Like all the great artists of the twentieth century, Dalí wanted to see his iconographic images in various mediums. Having always been fascinated by precious metals, Dalí created a body of work in gold.
He viewed himself as a Renaissance man; to invent, imagine, paint, sculpt, and supervise artisans, like the great artists of the past did. According to Dalí, gold was a “celebration of the soul, a sign of purity” to be symbolised in his work, as a guarantee of eternity and an opportunity to be in harmony with the Cosmos.
“In jewels, as in all my art, I create what I love”
- Salvador Dalí
In the 1950s Dalí collaborated with the extravagant designer Mafalda Davis. Together they created elegant gold cutlery with precious gems and spectacular tableware combining Davis’s sense of style and Dalí’s famous imagery. Studded rubies, rock crystal and sapphires are some of the gems used in the vermillion-plated place settings.
During the late 1960s, Dalí created his own set of gold coins, in which he appears in profile with his wife, Gala. The coins had four different values depending on their size and weight. .
Dalí went on to create twelve pure gold objects assembled from his Dalí d’Or coin collection. Dalí d’Or-Objets Montés (Dalí Gold-Mounted Objects) were created in order to emulate royalty in all its excess and splendour. They included magical mirrors, pendants with serpent motifs and emblems in honour of the sun.
