Victorian Sterling silver Match Safe Vesta Case.

Victorian Sterling silver Match Safe Vesta Case.

Made in Birmingham, England in 1885 by Cornelius Desormeaux Saunders & James Francis Hollings (Frank) Shepherd.

Wight: 11.4 grams.

Size: 4 cm L x 3 cm W

Saunders, Shepherd & Co Ltd is one of the oldest jewellery manufacturing firms in the Hatton Garden area of London. The business was established by the grandfather of the present chairman, Francis Shepherd, who went into partnership with Cornelius Desormeaux Saunders in 1869. Soon after its foundation the firm established itself in Bartlett’s Passage, near Holborn Circus. In 1906 a new building fronting on Fetter Lane was erected, adjoining the older premises in Bartlett’s Passage until the Second World War when the buildings were bombed. The firm continued to be based in the vicinity of Hatton Garden however, and now has premises in a converted tea warehouse in Bleeding Heart Yard. Saunders, Shepherd & Co Ltd was incorporated in its present form in 1916, and remains in family ownership. A Birmingham subsidiary, WH Wilmot Ltd, dating from 1860, was acquired in 1959. Another subsidiary company, Saunders & Shepherd Ltd was floated as part of the group c1973. The records of Saunders, Shepherd & Co go back to 1875 although many of the design records were destroyed during the Second World War, while those of WH Wilmot date back to c1900. They were inspected on 8 May 1991 by kind permission of the chairman. Mr SA Shepherd.