James Roberts Ogden took on his first apprentice cabinet on Cambridge Street in 1893, moved the business to 38 James Street in 1910, and the Edwardian frontage has stood unbroken since. His great-great-grandsons Ben Ogden FGA and Robert Ogden run the firm today, the fifth Ogden generation in the same showroom. We sell fine jewellery, contemporary and antique. We mount and remount on the bench you can see from the door. We have looked after Yorkshire families, and a small register of royals and dignitaries, for a hundred and thirty-two years.
Aquamarine, sapphire and diamond clusters are house signatures; platinum, 18ct yellow, white and rose gold all worked on the bench in the glass-fronted workshop on the showroom floor. Bespoke engagement and wedding bands designed in CAD, signed off in the Regency Room, cast and finished on site. Heirloom remounts handled in the same room: a Victorian collet broken at the shoulder is repaired, not replaced.
Ogden has handled Empress Josephine’s diamond coronet (acquired in the nineteen-thirties, sold for the nineteen-thirty-seven Coronation), a Marie-Antoinette diamond necklace, Gaby Deslys’ three-string natural pearl, and a thousand-grain black pearl assembled at the James Street bench in nineteen-twenty-three. Antique and signed-period pieces are bought, sold and remounted in the cabinets the Edwardian frontage was built to hold.
Official UK retailer across the contemporary watch portfolio. Below the counter, a working vintage trade: Patek, Vacheron and Breguet have all passed through. Servicing routed to each brand’s UK service centre; bracelet adjustment, strap fitting and water-resistance testing handled on the premises while the customer waits.
The ground-floor workshop is glass-fronted by design: the master jeweller is visible to anyone walking past. Polishing, ring sizing, watch servicing, pearl re-stringing, lost-stone replacement. FGA valuation for insurance, probate and sale, written in the Regency Room with a private consultation. We do not send work away.
Most heritage jewellers count their generations on one hand. We count ours by the cabinet they trained at. James Roberts Ogden opened the first cabinet on Cambridge Street in 1893. His sons brought a London branch through two wars. His grandsons rebuilt the firm in nineteen-forty-six. Glen Ogden FGA gave it fifty years on the bench. Ben Ogden FGA and Robert Ogden run it now. The same Edwardian frontage. The same workshop. The same family name on the door.
JRO is acknowledged for his generous and willing assistance in the study of the gold-work.
Sir Leonard Woolley · on James Roberts Ogden\u2019s contribution to the Tutankhamun excavation, 1922
Apprenticed at sixteen to the Harrogate watchmaker John Greenhalgh. Opened The Little Diamond Shop on Cambridge Street on 27 April 1893; sold his first hall clock to Smith Kelly of Norfolk for two pounds, twelve shillings and sixpence. Moved the business to 38 James Street in 1910 and the Edwardian frontage has stood unbroken since. Corresponded with Howard Carter and Sir Leonard Woolley on the Tutankhamun excavation and weighed and valued the solid-gold inner coffin. Freeman of Harrogate, 1936. Awarded the Belgian Légion d’honneur for the firm’s WWI refugee relief work.
William, John ("Jack") and James Roberts Junior open the Duke Street, St James’s, London branch in nineteen-eighteen and co-manage on rotation through the nineteen-twenties and thirties. The youngest brother, Walter Ogden, is killed in command of a Mark IV tank named Harrogate at the Battle of Cambrai on 2 December 1917, aged nineteen; his correspondence and gas masks were rediscovered behind a panel during the two-thousand-and-fourteen refurbishment and are on quiet display in the showroom archive.
Denis joins the London branch from the Far East in nineteen-forty-six and moves to Harrogate in nineteen-fifty-five. Guy joins the London branch the same year and moves to Harrogate in nineteen-eighty. Jimmy is made director and Company Secretary, alternating between Harrogate and London. In nineteen-fifty-six, Denis recognises a lost carved ivory chair on the BBC’s Panorama as belonging to King Thebaw of Burma; the firm returns it to the Burmese government.
Joins the firm in nineteen-fifty-nine. Trains in gemmology with Gübelin of Lucerne. Made Managing Director in nineteen-eighty-two; semi-retires after fifty years in two-thousand-and-nine, having presided over the firm’s second century and the handover to his sons. Still on the premises most weeks.
Ben joins in two-thousand-and-two; FGA two-thousand; previously Boodles (founded seventeen-ninety-eight), Christie’s and Bonhams. Robert joins in two-thousand-and-nine after a career in classical music, having read music at King’s College Cambridge, the Royal Northern College of Music and Amsterdam, and performed in opera houses with José Carreras and Plácido Domingo. He co-founded Landor Records in two-thousand-and-four and remains Artistic Director of the Northern Aldborough Festival. The two brothers run the firm today.
The Harrogate Season brought the international set to the Pump Room from the eighteen-seventies onward. Many of them passed through the Ogden cabinet. The register below is the part of it that we can name in public.
Beyond the register · the British Museum advisory work, the Pennsylvania State Museum archive of JRO papers, the 1927 silver model of the Royal Pump Room still set on the Mayor\u2019s table at civic banquets, and the Belgian Légion d\u2019honneur awarded for WWI refugee relief.
JRO weighed Tutankhamun\u2019s gold coffin. He corresponded with Howard Carter, Sir Leonard and Katharine Woolley, and was acknowledged in the Ur excavation papers as Advising Goldsmith to the British Museum. Dr Jack Ogden, fourth generation, wrote Jewellery of the Ancient World (Trefoil, 1982), the standard reference, and ran the National Association of Goldsmiths and CIBJO. The same archive has handled Empress Josephine\u2019s diamond coronet, a Marie-Antoinette diamond necklace, the Gaby Deslys three-string natural pearl, and the thousand-grain black pearl that sold from this counter in nineteen-twenty-three for sixteen thousand pounds, about one point one million pounds today.
What that means at the counter, today: bring in a piece you are not sure about, and we can usually give you a clear opinion on date, maker, and provenance across the bench. The Gemmological Association FGA training carries over five generations. The reference library is in the building. The bench is glass-fronted to the showroom floor.
The form goes to Ben and Robert Ogden directly. Bespoke commissions and probate valuations are private, in the Regency Room, by appointment. Everything else, walk in.
The shopfront is the Edwardian one from 1910. The internal cabinets are the originals. The Regency Room is upstairs for private consultations. Parking is on Cheltenham Crescent and Victoria Avenue, both within three minutes\u2019 walk. The Pump Room Museum is at the foot of James Street.
Sundays during Advent we open 10:30 to 16:30 for the four pre-Christmas weekends. The showroom closes 25 to 27 December and on Bank Holidays. Bespoke and FGA-valuation appointments can be booked outside hours by phone.
Yes. The glass-fronted workshop on the showroom floor handles ring re-sizing, polishing, watch servicing, pearl re-stringing, stone re-bezelling, and full remounts. Inherited pieces are assessed on the bench first and we will tell you when a sympathetic repair is right and when a remount would honour the original better. Part-exchange is offered against contemporary commissions where the maths works for both parties.
Walk in. Most of the showroom floor is open-access during opening hours, Monday to Saturday, 09:30 to 17:00. Bespoke commissions, FGA valuations and probate work are handled by appointment in the Regency Room, where the consultation is private and unhurried. Ring 01423 504123 for a slot, or use the form below.
Yes. Ogden is an official UK retailer for Rolex, alongside Baume and Mercier, Longines, Frederique Constant, FOPE, Georg Jensen, Seiko and Mondaine. Stock varies on the contemporary side; the vintage and collector’s side carries Patek, Vacheron, and Breguet pieces from time to time.
The first cabinet opened on Cambridge Street, Harrogate, on 27 April 1893. The firm moved to 38 James Street in 1910. The Edwardian frontage, by George Dawson to a Hirst-of-Bristol design, has been continuous since. The internal cabinets and fittings are the originals. Five Ogden generations have worked behind that counter.
Yes. Bring it in. The firm has handled signed Cartier, Fabergé, Boucheron and Lalique pieces over the years, alongside more anonymous Georgian, Victorian and Art Deco work. Ben Ogden’s FGA training and the firm’s archive of period-jewellery references mean a clear opinion is usually possible across the counter, and a written FGA valuation is offered if you would like it on paper.
