Early 20th Century Mosheh Oved Judaica Menorah Bronze Sculpture

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Moshe Oved (aka Edward Good) was a Polish-British, jeweler, artist, sculptor and Yiddish author and founder of the antique jewelry … Read more Moshe Oved (aka Edward Good) was a Polish-British, jeweler, artist, sculptor and Yiddish author and founder of the antique jewelry shop Cameo Corner. He left his native Poland for England in 1903 and settled in London’s East End, where he initially worked as a watchmaker. He was a founding member of the Ben Uri Society and a great supporter of Yiddish culture, holding an honorary office within Ben Uri from 1915–56 and always maintaining that its main goal should be to collect pictures and open a gallery. The collection in these years was influenced by his taste as he helped to fund and facilitate the acquisition of a number of important early works by artists including Simeon Solomon, Jacob Kramer, David Bomberg and Samuel Hirszenberg. Oved was a great character, who presided over Cameo Corner in Museum Street in flowing purple robes regaling his customers – among whom Queen Mary was a regular – with well-honed anecdotes – and building a reputation as a recognized authority on cameos, antique watches and clocks. Anecdotal evidence suggests that in 1933 Oved sold the Mosaic Faberge Egg to King George V for £250 pounds, possibly as a gift for Queen Mary’s birthday.

Oved’s first book in Yiddish, Aroys fun Khaos (Out of Chaos, 1918), was followed by Lebns Lider (1924). In Visions and Jewels (1925), a collection of 124 autobiographical stories and short tales, he wrote about Nahum Sokolow, Max Nordau, Sholem Asch and Jacob Epstein, who all came to speak at Ben Uri, among many others. The Book of Affinity (1933) was a deluxe production with original colour lithographs by Epstein; Oved also presented two busts by Epstein, and to the Ben Uri, both in 1947. According to one story, it was while sheltering in the basement of Cameo Corner during the Blitz, that Oved first began modelling animal design rings to steady his trembling hands. He took up sculpting at the end of the war in his sixties and created a series of small bronze heads and a number of candelabra to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. Mosheh Oyved (there are variant spellings of his name)
He designed his own extremely original jewellery, and sculpted a series of Jewish ritual objects He was also a writer and poet.
He was very interested in sculpture, produced several busts himself, and also collected the work of his friend Jacob Epstein. He helped the Ben Uri to purchase several significant works of art, and presented three busts by Epstein to the Society in 1946. See less