What’s on in jewellery in February?
It’s easy to miss what’s on in jewellery. Here is a quick round up of some UK jewellery exhibitions and online talks.
Exhibitions
Meanings and messages
The Association of Contemporary Jewellery brooches exhibition has finally made it to London. It’s the last stop on a six venue tour.
Bringing together 60 unique brooches by a range of contemporary makers, it’s a chance to think about brooches in a whole new way.
Identity Disc by Terry Hunt – Photographer Simon B Armitt 2022
Goldsmiths’ Centre, Britton Street, London
09 Jan 2023 – 24 Feb 2023
Mon – Fri, 9am – 6pm
Free admission
https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/whats-on-meanings-messages-acj-touring-exhibition/
Pure Brilliance: The Boodles Story
If you are near Liverpool, the Lady Lever Art Gallery has an exhibition showcasing the work and history of Boodle’s – one of Liverpool’s premier jewellery firms.
Image: Lady Lever Art Gallery/ Boodles
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight Village, Wirral, UK CH62 5EQ
Tuesday to Sunday 10am-6pm
Admission free
liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/boodles
Talks
One of the bonuses of modern life is being able to attend talks from around the world from the comfort of home. Many are free or very affordably priced.
Pascal Ory’s Academician’s Sword by Thierry Vendome
Wednesday February 1st 2023 at 12pm and 6pm (Paris time)
Online Conversation from L’ Ecole, Van Cleef and Arpels
In French, simultaneous interpretation available
Online via Zoom
Free
Discover the story behind this sword during an exceptional conversation between Pascal Ory and Thierry Vendome, hosted by Léonard Pouy, jewelry historian and teacher-researcher at L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts.
Suzanne Belperron: Lover, Resistance fighter & Iconoclast Designer
Tuesday Feb 8, 2023 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Talk by author M.J. Rose’s whose latest novel, The Jeweler of Stolen Dreams, looks at the life of twentieth century jeweller and iconoclast Suzanne Belperron.
Online via zoom
RSVP to Gemflix
Social justice & societal change: The brooch as manifesto
Monday 13 February 2023, 6pm to 7.15pm BST
Talk to accompany the ACJ ‘Meanings and Messages’ exhibition at the Goldsmiths’ Centre.
Chaired by Dr. Sian Hindle, from the Birmingham Institute of Jewellery, this illustrated panel discussion will consider making and wearing jewellery with a message. Sian will be joined by jewellery artists Drew Markou, Emma McGilchrist, and Mahtab Hanna.
Pay what you can (free/ £3/ £5/ £10)
Online via zoom
Our beautiful planet: Sustainability as subject and material in jewellery making
Thursday 23 February 2023, 6pm to 7.15pm BST
Talk to accompany the ACJ ‘Meanings and Messages’ exhibition at the Goldsmiths’ Centre.
This panel discussion, chaired by curator and maker Joanne Hayward, will explore contemporary jewellery and making practices at the cutting edge of sustainable thinking.
Joanne will be joined in conversation by makers Melanie Eddy, Deborah Beck and Rachael Colley, whose work considers topics including recycling, material use, conscientious making and material innovation, as well as Karen Westland, Ethical Making Programme Manager at the Scottish Goldsmiths’ Trust.
Pay what you can (free/ £3/ £5/ £10)
Online via zoom
The Story of the Tadema Gallery, London
Wednesday, February 22nd | 12:00PM EST, 5:00PM GMT
A conversation with Dr Beatriz Chadour-Sampson. Tadema Gallery was founded in 1978 by Sonya and David Newell-Smith in London’s famed Camden Passage in Islington. They were successful photo-journalists who ventured into the field of 20th century abstract art and the decorative arts of the 19th and 20th centuries. By 1982 they had discovered a passion for artist-designed jewelry and showed in the gallery an eclectic choice of jewels from significant designers of the Revivalist, Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts, Jugendstil, Art Deco and Modernist movements.
Online
‘My beautiful sapphires’: Queen Victoria’s sapphire coronet commissioned from Kitching and Abud, 1840-42
In the early summer of 1842 Franz Xaver Winterhalter completed a portrait of Queen Victoria wearing around her chignon a sapphire and diamond coronet designed by Prince Albert and supplied by Kitching and Abud of Conduit Street, London. The portrait was an immediate success. Later that year a version, much reproduced, in which Victoria wore the insignia of the Order of the Garter with the coronet, was presented to Louis Philippe, King of the French. In 1866, as a widow, Victoria wore the coronet on the first occasion on which she undertook the ordeal of attending the Opening of Parliament after Albert’s death. In 1922, King George V presented the coronet, adapted by Garrard to be wearable as either bandeau or coronet, to his daughter, Princess Mary, on her marriage. The lecture will offer a brief history of the coronet and explore the background of Joseph Kitching and Richard Abud, who grasped the opportunity to furnish jewels to the young queen and her consort.
Richard Edgcumbe
28 February 2023, 6 pm GMT
Live link via zoom
Society of Jewellery Historians at the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, London
Lecture for members of the Society and guests – new members are warmly welcomed.
https://www.societyofjewelleryhistorians.ac.uk/current_lectures
Events
Creative Inspiration Workshop:The Trial of the Pyx
The Trial is an independent check of the coins produced each year by the Royal Mint. Its history stretches over 800 years and goldsmiths have long played a key part, using their expertise to test the Royal Mint’s work.
Join the Goldsmiths’ Company’s Library and Archive team to learn and be inspired by the ceremony and the science behind this ancient procedure.
There will be the opportunity to see, handle, photograph and draw a range of unique artefacts and archives from the collection.
Thu 23 Feb 2023, 2pm-4pm
£20
The Goldsmiths’ Company Library, Goldsmiths’ Hall, Foster Lane, London
https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/whats-on/whats-on-creative-inspiration-workshop-trial-pyx/
