Today’s speaker was Ian Fillan, retired MD of Fillans Jewellers of Huddersfield, who gave a talk entitled “My job; the variety and complexity”.
The company was formed in 1852 from premises in Victoria Street in the Shambles, and moved to Wappy Nick in 1858. Ian took over as MD in 1960, retiring in 2002, and the company closed in 2014 falling victim to the general move away from high street shopping.
He told us about the main items of stock carried by the firm and by virtually every other jeweller namely:-
a) Diamonds - distinguished by the 4c’s, Clarity ,Colour, Cut and Carats. Other gemstones were Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald etc, and the different colours in each segment were made by different minerals and chemicals in the ground.
b) Gold – varying from 9ct to 24 ct in terms of purity, with 9ct being only 37% pure gold, the balance being made up of alloys, and 24ct being unadulterated pure gold. This latter purity however is unsuitable for jewellery manufacture, being too soft, so the highest useable combination is 23ct. It is illegal to sell gold in the UK which has not been tested by the Assay office, and hallmarked as such. Production of Italian gold jewellery was heavily subsidised by the Italian government, making it much cheaper to produce and sell than its UK counterpart, so Ian joined a consortium to buy in bulk, making them much more competitive. The Italians were not too happy about this, but business is business!
c) Watches – Almost entirely mechanical, i.e. hand wound, until 1970, when the Japanese company Seiko introduced highly accurate quartz movements, being driven by a quartz crystal which vibrates when excited by an electric current. This development did not please the Swiss who had cornered the market in mechanical watches until that time, but they soon found a way round it!
d) Silver – Categorised, like gold, by hallmarking, where British silver is ranked either 925 or Britannia. Overseas silver is marked 800 to distinguish between the two. Silver plate is a much cheaper alternative to pure silver, where a coating of silver is bonded to copper plate. Original Sheffield plate is much more valuable than the later electroplated version, though it has to be said that all versions of silver are much less popular nowadays due to the amount of polishing required.
e) Giftware – Cut glass, china, ornaments etc. again much reduced in popularity.
Ian finished by saying that his ability to grow the business successfully depended on his people skills, on his relationships with customers, suppliers, colleagues and other jewellers.
His exhibits of his own jewellery collection were sufficient to make us envious that we could not all enjoy some of the fruits of his labour!
A question and answer session followed.