Wartski to move from Grafton Street

The new premises are flanked by leading heritage brands, fellow Royal Warrant holders and is at the heart of London’s celebrated club land. The gallery has been designed in partnership with Waldo Works, architects and interior designers renowned for their modern British design output and ability to translate a brand's identity into an engaging physical environment. The new showroom is expected to open late summer 2018.

Wartski is a Royal Warrant holder and a family firm of antiques dealers, specialising in fine jewellery, silver and works of art by Carl Fabergé. The firm was founded in Bangor, North Wales in 1865 by Morris Wartski, maternal great- grandfather of the present-day Chairman. The business thrived under the patronage of the great and the good from King Edward VII to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and has even featured in a James Bond novel and film. Dedicated to unveiling the past and bringing to light lost treasures, Wartksi has built a reputation for unparalleled scholarship and a remarkable string of discoveries.

The dealership is also celebrated for its philanthropy and has a great tradition of fundraising and supporting institutions to help secure important works of art. In recent years, Wartski has helped with acquisitions for the nation, for example they gave the full amount required for Birmingham City Council and Stoke on Trent City Council to purchase the second section of the Staffordshire Hoard (81 pieces). In addition, in 2015, they were the sole sponsor of ‘Bejewelled Treasures: The Al Thani Collection’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Wartski is currently sponsoring a catalogue of jewellery at the Fitzwilliam Museum (2018) that will be published this summer.

Waldo Works is known for its modern British design output in the luxury retail sector and includes Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason amongst its clients. They will design the new shop reflecting both the heritage of Wartski and its reputation as a progressive market leader. The new space will include a spectacular state of the art interior incorporating Welsh slate as a nod to Wartski’s Welsh origins (Wartski still banks in LLandudno, Wales). Known as ‘Dark Blue Grey’ and sourced from Cwt-y-Bugail, it is different to the more widely known ‘Heather’ Slate from Penrhyn and will be used as panels with a 'Flame Textured Face’. 

In 1963 Ian Fleming, author of James Bond described the Wartski showroom as

"a restrained show of modern and antique jewellery, [that] gave no hint that these were the greatest Fabergé-dealers in the world”

He went on to describe the

“modest, ultra-modern frontage”

and while the location of Wartski will be different, the feeling evoked in St. James’s will be very much the same. In addition to the main viewing gallery, a private salon will incorporate some of the original furnishings and there will be an impressive research library. 

Wartski is widely recognised for encouraging and promoting talent as well as individual areas of expertise. The move to St James’s will be overseen by Wartski directors, specialists and published authors; Katherine Purcell and Kieran McCarthy. Katherine Purcell has written the definitive study ‘Falize: A Dynasty of Jewellers’ (1999) and amongst the exhibitions she has curated for Wartski are ‘Fabergé and the Russian Jewellers’ (2006), ‘Japonisme: From Falize to Fabergé’ (2011) and ‘Faberge – A Private Collection’ (2012).

Director Kieran McCarthy is a member of the advisory board of the Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg and has widely published and lectured on the Imperial Russian Goldsmith’s work. In 2010, he curated the exhibition ‘The Last Flowering of Court Art’, a private collection of Fabergé. Thomas Holman, who started at Wartski aged 14 on work experience after identifying a piece by Fabergé at a car boot sale, has recently been promoted to a director of the firm.

The new location marks the next chapter in Wartski’s long and illustrious history and places them closer to other heritage businesses and royal warrant holders such as Locke & Co hat Makers (established in 1676), the wine merchants Berry Brothers & Rudd (established in 1698), Justerini & Brooks (established in 1749) and Lobb the bootmakers (established in 1849).

The survival of this unique business is attributable to a combination of scholarship and an infectious personal enthusiasm.

Image credits:
An aquamarine and diamond set necklace by Olga Trit. New York, c.1939
A gold bracelet in the Etruscan taste by Giacinto Melillo. Naples, 1899
A remarkable Fabergé tiara, jewellery by the famous Russian goldsmith is rare and his tiaras are rarer still
The Winter Egg by Fabergé. Given by Emperor Nicholas II to his mother, Empress Marie Feodorovna, in 1913
Two champlevé enamelled cases by Carl Fabergé, c. 1908-1917