Andrew Grima

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Andrew Grima, 1969

Andrew Grima (born May 31, 1921 in Rome , † December 26, 2007 in Gstaad ) was a British jewelry designer. He designed his jewelry for the British royal family, among others .

Life

Andrew Grima was born in Rome in 1921. He came to the profession of jewelry designer in 1946, after almost five years as an engineer with the Seventh Indian Division in Burma . He then joined his future father-in-law's jewelry business in London , where he was responsible for jewelry design .

In the 1960s and 1970s he became the leading designer in the West End of London and sold his unique pieces in an exclusive gallery in Knightsbridge . He opened a shop on Jermyn Street in the heart of London, and in 1966 received royal assurance to supply jewelry for twenty years until he moved to Switzerland in 1986. During this time, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, Princess Anne, The Duke of Edinburgh, Barbara Hepworth and Jacqueline Onassis hired him to design jewelry.

In 1969, Andrew Grima was commissioned by Omega to design a new watch collection known as “About Time”. In the 1970s, Andrew Grima opened galleries in New York, Sydney, and Tokyo. In 1974, Grima was approached by an agent of Time Computer Inc. to create a line of pulsar LED watches. He designed a small series of watches, twelve of which were produced, eleven in 18-carat gold and one in sterling silver.

Work

The name Grima won great recognition with its fine-grained jewelry at the international jewelry exhibition in 1961. His characteristic designs made of precious metals such as 18-carat gold and platinum were characterized by structured, organic and seemingly arbitrarily abstract shapes. The jewelry made in the 1960s and 1970s is often copied to this day. Pieces from Grima are always stamped with AG or GRIMA and are popular with collectors.

Grima was interested in organic jewelry designs and decided early on to avoid the shapes and materials of classic jewelry design. His work focused on exotic stones, pearls or granulated rock crystals , the optical effects of which outweighed their real value. Gemstones, if necessary, were built into the jewelry as a holistic unit and not seen as the focus.

He also experimented with objects from nature. For example, he converted a piece of braid that was sent to him by HRH Princess Margaret , covered with yellow gold and brilliant-cut diamonds, into a brooch . He also designed leaves and other natural objects, which formed the basis of many of his earlier designs. These materials and methods became his trademark. Today his wife Jojo and daughter Francesca design pieces of jewelry in the Gstaad shop. There is also an exhibition in London every six months.

Awards

In the 1960s Andrew Grima won twelve De Beers Diamond International Awards.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Grima, Andrew
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jewelry designer
DATE OF BIRTH May 31, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 2007
Place of death Gstaad