MOSHEH OVED: SILVER DOUBLE SWAN RING,

MID 20TH CENTURY

Footnotes

Provenance
Hilary Clarke (1925-2015)
Descent to the current owner

Mosheh Oved (1885-1958), the charismatic owner of Bloomsbury antique shop, Cameo Corner, was an authority on cameos, antique watches and clocks as well as being a writer, sculptor and poet. Whilst sheltering in the basement of Cameo Corner during the blitz, he modelled the first of his animal ring designs out of wax - a lamb on wobbly legs - in order to steady his trembling hands. Later he would add many more animals to his menagerie of rings in both gold and silver. This double swan motif is a rarely seen example. It belonged to Hilary Clarke, the manager of Cameo Corner.

Cameo Corner (located at 26 Museum Street, just behind The British Museum) had a world-famous reputation not only for its historic jewels but for its royal, as well as celebrity, connections. Queen Mary, Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother had all been frequent visitors.

Hilary Clarke, known as 'Jill' to her friends, was one of the first women to be made a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain in 1951. In her early career she worked as a designer for Edward Barnard & Sons of Hatton Garden (1950-1951) and S Root & Co Ltd (1951-1954) before joining Cameo Corner, Bloomsbury as assistant manager in 1954.

When Clarke was made a director in 1962 she instigated a series of annual modern jewellery exhibitions which soon became a regular fixture in the trade calendar until the shop eventually closed in 1978. In 2001, in recognition of her contribution in promoting the work of British studio jewellers from the early Sixties until the mid-Eighties, she was awarded The Centennial Medal by the Society of Designer Craftsmen.