This is the master goldsmith who brought Nelson’s Chelengk back to life – working in a fantastically Dickensian workshop “somewhere in London”, up several creaky flights of stairs in an attic room filled with the tools of his trade. And what tools they are. For example, he has a flat metal block, with dozens of precisely milled holes driven through it, used to draw out gold wire – date-stamped ‘1771’! Vintage diamonds – all authentically 18th Century themselves – were collected to create the gorgeous, sparkling spray of the Chelengk “aigrette” – a jewel so called because it looks a little like an egret. This workshop has been producing fabulous jewellery since the 18th Century – continuously, so the Chelengk is but the latest in a long line. You can view the work as it happened in the film ’Nelson’s Lost Jewel’.
HANDS OF A CRAFTSMAN
04 December 2017
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About Rob
Rob is a TV producer, reporter and camera operator with 30 years of experience at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITN, in news, factual and documentary production. He is a four-time award winner, whose awards include a coveted Royal Television Society award for his work on Channel 4 News. His association with the Maritime Foundation goes back to 1995 when he won the first Desmond Wettern Maritime Media Award for a series of reports that led to a major documentary on the loss of the bulk carrier Derbyshire.