please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . february 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message wartski type limited company industry jewellers and silversmiths founded 1865 founder morris wartski headquarters 14 grafton street w1s 4de london england area served worldwide key people emanuel snowman nicholas snowman geoffrey munn katherine purcell kieran mccarthy products diamonds jewelry tablewaresilver items website wartski.com wartski is a british family firm of antique dealers specialising in russian works of art ; particularly those by carl faberg fine jewellery and silver . founded in north wales in 1865 the business is now located at 14 grafton street in mayfair london . the company holds royal appointments as jewellers to the queen and the prince of wales . history edit morris wartski s first shop on high street bangor north wales wartski fields in bangor wales the firm was founded in bangor north wales by morris wartski in 1865 a refugee from the tsarist pogroms who had established first a jewellery business on bangor s high street and then a drapery store . his son isidore went on to develop the drapery business and to create a large fashionable store . he also developed the castle inn on high street in bangor into the high class castle hotel . he was a popular mayor of the city and a patron of local sports and charities . wartski fields were bequeathed to the city and people of bangor by his widow winifred marie in memory of isidore wartski . another of morris s sons went on to develop the jewellery part of the business into an international player . morris wartski s two sons harry and charles went into the business but when charles was injured in a cycling accident the business was moved in 1907 to the seaside town of llandudno for the sake of his health . the marquess of anglesey was the best customer and david lloyd george was engaged as the firm s lawyer . when charles died in 1914 harry ran the business with his father morris and two brothers in law s. m. benjamin and emanuel snowman . after the death of morris wartski and benjamin harry was joined in the business in llandudno by his son charles wartski and a nephew cecil manson . a second jewellery and antique establishment was opened in mostyn street llandudno . so fond of llandudno was harry wartski that when the firm opened a branch in london s new bond street in 1911 it was given the name of wartski of llandudno . the firm moved via premises in the quarant arcade regent street and 139 regent street to its current location at 14 grafton street mayfair . the firm s distinctive shop front on grafton street designed by john bruckland in 1974 was grade ii listed by english heritage in 2012 . 1 it is a rare survival of innovative twentieth century retail architecture in mayfair . with the russian revolution many of the aristocracy took with them large quantities of jewellery made by carl faberg jeweller to the tsar . the pieces found their way into shops all over europe . harry wartski painstakingly tracked them down and bought them for his shop . he and snowman also bought some pieces from the soviet government whose collection attracted royal patronage to the firm . emanuel snowman travelled to the ussr from 1925 onwards to negotiate the purchase of former romanov jewels and objets d art from the antiquariat a commissariat established by the bolsheviks to raise foreign currency . when king farouk was deposed kenneth snowman emmanuel snowman s son went to cairo to buy up some of the egyptian crown jewels which also included many faberg pieces . wartski on 14 grafton street london 2011 abraham kenneth snowman 1919 2002 ran the london shop and wrote standard works the art of carl faberg 1953 followed by carl faberg goldsmith to the imperial court of russia and eighteenth century gold boxes of europe 1966 written at the urging of sacheverell sitwell . as a curator snowman organised the exhibitions of faberg at the victoria and albert museum 1977 and at the cooper hewitt museum new york 1983 . he was elected a fellow of the society of antiquaries in 1994 and appointed cbe for his services to the arts and to charitable institutions in 1997 . wartski is owned by nicholas snowman son of kenneth and great grandson of morris wartski . geoffrey munn is the present managing director of wartski and is a well known face on the bbc antiques roadshow ; he is the author of several books on jewellery and is a fellow of both the society of antiquaries and the linnean society . as curator he organised the exhibition tiaras at the victoria and albert museum in 2002 . munn was appointed obe in 2013 for services to charity . katherine purcell and kieran mccarthy are further directors of the company . kieran mccarthy was instrumental in the rediscovery of the missing third imperial faberg easter egg . the egg was exhibited at wartski in april 2014 the last time it was exhibited was over 112 years earlier at the von dervis mansion in saint petersburg . in 2011 wartski made the ring for the wedding of prince william and catherine middleton . 2 the ring was fashioned from a piece of welsh gold given to prince william by queen elizabeth ii . in 2005 wartski made the wedding rings for prince charles and camilla duchess of cornwall . 3 wartski were sole sponsors of bejewelled treasures the exhibition of indian and indian influenced jewellery from the al thani collection staged at the victoria and albert museum between november 2015 and march 2016 . references edit shop front to wartski 14 grafton street london w1s 4de . english heritage . retrieved 3 may 2014 . royal wedding anglesey leads celebrations across wales . bbc news . 29 april 2011 . retrieved 29 april 2011 . singh anita 29 april 2011 . royal wedding kate middleton to wear band of traditional welsh gold . the telegraph . retrieved 9 may 2014 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to wartski . official website coordinates 51 30 37 n 0 08 35 w 51.51028 n 0.14294 w 51.51028 ; 0.14294 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wartski & oldid 735355841 categories antiquesbritish royal warrant holdersbritish jewellersbangor gwyneddshops in londoncompanies established in 1865companies based in london1865 establishments in waleshidden categories engvarb from may 2014use dmy dates from may 2014articles needing additional references from february 2013all articles needing additional referencescommons category with local link same as on wikidataofficial website different in wikidata and wikipediacoordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages italiano edit links this page was last modified on 20 august 2016 at 05 00 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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