December 18, 2023 |
What do you get when you add heavyweight heritage to progressive thinking? The new jewellery arm of The Royal Mint, the sixth-oldest company in the world. Alfred the Great was on the throne when it was founded in 886, hence the name of its jewellery division – 886 The Royal Mint – which was launched last year and has the esteemed jewellery designer Dominic Jones as its creative director.
With The Royal Mint having been minting currency for all these centuries, the expectation might be that such a historic institution would move slowly and value caution over creativity, but it hasn’t survived this long without adapting to the times. Led by its forward-thinking CEO, Anne Jessopp, the company has been “incredibly brave”, Jones notes, in how it has approached its new jewellery line.
“The Royal Mint is the most trusted supplier of precious metals in the world, for over 1,000 years,” Jones continues, going on to point out that we’re using fewer and fewer coins, so in an effort to diversify and future proof itself, 886 The Royal Mint was founded. The idea was to combine more than a millennium of precious-metal know-how with the considerable goldsmithing skills of its current workforce, which is based at the mint’s state-of-the-art plant in Llantrisant, South Wales. The company moved there from London in the 1970s, creating more than 3,000 jobs after the coal mines and other heavy industry closed, in an early example of levelling-up. Today it mints more than 3 billion coins and blanks a year for over 30 countries.
Given its strategic importance to the UK, The Royal Mint’s move into jewellery came with unusual formalities.“We did have to do a presentation to the board of the Treasury, which as a jewellery designer, I never thought would be on my on my agenda,” Jones confesses. The treasury wonks liked what they heard. The jewellery would be created using a new chemical process to reclaim precious metal from defunct electronics – a technique invented by two pioneering Canadian chemists and funded by The Royal Mint. “Previously it could only be done manually, which is a really toxic way of doing it and so most electronic consumer products would have been burned, buried or shipped to landfill,” Jones says, explaining that a large new reprocessing plant, powered by solar and wind, has been built in south Wales to extract these metals, “on a really huge scale”. The jewellery is crafted by The Royal Mint’s skilled craftsmen and an ambitious jewellery apprenticeship scheme has been setup to safeguard the skills required and create well-paid jobs for decades to come.
Film director Akinola wears Tutamen earrings, necklace, bracelet and rings by 886 THE ROYAL MINT
“It’s really incredible,” Jones says of the social and environmental approach of the company. It tackles issues that have been addressed in Jones’s work from the beginning, but to find his values so aligned with an institution as big as The Royal Mint felt more than serendipitous. “I’ve always had an interest in environmentalism, from day one and my first collection, and I always try to push these things into the brands I work with,” the designer says. But nowhere has his approach been more in tune than with The Royal Mint: “On the one hand they are a slow-moving historical institution, but on the other they are very progressive. I don’t think they would have reached out to me if they weren’t up for being brave in the first place.”
Jones burst onto the jewellery scene in 2009, becoming the first jeweller to receive a NewGen award from the British Fashion Council and the first to show at London Fashion Week. Beyoncé, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse, Rihanna, Madonna, Harry Styles and Karl Lagerfeld have all worn his sculptural pieces. Was he daunted by the task of bringing a new jewellery brand to a thousand-year-old institution? “The first collection I did [which came out last year] was very intentionally understated,” Jones says. “I wanted to create classic pieces that were good quality and highly sensitive designs. I think there was a gap in the market for that.” He laid the foundations of the brand with timeless unisex pieces that beautifully express the weighty properties of the precious materials used by the mint. His chains, pendants, rings, earrings and bracelets are made from solid metal, so they feel substantial – an antidote to the light, plated pieces that seem to dominate the fine jewellery sector. “I wanted to make jewellery that you can’t find any more which is really heavy, so weighty pieces of metal,” says the designer, who took direct inspiration from the mint’s heritage. Solid gold and silver hallmarked bars, miniaturised and worn on chains, have the pleasing quality of ingots. And there’s nothing flimsy about the solid gold cuffs (the surprise bestsellers), chokers and pinkie rings. They have a timeless simplicity and are built to last. Alongside these forever pieces, the brand will drop new collections annually, with Jones delving deeper into that impressive heritage.
Artist Christabel wears Tutamen earrings and necklace by 886 THE ROYAL MINT
The 2023 Tutamen collection, with its distinctive milled edges, is inspired by the coins produced by The Royal Mint. That ribbed detail was added by Sir Isaac Newton, who became warden of The Royal Mint in 1696, to discourage people from shaving the edges off their solid gold and silver coins – the practice was considered high treason and was a real problem in the 17th century because it devalued the currency and destabilised the economy. Jones has translated the idea into impressive coin-stack earrings and ultra-supple necklaces, some studded with diamonds. The Latin inscription Decus et Tutamen (an ornament and a safeguard) appeared on our old £1 coins – “It’s a really nostalgic coin for me because it reminds me of pocket money,” says Jones, who engraved it on the circumference of rings. The shape of the 50p (an equilateral curved heptagon) is echoed in chunky gold and silver rings. “There are so many hidden details to them,” Jones says of his designs. “There’s poetry hidden on the inside and there are lots of little things that are just for the wearer, not for the viewer.
Model and artist Mahlon wears Tutamen earring, pendant and necklace by 886 THE ROYAL MINT
What gives everything its sense of quality is the technique used to make it. Most fine jewellery is made from molten metal poured into a mould, but 886 The Royal Mint uses a traditional striking method, where metal is pressed into shape under high pressure. “We’re the only ones that can really do that because it involves a huge investment in these machines,” Jones explains. “It’s an interesting process and you can feel the weight of the jewellery. It feels stronger and it has a unique energy.” It’s also more resistant to scratches and tarnishes.
The advantage of working for a thousand-year-old company is that long-term thinking is baked into the business strategy. Jones has been granted the luxury of time to establish 886 The Royal Mint and the experience has been unlike anything he’s ever had before. With its progressive manufacturing practices, apprenticeship scheme that safeguards skills for the future and an aesthetic that leans into exhilarating classics, Jones believes it is onto something special. Now two collections in, he says, “We’re intentionally building a brand that will last for hundreds of years and trying to not act like a brand that will hype itself. We’re building really, really gently, which is strange because I’ve never worked for a brand like that.”Jones and the team at the mint have lofty ambitions for this nascent jewellery division of the UK’s oldest company. “The hope is we will build a British Tiffany [&Co.] or Cartier,” the designer says. With its heavyweight heritage, skilled artisans and Jones’s design chops, 886 The Royal Mint is certainly a contender. It’s at the beginning of the ride and it might take a while to get there, but time is on the side of The Royal Mint.
Taken from 10+ Issue 6 – VISIONARY, WOMEN, REVOLUTION – out now. Order your copy here.
886 THE ROYAL MINT: PRECIOUS METAL
Photographer MAXWELL TOMLINSON
Fashion Editor FLORENCE ARNOLD
Text CLAUDIA CROFT
Talent CHRISTABEL MACGREEVY, AKINOLA DAVIES JR, and MAHLON SUGAWARA
Make-up KOTA SUIZU
Hair REBECCA WORDINGHAM
