A silver gelatin dry plate glass negative in landscape format.

Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

Sepia photograph of the Technological Museum and a cow in the foreground

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Sepia photograph of the Technological College and Museum in Broken Hill

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Colour photograph of red corrugated iron building from a high vantage point

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Powerhouse Museum, Stage 2 exterior from high angle, city skyline in background

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Blurred image from film with museum object number

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Powerhouse Renewal

Two people standing next to a cow in a field of cows.

Powerhouse Food: Producers

Across Western Sydney24 Aug 2024 — 25 Jul 2025

We Rise

Blak Powerhouse

A tall rocket with a long trail of burning fuel lifts off from a launchpad at Cape Canaveral.

Powerhouse-1 Mission Launch to the ISS

An initiative of the Powerhouse: Future Space program

Photofields

Across Sydney6—7 Dec
Shadows cast by the Powerhouse Parramatta exoskeleton on concrete

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

A woman stands on stage in front of a large audience. She has her left hand raised in the air and a microphone in her right hand. The audience are holding their phones up recording the woman.

Blak Powerhouse 2023

Powerhouse x We Are Warriors

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Stories

A Fine Possession: Jewellery and Identity

Anne Schofield AM gifts extraordinary personal jewellery collection
Portrait of a woman with dark hair slicked back wearing a blue and gold necklace with matching earrings.

I think its a basic human need to adorn oneself.
Anne Schofield AM

In 2022, Powerhouse received an unprecedented gift from Australia’s leading antique jewellery dealer, Anne Schofield AM. Comprised of over 100 rare pieces of historical gemstone jewellery, this acquisition is one of the most significant donations in the museum’s history.

A matching necklace and earrings (pair) in a box, both have dark blue stones set in gold.
A dark haired woman wearing a red three piece outfit and a gold necklace set with multi-coloured stones that have faces carved on them.

Anne Schofield’s personal jewellery collection includes works created between the 17th and early 20th centuries featuring an astonishing range of gemstones and techniques. Highlights from the Anne Schofield Collection include exquisitely crafted archaeological jewellery, 18th century hardstone intaglios, Carlo Giuliano earrings, an Egyptian-style lapis lazuli demi-parure, Art Nouveau dragonfly and wasp pedants, Cartier and Georg Jensen pieces and a French demi-parure with onyx cameos from 1820.

Internationally renowned for her knowledge and passion for fine jewellery, Ms Schofield established her legendary boutique Anne Schofield Antiques in Woollahra in 1970. It was the first successful business in Australia to specialise in antique jewellery. A long-standing donor and supporter of the Powerhouse as Life Fellow and honorary adviser for jewellery, in 2014 she generously lent 70 significant objects from her personal collection to the award-winning exhibition, A Fine Possession: Jewellery and Identity.

A brooch made of emerald, diamonds, gold and silver with a box made out of leather and wood.
A brooch in the shape of a bee made out of gold, diamonds, sapphires and rubies.
A brooch made out of white metal set with clear and black stones in a jewellery box.

During her formative years in London in the early 1960s, Anne became passionate about the decorative arts with a focus on costume and, eventually, antique jewellery. In 1970 she established Anne Schofield Antiques on Queen Street Woollahra. In 2003 Anne was appointed a Member of the General Division of the Order of Australia AM for her services to the performing arts and to the decorative arts, particularly antiques, as an author and consultant. Anne is a member of the international Society of Jewellery Historians, a Life Fellow of the Powerhouse Museum, a member of the Australian Art and Antique Dealers Association (AAADA), and co-author with Kevin Fahy of the seminal book Australian Jewellery: 19th and Early 20th century.

A necklace made out of gold, agate, amethyst, bloodstone, carnelian, garnet, lapis lazuli, onyx, and intaglios.
I started collecting jewellery way back in the early sixties when I was presented with a very beautiful antique ring by Leo Schofield.
Anne Schofield AM
A gold ring set with a miniature painting of an eye with pearls around the edges.
The eye ring is perhaps the most unusual item in the collection...these eye miniatures are extremely rare and they became fashionable in the late 18th Century.
Anne Schofield AM
A pair of earrings in a teardrop shape. Made of emerald carved in a floral pattern with three diamonds atop each earring.
A ring with an eye miniature. Made out of gold, ivory, pearls and hair.
When I choose items for my personal collection I’m particularly interested in the design of the piece, the rarity of the piece, the interesting materials that were used, the special techniques that were used and most of all, the beauty of the piece is the most important thing.
Anne Schofield AM