To make clear, this specific Snowdon isn’t Antony Armstrong-Jones, the wildly engaging, if caddish, husband to Princess Margaret, whose romance is somewhat compellingly portrayed in early seasons of Netflix’s The Crown, however the couple’s son, Lord David Armstrong-Jones (the senior Armstrong-Jones handed away in 2017). It is sensible that he was requested to pen the foreword to Trendy British Jewelry Designers 1960–1980: A Collector’s Information, a brand new title from ACC Artwork Books, on condition that his mother and father have been integral to the ascent of British jewellery design in Sixties and Nineteen Seventies.
“I hope that this ebook will go some solution to increasing the curiosity on this distinctive period of British jewelry, when the boundaries of design and craftsmanship have been pushed to their limits,” Snowdon writes, noting that it was his father who inspired his mom, Princess Margaret, to “help the inventive expertise of the impartial jewelry designers who have been testing the boundaries of latest prospects in jewelry making and design within the early Sixties.” And that his father opened “the brand new jewelry store in Jermyn Road for Andrew Grima in 1966.”
That is fantastic context through which to understand the 160-page ebook—billed as a collector’s information to the period’s most influential and coveted names in British jewellery design and metalsmithing. In it, creator and collector Mary Ann Wingfield reveals the inspirations and the figuring out signatures of 25 key British jewelers, together with Stuart Devlin, Elizabeth Gage, Joseph Kutchinsky, Gerda Flöckinger, and, after all, Andrew Grima, whose work is nicely represented in her dialogue.
Extra context, plucked from the ebook’s press launch: “Within the Sixties, British jewellery underwent a revolution. Pure, uncut stones exploded into vogue, and a 1961 exhibition on the Goldsmith’s Corridor kickstarted the nation’s new obsession with gold. The ladies who shopped at Mary Quant’s Bazaar and Barbara Hulanicki’s Biba not simply obtained jewellery as presents. They positioned their very own orders, exploring Grima’s drizzled gold and Flöckinger’s fused metallic experimentations; John Donald’s textured gold cubes; and the Home of Munsteiner’s curious new gem cuts. This was an period of innovation.”
Straight from the ebook, some spectacular exemplars, under.
Pendant in platinum, with diamond and fantasy-cut aquamarine (by progressive lapidary Bernd Munsteiner), 1973, Andrew Grima (photograph by Francesca Grima)
Brooch in 18k gold with with emeralds and diamonds and removable carved emerald drop, 1964, Andrew Grima (photograph by Jon Stokes)
Brooch/pendant in 18k gold designed as a segmented textured panel set with oval and semicircular opal cabochons, 1970, Alfred Gruber (photograph by Jon Stokes)
Girls’ silver bangle watch, 1974, Roy King (photograph by MAW Designs Ltd.)
Necklace in 18k gold and silver with pearls, diamonds, and citrine clasp, 1978, Gerda Flöckinger (photograph by Jon Stokes)
