Back in 2020, the discovery of a long-forgotten photo album set Boodles, the jewellery house owned and run by the Wainwright family since 1798, on an intrepid new design direction.
The album, stored in the attic of the late Anthony and Jean Wainwright, contained dozens of photographs documenting Anthony’s 1962 global tour. He visited 10 cities in 16 days – from Jaipur and Tokyo to Honolulu and New York – and each photograph was accompanied by handwritten notes recording whom he’d met and the treasures he’d purchased. It inspired a 2021 high jewellery collection which captured the imagination of Boodles clients at a time when physical travel was restricted.
The following year, Anthony’s son Nicholas, Boodles’ president, embarked on his own 10-day European grand tour, which inspired 2023’s Around Europe in 10 Days collection.
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He clearly enjoyed the jaunt, because last year he was off again, this time on an eight-day voyage to Africa, with his niece Honour Wainwright, Boodles’ director of marketing, in tow for much of the trip. The landscapes and wildlife the duo observed on their expedition have become the inspiration behind a new collection.
Giving back to a continent that ‘has given us so much’
Nicholas’s journey began in Cape Town alongside New York diamond dealer Saul Goldberg, who has supplied Boodles’ Ashoka-cut diamonds since the Nineties. The pair boarded the Blue Train: a 1,600km, 54-hour journey that allowed time for a little business.
Nicholas purchased two Ashoka-cut diamonds that feature in a pair of mismatching earrings inspired by Victoria Falls.
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Nicholas then flew to Nairobi, where he met up with Honour, and the pair continued on to Tanzania. It was here that they purchased a 33.16-carat hexagonal tanzanite, which became the focal point of a medallion-style necklace with stepped ridges that echo the steep ascent of the country’s – and the continent’s – highest mountain, Kilimanjaro. The vibrant stone represents a bird’s-eye view of the volcano’s crater.
From there, it was on to the Maasai Mara National Reserve and its bounty of wildlife. Elephants, lions, antelopes, giraffes, crocodiles, flamingos and zebras are all spotted in the resulting 44 one-of-a-kind creations.
‘It was an incredible trip,’ says Honour. ‘We did things like take a hot-air balloon over the Great Migration – it was a bit like being on honeymoon or gap year with my uncle.’
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As a representative of the sixth generation of the family to play a role in the business, Honour is determined to soak up as much of her uncle’s expertise as possible, while bringing her youthful outlook to the rarefied world of high jewellery.
‘I was fascinated by the gazelles’ spiralling horns and thought they would be really cool as earrings,’ she says – an idea realised by Boodles’ head of design, Rebecca Hawkins.
Elegant corkscrew earrings are set with mandarin garnets and white diamonds or brown and white diamonds, their colours inverted in each mismatching pair. Inside, engraved gold recalls the texture of a gazelle’s horns. Textured gold appears throughout the collection to evoke animalistic patterns. Scaly Green Mamba snakes wind around black opals, while the Zambezi bangle features diamonds set in an armour-like pattern, its underside pierced with an openwork that recalls a crocodile’s rugged skin.
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‘We try to use every surface to tell the story, by setting stones on the underside or using different textures of gold, so that the narrative is represented from every angle,’ says Rebecca, who joined Boodles in 1990.
Some pieces are figurative: an engraved rose-gold elephant dangles a 26-carat morganite from its trunk, and a flamboyance of flamingos take flight among morganites, sapphires and diamonds. Others are more abstract: yellow and brown marquise-cut diamonds evoke a lion’s mane ruffling in the wind, bezel-set orange and yellow diamonds echo a giraffe’s distinctive pattern, white diamonds are accented with black enamel, suggestive of a zebra’s markings.
The vibrant, geometric Maasai Mara set pays homage to the traditional textiles worn by the Maasai people, with whom Honour and Nicholas spent a memorable evening. ‘It was an unforgettable experience, having sundowners with some of the Maasai community and learning what it takes to become a Maasai warrior,’ Honour says. ‘I don’t think the collection would be complete without celebrating their community.’
The whole range, she adds, is a way to ‘give back to a continent that has given us so much’.
Since 2021, Boodles’ gold jewellery has been crafted from traceable single mine origin (SMO) gold. All the gold used in the Around Africa in 8 Days collection originates from the responsibly run Sabodala-Massawa mine in Senegal, which is known for its biodiversity initiatives.
While they were in Kenya, Honour and Nicholas visited St John Nguluni Primary School, whose access to safe drinking water was enabled by Just a Drop, Boodles’ charity of the year. The jeweller’s donations have also helped to fund a sand dam, providing the local community with a means to cultivate drought-resistant agriculture.
All of which can be a selling point, which is occasionally amplified by Boodles’ clients own personal links to the continent.
‘There are few things that can tell a story like jewellery, and our clients are always drawn to places that hold special memories,’ says Honour. ‘One of our clients found out about the Maasai Mara suite, which was where she spent her last holiday with her late husband, so there’s immediately an emotional connection. These pieces are made to become part of the wearer’s own story.’
This article first appeared in Spear’s Magazine Issue 96. Click here to subscribe
