Charlotte Metcalf is the Editor of Great British Brands and for three and a half years was co-presenter of Break Out Culture, a weekly podcast with former Minister of Culture, Lord Vaizey. She currently podcasts for The Oldie magazine and is the magazine’s supplements editor. She is also a film-maker, author and journalist. She reports regularly for Thomas Lyte on cultural events, exhibitions, fairs and publications that are of interest to the communities of the craftspeople we represent and celebrate, with a particular focus on goldsmiths and silversmiths.
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Thomas Lyte explores it’s origins, and the history of a King’s commission, the Lyte Jewel, writes Charlotte Metcalf:
Since I began writing this blog, many people have asked me how the brand name Thomas Lyte originated. Speaking to Kevin Baker, who founded the brand in 2005, I discovered that Thomas Lyte was a real person, a 17th century genealogist at the Court of King James I.
Above image: Thomas Lyte (1568-1638) wearing the Jewel
Thomas Lyte traced the King’s ancestry back to Brute, the mythical Trojan founder of the British nation, thus establishing James’s indisputable right to the throne. Lyte’s ‘illuminated and monumental genealogy’ was presented to the King on 12th July 1610 and then displayed at Whitehall Palace. A copy of it can still be seen at the British Library today.
As a reward for Lyte’s work, James commissioned a miniature portrait of himself by Nicholas Hilliard to be mounted in an enamelled gold and diamond locket. Hilliard was a renowned portrait miniaturist, an art known in Elizabethan England as ‘limning’, during which time he painted many miniature portraits of Queen Elizabeth and prominent courtiers. Hilliard was also a goldsmith and jeweller and designed Elizabeth’s second great seal in 1584. When James 1 succeeded to the throne, Hilliard remained ‘Limner to the Court’.
This dazzling gold locket was made in the early 17th century for King James (VI of Scotland, I of England). The cover is set with diamonds that form the royal monogram ‘IR’ – the Latin ‘Iacobus Rex’ for King James. https://t.co/W6eGBnWyO6 pic.twitter.com/RPCIEO6mH3
— British Museum (@britishmuseum) July 27, 2018
Though the King was middle-aged – at around 45 at the time of the commission in 1610 – Hilliard was charged with portraying him as a young man. The portrait sits in an oval pendant, with an enamelled interior and set with 25 square table diamonds and four rose diamonds. It can be seen today at the British Museum, bequeathed by Ferdinand Anselm Rothschild as part of the Waddesdon Bequest.
The jewel was originally passed down the generations, via Thomas Lyte’s daughter, Silvestria. One of her unmarried grand-daughters, Laura Dunn Monepenny, sold it to an unknown London dealer, from whence it made its way into the Duke of Hamilton’s Collection. In 1882 it was sold at the Hamilton Palace sale to an E. Joseph for £2,835 and subsequently found its way into the possession of the Rothschild family.
It’s just under 7cm in length and contains a portrait of the king by noted miniature painter Nicholas Hilliard. James gave the locket to Thomas Lyte, who had supposedly traced the king’s ancestry back to the mythical founder of Britain https://t.co/W6eGBnWyO6 pic.twitter.com/9EgkDmbg7D
— British Museum (@britishmuseum) July 27, 2018
The Lyte Jewel exists as an exquisite but mysterious example of Jacobean craftsmanship. The mystery lies in the fact that there remains some dispute as to whether Nicholas Hilliard himself designed it. The ornate jewel is in the style of Michel le Blon, the Dutch ornamental silver engraver and goldsmith working at the time between Amsterdam, Antwerp and London.
Above image: Kevin Baker, Thomas Lyte Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Over four centuries later, Kevin Baker is determined that his company, a proud Royal Warrant holder to Her Late Majesty the Queen, should continue striving for the level of excellence and beauty that the Lyte jewel embodies.
“I had never even considered having an eponymous brand”, says Kevin Baker. “When I founded the brand, I was inspired by the 17th century Age of Enlightenment and all its developments in art and technology. From a young age, I’d been transfixed by the Jacobean period. It was a time which arguably gave birth to today’s luxury industry, an era when a regard for beauty and craftsmanship came to be highly valued, replacing the functionality of the Tudor period.”
“When I saw the Lyte jewel I was dazzled by how the Burgundian diamonds were rose-cut for the first time, allowing light to pass through them and highlight their brilliance. As an astonishing feat of intricate craftsmanship, the jewel encapsulated my overriding mission, which was to put English style and all the talented craftsmen who contribute to it at the heart of the luxury industry again. Just like our Jacobean forefathers, we built our workshops to marry historic, time-honoured techniques with the absolute best that modernity and technology have to offer.”
You can see this beautiful jewel on display in the Museum’s Waddesdon gallery (Room 2a) https://t.co/aKX5Zo7z3K pic.twitter.com/kH8nbUxIoW
— British Museum (@britishmuseum) July 27, 2018
Beyond the sheer craftsmanship and technical accomplishment that the Lyte jewel represents, it was opening the locket to discover the Hilliard portrait and its royal connection that also inspired Kevin Baker: “We too were so proud in 2015 to gain our own Royal connection when we received our first Royal Warrant from HM Queen Elizabeth II.”
To this day, Thomas Lyte continues to be guided by the values of the jewel that inspired its name, guaranteeing exceptional quality and functionality with every individual masterpiece it undertakes to create.
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