The Midas Touch

8th April 2025

A collection of silver and objects of vertu from the workshop of Australian born, British silver and goldsmith Stuart Devlin (1931-2018), has been consigned by the late designer’s widow, Mrs Carole Devlin, and will be sold in two parts over the Spring and Autumn.

Stuart Devlin achieved international acclaim by placing innovative, contemporary design at the heart of his practise. The number of prestigious public and private commissions that he won during his illustrious career are almost too numerous to count. Achieving stratospheric success in his lifetime, in 1982 Devlin was granted the Royal Warrant of Appointment as Goldsmith and Jeweller to Her Majesty the Queen and was heralded by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths as having, ‘the Midas touch’.

Born in Geelong, Australia in 1931, Devlin’s ambition to be a gold and silversmith began in school where, in his teens, he was already able to produce accomplished objects in precious metal. Devlin studied gold and silversmithing first in Melbourne and then in London and New York. In 1964 Devlin won a highly prestigious competition to design the first decimal coinage for Australia. While overseeing and supervising the cutting of the dies at the Royal Mint in London, Devlin moved to Clerkenwell, purchasing a home and setting up his own workshop there.

Empowered with financial and creative freedom, Devlin applied himself to developing the innovative techniques required to produce a wide variety of textures and filigree forms in silver and gold and fine jewellery. From 1968-1983, Devlin produced limited edition works showcasing his high level of expertise, that became popular and widely collected. The most recognisable of these series were the ‘surprise’ Easter eggs and Christmas boxes, which endure today as collector's items.

Specialist Rupert Slingsby said: "As Head of the Silver Department at Woolley and Wallis, it is a rare privilege to present a near full run of Stuart Devlin's 'Surprise Eggs' at auction. These remarkable pieces, created by one of the 20th century’s foremost silversmiths, truly embody the intersection of artistic brilliance and technical mastery. For collectors, this is an opportunity to acquire a selection of Devlin’s whimsical yet exquisitely crafted eggs, which were produced as limited edition of three hundred.”

The Devlin collection, Part I (Lots 1771-1801) comprises of items produced by the workshop of Stuart Devlin in the 1970s and 1980s and will be sold on 1^st May. Alongside the silver-gilt surprise eggs above (lots 1779, 1783, 1797, 1800) are a pair of modern parcel-gilt nine-light articulated candelabra (lot 1801) and a large parcel gilt ewer and matching water goblets (Lots 1786 & 1787). Part II of the collection, which includes Christmas boxes, will be sold on 21^st and 22^nd October.