Christchurch Girl Worked For London Firm Of Silversmiths

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27987, 6 June 1956, Page 2

Christchurch Girl Worked For London Firm Of Silversmiths

NEWS FOR WOMEN

Twelve pieces of Haile Selassie’s ; sterling silver dinner service of 1400 1 pieces bear the Emperor’s monogram ■ engraved by a Christchurch girl, Miss I Elizabeth Bartlett. The daughter of 1 Mr and Mrs K. H. Bartlett, of Heaton i street. Miss Bartlett returned to Christchurch this week after two years overseas. I Haile Selassie’s dinner service was made by a London firm of silversmiths, to his order, for his jubilee dinner, and a. member of the silversmith’s firm flew to Ethiopia with it. Haile Selassie liked it so much that he ordered a smaller set of 600 pieces for his country lodge. The dinner service, elaborately embossed, had plates of three different sizes, and condiment sets to match, said Miss Bartlett yesterday. i Before she went overseas, Miss : Bartlett engraved the medals pre- ! sented to the crews of planes which i competed in the London-Harewood i race. Inj London, however, she found 1 she still had much to learn about engraving. She was employed by an old-established firm whose business was mainly engraving for Bond : street’s most exclusive jewellers—- , Cartier’s, Asprey’s, and Boucheron. | She was the first woman ever em- , ployed by the firm, and at first most of her work was keeping books. But when, during her practice periods, it | was found that she really had ability ; the firm found it more economic to employ someone else to keep its books. Princess Margaret’s Gifts i One of the jobs members of the staff had was to engrave the trade name of Boucheron on beautiful , jewellery with exclusive designs of I diamonds and sapphires. Many of the souvenir pencils. I pocket knives, silver comb cases, and I silver-covered notebooks which Princess Margaret took as gifts on her Caribbean trip, Miss Bartlett helped to engrave with the monogram “M” surmounted by a crown. The Queen’s personal gift of a Georgian silver salver to Prince Rainier and Princess Grace had much engraving on it, as it bore all the Queen’s titles, and all Prince Rainier’s titles, said Miss Bartlett. Though Haile Selassie’s monogram , surmounted by a lion rampant, was a difficult one to engrave, she considered that the Arabic lettering she had to engrave on presentation gold watches for the Iraq Petroleum Com-

pany was more complicated. The company presented gold watches to members of its staff who had 30 or 50 years’ service, and when the Iraq company look over from the British there appeared to be a big backlog of presentations to be made. Because of the high purchase tax on silver, much antique silver was repaired and polished, but it was never resurfaced like nickel-plated silver, said Miss Bartlett. Old engravings could be removed from sterling silver by careful filing, but that was not possible with plated silver. In addition to the work for exclusive jewellers which her firm did. the ordinary work of engraving cups and other trophies went on from day to day, Miss Bartlett said. Silver salvers seemed to be popular for formal presentations, anq often the signatures of several members of a board of directors had to be copied in the inscription. The Queen’s' signature and that of other members of the Royal Family had to be aopied on one occasion for an engraved gift. Scandinavian Silver During a trip to Scandinavian countries, Miss Bartlett found that Scandinavian silver was completely different in design from the English pieces, and sterling silver in the homes was in general use. It was not unusual to find sterling silver cutlery being used. In Sweden, she had picked strawberries at Finnerjo, about 300 miles from Stockholm, to help to pay for her holiday. Miss Bartlett said. They were the biggest strawberries she had ever seen. Other young people who stayed at an international youth hostel were engaged in similar occupations. When she went to the old medieval city of Marburg in Germany, however, she had an entirely different type of work to help to defray, expenses she said. To encourage young people to visit the town and take advantage of facilities at its international. youth hostel, the city found jobs for them. She and about 24 other young persons were employed at the Marburg cemetery during their working period, said Miss Bartlett. They tended World War I graves, and when they had lifted head stones and planted lawns, the place looked entirely different. There had .been a large military hospital in the town during World War I.