Pendant thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Jewellery, Rooms 91, The William and Judith Bollinger Gallery

Pendant

ca. 1920 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Arthur and Georgie Gaskin were a husband and wife team known for their Arts and Crafts style jewellery. They had both studied at the Birmingham School of Art and went on to establish a workshop which was admired for producing elegant, hand-made pieces in a city geared to the machine-production of jewellery on an industrial scale.

Describing how they worked, Georgie wrote ‘I did all the designing & he did all the enamel, and we both executed the work with our assistants.’ Their jewellery was mainly in silver and like this pendant was characterised by designs of closely-packed leaves and flowers sprinkled with gemstones. Between 1902 and 1924 Arthur was also head of the Birmingham School for Silversmiths and Jewellers.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silver, opals, pink tourmalines, glass
Brief description
Pendant, silver wire framework, set with opals, tourmalines and glass, designed by Georgie Cave Gaskin, Birmingham, about 1920
Physical description
Pendant, silver wire framework, set with opals, pink tourmalines and glass immitating emeralds.
Dimensions
  • Height: 6.6cm
  • Width: 3.4cm
  • Depth: 0.6cm
Style
Object history
Purchased from the Gaskins.
Subjects depicted
Summary
Arthur and Georgie Gaskin were a husband and wife team known for their Arts and Crafts style jewellery. They had both studied at the Birmingham School of Art and went on to establish a workshop which was admired for producing elegant, hand-made pieces in a city geared to the machine-production of jewellery on an industrial scale.

Describing how they worked, Georgie wrote ‘I did all the designing & he did all the enamel, and we both executed the work with our assistants.’ Their jewellery was mainly in silver and like this pendant was characterised by designs of closely-packed leaves and flowers sprinkled with gemstones. Between 1902 and 1924 Arthur was also head of the Birmingham School for Silversmiths and Jewellers.
Bibliographic references
  • The Earthly Paradise: F. Cayley Robinson, F.L. Griggs and the painter-craftsmen of the Birmingham Group, with an introduction by Charlotte Gere. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Fine Art Society, London, 30 June – 31 July, 1969 (London: Fine Art Society, 1969)
  • Charlotte Gere, Victorian Jewellery Design (London: Kimber, 1972)
  • Birmingham Gold and Silver, 1773-1973: an exhibition celebrating the bicentenary of the assay office, catalogue of the exhibition held at Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, 28 July – 16 September 1973 (Birmingham: City Museum and Art Gallery, 1973)
  • Charlotte Gere and Geoffrey Munn, Artists’ jewellery: Pre-Raphaelite to Arts and Crafts (Woodbridge, Suffolk: 1989)
  • Arthur & Georgie Gaskin, catalogue of the exhibition held at Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, 11 February – 21 March 1982, and at the Fine Arts Society London, 29 March – 30 April, 1982 (Birmingham: 1982).
Collection
Accession number
CIRC.223-1921

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Record createdApril 7, 2005
Record URL
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