Author, historian and curator Beatriz Chadour-Sampson offers a tour of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s outstanding collection, which is the basis of the institution’s new online courses.

 Welcome to the Jewelry Connoisseur Podcast, and now your host Sonia Esther Soltani.

Welcome to this new episode of the Jewelry Connoisseur podcast. I'm your host, Sonia Esther Soltani, Editor in Chief of Rapaport. Today our guest is Beatriz Chadour-Sampson. Beatrice, as an historian, curator, and author, she has created some of the most beautiful collections in the world and contributed to, in particular, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. today, she's going to speak to us about this amazing collection, and she's also going to tell us a little bit more about the online course that she's hosting for the V&A.

Hi Beatriz. I'm so happy to have you on this podcast today because we're going to talk about one of my favorite places in the world, which is the Victoria and Albert Museum. And the second thing is jewelry history. So thanks for being with us, Beatriz.

What was the most recent acquisition you have in the gallery?

It is really beautiful and obviously has a bit of a celebrity, buzz to it, which is always nice. But tell me Beatriz, how do you feel like jewelry history and teaching jewelry history has changed since you started? Because you've been working for big museums, you've seen the evolution of the V&A as well, the way to display, the way to explain, do you feel like jewelry history is taught differently today than, 10 years ago, 20 years ago?

One of the reasons I wanted to really have you on this podcast is because the Victoria & Albert Museum has launched an online course on jewelry history that you are chairing and you're teaching. And I think that's absolutely wonderful because if you're not lucky enough to be able to go to London and see the collection, you can learn about the collection through this course. Tell us about this course that you've started. I think you're going to start the second edition. I think one has already run last year,

It does. But now my next question is obviously how can people join the course? And you mentioned oversubscription. So that's a bit boring for people like, we want to learn with you. So what can people do if they want to learn this course with you or maybe another course coming up?

Well, we've been surprised, very pleasantly surprised by the enormous interest in this course. we have a huge over subscription. I don't want to go into statistics. but, due to the high demand, we're going to introduce another course. with the same content, and I must add to it that I have my colleagues, Helen Molesworth, who's joined the V&A a few years ago. she's doing a behind the scenes recording of pieces that are in storage and talking about techniques. we have Claire Phillips, who's joining me about, Arts and Crafts jewelry. There's no one else who could speak better than that about it. And then I'm joined by Rachel Church, who worked for over 20 years at the V&A and is now an independent scholar. and Emefa Cole, because she's the inaugural curator for Diaspora Jewelry, So we have a lot of recordings as well that, those attending can listen to apart from my talks. we'll be introducing a new, course, so you can book if you haven't got a place yet for the 22nd of February, do book, it's on the 13th of February, you can start booking, and the course starts, I believe, on the 10th of April, so that nobody is disappointed in not being able to join me. it's a new, new system, but the content is the same and you will have the private access to me, So I will be, I'll be on alert. And also in this course I do at the very, very end, and I used to do that also in the courses in the museum when they were not online, I always used to have one hour of bring your own pieces of jewelry and talk about it. Your favorite jewel. And we do that online. And it's of course a small group in the end, but we had over 30 last time. And, it's very nice because you can talk to each other and, your experiences of the course talk about your favorite jewel. And it's amazing the stories that come up. And, so we'll have that also on the demand course. You can chat with me. And, this is a big secret now, of course, that I'm revealing. We're planning a 12 week course next year, which will allow us to be, have more time for certain, subjects and include maybe some, techniques and so on. But I do talk about, stones, gemstones, during the course, because, how it changed from cabochon, when then suddenly faceting cuts come in and, more intricate, stones and also the different mines that are found and how that influences jewelry. I do touch on that, but with a 12 week course, we can go in more depth in techniques and gemstones and maybe have a few interviews, maybe a few podcasts to add to it. So that is really the thinking behind the 12 week course, which will be next year. We're working on the content.

And you heard it first, just want to say to people it.

Beatriz, it's such a pleasure having you on this podcast today. You've given us such a beautiful tour of the V&A, but also the course that you're going to host in collaboration with other jewelry historians. So, funny enough, this podcast comes out the same day, the 13th of February, when you can register for the course that starts on the 22nd and obviously the on demand course I think will appeal to a lot of people who can't join the main, programs. So thank you so much for that, Beatriz, and thanks for everything you've brought to all of us jewelry lovers through your writing, through lecturing, I think you've made all of us very jealous of your background with all these books. Personally, this is it.

it's a pleasure, and I need to add that at the end of every course I do, I always put a slide in and it says, Jewelry is more than adornment. It should be fun and make you happy. That is my philosophy.

 Thank you for listening to the Jewelry Connoisseur podcast by Rappaport Jewelry Pro. This episode was hosted by Sonia Ester Soltani and produced and edited by Vanina You can find all our episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and read more about diamonds, colored gemstones, high jewelry designers, estate jewelry, and the latest jewelry trends on Rappaport. com slash Jewelry Connoisseur. Please subscribe to get all our new episodes and if you liked this one, leave us a review.