Andrew Grima (31 May 1921 – 26 December 2007) was an Anglo-Italian designer who became known as the doyen of modern jewellery design in Britain.

Early life

Grima was born in Rome to Italian-Maltese parents and raised in London, where he attended

Salesian College, Battersea Salesian College was a Roman Catholic voluntary-aided school for boys aged 11 to 16 (previously 11 to 18, until it had to jettison its Sixth Form). It was founded in 1895 in Battersea, London, by the religious order of the Salesians of Don Bos ...

and St Joseph's College, Upper Norwood. He later studied

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, ...

at the

University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

. The family was artistic and creative: his father was an embroidery designer and Grima's brothers became architects, helping design his London showroom in 1966. Grima joined the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is head ...

, serving in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

with the 7th Indian Division of the British Army.

Jeweller

After the war, he started work in his father-in-law's jewellery firm in London, Haller Jewellery Company Limited (H.J. Co) initially in the accounts department, before moving into design. He became the foremost modern jewellery designer in the West End of London in the 1960s and 1970s, selling designs from his exclusive gallery at 80

Jermyn Street Jermyn Street is a one-way street in the St James's area of the City of Westminster in London, England. It is to the south of, parallel, and adjacent to Piccadilly. Jermyn Street is known as a street for gentlemen's-clothing retailers. His ...

Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world ...

featuring the world's first perspex spiral staircase (1970) built by

Peter Rice Peter Rice (16 June 1935 – 25 October 1992) was an Irish structural engineer. Born in Dublin, he grew up in 52 Castle Road, Dundalk in County Louth, and spent his childhood between the town of Dundalk, and the villages of Gyles' Quay and In ...

and

Ove Arup Sir Ove Nyquist Arup, CBE, MICE, MIStructE, FCIOB (16 April 1895 – 5 February 1988) was an English engineer who founded Arup Group Limited, a multinational corporation that offers engineering, design, planning, project management, an ...

. In 1970 he designed the successful "About Time" watch collection for

Omega Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/ isopsephy ( gematria), it has a value of 800. The ...

and in 1976 a collection of gold digital LED watches for

Pulsar A pulsar (from ''pulsating radio source'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles. This radiation can be observed only when a beam of emission is pointing toward Ea ...

Grima won several awards for his contribution to the jewellery industry. Namely, he was the only jeweller to win the Duke of Edinburgh Prize for Elegant Design and won 13 De Beers Diamonds International Awards; more than any other jeweller. His clients included members of the British Royal family, as well as

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a lea ...

and

Jacqueline Onassis Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A pop ...

. Notable pieces include

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

's ruby brooch, as well as a brooch of lichen cast in gold for

Princess Margaret Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth ...

. More recently, fans of his work have included fashion designers

Miuccia Prada Miuccia Bianchi Prada (; born Maria Bianchi on 10 May 1949) is an Italian billionaire fashion designer and businesswoman. She is the head designer of Prada and the founder of its subsidiary Miu Miu. As of October 2021, ''Forbes'' estimated her ...

and

Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963) is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for his own fashion label, Marc Jacobs, and formerly Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, which was produced for approximately 15 years, before it was ...

. Examples of Grima's work are held in the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

and in the collection of the

Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, commonly known as the Goldsmiths' Company and formally titled The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London, is one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of Lond ...

. On 20 September 2017

Bonhams Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought to ...

auctioned the largest private Grima collection to ever be sold at auction.

Personal life

Grima married twice, firstly in 1947 to Helène Haller, niece of the Viennese jeweller who brought Grima into the trade. The couple had a son and two daughters; they divorced in 1977. The same year, Grima married Jojo Maughan-Brown, great-granddaughter of

Sir Thomas Cullinan Sir Thomas Cullinan (12 February 186223 August 1936) was a South African diamond magnate. He is renowned for giving his name to the Cullinan Diamond, the largest diamond ever discovered, and as owner of the Premier Mine, now renamed the Cullin ...

. They had one daughter, Francesca, who – together with her mother – continues the family business. In 1986 the Grimas moved to Switzerland, first to

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label= Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Lugano has a populat ...

and in 1992 to

Gstaad Gstaad ( ; ) is a town in the German-speaking section of the Canton of Bern in southwestern Switzerland. It is part of the municipality of Saanen and is known as a major ski resort and a popular destination amongst high society and the internati ...

, where Grima died on 26 December 2007. Francesca and Jojo moved back to London in 2012. They have continued the family business by creating unique and bespoke pieces handmade in Britain by Andrew's master craftsmen.

References

External links

Grima JewelleryObituary in ''The Times'', 5 January 2008'Grima the great: a personal recollection of a 1960s jewellery design visionary' in ''Wallpaper*'', 19 September 2017
* ttps://howtospendit.ft.com/watches-jewellery/202104-collecting-vintage-grima-jewellery 'Collecting vintage Grima jewellery' in ''How To Spend It'', 17 November 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Grima, Andrew 1921 births 2007 deaths British goldsmiths British jewellery designers Italian jewellery designers Italian emigrants to the United Kingdom British people in British Burma British Army personnel of World War II British expatriates in Switzerland