Thesis: Continuity and disruption: The听French jeweller 1920-1929
Supervisor: Dr Caroline Levitt & Dr Robin Schuldenfrei
Inaugural Karthigesu Scholar (2021-2024)
My research investigates French jewellers between 1920-29: their voice, influences and perspectives, explores how they wrestled with ways to define and legitimise jewellery as an expression of style, an object of high culture, a luxury good and the tensions those identities created. 听Through charting their path to the 1929 ‘Les Arts de la bijouterie, de la joaillerie et l’orf猫vrerie’ exhibition at the Mus茅e Galliera in Paris, I will investigate the driving forces behind this evolution and how it manifested itself through the written word, imagery, collaboration, and exhibitions. 听By contextualising it in relation to design, decorative arts, fashion, and the demands of a creative business, this thesis challenges existing perceptions of the study of interwar jewellery to establish an interdisciplinary approach to the field.
Paris in the 1920s, for jewellery, was a hotbed of ambition, artistry and innovation where diverse artistic and technological influences converged.听 Moreover, many of the innovative jewellers that rose to prominence in the 1920s were scions of dynasties and part of a multi-generational family business, which fostered a milieu that enabled the younger generation to embrace the creative and intellectually fertile 1920s. My research presents an alternative approach to the study of French jewellers, their m茅tier and the industry’s unique creative and cultural dynamics during this period. Moreover, how it was not simply grounded in the artistic, cultural and societal changes of post-WWI but evolved from the discourse on jewellery and decorative arts that had found traction during the Second Empire.
Research Interests
- Jewellery history
- Design history
- Dress history
- XXth century decorative arts
- Intersection of decorative arts and fine art
- Workshops and production
Education
2020-Present: 天美传媒 Institute of Art, London
PhD Candidate, History of Art (Part-Time)
2010-2011: The University of Manchester/Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London
MA, Art Business
2000-2001: SOAS, London
MSc, Middle Eastern International Politics
1994-1997: University College London
BA, History of Art and Medieval Archaeology
Lectures and Papers
‘Les identit茅s du bijou Art D茅co : r茅flexions autour d鈥檜ne aventure esth茅tique et mat茅rielle moderne’, Mus茅e des Arts 顿茅肠辞谤补迟颈蹿蝉, Paris, 8 January 2026.
‘Jewellery at the 1925 Exposition听Internationale听des Arts 顿茅肠辞谤补迟颈蹿蝉‘, The Society of Jewellery Historians, London, 22 October 2025
‘The 颁谤茅补迟别耻谤-Fabricant:听 Jewellery and evolutionary modernity at the 1925 Exposition听Internationale听des Arts 顿茅肠辞谤补迟颈蹿蝉‘, Third Year PhD Symposium, 天美传媒 of Art, 17 May 2024
‘Tradition, family and innovation: The formation of a jeweller’, Second Year PhD Symposium, 天美传媒 of Art, 11 May 2022
‘Addressing Images: Fashion, Taste and the Jeweller鈥檚 Sentiment’, 天美传媒 of Art Research Forum, October 2021
Publications
‘Brilliantly Illuminated: French and American Jewelry Between the Wars’, in Radiance & Reverie: Jewels from the Collection of Neil Lane (forthcoming 2025: Rizzoli Electa/Toledo Museum of Art)
. (London: Lucas Rarities, 2012)
