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

Necklace

1971 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Wendy Ramshaw first trained in illustration and textile design. Her early jewellery, made in the early 1960s with her husband David Watkins, used screen-printed acrylic and paper.

In about 1970 she turned to working in silver and gold, rapidly establishing a distinctive minimalist style influenced by modernism and industrial design. Its linear purity and decisive blocks of colour, along with the in-built versatility of her work, gained her the Council of Industrial Design Award in 1972.

Wendy Ramshaw is a leading and internationally renowned artist jeweller, who experiments with a wide range of materials and new technologies. Artistically she was always ahead of her time, her designs are distinctive and innovative.

In this necklace Ramshaw has translated enamelling, a traditional craft, into a modern language with colourful and ornamental inlaid bands. It was part of the collection which won the Council of Industrial Design Award, 1972.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Gold and enamel
Brief description
Necklace of turned gold elements decorated with red and orange enamel, by Wendy Ramshaw, 1971.
Physical description
Circular necklace from which hangs a row of seven vertical pendants each with a gold sphere at the end. The necklace is decorated throughout with narrow parallel bands of red and orange enamel.
Dimensions
  • Height: 18.5cm
  • Depth: 1cm
Object history
First shown in the Exhibition of British design held in the Louvre in 1971

Historical significance: From the collection that won the Council of Industrial Design award in 1972
Summary
Wendy Ramshaw first trained in illustration and textile design. Her early jewellery, made in the early 1960s with her husband David Watkins, used screen-printed acrylic and paper.

In about 1970 she turned to working in silver and gold, rapidly establishing a distinctive minimalist style influenced by modernism and industrial design. Its linear purity and decisive blocks of colour, along with the in-built versatility of her work, gained her the Council of Industrial Design Award in 1972.

Wendy Ramshaw is a leading and internationally renowned artist jeweller, who experiments with a wide range of materials and new technologies. Artistically she was always ahead of her time, her designs are distinctive and innovative.

In this necklace Ramshaw has translated enamelling, a traditional craft, into a modern language with colourful and ornamental inlaid bands. It was part of the collection which won the Council of Industrial Design Award, 1972.
Collection
Accession number
M.169-1976

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Record createdJuly 27, 2006
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