 Meet the Goldsmith |
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Silversmithing is a very special skill: it’s exacting work, overcoming problems and looking for creative options. There may be only half a dozen or so smiths like John, running their own workshop as part of their own retail business, in the whole of England. Having spent a year at the Central School of Art & Craft in 1962 John received a five-year apprenticeship under Alf Rose with Hirst Franklin. From 1967 - 71 John worked as a qualified craftsman, with his own apprentice, at the top silversmithing workshop of Stuart Devlin, completing many commissions in the famous Devlin style (2 & 3), including this Sainsbury’s Centenary Trophy (1).
In the early 1970s, John set up a small workshop in Spain with his wife-to-be, Jenni West, and this provided the impetus to do the same in the UK. In 1975, after a brief spell working for silversmith Michael Driver where John made this distinctive rose bowl (4), John and Jenni moved to Grantham, Lincolnshire, where they established The Westgate Gallery and, finally, the John Cussell jewellery shop and workshop, moving to larger premises in 1995. |
John in his workshop (2009) finishing a batch of
John in his workshop in 1977, raising |
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John’s big break came in 1977, when he was commissioned to design and produce cups based on an Elizabethan Chalice, dated 1569, kept in the vaults of Lincoln Cathedral. Two hundred cups were produced and sold within six months (9). With the money he earned John was able to buy more silver (hitchhiking both ways to London to save money). John is now a respected figure in Grantham, where his specialist skills are of particular value for renovating and repairing objects of major civic and ecclesiastic importance in the town. Those on public view include the processional crosier, the alter lantern and west porch lantern (10) of St Wulfram’s Parish Church.
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During the past thirty years John has made hundreds of commissions.
John (1996) hammering and planishing the cup for the De Beers Trophy (11). In addition to large scale commissions John has an extensive portfolio of jewellery commissioned over the years by his customers.
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| As well as running his own successful business John was the founder member of the Grantham Business Club and is generally active in local business associations and charities, helping to establish the Grantham Christmas Market each December and, most recently, organising the fundraising for the 2009 Grantham Swimathon. |  |
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