A life in Jewels
Unicorn Press has just published ‘Treasure Box’, a coffee table book that is as show stopping as some of the beautiful pieces of jewellery featured in it. ‘Treasure Box’ offers a rare glimpse into a private jewellery collection that provides a unique journey tracing the lives, loves and tribulations of a family through personal and historic milestones, across Russia and the Soviet Union, for over a century. On sale for £500, it comes at no small price, yet at its launch party at the Arts Club last week the pile of books on sale was slowly but surely decreasing as experts in both the jewellery and art worlds mingled and admired the exhibited jewels. I invite Vivienne Becker, the jewellery expert most known as contributing editor to the Financial Times’s How To Spend It and author of several books on antique and twentieth century jewellery design, to take a break from all the canapés and cocktails for an informal chat about this special private collection that she chose to write about.
Storytelling through objects and art works has been trending for the past few years. Do you find jewellery to be a particularly effective medium for storytelling?
Jewellery is more effective than any other medium. It’s all about storytelling, as this collection proves – it tells the story of a family. One of the earliest roles of jewellery was to preserve memory, to make sure stories weren’t forgotten. Early jewels, Mogul stones for example, were engraved with all the names of the emperors to show their provenance. Tattoos in Polynesia also tell a family history. What I learned from writing this book is that the traditional, ritualistic jewellery of Central Asia and Azerbaijan, especially wedding jewellery, was not only about status but also about telling your family history.
Which jewellery pieces do you value the most?
The Azerbaijani traditional jewellery – the belt, the gold necklace. I think it’s beautiful, you can really see the workmanship – that someone really worked them by hand. I love the magical, talismanic meanings of jewellery, that’s one of my favourite aspects. These particular pieces are very rich in tradition.
Did the owners of this Jewellery box intentionally ‘collect’, or was this collection a spontaneous one?
This is not about a major collection that’s about collecting the best of the best, it’s just about a personal jewellery box. This is what makes it very moving actually, very touching – it’s the real approach to jewellery. It’s what people’s jewellery boxes are about – some old, some new; full of memories and souvenirs.
Is there a Russian master jeweller that people should pay more attention to in the West, or will no one ever surpass Faberge?
Ilgiz. I had come across him a couple years ago in Hong Kong at the Jewellery show, where actually he won the award I was a judge for. There are some great jewellers coming out of Russia, reinterpreting old traditions. What’s special about Ilgiz is that he is completely self-taught, and his craftsmanship is amazing. He’s definitely a modern master. There will probably never be anyone like Fabergé though.
If you like this article you may be interested in “Review – Fabergé: A Life of Its Own”.
