Sterling Silver Kiwi and Greenstone Desk Ornament

• Frank Hyams Ltd. - Frank Hyams purchased a jewellery business in Princess Street Dunedin in 1885. As well as a manufacturing jeweller, he was a silversmith and goldsmith and specialised in jewellery incorporating New Zealand greenstone. At the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in 1890 he secured "first order of merit" for the manufacture of gold, gem and greenstone jewellery.
  
  Concurrent with his Dunedin store, in 1902 Frank Hyams registered a limited company, Frank Hyams Ltd., and established a business in London, at 167 New Bond Street, and later at 128 New Bond Street, London, trading as 'artistic jewellers, gold and silversmiths, and dealers in gems of rarity'.
  
  Frank Hyams established a reputation within the English aristocratic and upper class social circles for his unique one-off curiosity pieces incorporating materials and design influences from his New Zealand homeland.
  
  The British Museum has a collection of 36 badges manufactured by Frank Hyams Ltd., circa 1906.
  
  According to the London Gazette, in 1913 at an Extraordinary General Meeting it was voted that the company be voluntarily wound up and Frank Hyams was appointed liquidator.
• Sterling Silver - Sterling silver is a mixture of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% of another metal, usually copper. Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver, and is relatively soft and the addition of the very small amount of copper gives the metal enough strength and hardness to be worked into jewellery, decorative and household objects.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• desk sets - various materials 153
• Hyams, Frank (New Zealand) - silver and jewellery 15