Lecture Programme 2024
23 January
Sarah Laurenson
Crafting colour worlds in Scottish Stones
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Scottish jewellers used colourful stones – including agates and Cairngorm quartz – to craft luxury goods. This talk explores how the colours of these materials played a key role in shaping the design and making of jewellery objects, and in fostering new ways of seeing the Scottish landscape. Tracing these minerals on their journey from hill and coast into the workshop, the focus is on how jewellers and lapidaries sourced and worked these materials, developing new skills, driving design innovation and contributing to geological knowledge in the process.
27 February
AGM followed by
Melanie Eddy
Meditations on Form: Reflections on the geometric explorations of a contemporary jeweller
Melanie Eddy first launched her signature style of faceted and folded forms in the summer of 2007, developed whilst undertaking an MA: Design at Central Saint Martins College. These initial explorations and meditations on how we engage and respond to sculptural forms on the body have led to an immersion in geometry. Both to create her signature forms but also as a key to comprehend the vast world around us. Known for her abstract pieces, her work is imbued with meaning - contemplations on materiality often reference experiences of places or memories, and at times pieces reflect wider rumination and thoughts.
23 April
Frances Parton and Dora Thornton
Working with The Goldsmiths' Company Jewellery Collection 1961-2024
The Goldsmiths’ Company jewellery collection began with the ‘International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery’ held at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1961. Since then, the collection has grown into an outstanding body of modern and contemporary jewellery in precious metal, with a focus on pieces by independent studio artists rather than the work of large jewellery houses. Over the last five years, efforts to research and promote the collection have led to a series of significant gifts. Most recently, the Dorothy Hogg ‘Tree Project’ has shown the way the Goldsmiths’ Company and its jewellery collection can successfully record and honour the important legacy of a major contemporary teacher and jeweller.
28 May
Beatriz Chadour-Sampson
Jewellery by Johann Karl and Karl Thomas Bossard, Lucerne, from Historicism to Art Deco 1868-1934
Johann Karl Bossard (1846-1914) came from a family of goldsmiths in central Switzerland going back to 1775 in Zug and since 1830 in Lucerne. After taking over his father’s workshop in 1868, he led the company to great success; in 1901 his son Karl Thomas (1876-1934) continued the business. With the rise of tourism on Lake Lucerne, Bossard attracted an international clientele, ranging from the high society, European aristocracy, renowned collectors to museum curators. In 2013 the Swiss National Museum, Zurich, acquired the Bossard estate which includes several thousand drawings, models, casts, templates and fascinating list of clients. The focus of the talk will be on the jewellery designs with an emphasis on historical styles.
25 June
Carolina Naya Franco
The jewels of the Treasury of the Pillar at the Victoria & Albert Museum
In 1967, Charles Oman, Keeper of the Department of Metalwork at the Victoria & Albert Museum, published an article in the Apollo magazine detailing the public auction of the Treasury of the Virgin of the Pillar, held in early June 1870. He vividly recounted the pivotal moments surrounding the acquisition of jewellery in Saragossa by representatives of the V&A (then known as the South Kensington Museum). Following this ground-breaking article, only fragmented information had surfaced until my doctoral thesis, completed in 2015. In this presentation, I will delve into a comprehensive review of the acquisitions made in London and also share intriguing anecdotes.
24 September
Jane Kershaw
Viking-Age jewellery and the women who wore it
In this lecture, I will explore female Scandinavian jewellery dating to the Viking-Age (c. 750-1050), from both Scandinavia and areas where the Vikings settled. I will consider the techniques involved in the production of elite brooches and pendants in gold and silver, and examine the evidence for the serial production of base-metal brooches and pendants in a range of art styles. I will further consider the source of the metals used to create the jewellery, drawing on recent metallurgical analyses. Of central importance is the status of this material as items of female dress: the jewellery offers evidence for the migration of Viking women, while subtle changes in the form and style of jewellery found in Viking overseas settlements shed light on instances of cultural contact.
22 October
Claudine Seroussi
Jewellery at the 1925 'Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes'
The 1925 'Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes' is considered a defining moment in 20th-century jewellery design. However, most existing scholarship focuses on narrow aesthetic considerations, a small circle of houses, and limited imagery. A recently discovered cache of photographs of the jewels in the Jewellery Hall challenges existing perceptions of the display. This lecture is based on these images, trade commentary, and archival material. It examines the jewellers’ intent, their engagement with innovation and tradition, stylistic influences, the trade as a collective, and the collaboration of the designer, atelier, and jewellery house that underpinned the sprawling display of jewels in 1925.
26 November
Tonia Marek
African beads and their roles in rituals
Have you ever wondered how colonisers of Africa could have exchanged what they called ‘trinkets’ like glass beads for precious gold?
This talk will explore the importance of beads in sub-Saharan Africa through their historical value and their worth in every stage of life, from birth until death. Beads, like African masks, are appreciated in western culture for their aesthetic nature. However, beads, like masks, also often carry spiritual values in their traditional, historical contexts. They are charged with special meanings and are an inherent part of rituals. This talk will thus provide the audience with a different way to look at African beads and a new appreciation for their value as cultural heritage. Many of the beads that will be presented come from such diverse and venerable origins as Venice and Bohemia.
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