Collaboration Produces Exquisite Gauntlet in Arthurian Style

Fantasy Meets High Fashion…

Take an international fashion icon, Daphne Guinness, fascinated by the legend of King Arthur’s knights and the romance of their metallic armor.

Add an award-winning English jewelry designer, Shaun Leane, celebrated widely for the ‘dark romantic’ feel of his chic jewels, which Sotheby’s has called ‘antiques of the future’.

This extraordinary creative duo worked together over five years to create a glove in white gold and diamonds that brings to mind knightly armor.

Contra Mundum – or Against the World was launched in June. It can be worn as an evening glove (it was modeled perfectly to Daphne Guinness’s arm and hands) and has two parts: one that goes over the hand and the other that dresses the arm. It has been decorated with a flight of birds in white diamonds, and is entirely handmade, weighting over 1,000 grams in gold and 5,000 white diamonds.

A cuff protects the back of the hand and can be worn separately as a sort of ‘day glove’ or with the decorated arm part for a formal evening event.

Daphne’s beautifully theatrical presentation of the piece – dressed in the bespoke glove and shrouded in white silk tulle, her lie-in state symbolised the concept of the objet d’art… Sir Thomas Malory’s compilation of the legendary tales of the Knights of the Round Table.