There are more than 500,000 jewellery wearers in the City of Glasgow and an exhibition celebrating this fact is currently touring libraries in the city until March 2005.

The exhibition of over 50 photographs and quotes is the outcome of the Glasgow Jewellery Project, an initiative by journalist Deedee Cuddihy.  Her inspiration was the historic jewellery collection left to the city by the late Mrs Hull Grundy and she worked with pupils from Arden Primary School on the south side of the city.  They carried out research, interviews, visited exhibitions and took part in workshops, in order to create this unusual exhibition.

Quotes in the exhibition include:

Gordon Todd, jewellery in the Argyll Arcade: “This being Glasgow, you do get some great laughs. Years ago, this old fella came in and asked if we bought gold and when I said ‘yes’, he put his hand in his pocket and brought out a set of false teeth with gold fillings.”

Margaret, manager of Savoy Gold: “Men are quite good at buying for their wives. One man came in for another bangle and I said: ‘Has she got any space left on her arms?’ because he had bought her so many.”

There are more quotes and information about the exhibition in our feature.

The exhibition comes from Glasgow Museums’ Education Department and has been managed by Museums’ Education Officer, Anne Wallace, supported by the Scottish Arts Council.

The exhibition will spend a month at the following libraries:  November at Hillhead Library, December at Partick Library, January 2005 at Woodside Library, February at Ibrox Library and March at Langside Library.  The libraries are open Mon and Tues, 10am - 8pm; Wed 10am - 5pm; Thurs. 12 - 8pm; Fri and Sat 9am - 5pm.

People who see the exhibition and want to share their own stories about jewellery can email them to Glasgowjewel@aol.com