THE CRAFTSMANSHIP BEHIND BRITISH HISTORICAL JEWELLERY

The History Behind the Brand

British Historical Jewellery is the specialist historical jewellery collection created and operated by Dion Smith Jewellers at the Corn Exchange. It is made through the same independent Leeds jewellery business and workshop that has served customers at the Corn Exchange since 2010.

My name is Dion Smith, and I am the bench jeweller behind British Historical Jewellery.

I have been in the jewellery trade since 2000. I did not start in a showroom; I started in manufacturing, learning exactly how fine jewellery is designed, forged and finished from the ground up.

By 2006, I was an independent trade craftsman. When high-street jewellers had complex alterations, antique restorations or heavy repairs they could not handle in-house, they sent them to my workshop.

In 2010, I opened Dion Smith Jewellers at the Corn Exchange inside the historic Victorian Leeds Corn Exchange. Since then, we have created bespoke commissions, restored antique jewellery and carried out precision stone replacement for private clients.

British Historical Jewellery brings that established experience into a dedicated collection of precious-metal reproductions based on original British finds.

Real People, Genuine Craft

To bring this project to life, I built a dedicated team of genuine tradespeople. We are an independent Leeds workshop, and when you contact us, you deal directly with real people—starting with me.

Our jewellery is individually hand-cast in solid silver, gold and platinum from original British finds, preserving the marks and character that survived in the ground. Where a design requires reconstruction or adaptation, we say so on the product page. Every qualifying piece is independently tested and hallmarked by the London Assay Office.