. In the second half of the 1990s, he was head hunted for design work in the Middle East. He is now back in the UK semi-retired. See pp.492-501.

WINTER, Michael His apprenticeship to RE Stone ended in 1963. Later he worked for Gerald Benney and subsequently for Christopher Lawrence and was appointed workshop manager. In 1973, he won the prestigious Jacques Cartier Memorial Award in the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council’s Craftsmanship and Design Awards for making the 140-ounce 18-carat gold Pumpkin Perfume Bottle designed by Lawrence. This award is only given at the discretion of the Council for exceptional and outstanding craftsmanship. He left Lawrence’s to manage the Dunhill workshop for a year before setting up by himself. In 1983 he received his first commissions for a model. He soon started specialising in models of cars, including Rolls Royce and McLaren, moving on to aeroplanes, helicopters, tanks and whatever the client wanted. He retired to St Lucia.

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WINTER, Robert Vidal Born in 1943, and studied at Brighton College of Art. Strangely, he subsequently trained as a carpenter, but at the age of 22 he decided to become a silversmith like his brother Michael, so approached Gerald Benney. Having worked with his hands as a carpenter, the two thought the transition to silversmithing would work. As no apprenticeship was undertaken, Robert had to earn his Freedom of the Goldsmith’s Company by producing a ‘masterpiece’. This was an 18-carat gold and sterling silver chess set which won a prize in the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council’s Craftmanship and Design Awards. Another early piece of his work that also won a Design Award was the gold jewel box Benney designed for the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers to present to the HRH Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in 1970. In three colours of gold, it contained a surprise: a pink gold salmon on a white gold plate. Theodore Wise undertook the magnificent deep engraving of the box’s surface, but Winter made the box. When Benney added colour to his repertoire, Alan Evans and Robert Winter, together with Gerald, learnt the art of enamelling from Berger Bergersen (see p.99). Benney launched his range of enamelled silver in 1970: his enamellers were Evans and Winter and as at 2011/12, the two still enamel for Simon Benney. In 2008 The Three Sisters, a suite of three candelabra was unveiled at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Designed by Simon Benney, it was made and enamelled by Robert Winter. Weighing over 50 kg, it is the largest piece of silver to have been made in the UK for many years. Since the 1980s Winter has been self-employed, and while still working for Benney, also undertook commissions which bear his own mark.

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hammered finish. A common theme of his work is that it is ‘squaddy proof’, meaning that, while aesthetically pleasing, it is designed to stand the test of time as he avoids the design faults he encountered in his restoration work.

WOOD, James Porteus Born in 1919, he left school at 14 but later studied at Edinburgh College of Art under Sir David Young Cameron.

In 1945 he was elected to the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society. Over a period of seven years, he was commissioned by the Birmingham Post to produce bi-weekly drawings of major architectural and industrial landmarks within 50 miles of the city. The morning after the Queen’s coronation, the paper published his large-scale view of Westminster Abbey on its front page. From 1956-81 he was Asprey’s Director of Art and Design. His most notable designs included gold and silver dinner services, an 18-carat gold rose bowl presented to President

Eisenhower in the 1960s (see the Keith Tasker entry) and a coffee pot now on display at the UN headquarters in New York. He also designed furniture and racing trophies. The major commissions were engraved with his facsimile signature as well as the craftsman who made the piece. He had up to four other designers working under him. His work often took him overseas, visiting clients to ensure that the pieces he designed would be sympathetic with the surroundings in which they would be placed. He produced numerous drawings of the interiors of palaces as far afield as Saudi Arabia and Nepal. In 1982, King Hassan II of Morocco invited him to design what became his largest and most spectacular achievement, a model of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. With a diameter of 175cm, it was then reputedly the largest and most important piece of silver, enamel and fine engraving ever exported from the UK. The work was to be a centrepiece for the table of an Islamic conference. He died in 2005.

WISE, Theodore Probably the best engraver of his era. The company T & A Wise Limited was started with his brother c.1947.

Theodore retired in 1972. He was the favoured engraver of Gerald Benney.

WITMOND, Barry Mark Born in London during 1954. He undertook his pre-apprentice course at the Sir John Cass College of Art and became apprenticed at Wakely and Wheeler. The company made silver for such designers as Eric Clements, Reginald Hill and Alex Styles. Reginald Hill taught Barry design at day release classes and told him, ‘Things will be designed for cost and manufacture.’ In 1976 he went to work for Eric Holmes, a silversmith whose craftsmanship he admired. Shortly after he started, his new employer had a heart attack and Barry ended up running the business until Holmes returned. When he came back, he gave Barry a letter of recommendation and transferred his tools, some of which reputedly belonged to George Wickes, the founder of Garrard’s, to his employee. Barry reflected, ‘I became the owner of a business that manufactured and restored silver with one one of the top client lists in the country.’ The enterprise expanded and in 1978 Ronald Spayne, a superb craftsman trained

by RE Stone, became an employee. From 1985 through to 1991, he had a workshop in the heart of Mayfair, but a hike in the rent resulted in his moving to Lincolnshire. An offer to help revive a firm of Indian colonial silversmiths saw him working in the subcontinent from 1993-5. Following a request from Sotheby’s, he returned to the UK and re-established his workshop in the Stableyard of Burghley House, Stamford. As well as restoration work, he makes a range of silver he designs. He was one of the first to use .999 fine silver and to revive leaving silver with a

Aurum Designs Limited From the early 1970s through to the late 1980s produced not only goblets for cathedrals, other institutions as well as commemorating royal events, but also other items such as candelabra and bowls. All were limited editions with the output generally being limited from 150 to 1,000 pieces, the exception being the run of 2,500 Jubilee Goblets for Westminster Abbey on the occasion of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. The Aurum range was designed by leading makers and made to a very high standard. While they are offered on the secondary market, the prices at which they sell as at 2013 has been undemanding and as a result, many have been melted. From left to right the above were made for York Minster (1972); Blackburn Cathedral (1976); York Minster (1989); Epping Forest (1978); Hereford Cathedral (1976) and Wells Cathedral 1982. The height of the candle lamp holder is 25cm.

Courtesy Styles Silver, photographer Michael Pilkington.

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DESIGNER BRITISH SILVER

WHERE TO SEE DESIGNER BRITISH SILVER Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums The Museum has a small collection of post-war designer British silver including work by Geoffrey Bellamy, Gerald Benney, Stuart Devlin and Michael Rowe, to which it would like to add in the future. Its focus during the 1980s and 1990s was to build on its collection of contemporary Scottish smiths including Malcolm Appleby, Maureen Edgar and Adrian Hope. Since 2000 it has sought to enhance the collection by looking at those working throughout the UK, but also further afield such as Australia, Asia and Scandinavia. The museum strives to exhibit a selection of its modern and contemporary material to the public.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford By the end of the 20th century, the Ashmolean had a small collection of contemporary British silver. As the Millennium approached, the museum aspired to add examples of the best pieces of modern work. Thanks to the generosity of one of the museum’s Friends, a design competition was held and the winner was commissioned to make a piece. This was a jug by the Birminghambased silversmith Tara Coomber. With long-term loans from the P&O Makower Trust, a presentation from the Art Fund100 and gifts from Friends of the Ashmolean and others, it is on course with its goal. Normally only a few pieces are displayed in the gallery.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery Birmingham has a very respectable group of post-war British designer silver items. In addition to 15 pieces (over nine sets or pairs) lent by the Keatley Trust, it has 16 additional pieces that it has either acquired itself or which have been purchased by Friends of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, presented by the Contemporary Art Society and others. This group includes Stuart Devlin, David Mellor, Malcolm Appleby and Michael Rowe.

Additionally, Birmingham’s Civic Plate is displayed.

Although this dates from the Edwardian era, it includes items from some of the post-war smiths including Louis Osman, Jack Stapley, Eric Clements, Gerald Benney, Robert Welch, Derek Birch and Gerald Whiles. In the late

100. The Art Fund was established in 1903 as the National Art Collections Fund and was granted a Royal Charter in 1928. It adopted the trading name the The Art Fund in 2006. It has no State funding but receives contributions from its 89,000 members.

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1990s the museum benefited from the Contemporary Art Society Special Collection Scheme in which it was given £30,000 a year to purchase contemporary metalwork. The museum took the opportunity to add around 40 pieces including the work of Ane Christensen, Angela Cork, Rebecca de Quin, Howard Fenn, Simone ten Hompel, Chris Knight, Hiroshi Suzuki, Graham Stewart, Lucian Taylor and Keith Tyssen. While most is silver, some are in other metals. Less is on show than in the past, but a selection is usually on display including the Civic Plate.

The Museum probably has one of the best collections of modern silver in any UK musuem.

Court Barn Museum, Chipping Campden This is a museum of craft and design from the Arts and Crafts Movement onward. There is a case devoted to the stainless steel, silver and industrial designs of Robert Welch. As of spring 2013, there are two pieces of silver displayed. The visit may be combined to Robert Welch’s Studio Shop and the workshop of Hart Gold & Silversmiths, the designers of hand-crafted silver located in the Silk Mill where CR Ashbee established his Guild in Chipping Campden.

Design Museum, David Mellor Visitor Centre, Hathersage, Sheffield This museum not only shows the full historic collection of the work of David Mellor, but also the work of his son Corin, which of course is on-going. The subject matter extends from David Mellor’s hand-crafted silver (it is a good display as it includes many major pieces that are on loan), through cutlery to the traffic lights that we stop at every day. While there is sufficient material to

Opposite, upper: The David Mellor Design Museum Courtesy David Mellor Design, photographer Helen Mellor The David Mellor Design Museum by Sir Michael Hopkins. It is sited opposite the Round Building at Hathersage. David Mellor’s own staff undertook the majority of the construction.

Opposite, lower: Inside the David Mellor Centre Courtesy David Mellor Design, photographer Phil Sayer Corin Mellor, the second generation of the Mellor dynasty, designed the interior of the David Mellor Design Museum. It covers the full range of David Mellor’s designs, from office furniture through to street furniture with everything from telephone to garden shears in between. There is a comprehensive display of David Mellor’s silver, including pieces on loan from collections, including that of the Goldsmiths’ Company.

attract the enthusiast of post-war silver, it is also a must for anyone interested in design. On weekdays that are not public holidays, it is also possible to see cutlery being made in the factory.

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge The Museum only has a very small number of pieces of post-1945 British silver in its permanent collection. The first was acquired in 1976 and appropriately is the initial piece of a limited edition of 150 goblets known as the Fitzwilliam Museum Cup that was designed by Jocelyn

Burton (see p.125) Additionally, it has two pieces by Robert Welch and a spoon by William Phipps. In the middle of the first decade of the third millennium it acquired the work of contemporary silversmiths including the established Anglo-Japanese smith Hiroshi Suzuki and the recent graduate from the Royal College of Art, Max Warren. At the time of writing (summer 2012) no pieces from the permanent collection were displayed.

Until the multi-million pound theft of antique Chinese jade from the museum in April 2012, 29 pieces of silver from the Keatley Trust were on display. Included was a 537

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DESIGNER BRITISH SILVER

ABBREVIATIONS good proportion of post-war British objects including work by Gerald Benney, Keith Redfern, Fred Rich and Jane Short. The intention is to reinstate this display.

Goldsmiths’ Hall There is a small but impressive rotating display of silver exhibited in the Entrance Hall of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ base located in the City of London. This normally displays pieces from the Company’s Modern Collection. This was started in 1927 and the display generally includes a good proportion of post-1945 objects.

The exception may be when the Company is staging an event. It may usually be viewed during the Hall’s normal business hours simply by asking at reception.

The Goldsmiths’ Centre Exhibitions of contemporary silver are periodically staged at this centre in Clerkenwell (nearest underground, Farringdon Road) in the purpose-built exhibition hall. There is usually a display of jewellery, silver or both in the atrium. Access to the public spaces of the centre is free. Programme details can be found at www.goldsmiths-centre.org Museums Sheffield: Millennium Gallery Its Metalwork Gallery traces the history of Sheffield’s involvement with metal from the earliest of times to the present day. Some post-war silver from the 1950s and 1960s is on display, including the work of David Mellor and Robert Welch. Museums Sheffield also has a number of pieces of contemporary silver. While there is not a dedicated display of these, a varying amount is usually on temporary display, including those from the Little Gems project. This is an annual commission worth £1,500 for silversmiths in the early part of their careers who are part of the Start Studio Programme for Silversmiths at Yorkshire Artspace to create and design new work. The commissions are provided by the Sheffield Assay Office and are displayed for a period of six months in the main reception area of the Millennium Gallery. Periodically there are larger displays of contemporary silver. In 2005 it hosted ‘Treasures of the 20th Century’, a touring exhibition of highlights from The Goldsmiths’ Company’s modern collection. In April 2013 it displayed 19 pieces to celebrate 10 years of the Little Gems project. The exhibit was destined to be displayed for about a year.

National Museum of Scotland It has a small representative collection of post-war British silver as well as a collection of contemporary 538

pieces by such Scottish smiths as Malcolm Appleby, Adrian Hope, Michael Lloyd and Graham Stewart. At present no items are displayed in the galleries, but this may alter if new exhibition space is added.

National Museum of Wales It started collecting modern/contemporary silver in 1998 with the commission of two pieces from Wally Gilbert.

There were no further acquisitions until 2005 when a strategy for collecting contemporary silver was produced.

As at the summer of 2012, the museum owns 16 pieces and has a further 10 on loan from the P&O Makower Trust. Most, but not all of these, are currently on display.

When its decorative Arts Gallery opened in 2011, The Pearson Silver Collection lent four post-1945 pieces including the iconic Stuart Devlin café au lait designed in 1959 and the Art Deco ‘streamline modern’ tea service of 1947 often referred to as the ‘flying service’.

Victoria & Albert Museum The V&A’s acquisition of 20th-century and contemporary objects was undirected by a museum-wide policy until the end of the 1980s. It was during the directorship of Roy Strong (1974–87) that the museum began to actively collect 20th-century objects. Initially he allocated a fund to each of the V&A’s departments, which specifically was to be used to acquire post-1920 material. The Circulation Department had been responsible since the first half of the 20th century in securing small inexpensive items that could be lent to other institutions in the UK such as art colleges. Since World War II it has specialised in 19th- and 20th-century (mainly early) decorative arts.

From 1960 to the mid-1970s, the department’s keeper had a penchant for Scandinavian design, which of course influenced its purchases. Strong closed the Circulation Department in 1977 and transferred the responsibility of caring for 20th-century objects to the traditional materials departments such as metalwork, ceramics etc.

In 1989, the V&A’s Board of Trustees decided to allocate at least half of the museum’s annual purchase grant (after the allocation of book and periodical acquisitions for the library had been deducted) to securing 20thcentury objects. Today the V&A has a small but representative collection of post-war British silver, including contemporary pieces. This includes Robert Goodden’s Festival of Britain tea service. It also has loans from the P&O Makower Trust and the Keatley Trust, including Jane Short’s masterpiece, the Four Seasons Tazza. The objective is to always display a small selection of its modern pieces in its Silver Gallery.

AMG B&W BCMI BSJS CAA Camberwell the Cass the Central School CoID the Company DIA EPNS Garrard’s GEC GIA Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Gravesend GSA the Hall ILN IMI IVTO JAD the Journal KIAD LCA LCAD Leicester College LSE Medway NAG NDD OH P&P RAF RCA RFU SCA the Scheme SDI the Slade UCA Rochester UCL UKEA V&A Vanders VAT W&W W&H WMF

Art Metal Guild Blunt and Wray ‘Britain Can Make It’ Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing Contemporary Applied Arts Camberwell College of Art Sir John Cass School of Art Central School of Arts and Crafts (now Central Saint Martins) Council of Industrial Design (later the Design Council) Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths Design Industries Association Electroplated Nickel Silver Garrard & Co Limited General Electric Company Gemmological Institute of America Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co Limited Gravesend School of Art Glasgow School of Art Goldsmiths’ Hall Illustrated London News Imperial Metal Industries Limited International Vocation Training Organisation Junior Art Department, Sheffield College of Art Silver Studies, the Journal of the Silver Society Kent Institute of Art and Design Leeds College of Art Loughborough College of Art and Design Leicester College of Art London School of Economics Medway College of Art National Association of Goldsmiths National Diploma of Design Old Hall Padgham & Putland Royal Air Force Royal College of Art Rugby Football Union Sheffield College of Art Assistance to Craftsmen Scheme Strategic Defense Initiative The Slade School of Fine Art, University College London University of Creative Arts, Rochester (founded as Medway College of Art) University College London United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Victoria and Albert Museum CJ Vander Value Added Tax Wakely and Wheeler Walker and Hall Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik 539

GLOSSARY

GLOSSARY ANNEALING Whether a sheet of silver is raised by hand or shaped by machine stamping or pressing, the process involves compressing the metal, which in turn hardens it and makes it brittle. Periodically the silver has to be softened so it is made pliable for working. This is achieved by heating the piece with a flame to a dull red colour, a process known as annealing. However, there is an unsightly side effect – the heating causes the copper alloy in sterling and Britannia standard silver to oxidise, i.e. to blacken. When the piece is cool it is placed in a weak solution of sulphuric acid to remove the oxide. Its surface is then cleaned with pumice powder.

BASSE-TAILLE This enamelling is similar to champlevé, but the recesses or depressions in the metal are carved, chased or engraved with a pattern. While the metal now has an uneven surface, the enamelling process results in a flat even one. As transparent enamels are used, the variations in thickness produce subtle changes of both colour and shadow. It also reflects the light back to give a rich and lively effect.

CHAMPLEVÉ An enamelling technique developed by the Celts of Northern Europe. It involves placing the enamel in recesses or depressions on the metal’s surface.

CHASING This technique looks very much like engraving as it involves producing a linear design upon the metal. However, the metal is not cut away, but is pushed by a tool into the desired pattern, embossing the surface of the metal. The technique also involves the use of hammers and punches. Chasing is used to give further definition to a repoussé design.

known as Fibonacci and published in his book Liber Abaci in 1202. Basically they are a sequence of numbers, each of which after the second is the sum of the two preceding numbers – e.g. 1,1,2,3,5,8... The ratio of two successive numbers in the Fibonacci Series (by dividing each by the number before it) soon becomes a constant – the Golden Ratio of 1.61803... etc. Fibonacci Numbers appear in nature, for example spirals on seashells, petals on flowers, seed heads and pine cones.

FIRESTAIN The formation of an oxide under the surface of silver/copper alloys (e.g. sterling silver) when they are heated during the making process. It usually takes the form of a reddish purple toned bloom and can be removed by dipping the piece in hot nitric acid or rubbing the surface with the abrasive water of Ayr stone, a natural soft slate.

FLYPRESS A tool used to shape metal by stamping, the two dies being brought into contact with the metal to be shaped by manually turning a screw.

FORGING The shaping and spreading of metal with hammers.

FORMER A stake made to a specific shape to assist in the raising of a particular vessel. In other words, a customised stake.

FRENCH CURVES A template composed of many different curves, used in manual drafting so as to produce smooth curves.

GILD See: silver gilt.

CLOISONNÉ An enamelling technique whereby the different colours of ground enamel are placed in ‘cells’ made from metal wire (either gold or silver) before firing in a kiln.

ENGINE TURNING A mechanical engraving technique that can produce an extremely precise and very intricate repetitive pattern on a metal’s surface.

ENGRAVING Decorating the surface of the metal by cutting part of the metal away with a sharp tool known as a graver.

EPNS Electro plated nickel silver is when a thin layer of silver is applied by way of an electric current on to nickel silver, an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc.

FIBONACCI SERIES Also referred to as the Fibonacci Numbers, they were known in ancient India from 200BC, while in the West they were studied by Leonardo of Pisa, 540

GILDING METAL An alloy of zinc and copper. It is similar to brass.

GOLDEN PROPORTION Also known as the Golden Section/Ratio/Mean or Divine Proportion, it is a classical system of proportion in which a line AB is divided by an interior point P in such a way that the proportions AB:AP = AP:PB – in other words, the ratio AB to AP is the same as AP to PB. This only occurs where AB is 1.6180339887 times AP and AP is 1.6180339887 times PB. This number is known as Phi (the Greek letter ), or the Golden Ratio. The ratio has been used by mankind for centuries: the Ancient Greeks used it for beauty and balance in their architecture, the Renaissance artists in their paintings and it has continued to be utilised over time to the present. The proportion is also found in nature and the human body.

HAND-RAISED This refers to a vessel that has been transformed from a sheet of metal by striking it with a

hammer over stakes or formers to obtain the required shape. The metal is hammered from the base of the vessel up towards the edge and progress is ‘row by row’.

Considerable care must be taken to ensure that the vessel has an even thickness. This takes considerable skill. The process hardens the metal – see: annealing.

PLANISHING The process of smoothing metal by pinching it between a polishing tool and a hammer.

HOLLOWARE a general term used to describe hollow metal utensils and artefacts such as goblets, jugs, tankards, vases etc.

PUMICE POWDER An abrasive used in the first stages of polishing.

MILLING MACHINE A machine tool used for the shaping of metal and other solid materials. They are of two basic forms: horizontal and vertical, referring to the orientation of the cutting tool spindle.

MOKUME GANE Literally meaning ‘wood eye metal’ in Japanese. Originally used in 17th-century Japan to decorate samurai swords, it is the fusion of different sheets of metal alloys of varying colours. The result is a layered block of striped metal called a billet. This is then flattened by hammering and/or rolling – the result is a sheet metal with coloured graining – see the chapter on Alistair McCallum.

NICKEL SILVER An alloy of approximately 60 per cent copper, 20 per cent nickel and 20 per cent zinc. It contains no silver.

OXIDISED In relation to silver, it is the darkening of the metal by tarnishing it in a controlled way. A popular way is to immerse the silver into water containing a chemical known as liver of sulphur.

PARCEL-GILT Partially gilt – for example, when the interior of the bowl of a silver goblet is gilded, or when only some elements of the exterior have been gilded.

PATINATED/PATINATION Simplistically, exposing a metal to chemicals so as to change its colour. In 1979, Michael Rowe and Richard Hughes, then both of the Camberwell School of Art embarked on major research into colouring, patination and bronzing techniques, resulting in the publication of The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals in 1982. The traditional colour obtained with patination was a dark brown. However, in the early 21st century Anthony Elson experimented with other chemicals to obtain more colours – see p.208.

PLIQUE-À-JOUR A form of enamelling where there is no backing – so the result is rather like a stained-glass window.

RAISED OR RAISING A shortened form of the term ‘hand-raised’ or ‘hand-raising’.

REPOUSSÉ A technique for the modelling of sheet metal in relief from the back, using a hammer and punches. The design is lightly scratched, or marked with a felt pen on to the metal’s surface, which is then placed on to a firm but yielding surface. A sheet of lead or a block of wood can be used for low relief, but for higher relief a bowl of pitch is normally used. Both the metal and the pitch are slightly heated before the punching up begins, starting with the lowest relief first.

RETICULATION The art of producing a ridged or rippled surface for a metal alloy (usually 80 per cent silver, 20 per cent alloy). A sheet of the metal is repeatedly heated and then placed in an acid solution to remove the copper from the alloy’s surface. Reticulation is achieved by then heating areas of the surface with a gas torch so as to heat the interior of the metal. The texturing is brought about by the expansion and contraction as the interior melts and solidifies, as well as by the pressure and direction of the flame.

SILVER GILT The depositing of a thin layer of gold onto the surface of the silver by way of electroplating.

SOLDERING The joining of two pieces of metal together by fusing with an alloy.

SPINNING Simplistically, spinning is a skilled mechanical method of raising silver. A wooden or steel form, known as a chuck, which is in the shape of the object to be made, is placed in a lathe. A circle of silver is held against this. As the lathe rotates, a spinning tool is placed against the silver to draw it from the base of the chuck into the required shape.

More than one chuck may be needed for complex shapes.

SPUN Past tense of spinning.

PIERCING Piercing is the cutting away of areas for either a useful or wholly decorative effect. While this can be done on mass-produced items using dies and a fly press, a craftsman achieves the result using a piercing saw, a process that requires great skill.

STAKE Usually a steel used to help form the shape of the object being hand-raised, but occasionally they can be made of wood when a wooden mallet is used instead of a steel hammer so as to preserve a surface of a sheet of metal that has already been decorated.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY OBITUARIES Brian Asquith Sheffield Telegraph, 21 March 2008 The Yorkshire Post, 22 March 2008 The Independent, 5 April 2008 The Times, 5 April 2008 The Daily Telegraph, 11 April 2008 The Guardian, 23 April 2008 Gerald Benney The Independent, 2 July 2008 The Guardian, 25 July 2008 Michael Bolton The Times, 21 February 2005 Leslie Durbin The Guardian, 1 March 2005 The Independent, 1 March 2005 The Times, 5 March 2005 Robert Goodden The Times, 7 April 2002 The Guardian, 26 March 2002 The Independent, 13 April 2002 David Mellor The Times, 8 May 2009 The Guardian, 8 May 2009 The Independent, 8 May 2009 Daily Telegraph, 10 May 2009 Michael Murray The Independent, 8 February 2005 RE Stone The Silver Society Journal, 1990 Robert Welch The Guardian, 23 March 2000 BOOKS Atterbury, Paul and Benjamin, John, The Jewellery and Silver of HG Murphy (Woodbridge, 2005) Ball, Ruth, Enamelling (London, 2006) Bell, Pauline Cooper, Made in Sheffield – The Story of James Dixon & Sons Silversmiths (Sheffield, 2004) Bruce, Ian, The Loving Eye and Skilful Hand – The Keswick School of Industrial Art (Carlisle, 2001) Clifford, Helen M, A Treasured Inheritance: 600 Years of Oxford College Silver (Oxford, 2004) Published to accompany an exhibition of the same name at The Ashmolean, Oxford, in the year of publication. It includes a chapter on modern silver.

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Clifford, Helen, Gold: Power and Allure (London 2012) Published to accompany the summer exhibition of the same name at Goldsmiths’ Hall in the year of publication. It includes a chapter on modern gold objects.

Cuzner, Bernard, A Silversmith’s Manual, with additional designs by Anthony Elson (London 1979) Dalgleish, George and Fotheringham, Henry Steuart, Silver Made in Scotland (Edinburgh, 2008) Darwin, Robin et al., The Anatomy of Design (London, 1951) David Mellor Design, David Mellor – Master Metalworker (Sheffield, 2006) Ellis, Martin (ed.), Eric Clements: Silver & Design 19502000 (Birmingham, 2001) Published to accompany the summer exhibition ‘Passion & Perfection, Eric Clements: Silver & Designs, 1950-2000’ at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in the year of publication.

Fay, Stephen, The Great Silver Bubble (London, 1982) Frayling, Christopher, Art & Design: 100 years at the Royal College of Art (London and Ilminster, 1999) Garner, Philippe, The Contemporary Decorative Arts: from 1940 to the present day (London 1980) Garrard, Royal Goldsmiths: The Garrard Heritage (London, 1991) Gooden, Robert & Popham, Philip, Silversmithing (Oxford, 1971) Goring, Elizabeth; Clifford, Helen; Romano, Nell; Carli, Françoise and Coates, Kevin, Kevin Coates – A Hidden Alchemy (Stuttgart, 2008) Harrod, Tanya, The Crafts in Britain in the 20th Century (New Haven, 1999) Hill, Richard and Margetts, Martina, Michael Rowe (Birmingham, 2003) Hunt, Terry, Finely Taught Finely Wrought: The Birmingham School of Jewellery & Silversmithing 1890-1990 (Birmingham, 1990) Hughes, Graham, Gerald Benney Goldsmith: The story of fifty years at the bench (Alfriston, 1998) Hughes, Graham, Modern Silver Throughout the World 1880-1967 (New York, 1967) Jenkins, Peter, Unravelling the Mystery – The Story of the Goldsmiths’ Company in the Twentieth Century (Lingfield, 2000) Larkham, Brian, Metalwork Designs of Today (London, 1969) Lichfield Cathedral – Silver Commission (Lichfield, 1991) Lloyd-Jones, Teleri, David Mellor Design (Woodbridge, 2010) Loyen, Francis, Silversmithing (London, 1980) Lyon, Philippa and Woodham, Jonathan M (eds), Art and Design at Brighton 1859-2009: from Arts and Manufactures to the Creative and Cultural Industries (Brighton, 2009) Manners, Guy, Stuart Devlin (London, 1973) Stuart Devlin commissioned the author to write this 40page work.

Møller, Svend Erik, Robert Welch (London, undated) This booklet was printed by Wigmore Distributors and is a reprint from the August 1967 issue of the Danish magazine

Mobilia. Wigmore distributed Welch’s products worldwide.

Moore, Jenny, Louis Osman (1914-1996): The life and work of an architect and goldsmith (Tiverton, 2006) O’Brien, Timothy A with Walsh, Margo Grant, Collecting

by Design: Silver and Metalwork of the Twentieth Century from the Margo Grant Collection (New Haven and London, 2008) Pruden, Dunstan, So Doth the Smith (Unpublished autobiography, typewritten MSS, early 1970s to mid-1970s) Rabinovitch, Benton Seymour and Clifford, Helen, Contemporary Silver: commissioning, designing, collecting (London, 2000) Rennie, Paul, Festival of Britain 1951 Design (Woodbridge, 2007) Russell, Richard, The Harts of Chipping Campden (Chipping Campden, 2008) Schroder, Timothy (ed), Treasures of the English Church: A Thousand Years of Sacred Gold and Silver (London 2008) Published to accompany the summer exhibition of the same name at Goldsmiths’ Hall in the year of publication. It includes a chapter on ecclesiastical silver after World War II. Sheffield Galleries & Museums Trust, David Mellor – Master Metalworker (Sheffield, 1998) Stewart, Graham, Graham Stewart Silversmith (issued by Graham Stewart in 2010) Stewart, Richard, Modern Design in Metal (London, 1979) Sutton, Arthur, A Edward Jones Master Silversmith of Birmingham (Birmingham, 1980) Truman, Charles (ed), Sotheby’s Concise Encyclopaedia of Silver (London, 1993) Watt, Quintin (ed), The Bromsgrove Guild – An Illustrated History (Bromsgrove, 1999) Watling, Graham, Discovering Lacock – An Illustrated Guide and Personal Tribute (Lacock, 1982) Welch, Robert, Hand & Machine – Robert Welch: DesignerSilversmith (Chipping Campden, 1986) Welch, Robert, Robert Welch: Design in a Cotswold Workshop (London, 1973) Woodham, Jonathan M, A Dictionary of Modern Design (Oxford, 2004) The Goldsmiths’ Company: miscellaneous publications Modern Silver, 1954 Modern Silver, 1959 Modern British Silver, 1963 Loot, 1975, 1976, 1977 & 1979 Goldsmiths’ Fair annual catalogues CATALOGUES Exhibition Catalogues published by The Goldsmiths’ Company * indicates that as at May 2014, copies are still available from the Goldsmiths’ Company British Silverwork including Ceremonial Plate by

Contemporary Craftsmen (1951) Hand-wrought Silver of Contemporary Design (1951) *The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths as Patrons of their Craft 1919-53 (1965) The Goldsmith Today (1967). Acquisitions of jewellery and silver since 1953. *Louis Osman gold exhibition (1971). The exhibition featured new works in gold made from 1970-1 and retrospective works made in gold, but primarily silver, from 1957-70.

Gerald Benney (1973). This is an insignificant publication given Benney’s stature, comprising a folded double foolscap card resulting in four pages. *Seven Golden Years: Acquisitions of New Silver, Jewels and Medals since 1967 (1974) Christopher N Lawrence: Silver and Goldsmith (no date, c.1974?). This is a very rare catalogue. *Leslie Durbin: Fifty Years of Silversmithing (1982) 25 Years of Stuart Devlin in London (1983). A 64-page hardbound catalogue.

The Goldsmith & The Grape – silver in the service of wine (1983) *Recent Acquisitions by the Goldsmiths’ Company 19751985 (1985) From the Diamonds of Argyle to the Champagne Jewels of Stuart Devlin (1987) *Retrospective Alex Styles, Goldsmiths’ Hall (1987) *Kevin Coates Goldsmith (1991) British Goldsmiths of Today (1992). This exhibition featured the work of 34 jewellers and 20 smiths and silversmithing companies.

Brian Asquith, George Daniels, Elizabeth Gage (1992) The Art of Enamelling: A Display of the Enameller’s Craft (1994) *Contemporary Silver Tableware (1996). This exhibition featured the work of 26 smiths and silversmithing companies, covering everything from cutlery and condiments to candelabrum. *British Master Goldsmiths (1997). The exhibition celebrated the design and craftsmanship of 24 master goldsmiths. The split between jewellers and silversmiths was roughly 50:50. *Silver and Tea – a perfect blend (1998) The Art and evolution of Cutlery (1999) *Treasures of the 20th Century (2000) This is an essential 184-page catalogue for enthusiasts of 20th-century silver, including post World War II and contemporary work. Nearly 30 per cent of the volume is devoted to jewellery and medals. There is a directory of 20th-century makers’ marks represented in the Company’s Modern Collection. *Celebration in Gold and Silver (2002). A retrospective exhibition of jewellery and silver to mark HM Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee. It featured both public and private commissions executed since 1952. *Creation – an insight into the mind of the modern silversmith (2004). This catalogue is accompanied by a DVD giving the viewer an opportunity to see the creative process and personality behind the exhibits.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Precious Statements – Malcolm Appleby (2006). This is in the form of a folded A5 sheet, resulting in four pages.

There is an inserted concise CV. *Treasures of Today (2008). This 112-page catalogue was published to accompany a touring exhibition of some of the Company’s then most recent acquisitions. It features the signature styles of over 50 contemporary smiths. *Mindful of Silver (2011). The exhibition featured 12 vessels by leading contemporary smiths and explored the creative process of developing ideas into objects.

Exhibition Catalogues published by other Institutions British Artist Craftsmen an exhibition of contemporary work (1959). A catalogue for the exhibition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute in North America 195960. It included silver by Benney, Osman and Welch.

Hall-mark RCA, Royal College of Art (1966) Birmingham Gold and Silver 1773-1973, Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery (1973) Sheffield Silver 1773-1973, Sheffield City Museum (1973) Masterpiece: A Jubilee Exhibition of Crafts 1977 (1977).

Arranged by the Crafts Advisory, it included silver by Gerald Benney, Desmond Clen-Murphy, Lexi Dick, Anthony Hawksley and Michael Rowe.

A Edward Jones Metalcraftsman, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (1980) A Century of Service, Payne & Son, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1988) Gwen Whicker, Falmouth Art Gallery (1994) The Silver Trust (undated, c. mid-1990s) Robert Welch Designer-Silversmith – A Retrospective Exhibition 1955-1995, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum (1996) Malcolm Appleby, Designer & Engraver, Aberdeen Art Gallery (1998) Millennium Canteen Catalogue 1998 (Sheffield 1998) Brian Asquith: Sculpted by Design, Jacqueline Yallop, Sheffield Galleries & Museums Trust (2004) The Silver Trust (2004) Time Regained – Works by Artist Goldsmith Kevin Coates, The Wallace Collection, London (2011)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Stuart Devlin 1972 Exhibition, Collingwood of Conduit Street Limited, London (1972) Gerald Benney Exhibition, Carrington, London (1977) Royal Goldsmiths: Garrard Design and Patronage in the Twentieth Century, Garrard’s, London (1993) Michael Lloyd, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (1997) Living with Silver: The Asprey Heritage, Asprey, London (1997-8) Another Century of Silver Payne & Son, Oxford (2000) Collection, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (2000).The work of 10 Scottish smiths.

William Kirk: Towards Perfection, The Scottish Gallery (2001) 100% Proof, Flow, London; three US galleries and The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (2001-2). A distillation of new jewellery and silver from Scotland.

Don Porritt – Design in Fine Metal by Margot Coatts and Don Porritt. Platform Gallery, Clitheroe, Lancashire (2005) Pamela Rawnsley: Shape-Shifting, Ruthin Craft Centre (2008) 9 Create, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (2008). Curated by silversmith Adrian Hope, it featured the works of nine smiths with very different techniques.

Michael Lloyd: Twelve Vessels, Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh (2010) Jocelyn Burton: The Art of Silver, Bentley & Skinner, London (2012) Passing It On, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (2014).

Featuring the engraving of Malcolm Appleby and five students he had taught.

Trade Catalogues Gerald Benney, issued from Bankside, London (undated, c.1969) Gerald Benney, known as ‘the white book’, issued from Bear Lane, London (undated, c.1974) Gerald Benney, issued from Beenham (1988) Sarah Jones, Silversmith, featuring stock items and recent commissions (1993) Benney, issued from London and Beenham (1997)

ARTICLES Features in the Goldsmiths’ Gazette published by the Goldsmiths’ Company

Exhibition Catalogues published by commercial galleries or retailers Stuart Devlin 1968 Exhibition, Collingwood of Conduit Street Limited, London (1968) The Rutland Collection: Gerald Benney, Master Goldsmith, Rutland Gallery, London (1968) Stuart Devlin 1969 Exhibition, Collingwood of Conduit Street Limited, London (1969) Stuart Devlin 1970 Exhibition, Collingwood of Conduit Street Limited, London (1970) Stuart Devlin 1971 Exhibition, Collingwood of Conduit Street Limited, London (1971) 544

Stuart Devlin (1983) Christopher Lawrence (March, 1984) Medway College of Design (November 1984) Anthony Elson (April, 1986) Features in the Goldsmiths’ Review published by the Goldsmiths’ Company Leslie Durbin (1981-2) Alex Styles (1986-7) Extra Edition: From the Diamonds of Argyle to the Champagne Jewels of Stuart Devlin (October 1987)

Kevin Coates (1987-8) Grant Macdonald (1988-9) Lexi Dick (1990-1) Gerald Benney (1991-2) Hector Miller (1993-4) Robert Welch (1994-5) Fred Rich (1995-6) Michael Lloyd, Brian Fuller (1997-8) Norman Bassant, David Mellor (1998-9) Jocelyn Burton (1999-2000) Eric Clements (2000-1) Christopher Lawrence (2001-2) Michael Rowe, Richard Cook (2002-3) Rod Kelly, Brian Asquith, Bishopsland Educational Trust (2003-4) Alistair McCallum, Gerald Benney, Ian Calvert (2004-5) Malcolm Appleby, Louis Osman, Graham Stewart (2005-6) Martyn Pugh (2006-7) Richard Fox, Jane Short (2007-8) Clive Burr (2008-9) Padgham and Putland (2011-12) Brett Payne, Phil Barnes (2012-13) OTHER SOURCES General ‘British Modern Silver I: Domestic Work’, Graham Hughes, The Studio, January 1960 ‘British Modern Silver II: Ceremonial Work’, Graham Hughes, The Studio, February 1960 ‘British Modern Silver III: Church Plate’, Graham Hughes, The Studio, March 1960 ‘A Handful of Silversmiths’, Mary Noble, The Director, October 1962 (The handful are Bellamy, Benney, Clements, Mellor and Welch.)

‘Industry’s Golden Image’, Graham Hughes, The Director, March 1965 ‘Tarnished Image’, Fiona MacCarthy, The Guardian, 15 March 1965 (Feature on the British Silver Industry.)

‘29 pieces of silver’, Marcella FitzGerald, ‘Design for Living’, The Sunday Times, June 1965 (Discusses the industrial designer/silversmithing approaches of Benney, Mellor and Welch. Interestingly gives prices all smiths silver, including Welch’s range for Heals.)

‘Britain’s 1968 Silversmiths’, Graham Hughes, House & Garden, September 1968 (Inter alia, features Asquith, Benney, Clen-Murphy, Devlin, Osman, Redfern, Styles and Tyssen.)

‘Keeping Craft and Design Alive – Saving British post-war silver from the Purchase Tax’, Eleni Bide, The Decorative Arts Society Journal 32, 2008 Gerald Benney ‘Gerald Benney’, Louis Osman, The Studio, December 1959 ‘Profile: Gerald Benney: Break Through’, House Beautiful, June 1962 (This is a crucial interview article in which

Benney explains. ‘What I am trying to do, and what four or five others in my field are trying to do, is to recreate an international image of English silver in modern terms.’ In other words, to break from the Scandinavian influence.)

‘Gerald Benney’, Graham Hughes, The Connoisseur, December 1963 ‘Silver Turns to Gold’ Gwyn Jones, Daily Telegraph Supplement, 27 April 1973 Geoffrey Bellamy ‘Monte Carlo Cutlery’, Design, June 1961 Michael Bolton ‘You can see every blow of the hammer’, Country Living, December 1999 ‘Member’s Profile: Michael Bolton’, Association of British Designer Silversmiths Newsletter, No. 17, April 2006 Maureen Edgar ‘Quiet haven far cry from London’, The Berwick Advertiser, 31 May 1984 Anthony Hawksley ‘Silverscapes from Cornwall’, Ursula Robertshaw, The Illustrated London News, August 1977 Louis Osman ‘Royal Gold Cup’, The Illustrated London News, 13 February 1973 (Report on the Louis Osman gold exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall, which highlights Malcolm Appleby’s engraving of the Prince of Wales’ gold cup.)

Dunstan Pruden ‘Dunstan Pruden – Silversmith’, The Sussex County Magazine, November 1954 RE Stone ‘Robert E Stone (1903-1990)’, Jean Breckenridge, The Silver Society Journal, 2003 Keith Tyssen ‘Talking Industry: Partners lead CWS attack’, Sheffield Morning Telegraph, 19 December 1966 (News story about Keith Tyssen securing the contract to design the Co-operative Wholesale Society’s stainless steel cutlery.)

‘One-man show for an artist in silver’, Sheffield Morning Telegraph, 26 February 1968 ‘Tomorrow’s Heritage’, Sheffield Spectator, February 1970 Graham Watling ‘How to get away from it all and do your own thing’, John Manners, House and Garden, July/August 1974 Robert Welch ‘Robert Welch’, Studio Year Book of Decorative Art, 1955

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6 pages allowed for index page 552 blank end of book!!!

552 divided by 16 equals 34.5 can go to 560 if needed