presented at Oxford and Cambridge Colleges, the Victoria and Albert Museum.....Distinguished silversmith to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen mother and the Prince of Wales. Not to forget that many pieces of his art were private commissions. Benney studied at Brighton College of Art and the Royal College of Art ..
Benney was influenced by the simple purity and minimalism of Scandinavian design which is reflected in his work. 
Surface texture - His earliest textured surfaces are from 1956 - this come to signify as his trademark - it had all happened by accident when he one day used a hammer with a damaged head.He made his own hammers and brought the surface texture to the world of silversmiths....
He worked with Burch-Korrodi, in Zurich, Switzerland in the 1960s - to learn enamelling techniques. These skills had been obtained from Fabergé's craftsmen. Enamel and silver is much harder to process than actually using gold and enamel....due to the different temperatures when they expand.....
...He was a master at work...
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I am a huge fan of late 17th and early 18th century silver. After that, the objects became so overdecorated, you could barely tell what the objects were intended to do. But Benney's pieces, at least those you have photographed, are sublime. The shapes are absolutely functional, leaving just the surface texture as decoration.
ReplyDeleteA very happy Hels