This piece is part of the Royal College of Art Visiting Artists Collection. Every year from 1987 to 2006, while David Watkins was Professor of Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery at the RCA, he invited four jewellers and silversmiths from outside Britain to give a week-long masterclass. The artists brought diverse skills, aesthetics and approaches. The first call on their time was to interact closely with the students. In addition, although concentrating on their teaching and working in an unfamiliar studio, each artist generously made an object for the RCA's collection. The Royal College of Art Visiting Artists Collection, now transferred to the V&A, is a major document of international contemporary jewellery, a tribute both to the artists and to the vibrancy of the RCA as a teaching institution.

Archaic forms led by the basic techniques of metalworking are appealing in their primitive appearance and direct expression. Tooling marks remaining on the surface of the metal are evidence of the creative process. Forms resulting from the instinctive blows of the hammer are simple and honest. These specifically hand-wrought jewels reflect the natural qualities of the materials from which they are made.

Even though these artists were inspired by ancient cultures, their jewels are thoroughly individual and modern in style. Max Fröhlich was fascinated by African art and cultures. He made repeated visits to Africa and learnt the Asante method of lost wax casting in Ghana. He and his wife Ruth, translated the Treatises of Goldsmithing by Benvenuto Cellini into German in 1972.

Max Fröhlich studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Geneva and then the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, later he taught there for 37 years. Initially Fröhlich worked in the workshop of Wolfers Frères in Brussels and by 1934 had his own workshop.

In an interview with the jewellery historian Beatriz Chadour-Sampson in 1992 he revealed that the Japanese techniques of shakudo and shibuichi, as applied in this element of a neckpiece, were inspired by a small ceramic dish with pink lustre. He found the recipes for both techniques in the American journal ‘Nature’ which was over a hundred years old. He experimented with colour effects and structures. Fröhlich never made preliminary drawings, he modelled his pieces directly in wax or plaster.

He was a prolific silversmith and jeweller who in the twenties was influenced by the doctrines of the Bauhaus, moved on to more sculptural forms and later to modern art jewellery for example made of multi-coloured electrical wires.

This element would have been worn with a leather thong around the neck.