GOLD AND GEMS.
Tuesday, March 15th, 1887; Sir George Birdwood, m.d., LT..n., k.c.i.f.., C.S.I., in the chair.
The
Chairman, in introducing Mr. Phillips to the meeting, said :—I have to
congratulate the Society on his having kindly consented to prepare and
read the paper for this evening—"The application of Gems to the Art of
the Goldsmith." The firm of which he is now the head was founded more
than fifty years ago by his father, Robert Phillips, who was the
regenerator of art-goldsmiths' work in this country, when it had
fallen into its deepest abasement, between the close of the great war
with Bonaparte and the ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne of the
United Kingdom. He spent most of his life, as his son has since done,
in travelling throughout Europe for the yearly improvement of his art,
to which he gave his entire devotion, and in which he gained the
greatest distinction for himself and his country, earning the highest
jury awards at the Great Exhibition, of 1851, in London, the Universal
Exhibition of 1855, at Paris, . and the 1862, London, and 1867, Paris,
International Exhibitions. At the Paris Exhibition of 1878, he was a
juror, bars contours. He received also the decoration of the
Legion of Honour from the Emperor Napoleon III, and the Crown of Italy
from King Victor Emanuel, as marks of their personal recognition of his
uuique reputation as an English art jeweller. His son, Mr. Alfred
Phillips, in succeeding to his father's business, has been worthily
walking in his father's footsteps, to the great gratification and
pleasure of all who, like myself, have enjoyed the hereditary
friendship of his family. But not only has a thoroughly practical arid
most interesting paper been prepared for us to-night by Mr. Alfred
Philips. Through the courtesy of several of his patrons, it will be
illustrated by some of the noblest and choicest works that, during the
past ten years, have been produced by Messrs. Phillips Bros, and Co. A
rare delectation has, in this way, been provided for this evening's
meeting, for which all present will, I am sure, be sincerely grateful
to the Duke of Westminster, Lord Revelstoke, and Sir W. McCormack, and
the other noblemen and gentlemen who have helped to make up the
enchanting display.
The paper read was—
THE APPLICATION OF GEMS TO THE ART OF THE GOLDSMITH.
By Alfred Philiis.
My subject being one of the series in furtherance of the views, and I have a right
to say the hopes, cherished by the Applied Art Section of this great
Society, that the impetus of art application, wisely directed, be
imparted to the various industries at present more or less flourishing
in this country, I have had in constant view, while compiling the
various fact which I now venture o sub mit for your consideration, the
desirability of chiefly addressing myself to those applications fittest
for the existing age and its requirements.
I
do not propose, therefore, to recapitulate this evening an absolute
chronology of the application of gems from the earliest periods, but
elect to base my remarks with reference to the progress of goldsmithery
upon the traditions which have survived from a comparatively recent
period, namely, the early part of the 15th century, when precious
stones came into liberal employment, finding their chief use as objects
of personal adornment, distinct from the mystic and religious purposes
to which they were applied during the earlier ages.
That
gems were firstly so employed was doubtless due to their extreme
rarity, inestimable price, and the consequent impossibility of their
becoming articles of familiar commerce.
To the archaeologist and the historian there is, without doulit, much that is vitally
interesting in the use of precious gems and amulets throughout the
early ages ; and, so far as we are concerned to-night; there is this
much which is indispensable to our argument, namely, the well known
fact of the ever increasing estimation in which gems have been held since tile days of
