Perhaps I’m still feeling inspired by the recent royal wedding, or more likely it’s the trip to London I took nearly a year ago, but my mind is on all things U.K. (it could also be due to the fact that I’m reading a book based in the English suburbs). Whatever the reason, it feels that a trip to Great Britain is in order, perhaps to discover something new.
Wales would certainly be something never before seen by this traveler. The most I know of the country is that it’s given us a pretty decent footballer (Gareth Bale), and that its rocky coastline looks like a very picturesque location indeed.
I’m also acquainted with Clogau, a Welsh family business dealing in jewels containing Welsh gold, which has links to the British royal family (thereby satiating a bit of that Anglophile in me).
Welsh gold and the royal family go all the way back to 1911, with the tools of coronation (coronet, rod, sword, ring, and so on) used to invest Prince Edward as the Prince of Wales. The “regalia,” as Wikipedia calls it (and probably a much better description than my “tools”), incorporated Welsh gold. Many members of the royal family—including the queen—wear wedding rings crafted of the metal, the most recent additions being the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex.
Clogau, in its second generation of crafting jewelry incorporating Welsh gold from the Clogau St. David’s mine in Bontddu, Wales, has plenty to offer if you want to be a little closer to royalty. Mining of Clogau St. David’s stopped in the late 1990s, with reports of limited quantities not able to justify the high cost of work, making the precious metal a rarity (though a 2012 report suggested that there is more gold to be found).
While Clogau offers a wide range of jewelry collections (its Tree of Life line is a big seller, and the brand is in wedding jewelry, too), I opt to share the pieces with royal flare: the Royal Heritage collection, created in association with Historic Royal Palaces, an independent charity offering care to the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, and other royal palaces in Britain (six in total, learn more here). You’ll find pieces inspired by the gates of Kensington Palace; and in the Debutante collection, you’ll see jewels inspired by the ostrich feathers worn by debutantes at the annual Queen Charlotte’s Ball, among others not pictured here.
So for those anxiously waiting to see what the newly minted Duchess of Sussex will wear next (it’s all been rather boring, to be honest), then chances are your customers will likely love a piece from Clogau.
Top: Debutante feather pendant in 9k yellow and rose gold, £530 ($697)
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