A brief history of N. Bloom & Son by Ian Harris

N. Bloom & Son was founded by my grandfather, Nathan Bloom, in 1912. He was a silversmith, and the firm traded from a small Georgian house on the border of the City of London, in an extension of Bishopsgate called Norton Folgate. This is a corruption of the Northern Fold Gate; where stray animals were impounded at the northern city gate.

I joined the company in 1953 straight from school. My grandfather had by then opened a business in New York. Whilst we still did some manufacturing, mostly we bought and restored in our own workshop large quantities of Sheffield and Victorian plate, which we shipped over to New York for sale. My uncle ran the business in London. We also dealt in fine quality Georgian silver; one of the first things I remember was a magnificent silver-gilt double tea and coffee set by the famous silversmith Paul Storr. Apart from two complete tea and coffee sets, there were toast-racks, egg-cruets, tea and coffee urns, and I can’t remember what else!

It was strictly wholesale, apart from a few friends of my uncle's, whom he had turned into collectors.  In the late 50's we opened our first retail shop in Albemarle Street, dealing almost entirely in fine antique silver, although the wholesale business continued from Norton Folgate.

It was an enormously busy period. There was a silver sale every week at the three major auction houses, and lots of minor sales, unlike today, when the major rooms have a sale four times a year. We were amongst the biggest buyers; yet all this vast quantity of silver found a home.

After a little while in the shop, I suggested that some jewellery might be a good idea; silver and jewellery traditionally went together. We started buying jewellery, that mostly being my responsibility. After my uncle died in the early 70's we moved briefly to Bond Street, then to Conduit Street, where we remained until 1993, when the building was re-developed, and we moved to the Bond Street Antiques Centre.

The business had become more and more jewellery based over the years, and the Antiques Centre space was quite small; so at this point I gave up being a serious silver dealer, and concentrated mainly on jewellery.

In 1973 I became a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of the oldest City livery companies, and one of the few still to exercise its original function of overseeing the silver and jewellery trades. It is responsible for hall-marking in London, as it has been since 1300, or earlier. Unlike most livery companies, which nowadays consist mainly of professional people, a large percentage of freemen are working craftsmen, who become freemen after serving their apprenticeship with a freeman.

I have been one of the team of experts on the BBC TV "Antiques Roadshow" since its beginning 27 years ago, and appeared on other antiques programmes before that. Because of my wide experience over the years, I can talk about jewellery, silver, plate, animalier bronzes, carriage clocks, some watches, micro-mosaics, enamels and other items, all of which I have bought and sold during my forty-odd years of dealing.

Since 1995 I have been joined by my son Daniel, our fourth generation, whose computer expertise is leading us into the magic of the Web, which makes our stock instantly viewable anywhere in the world; and an extension of the catalogues we have been mailing out for over thirty years.  The reputation we have built up over the last ninety-odd years means you can buy from the web-site with confidence; and we do guarantee satisfaction.  We are always contactable for further information.

Whether face-to-face, over the internet or by mail-order from our catalogues, we like to feel that our customers become good friends.  It's human nature to  want to live with and enjoy (and sometimes even to show off with) beautiful and exclusive pieces, and customers will want to buy from a company in whose knowledge and integrity they have confidence. I would like to think - that's us.

Ian Harris - Managing Director