MY LIFE IN ART: ARTS SOCIETY LECTURER JOHN BENJAMIN

John Benjamin is a jewellery expert who began his career on the shop floor, before spending 23 years at Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers where he became international director of jewellery. For the past two decades he has worked as an independent consultant, author and broadcaster, and is a presenter on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

You have been lecturing on jewellery for The Arts Society since 1999. What has your experience been over the years?

The standards are very rigorous and the quality is resolutely and consistently high, as is the expectation! You have to entertain people, and that becomes a conduit to learning and enrichment  – it is pure theatre. I’m moving more and more away from my core business of independent valuations and into events, which of course includes lecturing. I always enjoy the experience because people naturally love jewellery, so whether you’re talking about diamonds, Fabergé or Georgian necklaces, you have a head start!

Where do you think this universal interest comes from?

Jewellery becomes a portal for people. Remember that if you have a Roman gold ring, it’s going to be in largely the same condition it was when it was made 2,000 years ago. You can’t really say that for many things. That and of course you can wear it! It might be nice to have an enormous Assyrian statue, but you can’t do much beyond gawping at it. Jewellery becomes a portable piece of beauty, and people make a real connection with it. It becomes a lightning conductor between the wearer and that person from the past who might have owned it.

You started your career at Cameo Corner, a jewellery shop in Bloomsbury. How did that come about?

I was brought up in northwest London and my dad worked in fashion knitwear, but I didn’t want anything to do with that when I was leaving school, and I had little direction. So, my parents sent me to see a career advisor in Harley Street, where I was made to sit in front of endless pie charts. They uncovered my interest in colour, museums and antiques, at which point they suggested a career in gem stones or antique jewellery.

It just so happened that my father had visited Cameo Corner and he got me an interview, where the manager gave me a tray of cameos and asked if I could identify any of the carvings. Because of my time at the V&A and other museums I recognised them all, which she thought was quite remarkable, so I got a job aged 17, and I took to it like a duck to water. I went on to take my gemology exam and did incredibly well, followed by my diamond diploma, where I got a distinction. I found out that I had a brain after all!

Do you have favourite subject you like to lecture on?

I love telling the story of the gold and silversmith called Harry George Murphy. When I was working at Phillips, around 1995, I went to Tunbridge Wells to value a box of jewellery inherited by his daughter, as he had died back in 1939. It was an incredible collection of unusual pieces, full of brilliant colours and technical virtuosity. I photographed the items for her, but about a year later I received the terrible news that she was the victim of a break-in and the box had been stolen.

Another year passed. I was working in the London office when a woman came in asking to have some pieces valued, and she presented a biscuit tin full of all the stolen jewellery! We called the police and got everything returned. I decided to write a book about this incredible collection with my colleague, Paul Atterbury. The subsequent talk is extremely popular, because it is such an incredible tale of coincidences.

If you were to give one piece of advice regarding buying antique jewellery, what would it be?

Just buy something that you love. Too often people only buy for investment. It is important to remember that you are buying a tiny piece of frozen history. And please wear it, don’t just put it in a vault. Get pleasure from it! You can wear a necklace that might well have been owned by a lady in the early 18th century, who might have admired the twinkle of the stones just like you do. You are personally connecting with that history. As you can tell, I am a total romantic and a complete sentimentalist.