Gladys and Charles Mumford were partners in both life and business. They were jewellers and silversmiths working in the Midlands and Cornwall up to the 1960s. Very little information about this talented couple is available nowadays.
Gladys and Charles
Gladys was born Gladys Edith Harris on the 4th of May 1911. She grew up in Worcestershire with her family – 3 siblings, her mother, and her father.
Charles William Mumford was born on the 7th of January 1910 and grew up in rural Warwickshire.
Gladys married Charles in the summer of 1936. They were both in their mid-twenties. They set up their married home in the Earlsdon area of Coventry.
Having visited Falmouth, Cornwall, on holiday, Charles and Gladys moved to the area where they remained for the rest of their marriage.
Sadly, Gladys predeceased her husband by more than 20 years. She died in July 1974 aged just 63 years old. Charles passed away at the age of 88 in 1998.
Despite there being little information available about Gladys and Charles Mumford’s jewellery, their work speaks for itself. They worked in silver, creating brooches, rings, necklaces and bracelets in the Arts and Crafts tradition.
Their style is distinctive and very much of the Arts and Crafts aesthetic. Their pieces can be identified from their use of leaves and scrolling metalwork.
They started their careers at W. King & Co in Coventry. They sold their jewellery under their own names through their premises in Falmouth until 1963 and on the Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner.
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