The store may be named after a Bond villian, but really it's more like the A-team, because if you need some jewelry and if no-one else can help, and if you can find it, maybe you can hire Vinnie of Goldfinger.
I came across this guy because my mother somehow knew someone who knew him or something, and while he does have a store in the centre of town you wouldn't see it if you didn't know it was there, and you might wonder if you were really in the right place.
This guy really specialises in gold (which is more my mother's thing than mine) but not only does he sell stuff, he also will make things, and sometimes designs them himself. He's made stuff for us from old pieces we had, as well as made pendants into brooches and vice versa. And yet there's no designer pretension about this. He's just a good goldsmith, and he's on the level. He has great specialist knowledge too. I was once going to have an old charm made into something else and he pointed out that the work on it was by hand, and it was an antique and worth far more than the gold in it (something I would never have known, or even thought of).
Sure he's hard to find but if you can it's the jeweler equivalent of Hannibal and the lads sorting out the local gangster problem! read more
