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An influential figure of the Arts & Crafts Movement, English architect and designer Charles Robert Ashbee began designing jewelry in 1890. Born in 1863 just outside of London, Ashbee studied at Wellington College and King's College, Cambridge, as a young man, and apprenticed with architect George Frederick Bodly. In 1888, while living at the famed progressive housing project Toynbee Hall, Ashbee established his Guild and School of Handicraft in London, offering metalwork jewelry, décor, and furniture—often of his own design—as well as classes.

Ashbee's philosophy of jewelry was that it should be worn as important, symbolic adornment on holidays only, and that a single design should carry enough aesthetic strength and significance to be worn on its own, without accompaniment by other pieces.

Ashbee's jewelry designs were particularly influenced by Renaissance-era approaches to sculpture and adornment. “We live in an ugly time and jewelry is not the least of the lost children of Art,” Ashbee wrote, “...let us look to the Cinque-cento.” Ashbee's philosophy of jewelry was that it should be worn as important, symbolic adornment on holidays only, and that a single design should carry enough aesthetic strength and significance to be worn on its own, without accompaniment by other pieces. In terms of style, Ashbee was highly influenced by the work of Renaissance sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, and even took it upon himself to translate The Treatise of Benvenuto Cellini on Goldsmithing and Sculpture from the original 1857 Italian. Ashbee's English translation was published in 1898 as the first project of his own Essex House Press, which would go on to offer more than 70 titles. 

The peacock motif, as in the present necklace, became important to Ashbee beginning around the 1900s, during which he produced roughly a dozen designs for brooches and pendants featuring the remarkable bird. The first of Ashbee's peacocks was designed for his wife, Janet Elizabeth Forbes, and would be his largest but least colorful iteration of the theme. “[Ashbee] was obviously attached to the peacock motif,” wrote Alan Crawford in C.R. Ashbee: Architect, Designer & Romantic Socialist. “Some were smaller versions of the first and grandest, with proud tails rendered by stiff fins, others were more informal, like the bird pecking at a turquoise matrix; some use color more than others, but all more than the first and grandest, in which Ashbee briefly abandoned his preoccupation with color and came closer to the fashions of the day.”

David Jonathan Bromer spent his childhood a block from the ocean in Miami Beach; I grew up 1,500 miles north, also a block from the ocean, in Winthrop, Massachusetts. We met through a mutual friend when David was a junior at M.I.T. and I was a sophomore at Emerson College. At nineteen years old each, we were certain we would be happy together, so we married in 1962. David completed his doctorate degree at M.I.T. in metallurgy and worked in the field of science for ten years. We dabbled in collecting and selling rare books as a hobby until we were able to fulfill our dreams and become full-time antiquarian booksellers. 

In 1980, David and I moved our antiquarian book business, operating under the name of Bromer Booksellers, to Copley Square, Boston. We specialized in “The Book Beautiful,” as coined by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson in his 1900 publication, The Ideal Book. All the elements of creating the ideal book, from text to handmade paper, illustrations, calligraphy, and binding, unified to form a beautiful book. Book design of the Arts & Crafts period, c. 1895-1915, especially captured our interest. In 1993, we were gifted a small estate of gemstone jewelry from David's family, which had us thinking about the link between book designers and well-designed jewelry.

In 1993, we were gifted a small estate of gemstone jewelry from David’s family, which had us thinking about the link between book designers and well-designed jewelry.

British book designers led the way in creating handmade books distinguished by good typography, design, and materials, and several of them were also jewelry designers. Charles Robert Ashbee, printer at the Essex House Press in the Cotswolds, England, was the first book designer to cross over into jewelry. His private press books were exquisite works of art, some printed on natural calfskin called vellum. We were able to purchase one of his rare peacock necklaces executed at the Guild of Handicraft in Chipping Camden and designed by Ashbee. 

Arthur and Georgie Gaskin were known for their illustrations in children’s books as well as Arthur’s beautiful drawings for one book printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press. The husband-and-wife team began working together at the turn-of-the-century to create foliate necklaces that are festooned with wire and semi-precious stones. When Arthur died in 1928, Georgie continued making beautiful necklaces on her own.

In June 1997 I wrote “Three British Book Designers and their Arts & Crafts Jewelry” for Antiquarian Book Monthly. By then we were expanding our collecting vision to include representative pieces from designers further afield than the British Isles. We were seeking variety with excellent design and materials and eventually added pieces from France, Germany, Austria, Spain, America, Denmark, and Russia.

Our jewelry has been photographed in major jewelry references and exhibited at the Driehaus Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Forbes Galleries, New York. 

Our collection largely focused on necklaces, pendants, and brooches, with a bracelet and several rings included. The necklaces are presented in silver and gold; some with enameling and the French examples with plique-à-jour. A variety of precious and semi-precious stones were used as well as crystal and paste. Several are in their original boxes, and most are signed or verified as to the maker. Our jewelry has been photographed in major jewelry references and exhibited at the Driehaus Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Forbes Galleries, New York. 

Art Nouveau, the new art, was an integral component of modernism. Whether it was labeled Arts & Crafts in Britain, Jugendstil in Germany, Wiener Werkstätte in Austria, it was revolutionary in accenting fine design and the elements of care in producing fine, handmade objects. Nature and female forms are thematic in the jewelry. Flowers, leaves, and insects—all are incorporated in pieces, as is the birth of Venus from a diamond studded starfish and a green enameled mermaid with a golden thread.

Art Nouveau, the new art, was an integral component of modernism. Whether it was labeled Arts & Crafts in Britain, Jugendstil in Germany, Wiener Werkstätte in Austria, it was revolutionary in accenting fine design and the elements of care in producing fine, handmade objects.

When I lost David in 2021, I continued to buy a few pieces, but the partnership for the hunt and then the enjoyment of ownership was no longer possible. It is the season now to bid adieu to these incredible pieces of jewelry, all of which I have loved and most of which I took pleasure in wearing at least once. I am delighted to have the collection offered in an open auction for others to appreciate.