Ari Norman

Ari Daniel Norman is a British designer and manufacturer of traditional and modern sterling silver jewellery and gifts.

Ari Norman’s paternal grandfather, Leibish Nussbaum, a Polish diamond cleaver was arrested in Marmande in the Southern French region of Lot-et-Garonne in 1942, where he and his wife were in hiding during WWII and taken via Drancy to the concentration camp Auschwitz where he was killed as part of the Holocaust.

There he stayed, married Phillys Larkham who had originally taken him in as a Belgian refugee, and continued to work in the diamond industry for many years.

As Norman was on his world travels, he collected a wide range of items including ethnic jewellery and clothing and shipped them all home.

Once back in London, Norman and his father decided to offer these unique items for sale to retailers in the West End and around the King’s Road.

Norman originally bought from retailers in Mexico City but soon moved onto the town of Taxco where the silver craftsmen were based and he could buy from them wholesale.

Norman initially bought silver jewellery and gift items from Mexican artisans in order to sell directly onto retailers.

These were considered the 'antiques of tomorrow'[10] and drew influence from artists such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, William Morris, Georges Fouquet, Victor Horta, Rene Lalique and Alphonse Mucha.

[15] Ari D Norman revived an interest in small sterling silver accessories such as perfume bottles, thimbles, snuffboxes and collectable pillboxes.

In 1992, he was invited to join the Worshipful Guild of Goldsmiths in recognition of his services to the silver industry and his promotion of the hallmarking system, and was awarded the Freedom of the City of London.

Norman cites his grandfather’s murder at the hands of the Nazis in Auschwitz as a major influence on his actions and character and continues to have a ‘holocaust’ mentality, where nothing in one's life should be taken for granted.

[10] Norman volunteered during the Israeli Six-Day War of 1967 when many of his friends and family were travelling in the opposite direction back to the UK to avoid the conflict.