Guild Gift to the John Moore Museum
We are delighted to announce that two pieces by jeweller Lucile Moore have been donated by the Guild to the John Moore Museum in Tewkesbury.
Pictured at the handover today are Toff Milway, who knew Lucile well, and Kirstie Bingham, museum curator at the John Moore Museum. There were also members of the John Moore Foundation there and they were thrilled with the gift from the Guild.
We would also like to thank Guild Members Mike Bigland, Tim Blades and Cate Fox for their help facilitating the donation.
The Museum will be mounting an exhibition about Lucile in March 2026.
Lucile Moore joined The Guild in 1974 and was an active member until her death. She was particularly close to other Guild jewellers, Mary Noble and Helen Newman. Toff Milway and Liz Lippiatt were her friends and very much admired her work and her zest for life.
When Lucile died in 2003, she left five pieces of jewellery to The Gloucestershire Guild in her will with no indication of what The Guild should do with them. They were displayed in the Painswick shop but there is not room in our Cheltenham shop to show them.
After the Guild's 90th exhibition in 2023, it was decided to donate two pieces to the John Moore Museum in Tewkesbury who were keen to include them in their display and to sell the remaining three.
Guild member Helen Newman shared some fond memories of Lucile with us.
"I loved Lucile dearly. She was great fun and always looked smart. She never showed a grey hair and back brushed the dark hair she maintained. She always wore a chiffon scarf wound twice round her neck or one of her spectacular silver fashion necklaces. A straight skirt and cotton real heels topped by a matching sweater or blouse. Neat and elegant and always made up but not too much.
She learnt to make jewellery sometime during the thirties when the social life of the Bloomsbury group would have given her the opportunity to show it off and probably sell some pieces.
Her communication skills were remarkable and at Guild exhibitions it was noticeable how many people made a bee line for Lucile and were immediately engaged in animated conversation. She seemed delighted to see the friends she had made at previous exhibitions and despite various problems was always positive and ready to join in.
Mary Noble and I ran a group of assorted Jewellers called the Severn Group. Lucile was one. Owen Swindale, Peter Ball, Susanne Clarke, and a man who used glass in his work and whose name escapes me. One Christmas we had a show in Lansdown in Cheltenham. There was an IRA bomb scare, and Lucile and I cheered ourselves up with a little barley wine at lunchtime and sang as we made our way arm in arm back to the gallery for our afternoon shift."