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The first director and
co-founder of the company now known as Georgian Gems, William Becks (born in
1861 in Sutton Coldfield) was the younger son of a nobleman. Without the responsibilities that being the
heir to his father’s title would have imposed on him, William was free to
indulge in the pastimes of a young man about Town and ‘lived the good life’ in
fashionable circles where he met and married a Gaiety Girl.
When times got hard they had
to sell the jewellery she had been given during her career, and made such a
success of this that they decided to open their own shop, and in 1894 “Marie
Dupont” (named after his wife’s stage name) opened its doors in
During the 1920s and 30s they found that their customers were looking for
modern white gold jewellery in preference to their old-fashioned stock, so they
switched their focus into importing their new line of fashionable stock as well
as dresses and scent from Worth in Paris.
After the second World War the company moved operations down to
In 1972 after moving to the Isle of Purbeck in
Their unique location is on
the site of the old Market House (built 1100) where at around the year 1570
three cottages were built from beach stones and boulders. In 1800 the cottages were joined together
and a new bow front was added to the Tudor building with its original pavements
which was used as a public house up to the present time. A little shop (approx 7 foot square) was
built on to the side of the building in 1929 and was run as a gift shop by a Mr
Horner who called it ‘The Little Gem’.
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