Phil was born in London in 1952. In 1967, at the age of fifteen, Phil began a seven-year full-time apprenticeship in his father’s company, C F Barnes & Co. The C F Barnes workshop was being used by the major London fine jewellery and objet houses including Cartier, De Vroomen Designs, Elizabeth Gage, Garrard and Asprey.Whilst still an apprentice and at just 19 years of age, Phil entered the Goldsmiths’
Craft & Design Council Competition, known as the jewellery Oscars, which has been sponsored by Cartier since the 1950s.

He became the youngest ever recipient of the prized Cartier Award, which is given for work showing exceptional and outstanding craft skills of the highest technical quality.

In June 1978 Phil became a Freeman of the Goldsmiths’ Company and was awarded the Freedom of the City of London. By the age of 25, Phil was a one- third partner in his father’s firm and when his father retired in 1983, Phil set up his own workshop in Clapham, London. Phil had by now established himself
as a master engraver and enameller and was well known in the elite world of the jewellery trade. He counted among his expanding client base Theo Fennell, Stephen Webster, Shaun Leane, Leo de Vroomen and Henn of London. In 2005 Phil moved to Suffolk and set up his workshop in Yoxford. He maintained a select client base and concentrated on designing and making his own pieces, inspired by his love of nature and his surroundings in Suffolk.

His love of his art and craft is clear in this extract from a talk he gave at the
Southwold Arts Festival in 2017:
“All of my work revolves around enamelling, the design and surface decoration being the most important thing to me. Engraving also plays a large part in my work, even with a long standing enamelling career behind me, I still get excited about the process, the effects and look only enamel can bring. The transparency and clarity of the coloured enamel reflecting back from a brightly engraved background still thrills. Enamelling is an art, a craft and not a science and it is this that makes it such a challenging and rewarding medium in which to work. There is nothing more beautiful or stunning than a piece of fine enamel work.”

Phil was extremely proud of his background, his craft and his long association with the Goldsmiths’ Company and by 2017 Phil had been awarded 35 Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council awards for enamelling, engraving and designer finished pieces, the most ever awarded to one person.
When Phil was asked what success meant to him he said:
“It’s not the money, I think it’s the recognition, I already have a reputation through working for other people within the trade but no-one outside the trade really knows that. What I am relishing now is people looking at my work and wanting it and they are collecting it.”

Phil was delighted to finally have a piece of his work in the Goldsmiths’ collection and was invited to attend Goldsmiths’ Hall in February 2019 where the purchase of his vase was announced by the Prime Warden.

The passing on of knowledge was important to Phil and in 2019 he achieved his ambition to leave a written record of his way of working when his book ‘Engraving and Enamelling – The Art of Champlevé’ was published.

Accolades

Winner of the Jacques Cartier “Craftsman of the Year” Award 1971

Awarded Freedom of the Goldsmiths’ Company in 1978 and Freedom of the City of London in the same year

Master to three apprentices

Judge for the enamelling section for the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Awards

Part-time lecturer at the Sir John Cass School of Art and Design in London for 15 years.

He was a visiting lecturer on enamelling for many years, teaching at such places as the Royal College of Art and UCE Birmingham and has given numerous master classes throughout this country and abroad.

Phil showed his work in travelling exhibitions with the Goldsmiths’ Company in Boston, San Francisco and Frankfurt and exhibited at Goldsmiths’ fair London and British Silver Week.

Chairman of the British Society of Enamellers for five years showing his work in various exhibitions with them across Europe and the USA

Winner of 35 Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council awards for enamelling, engraving and designer finished pieces from 1971 to 2017.

A founder member of the Institute of Professional Goldsmiths where he served as Chairman.

Former Trustee of the Hand Engravers Association of Great Britain, his paperweight ‘Mythical Creature in Blue’ is part of their permanent exhibition in the Clock Makers’ Museum, within the Science Museum in London.

He features in the short ‘How it was Made’ film series which forms part of the permanent display within the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Phil was a member of the Guild of Enamellers and the Buddy Scheme he proposed was adopted by them in 2019.

Phil taught engraving and enamelling to two recipients of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) – Naomi Neville and Harry Forster-Stringer.

Phil was involved in developing and teaching on the pre-apprentice foundation course at the Goldsmiths’ Centre, London.

Suffolk Craft Society member.

Winner of the Balvenie ‘Master of Craft’ Metal section 2012.

Finalist in the Heritage Craft Association Marsh Christian Craft Trainer Award
2013.

Linda Barnes June 2025