We always enjoy working with our trade clients on their bespoke silver commissions. The majority of our trade clients tend to be located in the UK, so it was a nice challenge to work with a company located on the other side of the world. 

As mentioned on an earlier blog post, last year we worked with The Village Goldsmith, located in Wellington, New Zealand on the creation of a full sized replica of two trophies that were originally presented by Lord Bledisloe, the Governor-General of New Zealand. The first being presented in 1933 and the second in 1955. 

We worked closely with their craftsman Dan who supplied wax patterns of all the intricate pieces, such as the handles and finial. As well as supplying all the dimensions and photos. We were also sent rubbings of all the hand engraving so we could get to work creating this piece in our Kent workshop. A video of the trophy's arrival in New Zealand, can be seen below (used with kind permission of The Village Goldsmith). 

​It was really satisfying to watch the trophy we made in Kent get unpacked in New Zealand and see it was a perfect match! 

More information regarding the project can also be found on their website here

Following UK Government direction, we are pleased to confirm that Ottewill Silversmiths are back open and manufacturing again.
The wellbeing of our staff remains our top priority and we are ensuring that all safety precautions and social distancing measures are being observed at all times.
As a result, there will be a slightly reduced number of staff in our workshop and all our office based staff are working from home and continue to be contactable via email or mobile phone.
However, please be aware that we are not currently accepting clients into the workshop and are not accepting any new repairs either dropped off or via post.
We look forward to working with you on projects going forward. If we can be of service, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

We were very pleased to see the Ahuwhenua Trophy replica being presented for the first time at the launch of the Ahuwhenua Horticulture Competition for 2020 during Horticulture New Zealand's Gala dinner. 

Working closely with The Village Goldsmiths, based in Wellington, New Zealand, we replicated an existing trophy from measurements, patterns and sketches of the engraving of the original trophy that stayed in New Zealand. 

We were delighted to see how close the match was to the original trophy and were proud to see the trophy welcomed ceremonially by lwi (tribal) representatives of the Tainui tribe and hear that the trophy already has a strong mauri (life force) which we have been told is due to the care, craftsmanship and wonderful spirit that surrounded the making of the trophy. 

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'We have just uploaded a new YouTube video to our channel here showing the making of the 'Blind Leading the Blind' centrepiece which was commissioned by the Officers' Mess of the Defence CBRN Centre to mark 100 years of counter chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear training at Winterbourne Gunner. 

We were pleasantly surprised to see an article about our recent ICC Cricket World Cup replica trophy commission in one of our trade's most important publications, Benchpeg. You can read it here.