Boodles’ latest jewellery designs are shaped by history. The chiselled look of gold vine leaves in some pieces draws on the work of the master woodcarver Grinling Gibbons, the gemstones in others echo the colours in a mural by the baroque painter Antonio Verrio.
The Boodles Palace high jewellery collection, created in collaboration with Historic Royal Palaces, features 12 suites inspired by often overlooked details of the six properties under the charity’s care. Five of these are in the capital: the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Banqueting House, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace. The sixth is Hillsborough Castle and Gardens in Northern Ireland.
An 18th century painted ceiling by William Kent at Kensington Palace, the ravens that reside at the Tower of London and an 18th century Spitalfields silk mantua (a wide court dress) from Hampton Court Palace are among the exquisite features translated into precious metals and gemstones for rings, earrings, necklaces and bracelets.
The features of an 18th century silk mantua were translated into jewellery designs
Credit: Claire Collins
Rebecca Hawkins, design director at Boodles, says there is a “natural synergy” between the 228-year-old British jeweller and Historic Royal Palaces because, just as it was the best architects, artists, designers and artisans who worked on the palaces, so Boodles uses specialist craftspeople, goldsmiths and stone cutters to create its intricate jewellery.
“The palaces span, in terms of architecture and design style, about 1,000 years from medieval all the way through to Victorian but we’re not trying to make it look like a Tudor piece [of jewellery] or a Victorian piece,” says Hawkins, whose designs are priced at between £15,000 and £1.5m. “We want it to look very much like a Boodles piece but referencing those elements and also taking forward that very detailed artisanal approach of the craftsmen at the time.”
The baroque architecture and artwork of Hampton Court Palace inspired Boodles design director Rebecca Hawkins
It took contemporary craftspeople 350 hours to make the rose gold collar in the geometric Tudor Skyline suite, which also includes a bracelet and a pair of earrings. The necklace is made of 346 components. Hawkins says two people spent two weeks setting the piece’s 53 carats of diamonds, some of which were specially cut to fit the chevron design that echoes the zigzag patterns on the 241 Tudor-style red brickwork chimneys atop Hampton Court Palace.
However, it was the After Dark necklace, from which the pendant detaches to form a brooch, that provided the biggest technical challenge. Inspired by heraldic beasts at Hampton Court Palace, the piece features two yales (an antelope-like creature with rotating horns and boar-like tusks) made from carved white opal and black onyx. “You’ve got to be careful not to go so slim that you break it or that it’s vulnerable once finished,” explains Hawkins. The piece is Boodles’ first to use carved stone.
The brand launched 10 of the suites at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, where landscape designer Catherine MacDonald presented a Boodles garden to complement the collection. She drew inspiration for her design – her third consecutive Chelsea garden for Boodles – from a 1726 plan of the Tower of London. Features included planting in royal colours, bespoke pots reminiscent of the shape of the roofs on the turrets and towers of Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London, and an asymmetrical pavilion inspired by the ceiling of the Picnic Room in Queen Charlotte’s Cottage at Kew Palace.
The queen, her husband George III and family used this secluded property for tea breaks when walking in Kew Gardens. Hawkins visited with MacDonald and was also inspired by the ceiling, which was thought to have been decorated by Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of Queen Charlotte and George III. “She must have been a good artist because it is beautifully painted with convolvulus, nasturtiums and bamboo,” says Hawkins. “It’s a really pretty room.”
The tones of Italian artist Antonio Verrio’s work at Hampton Court Palace are mirrored in the collection
The pieces she designed in tribute to this royal retreat feature yellow-gold links mimicking bamboo and nasturtium leaves set with pavé diamonds. She translated colours from the mural into Mandarin garnets, mixed-colour sapphires and tourmalines.
The detailing extends to the back of pieces. “For this collection particularly, because the inspiration was coming from not just the best artisans of the time [but those] still recognised as masters today, we want to make sure that we’ve considered every single element,” says Hawkins.
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