Insect jewellery

Jul31

Now I know this isn’t for everyone, but I love insect jewellery. There’s something about the idea of wearing a bee or a spider or a ladybird as adornment: quirky, fun, and a pretty little celebration of the beauties of the natural world. They’re certainly not for those with arachnophobia or other squeams (I don’t know if that is a word, but if you can be squeamish, I don’t see why not!)

Scarab beetles were incredibly popular among the Ancient Egyptians for many centuries. Of these, the most famous example must be the stunning pectoral (chest decoration) from Tutankhamun’s tomb with its central yellow scarab, carved from glass sourced from the Libyan desert. This glass is really unusual—it was formed when a meteorite hit the desert sand and the extreme heat formed glass (glass is made from silica, and the most common constituent of sand is silica). The pectoral dates to c. 1323 BC.

The central yellow scarab beetle in Tutankhamun’s pectoral. The beetle is carved from Libyan desert glass, formed when a meteorite struck the sands of the desert.

I had a wonderful early Victorian turquoise glass scarab brooch in my shop, and was very sad when it sold—it was my favourite piece. I don’t know who made it, but whoever it was they had the most fantastic eye for detail and craftsmanship. It was a pretty wee thing and the level of detail was amazing. The lady who bought it adored it too and told me it was her favourite piece of all her jewellery. I love hearing things like that from my customers: it makes it so rewarding.

Early Victorian turquoise glass scarab brooch. Sold in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).

The Victorians had a particular passion for insect jewellery. Their brooches were often expensive pieces, made with platinum or gold and encrusted with precious stones such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds.

Victorian sapphire and diamond bumblebee brooch.

Victorian Abalone pearl, ruby, diamond and gold beetle brooch. French.

Victorian emerald, ruby and rose-cut diamond dragonfly brooch.

And I couldn’t leave out a nod to The Master, René Lalique (1860-1945). Here is a wasp hat pin of his:

René Lalique wasp hat pin.

Simply stunning.

I have three pieces of insect jewellery in my Etsy shop at the moment, none as grand as those above, but charming nevertheless.

A pair of spider brooches with green glass facetted stones for their abdomens and thoraxes make me chuckle every time I see them. They are joined by a chain and so can be positioned differently every time they are worn. They are made by a company called Mizpah; I haven’t been able to find out anything about this company so far. I think they date from the 1950s but they might be earlier. (Okay, I know spiders aren’t insects, they’re arthropods, but humour me in lumping them in with their six-legged friends). The bigger spider is ginormous – a full 69 mm (2 3/4 inches) across!

Two spider brooches joined by a safety chain. For sale in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).

I also have a more modern beetle brooch, bejewelled with green rhinestones. He’s another behemoth of the insect world—he’s 58 mm (2 1/4 inches) long, not quite up to the size of Daddy Longlegs above but giving him a run for his money!

Vintage jewelled beetle brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD)

I bought him because I love the colours. Green beetles always make me think of the amazing dress made for the famous actress Ellen Terry, when she played Lady Macbeth: goodness knows how many thousand green beetle carapaces were sewn on to the dress. The stunning painting by John Singer Sargent of Ellen Terry wearing the dress is in the Tate Gallery in London.

Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, by John Singer Sargent, 1889.

The dress itself is on display at Terry’s house, Smallhythe Place in Kent, under the stewardship of the National Trust.

My third piece is a gorgeous fluttery butterfly which has settled on a silver ring: blue and green guilloche enamel decorates the wings, and the two antennae bend back towards the body.

Vintage guilloche enamel and silver butterfly ring. For sale in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).

The ring is not marked with a maker but it is similar to Scandinavian examples so I wonder if that region might be its homeland. (I had a pair of enamel butterfly earrings by Norwegian silversmith Hroar Prydz, but unsurprisingly they sold pretty quickly—they were absolutely gorgeous!)

Hroar Prydz enamel butterfly earrings. Sold in my Etsy shop. Sorry ladies! (NOW SOLD).

UPDATE 19 August 2014:

I now have a beautiful small Hroar Prydz butterfly brooch for sale in my shop:

Horar Prydz small utterfly brooch, silver, vermeil and guilloche enamel, 1950s, for sale in my Etsy shop.

Hroar Prydz small butterfly brooch, silver, vermeil and guilloche enamel, 1950s, for sale in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).

UPDATE 26 August 2014:

I’ve gone bug crazy! I have another insect brooch in my shop now, a lovely little sterling silver and turquoise insect brooch. I think it might be from the US – Southwestern/Native American/Navajo jewellery. Wherever it comes from, it’s a buzzy delight!

Sterling silver and turquoise insect brooch, for sale in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).

A mystery tile

Jul27

Even though our cottage and garden are both pretty small, all in all we have eight neighbours with whom we share a boundary—but the reason for that is for another day’s post (hint: medieval burgages and later coaching inns). There is a low stone wall between us and one of our neighbours’ houses.

The mystery tile. The old breaks are a dirty dark grey; the modern ones bright greyish white. I don’t think it’s Iznik – Indian, maybe?

One day, many years ago, I noticed a lovely old tile sitting on top of the wall—one edge was broken and missing, and the glaze was dinked in a couple of places, but generally it wasn’t in too bad condition. What really grabbed me about it were the colours, turquoises and cobalt blues, and they reminded me of the colours of the Iznik tiles I had seen on the walls in the various ancient mosques I had visited in the Middle East. I didn’t think much more about it. Our neighbour’s kids used to play on the wall and I assumed they had put it there. The next time I saw it was about a year later. It had fallen to the ground on our side of the garden and had broken into about six pieces. I mentioned it to our neighbour and she said ‘Oh that old thing, I don’t want it, chuck it away.’

Angled view from the front, showing the bumpy textured section of the central flower spike.

Well, being a lover of old things and an inveterate hoarder, I could do no such thing. I gathered up all the fragments I could find, washed them, and stuck them back together with HMG glue (beloved of archaeological finds officers across the nation). A few pieces were missing and despite a thorough search I never found them.

I would love to know more about the tile. It measures about 220 mm (8 3/4 inches) square and about 16 mm (7/10 inch) thick, with slightly bevelled edges. The clay from which it is made is a greyish white in colour. There are fingerprints on the backside—you can run your four fingers down where the tile maker smoothed out the clay into the mould. The glaze is very glassy/vitreous. I don’t think it is an Iznik tile as all the ones I have seen have flowing, curving, sinuous plants and foliage, whereas the ones on this tile are quite geometric and angular. I wonder if it might be Indian?

The back of the tile, with the four parallel finger marks running horizontally across from the bottom right corner, from when the maker was smearing and pressing down the clay into the square mould. The darker grey circular marks (there would originally have been nine of them) are presumably something to do with the loading of the tiles in the kiln for firing. Anyhow—if anyone has any ideas about the identification of this tile, I’d love to know.

Jewellery: Taking inspiration from nature

Jul10

Throughout the ages, people have adorned themselves. Jewellery might be a marker of status and/or wealth (think of a queen’s crown, or a mayor’s chain, or a rapper’s bling), but mostly it serves the simple purpose of beautification.

And where better to find inspiration than the beauty of nature? Flowers unsurprisingly provide a rich seam for jewellery makers.

When I was on my first archaeological excavation outside the UK, in north-eastern Greece, I was able to visit the archaeological museum at Thessaloniki. There I was wowed by the sumptuous golden wreaths or diadems made of gold oak leaves, or olive leaves—often with flowers and even golden bees attached. But the most striking of all for me was the wreath found in the Tomb of Philip II of Macedon (the father of Alexander the Great) at Vergina, dating from the late 4th century BC and composed of a mass of myrtle leaves and flowers.

Wreath of gold myrtle leaves and flowers, found in the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina, Greece.

The Mughals in India were well-known for their showy jewellery, often on a floral theme:

Turban ornament, India or Pakistan, early 18th century, set with rubies, emeralds, pale beryls and diamonds. Photo: V&A Museum.

Flower rings, in the form of baskets or giardinetti (‘little gardens’) were popular at around the same time in Europe (in the Georgian period in the UK):

‘Giardinetti’ ring of gold and silver with rubies, emeralds and diamonds, English, 1730-1760. Photo: V&A Museum.

‘Giardinetti’ ring of gold and silver with rubies and diamonds, English, 1730-1760. Photo: V&A Museum.

Flowers were very popular with Arts and Crafts jewellers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who saw themselves as part of a ‘back to basics’ and ‘back to nature’ movement:

Brooch by Edith Linnell, with silver, tourmaline, citrine and moonstone. Sold by Tadema Gallery.

Papyrus bloom brooch by Edith Linnell, in silver, tourmaline, citrine and moonstone. Sold by Tadema Gallery.

The absolute master of floral jewellery was perhaps René Lalique (1860-1945).

Rene Lalique corsage ornament in opal, enamel, glass and gold, with a willow catkins motif, c. 1904.

René Lalique corsage ornament in opal, enamel, glass and gold, with a willow catkins motif, c. 1904.

René Lalique plaque de cou with a thistle motif, in enamel and diamonds.

Unsurprisingly, in the light of the ubiquity of floral motifs in jewellery, I have some flower jewellery in my Etsy shop (not quite as grand as the examples above, but lovely nonetheless) …

I have pansies:

Pansy earrings in silver.

and fuchsias:

A fuschsia engraved on a glass, bakelite and white metal dress clip.

A fuschsia engraved on a glass, plastic and white metal dress clip. (NOW SOLD).

and thistles:

Thistle brooch by Charles Horner, silver with amethyst glass.

Thistle brooch by Charles Horner, silver and amethyst glass. (NOW SOLD).

Thistle brooch by Charles Horner, silver and citrine glass. (NOW SOLD).

and lotuses:

Lotus dress clip, in mother of pearl and white metal. (NOW SOLD).

and daisies:

Anton Michelsen daisy brooch, one of four pieces of Danish daisy jewellery for sale at Inglenookery. (NOW SOLD).

Baltic amber and sterling silver ring, by Niels Erik From of Denmark, adorned with a couple of daisy-like flowers. (NOW SOLD).

as well as other more generalised flowers:

Jasper and silver Arts and crafts ring. (NOW SOLD).

Brooch in the style of Bernard Instone, with rose quartz and silver.

Italian micromosaic brooch. (NOW SOLD).

and other pieces with foliage designs.

Arts and Crafts pewter

Jul2

Pewter is a silvery metal alloy, a favourite metal of Arts and Crafts metalworkers and jewellers. I have learned from Wikipedia that it is ‘traditionally 85—99% tin, with the remainder consisting of copper, antimony, bismuth and sometimes, less commonly today, lead. Silver is also sometimes used.’ It tarnishes to a dullish grey, and this patinated appearance is often favoured by collectors. If desired, it can be polished to a high silvery shine.

Archibald Knox (designer): Tudric pewter vase with enamelled medallions, for Liberty & Co. Photo by charlesjsharp.

Archibald Knox (designer): Arts and Crafts ‘Tudric’ pewter vase with enamelled medallions, for Liberty & Co. Photo by charlesjsharp.

I have a few pewter objects in my Etsy shop at the moment: three date from the Arts and Crafts period, ie roughly from the 1890s into the early 1900s. and one is very modern, made in the Orkney Islands in the far north of Scotland, but based on a design similar to those of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, one of the most famous Arts and Crafts architects and artists. Originating in the UK, the Arts and Crafts movement put great stead on traditional workmanship, on authenticity and on hand-crafted wares, and on affordable materials—all of which pewter suited perfectly, having been the main metal used for household wares for everyday people for centuries in the UK.

The first piece I listed in my Etsy shop was a shallow Arts and Crafts pewter dish with a flowing fleur-de-lys design. The upper part of the dish is in pewter and it is formed over a white metal base. It would look great as a table centrepiece filled with nuts or tangerines or big bunches of purple grapes—whatever you fancy, really.

Shallow Arts and Crafts pewter dish with fleur-de-lys decoration. For sale in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).

The second is also an Arts and Crafts piece – it originally would have been a cigarette box but would serve as a lovely jewellery or trinket box today. The pewter has the hand-hammered finish that is so typical of Arts and Crafts work. It has been polished by a previous owner so has more of a silvery shine than the other pewter pieces I have.

Arts adn Crafts hammered pewter jewellery box / cigarette box / trinket box. For sale at my Etsy shop.

Arts and Crafts hand-hammered pewter jewellery box / cigarette box / trinket box. For sale at my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).

The third piece is also a hand-hammered item – a hip flask cunningly shaped to fit the curve of your buttock as it is carried in a back pocket. (I always think it was a bit of that insane Victorian prudery that caused it to be called a hip flask, when a bottom flask would have been a much more appropriate name!) It is marked ‘English pewter’, and originally carried 4 oz of whatever liquid you wanted to fill it with. The piece has had a life, as witnessed by the dints in the soft metal, but I think this is part of its charm. I love a piece that can tell a tale.

Hand-hammered English pewter hip flask, Arts and Crafts period. For sale in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).

The last pewter piece I have is a modern brooch, in the Arts and Crafts style of famed architect and artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It is made by the Ortak company, based in the Orkney Islands off the far north coast of Scotland.

Ortak pewter brooch, in the style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and featuring a Glasgow Rose. For sale in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).

It features the famous Glasgow Rose, a stylised rose flower made famous by the artists of the Glasgow School of Art, where Mackintosh trained. After going into administration last year, the Ortak company has been bought by new owners and will be relaunched, with manufacturing resuming in Orkney.

Mary Thew, Arts and Crafts jeweller

Jun22

Mary Russell Thew (1876—1953, née Mary Russell Frew) was a Scottish Arts and Crafts jeweller, perhaps best known for her free-flowing use of silver wire, with trails and beads, as well as using materials such as abalone and cabochon semi-precious gemstones. Her work is in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Mary Thew. Partly gilded silver brooch with abalone, jade, turquoise and citrine. In the collections of the V&A.

Mary was born in Hillhead in Glasgow in 1876. She studied for a short time at the Glasgow School of Art in the mid 1890s, becoming friends there with Jessie Marion King and Jessie’s husband E.A. Taylor, before marrying her husband, James Mursell Thew, in 1903. James was an engineer, and enjoyed silversmithing as a hobby and making pieces for Mary; she soon began making designs herself. James died after only a few years of marriage, and with a young son to support, Mary decided to turn her hobby into her career. She took a short course of four lessons in jewellery making from famed Arts and Crafts jeweller Rhoda Wager, who had also studied at the Glasgow School. This must have been some time before 1913, as after that date Wager emigrated, first to Fiji and then to Australia, where she was to live for the rest of her life. Mary became a member of the ‘Greengate Close Coterie’, a group of friends and artisans who came to live for extended periods in the village of Kirkcudbright, where King and Taylor had settled in 1915. From 1911 Mary was a member of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists, and she won the Society’s Lauder Award for a case of jewellery in 1925. She also exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. An undated jewellery box of Mary’s is marked ‘Mary R. Thew, 704 Anniesland Road, Glasgow W.4.’ She also lived in Helensburgh at some point in her life.

Mary Thew. Silver brooch with a galleon design, set with freshwater pearls, amethysts and citrines. Sold by Tadema Gallery. Source: Zorn Karlin 1993, 143.

Mary Thew. Silver and abalone galleon brooch. Sold by Dukes Auctioneers.

Mary Thew. Silver and abalone galleon brooch. Sold by Van Den Bosch.

Mary took much inspiration from the jewellery of foreign countries whenever she travelled. She also designed Celtic-inspired pieces, as well as making jewellery with the popular Arts and Crafts galleon motif. Her freeform wirework pieces are perhaps her most iconic, though: trails and beads of wire wrapped to form a circular frame, on which are mounted cabochon semi-precious stones or abalone plaques or freshwater pearls.

Mary Thew. Silver and carnelian wirework brooch. Sold by Sworders Auctioneers.

Mary Thew. Silver, chalcedony and freshwater pearl wirework brooch. Sold by Tadema Gallery.

Mary Thew. Silver, chalcedony and moonstone wirework brooch. Sold by Bonhams.

Mary Thew. Brooch recently sold on eBay.

Mary Thew. Silver and amethyst wirework brooch recently sold on eBay.

Mary Thew. Silver and lapis lazuli wirework brooch. Sold by Van Den Bosch.

Attributed by the sellers to Sibyl Dunlop, but I am pretty sure this is by Mary Thew. Moonstone and Biwa pearls wirework brooch, with what looks like gilded silver (hard to tell as the photo isn’t the best). Sold by Dreweatts & Bloomsbury.

In 1939 Mary was living in Milngavie, a small town some 10 km (6 miles) north-west of Glasgow. Here Nan Muirhead Moffat, a newspaper reporter, described her workshop:

The desk is surmounted by shelves from which hang the numerous tools required for this complicated craft. The jeweller sits on a high Windsor chair … Within easy reach are her bottle of sperm oil and sulphuric acid, borax (used as a flux), a polishing lathe, a rolling machine, a vice, and a sandbag for hammering repousse. In the sketch, the artists is shown revolving a ring, on a wire ‘wig’, in a Bunsen-burner flame, while she uses foot bellows. While working, she always wears a leather apron and another is fixed under the desk to catch any jewels or pieces of metal which might be dropped.

Mary Thew at work in her studio in her garden.

The reporter then went to look at Mary’s jewellery:

Brooches, pendants, rings, ear-rings, chains, bracelets, buckles and links shimmered and glowed in the afternoon sunshine. I also saw beautiful crosses, showing Celtic influence, with characteristic inter-lacings and whorls, and I admired silver butter-forks, spoons and key-rings.

Mary Thew. Matirx turquoise and silver Celtic cross pendant, signed on the back with Mary's 'T' mark. Her signed pieces are very rare. For sale on Etsy: click on photo for details.

Mary Thew. Matrix turquoise and silver Celtic cross pendant, signed on the back with Mary’s punched ‘T’ mark. Her signed pieces are very rare. For sale on Etsy: click on photo for details.

Mary Thew opal and pearl-decorated Celtic cross. No mention in the description if it was signed on the back. Sold in 2006 by Lyon and Turnbull.

Mrs Thew told me that once she had to make silver hinges for an old book, belonging to Professor Latts, the cracked covers of which were made from the wood of an old battleship. Recently she had been making a great many hand-wrought silver tops for the fashionable embroidered handbags. She had also made copies, to order, of antique jewellery.

The artist has an instinct for creating a pleasing balance between space and decoration in her work, and she has a fine colour sense. She neither overloads with ornamentation nor allows her devotion to detail to detract from the general effect of her design.

Entrancing treasures

In the drawers a heterogeneous collection of gems from all over the world was mixed in an entrancing disorder—American jade from Salt Lake City, Scottish pearls, Connemara marble, New Zealand shells, Mexican fire opals, corals, malachite, crystals, moss-agates, green pebbles, and magic moonstones.

Mary Thew. Silver, abalone and freshwater pearl brooch. Sold by Tadema Gallery. Source: Zorn Karlin 1993, 143.

Mary Thew. Silver and abalone brooch, for sale at Tadema Gallery.

Mary Thew. Silver and abalone brooch. Sold at Bonhams.

Mary Thew. Silver and abalone brooch. Sold by Bonhams.

Mary Thew. Silver and Abalone brooch. Sold by Auction Atrium.

Mary Thew didn’t often sign her work, but when she did it was usually in the form of a ‘T’ punched on to the back of the piece.

Celtic cross pendant signed by Mary Thew: a ‘T’ made of punched dots, punched through from the other side before the matrix turquoise stone was set. Signed pieces are very rare. For sale on Etsy: click on photo for details.

Her work is now very sought-after, and is sold by specialist jewellery galleries in London such as Tadema Gallery and Van Den Bosch.

I was very lucky to find an unattributed Mary Thew brooch, which I sold in my Etsy shop. It wasn’t signed but had the characteristics of her work, including freeform wirework, trails and beads, as well as an abalone plaque. The Director of Decorative Arts at Lyon and Turnbull in Edinburgh corroborated my identification. The day I found that brooch was a very special one indeed, and for a short while I was the proud possessor of a Mary Thew masterpiece! I’m pleased to report that it has since returned to Scotland, its ancestral home.

The Mary Thew brooch I sold in my Etsy shop.

Another view of my Mary Thew brooch.

Mary Thew (attrib.) silver and abalone brooch, sold on eBay in November 2015 and a companion piece to my brooch.

Mary Thew silver and abalone brooch, sold on eBay in November 2015 and a companion piece to my brooch.

Another view, showing the trails and beads and flowers.

Another view, showing the silver trails and beads and flowers.

Given the wide range of jewellery types that Mary Thew made, as mentioned in the 1939 article, it would be wonderful to see more examples of her non-brooch jewellery. Tadema Gallery has sold a bracelet of hers, but apart from that, and the two Celtic cross pendants above, the only pieces of which I have seen records have all been brooches. (The pendant/necklace below was made recently, using a Mary Thew brooch.)

Mary Thew. Silver, jade, goshenite and peal pendant and necklace. Sold by tadema Gallery.

Mary Thew. Silver, jade, goshenite and pearl pendant and necklace, made using the original brooch below and sold by Tadema Gallery.

Mary Thew. Brooch from which the above pendant/necklace was made. Tadema Gallery ref 7172.

Mary Thew. Silver and opal doublet bracelet. Sold by Tadema Gallery. (Looks like lapis lazuli, but I assume that’s the colour reproduction).

An art glass faux turquoise and silver pendant, attributed to Mary Thew. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Mary was also a talented artist and musician. She died in 1953 in North Wales.

Sources: Jewelry and Metalwork in the Arts and Crafts Tradition by Elyse Zorn Karlin, 1993, 142-3; ‘Round the Studios: 7. Mrs Mary Thew – Jeweller’ by Nan Muirhead Moffat, The Glasgow Herald, 18 May 1939, 8; Mary Thew entry at the In the Artists’ Footsteps website; Mary Thew entry in Artists in Britain Since 1945—Chapter T by the Goldmark Gallery.

Further reading: Glasgow Style by Gerald and Celia Larner, Paul Harris Publishing, Edinburgh, 1979; Glasgow Girls: Women in Art and Design 1880—1920 edited by Jude Burkhauser, Canongate, Edinburgh, 1990; Tales of the Kirkcudbright Artists by Haig Gordon, Galloway Publishing, Kirkcudbright, 2006; Glasgow Girls: Artists and Designers 1890—1930 by Liz Arthur, Kirkcudbright, 2010.

Spooning

Jun15

I have just acquired four vintage Danish 830 silver spoons dating from the 1930s and 1940s for my Etsy shop. They all have maker’s marks, and I have identified three of the makers: Carl M Cohr, Christian Knudsen Hansen and W & S Sørensen, but the fourth, ‘H.V.J’, has so far eluded my attempts at identification.

Carl M Cohr 830 Danish silver spoon, 1935.

Chrstian Knudsen Hansen 830 silver spoon, 1939.

Christian Knudsen Hansen 830 Danish silver spoon, 1939.

W & S Sørensen 830 Danish silver spoon, 1940s. (NOW SOLD).

‘H.V.J’ 830 Danish silver spoon, 1940s.

The last spoon in particular made me think of the old joke:

Two posh ladies (think Dowager Duchess) are talking, back in the 1920s.

Posh lady 1: ‘I saw a shocking thing today. A young couple were spooning, in public. The disgrace of it. One didn’t know where to look.’

Posh lady 2: (peers over top of lorgnette) ‘Standards are dropping, my dear. But one should at least be grateful they weren’t forking.’

(Note for younger readers, for whom ‘spooning’ means ‘cuddling up in bed, with your tummy against your partner’s back’: in the early part of the last century, ‘spooning’ meant a very different thing. Those were far more innocent and sexually repressed days. ‘Spooning’ meant the same as ‘canoodling’ – making gooey eyes at each other, holding hands, and perhaps – only perhaps – a kiss on the cheek. A young couple would never be able to spoon as we know it, unless they were married. So that makes the payoff line of the joke even more shocking and risqué for its time.)

UPDATE November 2015: Slightly belated, but I thought I’d add that I now have a lot more Danish silver spoons in my Etsy shop, and more to come! I’m a bit obsessed at the moment …

She sells sea shells

Jun9

I love learning new things. I had a prospective customer contact me recently about an Art Deco abalone and mother of pearl brooch for sale in my Etsy shop. She mentioned it would pair nicely with her maireener necklaces in the same colours. I’d never come across the word maireener before, so scurried off to google for a quick search, and learned it is a type of sea shell found only in Australia, is also known as the rainbow kelp shell, and has been used by Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples in their jewellery for millennia. Aunty Dulcie Greeno is an Aboriginal woman living in Launceston in Tasmania, and she continues the tradition, making beautiful necklaces which she sells. She travels twice a year to the Furneaux Islands, where she was born, to collect the shells.

A maireener (rainbow kelp shell) necklace by Aunt Dulcie.

A maireener (rainbow kelp shell) necklace by Aunty Dulcie Greeno. Simply gorgeous!

I find shell jewellery so attractive, and I’m guessing other people do too as it accounts for a good proportion of my sales so far. I have already sold a stunning Arts and Crafts abalone brooch attributed to Scottish jeweller Mary Thew, and a small abalone and silver brooch with a triangular motif. I have a couple more still for sale—my favourite of all my pieces is an Art Nouveau abalone and silver brooch, and I also have the funky Art Deco brooch mentioned above, and a Mexican abalone and silver pendant and chain.

There’s something about the iridescent peacock colours of abalone I find absolutely irresistible—the opals of the sea! Or as my prospective customer so eloquently put it: ‘Excellent elegant mermaid wear’.

Arts and Crafts abalone and silver brooch, attributed to Scottish jeweller Mary Thew (NOW SOLD).

Detail of the abalone plaque

Silver and abalone brooch (NOW SOLD).

Stunning Art Nouveau abalone and silver brooch, for sale at Inglenookery. (NOW SOLD).

Art Deco abalone and mother of pearl brooch, for sale at Inglenookery. (NOW SOLD).

Vintage Mexican sterling silver and abalone pendant and chain, for sale at Inglenookery. (NOW SOLD).

Orange!

Jun8

In an earlier post I mentioned that orange is my favourite colour. I love colour—the brighter the better, and for me, orange is the best of all. It’s sunshine and happiness in a colour. It’s hard to be grumpy when there’s orange around.

Orange in my garden (and a couple of others):

Meconopsis cambrica (orange Welsh poppy) in our garden. It’s a lot more orangey and less yellowy in real life than this photo suggests – a sort of pale tangerine colour.

Lathyrus aureus, This one's my baby - I grew it from seed.

Lathyrus aureus, a low-growing perennial member of the pea family. This one’s my special baby – I grew it from seed.

Buddleja globosa in our garden. This flowers earlier than the common buddleja (B. davidii) and it’s so unusual: lovely globby, bobbly flowers.

Buddleja globosa. This flowers earlier than the common buddleja (B. davidii) and it's so unusual: lovely globby flowers. And they just had to go in an orange jug!

And they just had to go in an orange jug!

Clivia miniata. I put these out for the summer but they have to come inside for the winter before the first frosts. They need to be in a shady spot as the sun can burn their leaves badly. The seed pods are so pretty too, and clivias are easy to grow from seed.

Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora ‘Star of the East’ with a few orange Tropaeolum majus (nasturtiums) in a garden I designed in Berkshire.

Erysimum (wallflowers) and lily-flowered tulips (possibly Tulipa ‘Ballerina’) at Lytes Cary in Somerset, a wonderful National Trust property.

And recently I realised I’d been buying an awful lot of orange and reddy-orange things for my shop on Etsy:

Baltic amber and 800 silver ring by Wilhelm Becker of Pforzheim, Germany. (NOW SOLD).

Baltic amber and sterling silver ring, by Niels Erik From of Denmark. (NOW SOLD).

Art Nouveau style Baltic amber and silver ring. (NOW SOLD).

Art Deco carnelian and silver lavalier necklace. (NOW SOLD).

Vintage carnelian agate big bead necklace. (NOW SOLD).

Vintage Art Deco carnelian glass lavalier necklace. (NOW SOLD).

Art Deco glass necklace, probably Czech glass. (NOW SOLD).

Victorian banded agate brooch. (NOW SOLD).

Vintage faux amber and 830 silver flower brooch, possibly Danish. (NOW SOLD).

So then I had to go on a blues and greens and purples and pinks buying spree—such hardship!

Bernard Instone: Arts and Crafts jeweller

May27

Bernard Instone (1891—1987) is a highly regarded and very collectable jeweller, designer and silversmith of the later British Arts and Crafts movement. I am delighted and very fortunate to have a rare Bernard Instone ring for sale in my Etsy shop.

Instone was born in Kings Norton in Birmingham, and his artistic talent was apparent from a very early age. He was only twelve years old when he won a scholarship to the Birmingham School of Jewellery at Vittoria Street, part of the Birmingham School of Art, where he studied under renowned Arts and Crafts jeweller Arthur Gaskin and learned silversmithing from 1904—1912.

Bernard Instone turquoise crescent brooch, late English Arts and Crafts jewellery. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Carnelian, sterling silver and 9 carat gold pendant by Bernard Instone. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Bernard Instone. Arts and Crafts brooch. Silver, amethyst and citrine. Diameter: 4.1 cm (1.6 in). English, c. 1930. Sold by Tadema Gallery. Note the hand-tooled narrow silver leaves, so characteristic of his work.

After leaving the School, Instone worked for a while for another renowned jeweller and craftsman, John Paul Cooper, in his Westerham studio, and then studied in Berlin under Emil Lettre, Kaiser Wilhelm II’s Court goldsmith. In October 1913 he was back in England, and began part-time teaching at Vittoria Street. As well as making pieces for the Gaskins and Bernard Cuzner and other teachers at the school, he also made his first commissions at this time. In 1920 he set up his own jewellers and silversmith works—Langstone Silver Works—in Digbeth in Birmingham. The company worked from there until 1954 when it moved to Lode Lane in Solihull.

Silver and moonstone earrings by Bernard Instone, sold by Tadema Gallery.

Silver and moonstone earrings by Bernard Instone c. 1930, sold by Tadema Gallery.

As well as making his own designs, Instone produced jewellery for other jewellers, such as Sibyl Dunlop: a family website about Instone records “he visited [Dunlop] every Friday at her shop in Kensington, supplying her with made up designs already marked up with the SD mark ready for the retail market and [in the] 1940s Liberty became a customer after 25 years of trying to sell to them.” His two sons came to work in the business, and Instone retired in 1963 to the Cotswolds, where he died in 1987.

Instone was strongly inspired by nature, and floral themes occur in most of his pieces. His jewellery can be roughly divided into two types: that with enamel, and that without.

Citrine and silver necklace by Bernard Instone. For sale at Tadema Gallery.

His finest and showiest pieces belong to the latter category: fantastic brooches, rings, necklaces, bracelets, dress clips and earrings with semi-precious stones and sometimes pearls in intricate silver mounts, often with detailed hand-tooled foliage and scrolls. One of his trademark designs are long, fine handmade silver leaves with hand-tooled veins. His favourite stones to use were citrines and amethysts.

Silver, amethyst and peridot bracelet by Bernard Instone. Sold by Van Den Bosch.

The enamel pieces commonly have a floral theme, with leaves and multicoloured flowers often in sugary pastel colours, all picked out in enamel and sometime embellished with marcasites.

Bernard Instone enamel brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Another Bernard Instone enamel brooch in a different colourway. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on link for details.

Enamel floral brooch by Bernard Instone, in the collections of the V&A Museum.

Instone sometimes signed his work ‘BI’ and ‘SILVER’, but just as often did not sign his work at all. His style is so distinctive it is easy to spot an Instone once you have got your eye in, though! (I recently saw a fabulous Instone silver and amethyst crescent brooch on eBay which was described by the seller as Victorian. It positively screams Instone! Sadly my pockets weren’t deep enough to buy it.)

Instone’s pieces were very popular during his lifetime and have become increasingly collectable. His work is held in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and is sold by London galleries such as Van Den Bosch and Tadema Gallery: the Instone jewellery in the archive sections of their websites is well worth a look.

I am so happy to be able to offer a rare Bernard Instone moonstone and silver ring in my Etsy shop. A near-identical ring was sold by Tadema Gallery (photos here, scroll down a bit and here, in high resolution). The ring has Instone’s famous handmade silver leaves on either side of the stone. It dates from c. 1930.

Bernard Instone moonstone and silver ring, for sale at my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).

Click on the following photos to enlarge:

Okay I went a bit mad with the photos, but Etsy only allows you five and it is so pretty I wanted to show it off properly!

Update February 2015: The ring has now sold. Sorry!

UPDATE July 2016: I briefly had a rare early Bernard Instone brooch for sale in my Etsy shop, but it sold in under 24 hours. Sorry!

Early Bernard Instone brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Tiny, tinier, tiniest

May26

I’m not quite sure how or why this happened, but recently I seem to have been accumulating tiny pieces of jewellery in my Etsy shop. First up was a pretty Edwardian brooch with Persian turquoises, which is a squitchy 23 mm (9/10 inch) across its widest point.

Tiny Edwardian Persian turquoise and silver brooch. (NOW SOLD).

Just recently I bought an even tinier brooch: a pretty little sterling silver pin with an Art Nouveau design of leaves and a daisy-like flower. It measures 18 mm (7/10 inch) across by 12 mm (just under 1/2 inch) high. (Update: a kind lady on Etsy has since told me it’s a letter ‘C’ brooch – which of course it is! I wondered why it had that strange cut-off ‘top’ edge …. Turn it through 90 degrees and suddenly it makes sense. As Homer Simpson would say, ‘Doh!’. She also thinks it’s by Ortak, the jewellery makers up in the Orkney Isles in the far north of Scotland.)

Vintage tiny William Morris design sterling silver brooch forming a letter ‘C’, and made by Ortak in the 1970s. (NOW SOLD).

But the titchiest of all are the sweet little Hroar Prydz enamel and silver butterfly earrings I bought a few weeks ago. These little Norwegian beauties are so wee: each butterfly measures just 15 mm (6/10 inch) across at its widest part. Considering their size, the level of detailing in them is amazing.

Hroar Prydz enamel and silver butterfly earrings. (NOW SOLD).

I wonder if it’s something to do with having watched the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage the other day? I love that film!

Inglenookery

West Country witterings

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