Barbara Cartlidge (1922-2017)

Barbara Cartlidge was a jewelry designer and gallerist. She was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922, but fled to London with her family in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution before WWII. She attended the Riemann School of Art and Design, and went on to study jewelry and fashion design at Central Saint Martins (then London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts). In 1971, she co-founded Electrum Gallery with Ralph Turner. The gallery proved to be a vital destination for studio and contemporary jewelry and served as the launching pad for the careers of many of them.

Cartlidge’s own jewelry aesthetic was inspired by Scandinavian design, specifically the work of Swedish jeweler Vivianna Torun Bulow-Hube (1927-2004). Cartlidge worked predominately in silver and favored simple forms. However she loved unusual gemstones. In a June 1968 article for Harper’s Bazaar called “Striking it Rich”, she said, “invariably it is the stone that decides the design I will use [just] about any stone, provided it looks exciting. I am not terribly concerned about the cost of it- if it has some sort of life, some magic, some mystique about it.” Quartz slices were some of her favorite to use because of their usual formation, she also liked bold cabochon-cut stones.

Cartlidge was appointed Freeman of The Goldsmiths Company in 1978. She is a published author of several jewelry books including Twentieth-Century Jewellery (1974), and Rings Through the Ages (1980). Her work resides in private and museum collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Cartlidge died in 2017 at the age of 94.

Read more about Barbara Cartlidge and her contemporaries in our catalog, London Originals, available for sale here.