A stone’s throw from the legendary jewellery brands of London’s Bond Street is a place that, at first glance, could be centuries old. But David Morris’s workshop, high up in a historic Art Nouveau building on New Bond Street, is just 28 years young, the third workshop since the brand was founded in 1962. It’s here that most of the marque’s complex high-jewellery pieces, laden with heart-stoppingly beautiful and rare gemstones, are born.

The high-ceilinged space, lit by a full-width window overlooking a vista of sky and roofs, seems traditional, with wooden benches, racks of old-style handcraft tools and individual spotlights for each craftsperson. Which is not to say that this proudly independent family firm hasn’t embraced modern technology: it now avails itself of modern aids like CAD design, 3D printing and now its own stone scanner – each used in tandem with more traditional techniques. Case in point: while a wax model for asymmetric drop earrings, one with a pink conch pearl, the other with a Baroque pearl, is created with a 3D printer, the delicate coiling stem is still handmade from gold. The workshop now houses 12 jewellers, two of whom specialise in CAD and most of whom are long-term employees, including a father-and-son team – the younger having served his apprenticeship here.

David Morris, a qualified goldsmith, was already a success before opening his first store and workshop in 1962. Two years earlier, he had sold Richard Burton a necklace which he gifted Elizabeth Taylor, and not long after, he would go on to win two De Beers Diamonds International awards. He always aimed at a wealthy worldwide clientele, helped by headline-making creations for European, British and Bruneian royalty, for several James Bond films and even the Miss World pageant. The style was more classic and international than that of the abstract-leaning avant-garde of the day: it was his spectacular designs of exquisitely light metalwork and rare, often very large stones that were Morris’s guiding passion – and which underpinned the firm’s global reputation.

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New Bond Street boutique

Jeremy Morris and his daughter Cecily Morris

As the biggest international names in high jewellery – some owned by luxury conglomerates – moved into Mayfair, David Morris emphasised its credentials as a very personal, family-run house, reinforced in 2003 when David’s son Jeremy took over as managing director and principal designer. Today, the house is one of very few British family firms along Bond Street, and now Jeremy’s daughters Phoebe Fleetham (currently on maternity leave) and Cecily Morris, who look after brand content, visual merchandising and social media, represent a third generation. “Naturally, I thought about doing other things,” says Cecily. “But having grown up with this business I was equally naturally drawn back to it and started nine years ago as a receptionist here. I learn everything from my father but I educate him about social media.”

Jeremy Morris is as passionate about stones as his father, and he particularly loves Paraiba tourmalines and pink diamonds, often using even small examples as foils to bigger, classic stones in designs that typically feature settings in his favourite geometric Art Deco style, with the metal content kept to a minimum. Cecily says she is learning about gemstones on the job: “Buying trips are very exciting. Last year, we went to Hong Kong where my father was looking for spinels but found a wonderful ruby that he was uncertain about. We went back to the dealer three times and, on the last visit, he found an incredible pair of matching cushion-cut Mozambique rubies totalling 37.59 carats, which he just had to have.” As we chat, these astonishing gems – worth many millions – stand in front of us, set in trademark geometric rose and white gold with pink and white diamonds, and some of the most luxurious earrings I have ever seen.

They are part of the new David Morris high-jewellery collection, Mystic Cove, inspired by sea life from the brilliant shades of coral and tropical fish to the vivid blue water and white sand of Mediterranean isles. A lagoon-inspired necklace could represent either a fishbone or a palm frond, edged in a spectrum of multicoloured sapphires and centred with substantial emeralds and rubies. The Butterfly Ray earrings blend vivid Paraiba tourmalines with pure, clear rose-cut diamonds for long, delicately trembling drop earrings. Some of the stars are rings like the Manta, which features a very rare, 33.4ct half-moon cabochon emerald in a contrasting geometric diamond setting; the Pacifica with a 2.05ct marquise diamond of fancy intense purplish pink, a shade so rare it represents one in two million gem-quality diamonds; and the bold Oceanica, set with a 4.63ct pear-shaped Paraiba tourmaline, purple sapphires, turquoise and diamonds, arranged with an Egyptian-inspired Art Deco twist.

All collections are the result, says Cecily, “of great teamwork – my father, the designers, the jewellers, the production team are all in constant discussion, in and out of each other’s areas and, because everything is under one roof, we can complete projects quickly if necessary. We really are like one big family.” Which makes their favourite motto for the brand, “bespoke, boutique, family”, seem very appropriate indeed.

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Aquissima necklace

Butterfly Ray earrings

Odyssey ring

Atlantis cuff

Pacifica ring

Lagoon Amaryllis earrings

Passiflora necklace

Purpura ring

Passiflora earrings