Jewellery by the UK company Exquisite or W.A.P. Watson Ltd

For some time now I have been asking my husband Mark to find out about the Exquisite factory that was less than a mile away from where we live in Solihull UK.
We have been collecting Exquisite vintage jewellery to sell on our web site, but there appears to be very little information available on dating, range and what other pieces were available in that type.

So, over Christmas I have been researching and intend to continue as I am well placed in Solihull to see what I can find about the company and their jewelry range.

This is the background and a smattering of information on the jewelry range that I have discovered so far.

In the very late 1800s or early 1900s, a jeweler Walter Archibald Parker Watson (1880 -?) established a factory in the famous Jewellery Quarter in Hockley Birmingham. However in 1914 at the onset of World war One, he sold his business to Augustus Harry Power (1878 -?) and Clarence Oswald Flint (1880 - ?) This two men kept his name - W.A.P. Watson and eventually became a limited company.

It has fascinated me on why did they keep the founders name?

Was it because the business had a good reputation and was well established?
Did W.A.P. Watson have shares in the business and it was part of the agreed sale?
Were they very good friends; and was it in respect for Walter, who enlisted in the 1st/5th Battalion of the Royal Warwick Regiment as a second Lieutenant? He enlisted in 1915 and rose to captain before being injured and invalid out of the army in 1923.
Why they kept the name - this I have yet to find out

To continue with the growth of the company. In the first instance the partners came from very different backgrounds.

Augustus Harry Power an engraver came from a family of gun makers that lived in Moseley, Birmingham. He had traveled to London to work and gain experience.
Clarence Oswald Power was once a clerk who's family were auctioneers and estate agents. They lived in Edgbaston, Birmingham along the Hagley Road. This smattering of information has been gained from the census of 1901, 1891 and 1881 only.

It is a strange feeling that my own ancestors were a long line of gun engravers and masters in their trade. They also lived and worked in both the areas that these two were. So it is possible that they were acquainted??

W.A.P. Watson was a small company to start, with only 6 people employed. From 1914 they were manufacturing costume jewelry. However during the first and second world wars they would have been employed to aid the war effort.

The trade name of Exquisite was introduced to foster customer loyalty
The signed jewelry is attributed to the 1950s to 1970s, so I am assuming that this was when the trade name was copy righted but I need to confirm this information. This means that there is quite a lot of unsigned exquisite jewellery pre 1950s that was manufactured. I have also seen unsigned jewellery from the 1950s onwards that looks to be Exquisite - as they match signed pieces. Again this needs to be confirmed that it was true Exquiste and not copied by other manufacturers.

With their business expanding WAP Watson Ltd moved at least three times in the UK. From their original premises in Northampton Street, a small side street in the Jewellery Quarter to Great Hampton Street, a main road in the Jewellery Quarter. At this point, they employed 125 people. Along side costume jewellery, they manufactured crested souvenirs and had another premises in nearby Mary Street. With the growing success of the jewellery and souvenirs, a larger business site was needed. The jewellery quarter and the centre of Birmingham was (and still is!) very congested. So in 1954, WAP watson Ltd moved to a 3 acres site in Vulcan Road, Solihull.

The company remained a family business with Wallis and Jack Power, the sons of Augustus becoming Managing Directors. In the seventies Graham Hughes became an associate and took over the companies expansion.

Production of the Exquisite jewellery and souvenirs continued for the next 20 years, until the seventies. The factory was producing around 20,000 pieces of jewellery per week during this period. The second largest manufacturer of costume jewellery in the UK - I have been guessing at who was the first?

With the influx of cheap imported jewellery, mainly from Hong Kong. The costume jewellery sales fell and so the Exquiste line ceased in the late seventies. From the Solihull factory, the souvenir range expanded and also a range in the trade name of "Mirella" general gift ware of mirrors, picture frames, pill boxes and pens. With the loss of jewellery sales and the last recession, the company survived by reducing employees and by the increased demand for souvenirs. Along with the souvenirs such as spoons, thimbles, bells and letter openers. They produced a range of leather crafted souvenirs trading as "Manor"

It was in the mid to late seventies that I started to collect spoons. My penfriend had come to stay from America and she collected thimbles from all the places that we visited. So I started to collect spoons, this has grown over the years to a collection of hundreds. I no longer can display them all and they languish in boxes! But I still collect the odd one or two - but now they must be quite special.

During the late seventies to eighties, the company started to produce pewter Victorian street scenes, and the brand "Tudor Mint" was born. The "Crystal flame" range followed with animals of silver and gilt plated with crystal. Then then in 1989 the "Myths and Magic" range, which allowed the company to once more flourish. the medieval figures and dragons were an instant success and so the company opened a subsidiary in Houston Texas in 1995 and moved to Florida in 1997. It was in the late nineties or early 2000's that the Solihull factory closed.

Since then in 2007 the brand of Tudor Mint has been sold to the group Xystos. Xystos is known for its ranges of "Forever Friends" "John Beswick", "Enchantica" and "Piggin" to name a few.

Back to Exquisite jewellery.

I have started to identify the ranges of jewellery. The most easy one is the Birthday range. Available in small and large sized brooches and having matching clip earrings. The range is all hand painted enamel, so there are many varieties and slightly different colour combinations available

January - snowdrop?
February - primrose
March - violets
April - iris
May - pansy
June - rose
July - fuschia
August - poppy
September - cornflower (photograph of cornflower clip on earrings)
October - carnation
November - chrysanthemum
December - Christmas rose or helleborus niger

The Exquisite jewellery designers were said to be based in Paris, but the jewellery appears to me to be very British and much of the jewellery was fashioned to the flowers and leaves of the UK!

Within the blog topics I intend to explore the many ranges and information on Exquisite jewellery during the next year.

Any further information or any corrections would be gratefully received - my address and email can be found on the Jewels and Finery website