Monarchy and jewellery go together like kings and castles. From the coronation St Edward’s Crown, made in 1661 and weighed down by 444 precious gemstones, to Queen Victoria’s emerald parure (a suite of tiara, necklace earrings, and brooch) commissioned by her husband Prince Albert, The Royal Family has never been short of big, glitzy stones - or workshops ready to craft dazzling creations.

For heritage British jeweller Pragnell, their Royal connections weave together multiple stories, across six generations. The story commences with the house’s founder George Pragnell, who began his apprenticeship as a gemologist at Biggs of Maidenhead in 1928. His duties there involved some occasional (and unusual) childcare - tasked with entertaining the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret on the showroom carpet while their grandmother Queen Mary was attended to. After rising through the ranks at Biggs, George graduated to looking after Queen Mary himself on her visits. The year after Mary died, George moved to Stratford-Upon-Avon with his family. There, in 1954, he founded Pragnell with his wife Margaret, living above their first shop.

However, this is a story with multiple beginnings. As both the house and the Pragnell family subsequently expanded, the business gained new legacies – and further historic brushes with royalty. In 1992 Pragnell acquired the Bond Street-based fine jewellers Antrobus (founded in 1815), and inherited their extensive design and workshop archives. Aptly, given George Pragnell’s early encounters with the young princesses, a prized part of the Antrobus legacy was Queen Elizabeth II’s engagement ring. Commissioned by Prince Phillip in 1946, the ring was constructed from diamonds taken from a tiara originally belonging to Philip’s mother, Princess Anne of Battenberg. It was a highly symbolic gesture, given that Princess Anne had received the tiara on the occasion of her own marriage in 1903 – a gift from her aunt and uncle, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia.

Antrobus designed the platinum ring around a brilliant three-carat diamond framed by four smaller pave-set stones on either side. However, a tiara yields a lot of diamonds. With the rest, Philip Antrobus created a geometric bracelet for Prince Philip to give to the Queen on their wedding day in 1947. This magnificent Art Deco inspired piece was worn by the late Queen many times over the decades, including in her Diamond Jubilee portrait in 2012. Three years later, it made its debut on Kate Middleton. Catherine, now Princess of Wales, has worn the bracelet several times since.

Pragnell remains a family run firm today, with its roots still in Stratford-Upon-Avon. The royal connections have continued not only via modern reinterpretations of these historic designs, but through the jewellery house’s ongoing patronage of King Charles III’s charity The Prince’s Trust, which encourages young people into work, further education or training, their partnership with The Prince’s Foundation, a charity dedicated to the protection and promotion of artisan craft skills and their affiliation with the Royal Shakespeare Company (King Charles III is their patron). As they train up the next generation of jewellers, they continue to ensure a level of quality fit for kings and queens.

The house has also continued to draw on its royal design heritage, releasing new designs inspired by the Antrobus ring and bracelet - the latter reinterpreted to commemorate the platinum anniversary of the royal engagement, featuring over 320 brilliant cut diamonds coming to more than 45 carats. More recently, they released the Coronation Celebration Necklace, featuring 28 diamonds and 14 pairs of coloured gemstones sourced from an array of Commonwealth nations, all set with Welsh gold, and handmade in their British workshops.

Jewellery always holds a history: of wearers and places, eras and tastes. In the case of Pragnell, it is a history that entwines the personal and the culturally monumental. Today the house is still in the hands of the family, headed up by George’s grandson Charlie Pragnell (whose wife Emily is part of another royal jeweller’s family – Garrard). Its heart remains at 5-7 Wood Street, in a series of Tudor cottages designed by Shakespeare’s peer and friend Abraham Sturley. History runs deep here, built into its foundations and thrumming through its stones.