Loading
The Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company was founded in London in 1880 by William Gibson and John Lawrence Langman. They acquired a spacious building at 112 Regent Street, previously occupied by J.J. Mechi, a whole trading complex covering about a quarter of an acre, which already testified to the ambitions of the new firm. Initially, the company was called “The Manufacturing Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Co.,” emphasizing the combination of production and retail. Gibson and Langman registered their marks with the London and Sheffield assay offices, establishing their presence both in the capital and in Sheffield, the traditional heart of British silversmithing.
From the beginning, Goldsmiths & Silversmiths operated its own workshops in Clerkenwell, in Sheffield, and on Rue St. George in Paris. This enabled the firm to produce a wide range of items. Catalogues from the 1880s listed diamond jewelry and ornaments, table silver, clocks and watches, silver-plated wares, trophies and presentation pieces, as well as more specialized goods such as officers’ mess utensils and even surgical instruments. This diversity reflected the traditions of London’s craft and trading milieu, as the company sought to cover all sectors of the luxury market, from high jewelry to utilitarian but finely crafted items.
The firm quickly earned a reputation and promoted itself as a manufacturer selling directly to the public without intermediaries. Advertisements of the late nineteenth century stressed discounts of 25–50%, claiming that goods came straight from the workshops. This strategy widened the customer base and undercut competitors, while the Regent Street shop also served as a dealership for many other leading silversmiths and watchmakers, including William Comyns, Wakely & Wheeler, Martin Hall & Co., W&G Sissons, and Harrison Brothers & Howson, effectively making it a universal emporium of luxury.
One of the company’s key innovations was an enhanced silver-plating process, marketed under the brand names “Regent Plate” and “Ducal Plate.” These lines, promoted as being far thicker and more durable than ordinary plate, became commercially successful and widely recognized. The firm was also active in registering designs and patents, one notable example being a silver object in the Art Nouveau style registered in 1899 under number 334132.
Expansion came quickly: in 1889 Goldsmiths & Silversmiths acquired Mappin Brothers, and in 1893 they absorbed Goldsmiths’ Alliance Ltd. (formerly A.B. Savory & Sons). These mergers consolidated several strands of London’s silversmithing tradition. In 1898 the company itself was converted into a limited liability company under the name Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co. Ltd. Gibson and Langman remained at the head of the enterprise, their entrepreneurial vision propelling the firm forward.
The firm was active on the international stage, exhibiting at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition in London in 1886, the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889, the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, the California Exhibition of 1894, again in Paris in 1900, and the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908. At Paris in 1900 the company presented a rococo tea and coffee service, an Art Nouveau dressing set, and diamond jewelry, drawing praise for both material splendor and artistic quality. The firm was awarded the Grand Prix, and William Gibson was decorated as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Such awards not only enhanced the company’s reputation but were prominently advertised in marketing and imprinted on presentation cases.
By the early twentieth century, Goldsmiths & Silversmiths had become a universal supplier of luxury goods. Its catalogues displayed everything from high diamond jewelry to table services, clocks, smoking paraphernalia, trophies, and elaborate traveling cases fitted with silver-mounted accessories. Strict quality control and refined design brought the company the patronage of the royal family, and it was granted a Royal Warrant, styling itself as “By Appointment to His Majesty.” Its silver services and jewels were purchased by King Edward VII and other members of the court. This royal recognition placed the firm alongside Garrard and Asprey as one of the elite London houses of luxury.
The company also carried out commissions for aristocratic and international patrons, producing extraordinary furniture and presentation objects, such as a gilded dressing table for the Nawab of Bahawalpur, and was active in the manufacture of orders, medals, and sporting trophies. A notable example is the Imperial Order of the Double Dragon of Qing China, some examples of which were made by Gibson & Langman in the 1880s–1890s, bearing their hallmarks. The firm also supplied the army with mess silver and presentation cups, and maintained lines of surgical instruments and precision scales, reflecting its ambition to serve both ceremonial and practical markets where precious metal work was required.
The First World War disrupted luxury trades, but the company appears to have adapted by focusing on medals, instruments, and essential items. After the death of William Gibson in 1913, and John Langman in 1928, management passed to successors. In the 1920s there was renewed demand for luxury, and the firm embraced the Art Deco style. In 1927 the company produced the ceremonial “Key to the City of London” presented to aviator Charles Lindbergh after his transatlantic flight, a golden key in a fitted case, demonstrating both craftsmanship and symbolic resonance.
The Depression of the 1930s and the constraints of the Second World War reduced demand for silver and jewelry. During the war, luxury production virtually ceased, with scarce metals diverted to national needs. Nevertheless, Goldsmiths & Silversmiths survived, though the postwar climate of austerity and changing social habits weakened the old market for large silver services and opulent jewelry.
In 1952 the company amalgamated with Garrard & Co. Ltd., the Crown Jeweller since 1843. The merger brought Goldsmiths & Silversmiths’ Regent Street premises and assets into Garrard’s orbit, effectively subsuming the brand. A few years later, in 1959, the remaining assets were taken over by Mappin & Webb, another long-standing competitor, closing the independent history of the firm. After that date the name disappears from registrations, and Garrard and Mappin & Webb carried on the traditions.
Thus, over eighty years from 1880 to 1959, Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co. Ltd. rose from an ambitious new enterprise to one of the pillars of London’s jewelry and silver trade, famed for innovation in silver-plating, success at international exhibitions, the prestige of royal warrants, and the creation of historic presentation pieces. Its legacy lives on in the surviving objects hallmarked G&S Co. Ltd., still prized by collectors for their craftsmanship and their place in the history of British decorative arts.
