Tag Archive | Eric Norris Smith

Diamonds International Awards

May14

I recently bought four sterling silver pendants by Eric Norris Smith (1949—2019), about whom I knew nothing. In the course of researching Eric’s life and work, I found out that while a student at Glasgow School of Art, he had been awarded ‘the De Beers Diamond International Award’, and was one of its youngest-ever recipients.

I wanted to learn a bit more about these Awards, and a quick bit of google-fu told me that they were known more properly as the Diamonds-International Awards, and that they were first awarded in 1954.

This fab video on Youtube about the 1969 Diamonds-International Awards

says that there were six award-winning designers from the UK that year, but frustratingly doesn’t name them, so it seems quite a few were given out each year. But try as I could, there doesn’t seem to be an overall list of winners of the award anywhere. I’ve read that the Awards first started in 1954, and that Andrew Grima won 13 of the awards, more than any other designer.

A bit more poking about and here’s another Youtube video, this one of the 1967 Diamonds-International Awards

and another of the same 1967 awards, with more jewels but no sound:

Yet more googling and someone is selling the 1967 Diamonds-International exhibition brochure on eBay. From the photos I can see that the exhibition toured around the world, travelling from New York to London to Milan and finally to Frankfurt. And paydirt! The eBay listing showed a page giving the winners (who seem to be a mixture of designers and manufacturers): 25 in total. It also illustrates 18 of the pieces in the exhibition (with two designers, David H Clifton and Ute Crecelius having two pieces featured – I’m not sure if they got two awards or just one) and tells who the designers were of these – if you want to know all 25 designers, you need to buy the brochure …

Yet more poking about in the internet and I learned that Eric Norris won his award in 1970, and was one of 30 winners that year. Sadly no films or even photos of what his award-winning design was, but I’ll keep looking.

In the meantime, here are the details of the 1967 Diamonds-International Awards and its accompanying Exhibition:

The Exhibition was at New York (the Institute of International Education, 809 United Nations Plaza, 27-29 September 1967), followed by London (Goldsmiths’ Hall, Foster Lane, 10-12 October), then at Milan (Jolly Hotel President, Largo Augusto 10, 20-21 October), and finally at Frankfurt (Hessicher Hof Hotel, Freidrich-Ebert-Anlag 40, 9-10 November).

The listed winners were:

  1.    Neil Carrick Aird, Lenzie, Scotland  (designed by Mr Aird, manufactured by Laings Ltd)
  2.    Glenda Arentzen, New York, NY, USA  (designed and manufactured by Miss Arentzen)
  3.    Asprey & Co Ltd, London, England  (designed and manufactured by Robert Stewart Johnston)
  4.    Jocelyn Burton, London, England  (designed by Miss Burton, manufactured by Bernard Kidd)
  5.    FJ Campion Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia  (designed by Susan Perry and August Scherlish, manufactured by Prouds Pty Ltd)
  6.    David H Clifton, Balsall Common, England  (designed by Mr Clifton, manufactured by Andrew Grima Ltd) 2 pieces featured – a ring and a brooch
  7.    Ute Crecelius, Lüdenscheid, West Germany  (designed by Miss Crecelius, manufactured by Dieter Pieper Goldschmiede) 2 pieces featured – a brooch and a hair comb
  8.    Benetti Diego, Bolzano, Italy  (designed and manufactured by Mr Diego)
  9.    Henry Dunay, New York, NY, USA  (designed by Mr Dunay, manufactured by Henry Dunay, Inc)
  10.    Eton Jewellery Co Ltd, London, England  (designed by Robert Thomas, manufactured by Eton Jewellery Co Ltd)
  11.    Graham John Fuller, Worthing, England
  12.    Rudolph T Gloor, Manila, Philippines
  13.    Manfred Gruhlke, Berlin, West Germany
  14.    Ingo Haas, Balingen, West Germany
  15.    Josef Hoerner, Schwäbisch Gmünd, West Germany
  16.    Dorothy Hogg, Troon, Scotland
  17.    John E Holtzclaw, Alva, OK, USA  (designed and manufactured by Mr Holtzclaw)
  18.    Matti Hyvärinen, Turku, Finland  (designed by Mr Hyvärinen, manufactured by Sirokoru)
  19.    Augustin Julia-Plana, Bern, Switzerland  (designed by Mr Julia-Plana, manufactured by Simon Schlegel)
  20.    Jürgen Maehse, Berlin, West Germany  (designed and manufactured by Maehse)
  21.    Mem Guld & Silver A/B, Lidköping, Sweden  (designed by Theresia Hvorslev, manufactured by Mem Guld & Silver A/B)
  22.    Hans-Leo Peters, Düsseldorf-Oberkassel, West Germany   (designed and manufactured by Mr Peters)
  23.    Yuko Shindo, Tokyo, Japan
  24.    Steele & Dolphin Ltd, Birmingham, England
  25.    Terence John Waldron, Henley-in-Arden, England

That’s 9 winners from the UK, 6 from West Germany, 3 from the USA, and one each from Australia, Finland, Italy, Japan, the Philippines, Sweden and Switzerland. I’m surprised how few were from Scandinavian/Nordic countries (just two!) as during this period they were at the forefront of modernist jewellery design. Maybe they didn’t use diamonds too much.

Eric Norris Smith, jeweller

May12

I recently bought four pendants with a maker’s mark I didn’t know: ens, three with a 1977 Edinburgh hallmark and one with a 1978 one. I really like the pendants – the three modernist ones reminded me a bit of the work one of my favourite jewellers, Jack Spencer – and I wanted to know a bit more about their maker. I found out that ‘ens’ was the maker’s mark of Eric Norris Smith.

Pendants by Eric Norris Smith, dated 1977 and 1978. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery. Click on photo for details. (NOW ALL SOLD).

My first bout of googling told me that Eric was an award-winning Scottish jeweller – both designing and manufacturing – and was most well-known for his diamond jewellery, and he created pieces for the Queen and Princess Anne. It also brought the sad news that Eric had died, just couple of months previously, on 3 April 2019, aged 69. He had been retired for less than a year.

Pendant by Eric Norris Smith, with a 1977 Edinburgh hallmark. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery. Click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Eric was born on 1 June 1949, in Ralston, Paisley, Scotland. He studied at Glasgow School of Art, specialising in jewellery, and in 1970 while he was still a student there he won a prestigious De Beers Diamonds-International Award, one of 30 given out worldwide that year, and in the process becoming one of the youngest-ever winners. I’ve written a separate blog post about these awards, complete with some fascinating late ’60s videos, which I’ll be posting soon. After graduating, Eric was clearly marked as a rising star as he was offered a place at the Royal College of Art, but turned it down to gain practical experience in the workshop of Hamilton & Inches in Edinburgh.

Pendant by Eric Norris Smith, with a 1977 Edinburgh hallmark. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery. Click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

In 1973 Eric decided to work for himself, establishing his first workshop in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. Eric began his career ‘producing very modern Scottish silver pieces’, in his words. This workshop soon proved too small and he moved to larger premises in nearby Bothwell. From here Eric designed and manufactured diamond jewellery, which he sold to over 120 retail outlets across the UK, as well as continuing to make less expensive sterling silver jewellery such as my pendants. The third move came in 1979 when he set up his eponymous company, Eric N. Smith Ltd, and moved to yet-larger premises in Newton Mearns, Glasgow. Eric’s company soon gained a reputation for high-end diamond jewellery and bespoke pieces, especially engagement rings, and he started specialising in selling luxury jewellery brands as well as his own diamond pieces. In 2005 he launched the ‘Morse’ line of jewellery with messages spelled out in Morse code, made up of diamonds of course. Ex-President Bill Clinton was a customer.  However, I am here for the silver jewellery!

Scottish saltire and Celtic trinity knot pendant by Eric Norris Smith, hallmarked in Edinburgh in 1978. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery. Click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Pendant by Eric Norris Smith, with a 1977 Edinburgh hallmark. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery. Click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

As well as winning a Diamonds-International Award, Eric was twice named UK Designer of the Year at the UK Jewellery Awards. Another notable achievement of Eric’s was that he was responsible for the reintroduction of the Glasgow hallmark in 2013, exactly 50 years after it was last struck in 1963. Between 1963 and 2013 all Scottish hallmarking was undertaken in Edinburgh.

Eric’s obituary was featured in The Times of 29 April 2019. It is behind a paywall and a subscription is required to read the whole piece.