In December 1967 Barbara Cartlidge featured in Tarby Davenport’s article Craftsmen in modern jewellery in ‘Design’ magazine, in which a new vitality in British jewellery was explored. This particular pendant, typical of her work at this date with its prominent use of a striking stone of little commercial value and its hand-beaten silver, is illustrated on the title page. As she commented the following June in Harper’s Bazaar ‘Invariably it is the stone that decides the design and I will use just about any stone, provided it looks exciting. I am not terribly concerned about the cost of it – if it has some sort of life, some magic, some mystique about it, I will use it’.

One of the early stockists of Barbara Cartlidge’s jewellery was Heals, although in practice outlets for this style of work were few and for most orders a client would deal directly with the jeweller. In 1971 Barbara Cartlidge and her husband Derrick became the first directors of the Electrum Gallery on London’s South Molton Street, which provided a link between maker and customer, and was pioneering in its championing of innovative international jewellers. It was for some years the only place in London such work could be seen, and it is for this and for her writing that she is now best known.

Barbara Cartlidge commented in the Harper’s Bazaar article ‘Fairly often I make a piece of jewellery which I cannot sell because I am so attached to it – so my own personal collection increases all the time’. This necklace comes to the V&A as a gift from her personal collection.