A 1964 silver and enamel spoon by Pierre Marchand

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A  really good post 1945 silver and enamel spoon by the little known, but very interesting maker, Pierre Marchand. The spoon is very simply made but is really lifted by its lovely rich red enamel handle. It is in excellent original condition.  It is dated London 1964 and I think really quite innovative for that date – it looks much more like a piece of silver from c 1980+.

I am very grateful to Meron Wolde, herself a jeweller amd silversmith, who in part trained under Marchand, for the following information.

Pierre Marchand, french canadian from Quebec, where he went to art school, practicing as an abstract painter (artist). By chance he stumbled across a goldsmith nearby his home and was taken on as an apprentice, where he predominantly learnt enameling on gold.

And from an early age he had a huge interest in classical cars and learnt his craft from own car projects and by taking car maintenance classes. He decided to travel through Europe in cars he fixed up along the way and ended up in Wales where he lived for 2 years and continued to travel through the Uk and Europe until he finally settled in London in the mid 70’s with his beautiful car Alvis (which he still has today and continues to travel around the UK and Europe to vintage car shows).

And in the early 80’s he met Angela Fisher (photographer duo with Carol Beckwith) when exhibiting in the same gallery. They have been working together ever since doing restoration work as well as designing jewellery collections together with Maria Kyriacou (business partner), who works for Angela Fisher, which was a great success.

What makes Pierre so extraordinary is that throughout his life he worked efficiently with only one arm as he suffered with polio as a child and as a result he has very limited use of his left arm, still he managed to take apart cars and put them back together alone.  With that combined knowledge as a car mechanic, abstract painter and with a life time of traveling and experiencing different cultures he had an incredible eye and extraordinary mind. He had tools on his bench from specialist car restorations that reached far and beyond on a typical jewelers bench, in some ways he reinvented the craft with a truly unique take on silversmithing.

Maker:  Pierre Marchand

Designer:  Pierre Marchand

Date: 1964

Marks: PM, London “i”

Material: Sterling silver, enamel

Condition: Excellent

Size: 12 cm length

Weight: 0.8oz, 23 grams