Background
Brian is the son of Ben Gavin (1929-2009), master diamond cutter, and Femma Gavin, well known South African artist featured in the Smithsonian Libraries’ Collection (1935-2006). He is the grandson of Esther Alida (Stella) Aronson (1915-1980) and Barend Deutz (1911-1987) master diamond cutter from the well known Deutz family in Amsterdam. In the late 1930s Deutz was brought to South Africa to teach diamond cutting along with his brother-in-law, Solly Neuwit, at Majestic Diamond Cutting Works in Johannesburg.
By the early 1950s Majestic was made a DeBeers sightholder and continued to flourish into the 1980s.
