The team
Gareth Morgan opened the shop in 1987 and retired in 2016; his daughter Elin draws the commissions, sets the stones and writes the valuations; Tomos Price has mended watches in the room above the counter since 1989 and taught Elin to solder when she was eleven. Everything on this website is done by one of the two of them.
Goldsmith and owner. Bespoke, repairs, valuations
The daughter in the name. Trained at the Birmingham School of Jewellery, five years at a bench in Hatton Garden making other people's designs, and back to the arcade in 2009 to work beside her father until he retired in 2016. Draws every commission at the table, does most of the stone setting, and holds the NAJ valuation diploma. Will tell you when a repair is not worth it and when a stone is glass, which is why people come back.
Watchmaker and bench jeweller. Watches, chains, re-shanks
Came to the shop in 1989 with a watchmaker's box and a City & Guilds certificate and has mended watches in the room above the counter ever since: about forty thousand batteries, by his own estimate, and several hundred mechanical services. Also does the chains, the clasps and the re-shanks, and taught Elin to solder when she was eleven. Keeps a drawer of parts for watches that are no longer made.
The paperwork
Elin: a BA from the Birmingham School of Jewellery and five years at a trade bench in Hatton Garden. Tomos: City & Guilds in horology and a BHI certificate. Both are members of the National Association of Jewellers, which has a code and a complaints route.
Everything left with us is insured from the ticket under a jewellers' block policy, kept in a rated safe overnight, and photographed before it goes upstairs. We will show you the certificate if you ask; two people a year do.
We are registered with the Birmingham Assay Office and our sponsor's mark is on everything we make. A ring with no hallmark over the weight limit is illegal to sell in the UK, and we will tell you if one you bring in has none.
Elin holds the NAJ Institute of Registered Valuers diploma and writes about two hundred a year. A valuation from someone without a qualification is an opinion, and some insurers will not accept it. Ask for the qualification.
The arcade
Gareth Morgan took the lease on number 14 in the spring of 1987 with a bench, a safe he still owns and a window of rings he had made at night for a year. The arcade dates from 1858 and the shopfront is the Victorian one, repainted navy in 2009 when Elin came back and the name over the door gained its second half. The workshop is the room above, reached by a staircase behind the counter that eleven-year-olds are no longer allowed on.
Find the arcadeRepairs, batteries and the cabinet need no appointment: the counter is open Monday to Saturday, 9:30 to 5:30, in the Royal Arcade. For a bespoke commission, a ring fitting or a valuation, book an hour and we reply within the working day with a time. The price list is on the wall and on here.