DESIGNERS, CRAFTSMEN, SILVER MANUFACTURERS AND ENGRAVERS
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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