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Charles Rennie Mackintosh © T & R Annan & Sons Ltd Stencil decorations in the ladies' tea room, Buchanan Street, Glasgow, 1897 Design: Charles Rennie Mackintosh © T & R Annan & Sons Ltd Main entrance, Glasgow School of Art Design: Charles Rennie Mackintosh House for an Art Lover competition entry, 1901 Design: Charles Rennie Mackintosh © T & R Annan & Sons Ltd Drawing room, 120 Mains Street, Glasgow, 1900 Design: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh © T & R Annan & Sons Ltd Salon de Luxe in the Willow Tea Rooms, 1903 Design: Charles Rennie Mackintosh © T & R Annan & Sons Ltd Drawing by Charles Rennie Mackintosh of The Hill House, 1903 © T & R Annan & Sons Ltd Interior hall of The Hill House, 1903 Design: Charles Rennie Mackintosh © T & R Annan & Sons Ltd Ground floor plan for The Hill House, 1903 Design: Charles Rennie Mackintosh © T & R Annan & Sons Ltd Principal bedroom, The Hill House, 1903 Design: Charles Rennie Mackintosh © T & R Annan & Sons Ltd Library, Glasgow School of Art, 1909 Glasgow School of Art, Library, 1909 Port Vendres, La Ville, c.1925-26 Watercolour by Charles Rennie Mackintosh © Glasgow Museums

Article 20. Charles Rennie Mackintosh Architect + Furniture Designer (1868-1928) Design Museum Collection Combining a progressive modernity with the spirit of romanticism, the Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) created many of the best loved and most influential buildings, furniture and decorative schemes of the early 20th century. Few designers can claim to have created a unique and individual style that is so instantly recognisable. Famous today as a designer of chairs, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) was an architect who designed schools, offices, churches, tearooms and homes, an interior designer and decorator, an exhibition designer, a designer of furniture, metalwork, textiles and stained glass and, in his latter years, a watercolourist. Excelling in all these areas, Mackintosh left hundreds of designs and a rich volume of realised work. His distinctive style mixed together elements of the Scottish vernacular and the English Arts and Crafts tradition with the organic forms of Art Nouveau and a drive to be modern. As his work matured Mackintosh employed bolder geometric forms in place of organic-inspired symbolic decoration. Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s work can be divided into three main areas: public buildings, private homes and tea rooms. The Glasgow tea rooms he designed in the early 1900s are perhaps his most unique contribution in which art, architecture and design came together in a complete environment. These light, elegant and sophisticated interiors were an enormous contrast to the gritty, smoky urban city of Glasgow where he was born, trained and lived for most of his adult life. Glasgow is where the majority of his work was executed and Mackintosh’s career paralleled the city’s economic boom. By the end of the 19th century Glasgow was a wealthy, burgeoning European city with an immense network of trade and manufacture that supplied the world with coal and ships. It was also a rich source of commissions for a gifted young architect and designer. One of eleven children, Mackintosh was born in 1868 to Margaret and William Mackintosh, a clerk in the police force. He grew up in Glasgow and from the age of nine attended the Allan Glen’s Institution, a private school for the children of tradesmen and artisans, which specialised in vocational training. At fifteen Mackintosh began evening classes at Glasgow School of Art and a year later, in 1884, he began a five-year pupilage with the Glasgow architects John Hutchins. In 1889 he joined the more eminent firm of Honeyman & Keppie, where he received a traditional Beaux Arts training typical of the period. The 1890s was a decade of learning and development for Mackintosh, when he continued his architectural training, travelled to Italy, attended and gave lectures, and formed new friendships. These experiences widened his interest in architecture to include the fine and decorative arts, and caused Mackintosh to align himself firmly with the progressive school. Among his friends were Francis Newbery, the inspirational director of Glasgow School of Art and his wife Jessie, Herbert McNair, a fellow draughtsman at Honeyman & Keppie and the sisters Margaret and Frances Macdonald, who attended Glasgow School of Art. Mackintosh, McNair and the Macdonald sisters came to be known as The Four. Together they designed and exhibited work including posters and furniture. Through them, Mackintosh was introduced to the broader field of art and in particular to the feminine, symbolic graphic style of the Macdonald sisters. In 1894 they were described by the press as “the Spook School”, a reference to their elongated, sinuous and feminine graphic forms based on fabled and mythic themes. Mackintosh married Margaret Macdonald in 1900 and she was to remain his principal collaborator throughout his life. In 1896 Francis Newbery invited twelve local architects to enter a competition to design a new building for Glasgow School of Art. One of these firms was Honeyman & Keppie, which was almost certainly selected because of Mackintosh’s friendship with Newbery. Honeyman & Keppie won the competition with Mackintosh as designer. This, his first and most important commission, was to seal his future reputation. The brief for the building of Glasgow School of Art on a steeply sloping site with an extremely tight budget was simple, utilitarian even. Due to the financial restrictions the design was completed in two phases. The north end opened in 1899, but the construction of the west end did not start until 1907 and was only completed in 1909. This time lapse coincided with the most productive period of Mackintosh’s career and accounted for the changes in style between the first and second phases. The later west end is not only much more radical and progressive than the north end, but Mackintosh also added an attic storey to create more studio space. The School forms a simple E-shaped building with an austere and asymmetrical north façade with massive studio windows. A single central entrance leads to a staircase with two floors of studios to the right and left. The bright and airy Director’s Office with fitted cupboards and a fireplace is directly above the entrance. At the centre of the school, at the top of the stairwell top-lit with a glazed roof and timber trusses like a medieval barn, is an exhibition space called the Museum. There was little additional decoration to the building because of the limited budget. Unusually for the period there was only a small stone carving over the entrance and any decoration that Mackintosh managed to incorporate was functional as well as beautiful. The massive fenestration of the north façade is visually broken up by decorative wrought-iron brackets that brace the huge windows and can be used as window cleaning supports. The lively wrought-iron railings also give decoration to an otherwise reduced building with finials of stylised birds, bees and beetles that resemble Japanese Mon or family crests. In the second phase of construction, the west elevation was radically altered with the addition of the library’s dramatic three-storey windows. The interior of the library is no less surprising, with the central fall of light from the windows contrasting with the dark stained wooden gallery supported by split beams. Mackintosh designed the fittings and furnishings in dark stained wood decorated with splashes of red, green and white – a magical mix of academic sobriety and modern geometric intensity. This library was probably one of Mackintosh’s most exciting interiors in a building that both kick started his architectural career and later revealed his mature style. Mackintosh’s other domestic schemes ranged from single rooms, such as the music room he designed in Vienna for Fritz Wärndorfer in 1902, to the interiors of existing buildings, like his 1904 scheme for the 18th century Hous’hill owned by Kate Cranston and her husband John Cochrane. Yet his most important house was Hill House on a hillside site on the outskirts of Helensburgh overlooking the Clyde estuary. Mackintosh secured the commission after showing his client – the publisher Walter Blackie – Windyhill, the house that he built for his friend William Davidson in Kilmacalm in 1901. The following year Mackintosh started work on Hill House by submitting the internal layout to Blackie for approval, before designing the elevations which reflected the function of the interior. A narrow building running from east to west with all the major rooms looking south over the estuary, Hill House was foremost a practical family home with the library off the main hall designed for receiving clients and the nursery situated at the furthest end in the north extension where the kitchen, services and children’s rooms were housed. Mackintosh used local sandstone and plain roughcast rendered or harled walls. Features such as the massive chimney and staircase tower – which came from the Scottish baronial tradition – were combined with a modern visual vocabulary, such as the flat roof of the sun lounge. Mackintosh was allowed a free rein with the decoration of the hall, sitting room and bedroom, where he designed everything from built-in wardrobes to firetongs and pokers. His desire to create a total environment was in keeping with the artistic taste of the time. Josef Hoffmann in Vienna and C.F.A Voysey and M.H Baillie Scott in England also designed not only buildings but furniture and furnishings too. The Hill House is perhaps Mackintosh’s most polished interior since he experimented with – and fine tuned – his aesthetic not only with the Windyhill commission, but also with his own homes at 120 Mains Street and then at 78 Southpark Avenue, Glasgow. At Mains Street in 1900, in collaboration with his wife Margaret, Mackintosh installed his first all-white sitting room and experimented with the contrast of light and dark rooms and ‘male’ and ‘female’ environments. Mackintosh was extremely fortunate to work throughout his career with clients such as Walter Blackie, who allowed him to have complete control over a project. However his most supportive client – and most generous and constant patron – was Miss Catherine Cranston, who owned and ran a chain of Glasgow tea rooms. At the time Glasgow tea rooms were unique as places where people of different classes could meet friends, relax and enjoy non-alcoholic refreshments in a variety of spaces within the same building. At a time when the temperance movement was increasingly popular, tea rooms like Miss Cranston’s played an important role in Glasgow life. Mackintosh was first employed by Miss Cranston in 1896 to provide a stencil decoration for the walls of her tea rooms at 91-93 Buchanan Street. These rooms had been built and refurbished by George Washington Brown of Edinburgh, with George Walton overseeing the decoration and providing the furniture. Mackintosh was asked to create a wall decoration for the ladies’ tea room, the luncheon room and the smokers’ gallery. His frieze depicted elongated female figures in pairs facing each other surrounded by roses. This commission led to others for Miss Cranston from 1898 to 1899 when Mackintosh had sole responsibility for the Argyle Street tea room. For this, his first major commission for furniture, he designed his first high-backed chair. In 1900 he designed the ladies’ luncheon room and related rooms for Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street tea rooms and in 1903 the Willow tea rooms. The Willow tea rooms occupied a narrow site on Sauchiehall Street – old Scots for ‘alley of willows’, hence the use of willow for many of the decorative motifs used. Nothing escaped Mackintosh’s attention. He and Margaret designed everything from furniture and menus, to the waitresses’ uniforms. Within the four storey building, Mackintosh created a ladies’ tea room on the ground floor, with a general lunch room at the back and a tea gallery above it. On the first floor was a more exclusive ladies’ room with a men’s billiard and smoking room on the floor above. The most extravagant of the rooms was the Room de Luxe on the first floor. Overlooking the street, it had white walls with a frieze of coloured glass, mirrored glass and decorative leading, a gesso panel by Margaret Macdonald, splendid double doors with further leaded glass decoration and silver painted high-backed chairs and sofas upholstered in rich purple. In 1914 Mackintosh left Honeyman & Keppie – and Glasgow – for reasons which have now been lost. This is the period of his life that, over time, has been elaborated to create the image of a tragic romantic hero who was rejected by his home town, and that so fits with the famous portrait of Mackintosh with a moustache and a bow tied at his neck. It has been written that he left Honeyman & Keppie because he had been drinking heavily, which was supposedly due to his difficult temperament and his inability to attract new clients. It is possible that he intended to move to Vienna, where he was highly respected having forged friendships with Austrian architects such as Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, only for his plans to be thwarted by the outbreak of World War 1. Mackintosh moved to Walberswick in Suffolk in 1914, where he produced a series of botanical watercolours. While there he was arrested as a spy, possibly because he received post from central Europe, and he then moved to London. Mackintosh tried to gain work to establish himself in England with the status he had enjoyed in Glasgow, but at a time when classical architecture was increasingly popular his style seemed outmoded. There is also little doubt that he was demanding to work with and needed exceptional clients who were able to give him the free range he required. However, Mackintosh did produce fabric designs for Messrs. Foxton and Messrs. Sefton of London and in 1916 he received a commission to refurbish and decorate a house at Derngate in Northampton for W.J. Bassett-Lowke, which he executed in a very modern style, similar to that of the Library at Glasgow School of Art. Bereft of opportunities – or possibly the ability – to build, Mackintosh created a remarkable series of watercolour paintings during the 1920s. An endlessly fascinating man who created work with a very distinctive voice, Mackintosh emerged from the Arts and Crafts period as an urban architect who became progressively less interested in its rural aesthetic and increasingly inspired by the progressive art movements of Germany and Austria. In 1923 he moved to southern France where he spent the last five years of his life before dying in London. Despite the disappointments of his later years, his early and mid-career work in Glasgow – much of which is still in use today – has sealed his reputation as one of the most important architects and designers of the turn of the 20th century. Biography 1868 Born in Glasgow, Scotland 1875 Attends Reid’s Public School and, in 1877, Allan Glen’s Institution 1883 Begins evening classes at Glasgow School of Art, which he attends until 1894 and where he wins many prizes 1884 Trains with the Glasgow architects John Hutchins 1889 On qualifying, Makcintosh joins the renowned architects Honeyman & Keppie, where he befriends fellow draughtsman Herbert MacNair (1868-1955) 1891 Travels to Italy on a scholarship tour 1894 Develops designs with MacNair and their friends, the sisters Margaret and Frances Macdonald. Together they are known as The Four. Goes on the first of many sketching holidays in England. 1896 Makintosh is the lead designer on Honeyman & Keppie’s competition entry for the new Glasgow School of Art. The Four exhibits at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in London. Designs and produces stencil wall decorations for the Buchanan Street tea rooms, Glasgow for Miss Cranston 1897 Designs Queen’s Cross Church, Glasgow. Construction begins on Glasgow School of Art. The Studio publishes an article on Mackintosh 1898 Designs several buildings for the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition. Commissioned by Miss Cranston to design the furniture and decoration for The Argyle Street tea rooms. Produces designs for Ruchill St. Church Halls, Glasgow and two domestic interiors: an all-white bedroom at Westdel, Queen’s Palace, Glasgow for Robert Maclehose and a dining-room for Hugo Brückmann, editor of Dekorative Kunst, in Münich 1899 The new Glasgow School of Art opens, as does the Queen’s Cross Church, Glasgow 1900 Marries Margaret Macdonald. Together they design the decoration and furniture for their flat at 120 Mains Street, Glasgow. Miss Cranston commissions Mackintosh to design the interior and furniture for The Ladies’ Luncheon Room, Ingram Street tearooms. Completes designs for Windyhill, Kilmalcolm, his first detached house, for his friend William Davidson 1901 Becomes a partner in Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh. Designs interior and furniture for Mrs Rowat at 14 Kingsborough Gardens, Glasgow 1902 Designs a music room at Carl-Ludwigstrasse, Vienna for Fritz Warndorfer, a supporter of the Secession Movement and later of the Wiener Werkstätte. Commissioned to build Hill House, Helensburgh for publisher Walter Blackie 1903 Miss Cranston commissions Mackintosh to design the exterior and interiors of The Willow tea rooms, Glasgow. The Glasgow School Board appoints Mackintosh to design the Scotland Street School, Glasgow 1904 Completes The Hill House, Helensburgh. Designs the decoration and furnishings of the hall, dining room, drawing room and two bedrooms at Hous’hill Nitshill, Glasgow for Miss Cranston and her husband Major Cochrane 1905 Designs a shop at 233 Sauchiehall Street for Messrs Henry and Carruthers. Begins work on Auchinibert, a house at Killearn, Stirlingshire for F.J. Shand and on the Dutch Kitchen for the basement of the Argyle Street tea rooms, Glasgow 1906 Completes the designs for the boardroom at Glasgow School of Art. Moves with Margaret to 78 Southpark Avenue, where they create new interiors 1907 Produces designs for The Oak Room at the Ingram Street tea rooms for Miss Cranston and the west wing of Glasgow School of Art 1909 Designs the Card Room for Hous’hill as well as the Oval Room and ladies’ rest room at the Ingram Street tea rooms. Opening of the west wing of Glasgow School of Art 1911 Creates the interiors of The Cloister Room and Chinese Room for the Ingram Street tea rooms, Glasgow 1914 Dissolves partnership in Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh and moves to Walberswick, Suffolk where he paints watercolours and is suspected by local people of being a spy 1915 Moves to Chelsea, London 1916 Creates furniture and interiors for 78 Derngate, Northampton for W.J. Bassett-Lowke and produces fabric designs for Messrs. Foxton and Messrs. Sefton of London 1917 Designs the Dug-Out, a war-time café at the Willow tea rooms and clocks for W. J. Bassett-Lowke 1919 Completes designs for a guest bedroom at 8 Derngate, Nothampton and a cottage at East Grinstead for E.O. Hoppé 1923 Moves to Port Vendres in southern France where he paints a series of watercolours, mainly landscapes 1928 Dies in London of cancer of the tongue Bibliography Charlotte Fiell, Peter Fiell, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Taschen, 2004 Perilla Kinchin, Taking tea with Mackintosh, Pomegranate Artbooks Inc, 1998 Wendy Kaplan, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Abbeville Press, 1996 Alan Crawford, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (World of Art Series), Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1995 Alan Crawford, Janet Bassett-Lowke and Pamela Robertson, The Chelsea Years, Huntarian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, 1994 Roger Billcliff, Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Textile Designs, Pomegranate Artbooks Inc, 1993 Pamela Roberston, Charles Rennie Mackintosh: The Architectural Papers, White Cockade Publishing, 1990 designcouncil.org.uk

George Carwardine, inventor of the Anglepoise spring and lamp Original designs for the Anglepoise 1209, 1933 © Hebert Terry Ltd Original designs for the Anglepoise 1227, 1935 © Herbert Terry Ltd Charles Terry, son of the founder of Herbert Terry Ltd, who signed the Anglepoise licensing agreement with George Carwardine Anglepoise 1227, 1935-1938 George Carwardine Produced by Herbert Terry Ltd Anglepoise 1227, 1938-1969 George Carwardine Produced by Herbert Terry Ltd Anglepoise Model 75, 1969-1979 Designed + Produced by Herbert Terry Ltd Anglepoise Apex 90, 1989-2004 Designed + Produced by Herbert Terry Ltd Anglepoise Type 3, 2003 Kenneth Grange Produced by Herbert Terry Ltd Anglepoise Type 75, 2004 Kenneth Grange Produced by Herbert Terry Ltd

Article 21. Anglepoise Lamp (1933) Design Museum Collection Great British Design Quest Designed by the automotive engineer George Carwardine, the ANGLEPOISE lamp is based on the ability of a new type of spring invented by Carwardine in 1932 to remain in position after being moved in every conceivable direction. Efficient and energy-saving, the Anglepoise has remained in production ever since. Many inventors produce ingenious ideas because they set themselves a goal – such as improving the performance of a particular product or finding a new means of tackling a problem – and set their sights on achieving it. Yet one of the most successful examples of amateur British invention, the Anglepoise lamp, was invented by accident, as a by-product of an earlier invention. The Anglepoise lamp was designed by George Carwardine (1887-1948), an automotive engineer who owned a factory in Bath which developed vehicle suspension systems. He loved to tinker in his workshop and especially enjoyed developing different types of springs. During these experiments, Carwardine designed a new type of spring which could be moved easily in every direction yet could also remain rigid when held in position. He patented his spring design on 7 July 1932 and set about finding an application for it. Carwardine eventually found a suitable use for his spring – a lamp which, supported and balanced by a sequence of springs, could be constantly repositioned to focus the light in specific directions. Inspired by the constant tension principle of human limbs, Carwardine developed a lamp which could be both flexible and stable, like a human arm. He designed a heavy base to stabilise the lamp, and a shade which could concentrate the beam on specific points without causing dazzle. This focused beam enabled the lamp to consume less electricity than existing models. Carwardine thought it would be useful for the workmen in his factory to illuminate particular components or parts of suspension systems, but he soon realised that it would be equally suitable for illuminating the papers and books lying on office desks. Having finalised his design, Carwardine decided to license it to Herbert Terry & Sons, a manufacturer based at Redditch in Worcestershire which supplied springs to his factory. The company was then run by Charles Terry, the eldest son of its founder Herbert. Determined to expand the business, Charles Terry was keen to diversify by applying its expertise in springs to new products. He personally signed the licensing agreement for Carwardine’s lamp. Carwardine intended to call his lamp the Equipoise but the name was rejected by the Trade Marks Registry at the Patent Office on the grounds that equipoise was an existing word, and they settled on Anglepoise. The first version of the Anglepoise lamp, the 1208, was produced by Terry in 1934 with four springs. It proved so popular that two years later Terry introduced a domestic version, the 1227 with three springs and an Art Deco-inspired three tier base, which looked more stylish than the single tier base of the 1208. Terry publicised the Anglepoise by emphasising both the precision with which its beam could be focused on a particular area and its energy-saving potential. One of the benefits of the 1227 is that it worked perfectly with an inexpensive 25 watt bulb which, Terry’s advertising claimed, was as efficient in the Anglepoise lamp as a 60 watt bulb would be in another light. Three years later Terry introduced a new version of the 1227, with a two tier base and a wider shade which was capable of taking a 40 watt bulb. This model remained in production for over 30 years and is still widely regarded as the archetypal Anglepoise, even though the design has since been modified. The 1969 Anglepoise Model 75 sported a round base and a fluted shade held in place by a swivel ball. The 1989 Anglepoise Apex 90 refined the design of the Model 75 by adopting a modular jointing system for easy assembly. In 2003 Terry commissioned the product designer Kenneth Grange (1929-) to revise the original Anglepoise 1227 into the Anglepoise Type 3, notably by adding a double skin shade that can take a 100 watt bulb. The following year Terry invited Grange to revise the design of the Model 75, which he did in the Anglepoise Type 75, a lamp which still bears a distinct resemblance to the prototype designed by George Carawardine over 70 years before. © Design Museum BIOGRAPHY 1932 George Carwardine registers the patent for a new type of spring. 1934 After searching for a use for his new spring, Carwardine uses it to produce a lamp with a focused beam. He licenses his design to Herbert Terry Ltd, which launches the Anglepoise 1209, initially for industrial use. 1935 Terry introduces a domestic version of Carwardine’s lamp - the Anglepoise 1227 - with a three tier base and 25 watt bulb. 1938 The original Anglepoise 1227 is withdrawn and replaced by a new 1227 with a two tier base and 40 watt bulb. It remains in production for over 30 years. 1947 The word Anglepoise® is registered as a trade mark at the Patents Office. 1969 Terry replaces the 1227 with the Anglepoise Model 75 which includes a round base and fluted shade held in place by a swivel ball. 1989 The Anglepoise Apex 90 refines the design of the Model 75 by adopting a modular jointing system for easy assembly. 2003 Introduction of the Anglepoise Type 3, the contemporary version of the original 1227, designed by Kenneth Grange with a double skin shade and 100 watt bulb. 2004 Kenneth Grange updates the Anglepoise Model 75 into the Type75. anglepoise.co.uk; designmuseum.org/designinbritain; © Design Museum

Solange Azagury-Partridge Ruby and black gold earrings, 2002 Solange Azagury-Partridge for Boucheron Diamond, sapphire and black gold earrings, 2002 Solange Azagury-Partridge for Boucheron Diamond and black gold ring, 2002 Solange Azagury-Partridge for Boucheron Diamond, sapphire, ruby and black gold snake rings, 2002 Solange Azagury-Partridge for Boucheron Diamond and black gold snake necklace, 2002 Solange Azagury-Partridge for Boucheron Emerald and black gold ring, 2002 Solange Azagury-Partridge for Boucheron

Article 22. Solange Azagury - Partridge Jewellery Designer (1961-) After teaching herself to design jewellery by making her own pieces without any formal training, SOLANGE AZAGURY-PARTRIDGE has defined an iconoclastic approach to jewellery design from her London studio. The first piece of jewellery that Solange Azagury-Partridge ever made was her own engagement ring. Having tried – and failed – to find a ready-made ring that she liked, she made her own in 1987 as an uncut diamond embedded in a simple gold band. So many people admired it that, three years later, she set up in business and taught herself how to design jewellery. She now regards the D-I-Y approach that introduced her to jewellery design as essential to her work. “The advantages of being self-taught are that I have no preconceptions or received opinions about the rules of jewellery,” observed Azagury-Partridge. “Being an outsider is my raison d’être.” Born in London in 1961, Solange Azagury-Partridge studied French and Spanish at university and, after graduating, took a stopgap job at the London costume jewellers Butler & Wilson. A year later she went to work for the 20th century antique dealer Gordon Watson, where she discovered the vintage jewellery of Cartier, Van Cleef and Boucheron. Even in her earliest pieces, Azagury-Partridge broke the rules by creating dramatic sculptural settings from unconventional combinations of stones including uncut precious and semi-precious gems. For her first collection as creative director of Boucheron, the venerable Parisian jeweller, in autumn 2002, she set the most precious gems – emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds – in black gold in a spectacular combination of Azagury-Partridge’s ingenuity and Boucheron’s heritage. © Design Museum Q. How did you first become interested in jewellery? A. I knew nothing about jewellery before I went to work at Butler & Wilson (a costume jewellery shop in London). A girlfriend of mine was working there. I needed a bit of money after leaving university and ended up working there for ten months. Q. When did you start to design jewellery? A. The first piece of jewellery I designed was my engagement ring in 1987. I didn’t like the traditional wedding ring and I didn’t like sparkling diamonds. I liked the idea of an uncut diamond. It had a subtler look. It was my first ever precious ring. Q. How did jewellery design become a career, rather than a hobby? A. When I was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with my first child, I stopped working and decided to concentrate on one thing – jewellery. It became my obsession. Q. Can you describe the style of jewellery you designed when you first began? And how that style has evolved over the years? A. I worked with uncut diamonds at first, then uncut precious and semi-precious stones. I love the freshly-hewn-from-the-rock look, the beauty of natural, earthy and irregularly shaped materials and I love the indestructibility of jewellery – that gems and precious metals never decay. My style has evolved as an exploration of stones and ways in which to set them. Then I combined that with a concept, although that came later. Q. What were the most important catalysts in your development as a designer? Did the availability of materials make a significant difference? Technical dexterity? Or aesthetic influences? A. My development has been organic and gradual in tandem with my business. Financial constraints have been a major factor and still are today. Also the skills and techniques available to me have improved. My influences and obsessions are constantly changing. One of the great challenges of designing jewellery is that you are working at such a small scale. It is difficult to convey a lot of information and detail through something so tiny. This is still a challenge although it has become easier for me over the years as I have become more experienced, less afraid of experimenting and people have been readier to understand my work. It is very important to me that the pieces I design shouldn’t just look pretty but should also have meaning and my clients are receptive to that. I think that when gems and minerals have been brought out of the deep dark earth, it’s criminal to design a piece and then to lock it away in a deep dark safe. Q. What are the advantages of being a self-taught designer without a formal training in jewellery design? And what are the disadvantages? A. The advantages of being self-taught are that I have no preconceptions or received opinions about the rules of jewellery. I know that everything is possible, as it is in all fields. Being an outsider is my raison d’être. I don’t like being part of a secret society. Q. Were you influenced by the work of other jewellers - historic and contemporary - in your work before Boucheron? And what are your wider influences? A. At first I was very influenced by the work of other jewellers from ancient Greek and Roman jewellery to Madame Belperron, Cartier and Boucheron. I started with rough stones, then classics with a twist because I was so impressed and full of admiration for what I saw. As time progressed I developed the confidence to go my own way. As for my wider influences, they come from anything and everything: books, great artists, smells, words, the bible. Q. Can you describe the design and development process for the Solange Azagury-Partridge line of jewellery? A. These days my design and development process consists of developing a concept combined with a technique and a gem theme. I make a little scribbly sketch or a Blu Tack model and then chat with a jeweller. Then I’ll make a wax model or go straight to piece, buy the stones and Bob’s your uncle. Q. How did you go about developing your collections for Boucheron as creative director there? Did the design and development process differ from that of your signature collection? Were different materials - and techniques - available to you? A. I began with a major trawl through the Boucheron archives. The name sent me spinning off. Boucheron equals ‘bouche’, which equals ‘mouth’ and ‘ron’ which equals ‘round’. It’s all about voluptuousness and sensuality. The design process there was fundamentally the same as for my own line but it wasn't not all about me and my personal obsessions because Boucheron is a venerable old jewellery house with a 150 year-old history. The gems we used there were more important perhaps and there was a very large army of skilled artisans. I wanted the history of the house to be reflected in the collections I produced and even in the rebranding of Boucheron’s image so that, while it may be modern, elements of its past were reflected therein. Also I wanted to bring Boucheron to a wider audience, to young people of more modest means and the rich alike. Q. Can you describe how individual pieces in your Boucheron collections were developed, specifically how they relate to your own aesthetic and to Boucheron’s? A. The snake is a creature that has featured at different times in Boucheron’s history. I thought it would be perfect to resurrect as it is so rich in symbolism. The snake is a sensual creature – reflecting the new sensuality of the house, Bouche-ron – and a symbol of temptation. I wanted the jewels and the women who wear them to personify temptation. The snake is also a symbol of renewal. When a snake sheds its skin it renews itself. Its endless permutations of shape reflect the changing shape of Boucheron. Chains have been another recurring theme for Boucheron and in the collections I used them to reflect love and bondage. A slave to love. A slave to jewels. A slave to the person who gives them to you. In the first collection I used only the four most precious gems – emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds – to reflect the height of luxury, that’s what jewellery is. I set the gems monochromatically so people could appreciate their purity and vibrance of colour. Setting the coloured stones on black gold made them even more intense and gave them an already patinated vintage air. The emerald cup ring (my own dangerous beauty) gives the impression of a stone floating in a pool of emeralds and hits you in the eye with its intensity of colour. Q. What are the advantages of designing for an established house like Boucheron with such an imposing history rather than for your own company? And the disadvantages? A. Boucheron gave me a whole new range of elements to work with outside of myself. The techniques, styles and traditions of the house all gave me food for thought. My company is about today, about now and about me. Q. What are you working on now? And what are your plans for the future? A. I am now working on a new Solange Azagury-Partridge collection and am continuing to work on more accessible, affordable pieces so that everyone can have some. © Design Museum designmuseum.org

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