Mappin & Webb stands for more than 240 years of exquisite craftsmanship and company tradition. The British manufacturer supplies illustrious celebrities all over the world with high-value precious items, including several royal houses, the greats of politics and business, as well as celebrated artists.
(...) Continue readingMappin & Webb started as a family company
Mappin & Webb can trace their roots back to 1775 when the craftsman and businessman Jonathan Mappin opened his silver workshop in Sheffield. The English city in South Yorkshire was a central stage of the Industrial Revolution and an important location for the English silver trade. The family tradition was retained and continued by John Mappin, a great-grandson of Jonathan Mappin, who founded his own company Mappin & Company in London in 1860, joined by his brother-in-law George Webb in 1862, renaming the company Mappin, Webb & Co. The fine silverware quickly brought the young company growing prominence, resulting in an expansion of the product range to include self-designed, select precious items. Mappin, Webb & Co. ultimately took over the older business from John Mappin’s grandfather Jonathan Mappin - trading under the name Mappin Brothers – and drove the business on until there were numerous branch offices in Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, São Paolo, Shanghai, Bombay, Cairo and Biarritz, amongst others.
Exquisite craftmanship for the world’s greats
In the course of its glittering history, Mappin & Webb supplied the pinnacle of society up to the royal houses, not only in the United Kingdom but around the whole world: The last Empress of France, Marie-Antoinette, the last Tsar of Russia, Nikolaus II, and in later years Princess Grace of Monaco acquired jewellery pieces from the house of Mappin & Webb, and they were purveyors to the courts of the Russian Empire and the Japanese royal family. The first British monarch to commission Mappin & Webb was Queen Victoria. In 1897, they became official court purveyor of the British royal court, and since then have supplied Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales, now King Charles III. They produced pocket watches and golden ashtrays for the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whilst famous customers also included the magician Harry Houdini and the author Charles Dickens. In 1904, an Indian Maharaja ordered a valuable silver dinner service, and in 1914 Mappin & Webb supplied the British admiralty with clocks. For the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, the First Battalion of the Grenadier Guards commissioned a silver statue of the Duke of Wellington.
Changing ownership; constant craftsmanship
Mappin & Webb struggled economically during the Second World War and became the target of a hostile takeover in the 1950s followed by several changes of ownership and the closure of all international offices in the subsequent decades. Today, the history-laden company still operates various retail outlets in the United Kingdom, and in 2016 a new main store opened on London’s Regent Street. Mappin & Webb is still the purveyor to court of the British crown; the company’s artisans are among the best representatives of their trade and have repeatedly been appointed Crown Jewellers.
Mappin & Webb - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
