Wartski Antique Jewelry Store: Fabergé on Weekdays Only

Wartski does not open on Saturdays. The family firm keeps weekday hours only, 9:30am to 5pm from Monday to Friday, at 60 St James's Street, London SW1A 1LE, a short stroll up from the gatehouse of St James's Palace. Plan around that, because for anyone searching for an antique jewelry store with real Fabergé in the cases, this is the house that has served the royal family for five generations.

Morris Wartski founded the business in 1865, and the firm credits a chance meeting with Henry Paget, 4th Marquess of Anglesey, for helping him obtain his first premises in Bangor, North Wales. By 1895 Wartski was trading at 21 High Street in Bangor. London came in 1913 with a shop at 13 New Bond Street, followed by forty years at 14 Grafton Street before the move to St James's Street in 2018.

The chairman today is Hector Snowman, great-great-grandson of the founder, and the house has held warrants from five successive generations of the British monarchy, most recently King Charles III and Queen Camilla in 2024. Wartski made the Welsh gold wedding rings for the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in 2005, and the wedding ring for the Duchess of Cambridge in 2011, again in Welsh gold given by Queen Elizabeth II.

Wartski describes itself as the leading expert in the work of Carl Fabergé, the Russian imperial court jeweller, and that is not an idle boast. On 2 December 2025 the firm bought the Winter Egg at auction for about £22.9 million, one of the most famous imperial Easter eggs ever made. Recent news on its website includes an Imperial Russian gold box by Jérémie Pauzié, made in St Petersburg between 1754 and 1761.

Most of the important Fabergé and antique stock carries no public price, so expect a conversation rather than a price tag. Pieces on show online include a Fabergé hardstone carving of a capercaillie, an Art Deco gendarme brooch by Mauboussin from around 1925, a Tiffany star sapphire ring from about 1950, and an antique ring from around 1910 centred on a 2.52-carat Kashmir sapphire. Each comes with the gem reports and provenance the house is known for.

Scholarship is part of the business. The firm publishes books and supports academic research on Fabergé and Russian decorative art, and its own purchase of the Winter Egg shows how central that expertise is to what it buys. For a visitor this means you can ask how to read a Fabergé workmaster's mark, or why one hardstone animal is valued far above another, and expect a precise answer rather than sales patter.

The surprise is how approachable the smallest pieces are. Wartski makes a series of gold love tokens, small engraved discs that revive an old tradition, and several are listed at £5,500. One, inscribed With You Life Is Sweet, carries a white gold spoon set with diamonds and a single natural diamond crystal standing in for a sugar cube. Another, Think Of Me When This You See, shows a diamond-set eye with a heart-shaped blue sapphire pupil.

A red enamelled Ace of Hearts token, just 2.1cm by 1.5cm in 18ct yellow gold, is the least expensive at £4,400. For something older, an English beetle brooch from around 1900, 3.5cm long and set with demantoid garnets and diamonds, is £9,500. Demantoid is the vivid green Russian garnet that jewellers of that period loved, and seeing it next to diamonds under daylight explains the fuss in a second.

The website does not ask you to book in advance, and item pages simply invite you to visit or contact the shop for more information. In practice, a weekday visit with a clear question works best: tell the staff which piece you saw online, or that you want to compare antique sapphires, and they will bring trays out. The firm also makes its own wedding rings, handcrafted in platinum, 22ct or 18ct gold.

Those wedding rings carry the Wartski hallmark and name, are delivered worldwide, and need a minimum of four weeks to make, so order well before a wedding date. Prices are given on request through a form on the website. If you only have a Saturday in London, go instead to Hancocks further down the same street, which opens on Saturday afternoons, and come back to Wartski on a weekday.

Long-time London shoppers remember the modernist Wartski shopfront at 14 Grafton Street, designed by John Buckland and granted Grade II listing in 2012. That façade stayed behind when the firm moved to St James's in 2018, after forty years in Mayfair. The new address puts Wartski a stone's throw from St James's Palace, which the firm itself points out, and on a street of long-established specialist shops rather than fashion flagships. The listed shopfront on Grafton Street is still worth a glance if you walk through Mayfair.

Two of the oldest shops in London sit a few doors down. Lock and Co. Hatters, at 6 St James's Street, says it was established in 1676 and is the oldest hat shop in the world, still behind its famous green door. Berry Bros. and Rudd, at 3 St James's Street, was founded in 1698 and still trades from the same building as Britain's oldest wine and spirits merchant.

Turn the other way and the street climbs to Piccadilly, where Green Park station on the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria lines is the nearest Tube, by the Ritz. On a weekday you can pair Wartski with a stroll through Green Park itself before the evening crowds arrive. Ask the Karpo APP to suggest a quiet tea room nearby to plan your next stop.

Address: Wartski, 60 St James's Street, London SW1A 1LE. Email: wartski@wartski.com. Hours: Monday to Friday 9:30am to 5pm, closed Saturday and Sunday. Nearest Tube: Green Park. Love tokens from £4,400. Wedding rings take at least four weeks. Most Fabergé and important antique pieces are priced on request, so bring specific questions and allow time for a proper conversation.