Andrew Grima

At Sotheby’s a collection with jewels by Andrew Grima




A new online jewelry auction is scheduled for February 9 at Sotheby’s. The auction includes 276 pieces, mostly made by famous Maisons, such as Cartier, Van cleef & Arpels, Boucheron, Tiffany. But the sale also presents an unprecedented opportunity for those who love Sixties and Seventies design. In the catalog, in fact, there are also about ten jewels by Andrew Grima. It is a single owner collection which is now being offered for sale and which features jewelery by the Italian-British designer.

Rhodonite ear clips 1971
Orecchini in oro e rodonite, 1971

Grima, born in Rome, developed his business in London and is considered a jewelery revolutionary. Probably also because his training was far from gold and diamonds: Grima studied mechanical engineering in London and was part of the Royal Engineers during the Second World War. A strange coincidence then led him to deal with accounting in the jewelery company of his wife’s father and, from there, to the design department. The imagination and innovative solutions in the creation of jewels made him famous and appreciated by the royal family, as well as by celebrities of the time. He has been considered the progenitor of modern jewelry, no longer anchored to the traditional style. A path that is testified by the jewels on sale, pieces that remain extraordinarily avant-garde even after half a century.
Andrew Grima
Andrew Grima

Orecchini in oro con perle e diamanti, 1997
Orecchini in oro con perle e diamanti, 1997
Anello con acquamarina e zaffiri
Anello con acquamarina e zaffiri, 1960
Anello con smeraldo e diamanti, 1968
Anello con smeraldo e diamanti, 1968
Spilla in oro con diamanti e perla, 1986
Spilla in oro con diamanti e perla, 1986
Spilla in oro e diamanti, 1960
Spilla in oro e diamanti, 1960







Andrew Grima’s legacy




The innovative imagination of the sixties revived with Maison Andrew Grima 

It’s nice when the myths continue. La Maison Andrew Grima, jeweler that marked the sixties, and died in 2007, he continues its journey through the work of his wife Jojo and the daughter Francesca. Andrew Grima has an original story. He was born in Rome to Italian parents (with a kinship with the family Farnese). He grew up in London, where he attended St Joseph College, Beulah Hill, but he studied mechanical engineering.

Anello in oro con opale e diamanti, 1974
Anello in oro con opale e diamanti, 1974

Andrew Grima was the trendiest jewelry designer in London’s West End in the 1960s and 1970s. He sold the jewelry in his gallery at 80 Jermyn Street, Mayfair, furnished with the world’s first perspex spiral staircase, built by Peter Rice and Ove Arup. In 1970 Grima also designed a collection of watches, About Time, for Omega. And in 1976 a collection of golden Led digital watches for Pulsar. The British designer has won numerous awards for his contribution to the jewelry industry. For example, he was the only jeweler to win the Duke of Edinburgh Award for design and he won 13 De Beers Diamonds International Awards, more than any other jeweler.
La regina Elisabetta con una spilla con rubino di Andrew Grima
La regina Elisabetta con una spilla con rubino di Andrew Grima

His father was a designer of fabrics and the Andrew brothers became architects. His jeweler work was much appreciated by the British royal family: among others, for a brooch with rubies purchased by Queen Elizabeth II and another gold for the Princess Margaret. Among her fans there are also designers like Miuccia Prada and Marc Jacobs. Fortunately Francesca Grima has inherited from her father a good dose of creativity, while the mother Jojo has worked extensively with her husband, so much to learn the style and manufacturing techniques. In a nutshell: a man has disappeared, but it lives what he has created. After two decades in Switzerland mother and daughter returned to London and continue in the unmistakable style of the Maison, which includes abstract forms and unusual combinations of materials, stones and geometric shapes often irregular. Each year are introduced only 20-30 new pieces.

Anello con ametista di 81 carati, 2014
Anello con ametista di 81 carati, 2014
Andrew Grima, 1969
Andrew Grima, 1969
Collana in platino con un berillo ovale e diamanti, 1973
Collana in platino con un berillo ovale e diamanti, 1973
Orecchini in oro con citrini madeira, 1970
Orecchini in oro con citrini madeira, 1970
Anello con citrino di 47,54 carati su oro, 2022
Anello con citrino di 47,54 carati su oro, 2022
Anello in oro con diamanti, 2021
Anello in oro con diamante taglio vecchia miniera, 2021







The Grima revolution continues





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.

La regina Elisabetta con la spilla Scarab di Grima, assieme al principe Filippo
La regina Elisabetta con la spilla Scarab di Grima, assieme al principe Filippo

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.

Anello in oro con ametista e diamanti di Jojo Grima, 2014
Anello in oro con ametista e diamanti di Jojo Grima, 2014

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.
Andrew Grima, anello in oro con citrino e diamanti, 1969
Andrew Grima, anello in oro con citrino e diamanti, 1969

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





Anello un oro, smeraldo, diamanti
Anello un oro, smeraldo, diamanti

Anello con oro, diamanti, tormalina
Anello con oro, diamanti, tormalina
Anello in oro con zaffiro giallo, 1994
Anello in oro con zaffiro giallo, 1994
Una pubblicità degli anni Sessanta di Canada Dry con Andrew Grima
Una pubblicità degli anni Sessanta di Canada Dry con Andrew Grima
Collana in oro e diamanti del 2011
Collana in oro e diamanti del 2011
Orecchini pendenti in oro e opale
Orecchini pendenti in oro e opale
Orecchini in oro intrecciato e opale
Orecchini in oro intrecciato e opale
Orecchini in oro, diamanti, granato
Orecchini in oro, diamanti, granato
orecchini oro diamanti jojo 2018
Orecchini in oro e diamanti di Jojo Grima, 2018
Orecchini in oro e diamanti di Jojo Grima, 2015
Orecchini in oro e diamanti di Jojo Grima, 2015
Orologio Groenlandia disegnato per Omega nel 1970
Orologio Groenlandia disegnato per Omega nel 1970
Anello con quarzi fumé, Francesca Grima  2018
Anello con quarzi fumé, Francesca Grima
2018
Shell necklace, 1972
Shell necklace, 1972
Spilla Tube, Andrew Grima, 1972
Spilla Tube, Andrew Grima, 1972
Spilla Lichene, in oro e diamanti
Spilla Lichene, in oro e diamanti
Spilla del 1970
Spilla del 1970
Spilla con agata geode, ANdrew Grima, 2006
Spilla con agata geode, ANdrew Grima, 2006
Spilla in oro e diamanti del 1966
Spilla in oro e diamanti del 1966

Anello con tormalina verde e diamanti, Francesca Grima
Anello con tormalina verde e diamanti, Francesca Grima