A LETTER FROM AUDREY, AT THE BENCH IN BATH.
This is not a brochure. It is the closest thing I have to a goodbye letter, because after twenty-two years in the same Bath workshop, my husband Roman and I are closing the door behind us.
If you are reading this, it is probably because something we made caught your eye in an advertisement. Below is the honest story of why everything in our cabinet is now 40–80% less than it cost last week — and what that means for you.
WHY WE ARE CLOSING.
In the spring of 2023, Roman was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. The bench work he has done by hand since we opened in 2003 has slowly become impossible. A setting needle that used to sit still for an hour now wavers in the first ten minutes.
We tried, for two years, to keep going — lighter tools, a younger apprentice, shorter days. By this spring it was clear we couldn’t produce work to the standard our customers expect, so we made the decision to close while the work is still ours.
Every piece still in the cabinet was finished by Roman before that decision. His mark is engraved on the inside. When the cabinet empties, the Audrey & Roman name closes with it.
WHAT IS IN THE CABINET.
Just over two hundred pieces, none of them reordered. Sapphires from Sri Lanka, emeralds from Colombia, ethically-sourced gold and silver, all hallmarked at the Birmingham Assay Office. No two pieces are the same — in twenty-two years we never produced a design twice.
What we have priced them at this month is what gets each one out the door before we close. The deepest cuts (up to 80% off) are on one-of-one pieces where the stones cannot be re-sourced. The average reduction across the cabinet is around 52%.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IF YOU ORDER.
Free, tracked, fully-insured Royal Mail Special Delivery anywhere in the UK. Dispatch within forty-eight hours, hand-wrapped by me in Bath. A 14-day no-questions return on every piece. Free resize within twelve months — honoured personally, even after we close the door.
And, for every piece carrying Roman’s mark, a lifetime polish and clean promise. Send the piece back any time in the next decade and I will look after it myself.
WHY I AM ASKING YOU TO LOOK NOW.
The cabinet is emptying faster than we expected. There is no “back in stock” email and no reissue: when a listing sells, it comes down within minutes. If a piece in the gallery below catches your eye, please do not wait until next week to return to it.
We will not extend the closing date. We cannot — Roman cannot make more, and we will not put anyone else’s work under our name.
A WORD OF THANKS, BEFORE THE LISTINGS.
Twenty-two years and more than eleven thousand pieces in homes across the UK. None of that happened because of us — it happened because you walked in, you came back, and you told your friends. The prices in the gallery below are our way of saying it properly, one last time.
FROM TWENTY-TWO YEARS OF UK CUSTOMERS
A FEW OF THE PIECES STILL ON THE BENCH
- Handmade in Bath, England
- Hallmarked at Birmingham Assay Office
- Free UK delivery, insured
- 14-day return guarantee
