Our story began in Botswana over 25 years ago with the coming together of the creative forces Alan and Sue Poultney but as a second generation gemstone cutter & dealer, Alan’s story began much earlier.
Alan has over 45 years’ experience in the diamond, coloured stones, jewellery and valuation business. He was the co-owner of a leading diamond laboratory based in South Africa, grading diamonds to the G.I.A. system. Alan is an accredited jewellery valuator of the South African Jewellery Valuators Guild and a fine and accomplished cutter of coloured stones. He designs beautiful and exclusive jewellery for clients world-wide.
Sue qualified and practised as a solicitor for many years in the UK, moving to Botswana in the early 1990s where she continued to practise as a solicitor before opening her own consultancy business specialising in labour relations. She had the very great honour of being the first female judge in Botswana when she was twice appointed on a short-term basis to the Industrial Court bench.
As well as designing fine jewellery for clients in Botswana we opened the first antique shop in Botswana. We offered vintage & antique jewellery and collectibles, indulging our love of fine quality, great design and sometimes the downright quirky.
Returning to the UK in 2006, Scarab London was born, but with a gradual shift away from collectibles (visit Scarab Antiques,to see those collectibles) and an increasing focus on designing and making jewellery to pursue our true passion and to showcase our talents and those of Alan Poultney Gems.
Scarab London now embraces and celebrates all the aspects of our life & working partnership which are now central to our success in the world of precious gems and jewellery design.
We love precious gemstones and design and we love our life in an industry that celebrates beauty and sustainability. We offer you the opportunity to be part of that world: choose from our bespoke in-house jewellery range, partner with us to commission a special piece or remodel your old jewellery, or pick out a piece from our antique & vintage collection. We would love you to join us.
We are very fortunate to do what we love.
We recognise that doing what we love enables us to keep a roof over our heads & put food on the table, but we know that this is not the same for everyone.
For that reason, we made donations to large charities and disaster appeals. You have probably done the same. However about 10 years ago we decided that we wanted a greater portion of our donations to make more of a difference.
We decided that we wanted to support a charity that was working in the UK only and was not a huge organisation.
But which one? Read more >
.svg){kind=small}
