The new jewels of the historic London Maison Grima presented at the Masterpiece London ♦
The yellow gold Scarab brooch with carved rubies and diamond decorations is one of the favorite jewels of Queen Elizabeth, who often wears it on her left shoulder. It is a gift from Prince Philip and was designed and made by Andrew Grima in 1966.
Born in Rome in 1921, but raised in London, Andrew Grima was an Anglo-Italian designer who became known as the dean of modern jewelry design in Britain. He passed away in 2007, but his artistic legacy passed to his wife Jojo and daughter Francesca, who did not betray the spirit of the Maison. Indeed, the new works of the Maison Grima appear every year at the Masterpiece London Fair.
The Financial Times compared Andrew Grima to Jackson Pollock, which means breaking with any formalism to seek maximum freedom of expression. He was one of the first jewelers, in fact, to consider semi-precious stones on a par with the most celebrated ones. Tourmalines, quartz and opals have been chosen as the protagonists of many pieces of fine jewelry.
Grima was a genius, and according to some, he was the most important English jeweler of the last century, creator of an immediately recognizable aesthetic, very imitated. It was the London of the Sixties, between the rock revolution and Mary Quant. The story tells of how Grima, who worked in his father-in-law’s jewelry, convinced his wife’s father in 1948 to buy a suitcase of large Brazilian stones, such as aquamarine, citrines, tourmalines and raw amethysts, proposed by two South American merchants. That was his take-off track towards the jewelry revolution. Margherita Donato
2018
