Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Moshe Oved artist

Moshe Oved was born Edward Goodack to a Jewish family in Skępe, Congress of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) in 1885 and left for London in 1903 where he established his renowned jewellery emporium, Cameo Corner. He was a great supporter of Yiddish culture and a founding member of the Ben Uri Society, holding honorary offices within the organisation from 1915–56 and assisting with the acquisition of many works for the permanent collection. He began sculpting and making jewellery at the end of the Second World War, in his sixties, and created a series of small bronze heads and a number of candelabra to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, while his jewellery is highly collectible today.

Born: 1885 Skępe, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland)

Died: 1958 London, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1903

Other name/s: Edward Goodack, Edward Good, Moysheh Oyved, Mosheh Oved


Biography

Writer, sculptor and jewellery shop owner Moshe Oved was born Edward Goodack into a Jewish family in Skępe, Russian Empire (now Poland) in 1885; Jewish family; his father held a community position as a chazan-shochet. Little is known about Oved's early life and career before he left his homeland in 1903 and settled in London's East End, where he initially worked as a watchmaker. He was a founding member of the Ben Uri Society and a great supporter of Yiddish culture, holding honorary positions within Ben Uri from 1915–56 and always maintaining that its main goal should be to collect pictures and open a gallery. The collection in these years was particularly influenced by his taste, and his generosity, as he helped to fund and facilitate the acquisition of a number of important early works by Jewish artists, including Simeon Solomon, Jacob Kramer, David Bomberg and Samuel Hirszenberg.

Oved was a great character, who presided over Cameo Corner, first in Museum Street, Bloomsbury, in flowing purple robes, regaling his customers – among whom Queen Mary was a regular – with well-honed anecdotes – and building a reputation as a recognised authority on cameos, antique watches, and clocks. Jewellery was his lifelong passion: he made a gold and diamond brooch to Lazar Berson’s design for Ben Uri in 1916, while the Royal Collection suggests that in 1933 he sold the Mosaic Faberge Egg to King George V for £250.00, possibly as a gift for Queen Mary's birthday. Many years later Oved created a set of silver rings based on biblical animals that are now highly prized and collected. Allegedly, while sheltering in the basement of Cameo Corner during the Blitz, Oved first began modelling these rings to steady his anxious trembling hands. He took up sculpting at the end of the war in his sixties and created a series of small bronze heads and candelabra to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. Chanukiah with Doves is one of 11 works by Oved in the Ben Uri Collection, which also includes a group of heads, designs for commemorative rings and a highly individual menorah.

Oved also cultivated a literary career, writing in both English and in Yiddish, often with a mystical bent. His first book in Yiddish, Aroys fun Khaos (Out of Chaos, 1918), was followed by Lebns Lider (1924). In Visions and Jewels (1925), a collection of 124 autobiographical stories and short tales, he wrote about important figures within Yiddish and Jewish contemporary culture, such as Nahum Sokolow, Max Nordau, Sholem Asch, and sculptor, Jacob Epstein, who all came to speak at Ben Uri, among many others. Oved's The Book of Affinity (1933) was a deluxe production with original colour lithographs by Epstein; Oved presented two busts by Epstein to Ben Uri, both in 1947. The Collection also includes a fine 1924 Portrait of Moshe Oved by fellow Pole, Maurice Minkowski (1881–1930). Moshe Oved died in London, England in 1958. His works are represented in UK public collections including the Ben Uri Collection and he donated artefacts to the British Museum.

Related books

  • Rachel Dickson, ed., From Adler to Zulawski: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain (London: Ben Uri Research Unit, 2020)
  • W. Rubinstein, M. A. Jolles and H. Rubinstein, eds., The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 352-353
  • Obituary, Jewish Chronicle (19 September 1958, p. 9)
  • Moshe Oved, Prayers and Songs: Selected Poems in Yiddish (Strasbourg: Imprimerie d'Art, 1955)
  • Moshe Oved, Visions and Jewels: Autobiographic in Three Parts (London: Faber and Faber, 1952)
  • Sculptural Expressions by Mosheh Oved (London: St. George's Gallery, 1948)
  • Moshe Oved, For the Sake of the Days (London: Faber and Faber, 1940)
  • Moshe Oved, The Book of Affinity (London: William Heinemann, 1933 and New York: Coward McCann, 1935) (illustrations by Jacob Epstein)
  • Moshe Oved, Gems and Life (London: Ernest Benn, 1927)
  • Moshe Oved, Out of Chaos (London: Minerva Publishing Co., 1918)

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Ben Uri Art Society (founding member)
  • Cameo Corner (founder)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • Art Out of the Bloodlands: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum (2017)
  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Permanent Collection and Recent Acquisitions, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1989)
  • An Exhibition of Sculpture by Mosheh Oved, Foyles Art Gallery, London (1952)
  • Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Jewish Painters and Sculptors, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1950)
  • Exhibition: Sculptural Expressions by Mosheh Oved, St. George's Gallery, London (1948)
  • 40th Anniversary Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1940)
  Moshe Oved
   
Ben Uri collection

Moshe Oved in the Ben Uri collection

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Moshe Oved]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Moshe Oved] in the Ben Uri Library