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.