Catherine Jones, The Cambridge Jeweller celebrates 60 years
July 26, 2023
Tuesday 25th July Cambridge UK: Family-owned jeweller, Catherine Jones of Cambridge, has been designing and selling original pieces of jewellery since 1963. This year, they return to Trinity College on 7th September to celebrate their 60th anniversary and to raise funds for The Royal Anglian Regiment Benevolent Charity.
The proudly independent Cambridge Jeweller has been supporting local events for the Royal Anglian Regiment’s charity since 2015 and has raised in the region of £30k.
Thursday 7th September will mark the 60th anniversary of the business with a splendid dinner in the Tudor Hall of Trinity College and another opportunity to raise funds for the company’s chosen charity.
Catherine opened her business in 1963, with a £500 legacy from an uncle who had owned a coffee farm in East Africa. Fashion boutiques were springing up everywhere, in dingy, mouldy-smelling places in derelict alleyways. She toyed with opening a retail business but said there were too many already selling clothes. When invited to a Cambridge College May ball, she couldn’t find an interesting pair of earrings to compliment her dress. ‘If I can’t,’ she thought, ‘then nobody else can’. From that germ, Catherine Jones Jewellery was created.
Vanessa Burkitt, daughter of late Catherine Jones and now co-owner of Catherine Jones of Cambridge, comments: “Catherine quickly became a much-admired innovator in the jewellery industry! Jewellery in the 60s was experimental and inventive so Catherine first chose fashion-led, costume-jewellery that you’d see on the front cover of the leading fashion magazines of the day. She supported new makers of silver jewellery, graduating to gold with semi-precious stones and now the remarkable pieces we stock, today.
To mark our 60th, we have accumulated and commissioned a wonderful collection from the last six decades – vintage time-capsule pieces and unique commissions made by designers with whom we have worked over the decades. We will also exhibit pieces loaned by some of our customers’ collections to mark our 60th.”
Mathew Burkitt, also co-owner of Catherine Jones and CTO for the online business talks about the fundraiser and future plans; “I am sure nobody had any idea back then that we would still be doing this 60 years later! It’s been a privilege to work for my family business and our fundraiser for the Royal Anglian Regiment is the perfect, quintessential Cambridge event to raise a toast to admirable work they do to support serving and former members of our local regiment and their loved ones.”
The charity fundraiser takes place on Thursday 7th September and everyone is welcome. Auction prizes include an illustrated talk by their specialist colour-stone dealer on the Gems in the Coronation Regalia, dinner for 8 at Barrington Hall with Henry Blofeld, the doyen of Cricket Commentators, a private tour for 4-6 people of the London Assay Office with a history of hallmarking (the oldest consumer protection law in the world dating from 1300) plus many more!
Tickets to the charity ball can be purchased from www.catherinejones.com/60 along with donations to the Royal Anglian Regiment Benevolent Charity.
Or get in touch at online@catherinejones.com or by phone 01223 361596