A Welsh Jewellery Designer and Portrait Artists very
Royal Commission
With gratitude to Gareth Eckley of
Portraits in Stone (
http://www.portraitsinstone.com )
Gareth, we are just so proud of you!
Chief William P. Miles presents the Pocahontas Cameo
Brooch to
Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of the American Indian Tribes
of Virginia.
Ceremony took place at Richmond, Virginia, May 3rd, 2007
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A jewellery designer and portrait artist from
Wales has just returned from America after being commissioned to create
a cameo, which was presented to Her Majesty the Queen as part of her
recent USA visit. Gareth Eckley, 43, was asked to create a cameo
brooch depicting the Indian princess Pocahontas in time for the Queen's
visit. Chief William Miles of the Pamunkey native Indian tribe presented
it to the Queen on the steps of the Capitol building in a special
ceremony before her speech to members of the American Government in
Richmond, Virginia on May 3rd.
Gareth is one of a very select group of gemstone portrait artists.
Great skill, artistry and experience are necessary to create accurate
portraits. Gareth Eckley has been a jewellery
designer since he left college in 1985. He returned to run his company
Portraits in Stone from his farm property in Wales around 5 years ago
after living in Canada for the previous 12.
His portrait cameos, which can take the form of a
pendant or brooch, cost from £ 2,000 upwards. He added: " Often these
portraits can be very personal, of a pet, a grandparent, spouse or most
often a child. There is such a strong emotional reaction to receiving a
cameo portrait of a loved one.
 Gareth was contacted in March to create the cameo.
The high profile client, whose name is to remain private, was looking
for the best cameo artist in Britain to create this project.
Gareth was flown over to Virginia, where he
examined the original cameo at the Jamestown Settlement Museum near
Williamsburg. He then returned to the UK to create the Cameo and then 4
weeks later flew back over to Virginia to deliver the Cameo.
Gareth creates an image on the cameo by hand,
carving with diamond tools into layered agate. Gradually removing the
layered material, he uses the contrast in colour and translucency of the
layers of stone to create shading effects that give a stunning level of
realism to the finished portrait.
For the Queen he was asked to reproduce the image
of Pocahontas to emulate a cameo which was carved by a London jeweller
from a piece of blue agate and set into a gold, pearl and diamond
brooch. This cameo brooch was presented to Pocahontas by King James I
and Queen Anne at the Royal Court in London in 1616.
The cameo later made its way back to Virginia. It
was stolen in the American civil war, when it was removed from the
original gold setting and lost. It was later recovered and a new setting
was made to display the cameo. A direct descendant of Pocahontas, the
Reverend Cary Weisiger III, donated the cameo brooch to the
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation in the 1950’s.
Gareth added: "In Elizabethan times they had quite
a classical Roman or Greek style of carving and the image had been made
to look quite cherubic. I felt that rather than make a straight
reproduction I would alter the cameo to have a more Indian profile. My
making the image more authentic was really appreciated by the Virginian
Indian tribes."
The Queen was presented with the cameo, which was
finished with rare fresh-water pearls fished from the Tennessee, at 3pm
after the Chief’s of the eight Virginian tribes had blessed it in a
ceremony at 1pm. 
Her Majesty then visited Jamestown, also in
Virginia, along with Prince Phillip and her host Vice President Dick
Cheney the following day, May 4th to celebrate the 400th anniversary of
the town's founding in a ceremony at a re-created colonial fort.
The town holds its significance as the first area
of major western settlement in May 1607, and as the place where
Pocahontas acted as mediator between her native father, chief of the
Powhatan tribe, and Captain John Smith of the English Settlement,
effectively saving the captain's life on at least two occasions.
Pocahontas later married English tobacco planter
John Rolfe and moved to Britain before passing away from pneumonia at
the age of 22 as she was preparing to sail back to America. She is
buried in Gravesend, Kent.
Gareth and his wife Sheila and their two sons
combined the trip with a family holiday, and also managed to meet some
of Gareth's stateside clients in person, a process which he says was
very rewarding.
Asked about the Queen's gift, Gareth added with a
smile:
" I did hear that she likes it very much."
Gareth Eckley © 2007
Used with permission of the author
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