The Mystery of Garon: Uncovering a Lost Chapter in Jamaican Design History

One of the primary difficulties in researching Jamaican design is the lack of physical evidence in archival institutions. While scrolling through vintage sellers' websites reveals a wide range of Jamaican objects, both signed and unsigned, this is often where the trail goes cold. Finding information about a specific maker is a common dead end. I have spent hours searching online and in the National Library of Jamaica (NLJ) for designers and makers, but sadly, the information is often missing. That said, the staff at NLJ have done an amazing job collecting and preserving Jamaica's history. Their Historical Notes collection is a treasure trove of information that cannot be found elsewhere.

 

The difficulties arise because small independent makers may not preserve or document their own work. Even if makers do document their work, these items may not be preserved if they fall into the hands of someone who does not recognise their value. Another challenge is that many of the objects I  encounter were made specifically for the tourist market. I have found Jamaican-made items for sale in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia. Because these objects were created for the tourist trade, they may not have been produced with the intention of documenting and preserving Jamaica's design history. Nor have they been seen as histories worth preserving, although online sellers have clearly found value in them.

​

A simple inscription on a striking piece of modernist terracotta jewelry I encountered recently reminded me just how difficult it can be to trace the stories of Jamaican design and craft history. 

​

The Jewellery: Garon, Jamaica W.I.

The creator's name was Garon. The only clues were the objects themselves: a small collection of pieces with bold geometric shapes, vibrant glazes, and a distinctive red clay body. Their style, blending modernist aesthetics with a folk-art feel, suggested a skilled artisan with a unique vision active sometime between 1950 and 1970.

 

Searches through online marketplaces like Etsy and eBay suggested these pieces were made in the 1960s. Descriptions used terms like "mid-century" and "modernist" but offered no concrete information about the maker. One seller provided a biographical snippet: "Garon Ceramic Creations produced jewelry & objects using Jamaican red clay; the items were produced in the Ronai home by a small team of female artisans." Experience has shown me, however, that seller information is not always correct. So where did this information come from? Who were the Ronai family? The claim seemed specific enough to be credible, yet vague enough to be frustrating.

​

Villa Ronai

The name Roani led me to Villa Ronai was a property in Kingston, established in the 1940s by Hungarian immigrants Arpad and Anna Ronai. The property featured sculpture gardens, art installations, and creative spaces. Exactly the kind of environment where a craft workshop might flourish. Villa Ronai reached peak fame in the 1960s, precisely when Garon jewellery was being produced. The property's location in Kingston placed it at the heart of Jamaica's artistic community, and tourist traffic would have provided a ready market for craft jewellery. Yet without any information other than the seller's description, the connection remained plausible but unproven.

​

The Breakthrough: A 1966 Newspaper Article

A more definitive answer came from a newspaper article published in the Jamaica Gleaner in 1966. Buried in the article's survey of local manufacturers was a mention of Garon Ceramics run by Mrs. Ronai and her mother at Villa Ronai on Old Stony Hill Road. According to the article, Mrs. Ronai had an average of twelve girls working in her small workshop, producing bracelets, earrings, pendants, and necklaces, costume jewellery that focused on quality and which were 100% Jamaican.

​

To understand where Garon jewellery might fit within Jamaica’s craft history, I decided to do a general survey of Jamaica's ceramics development.

​

Garon's Place in Jamaican Ceramics History

The island has a long pottery tradition evolving from indigenous Taino ceramics through African-influenced folk traditions to modern studio pottery and commercial craft production. The transformation of Jamaican ceramics from folk craft to fine art began with Cecil Baugh (1908-2005), who is widely regarded as the father of modern Jamaican pottery. A student of the famous British potter Bernard Leach, Baugh's award-winning work at a 1938 Kingston exhibition began to shift perceptions of ceramics from "peasant work" to a respected art form. Baugh would go on to open a pottery studio in Kingston in 1947 and teach at the Jamaica School of Art, training a generation of Jamaican ceramicists.

​

Jamaica's independence in 1962 was a catalyst for a cultural awakening that profoundly affected the craft sector. Government initiatives promoted Jamaican crafts as expressions of national culture and economic opportunities. Organisations like “Things Jamaican”, established in the 1960s, formalised the craft sector by providing retail outlets, establishing quality standards, and promoting Jamaican crafts to tourists and export markets.

​

The 1960s tourism boom created unprecedented demand for authentic Jamaican crafts. It is unlikely that Anna Ronai and her mother were trained in the Baugh's crematic tradition of studio pottery, particularly because they were not making vessels or sculptural ceramics. Instead, they applied ceramic techniques to jewellery production, creating wearable art from terracotta clay.

They developed an approach to ceramics that focused on personal adornment rather than functional objects, which allowed them to share their skills with local women and provide them with opportunities for economic security.​ Their work bridged multiple traditions. The use of local red clay connected to folk pottery practices. The modernist geometric designs reflected international mid-century aesthetics. The emphasis on Jamaican themes also aligned with post-independence cultural nationalism. This commercial focus on tourist markets and export sales demonstrated considerable entrepreneurial skill.

​

Why These Stories Are Lost

Given this documented success, why did Garon (and many other Jamaican designers/makers) disappear from historical memory? Perhaps it is because work of this kind was dismissed as "peasant work," highlighting the distinction between "craft" and "art." Craft and design in Jamaica continue to receive much less scholarly attention than fine art, even when their technical skill and design quality are comparable. Ironically, these crafts often achieved far greater commercial success, and reach much wider audiences.

​

The collective nature of the work also creates challenges. Art history traditionally focuses on individual genius—the singular artist whose vision creates unique works. A workshop with up to twelve employees producing 'costume jewellery' pieces fits less neatly into this narrative. There was no single "artist" to celebrate and we cannot even confirm who designed this jewellery, was it Roani or the women she worked with? Gender has likely compounded these factors. Women's craft work, especially when done in domestic spaces and focused on "feminine" products like jewellery, is often dismissed as hobby work rather than serious economic activity and often not deemed as worthy of academic attention.

​

Lessons from the Search​

The hunt for Garon demonstrates important lessons about craft history. First, the absence of documentation does not mean something was unimportant. Garon was a thriving business at one point with international sales, yet it left almost no trace beyond its products. Second, contemporary newspapers are invaluable sources for craft history in the Caribbean. The Gleaner article was feature journalism, not historical documentation, yet it preserved details that would otherwise be lost.​ Third, marketplace sellers and collectors often preserve information that academics miss. The vintage jewellery dealers transmitting the "Ronai home" description were sharing accurate historical information, even without citing sources. This suggests oral history and dealer knowledge networks can preserve real historical data deserving scholarly attention. Fourth, Jamaican women's craft work requires active recovery efforts. The structures that document artistic and economic activity have historically overlooked women's home-based production. Recovering these stories requires looking beyond traditional archives to newspapers, business directories, oral histories, and the objects themselves. Because they have something important to tell us about Jamaican history. 

 

Perhaps the next time you encounter a piece of vintage jewellery, look closely at the signature. Behind that mark may be a story waiting to be discovered. A story of skill, creativity, entrepreneurship, and cultural expression. Some of those stories, like Garon's, can still be recovered if we just take the time to look.

​​​