Muff-chain, silver set with blister pearls, designed by C.R. Ashbee and made by the Guild of Handicraft, ca. 1900

The muff-chain is composed of fifteen silver plaques linked by fine chains. The plaques are mounted with collet-set blister pearls. Each plaque has four sides, curving inwards at the centre of each side. On the flat area at the corner of each plaque is a small dome, surrounded by a circle of indented dots (probably made with a rounded chasing or embossing tool). At the corner of each plaque is a spherical bead of silver. Beads of silver of two sizes are strung on the fine chains which connect the plaques. At the centre of each set of chains, the three chains come together in a silver bead. The overall effect is that light plays on the beads and domes, and the curved silver shapes complement the curved silvery, slightly irregular ovals of blister pearl. There is a spring ring clasp.

Given by Gulderen Tekvar

This muff-chain is illustrated in an important survey of contemporary European jewellery, the Special Winter Number of The Studio entitled ‘Modern Design in Jewellery and Fans’, 1901-2 (Plate 18, Fig. B). In the caption to the illustration the design is credited to Ashbee and the execution to the Guild of Handicraft (see references below). The essay on British jewellery and fans by Aymer Vallance celebrated the ‘immense advance which has been made in British jewellery’ and the ‘honourable place’ held by C. R. Ashbee ‘among pioneers of the artistic jewellery movement’. ‘He stood’, writes Vallance, ‘almost alone at the beginning, when he first made known the jewellery designed by him, and produced under his personal direction by the Guild and School of Handicraft in the East End’.

The muff-chain is one of six pieces by Ashbee illustrated in the Special Winter Number. Another is the superb peacock made for Ashbee's wife (M.31-2005). The silver plaques of the muff-chain are mounted with blister pearls, examples of what Vallance describes as ‘rough pearl, being of no particular value, save purely from the point of view of decoration’.

The muff-chain has been donated by Gulderen Tekvar. It was Mrs Tekvar who, knowing the Studio Special Number, recognized the unmarked muff-chain in the hands of a dealer in 1981. The dealer said that he had bought it at an auction in York. She brought the muff-chain into the V&A to show it to Shirley Bury, who borrowed it at once for photography and later illustrated it in Jewellery 1789-1910 (Woodbridge, 1991), vol. II, page 746, plate 399.

This muff-chain was designed by C. R. Ashbee, a pioneering figure in Arts and Crafts jewellery, in about 1900 and made by the Guild of Handicraft, the workshop he founded. It was based at this date in Essex House on the Mile End Road in East London.

The muff-chain is characteristic in its use of silver and blister pearls. The domes surrounded by a pattern of chased dots placed at the corners of each plaque may have their origins in the coil ring, a bead surrounded by twisted wire, which is frequently found in European traditional jewellery. This was richly represented in the South Kensington Museum (the future V&A) collections which were a major source of inspiration for Ashbee. When he was training to be an architect he sketched in the Museum on Saturdays and later he borrowed traditional jewellery and electrotypes from the Museum's collection to show in a case at Essex House.

A muff-chain passed around the wearer's neck and through her muff so that she could take out her hands without the risk of putting down the muff.

M.18-2019