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Arts and Crafts jewellery highlights | 10 October 2018
The forthcoming auction of Jewellery, Silver and Coins, on 10 October, features jewellery by a trio of makers working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were heavily influenced by the motifs and materials of the Art Deco and Arts & Crafts movements and produced pieces in silver, occasionally gold, with turquoise a preferred material and enamelling a popular technique.
Mürrle Bennett & Co
Murrle Bennett & Co was established in London by Ernst Mürrle and J.B Bennett, the company specialised in high quality, yet affordable, silver and gold jewellery. An advertisement in 1891 presented the business as 'manufacturers and importers of British and Foreign jewellery also at 39 Bleich-strasse, Pforzheim'.
The firm produced pieces predominantly in the Art Nouveau style, with designs invariably characterised by the abstract motifs typical of both the Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts movements. Celtic inspired interlacing elements, stylised foliate forms and pierced geometric shapes also featured, with luminous enamels, precious and semi-precious stones frequently used.
Mürrle Bennett was responsible for the introduction of German jewels in Jugenstil taste to England. Ernst Mürrle, the German born member of the firm, placed part of the jewellery production at Pforzheim, Germany, where standards of manufacture could be guaranteed to an industrial level.
Charles Horner of Halifax
Charles Horner (1837–1896) was an English jeweller and founder of the Halifax jewellery business which was known as Charles Horner of Halifax. The business was founded in the 1860s and it produced silver jewellery and ornaments. Among its better-known jewellery lines were enamelled Art Nouveau pendants and necklaces, twisted silver wire and glass paste 'knot' brooches and silver hatpins.
Through mass production methods, innovative designs and smart marketing initiatives the Horner operated at an international level and can be credited with bringing high fashion to a large global audience.
The business continued to operate through the two World Wars, and closed in 1984. In recent years Horner’s output has come to be admired for its period style, consistent quality and relative affordability, so making pieces by Horner highly desirable when offered at auction.
Thomas Lyster Mott
Thomas Lyster Mott was born in 1881 and he continued the legacy of his father, Thomas London Mott (1848-1917) who founded a wholesale jewellery business in Birmingham in 1875. Thomas Snr. encountered mixed fortunes, however, with his son at the helm the company was highly successful.
Thomas Lyster Mott is possibly most famous for the butterfly wing jewellery that was immensely popular throughout the Art Deco period, it having first been seen at the British Exposition of 1924. Mott subsequently acquired the firms of Henry W King & Son and Owen Brothers and became the pre-eminent producer of the butterfly jewellery in the 1920s and 30s.
The TLM Company was also prolific in its production of charms, most of which were designed as travel souvenirs to be sold at tourist destinations and on cruise ships. The majority of Mott’s charm designs incorporated beautifully vivid enamelling, for which he is best known, and the circular pendant here is a beautiful example of his work.
A selection of jewels
This early 20th century Mürrle Bennett & Co. enamelled bracelet, circa 1900, showing below, features a central marquise shaped panel with blue and green enamelled decoration, to further blue and green enamelled rectangular panels; it is stamped 950 silver with two Mürrle Bennett & Co makers marks and measures 18cm long. It will be offered in the 10 October auction with the polychrome enamel circular pendant, by Thomas Lyster Mott, (showing above), a second bracelet by Mürrle Bennett & Co., and a silver pierced Art Nouveau blue and green enamelled brooch, which is hallmarked Chester 1908.
Est. £200-300 (+fees).
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