Home

Back

Sales Terms

Bernard Instone

Scroll down to see selection of items for sale

Born 1891 in Birmingham and given an interest in jewellery by his brother Lewis at the age of 7. When Bernard was 12 he went to the Vittoria Street School on a scholarship and was so successful that he continued there with two further scholarships learning practical silversmithing and jewellery. Bernard and his brother went to Berlin to study following an invitation by the German Court goldsmith Emil Lettre but Lewis died in an accident there. Bernard went to work with John Paul Cooper in his Westerham studio until he was called up for the First World War. In 1919 he set up the Langstone silver works with his brother Reginald in Digbeth, Birmingham. Bernard was made a Freeman of the Goldsmith's Company in 1936 and a Liveryman in 1938. By now he was selling to a broad range of clients including Sibyl Dunlop who he visited every Friday at her shop in Kensington, supplying her with made up designs already marked up with the SD mark ready for the retail market. In the 1940's Liberty became a customer after 25 years of trying to sell to them and around this time he opened a shop in Salcombe, Devon which sold the cheaper range of his jewellery as well as paintings and the family had many holidays down there. In 1944 his brother Reginald left, the sole remaining employee because of the war. In 1953 Bernard moved the business to Solihull where his sons John and Paul gradually took over until Bernard retired in 1963 and spent the rest of his life in the Cotswolds with his wife Barbara who he had married in 1922. He died in 1987.