In the 1960s jewellery developed an abstract, sculptural character, with a wide range of visual effects. The traditionally polished surface of gold was no longer fashionable, and instead jewellers played with flame and heat to create new textures and surface finishes.

Minerals and gemstones were integrated in unique and often asymmetrical cuts. Inexpensive materials were combined with precious metals. The value of a piece of jewellery lay in the imagination of the creator rather than the materials used.

Arthur King was self-taught and first learnt to make jewellery during the Second World War. When he was in the United States Navy he experimented with scrap metal. Following the war he lived and worked in Greenwich Village in New York, the home of avantgarde artists with whom he worked and who were nurtured by the modernist movements. He later opened his own gallery, followed by galleries in London, Paris, Miami and Cuba.

His jewellery has an element of spontaneity influenced by the abstract painting of the sixties. King liked the irregularity of uncut or unpolished stones, and his settings were formed by moulding the gold around the edges.