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SHOWS AND TALES - ON JEWELRY EXHIBITION-MAKING ISBN 978-0-9864229-0-4
Sarah Archer
In February 1961, Carol Hogben, to create works for the show. Surely
assistant keeper in the circulation the British public, weary from years
department at the Victoria and Albert of postwar austerity, and the creative
Museum (V&A), was hard at work community would all benefit from this
preparing for the opening of a major refreshing display of ingenuity and
jewelry exhibition. Hogben had thought high style.
of a novel way to present innovative
jewelry to the museum-going public, But with only eight months before the
inviting contemporary artists working in show was set to open, disaster struck:
an array of disciplines to create works in The museum informed Hogben that the
wax for the show, which would then be exhibition was off. Though it is unclear
fabricated by British goldsmiths. These precisely why this decision was made,
would be presented alongside more notes suggest that the exhibition was
traditional, virtuoso pieces by the likes perceived as a risky, expensive and
of Georg Jensen and Fabergé. complicated venture. Disappointed
Exhibition entrance, The International
From the beginning, this exhibition was Research Assistant Shirley Bury
to be international in scope. Hogben approached Graham Hughes, then the
The Goldsmiths’ Company
Audiences in 2015 might find it difficult in any time period: During initial
to fathom why a major museum would conversations in 1959, the curators in
shelve an exhibition that seemed to the circulation department declared
have all the makings of a path-blazing the jewelry for sale in the museum’s
blockbuster: a new way of presenting gift shop “appalling.” 1 Surely there
the best examples of a dynamic must be a way to show visitors what
discipline with deep historic roots, the new designer-craftsmen were
to which visitors could relate on a creating, in the spirit of the museum’s
personal level. The multidisciplinary founding mission of schooling taste.
approach and ultimate success of this
exhibition, which nearly never was, is If the V&A curators turned up their
partly responsible for contemporary noses at the middlebrow baubles for
jewelry’s increasingly secure foothold sale in the gift shop, the Worshipful
in museums all over the world. Company of Goldsmiths tended,
somewhat surprisingly, to be dismissive
For Great Britain, the country that in of jewelry altogether. As Muriel Wilson
the early 19th century had virtually notes, the Company was “male-
invented industrialization as we know dominated since its beginnings,” and
it, the material scarcity inflicted by had “regarded jewellery simply as
World War II and post-war rationing frivolous trinkets for the ladies, bless
was a cruelly specific blow to its ’em, and not to be taken as seriously
national identity. Yet the later 1950s as plate.” 2 Founded in 1180 and given
and 1960s were a time of prosperity its royal charter in 1327, the Company
for the UK; although it was no longer was originally the trade guild for
a superpower, with the process of goldsmiths, and eventually came to
decolonization having drastically include silversmiths and jewelers. The
reduced its global footprint, Britain’s Company was almost closer in spirit
own middle class had never fared to commodities traders, but Graham
better. Unemployment was low, new Hughes took a longer view of jewelry’s
government programs and benefits importance, later describing the
supported young families and the 1961 exhibition as “an art exhibition
standard of living—the proliferation of a high order, intended to raise
of “mod cons” like dishwashers and the standing of jewellery so that it
washer/dryers—increased dramatically. becomes a valid interest both for
Once Hughes and the Goldsmiths’ Impractical though these idiosyncratic 1890 – 1914, was rich in French jewelry exhibition, and their careers flourished
Company had agreed to provide works may have been, Hughes and and featured 27 pieces by René in the decades that followed. These
support and their venue to the Hogben seemed set on the idea Lalique. The Interwar period, 1919 – artists are keenly aware of the
exhibition, the wax models created of including them because British 1939, included many spare, luxurious, body and of wearablility, but their
by some of the sculptors and painters jewelry needed a jolt of creativity. geometric Art Deco pieces from the understanding of “preciousness” is
selected by Hogben started to arrive, Simply revitalizing the luxury trade as houses of Cartier and Boucheron. The complex, nuanced and only partly
and Hughes began to seek additional it had existed would not suffice. The section devoted to the period of 1945 guided by the market value of their raw
works for the show. The original goal of economy had changed, but perhaps – 1961 was the only one to be split in materials. Over 28,000 visitors saw the
securing roughly 125 works blossomed more crucially, fashion, design and two, and featured half the works on exhibition in its two-month run, and
to nearly 1,000 objects. The exhibition art had changed: Modernism had view. The exhibition ultimately came it is acknowledged today by curators
was built around four categories: permanently altered the way that to include recent works by Picasso, and jewelry historians as a pivotal
Historical Work, Foreign Metalwork, consumers understood ornament. Alexander Calder, Giorgio de Chirico, event in the history of studio jewelry.
British Modern Work and British Though a few artists eventually Jean Arp, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Perhaps because it did not just present
Professionals. This classification system gave up in frustration (Henry Moore Alberto Giacometti and Yves Tanguy, the work of designer-craftsmen on
tells us much about the way in which among them), models from Robert borrowed from an array of collectors. their own, but placed these objects
studio jewelry was understood in 1961. Adams, Kenneth Armitage, Bernard Alongside these masters were in a constellation of superb wearable
The “Historical” category included Meadows, F.E. McWilliam and Elisabeth examples of modern diamond jewelry works, the exhibition helped legitimize
masterworks by Tiffany, Fouquet and Frink arrived intact. Hughes tasked by Patek Philippe and Harry Winston, jewelry that was neither wedded to
Templier, much of it Art Nouveau, master goldsmith David Thomas with reflecting Hughes’s smart decision precious materials nor crafted under
opalescent, curvilinear and eminently casting the artists’ wax models into to enlist the major jewelry houses, the imprimatur of a luxury brand name.
wearable. For the contemporary a variety of metals, including gold, thereby ensuring that the exhibition’s
British work, the types of makers silver and bronze. Thomas’s labor in glamour index was high enough for the
included was split into two categories: the fabrication of works in the British 1 Muriel Wilson, “Revitalising Jewellery Design:
pages of Vogue.
The International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery,
“British Modern Work” and “British Modern category reinforces the split 1890–1961,” The Journal of Decorative Arts
Professionals,” or, stated more plainly, between “designer” and “craftsman” In his short essay for the exhibition’s Society 1850–the Present, no. 33: 55.
“artists” and “makers,” suggesting that that the designer-craftsmen of the catalog, Hughes writes that the Modern
2 Ibid, 60.
the phenomenon of wearable sculpture post-war era had sought to eliminate. British works “proved, if proof be
by artists untrained in jewelry making Not everyone was beguiled by the needed, that cheap materials need not 3 As quoted by Joanna Hardy, “New Gold
was recognized as a new thing in the British Modern jewelry: One writer mean artistic insignificance, and that Dream,” The Telegraph, April 20, 2014,
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/
world, and as a desirable thing at that. described the gold bracelets designed creative imagination shown with one jewellery/30864/new-gold-dream.html).
Hughes was under no illusions that this by F.E. McWilliam as “heavy as visual art can very often be diverted
would be a seamless process, however, prisoners’ manacles.” 5 And indeed, to another.” 7 For a man whose life’s 4 Wilson, “Revitalising Jewellery Design,” 56.
noting worries early on that the “British Hughes himself expressed concern that work had been with the company 5 As quoted by Hardy
Modern” category would be beset by works by artists like Henry Moore would responsible for the purity of precious
technical problems: “The trouble is,” be “monstrous and unwearable.” 6 metals, this view—that artistic merit in 6 Wilson, “Revitalising Jewellery Design,” 60.
Hughes said, “that these people tend jewelry is a moving target, not wedded
7 Graham Hughes, International Exhibition of
to be incredibly unpractical. When For the exhibition installation, architect to material value—is astonishingly Modern Jewellery, 1890–1961. (London: The
selecting names it is necessary to bear Alan Irvine devised an ingenious broad-minded. The studio jewelry Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, 1961), 10.
this aspect of their talent in mind; system of 32 pyramidal glass cases movement that flourished after World
otherwise the organisers will get into that subtly resembled faceted jewels, War II perhaps falls somewhere
terrible difficulty trying to get designs and 17 additional glass wall cases between the two poles of the
cast or made up which are, in fact, complemented the ornate interior of “monstrous and unwearable” and
unmakeable or which fall to pieces in Goldsmiths’ Hall. Thirty-three countries the undisguised luxury jewels by the
the showcase.” 4 participated in the exhibition, and 901 likes of Cartier. Makers including John Bibliography
works were on view. The Historical Donald, Gerda Flöckinger and E.R.
Hughes, Graham. Modern Jewelry: An International
section, which comprised works from Nele had works on view in the 1961 Survey, 1890–1964. London: Studio Vista, 1964.