Beautiful Brutalism

The brutalist architectural movement of the mid - 20^th century saw buildings composed of repeating elements such as blocks, cubes, and towers with sharp corners, having a severe angular or linear arrangement. Europe’s desperate need for buildings to replace those lost in World War II, combined with keeping costs to a minimum, provided the perfect environment for this form of architecture to flourish. As Art and architecture often go hand in hand, we can see jewellery designs influenced by the brutalist movement in the mid to late 20^th century.

With bold, abstract yet repeating designs, textured gold and colourful semi – precious stones, pieces were works of art and often feats of engineering in themselves. New techniques with melting gold under controlled temperatures allowed for exploration of texture and we see this obsession with texture, form and colour in the designs of the famous jewellers of the time.

Lot 93 & 94 are wonderful examples of this, believed to be made in Holland in the early 1970’s the abstract, geometric form of these pieces, coupled with the bright lapis lazuli and diamond in the setting are consistent with the fashion of the time, the repeating cubic and rectangular arrangement of the structure is highly evocative of the architectural movement seen in Europe during this period. Lot 94 is an example of very cleverly engineered jewellery convertible from a brooch to a pair of earrings or a pendant depending on the mood of the wearer, and a beautiful companion to lot 93.

The pieces are unsigned but were purchased in Schaap & Citroen jewellers in Utrecht in the Mid 1970’s and gifted to the vendor’s sister by her employer Jin Jersey textile company to mark 25 years of service as a textile designer.