November 2008

In this month's issue

Explore the Apollo archive

Look back over two vibrant years of Apollo: browse every issue from January 2006 to the present day.

Archive

The exhibits are set off by the steel-grey colour used as a unifying background material, and, to avoid distraction from the display, information – kept to a minimum – is clearly printed on panels below the showcases. Fuller accounts of every jewel, with photographs of the backs as well as the fronts, can be obtained on computer screens. Basic techniques are illustrated by films of Jane Short enamelling a brooch and Shaune Leane making a diamond ring.

During closure, the department was busy reassessing problematic pieces, and one of the more important casualties is the famous Canning Jewel of a pearl merman brandishing a scimitar, previously venerated as a masterpiece of renaissance goldsmiths’ work but now proven to be much later. More has been learnt about how jewels were worn. For instance, it was always thought that the set of diamond dress ornaments from the Russian crown jewels epitomised the opulence of the court of Catherine II, but this turns out to be only half of the story, since research has revealed that each of these 46 glittering little brooches was originally fringed with rows of fiery red garnets, creating an effect of even greater magnificence.

More evidence of Russian prodigality comes from the huge amethysts set in diamonds given by Tsar Alexander I to Lady Frances Anne Vane Tempest Stuart at the Congress of Vienna, and lent with other family jewels by her descendant, the Marquess of Londonderry. Imprisoned as they are in a showcase, nonetheless their brilliance still conjures up visions of Frances Anne ‘blazing like the sun’ in the stately rooms of Londonderry House.

A gap in belle-epoque jewellery has been filled by the diamond tiara made by Cartier in 1903 for the American born Duchess of Manchester (Fig. 4), acquired by the nation in lieu of tax, as have two important Arts and Crafts pieces by Henry Wilson and C.R. Ashbee. Victorian archaeological-style jewellery by Castellani and Giuliano has been lent through the American friends of the museum and a bequest of 120 pieces by mainstream makers from the estate of the New York dealer Patricia Goldstein has strengthened the 20th-century section. In recognition of the encouragement the museum has always given to contemporary craftsmen the Royal College of Art has transferred 47 pieces created by foreign jewellers invited to give master classes by Professor David Watkins in 1987-2006.