Podcast: The Big, Bold and Experimental Style of British Modernism

Emma de Sybel, vintage dealer and founder of Baroque Rocks in London, discusses the fabulous creations of the 1960s and 1970s.

In every period in jewelry history, significant events have forced jewelers and artists to adapt. In the ’60s, recounts Emma de Sybel, founder of vintage jewelry store Baroque Rocks in London, one of those events was a rebellion among the younger generations. “The children and adolescents suddenly didn’t want to wear pearls, well-fitted dresses and little suits, so they decided to experiment,” she elaborates.

In the latest episode of the Jewelry Connoisseur Podcast, the dealer outlines some of the innovative techniques artists and jewelers embraced at the time. Lower gold prices “meant that the jewelers had an opportunity to create incredible pieces,” she explains.

This special mood that celebrated creativity and experimentation brought to life the molten-gold effect, which jewelers developed using “super hot gold from a height poured from a ladder into buckets of crushed ice,” de Sybel says. New gemstones also became popular during this period. “They decided to use citrines, which hadn’t been quite so readily used, topazes, tourmalines, and especially the watermelon tourmalines,” she adds.

For those who want to learn more about this period, de Sybel recommends Modern British Jewellery Designers, 1960-1980, a collector’s guide by Mary Ann Wingfield, published by ACC Art Books, which introduces the movement and features 25 leading designers.

To listen to the Jewelry Connoisseur Podcast, click below.

Main image: Emma de Sybel; Kutchinsky diamond and ruby ring, 1961. Photos: Baroque Rocks.