Andrew Grima: The Father of Modern British Jewellery

In the 1960s one jeweller made London the most exciting place in the world to buy jewellery. Andrew Grima threw out the rulebook: he cast gold from twigs and lichen, set great raw crystals where others would have used diamonds, and chose stones for their colour and shape rather than their price. He never trained as a jeweller, and it showed in the best possible way. We think he is the most important British jeweller of the twentieth century.

An unlikely beginning

Andrew Grima was born in Rome in 1921, to a Maltese father and an Italian mother, and the family moved to London when he was five. He studied engineering, served in the army during the Second World War, and had no thought of a career in jewellery. In 1946 he joined his father-in-law’s jewellery business, the H.J. Company, in the accounts department.

He soon found his way from the ledgers to the workshop. Teaching himself as he went, he began experimenting with unusual stones and new ways of working gold, and after his father-in-law’s death he took charge of the business. By the time of the landmark International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1961, his name was beginning to be known.

Gold from nature, stones for their beauty

Grima’s jewellery looked like nothing else in the West End. He cast gold directly from nature, from twigs, bark, lichen and seed pods, and built pieces from rough, textured gold wire. At their heart he set stones chosen for their colour, shape and character rather than their value: slabs of rutilated quartz, raw tourmaline crystals, agate slices, citrines and opals, often with a scatter of small diamonds for sparkle.

The effect was sculpture you could wear, and it fitted the new London perfectly. You can see the same spirit in this 1960s gold ring set with a large smoky quartz and this modernist gold bracelet with three opals.

1966: a royal prize

1966 changed everything. Grima became the first and only jeweller to win the Duke of Edinburgh’s Prize for Elegant Design, and Prince Philip chose a brooch of rubies and diamonds from the winning collection as a present for the Queen, who wore it for decades. Grima received the Queen’s Award to Industry, royal commissions followed, and in time he was granted a Royal Warrant.

The royal family became loyal clients. Princess Margaret owned a brooch of lichen cast in gold, and when the Queen and Prince Philip made their state visit to the United States in 1976, their gift to the First Lady, Betty Ford, was a gold and diamond Grima brooch with the Queen’s initials at its centre. It is now in the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.

80 Jermyn Street

Also in 1966, Grima opened his own shop at 80 Jermyn Street in St James’s. It was as modern as the jewels: a dramatic slate facade, dark interiors lit like a gallery and, from 1970, a spiral staircase of clear perspex engineered by Ove Arup’s Peter Rice. Grima’s friend Lord Snowdon was an early champion, and the shop drew a remarkable clientele, from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to the sculptor Barbara Hepworth.

Grima also won the De Beers Diamonds International Award more times than any other jeweller, and during the 1970s he opened shops in New York, Sydney, Tokyo and Zurich.

About Time

In 1969 Omega commissioned Grima to design a collection of watches, and the result, called About Time, was one of the most daring watch collections ever made. Instead of glass, many of the dials were covered by slices of gemstone such as tourmaline, topaz or quartz, so that the time could be read through the stone, all set in Grima’s textured gold. In 1976 he designed a range of gold digital watches for Pulsar, bringing the same imagination to the newest technology of the day.

Switzerland and the later years

In 1986 Grima closed Jermyn Street and moved to Switzerland, first to Lugano and later to Gstaad, where he received clients privately and continued to design until his death in December 2007. The house continues today under his wife, Jojo, and daughter, Francesca, making a small number of pieces each year.

How to recognise Grima jewellery

The marks. Early pieces are marked H.J.Co for the H.J. Company, used until 1971. The GRIMA signature appears from 1965, and later pieces carry A.G. Ltd for Andrew Grima Ltd, alongside British hallmarks. Our guide to reading hallmarks explains the rest.

The gold. Heavily textured, often in wire, bark or lichen-like surfaces, and usually 18ct.

The stones. Bold, unusual and chosen for colour and shape: rutilated quartz, tourmaline, citrine, agate, opal and pearls, set with small diamonds.

The feeling. Asymmetric, sculptural and full of movement. Grima’s work is widely imitated, so a signature and hallmarks matter.

Grima today

Grima’s jewels are in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Goldsmiths’ Company, which holds a large group of his work, and they are sought after by collectors around the world, with fashion designers including Miuccia Prada and Marc Jacobs among his admirers. Signed pieces from the Jermyn Street years are the most prized.

If you love Grima, you will enjoy our guide to modern jewellery of the 1960s and 1970s, and bold mid-century and modern jewellery in our collection, like this modernist gold coil ring by Fred, Paris.

Explore the collection

• Mid-century jewellery
• Modern jewellery
• Antique brooches
• Dress rings
• Citrine jewellery
• Antique earrings

Further reading

• Modern jewellery: the 60s and 70s
• René Boivin
• Buccellati
• Georges Lenfant
• How to read antique hallmarks
• 9ct, 15ct and 18ct gold explained