Glenn Spiro’s Innovative Jewelry Turns Antique Treasures Into Wearable Art
Each piece in the Materials of the Old World collection is a dialogue among history, faraway cultures, symbolism, and gems
Jeweler Glenn Spiro is a voracious collector, accumulating rare Golconda diamonds, old-mine Colombian emeralds, and 17th-century gold fragments made by artisans from the African Baoulé tribe. Some pieces are prized and precious, others more common, but regardless of their provenance, they mesmerize him. When the mood strikes, the London-based jeweler takes them out of the safe and with his son, Joe, assembles striking designs, including a bold necklace that pairs ancient Egyptian turquoise disks with an antique, 20-carat, cognac-colored diamond on a Baoulé gold pendant.
After years of acquiring these special artifacts, Spiro has brought them together in his recent collection Materials of the Old World. “You can wear something around your neck that dates back thousands of years but is still contemporary and cool,” he says. A 62-carat Colombian emerald, for instance, is surprisingly discreet hanging from another pendant made of gold from the Ivory Coast Baoulé tribe.
Each piece, Spiro says, is a dialogue among history, faraway cultures, symbolism, and gems. “My clients already have big jewels, and now they want something with style—a conversation piece, not a show of wealth,” he says, explaining that his goal is to create important jewelry that women can wear often, not just to black-tie occasions. For example, he set an assemblage of rare, old-mine Colombian emeralds in a tonal, green-tinted titanium necklace, so the stones appear to float against the skin. Without the traditional shiny gold setting, he says, the emeralds are unassuming enough to wear with a T-shirt and jeans.
Still, Spiro likes big diamonds, although he gravitates toward antique stones, some with soft yellow tints or caramel hues, which by industry standards are considered off-color. He prefers their warm tones and imperfections. “Back then, stones were cut by artisans who favored beauty over precision,” he says. “Today, the process is driven by technology, and the results often look the same, too perfect.”
His creative output has attracted a high-profile international following who visit his chic, by-appointment London salon in a Georgian mansion, formerly the royal couturier Norman Hartnell’s atelier. Yet Spiro is rarely in one place for long. He travels between his seasonal boutiques; summers in Saint-Tropez, France; winters in St. Barts; and hosts showings in New York, Los Angeles, and Palm Beach, Florida. Along the way, he meets dealers and museum curators, and assesses estate sales, always with an eye for the unusual to spark the next idea.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Summer Issue under the headline “Rare Find.” Subscribe to the magazine.