Sparkling times for London jewellers as Chinese flock in search of unique, vintage pieces

Mainland tourists are becoming a lot more sophisticated in their buying tastes, and rising to the top of many of their shopping lists in recent months have become unique vintage items of jewellery, often not to wear just to collect.

That’s according to Michael Rose, who is founder and managing director of Michael Rose Jewels, a London vintage jewellery business, who says he has been inundated with Chinese buyers looking for that something special and unique.

“Many Chinese customers come to my shops everyday and the numbers have kept rising in recent years,” Rose told the South China Morning Post in an interview at one of his four outlets in Mayfair’s Burlington Arcade in London — the iconic 19th century covered shopping street linking Piccadilly and Bond Street.

“But they are not coming to buy trendy or cheap jewellery for everyday use – they want to buy the very old, unique and classic vintage jewellery for collection purpose.”

Rose started the business under his own name in 1980 and still run his five shops, four in the Arcade and one in the centre of the city.

Burlington first opened in March 1819, and nearly 200 years later is still the UK’s longest covered shopping street, attracting over three million visitors per year.

When Rose first set up shop, China had just started its economic reform, in 1978 under president Deng Xiaoping but there were seldom any mainland tourists travelling to London, he says.

With rapid economic growth since, however, there came a flood of high-spending Chinese buyers who largely headed for the UK capital’s fashion outlets for luxury clothes and accessories brands ranging from Burberry coats and scarves to LV handbags.