John Benjamin FGA DGA FJVA
I have now been ploughing my furrow in this industry for 48 years and the shop in question, in case you haven’t already guessed it, was Cameo Corner. I had left school in 1972 as a seventeen year old with no qualifications and was very fortunate indeed to land the job of junior shop assistant at a starting salary of £525.00 per annum.
Cameo Corner was situated at 26, Museum Street, fifty yards from the main gates of The British Museum. Marble steps led up to the shop itself which was painted throughout in dark green with rows of beads – amber, lapis, malachite and jet - forming a colourful ‘fringe’ above the till. The front of the shop contained three main mahogany and glass cabinets stuffed full of Georgian parures, 16thand 17th Century pendants, Reliquary jewels, Georgian gold chains, Portuguese and Spanish brooches and earrings and countless Victorian bracelets while an area at the back of the shop was reserved for our revolving exhibitions of jewellery by modern designers, including such celebrated names today as Gerda Flockinger, Gillian Packard and Wendy Ramshaw. Our unrivalled stock of hardstone cameo brooches were loaded up in two wall cabinets behind each counter while a safe in the manager’s office contained nothing other than ancient gold jewels – Roman torcs, Egyptian necklaces, Bronze Age bangles – that sort of thing.
These days very few people actually remember this unique establishment, its wonderful location, its singular clientele and the extraordinarily broad and eclectic range of stock which we held in the early part of the 1970’s. There was a very good reason for this. In 1974 we suffered an armed robbery and nearly all the best stock was stolen, never to be seen again. No doubt the ancient gold was melted down and sold for scrap. It still hurts. The shop staggered on for a few more years but the heart had gone out of it and in 1978 it finally closed down.
Cameo Corner had been founded in the early part of the last century by Moshe Oved, a Polish Jew who had arrived in London penniless but with the singular ambition of making his mark in the greatest city on earth. He made a number of lucky deals at the outset quickly building up a healthy stock of antique jewels, beads, unset stones and objects d’art. Business soon began to flourish and his reputation for selling rare and unusual gems at affordable prices began to attract a good number of loyal and discerning customers who were intrigued by this unusual Eastern European dealer in rare and curious artefacts. His reputation was considerably enhanced by his best customer – Queen Mary – who regularly visited the shop, drawing the attention of hundreds of onlookers. Hardly bad for business!
Looking back at my own career I realize now just how lucky I actually was. I was extremely young and ignorant – I’ve never forgotten the occasion when I sold a Victorian locket to one customer describing it as gold plated rather than plaited, causing considerable grief at the time. However I was a quick learner and very soon learnt how to recognize a Georgian ring, a cut steel brooch or Giuliano necklace. I was undoubtedly helped by several kind and indulgent dealers who were willing to share their knowledge with me, such as Malcolm Lewis, the acknowledged world expert on antique paste, who in spite of suffering advanced Parkinson’s Disease always took a few moments when he called in to talk to me about this fascinating subject. Cameo Corner also happened to be one of the principal suppliers of jewellery to Anne Hull Grundy and it was my job to pack the pieces up ready to send down to her home in Hampshire. Woe betide if anything arrived damaged!
After leaving Cameo Corner in 1976 I joined the Jewellery Department at Phillips Auctioneers in Bond Street. Needless to say, a knowledge of antique jewellery was all very well but it was insufficient for my new role valuing modern diamonds and gems. I took my gemmology exams and gained my diamond diploma the following year. I stayed at Phillips till 1999, ultimately becoming International Director of jewellery, responsible for the sale programme in London and Geneva. For the past twenty one years I have been running my own independent jewellery consultancy, John C Benjamin Limited.
Looking back now my time at Phillips was both exciting and fulfilling, but somehow those early years learning about antique jewellery in a little shop in Bloomsbury were the highlight of my career and I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to have worked there.
John Benjamin will be writing a series of occasional articles for JVA on various aspects of antique jewellery. If you have a curious piece of jewellery hidden away and you would like to know more about it, please email info@thejva.org