Exquisite silver vessels grace the shelves of museums and beautiful homes around the world – and now they’re attracting a new generation of collectors, discovers Rosanna Morris
HEIRLOOMS OF THE FUTURE
I always like to get emotion in,’ says celebrated silversmith Ndidi Ekubia talking through the process of her distinctive works. Ndidi’s richly textured, gleaming silver vessels ripple with life, her personality reflected in the undulating, rhythmic hammer marks. The smooth indentations of each strike she has made capture the essence of her character – strong but gentle – and call to mind waves, wind and plants. ‘Pattern in nature is the main thing for me.’
Speaking from Mauritius during a rare trip to mark her 50th birthday, she talks about ‘getting back into the swing of things’. She’s recently returned to her home ground, Manchester, with her two young children, and is looking to start making large vessels once again. ‘I might make more jewellery, too,’ she muses.
Ndidi has been silversmithing for more than 25 years and has work in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, and private collections around the world. She was awarded an MBE for silversmithing in 2017, and her pieces are already becoming heirlooms and beginning to surface at auction (a large vessel sold for $25,000 in New York in 2019). She’s currently exhibiting in a major show at Chatsworth. ‘I’ve been around for ages, people must be bored of me,’ she says. Not so – people can’t get enough of Ndidi. And a new generation of art collectors and lovers have started investing in and revering her works.
Art dealer Adrian Sassoon spotted her pieces at the Chelsea Crafts Fair in 2002 and the gallery has represented her ever since. ‘Ndidi’s work imbues a great sense of rhythm that is uniquely hers, where the material comes alive with a palpable energy,’ says George Ludlow, operations manager at Adrian Sassoon. ‘When one handles these pieces – the movement Ndidi has captured, and indeed bound – one grasps the tactile and almost velvety quality of the silver. This sense of animation has been a key factor in experiencing her works of art. Both established and new collectors gravitate towards Ndidi’s work as they express a genuine conflation of artistic brilliance and aesthetic
