Jewelled tribute from one gallery to another

Not content with having his greetings cards feature in the gift shops of such cultural heritage preservers as the National Gallery, British Museum, British Film Institute, and Kew Gardens, Japanese Gallery owner David Wertheim is determined to preserve heritage closer to home.

Born and raised above the shop in Camden Passage, David has seen antiques of all kinds come and go, but is devastated that great family friend Sonia Newell-Smith is soon to close her world-famous period jewellers Tadema Gallery after 40 years, following the surprise death of her husband David last year.

Sonia will still be trading online but designer David is so determined to keep her presence alive in the passage that he’s used some of her delicate jewellery as inspiration for cards and notebooks (pictured). And these could soon sold in Japanese Gallery’s dedicated wall at Harrods, as the little shop tucked away in Camden Passage has won awards and quickly risen to become one of the UK’s most popular greetings cards brands.

Says David: “I haven’t known a world without Sonia. Because I can’t turn back time, I’ll do the next best thing which is immortalise her taste in exquisite jewellery through the work I do. A bracelet inspired this.”

“If this makes her smile and brings joy, it’s worth the world to me.”

David is planning to bring out a range of notebooks based on this design and hand-embellished with diamante – to create one of the most spectacular notebooks in the world.

ezendesigns.com