John m broder biography of donald

John Donald is one of the most innovative jewellers of the Twentieth Century. John would probably describe himself as an accidental goldsmith, hailing, as he did, from a family of professional golfers from Elgin in Scotland.

Once he had found his path, John became one of the vanguard of designers, goldsmiths and silversmiths, including Gerald Benney, Andrew Grima, Robert Welch and David Mellor, who flourished in the 1960s and 1970s.

After the intricate designs of the Victorian, Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods, large stones often became the most important and prominent element of a piece jewellery, defining social status.

John overturned this concept and, throughout his career, he has been determined to show that design is paramount and stones and texturing are additional but subordinate to the design. He experimented with ideas referring to the basic form and structural geometry of plants, natural crystals or honeycomb, imbuing them with the energy which he had discov