During the 1960s Corocraft was a prolific and highly influential British manufacturer of costume jewellery, its pieces featuring frequently in magazines from Vogue to Woman's Weekly. Its international profile was also considerable as jewellery supplier from 1962 to the Fashion House Group of London (an organisation of wholesalers who exhibited British fashion twice-yearly to around a thousand buyers from over forty countries). This piece was part of a small collection preserved by Mimi Denis, whose father had founded the company bought by the American company Coro which became Corocraft, and who was herself Corocraft's design director from 1960 to 1964.

In a 1961 article in Woman's Own, Mimi Denis recommended 'a few years technical experience on the factory bench' in preference to any special training courses in jewellery design. This practical approach reflected her own hard experience as a refugee whose formal education had been cut short at 17 by the German annexation of Austria and her family's escape to England. The Museum is grateful to her nieces for the donation of their aunt's private collection and the following biographical information.

Mimi Denis was born Maria Adler, on 1 May 1921 in Vienna. Her father Paul Adler had a small metalworking business, her mother, Margarethe, was a music teacher. Following the German annexation of Austria in March 1938 she, her parents and her younger brother Edward (1924-1986) fled Vienna, travelling on Greek passports obtained through the kindness of the Greek Ambassador. On their arrival in England her father was sent to work in a factory in Cardiff and her brother to boarding school in Hove. She and her mother went into domestic service with different families.

During the war her father established a small factory in London making components for Bailey bridges. After the war the firm began to make chain for the jewellery trade. Both Mimi and Eddie worked for the firm - called 'Modern Metalcraft Products Limited'. This became 'Jewelcraft', based in a mews behind Charlotte Street. Paul Adler died in 1952. In 1955 the firm was bought by the American company Coro who continued also to use the name 'Jewelcraft'. In 1958 a new factory was built and in 1959 the business, along with several employees and their families, moved out of central London to Crawley, West Sussex. Family involvement continued throughout these years: from 1955 to 1960 Mimi worked for the business and was on the board of directors, and was design director from 1960 to December 1964; her brother remained with Corocraft as factory director until 1971.

Mimi married Max Denis in 1959, and in 1965 her husband's job took them to Washington D.C. in the U.S.A. resulting in her resignation from the company. This marked the end of her career in jewellery design. She worked for some years as an employment consultant, eventually opening a new employment agency business of her own in the city, with great success. She died in November 2007 in Washington D.C.