page_title: Wartski
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wartski / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Wartski's shop on 14 Grafton Street in London.
context_page_description: Wartski is a British family firm of antique dealers specialising in Russian works of art; particularly those by Carl Fabergé, fine jewellery and silver. Founded in North Wales in 1865, the business is located at 60 St James's Street, London, SW1. The company holds royal appointments as jewellers to the Queen and the Prince of Wales.
context_section_description: The firm was founded in Bangor, North Wales in 1865 by Morris Wartski, a Polish-Jewish immigrant from the town of Turek, in central Poland. Wartski firstly established a jewellery business on Bangor's High Street and then a drapery store. His son, Isidore, went on to develop the drapery business and to create a large, fashionable, store. He also developed the Castle Inn on High Street in Bangor, into the high-class Castle Hotel. He was a popular mayor of the city and a patron of local sports and charities. Wartski Fields were bequeathed to the city and people of Bangor by his widow, Winifred Marie, in memory of Isidore Wartski.
  Another of Morris's sons went on to develop the jewellery part of the business into an international player. Morris Wartski's two sons, Harry and Charles, went into the business but when Charles was injured in a cycling accident, the business was moved in 1907 to the seaside town of Llandudno for the sake of his health.  The Marquess of Anglesey was the best customer and David Lloyd George was engaged as the firm's lawyer. When Charles died in 1914, Harry ran the business with his father Morris and two brothers-in-law S. M. Benjamin and Emanuel Snowman.  
  After the death of Morris Wartski and Benjamin, Harry was joined in the business in Llandudno by his son, Charles Wartski, and a nephew, Cecil Manson.  A second jewellery and antique establishment was opened in Mostyn street, Llandudno. So fond of Llandudno was Harry Wartski that when the firm opened a branch in London's New Bond Street in 1911, it was given the name of Wartski of Llandudno. 
  The firm moved via premises in the Quadrant Arcade, Regent Street, 139 Regent Street and 14 Grafton Street, Mayfair. The firm's distinctive shop-front on Grafton Street, designed by John Bruckland in 1974, was Grade II listed by English Heritage in 2012. It is a rare survival of innovative twentieth century retail architecture in Mayfair. In 2018 Wartski moved to larger premises at 60 St. James Street, London, the concrete lined interior was designed by the architects Waldo Works.
  With the Russian revolution, many of the aristocracy took with them large quantities of jewellery made by Carl Fabergé, jeweller to the Tsar.  The pieces found their way into shops all over Europe.  Harry Wartski painstakingly tracked them down and bought them for his shop.  He and Snowman also bought some pieces from the Soviet government, whose collection attracted Royal patronage to the firm.  Emanuel Snowman travelled to the USSR from 1925 onwards to negotiate the purchase of former Romanov jewels and objets d'art from the Antiquariat, a commissariat established by the Bolsheviks to raise foreign currency.  
  When King Farouk was deposed, Kenneth Snowman (Emmanuel Snowman's son) went to Cairo to buy up some of the Egyptian crown jewels which also included many Fabergé pieces. 
  (Abraham) Kenneth Snowman (1919–2002), ran the London shop and wrote standard works, The Art of Carl Fabergé (1953), followed by Carl Fabergé: Goldsmith to the Imperial Court of Russia and Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe (1966), written at the urging of Sacheverell Sitwell.  As a curator, Snowman organised the exhibitions of Fabergé at the Victoria and Albert Museum (1977) and at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York (1983).  He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1994 and appointed CBE for his services to the arts and to charitable institutions in 1997.
caption: Wartski on 14 Grafton Street, London (2011)
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon DIGITAL IXUS 870 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2011:05:06 07:06:51", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "240", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5127", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:05:06 07:06:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:05:06 07:06:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "277/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3648", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2736", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3648", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2736", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3232", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "3648000/241", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2736000/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Portrait"}