Welcome to the Vivarium podcast, All About Jewels.

Jewellery historian, Vivienne Becker, together with art expert, Diana Cawdell, beckons you into their rarefied world of jewels. Digging deep into history, culture,

fashion, myth and magic, personalities and passions, past and present.

And a glimpse of the future .

In Episode 1, Vivienne talks to Katherine Purcell of Wartski about their exhibition - From Function to Fantasy- The Brooch - running from 1st - 12th October 2025

The exhibition will span the Bronze Age to the Contemporary, and include loans from museums including the V&A, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Musée Lalique and the Schmuckmuseum, as well as the National Trust, English Heritage and the Goldsmiths’ Company. The majority of the works will be drawn from private collections. Brooches of wide ranging-inspirations and themes will be featured, as will Royal, French Imperial and Russian Imperial examples. From Sarah Bernhardt to Suffragettes, Sir Edward Burne-Jones to Salvador Dali, famous wearers and designers will be represented as well as the most distinguished jewellers of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Katherine Purcell is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and Chairman of the Society of Jewellery Historians. She specialises in French nineteenth century jewellery and works of art.

Wartski is a family business specialising in works of art by Carl Fabergé, antique jewellery, silver and objets de vertu. It was founded by Morris Wartski in 1865, its first known premises located in Bangor, North Wales.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.