Lecture Programme 2025

28 January

Niamh Whitfield

Celtic Revival Jewellery in mid-19th-century Dublin: The role of Waterhouse & Company

In the mid-19th century, replica jewellery based on local archaeological finds became fashionable in Ireland, as elsewhere in Europe. The principal models were highly decorated brooches found in Ireland dating from the Early Middle Ages. A major manufacturer and retailer of such replicas was Waterhouse and Company, which had opened a Dublin branch in 1841. Its business was given a major boost by its purchase in 1850 of a brooch more splendid than any earlier find which they named the Royal Tara Brooch. This talk will include extraordinary new evidence about its acquisition from Waterhouse family records.

25 February

Emma Rutherford

Jewelled frames and painted jewels in Tudor and Stuart Portrait Miniatures

Portrait miniatures were secret, portable, often exquisitely painted likenesses, housed in elaborate and costly lockets. The jewels worn by the sitters often conveyed hidden meanings, as well as love, status, loyalty or power. Miniatures were objects that had the ability to communicate meaning and the way in which they were worn aided that purpose. This can be seen in the words of a 16th-century observer, Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who recalled, with an evident frisson, how a lady at court he admired wore his miniature ‘about her neck so low that she yet hid it under her breasts’.
In her talk, art historian Emma Rutherford will discuss the settings for portrait miniatures, which, as an art form, began in the 1520s. Nicholas Hilliard, who was trained as a goldsmith, is of particular interest and was responsible for the image of Queen Elizabeth I from the 1570s. Emma will also look at the jewels worn by sitters in early miniatures and how they were painted by the artists who observed them at first hand.

25 March

Beth Wees and Sheila Smithie

Marcus & Co.: Three Generations of New York Jewellers

The New York firm of Marcus & Co. (1892–1942) created exceptional jewellery for an art-loving, wealthy elite. Travels throughout India in 1895 inspired their first distinctive body of design, featuring elaborate gold and coloured stone jewellery. In the following years, annual visits to the Paris Salons and encounters with the work of Lalique, Colonna, and Vever resulted in an original response to the Art Nouveau style. This lecture will focus on the firm’s most productive and original period, under the leadership of the family’s second generation. Surviving jewellery and archival drawings from two sources reveal new aspects of the firm’s history.

27 May

Cristina Filipe

Portuguese Contemporary Jewellery in 'dialogue' with the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection

This lecture concerns the exhibition 'Guest Summer: Contemporary Jewellery in Portugal' curated by Cristina Filipe at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. Its aim was to create a dialogue between contemporary jewellery, made between 1958 and 2018, and artwork from the museum’s modern and contemporary collections as well as its René Lalique works. Like the exhibition, the talk will offer a brief and straightforward 40-year overview of the subject matter and its affinities with the collection.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum organised this exhibition on the occasion of the presentation of Cristina Filipe’s book 'Contemporary Jewellery in Portugal: From the Avant-Garde to the Early XXI Century' in 2019.

30 September

Helen Molesworth

Cartier: Inspiration and Innovation

28 October

Eliot Benbow

Everyday Jewellery and Dress Accessories in Later Medieval London (c. 1350-1550)

This lecture will consider the wide ranges of inexpensive jewellery, dress accessories and devotional objects available for purchase by Londoners in the Later Middle Ages. Such cheap jewellery was made from the 14th – 16th centuries, many pieces carrying devotional iconography or other meanings. They ranged from the ever-present pilgrim and devotional badges, medallions and other related objects, to finger rings, brooches, mounts, buckles, purses and the wide range of devotional beads known as paternosters or bedes. While many were made in and around London, large quantities were imported from the Low Countries. The paper will highlight how producers and merchants sought to engage with a vibrant demand for items of personal adornment across a wide swathe of London society.

25 November

Jane Adam

Forever Changes

Jane Adam is known for her distinctive jewellery in dyed anodised aluminium and precious metals. Her work explores balance — between symmetry and irregularity, surface and structure, the individual and the universal. Jane’s pieces are deeply connected to the wearer, combining technical mastery with emotional resonance. She continues to challenge perceptions of preciousness through colour, form and thoughtful design.
Her work is held in numerous major collections and is worn and enjoyed by women and men internationally.
Jane’s talk will consider times when her work has changed, in response to personal, social, economic or cultural influences, and how it continues to develop as she looks into the future.

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