Nationality British Name Geoffrey Munn Role Writer | Spouse(s) Caroline Munn MA Awards OBE TV shows Antiques Roadshow | |
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Books Tiaras ‑ A History of Splendour, The triumph of love, Pre‑Raphaelite to Arts and Crafts Je, Castellani and Giuliano | ||
Thames And Field on the Antiques Roadshow
Masterpiece London 2013 - Geoffrey Munn - Wartski
Geoffrey Charles Munn, OBE, FSA, FLS, FRSA (born in Hastings on 11 April 1953) is a British jewellery specialist, television presenter and writer. He is best known as one of the experts on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow. However, his first television appearance was in 1963 when he, and his brother, Roger Munn, featured with their pet fox cubs on Johnny Morris's Animal Magic. He was brought up in Henfield in Sussex and educated at Shoreham College and Steyning Grammar School, but, unlike many of his peers, did not attend university. Now Munn is the managing director of London jewellers Wartski, where he has worked since the age of 19; his specialisation is jewellery, especially that of Fortunato Pio Castellani, Carlo Giuliano and Fabergé.
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Wartski are jewellers by appointment to HM the Queen and HRH the Prince of Wales. The firm made the Welsh gold wedding rings for the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles, and Catherine Middleton when she married Prince William in 2011.
Munn has a keen interest in every aspect of history and has a collection of ancient flint tools he has found in the Southwold area of Suffolk. He has appeared in several television sequences of "mudlarking" in the Thames at Westminster. Munn is fascinated by both literature and art and has written a number of books, including Southwold, an Earthly Paradise, a pictorial history of his home town. (Antique Collectors' Club 2006, revised and republished 2017). He has written on the drawings of D G Rossetti, Edward Lear and J.M.W. Turner. In July 2015, Munn conducted the first in a series called Tate Britain BP Walks Through British Art in which there was an emphasis on jewellery and botanical decoration from the Renaissance to the present day.
Munn has curated many exhibitions, including Tiaras at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2002. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, the Linnean Society of London and The Royal Society of Arts. Munn is a Freeman of the City of London and was Fourth Warden of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. He is also a member of the Garrick Club, The Arts Club, the Chelsea Arts Club and the Sailor's Reading Room, Southwold.
Munn is the author of four books about jewellery: Castellani and Giuliano: revivalist jewellers of the nineteenth century (Office du Livre 1984), Artist's Jewellery; Pre-Raphaelite to Arts and Crafts with Charlotte Gere (Antique Collectors' Club 1989), The Triumph of Love: jewellery 1530-1930 (Thames and Hudson 1993), Tiaras: a history of splendour (Antique Collectors' Club, 2003). Geoffrey Munn has also written a history of his firm called "Wartski- The First One Hundred and Fifty Years" (Antique Collectors' Club 2015). He has also made a survey of the work of the contemporary Italian jeweller and goldsmith Giovanni Corvaja.
In 2007 Munn played himself in Joe's Palace a film by Stephen Poliakoff. In Who's Who he lists his recreations as "mudlarking", metal detecting, Bonsai, running, cooking, museums and art galleries.
In 2016 Geoffrey Munn was appointed Chairman of the Friends of The British Antique Dealers' Association Trust.
Munn is an Ambassador for the Samaritans and patron of the Lowestoft branch; he ran the Flora London Marathon for the charity raising £80,000 in sponsorship. Munn is also an Ambassador for the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK and patron of The Brain Tumour Charity, the National Osteoporosis Society and Sotterley Chapel Preservation Trust. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Years Honours list for services to charity in the United Kingdom.