A fine Guild of Handicraft gold

A fine Guild of Handicraft gold, silver and opal necklace the design attributed to Charles Robert Ashbee, the gold wire frame supporting large elliptical white opal, above smaller drop, the chain with three natural pearls in claw setting, unsigned, 4.5cm. long

Exhibited

Cockneys in Arcadia, C.R. Ashbee in Chipping Campden Court Barn, August 10th to November 19th 2016, catalogue number 25.

Provenance

A private collection of Guild of Handicraft silver and jewellery.

Catalogue notes

The critic Aylmer Vallance in Modern Jewellery and Fans, Studio publication, 1902, claimed of Ashbee's contribution to British jewellery design 'He stood almost alone in the beginning'.

Get to love your stones, handle them, finger them, play with them, dip them in the water and get to know them intimately in various lights...the fairy carbuncle, which nobody will wear because it is so cheap.. the prismatic olivine and the glorious opal of a thousand tints....

Charles Robert Ashbee, The Art Journal, 1894.