KUTCHINSKY (1893-1991)

Joseph Kutchinsky, born in London, England, in 1914 to a Polish family with an old jewelry business, learned both jewelry skills and client services, becoming the overseer of Kutchinsky’s watch production and, later, company head.

During the heyday of British jewelry in the second half of the twentieth century, Kutchinsky was referred to as the “David Webb of London.” They were known for their innovative use of hard stones and bold fashion-forward designs, a departure from the more traditional gold and diamond jewelry of the 1940s and 1950s. During this time, the company produced sculptural gold rings with lapis and tasseled sautoirs with tiger’s eye, along with hard-stone pendants with brutalist or geometric gold designs. This work became so important to their firm that they even designed a special drill for hard stones. This innovation led Kutchinsky jewelry to become highly collected by celebrities and jet-setters.

Kutchinsky’s son Paul joined the family business in the 1980s but the company found itself in financial turmoil, and in 1991, it was sold to Moussaieff Jewellers Ltd.

Read more about Kutchinsky and their contemporaries in our catalog London Originals, available for sale here.