Secrets of a Royal jeweller: For five decades GEOFFREY MUNN was the Windsors’ go-to man at the jeweller behind Kate’s wedding band and jewels worn by The Queen, Princess Margaret and many more
- Geoffrey Munn details his brushes with royalty – including King of Greece
- READ MORE: Fun-loving Camilla could be putting her feet up by now, writes ANGELA LEVIN. But the Queen has accepted her new role for LOVE…
It is one of Queen Camilla’s favourite brooches: the glittering platinum and diamond replica of a stick insect, which she wears when attending memorial events such as Remembrance Day and the service at Westminster Hall to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s lying-in-state. It was given to her by her father.
Jeweller Geoffrey Munn, part of the panel of experts on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, designed the brooch – one of a collection of gem-set bugs – while he was managing director of Fabergé egg specialist Wartski, which has two Royal Warrants. Camilla’s bug was a replica of his sons Alexander and Edward’s pet stick insect, named Sticky.
‘Mrs Parker Bowles had admired the glittering stick insect brooch,’ he writes in his autobiography A Touch of Gold. ‘A few days later her father, Major Bruce Shand, rang to see if there was anything he might give to mark her engagement to the Prince of Wales. He agreed the stick insect was a perfect choice and asked how it might be presented. I suggested, in the tradition of Fabergé, we might conceal it in an Easter egg from Charbonnel et Walker.
‘Once this was agreed, I took the brooch to the famous chocolatier in Bond Street and, simply on trust, handed it over the counter to be collected in an egg the following week. That was when a dreadful apprehension dawned on me: how on earth could I be certain the finished egg would contain the jewel rather than a handful of champagne truffles? Mounting anxiety cost me a good deal of sleep over the weekend but it reached fever pitch the following Monday when, to my horror, I discovered the Charbonnel et Walker shop on Bond Street was rammed with hundreds of identical primrose yellow eggs, each tied with a matching silk bow. ‘If I had left the diamond brooch there on trust, I was obliged to retrieve it on nothing more than good faith. To my relief, that Easter morning, Mrs Parker Bowles was surprised and thrilled with the brooch.’
It is one of Queen Camilla’s favourite brooches: the glittering platinum and diamond replica of a stick insect, which she wears when attending memorial events
In 21st-century Britain, with its focus on celebrities, it is hard to imagine how Munn went from life on benefits to mingling in royal circles. But in 1972, aged 19, he landed a job at Wartski and became a specialist in the work of renowned jewellers such as Fortunato Pio Castellani, Carlo Giuliano and Peter Carl Fabergé. He went on to provide jewels for Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret; Hollywood stars such as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, as well as British actor Sir Alec Guinness, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, and Sir Elton John, who lent him a tiara for a charity event, bought from ‘some crap brides’ shop in Los Angeles’. Wartski created the wedding bands for Charles, Camilla and Kate.
But Munn’s first brush with royalty was inauspicious: ‘One day I was so out of my depth I nearly drowned in my own embarrassment,’ he writes. ‘Three men had come into the shop wanting to see the Fabergé collection. Dark-haired and handsome, they wore cashmere coats and expensive shoes. The four of us went down to the showroom below and on the way, I began the patter I had recently learned.
‘Do you collect Fabergé?’ I enquired. ‘Not really,’ came the reply. ‘I inherited a number of pieces from my grandfather, and it is the cigarette cases that I like best.’
‘Do you have any animal carvings or flowers?’ I asked.
‘No, but my father had a collection of them which were sold at Sotheby’s in the 1950s.’
‘On the strength of this I thought it was the moment to identify the elegant and mysterious visitor: ‘May I ask your name, sir?’
Jeweller Geoffrey Munn (pictured), part of the panel of experts on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, designed Camilla’s stick insect brooch
Munn with Camilla and Fiona Bruce on Antiques Roadshow, 2022. In 1972, aged 19, he landed a job at Wartski and became a specialist in the work of renowned jewellers
Princess Margaret in 1963, wearing a necklace by legendary jeweller Carlo Giuliano that became the cover star of Munn’s book Castellani & Giuliano
‘Why yes, I am the King of Greece.’
‘His reply knocked me for six and my dismay was complete.’
Munn, 70, who lives in Southwold, Suffolk, with his wife Caroline, first met Princess Margaret in 1980 when he was writing a book about Castellani and Giuliano, which was published in 1984. She had a collection of Giuliano jewellery, a favourite of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria.
‘I set off on the bus to Kensington Palace in a suit with flared trousers, my hair fashionably long and sporting an equally fashionable moustache,’ he adds. ‘The journey gave me time to imagine what might happen next.
I’d never visited Christopher Wren’s historic palace before and that, together with the jewellery that would be laid out for me, was likely to be thrilling.
Pictured: The Princess of Wales’s wedding ring was made by Wartski. The pair got married in 2011
‘The princess was a genuinely artistic person with a great sense of curiosity about every aspect of life, particularly music and art. Luckily for me, she wanted to know more about my enquiry. Anxious not to overstay my welcome, I felt it was time for me to leave but evidently it was not, not quite: a little brown and white jack russell terrier had rattled into the room. The princess flicked a rubber ball across the polished wooden floor and I was invited to join the fun of the chase. I think all this might leave even the most sanguine observer in a state of rare excitement and certainly I was thrilled by my morning’s adventure. I left Kensington Palace as I had arrived – on foot down the long drive – and caught a passing bus. As tdhe number nine chugged towards the West End I had difficulty suppressing the urge to bellow out to my fellow passengers: ‘I bet you can’t guess where I’ve been?’ But even in their wildest imaginings I knew they never could.’
Pictured: The Fabergé serpent egg clock that Prince Rainier III lent to Munn for a charity exhibition
More than a decade later, in 1992, Munn was invited to Monaco to meet Prince Rainier III. He was organising a charity exhibition for the Samaritans and the prince had agreed to lend him the Fabergé serpent egg clock that Wartski had sold to Greek shipping tycoon Stavros Niarchos for £64,103 in 1972, and which was subsequently given to Prince Rainier to mark his silver jubilee.
‘The prince gave me a tour of the palace accompanied by his favourite dog, a long-haired hound called Odin,’ writes Munn. ‘Being the owner of a snuffly black pug, I asked: ‘Does he snore, Your Highness?’ ‘Yes,’ came the response, ‘and there’s hell to pay if he gets off to sleep before I do.’
‘The prince showed me a collection of silver and gold watches and snuff boxes decorated with erotica, which were secreted in an anteroom. Some of these were automata and with the flick of a switch they creaked in jerky coitus, only interrupted when the clockwork mechanisms wound down and juddered to a satisfactory halt.’
Geoffrey Munn’s autobiography, A Touch of Gold, is published by ACC Art Books, £25*
*TO ORDER A COPY FOR £21.25 UNTIL 3 SEPTEMBER, GO TO MAILSHOP.CO.UK/BOOKS OR CALL 020 3176 2937. FREE DELIVERY ON ORDERS OVER £25.
Source: Read Full Article