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George Edward Hunt - The Silent World of An Arts and Crafts Jeweller
Bond st, Knowle, Bath
New Bond Street
12 November - 15 November
3 December - 7 December
10am-4pm weekdays
(Sundays 11am-3pm)
Address: please click here
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Knowle
23 November - 28 November
10am-4pm weekdays
(Saturday 9.30am-12.30pm, Sunday 10am-2pm)
Address: please click here
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Bath
9 December - 15 December
10am-4pm weekdays
(Saturday 9.00am-12noon)
Address: please click here
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Free Admission.
Catalogue is £12.50 (£15 by post). Please call 01225 788988 to order.
Sold in support of the National Deaf Children's Society, Registered Charity no 1016532.
A traveling exhibition of the work of the Arts and Crafts jeweller and silversmith George Edward Hunt (1892-1960) will move between Bonhams salerooms in London, Knowle and Bath from Mid November to Mid December. This will be the first exhibition devoted entirely to his work. The 100 objects in the show are mainly his jewels but also includes some rare items of silver and other objects.
All profits from the exhibition will be going to benefit the National Deaf Children’s Society. This seems fitting, as George himself was deaf from around the age of five, a legacy from a bout of diphtheria.
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Clients included the Queen Mother
George exhibited on a number of occasions through the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, an offshoot of the Art Workers Guild. He also exhibited in Paris and other locations in the UK. His clientele included the Queen Mother and the titled.
George Hunt was a tall bespectacled man who spoke loudly and quickly, this probably due to his deafness. Out going and tactile, he would often greet his siblings, relations and friends in the streets of Harborne and Birmingham in a demonstrative way, often to their mild embarrassment. Along with his preference for wearing a black cape he must have cut quite a figure around the small suburb of Harborne.
Exhibition Dates And Venues
The exhibition begins at Bonhams New Bond Street, from the 12th of November to the 15th of November and coincides with our 15th November Decorative Arts Sale viewing. It then travels to Hunts home turf of Bonhams saleroom at Knowle starting the 23rd of November to the 28th. This too coincides with another relevant Bonhams sale, that being the 28th of November Decorative Arts Sale view which includes an Arts and Crafts Jewllery section. From the Midlands it is back to Bonhams New Bond Street from the 3rd of December to 7th of December, during which time exhibition goers can also take advantage of the fact that the 7th of December Fine Jewellery Sale will be on view. Then the final week of the exhibition will be at the Bonhams Bath saleroom, from the 9th to the 15th of December.
George Edward Hunt was born in Dudley in the Midlands in 1892. He entered the Margaret St School of Art and the Vittoria Street School of jewellery and silversmithing in 1908. The school was blessed with tutors the like of celebrated jeweler and silversmith Bernard Cuzner. During George’s time there he studied alongside contemporaries William T.Blackband, Kate Eadie, Dorrie Nossiter, and the brothers Bernard and Lewis Instone who also became highly regarded.
George produced his jewels at The Studio, 10 Bull St, Harborne, Birmingham. His studio was in fact situated at the bottom of the garden of Bull St, where he lived with his father. It was from this simple workshop that he would design, fashion, enamel, set, carve, set and finish his wares, then he would set about selling them. He truly was the quintessential Arts and Crafts jeweler, working on an item entirely on his own from conception to completion, from draught on paper to object, but despite being a sole manufacturer he was considerably prolific.
His awareness of style embraced many influences and trends. From the obvious Birmingham School influence to the Egyptianesque, Historicism, Art Deco and the likes of Josef Hoffman at the Wiener Werkstatte, but these were always executed with an erudite Arts and Crafts spirit, but also with one eye too on commercial realities.
George passed away suddenly at home on December 4th 1960 and was buried with his parents at St Peters Church, Harborne. The tombstone bears a large bronze panel designed by George for his mother shortly after her death.
The jewels exhibited will include rings, pendants, necklaces, sautoirs, brooches, dress clips and a single bracelet, from his early to later years. It also features a stunning enamel and gem set belt, presenting a fantastical bird in a different pose to each link and his own personal leather money belt with an imposing stone set Celtic inspired buckle. Another personal exhibit is an enamel Zodiac necklace that George made for his sister Dolly to wear at the annual Sutton Coldfield church fete where she would take a tent, reading palms and foretelling the future. By all accounts Dolly truly believed that she had this power.
Silver work by Hunt is not often seen but Bonhams will be showing a few examples of his silversmithing art.
Further information contact Julian Roup on 0207 468 8259 or email press@bonhams.com
Fine Jewellery
28 Sep 2006
New Bond Street
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For further information regarding this forthcoming sale please call the department on +44 020 7 468 8281 or email tanya.gemmill@bonhams.com
To view the online catalogue, please click here
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An art deco diamond bracelet, circa 1920
£20,000 - 25,000
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 | Featured Lot | | |
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A diamond necklace, circa 1820, and a pair of diamond pendeloque earrings, circa 1810
Lots 143 and 142 - Fine Jewellery - 22 Sep 2010 - New Bond Street
Estimates - £25,000 - 30,000 and £12,000 - 15,000
Click on image to enlarge
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Contacts |
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Exhibition Information
Julian Roup
0207 468 8259
press@bonhams.com
Jewellery Sales
 Matthew Girling
Group Head, Jewellery
New Bond Street
Tel: +44 (0)20 7468 8278
Jean Ghika
Head of Department
New Bond Street
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7468 8282
Emily Barber
Senior Specialist
New Bond Street
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7468 8284
Lissa Holmes
Head of Department
Knightsbridge
Tel: +44 (0) 207 393 3977
Miranda Grant
Edinburgh
Tel: +44 (0) 131 225 2266
e-mail Jewellery
United States
Michael Larsen
Senior Specialist
Los Angeles
Tel: +1 323 436 5407
 Virginia Salem
Director
New York
Tel: +1 212 644 9046
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