All that glitters: Investigating hierarchies of preciousness and beauty in gem and jewellery collections

Jewellery and gems represent a galaxy of (mainly undocumented) cultural values informed by relative perceptions of material beauty, attitudes to wealth investment and personal and group ethics particularly when it comes to sustainability. However academic discussion of these topics has been stymied by disciplinary separation (geology, design history, technology) and distance between the academy and industry. Museum interpretation and catalogues of jewellery repeat tired old tropes which assume and privilege the documentation of financial worth and status over cultural value. Consequently, histories of personal adornment and ornament tend to be dominated by Eurocentric and anachronistic narratives based on outmoded typologies. This has resulted in interpretation that does not accurately reflect the people and ideas behind choices made for personal and artistic expression. The aim of the project is to demonstrate the academic and social potential of gem and jewellery collections to contribute to vital contemporary debates about the ethics of extraction, consumption, sustainability and environmental claims, and will acknowledge indigenous, diasporic and alternative knowledges and beliefs. We will do this by revisiting two complementary but under-utilised collections governed by very different disciplinary frameworks: the jewellery design collection at UAL: Central St Martins Museum & Study Collection (CSM), and the gemmological collection at Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH). Through the detailed research and documentation of 100 objects and specimens, a selection representing diverse designs, techniques, materials and people, this project will develop a new transdisciplinary object-led and people-centred methodology designed to privilege the stories of the hidden value creators: extractors, designers, makers, appraisers, rather than the owners, donors and collectors. This methodology will draw upon the PL’s innovations in object-based material culture theory (Southampton, 2009) and be updated by learning from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), originally developed in the green tech and engineering sector to document the true environmental and societal impact of certain materials and production methods. Revisiting the collections will provide the curator-researcher team with an incredibly rare opportunity to develop skills and knowledge in each other’s related, if unfamiliar, collections disciplines. By also seeking support from jewellery and gem mentors from the industry, the project will enable the team to significantly improve their subject knowledge and draw on expertise and critique that is hard to find in the academy. Interpretation arising from developing a new methodology will inform two gallery exhibitions and feedback from these will help refine it prior to dissemination from publication. Sharing the project’s new methodology will help museums with similar collections improve the quality of their documentation, involve more people in its creation, and create better public engagement on topics like ethical consumption and greenwashing, while also contributing to discussions about cultural meaning and sustainability from diverse global perspectives. For the gemmological and jewellery trade our findings may provide a wider set of factors against which appraisal and valuation may take place in a truly international market.