Society of Jewellery Historians Council 2025-2026
President:
Judy Rudoe, FSA
Judy is passionate about jewellery of all periods and all cultures. She was Curator for nearly 50 years (1974-2023) at the British Museum, where she specialised in 19th-century European jewellery, among much else. She hopes that the Society’s members will derive as much pleasure, knowledge and understanding as she has since she joined the Society in 1978 and subsequently became its Secretary. Her particular interests are in teasing out what jewellery meant to those who wore it and its role in politics and national identity. Her books include 'Jewellery in the age of Queen Victoria. A mirror to the world', co-authored with Charlotte Gere (British Museum 2010) and 'Cartier 1900-1939' (British Museum 1997). She has written numerous articles and lectured internationally.
Chairman:
Katherine Purcell, FSA
Katherine is Joint Managing Director of Wartski, where her focus is French nineteenth-century jewellery and works of art. Her book on ‘Falize: A Dynasty of Jewellers’ was published in 1999, and her translation of Henri Vever’s three-volume ‘French Jewellery of the Nineteenth Century’ in 2001. Amongst the exhibitions she has curated for Wartski are ‘French Jewellery of the Nineteenth Century’ (2001), Fabergé and the Russian Jewellers’ (2006), ‘Japonisme from Falize to Fabergé’ (2011) and ‘Fabergé – A Private Collection’ (2012). She is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and is a former Programme Secretary of SJH.
Deputy Chairman:
Dr Aude Mongiatti
Aude is a scientist in the department of Scientific Research at the British Museum. Her academic background is in archaeological sciences and more specifically in archaeometallurgy; she specialises in the study of non-ferrous metallurgical remains and metalwork. She has a special interest in silver and gold jewellery, examples of which she has studied from a wide variety of regions and time periods (e.g. contemporary Omani silver, Iron Age British, Bactrian and Eurasian gold, Anglo-Saxon gold, etc.).
Hon. Secretary:
Robert Leigh-Pemberton
Robert is a jewellery dealer and partner at Humphrey Butler Ltd, where he specialises in the commercial management of important private collections. Formerly a member of the jewellery department at Sotheby’s, he is particularly interested in 18th and early 19th century British jewellery and writes occasional literary reviews for the national press.
Hon. Treasurer:
Dr Lynne Bartlett, FGA
Lynne is a designer/maker and joined the SJH soon after it was founded. Having originally studied chemistry and worked for many years in the Chemical Industry, jewellery is her second career. Her PhD at the University of the Arts London combined both strands of her interests. The use of colour in jewellery has been a dominant theme in her work and she currently uses titanium and dyed anodized aluminium. She is an FGA and an examiner for the Gem-A Foundation Course in Gemmology, a board member of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery and a member of the Colour Group (GB).
Membership Secretary:
Rachel Church (not a council member)
Rachel was a curator working with jewellery at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She was part of the team which created the William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery. She has written widely on jewellery and is the author of 'Brooches and Badges' (V&A/ Thames and Hudson 2019) and 'Rings' (V&A/ Thames and Hudson 2011, second edition 2017). She lectures on jewellery history for the Arts Society, Goldsmiths' Centre, V&A and is a lecturer at the British Academy of Jewellery. She is particularly interested in the social history of jewellery and the stories which lie behind jewels.
Programme Secretary:
Dr Niamh Whitfield, FSA
Dr Niamh Whitfield is the Programme Secretary for the Society. She has a background in both archaeology and art history, and has written numerous papers on early Medieval metalwork, especially that from Ireland, her country of origin. She is a regular speaker at international conferences. She has also been an occasional lecturer at a number of universities and has led numerous archaeological/art historical study-tours to Ireland.
Editor, Jewellery History Today:
Ella Mackenzie
Ella Mackenzie is a Specialist and Auctioneer at Spink in London, focusing on coins, commemorative medals and historical jewellery. She holds BA and MA degrees from Durham University, where she specialised in the Romantic and Victorian periods, and is currently studying for the Gem-A Foundation in Gemmology. She has a particular interest in metal-detected finds and in revealing the stories behind newly discovered jewels, such as the Renaissance-era, diamond-set Wealden Ring sold in April 2025.
Editor, Jewellery Studies:
Susan La Niece, FSA (not a council member)
Emeritus researcher, The British Museum Department of Scientific Research. Research areas include niello and jewellery of the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Anglo-Saxon and Medieval periods in Britain.
Other Council Members:
Mo Cerrone, BA, FAV
Mo has been a member of the SJH since 1982, and was secretary to the Society from 1996-2009. Now a Jewellery Consultant, she has been involved in every aspect of Jewellery and Jewellery-making for the whole of her working life, first in Hatton Garden and latterly in the Home Counties. She is particularly interested in the history and provenance of jewellery.
Hazel Forsyth, FSA
Senior Curator, Museum of London
Lucinda Orr, MA, MSt
Lucinda is a Barrister and Partner in a City law firm, specialising in commercial litigation. She is passionate about jewellery history, and lectures on and collects antique jewellery from various eras - but finds Renaissance jewels particularly joyous! She is a member of the Treasure Valuation Committee for England and Wales.
Jane Perry, FSA, FIPA
Jane Perry spent most of her life in Advertising (media research, actually). She has now seen the light, and is dedicated to the study of jewellery, particularly traditional jewellery of all kinds, and the more obscure corners of Victorian taste. She is the author of ‘A collector’s guide to peasant silver buttons’ (2007), and 'Traditional Jewellery in Nineteenth-Century Europe' (2013). She is a Visiting Scholar and volunteer in the DAS department at the V&A, where she has nearly finished cataloguing their extensive collection of traditional jewellery. She is also responsible for managing the SJH website.
Sarah Rothwell
Sarah Rothwell is the Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design, in the Department of Global Arts, Cultures and Design at National Museums Scotland, where she has collection responsibility for the British, European and other 'Western' glass, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery and industrial design circa 1945-present collections. Her research areas are within Nordic and British Modernist Jewellery Design; Contemporary Craft with a focus on Ceramics, Glass and Jewellery; 20th Century European Art & Design; and the interrogation and interpretation of historical collections by working artists and makers.
Tricia Topping
Tricia Topping is the former Chief Executive of a leading property communications group. Her love of jewellery, art, interior design and property inspired Tricia to create 'Luxury Topping' which focuses on ‘the business of luxury’. Tricia is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the Directors’ Circle of the Victoria & Albert Museum, a Freeman of the City of London, past member of the Court of the Worshipful company of World Traders, and a member of the Art Deco Society. Judge of both the International Property Awards and the What House? Interior Design Awards. In 2022 Tricia was awarded 'Outstanding Contribution Award' at the Property Press Awards.