Dorothy Hogg MBE (1945-2022) was internationally recognised as one of the most important designer-jewellers of the last fifty years. This articulated silver necklace is one of her earliest works. 

Who was Dorothy Hogg?

Dorothy Hogg MBE was a Scottish jeweller, promoter, and educator of jewellery. Born in Troon, she graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1967 before going on to study for a Master of Design at the Royal College of Art, London.

Hogg was Head of the Department of Jewellery and Silversmithing at Edinburgh Art College for over 20 years, receiving an MBE for services to jewellery and silversmithing in 2001. She became the first jeweller in residence at V&A in 2008, and in 2019 was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Medal at the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Awards.

Her work is held in several public collections. These include the Museum of Art and Design, New York; V&A, London; The Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Swiss National Museum, Zurich; and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada.

Creating an iconic design

Hogg crafted her Articulated Necklace while studying for her master’s degree at the Royal College of Art in the late 1960s. The necklace encapsulates a large labradorite disc with triangular bars below to create an effect both sensuous and engineered.

The piece grew out of an idea to harness the high reflectivity of silver, together with an articulation system to respond to subtle body movements. Hogg’s study at the RCA included intense periods of investigation into materials and construction, which resulted in her developing the innovative linking system that connects the articulated silver sections of the necklace.

Articulated Necklace is symbolic of its time, when young designer-makers were pushing the limits of their craft to create new and innovative pieces. 

Influences from the north

Hogg's Articulated Necklace has many similarities to the style of work created by Nordic Modernist jewellery designers from the late 1940s to the 1960s. Though Hogg herself described her approach as Constructivist. This is where the design or form develops in the artists hands, piece by piece, in a three-dimensional way. She, like many Nordic Modernists designers, was greatly influenced be the environment and landscape in which she grew up in. Describing an area around her birthplace in Troon as:

A celebrated piece of Scottish Modernist Design

The Articulated Necklace has featured in several exhibitions and galleries since its creation, including a 2014 retrospective of Hogg’s jewellery work at The Scottish Gallery. The necklace came with an archive of material, including technical drawings, press clippings, exhibition ephemera, and photography. This valuable resource allows National Museums Scotland to understand the process of its creation. It also helps us to understand its significance and legacy as an iconic work of Scottish Modernist Design.

The Articulated Necklace (museum reference K.2019.68) is on display in the Making and Creating gallery at the National Museum of Scotland.

Acquired with support from the Art Fund.