# Kenneth Snowman > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Kenneth_Snowman > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Kenneth_Snowman.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Snowman > Source revision: 1348895605 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|British jeweller and painter (1919–2002)}} {{Use British English|date=October 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Kenneth Snowman | honorific_suffix = CBE FSA | image = Kenneth Snowman 1919-2002.jpg | alt = | caption = Kenneth Snowman, 1919–2002. | birth_name = Abraham Kenneth Snowman | birth_date = {{Birth date|1919|07|26|df=yes}} | birth_place = [Hampstead](/source/Hampstead), London, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|2002|07|09|1919|07|26|df=yes}} | death_place = | burial_place = [Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery](/source/Willesden_United_Synagogue_Cemetery) | education = [University College School](/source/University_College_School) | alma_mater = [Saint Martin's School of Art](/source/Saint_Martin's_School_of_Art)
[Byam Shaw School of Art](/source/Byam_Shaw_School_of_Art) | occupation = Jeweller, painter, and the chairman of [Wartski](/source/Wartski) | known_for = | notable_works = | spouse = {{marriage|Sallie Moghilevkine|1942|1995|end=died}} | children = [Nicholas Snowman](/source/Nicholas_Snowman) | mother = Harriet Wartski | father = [Emanuel Snowman](/source/Emanuel_Snowman) | relatives = [Jacob Snowman](/source/Jacob_Snowman) (uncle)
[Isaac Snowman](/source/Isaac_Snowman) (uncle) }} '''Abraham Kenneth Snowman''' [CBE](/source/Order_of_the_British_Empire) [FSA](/source/Society_of_Antiquaries_of_London) (26 July 1919 – 9 July 2002) was a British jeweller, painter and the chairman of [Wartski](/source/Wartski).{{cite news|last=Mullaly|first=Terence|title=Kenneth Snowman|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/aug/01/guardianobituaries.arts|accessdate=2 May 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|date=1 August 2002}} He was made a Fellow of the [Society of Antiquaries of London](/source/Society_of_Antiquaries_of_London) in 1994, and a Commander of the [Order of the British Empire](/source/Order_of_the_British_Empire) in 1997. ==Early life== Snowman was born in Hampstead, London, one of three children of the jeweller [Emanuel Snowman](/source/Emanuel_Snowman) and his wife Harriet Wartski, daughter of Morris Wartski, the founder of the [Wartski](/source/Wartski) art and antiques firm. His family was Jewish and originally came from Poland.{{cite news|title=Kenneth Snowman|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1401476/Kenneth-Snowman.html|accessdate=3 May 2014|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=16 July 2002}} Snowman was educated at [University College School](/source/University_College_School), Hampstead.{{cite book|last=Rubinstein|first=William D.|title=The Palgrave dictionary of Anglo-Jewish history|date=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=Basingstoke|isbn=978-1403939104|page=928|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_T_HCg17ufIC&pg=PA928|author2=Jolles, Michael A. |author3=Rubinstein, Hilary L.|authorlink1=William Rubinstein|authorlink3=Hilary L. Rubinstein }} Kenneth's father made regular trips to the Soviet Union, acquiring a total of nine [Fabergé egg](/source/Faberg%C3%A9_egg)s between 1925 and 1938,von Solodkoff, Alexander. "Tracing Fabergé treasures after 1918" in:
{{cite book |first1=Géza |last1=von Habsburg |first2=Marina |last2=Lopato |title=Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller |year=1993 |location=London |publisher=[Thames & Hudson](/source/Thames_%26_Hudson) |pages=152–159 |isbn=0500092397 }} which Kenneth played with as a child. He then studied at [Saint Martin's School of Art](/source/Saint_Martin's_School_of_Art) and the [Byam Shaw School of Art](/source/Byam_Shaw_School_of_Art). ==Artistic career== Snowman painted throughout his life, exhibiting at the [Royal Academy](/source/Royal_Academy), the [Paris Salon](/source/Paris_Salon) and the Leicester galleries. In September 1999, there was a retrospective exhibition of his work in Cork Street, London, at the dealers Browse and Darby. The painter Peter Greenham was a lifelong friend. Snowman was highly critical of trends in modern art towards [conceptualism](/source/Conceptual_art) and away from [figurative art](/source/figurative_art). In his 1993 chapter in ''Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller'' he railed against "fraudulent jumbles of brushstrokes and meaningless heaps of rubbish left on the gallery floor to be admired by the simple minded". He was optimistic, however, that the pendulum was now swinging the other way towards respect for "anything that shows evidence of work well done", for instance the work of highly skilled craftsmen working for Fabergé, [Lalique](/source/Lalique) and [Cartier](/source/Cartier_(jeweler)). Snowman acknowledged, however, that the work of Fabergé, for instance, could seem over-ornate and was not always to the modern taste. He made no comment regarding the cost of such items.Snowman, A. Kenneth. "Fabergé in our time" in:
{{cite book |first1=Géza |last1=von Habsburg |first2=Marina |last2=Lopato |title=Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller |year=1993 |location=London |publisher=[Thames & Hudson](/source/Thames_%26_Hudson) |pages=17–19 |isbn=0500092397 }} ==Wartski career== [[File:Wartski 3171.JPG|thumb|[Wartski](/source/Wartski), Grafton Street, London]] In 1940, after he married, Snowman entered the family business, rather than pursuing a career as an artist. Like his father, he was an enthusiastic dealer in the works of [Carl Fabergé](/source/Carl_Faberg%C3%A9), and wrote a number of scholarly yet accessible books and catalogues on the subject, largely connected with the 1949 and 1953 exhibitions he arranged at Wartski. He also organised the major Fabergé exhibitions at the [Victoria and Albert Museum](/source/Victoria_and_Albert_Museum) in London in 1977, and at the [Cooper-Hewitt Museum](/source/Cooper-Hewitt_Museum) in New York in 1983.{{cite web|title=Wartski|url=http://www.jewelsdujour.com/directory/estate-jewelry-dealer-directory/wartski/|work=Jewels du Jour|accessdate=7 May 2014|archive-date=7 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140507035132/http://www.jewelsdujour.com/directory/estate-jewelry-dealer-directory/wartski/|url-status=dead}} Snowman was a friend of the novelist [Ian Fleming](/source/Ian_Fleming), and is one of the few people to appear as himself in a [James Bond](/source/James_Bond) story, [The Property of a Lady](/source/The_Property_of_a_Lady), and the only one with an important role. The story was first published in a [Sotheby's](/source/Sotheby's) publication, ''The Ivory Hammer'', in 1963 and later in the Fleming short story collection ''Octopussy and The Living Daylights''. Fleming writes: "James Bond asked for Mr Kenneth Snowman. A good-looking, very well-dressed man of about forty rose from a group of men..." There is then a lengthy discussion about the Fabergé "Emerald Sphere" that is due to be auctioned the next day at Sotheby's and Snowman comments "We've got some pieces here my father bought from the Kremlin around 1927".{{cite book|last=Fleming|first=Ian|title=Octopussy and the Living Daylights|isbn=9786155452635|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TcB2AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT28}} The story also forms the basis for the 1983 film ''[Octopussy](/source/Octopussy)'', where a [Fabergé egg](/source/Faberg%C3%A9_egg) plays an important role, but Snowman's role there is conflated with another and becomes the character Jim Fanning, played by [Douglas Wilmer](/source/Douglas_Wilmer). In the film, prior to the auction of the Fabergé egg, Bond visits the Wartski shop, then at 138 Regent Street, where Snowman/Fanning explains the history of Carl Fabergé's work, and then goes with Bond to the sale at Sotheby's. ==Personal life== Snowman married Sallie Moghilevkine in 1942, they remained married until her death in 1995. They had a son, [Nicholas Snowman](/source/Nicholas_Snowman), co-chairman of Wartski since 1998–2002, and chairman since then. ==Selected publications== *{{cite book|title=The Art of Carl Fabergé|year=1953}} *{{Cite book|title=Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe|year=1966}} *{{Cite book|title=Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Paris: A Catalogue of the J. Ortiz-Patino Collection|year=1974}} *{{Cite book|title=Carl Fabergé, Goldsmith to the Imperial Court of Russia|isbn=0670204862|year=1979 |last1=Snowman |first1=Abraham Kenneth |publisher=[Viking Press](/source/Viking_Press) }} *{{Cite book|title=Fabergé Lost and Found|isbn=0810933071|year=1993 |last1=Snowman |first1=Abraham Kenneth |publisher=[H. N. Abrams](/source/H._N._Abrams) }} *{{Cite book|title=The Master Jewellers|year=2002}} ==References== {{Reflist|30em}} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Snowman, Kenneth}} Category:1919 births Category:2002 deaths Category:20th-century English biographers Category:20th-century English businesspeople Category:20th-century English Jews Category:20th-century English male artists Category:20th-century English male writers Category:20th-century English painters Category:21st-century English biographers Category:21st-century English businesspeople Category:21st-century English Jews Category:21st-century English male artists Category:21st-century English male writers Category:21st-century English painters Category:Alumni of the Byam Shaw School of Art Category:Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art Category:Antiques dealers Category:Artists from the London Borough of Camden Category:British chairpersons of corporations Category:Businesspeople from the London Borough of Camden Category:Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:English art historians Category:English business executives Category:English jewellers Category:English male biographers Category:English male painters Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Category:James Bond Category:Jewish English writers Category:Jewish historians Category:Jewish painters Category:People from Hampstead Category:People educated at University College School Kenneth --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Kenneth Snowman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Snowman) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Snowman?action=history)). 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