Over the last year Ursae has been working on two extremely prestigious sculptures for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Ursae’s expertise in bespoke high end luxury goods, landed them with the task to produce two of the sites most detailed and complex pieces.

The sculptures are part of the 5.35million pound redevelopment of Shakespeare’s family home 1597 -1616, on Chapel Street in Stratford Upon Avon.

The garden has been designed to commemorate the importance of the site and allows visitors to make their own personal connection with Shakespeare.

When Shakespeare bought New Place he was an established playwright and it is believed that he wrote his later plays there, including The Tempest.

One can follow in Shakespeare’s footsteps through a new entrance on the site of the original gatehouse and enjoy a contemporary landscape that reveals the footprint of the Shakespeare family home. The re-imagined site gives an impression of the scale of New Place and relationship to the surrounding buildings; such as the neighbouring King Edward VI School and Guild Chapel that were once attended by a young Shakespeare.

The commissioned artworks and displays throughout the site will evoke a sense of family life and hint at Shakespeare’s major works that were written during the 19 years he owned New Place.

Ursae’s role in this special project was to create a Terrestrial Globe depicting the knowledge of Elizabethan period, giving an insight to what Shakespeare and his peers believed the world to look like at that point in time. Showing the world as known by the court of Queen Elizabeth in 1600, and based upon the first English world map, it exhibits both the surprisingly expansive knowledge of the seas, and the focused provincial mindset of the Tudor elite.  The unknown world is dark and disturbing, while the known is bright, shining and anglocentric.

In addition an extremely detailed Sculpture of a Silver Ship is being created. The ship will suspend almost magically from fine wires supported by a bronze cradle. The perfect glimmering galleon harks back to the mystifying unscathed Ship from the Tempest play.

ROYAL COMMISSION FOR AWARD WINNING SILVERSMITH
Award winning designer, jeweller and silversmith Ben Ryan recently received one of his most prestigious commissions yet – to design and produce The Perpetual Master’s Badge for HRH The Princess Royal on behalf of The Worshipful Company of Saddlers, one of the City of London’s oldest Livery companies. Ben was recommended by the Goldsmiths’ Company, as a possible candidate to undertake the prestigious commission, and his design was chosen by committee from a number of entries submitted by various artists. After months of work, the badge was presented to Her Royal Highness where she was made The Perpetual Master of The Saddlers’ Company at the Installation Court ceremony held in its magnificent livery hall. This title only ever goes to a member of the Royal family, and The Princess Royal will retain it for life.

The unique badge is made from a mixture of materials including 18 carat white and yellow gold, enamel, sapphires and diamonds. The settings that hold the stones have been designed in an open scallop set fashion, echoing the U-shaped form of a horseshoe, allowing maximum light to reach each and every stone. The design itself displays The Saddlers’ company crest sporting their motto ‘hold fast, sit sure’, whilst the open fretwork allows the piece to be substantial in size without being too heavy to wear. Positioned above the badge is the solid blue royal cypher finished off in the style of the badge with sapphires and diamonds around its perimeter edge and this, in turn, is attached to a ribbon made by Ede & Ravenscroft, London’s oldest tailor.

HRH The Princess Royal’s affiliation with the equestrian world makes her the ideal person to be The Perpetual Master of The Saddlers’ Company, which supports, encourages and promotes the British saddlery industry, not least to ensure its equipment is made to the highest possible standards for the safety and comfort of both the horse and the rider. The Saddlers’ Company has only ever had two previous Perpetual Masters – Frederick, Prince of Wales from 1737 to 1751 and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, from 1906-1952.

Nigel Lithgow, The Clerk to The Saddlers’ Company, said: “We are absolutely delighted with Ben’s work, which has gone down extremely well with our members. The piece he produced is beautiful. It is marvellously well crafted and a credit to him. We were keen to help encourage a young, relatively up and coming silversmith. He was recommended by The Goldsmiths’ Company and we hope Ben’s success will help boost his standing in the future.”

Commenting on his commission, Ben says: “It was a real honour and privilege to have been selected to design and produce such a rare piece of work for one of the great Livery companies. As this was only the third ever Perpetual Master’s Badge in the Saddlers’ Company’s extensive history, I felt a real sense of responsibility – and as it was being designed for HRH The Princess Royal it was very important that the piece was elegant and of the highest quality. After all the weeks of careful planning and manufacture, I was personally very pleased with the outcome, and doubly so after the positive comments and praise I received from both The Saddlers’ Company and The Princess Royal herself.”

We just wanted to say a huge thank you to all the judges who picked our design as the winner of the Computer Aided Design section at this years Craftsmanship & Design Awards ‪#‎JewelleryOscars‬ @GCADC.‬

We are doubly excited to announce that two bespoke products from some of Ursae’s commissioned work were also exhibited at the awards, receiving awards in the 3D Finished Pieces – Smallworkers Section.‪#‎JewelleryOscars‬ @GCADC.‬

Whilst exhibiting at the Goldsmiths’ Fair Week1 2014, one of our Directors got TV legend Tim Wannocotts expert seal of approval with this tweet! #Barginhunt

We are really excited to announce that we currently have a selection of pieces for sale in Christie’s Auction House, London! The sale is hosting 61 of some of the best silversmiths from the CBS (The Contemporary British Silversmiths Society) and has an assortment of 186 pieces available for purchase ranging from £570.00 up to £48000.00

The sale is currently live and in a ‘Buy it now’ type format. All the work is truly amazing and must really be seen in the flesh. The work itself is displayed in Christies main exhibition hall at: 8 King Street London, SW1Y 6QT. It is well worth a trip to go and see, and in a beautiful part of London too, and open seven days a week.

We are honoured to share some special images from the official Royal opening of the Goldsmiths’ Centre, featuring the Ursae Directors Ben Ryan & Rupert Todd, the Director of the Goldsmiths’ Institute Peter Taylor, Prime Warden Goldsmiths’ Company Hector Miller, Trustee Martin Drew Drury, Dr. Stuart Devlin and HRH Princess Alexandra.