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TAKING CENTRE STAGE George Pragnell


“THE WORD ‘LUXURY’ has been overused and commoditised by large fashion brands,” says Charlie Pragnell. “When jewellers began being associated with this word, they wouldn’t have dreamt of making two of anything, just as no artist would wish to duplicate an oil painting. It’s how ‘luxury’ has been redefined. We deal in the original understanding of luxury. For us, true jewellery is art, not fashion.” Since 2010, Charlie has been Managing Director


of the master jeweller George Pragnell. He is the grandson of the company’s titular founder, a jeweller to Queen Mary who, with his wife Margaret, moved from Maidenhead in 1954 to found a new company in Wood Street, Stratford-upon-Avon. “We’re the third generation of the family to be


based in Stratford,” says Charlie. “But we’re actually drawing from many generations of experience. My mother was the sixth generation of the Bond Street jeweller, Waters and Blott, while my wife, Emily, is a relative of the Garrard family. We’ve also acquired two very well-established jewellers – George Tarratt of Leicester and Philip Antrobus of Bond Street.” Charlie trained in jewellery design and gemology at the Gemological Institute of America in California, and worked in New York’s diamond district before returning to England. Now he and his team of around 70 bring a panoply of different expertise to the firm. “We have specialists in most areas,” he says.


“We can repair an antique Georgian barograph with a broken nib. We can have your pearls restrung, find you a matching unheated Burmese ruby if you’ve lost one of your earrings, take dents out of your Edwardian candlestick, fix your clock, or find a new gold chain for your pendant. We can look after it all under one roof. We have a dozen gemologists on site, and three registered valuers; we have watchmakers


222 A LEGACY OF LUXURY


and watch complication specialists who are trained to the highest level; and we have several bench jewellers who now look after customers. When my grandfather founded this company in Stratford, 62 years ago, his watchword was ‘Our knowledge is your safeguard’. This is still the case.” As well as curating the firm’s collection of new


and antique Swiss wristwatches (made by the likes of Patek Philippe, Rolex, Jaeger Le Coultre, Omega and A Lange & Söhne), Charlie sources some of the world’s finest gemstones. “It could be it a duck-egg electric-green tourmaline for an important necklace,” he says, “or a 2.5 carat baby pink oval diamond for a ring.” He also works on the firm’s original jewellery with the talented designer Tom Crookenden, another of George’s grandsons. “Our work is heavily influenced by the art deco


period,” he says, “but we don’t want it to look as if it’s from the 1920s or 1930s. Because we have an understanding of how jewellery has evolved over the years, we are able to weave fresh and contemporary elements into the design of each piece.” The firm is still based in a wood-framed Tudor


building that was designed and built in the 1590s by the carpenter Abraham Stirling, a drinking buddy of William Shakespeare’s. Indeed, each April, the family hosts and sponsors the Pragnell Shakespeare Birthday Awards – previous winners have included Trevor Nunn, Kenneth Branagh, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart. “It’s no coincidence that we’re based in the home


of Shakespeare,” says Charlie. “Shakespeare draws in people who are interested in creativity, and creative people from around the world are drawn to the individuality of our pieces. For us, real jewellery is art.” — www.pragnell.co.uk


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