Bonhams has announced that it will auction the largest private collection of jewels by Andrew Grima ever to go under the hammer this September.
Charismatic Anglo-Italian jeweller Andrew Grima was counted among the 20th century’s most daring and imaginative designers. He was the go-to society jeweller for royals, celebrities, socialites and artists throughout the ‘swinging sixties’ and seventies and his earliest clients included Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Bond girl Ursula Andress. Today, collectors of his work include fashion designers Marc Jacobs and Miuccia Prada.
Grima’s groundbreaking designs, which drew inspiration from art, sculpture and the natural world, injected desperately needed originality and glamour into what had become a stagnant jewellery scene in post-war Britain. He created bold and unusual jewels whose value lay in their aesthetic composition rather than just in the carat weight of expensive diamonds and precious gems. He is recognised as one of the great modernist jewellery designers of the 20th century and his pieces are highly sought after worldwide.
The collection, to be sold at Bonhams in London, as part of its fine jewellery sale on September 20, features 55 pieces of jewellery designed by Grima. It includes some of the jeweller’s earliest pieces made in London during the sixties, a seminal selection from his heyday in the 1970s, a number from the nineties and an assortment made just before his death in 2007.
Gold & amethyst pendant earrings, 1971 with a pre-sale estimate of
£6,000-£8,000 ($7,830-$10,440); gold dioptase & diamond pendant
1973, and citrine & diamond-set bangle, 1998, both estimated at
£12,000-£18,000 ($15,660-$23,490).
Highlights include pieces from his admired About Time watch collection for Omega, one of the most innovative collections of watches ever made, as well as works from the Rock Revival collection that incorporated large, uncut and unusual gemstone crystals.
Omega approached Grima in October 1968 to create a series of watches and timepieces, and the original list of 55 watches and 31 matching jewels were based around an Omega movement.
Grima’s revolutionary concept involved using a gemstone as the watch “glass” whereby the wearer would see time through a gem. The collection launched in 1970 in London and within days sold out. Grima would design new watches as they sold although each watch took a minimum of six weeks to four months to manufacture.
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