Jewelry

LONDON — Think about lines of customers waiting outside stores overnight, and Supreme’s social media frenzy-fueled product drops may spring to mind.

But Wartski, a family-owned antique jeweler in London with a 150-year history and royal connections from King Edward VII to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duchess of Cambridge, recently attracted that same level of devotion.

One collector was so eager to buy a historic engraved gem in the company’s “Multum in Parvo” (Much in Little) sale exhibition last month that he had a representative camp outside its St. James store for three days before the opening (although he was not dedicated enough to stand outside himself).

The exhibition of more than 100 intricately carved precious and semiprecious stones dating to the Renaissance and ancient Rome was well timed for a resurgence in the art form’s appreciation, a testament to Wartski’s ability to mine jewelry scholarship and spot what is coming next in the market. Formerly associated with Victorian kitsch and a grandmother’s lapel, cameos have been popping up on red carpets and catwalks everywhere with Rihanna making them the focus of her latest Fenty collection.

“There is a real sense of something coming from the exhibition,” said Thomas Holman, a director of the jewelry house, who organized the show. “Excellent examples are getting rarer and harder to find, so it was an opportunity for keen collectors to take advantage.”

In 1865, Wartski was founded in Bangor, North Wales — a world away from its current home among London’s luxury establishment — by Morris Wartski, the maternal great-grandfather of the company’s current chairman, Nicholas Snowman. A Polish immigrant, Mr. Wartski owed much of his early success to the eccentric and indulgent ways of Henry Paget, the fifth Marquess of Anglesey, who was said to have enjoyed playing table tennis in an emerald-embellished jacket (and who, having squandered his considerable estate, died penniless in 1905 at the age of 29).

It was Emanuel Snowman, Mr. Wartski’s son-in-law, who secured the company’s future when he opened a branch in 1911 in London, and in the 1920s was among the first to negotiate with the government of the Soviet Union to buy vast portions of the Russian royal family’s Fabergé collection. His son, Kenneth, then established Wartski’s reputation for scholarly research with his books on Fabergé, a focus continued today by the company’s joint managing directors: Katherine Purcell, who specializes in 19th-century French masters such as Lucien Falize, and Kieran McCarthy, who specializes in medieval English rings.

“Clients love hearing about the historical context of our pieces, it elevates them and brings them to life,” said Mr. Holman, who spoke during the Tefaf New York fair earlier this month, where Wartski was an exhibitor. One of the pieces sold at the fair was a turquoise eagle brooch designed by Prince Albert and one of 12 presented to Queen Victoria’s bridesmaids at their wedding in 1840. Most of the other examples are in museum collections, Mr. Holman said.

Wartski has counted the British royal family itself among its clientele since King Edward VII first patronized its Llandudno, Wales, store at the turn of the century. Today, it holds royal appointments as jewelers to the queen and the Prince of Wales, and particularly is known for having created the wedding bands for Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall, as well as for Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge, the latter using rare Welsh gold from the queen’s collection.

While the company has a noteworthy history, Mr. Holman said, he and his colleagues are equally excited about its future: “There is definitely a growing interest in antique jewelry, people are starting to look at in real depth.” The Marquess of Anglesey would be proud.