Gent's Gifts

Woodcock pin feather brooch

It has taken just under a year to produce my new pin feather brooch and I am really pleased with it. Sometime ago a friend of a customer was talking enthusiastically about a pin feather brooch that he owned and of course I was very interested and asked if I could see it. It didn't materialise and I realised that really I should design my own as a copy wouldn't add much and something different might be of interest to the many Woodcock admirers across the world.

I have made this brooch from sterling silver and the two woodcock ( right & left? ) have largish smokey topaz eyes; this is an attempt to copy those wonderful brown liquid eyes that cause so much soul searching when these beautiful birds come to hand.

The brooch is oval in shape - 30 mms high and 24 mms across at the widest point. The whole brooch weighs in at 21 grams and it is made of sterling silver which is hall marked on the back of the rear part of the brooch; it is meant to be worn on a hat or lapel, but I know the Ladies have their own ideas.

I think that this brooch is slightly too heavy to adorn a cap and with this in mind I am currently working on a splendid "badge" of a different, smaller design - specifically to be worn on a cap - watch this space.

The brooch is in two parts, front and back with a bracken green leather oval between. The underside of the top part has radially milled grooves all the way around its oval perimeter; these are designed to hold the pin feathers firmly when the back is screwed to the front using two small machine screws whose heads fit flush into the back. The pin feathers are sandwiched in between the front and the leather oval, with the back screwed though to the front. The pin feathers are held very firmly in whatever position you prefer, none have ever dropped out from the brooch. I have shown them as a small upright display but they can be arranged all the way round in a sunburst pattern or whatever - it is your choice.

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All parts - screws, leather ovals etc are replaceable and I hope brooch this will be of interest to those many pin feather collectors who admire and wonder at this fantastic bird. It comes in a nice dark blue presentation box

Sterling Silver Pin Feather Brooch - £75 plus Vat

Sterling Silver Lady's bracelet - Woodcock Head - £150 plus Vat
Sterling Silver Lady's bracelet - Flying Woodcock - £150 plus Vat

Sterling Silver Large Flying Woodcock brooch - £43 plus Vat
Small 9ct Gold Flying Woodcock ( Diamond Eye ) brooch - £160 plus Vat
Small sterling silver flying woodcock brooch ( Smokey topaz eye ) - £45 plus Vat

Sterling Silver Flushed Woodcock and Bracken cuff links - £80 plus Vat
9ct Gold ( yellow or rose ) Flushed Woodcock and bracken cuff links - £275plus Vat

WOODCOCK PIN FEATHER CAP BADGE

My oval pin feather brooch has been a great success with orders coming from as far afield as Russia , the States and of course all the European countries - in fact from everywhere that this splendid bird is found and admired. The oval brooch will take a lot of feathers and at 30 mms high and double sided, it is best worn on a lapel or an upright hat - most of us wear tweed caps for shooting so it was easy to understand the requests for a smaller badge. It has taken just over 8 months to make it!

As you can see from the photo its a real beauty - 25 mms wide and 18 mms deep, it weighs 4.4 grms and is made from Hall Marked Sterling Silver , as usual the eye is smokey topaz, which is an attempt to imitate those beautiful deep brown eyes.

This is a relatively small badge and designed to take at most two pairs of pin feathers - because of its size most fingers are probably suited to only putting in a single pair. I used to be able to tie a mean size 16 dry fly , but even I find it easier to use a pair of tweezers to insert the pin feathers at the back of the brooch. To fix the feathers onto the back of the badge I have designed a silver nut within two crescent shaped retaining walls and the feathers are trapped underneath; but I am currently reviewing this arrangement as it is very fiddly and I have come up with another more manageable idea.

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Because of this change in feather attachment , my next stock of cap badges will be ready around the 1st of July 2010, for those who cant wait I do have some available with the original nut arrangement.

I am very happy to take your forward order for July delivery of the new stock - I think that there will be a strong demand so your orders will give me an idea how many to make.

Because it is such a beautiful badge I am making some in 9ct yellow gold with a diamond eye , this badge will have short unobtrusive safety chain to attach to the cap.

Letter Openers & Bookmarks

Half our business is provided by Ladies looking for presents for their menfolk and this section is an atempt to offer original gifts for men who seem to have most things.

Here we have LETTER OPENERS and BOOK MARKS made from my old favourite casein - why is it my favourite - because it looks and feels just like polished ivory. In fact it is a natural product made from milk and has been made for over one hundred years but now there is only one factory in Italy making it and it takes 6 months to complete the manufacture of a single batch.

Our letter opener is a good size at 9 inches long and is shown in the photo with two silver woodcock motiifs - a right and left. We also make these knives with a single solid silver ( with ruby eyes ) motif - grouse, partridge, pheasant ,salmon, fox , wild boar, mayfly,squirrel, stag, rabbit, hare and longdog. The knife is sharp enough to open letters easily and will keep its edge.

Letter Opener with a single silver motif - £63 plus Vat
Letter Opener with two silver motifs - £80 plus Vat

Book Marks

Made from thin Casein these bookmarks are offered with the same solid silver motifs as the letter openers and as you can see from the photo they are about 4 inches long and taper nicely top to bottom.Very tactile and simple these are a nice gift for the reading sportsman ( and woman ).

Bookmark - £30.00 plus Vat

Money Clips

At last we have found one man in Birmingham who can temper silver. This is important because after plenty of use the money clip will still retain its spring and will hold the notes firmly. The clip is a good size and made from thick hallmarked silver - just under 3" x 1" .We can supply them with any of our motifs - grouse, partridge, pheasant, woodcock, salmon, mayfly, rabbit, hare, longdog, fox, rabbit, squirrel or stag. These are very stylish and practical, I always use one myself. Solid silver money clip with motif - £72.00 plus Vat.

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Cigar Tubes

How wonderfully politically incorrect - for some of us a decent days shooting is considerably enhanced by a cigar first drive after lunch. However, after lunch we are usually being hurried along as the keeper is waiting and it is easy to forget the all important cigar ( yes, it has to wait until after departure of the house as you may have to face your hostess's 20 bore if you produce a cutter at the table ). So my beautiful turned and polished ivory casein cigar tube should be stowed in the shooting jacket first thing in the morning whilst there is still time to organise these important matters. It is an object of great tactile interest and will keep your Havana in pristine condition until you are ready . The top is finely threaded and screws to the bottom, it will take all but the biggest cigar and can be engraved. The internal dimensions are 19mm x 140mm. Ivory casein cigar tube - £60 plus Vat

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Handsewn Belts

We make belts in 5 different colours - all waxed Sedgewick bridle leathers . This tannery is one of the oldest in the country and still produces bridle leather in the old fashioned way with wonderfully lustrous colours that are timeless. We also make belts from webbing, a selection of which are shown on the webbing photo in the strap section.

We offer 5 colours of leather but one in particular has proved to be much the most popular - conker. I have shown some belts in conker in the ajoining photo and although the colour reproduction is not great you can perhaps see that this colour goes with anything - any colour of proper trousers, jeans etc. These belts are made from 3mm hand waxed bridle leather, which means it will last forever, the sides and holes are hand dyed and then finally our handsticher Nigel handstitches the solid brass Italian buckle to make the perfect belt ; they have two loops , one captive and one slider. The most popular widths are 25 and 30 mm but we can make any width you wish - we do have a fair market for 40mm belts - to wear with jeans I guess.

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When ordering a belt please give us the length in inches or cms from the buckle to the first hole ( that is the shortest measurement).Please note that we dont measure a belt by its overall length. Men are notorious for underestimating their waist sizes so the best way is to take a favourite belt and measure it from buckle to the most used hole, this is the measurement that we are after. We can then work out the correct size and also allow for a little slimming!

Handsewn belts - 25 & 30mm width - £40 plus Vat 40mm width - £45 plus Vat

WALLETS, CREDIT CARD WALLETS, NOTE PADS & TRAVEL DOCUMENT CASES.

In the course of my search for decent leathers I have discovered an importer of exotic skins ( the old ones have all closed down ) and I have been able to obtain some beautiful crocodile , tejun lizard and ostrich skins. We have made bullet pouches from them and they are excellent to work with.

I have always wanted to make high quality wallets but this is quite different from making bullet pouches as the trick is to skive the leather( reduce in thickness ) to an even thin layer and this a specialists work. There are still some small leather goods makers left in Walsall but they wanted fairly large orders of the same item so I had to look else where. I found Barrie Welham from my sewing machine supplier and I think the quality of his work is as good as it gets. Trained at Aspreys and then working for Swaine Audneys his work is exceptional, the wallets are slim , finely stitched and definitely have " touch appeal".

WALLETS

This wallet will hold credit cards and paper money and still remain so slim you hardly notice it in the pocket.

I have used three colours of Tejun Lizard - Royal blue, Bottle green and Chocolate brown - all beautiful classic colours. The wallet is lines with matching silk and trimmed with gold corners and we have two options for size; option one - for Euro notes and option two - for Sterling notes - the Euro note being about 5mms narrower than our pound note. So the wallets are different widths. Please state which size is required.

Perhaps I should mention that lizard skin is just about the most hard wearing leather obtainable and will last literally for years without showing wear. Sorry but it is so hard that we cannot block initials onto it !

Colours: Royal Blue, Bottle Green and Chocolate Brown.

Price - £125 plus vat

CREDIT CARD WALLET

This is a mini wallet, it has 7 pockets ( three on each side and one in the middle ) for normal credit cards and is again bound with gold corners at the bottom. Being so slim you wont notice it in your back pocket and it will stay in pristine condition for many years. Exactly the same quality and colours as its larger brother above.

Colours: Royal Blue, Bottle Green and Chocolate Brown

Price - £70 plus Vat

NOTE PAD

This time I have used Ostrich thigh leather, this comes in interesting colours and has a wonderful reptilian look - very few people can guess its origin.

This thin pad ( replacements available ) is for the inside pocket and it is so slim that you will never know it is there, it comes with its own gold coloured propelling pencil ( or Ball point ) and has a compartment at the back to keep your notes - again rounded gold corners - very elegant and practical.

Colours: Burgundy, Nicotine and Black

Price - £65 plus Vat

TRAVEL DOCUMENT CASE

I have used one of these for years, in the airport I find that using one of these there is less panic when looking for the various bits of paper as everything has its place.

As all the paperwork is returned to the case , when required, there is order. At the front there is a zipped section for money and also an open section for tickets. The main body has a mini concertina filing system for passports , other tickets, insurance and general - very orderly and easy to see if something is missing.

This time I have used fine quality calf as the leather as the exotic skins used above are not big enough, not that the wallet is huge but lizard skins etc are small .

Colours: Blue, Brown, Green and Black.

Price - £220 plus Vat