Sara Jocelyn Margarita Elissa Burton (10 January 1946 - 5 April 2020) was an award-winning British

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

and

goldsmith A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and servicea ...

. Burton was the first woman to receive the

City and Guilds of London Institute The City and Guilds of London Institute is an educational organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded on 11 November 1878 by the City of London and 16 livery companies – to develop a national system of technical education, the institute has ...

top award, the

Prince Philip Medal The Prince Philip Medal is named after Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who was the Senior Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE). In 1989 Prince Philip agreed to the commissioning of solid gold medals to be "awarded periodically to ...

Life and career

Jocelyn Burton was born in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

in 1946 and was the daughter of RAF officer Roland (Monty) Burton. Although she intended to study modern languages at Cambridge, she developed an interest in art and applied to study

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary grea ...

ing at

Sir John Cass College London Guildhall University was a university in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 2002, established when the City of London Polytechnic was awarded university status. On 1 August 2002, it merged with the University of North London to form Londo ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1966, but was rejected for being female. Burton instead enrolled in a jewellery design program and studied silversmithing in evening courses. In 1971, after early successes and awards, Burton set up her own studio and workshop in London.''A Sterling Renaissance: British Silver Design 1957-2018''. October 2018 – May 2019. SFO Museum, San Francisco. Jocelyn died after a long battle with cancer, in Boston Lincolnshire on 5 April 2020, aged 74.

Work

Burton's design process started with drawing, followed by painting, and finally to producing works with precious metals. Much of her early work features oceanic themes, such as

seashells A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. The shell is part of the body of the animal. Empty seashells are often found washe ...

and

seahorses A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meaning "sea monster" or " ...

. Jocelyn's work was varied, often of the Baroque style. Although known for jewellery, Jocelyn was an expert in the design of architectural lighting, table and flatware and many other objects created from precious metal. Burton's commissions include a silver table fountain for the

Fishmongers' Company The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers (or Fishmongers' Company) is one of the 110 Livery Companies of the City of London, being an incorporated guild of sellers of fish and seafood in the City. The Company ranks fourth in the order of precede ...

, an 18 carat gold and sapphire chain for the Butchers' Company, an offertory salver for

Lichfield Cathedral Lichfield Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, one of only three cathedrals in the United Kingdom with three spires (together with Truro Cathedral and St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh), and the only medie ...

and a centerpiece commissioned by Sir Roy Strong to launch the permanently exhibited modern plate collection of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

. Other works include a set of silver wall sconces for a London financial institution and the

Pataudi Trophy The Pataudi Trophy is awarded to the winner of each Test cricket series between England and India contested in England. The trophy itself was designed and made by Jocelyn Burton. It was first awarded in 2007 to commemorate the 75 years since th ...

, a prize commissioned by the MCC to commemorate the 75th anniversary of India's

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

debut, presented when the Indian cricket team toured England in 2007. The MCC loaned the trophy to be exhibited in November and December 2012 at Burton's Bentley & Skinner Exhibition. Burton's work features in private and public collections including, 10 Downing Street,

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Arch ...

Longleat Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquess of Bath, Marquesses of Bath. A leading and early example of the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan prodigy house, it is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of War ...

, St Paul's Cathedral and the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

, Cambridge. Beyond her major commissions, Burton has created a range of domestic silver as well as jewellery using gold, silver, precious and semi-precious stones. All this work is based on her own designs – from preliminary sketches to finished color drawings.

Recognition and awards

In 1968, at the very beginning of her career, Burton won the De Beers International Award for the design of diamond jewellery. In 1995, Burton won the United Kingdom Jeweller Award for best design in silver. Burton had the first piece of platinum to be hallmarked at the London Assay Office in 1973 when hallmarking for platinum was introduced under the Hallmarking Act of 1973 and platinum became a recognized metal under the Vienna Convention on the Control of the Fineness and the Hallmarking of Precious Metal Objects. This piece is at

Goldsmiths' Hall Goldsmiths' Hall is a Grade I listed building at the junction of Foster Lane and Gresham Street in the City of London. It has served as an assay office and the headquarters of London's goldsmith guild, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, o ...

. She became a freeman of the

Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, commonly known as the Goldsmiths' Company and formally titled The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London, is one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of Lond ...

in 1974. In 2003, Burton was the first woman to receive the

top award, the Prince Philip Medal. Burton was a member of The People's Supermarket, opened in

Lamb's Conduit Street Lamb's Conduit Street is a street in Holborn in the West End of London. The street takes its name from ''Lambs Conduit'', originally known as the ''Holborn Conduit'', a dam across a tributary of the River Fleet. Lamb's Conduit Lamb's Conduit w ...

by Arthur Potts Dawson in 2010. Burton regularly appeared in the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

documentary of the same name in 2011. In 2012, Burton appeared on Radio 4's ''

Midweek ''MidWeek'' is a weekly United States tabloid shopper and advertisement periodical published in Honolulu, Hawaii and distributed throughout the Islands of Oahu and Kauai. It is owned by Black Press and is a sister publication of the '' Honol ...

'' program for an interview, celebrating 40 years of her career. In 2018, Burton's work was featured in an exhibition at the SFO Museum in San Francisco International Airport, called "A Sterling Renaissance: British Silver Design 1957-2018".

References

External links

Jocelyn Burton Ltd official web site

boutique da silva
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Jocelyn Welsh designers Welsh goldsmiths Welsh jewellers Welsh silversmiths 1946 births 2020 deaths Women silversmiths Women jewellers