The History of Mürrle Bennet & Co.
Mürrle Bennett and a new style of jewellery
By the end of the 19th century, jewellery designers were moving away from the revival styles that dominated the late Victorian period and embracing the Art Nouveau. This aesthetic was inspired by nature, featuring flowing lines and light coloured gemstones and enamel. Mürrle Bennett & Co. was one of the first firms to bring this new style of jewellery to Britain, inspired by Continental taste and manufacturing and importing much of their work from Pforzheim in Germany.
The business was founded in London in 1884 by the German-born Ernst Mürrle and J. B. Bennett, initially trading as Siegele & Bennett. It became Siegele, Bennett & Co. in the 1890s, then Mürrle, Bennett & Co. in 1896. The firm moved through several London premises before settling at 13 Charterhouse Street in 1898, where it became established as a manufacturer and importer of both British and Continental jewellery.
By the early 1890s, the firm's German connection was already firmly established. An 1891 advertisement listed the business not only in London but also at 39 Bleichstrasse in Pforzheim, giving Mürrle Bennett a presence in two of Europe's important jewellery centres. Its advertised stock was varied, including diamond work, gold and silver jewellery, mosaic, onyx, moonstone, enamel, coral, amber, garnet, filigree and paste jewellery. The Art Nouveau pieces for which Mürrle Bennett is best remembered today were therefore only one part of a much broader jewellery business.
Pforzheim comes to London
The character of Mürrle Bennett jewellery owed much to Ernst Mürrle’s German background and continued connection with Pforzheim. After moving to London around 1880, he continued to travel to Germany around six times a year, importing as much as 80% of his jewellery from specialist workshops and manufacturers there.
The firm worked with a number of German makers, including Theodor Fahrner and Wilhelm Fühner. It drew upon the expertise and progressive design culture for which Pforzheim had become known, offering new and fashionable jewellery to the British market. Mürrle Bennett was described as a ‘wholesale importer’, but its role went far beyond simply bringing German jewellery into Britain. The firm became an important link between Pforzheim’s manufacturers and the London jewellery trade, and helped to introduce British customers to Jugendstil, the German counterpart to Art Nouveau, at a time when jewellery tastes were regularly changing.
Mürrle Bennett pieces showing Art Nouveau and Jugendstil influence.
The resulting style still featured the scrolling lines associated with Art Nouveau but often with stronger outlines or simplified motifs. Mürrle Bennett also frequently used silver, enamel, and semi-precious stones such as turquoise, coral, opal and moonstone, letting design take precedence over material value. This style differed from much of the more traditional precious jewellery being produced in Britain at the time but did align somewhat with Arts and Crafts styles.
Ernst Mürrle also appears to have been an astute commercial jeweller and an advocate of new design. A 1911 profile credited him with helping transform the paste jewellery trade. When he entered the business, paste stones were seen as poor imitations, but Mürrle recognised the opportunity to improve both their appearance and manufacture, with the contemporary writer going so far as to claim that he had helped make the paste trade what it had become.
Mürrle Bennett’s most important retail outlet was undoubtedly with Liberty & Co, starting around 1891. Mürrle Bennett was already established before Liberty became so closely associated with Art Nouveau jewellery, but the two firms' relationship would become important for both. Liberty retailed jewellery supplied by Mürrle Bennett, and Mürrle Bennett sourced the Jugendstil style that Liberty clientele wanted. Many of the pieces on the market today are Mürrle Bennett for Liberty & Co.
The Mürrle Bennett look
Mürrle Bennett’s choice of materials suited the Art Nouveau well. Working with soft, colour shifting gemstones such as opal and moonstone drew comparisons with the delicate tones found in the natural world, while brighter turquoise and coral introduced flashes of colour reminiscent of a kingfisher’s plumage. As with other Art Nouveau pieces, enamel also added further colour and detail.
The firm created designs in both silver and gold, working the metal into its characteristic cagework, which did not simply set the gemstones but formed part of the beauty of the design. This cagework is now one of the most recognisable features of Mürrle Bennett jewellery. Another component of the design was that a jewel’s value did not come from the monetary value of its gemstones, with greater emphasis placed on the design and craftsmanship of the piece.
Yet Mürrle Bennett's output was considerably more varied than the styles now most closely associated with the firm. At the Jewellers' Exhibition of 1912, its display included a 'Cleopatra' slave bangle, fancy chains, pendants, bracelets, scarf pins, 'new-style' earrings and hand-wrought silver brooches. In 1913, it offered golfing scarf pins, imitation pearl necklaces, Paris diamond jewellery, and gold-mounted Wedgwood cameos. The following year the company even exhibited silver chain bags. These surviving descriptions give us a rather different picture of Mürrle Bennett, as the firm was not simply the maker of Art Nouveau style, but a highly commercial jewe
llery company constantly responding to fashion.
By 1905 the business had grown sufficiently to become Mürrle, Bennett & Co. Ltd. Its stated activities extended beyond jewellery manufacturing to goldsmithing, silversmithing, watches, precious stones, electroplating and imitation jewellery. What had begun as a relatively small Anglo-German partnership had developed into a substantial wholesale jewellery concern.
Mürrle Bennett and Liberty & Co.
As previously mentioned, Mürrle Bennett’s reputation in the antique jewellery world is no doubt a result of its close connection with Liberty & Co. By the time Ernst Mürrle moved to London, Liberty championed the new artistic styles in the decorative arts, and by selling through Liberty, the company had direct access to both fashionable London society and a wider British audience.
At the same time, a growing fascination with Celtic art led to the development of the Celtic Revival style. Under designer Archibald Knox, Liberty launched its Cymric range in 1899, combining Celtic motifs with the flowing lines of Art Nouveau. Mürrle Bennett appears to have played a direct role in the production of at least some Cymric jewellery and surviving Mürrle Bennett stock records include pieces described as ‘Cymric’. Furthermore, some Archibald Knox designs feature the Mürrle Bennett mark. The firm was not the only manufacturer producing jewellery for Liberty, but this evidence reveals how closely connected the two businesses were.
A Liberty silver and enamel Cymric brooch by Archibald Knox with Mürrle Bennett makers mark.
Contemporary accounts associate Mürrle Bennett with jewellery in the styles of Liberty & Co. and W. H. Haseler, as well as pieces supplied by Theodor Fahrner in Pforzheim. These connections can make attribution difficult today, as jewels sold through Liberty may resemble those supplied by Mürrle Bennett or other German manufacturers, while similar designs appeared under different firms’ names. This overlap reflects the close network of designers, workshops, wholesalers and retailers through which jewellery was produced and sold, and a single piece could pass through several businesses before reaching its customer.
How the war affected the business
The international connections that had helped make Mürrle Bennett so successful would ultimately contribute to the firm’s end. For decades, Ernst Mürrle moved freely between London and Pforzheim, building a business around the exchange of jewellery and ideas between Britain and Germany, but the outbreak of war in 1914 dramatically changed relations between Britain and Germany and ended any opportunity for commercial exchange. As a German national living in Britain, Mürrle was interned on the Isle of Man and sent back to Germany in 1916, ending his involvement with the London business.
Before his departure, the Board of Trade was already negotiating to purchase the business, and by 1916 Mürrle, Bennett & Co. Ltd was formally wound up under the Trading with the Enemy legislation. This marked an abrupt end to a business that had depended for more than thirty years on the easy movement of people, jewellery and ideas between Britain and Germany.
The company did not entirely disappear, as three men long associated with the firm, James H. White, William Raynsford Redgrove and Cuthbert G. Whyte, purchased it. It continued from the same Charterhouse Street premises under the name White, Redgrove & Whyte, initially describing itself as 'Mürrle, Bennett's successors'. By 1918 the business had become White & Redgrove Ltd. It remained at 13 Charterhouse Street until around 1975, moving to 15 New North Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, in 1981.
Surviving Mürrle Bennett jewels remind us of this creative period in jewellery history, when the workshops of Pforzheim and the London jewellery trade were closely connected, and German Jugendstil design reached a British audience.
What to look out for today
Mürrle Bennett jewellery is highly collectable today. When identifying a piece, look for the firm’s characteristic ‘MB&Co.’ mark, as well as the materials and design details associated with its work - colourful enamel, turquoise and coral, opals and moonstones, set in silver or gold and surrounded by the firm’s distinctive metalwork. Pendants, brooches, earrings and necklaces are the pieces most frequently found today. Examples regularly appear at auction and with specialist antique jewellery dealers.
At Thomas Glover, we have a lovely selection of Mürrle Bennett pieces and regularly add pieces to our collection. Explore our current selection here.
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