The Crown Jeweller is responsible for the maintenance of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, and is appointed by the

British monarch The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiwi ...

. The current Crown Jeweller is Mark Appleby, who was appointed in 2017.

History

The post was created in 1843 by Queen Victoria, who issued a royal warrant to Garrard & Co., and the title of Crown Jeweller was vested in an employee of the company. Until then, Rundell & Bridge, who advertised themselves as Crown jewellers, had been responsible for maintaining and preparing Jewels for use at state occasions. If the title had existed before 1843, it would have applied to William Jones of Jefferys & Jones (1782–96), Philip Gilbert of Jefferys, Jones & Gilbert (1797–1820), and Rundell & Bridge (1821–43). Before 1782, the work of repairing and making the Crown Jewels was distributed to various goldsmiths and jewellers on an ad-hoc basis. David V. Thomas (1991–2007) stated that he had been always on call, ready to attend to the Jewels. William Summers, the sixth Crown Jeweller (1962–91), said of his job: "Where the Crown goes, there go I". In 2007, Garrard & Co. were replaced, the reason given that it was time for a change. The company had been acquired by a private equity firm in 2006. Harry Collins of the family business G. Collins & Sons, who was also Queen Elizabeth II's personal jeweller, was appointed the new Crown Jeweller. In 2012, Collins stepped down from the role and Martin Swift of Mappin & Webb became the Crown Jeweller. In 2017 he was replaced by Mark Appleby, the head of Mappin & Webb's jewellery workshop.

List of Crown Jewellers

*1843: Sebastian Garrard *George Whitford *Henry Bell *C. E. Newbigin *1910: Cecil Mann *1962: William Summers *1991:

David V. Thomas David Vyvyan Thomas (born 1942) was the Crown Jeweller for the British monarchy. He worked for the Royal Family from 1991 until his retirement in 2007 as an employee of Garrard & Co. He still retains three Royal Warrants. Biography Thomas is t ...

*2007:

Harry Collins Harry Collins, (born 13 June 1943), is a British sociologist of science at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Wales. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Career While at the University of Bath Professor ...

*2012: Martin Swift *2017: Mark Appleby

Notes

References

External links

David Thomas in a clip from ''Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work''
(2007) Monarchy of the United Kingdom Positions within the British Royal Household

History

List of Crown Jewellers

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links