Diana Scarisbrick


Diana Mary Innes Scarisbrick was an English art historian specialising in the history of jewellery and engraved gems.

Life and career

Born 8 October 1928 at Echuca, Victoria, Australia, to English parents, she attended Christ's Hospital and from 1947 to 1950 St Hugh's College, Oxford. She went on to do various jobs, among them working as a translator for SHAPE then at Fontainebleau. Later, beginning in the 1970s, she was to work closely with the antique jewellery traders S. J. Phillips in London on many jewellery projects throughout much of her career and into her nineties.
Besides curating exhibitions in the United Kingdom and further afield, she catalogued several significant collections, published scholarly articles and wrote many books. For many years, she was the official historian of the Parisian jewellers Chaumet, and her work as research associate at the Beazley Archive, Oxford, led to the publication, in collaboration with Sir John Boardman and Claudia Wagner, of The Beverley Collection of Gems at Alnwick Castle. In October 2024, in collaboration with the Tokyo collector Kazumi Arikawa, she published "an anthology of extraordinary pieces... dating from the ancient Greeks to the mid-20th century".
Scarisbrick memorably described Queen Victoria's collections of Scottish jewellery, which include polished pebbles and semi-precious stones reflecting Highland geology, as "mute travel diaries".
She was also the writer of two biographies: the first, co-authored with Benjamin Zucker, was a study of the life of the merchant and collector Elihu Yale, an early benefactor of Yale University; the second, a life study of the Scottish heiress Margaret de Flahaut, the wife of a French general, explored "another of her great interests, French political and cultural life in the 19th century".
In 1977, Scarisbrick was a member of the founding committee of the Society of Jewellery Historians, London; in 1987, she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Scarisbrick died in London on 30 December 2024, at the age of 96. Her husband, Peter Ewald Scarisbrick, whom she had wed in 1955, died on 27 July 2018.

Selected publications

Divine Jewels: The Pursuit of Beauty . Scarisbrick provided the catalogue of works in the collection.Divins Joyaux. À la recherche de la beauté . Scarisbrick provided the catalogue of works in the collection.Marvels in Miniature: The Jonest Collection.The Art of the Ring: Highlights from the Griffin Collection .A World of Invention: Rings from the Goldsmiths' Company Collection 1961–2022 Dora Thornton and Frances Parton; preface by Beatriz Chadour-Sampson; introduction by Diana Scarisbrick ., essay for lot 4, 'English, circa 1600−1610 Monogram Pendant with the initials FR', in Old Master Sculpture & Early Jewels, auction cat..I Like My Choyse: Posy Rings from the Griffin Collection .
  • Illuminata: Three Centuries of Fine Jewellery 1720–2020 .Diamond Jewelry: 700 Years of Glory and Glamour .Diamonds: The Collection of Benjamin Zucker .The Worsley Collection of Gems at Brocklesby Park .Margaret de Flahaut : A Scotswoman at the French Court .The S. J. Phillips Collection of Jewels of Portugal, published to mark an exhibition held at the Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida, Lisbon, 26–28 May 2017. Diana Scarisbrick wrote the introduction: 'The Jewels of Portugal : A View from Abroad'.The Beverley Collection of Gems at Alnwick Castle .The Guy Ladrière Collection of Gems and Rings .The Rings: From the Hashimoto Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, exh. cat. for exhibition held from 8 July to 15 September, 2014, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.Elihu Yale: Merchant, Collector & Patron .Cycles of Life: Rings from the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection Sandra Hindman, with Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, Reine Hadjadj, Jack Ogden, Diana Scarisbrick, essay by Benjamin Zucker .
  • , essay, with an essay by Vincent Meylan and one by David Bennett, for lot 595, 'The Beau Sancy: The modified pear double rose-cut diamond weighing 34.98 carats', in Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels, auction cat..Portrait Jewels: Opulence and Intimacy from the Medici to the Romanovs.Brilliant Impressions: Antique Paste and Other Jewellery, exh. cat. Exhibition held at S. J. Phillips, June 2010.The Marlborough Gems: Formerly at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire John Boardman, with Diana Scarisbrick, Claudia Wagner and Erika Zwierlein-Diehl .Scottish Jewellery: A Victorian Passion: from the Ghysels collection .
  • 'All the arts & every pleasure: Diana Scarisbrick talks to Álvar González-Palacios: the celebrated Cuban-born art historian, collector and author looks back over his 50-year exile in Italy, recalls the men who influenced him, and reflects on the art world today', Apollo.Rings: Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty.
  • 'George IV and Jewellery' in Christopher Hartop, Royal Goldsmiths: The Art of Rundell & Bridge, 1797–1843.Historic Rings: Four Thousand Years of Craftsmanship.Jewellery from Renaissance to Art Deco 1540–1940; Japanese title: ヨーロッパ ジュエリーの 400年 : ルネサンスからアール デコまで Yōroppa juerī no 400-nen : Runesansu kara āru deko made = Four hundred years of European jewellery: From the Renaissance to Art Déco, exh. cat. for exhibition held at Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo, 24 April to 1 July 2003, and at Fukuoka, Nagoya and Kyoto. Timeless Tiaras: Chaumet from 1804 to the Present .Tiara, companion vol. to exh. sponsored by Chaumet International, "Crowning Glories: Two Centuries of Tiaras" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., 1 March to 25 June 2000 .Jewels in Painting Marie-Christine Autin Graz, with Álvar González-Palacios and Diana Scarisbrick.Jewellery Source Book: A visual reference for all jewellery collectors and enthusiasts .Chaumet: Two Centuries of Fine Jewellery, exh. cat. musée Carnavalet, Paris, 25 March to 28 June 1998 .Chaumet. Deux siècles de création, exh. cat. musée Carnavalet, Paris, 25 March to 28 June 1998 .Finger Rings: From Ancient to Modern, Ashmolean Handbook .Chaumet: Master Jewellers since 1780 .Chaumet. Joaillier depuis 1780 .Tudor and Jacobean Jewellery.Classical Gems: Ancient and Modern Intaglios and Cameos in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum Publications . Scarisbrick wrote the preface.Jewellery in Britain 1066–1837: A Documentary, Social, Literary and Artistic Survey .
  • 'The Winter Queen in Exile', Country Life, pp. 70–1.
  • 'Anne of Denmark's Jewellery Inventory', Archaeologia, 109, pp. 193–238. The Art of Jewellery in Scotland edited by Rosalind K. Marshall and George R. Dalgleish; with contributions by Charlotte Gere, Elizabeth Goring, Diana Scarisbrick.Ancestral Jewels .Jewellery: Makers, Motifs, History, Techniques.
  • 'Gem Connoisseurship: the 4th Earl of Carlisle's correspondence with Francesco de Ficoroni and Antonio Maria Zanetti', Burlington Magazine, 129:1007, pp. 90–104.Jewellery, Costume Accessories Series .Il valore dei gioielli e degli orologi da collezione = Antique jewellery and watch values; with parallel text in Italian and English.
  • 'Forever Adamant: A Renaissance Diamond Ring', Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 40, pp. 57–64.The Ralph Harari Collection of Finger Rings.Baroque: The Age of Exuberance'', Connoisseur's Library .

Obituaries by Diana Scarisbrick

  • , Independent, 2 February 2016.
  • , Independent, 24 February 1997.

Literature

  • Beatriz Chadour-Sampson and Sandra Hindman : Liber Amicorum in Honour of Diana Scarisbrick: A Life in Jewels .

Obituary

  • , Daily Telegraph, 6 February 2025, p. 27.
  • Paula Weideger:, Apollo, 12 January 2025.