The original king of bling

Abstract

It was 1966, the year that London became fashionable: Time magazine dubbed the capital the 'Swinging City', the Beatles were riding high in the charts, Mary Quant had revolutionised fashion with the miniskirt, and models and rock stars mingled with royalty. So when photographer Lord Snowdon - then husband of Princess Margaret - was the guest of honour at a new jewellery shop in London's Jermyn Street that October, it became an instant magnet for the beau monde. Its owner Andrew Grima, part of the Snowdon set, had just won the Duke of Edinburgh's Prize for Elegant Design - the first and only jewellery to ever win it - and opened his eponymous shop. Born in Rome in 1921, into an affluent Maltese-Italian family, Grima - the eldest of nine children of a lace maker - emigrated to Britain with his family at the age of five. By age sixteen, Grima had to leave school and become head of the family, but despite the hardship, Grima would earn his place in the royal upper circle and become the 'father of modern jewellery'.