Baroque pearl and gold engagement ring and gold wedding ring. Made by Peter Williams, Monmouth

I am delighted to have now been wearing my new wedding ring for all of a week and have to thank,

Baroque pearl and gold engagement ring and gold wedding ring. Made by Peter Williams, Monmouth

firstly, Ecclesiastical Insurance for acting so promptly and without quibbling, in sending a cheque for the quoted value of the replacement ring (less £75 excess),

then secondly, I have to thank Peter Williams, the craftsman who originally made both wedding and engagement rings. He has now retired and though he still has a workshop it is no longer set up for working in gold, so he found a colleague, Mike Gell,  to do the work instead. I hadn’t thought about it before, but making sure the gold isn’t contaminated is essential because by law all items made of precious metals (gold, silver, platinum and palladium) have to be assessed, or tested for purity, by the assay office and hall marked accordingly.  There are four assay offices in the UK and our nearest is Birmingham which is also the largest in the world. (It pleases me that it is still to be found in the Jewellery Quarter, as I’ve seen several television programmes recently showing ancient factories in the area closed up and sold for redevelopment.) But Peter didn’t just put me in touch with Mike and leave it at that, instead he and his wife came over from Monmouth, collected my engagement ring, went over to Mike’s workshop in Hereford with ring, drawings and photographs and then, two weeks later, picked up the finished item and did the whole journey in reverse. Buying hand crafted items often means there’s a very special relation between buyer and maker and sometimes, luckily for me, that can go beyond the call of duty.

Baroque pearl and gold engagement ring and gold wedding ring. Made by Peter Williams, Monmouth

Unfortunately, you get a gnarled hand along with pictures of the ring but at least you can see why a neat little, low carat diamond ring would not suit at all. I won’t go so far as to call my rings knuckle dusters but nice and chunky suits me very well.

Peter’s wife Rosemary is also a jeweller and well known for her cleverly designed rings in the form of a human figure (see below).

Gold ring in the form of a human figure bu Rosemary Williams, Monmouth