Jewellery, Watches, Silver and Objects of Vertu

A diamond set ribbon brooch by Kutchinsky, the sculptural ribbon with fluted bands and textured finish, centred with a brilliant-cut diamond cluster, signed ‘Kutchinsky’, maker’s mark, stamped ‘750’, total diamond weight approximately 1.45 carats, length 5cm. £1,500-£2,000

In the 1890s the Kutchinsky family fled from Poland to England, where they set up a jewellery manufacturing company in London’s East End. They brought with them centuries of experience in the jewellery trade, having been, at one time, jewellers to the court of Ludwig of Bavaria. In 1928, 14 year old Joe Kutchinsky joined the family business and, already an experienced diamond polisher, began to work his way up the ranks. By 1958 he was running the company and he moved the business out of the trade-dominated East End and into the prestigious shopping street of Brompton Road, Knightsbridge. Joe set up his desk in the saleroom itself, where he could usually be seen enjoying puffing on a large cigar. Service was of real importance to Joe and he claimed “We can be very flexible and offer a real service – the impossible we always say just takes five minutes longer.”

During the Second World War, the British public had been starved of luxuries. In the decades that followed, as the economy recovered, jewellers such as Kutchinsky were greeted with enthusiasm. The jewellery produced by Kutchinsky through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s typifies the era’s enthusiasm for bold, ostentatious yet whimsical designs, produced to the very highest of standards.

In the early 1990s the firm was purchased by another important London jeweller, Moussaieff Jewellers of Bond Street. There remains a Kutchinsky store on the Old Brompton Road to this day.


See: www.kutchinksy.com