Banwells Ltd

Everybody knows that diamond is the hardest material in the world. Or perhaps not. Scientists in China discovered in 2009 that there are actually two harder materials – wurtzite boron nitride and lonsdaleite – but both of these are so rare that for all practical purposes diamond is still the hardest. However, that doesn’t prevent jewellery from becoming damaged. Even though a piece of jewellery may contain diamonds and they don’t suffer damage, the rest of the piece can be subject to all sorts of problems. For example, gold and silver rings can easily become scratched, and many other gemstones can be broken so that the piece of jewellery needs to be restored. Sometimes it happens that a piece is beyond restoration and is only worth scrap value. However, there is always a call for jewellery restoration in Devon and if you have a piece that is damaged you need an expertly trained jeweller to repair it. As with many things, jewellery restoration in Devon m...

Jewellery is not something that you buy every day, any more than you buy a car every day. It is almost always a one-off purchase and often for a special occasion, such as an engagement, a wedding, a birthday, Christmas, your daughter’s graduation from university, or one of many other occasions that are “special” to you.  In that sense, buying jewellery in Sidmouth – or anywhere else – is not the same as buying a car. You may buy a new car every two years simply because the existing one is two years old and has done “x” thousand miles. But unless you have so much money that you don’t know what to spend it on, which very few people do, then buying a piece of jewellery is always special. It is a celebration of some sort and is usually a case of one person – often a man – buying a piece of jewellery for his loved one, although it works the other way around too. Quite often, a woman may buy something such as a signet ring for the man in her life. Sometimes,...

If you are looking for engagement rings in Devon , then come to Banwells in Old Fore Street, in Sidmouth. We are a family firm of jewellers that specialises in antique and pre-owned engagement rings and we have large stocks. Because these rings are antique or pre-owned, it means that the engagement ring that you buy for your fiancée is going to be unique. She will not see anyone else wearing a similar ring, for the simple reason that – while there may be one or two similar rings somewhere in the world - they are highly unlikely to be found anywhere in the UK. There is something very special about a ring that has been worn by someone else, perhaps for decades, and has been lovingly looked after for all those years. Read more at Engagement Rings Devon

Is the wedding band the unsung hero of the fourth finger? With a huge amount of creative thought and anticipation weighted on the shoulders of the engagement ring, does the wedding band receive the recognition it truly deserves? Researching the history and origin of the wedding band makes for fascinating reading and, depending on which era takes your fancy, there are tales of Ancient Egyptian braided rings of hemp, of interlocking Gimmel rings and of metal bands worn on the fourth finger because of the belief it contained the vena amoris, the vein of love. Some cultures even exchange toe rings instead of finger rings…   Read more at Engagement rings Devon

Have you ever wondered what the World's most popular engagement ring is? From data compiled from the searches on Etsy.com and pinboard saves via Pinterest.com the diamond solitaire (single stone) has proved to be the most searched and saved of any ring with 103,900 saves. So simple, clean, and classic is the ultimate choice, and with this style we can help. At Banwells we have a beautiful and extensive range of solitaire diamond engagement rings both old and new. Read more at engagement rings

Banwells of Sidmouth is the leading jewellery business in Devon, especially when it comes to antique jewellery. Most of our stock is pre-owned and much of it antique, so no matter where you go you will not be able to purchase a piece that is the same, or even similar.  We are always on the lookout for jewellery to buy and we pay the best prices, so the result is that we have more antique jewellery available than other stores because people come to us knowing they will get the best terms. We have found this to be the best way of doing business because sellers know that we are honest, and buyers get far more choice than they ever could elsewhere.   Read more at Jewellery buying Sidmouth

If you are looking for a company which engages in jewellery buying in Devon, you really want to look for the small individual - often family run – jewellers. If you go instead to the big chains, you will find that they don’t usually buy individual pieces because their managers are just that – managers – and their bosses will not trust them to spend their money, even though they may be skilled jewellers.  After all, as far as the directors of these big chains are concerned, their local manager could make a big mistake and pay far too much for a ring or a necklace – and remember that these are not necessarily small purchases: we could be talking in terms of many thousands. However, the small individual shop that undertakes jewellery buying in Devon is run by the owner and he or she will have a skill set and the knowledge to value a piece and pay what it is worth, obviously allowing for a reasonable mark-up. If the owner should make a mistake and over-value t...

Wherever you live in Devon or Cornwall, if you are looking for superb pieces of jewellery it is worth making the trip to visit the Sidmouth jewellers who have outstanding stocks for you to browse through. One of the Sidmouth jewellers , in particular, is a specialist in antique and pre-owned pieces, and as such it follows that they have jewellery which you can find nowhere else.  Certainly, the big chains like H. Samuel and F. Hinds have stores almost everywhere and they do stock a lot of items, but you will find that they are the same pieces wherever you go because they buy in bulk. What the big chains cannot do is to buy individual items that have been loved and perhaps owned by the same family for three or four generations or more, but for one reason or another they are no longer worn. When you have a Sidmouth jewellers that is a one-off family run business and that also specialises in antique and pre-owned pieces, you have a store of unique treasures t...