TWO Glasgow jewellers are set to mark 100 years of service.

Neil Grant and Ewan Coffield are now directors of bespoke jewellery firm James Brown and Partners, now based in Argyll Arcade, since the 1970s.

The duo, who have become lifelong pals after working together for the last five decades, answered an advert they saw in Glasgow's Evening Times for an "apprentice jeweller" which started them off on their careers.

Ewan, from Coatbridge, said: “In 1970 I was 15, just out of school, and looking for work.

“It was my mum who spotted the advert and urged me to apply.

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“I was lucky enough to get the job and on my first day at James Brown and Partners, then based in the city’s West Regent Street, was presented with a key instrument of the jeweller’s trade: a floor brush."

Neil joined a couple of years later after reading an advertisement in the same newspaper, though he spotted it himself.

Starting by not only brushing floors but also learning how to clean precious stones, then the rudiments of repairing jewellery and finally, after most of their five-year apprenticeship had been served, in manufacturing bespoke items of jewellery.

With just short of 100 years of experience between them, there is not much that Ewan and Neil don't know about jewellery and, amazingly, in all the years they have been together they have never disagreed or had a falling out.

Ewan, from the city's Southside, said: “I love the beginning stages of making a piece of jewellery, the sketches, figuring out how to connect all the different elements and then seeing its transformation into something beautiful and watching the look on the customer’s face when they first see it."

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By learning at the jeweller’s bench, gradually acquiring more experience, becoming faster and more efficient, then, later, learning the manufacturing side of the business, Ewan and Neil became highly proficient time-served jewellers.

Founded by Mr James Brown in 1950, James Brown and Partners was, by the 1970s, owned by Herbert McCrum and William Gray.

In February 1980, McCrum decided he wanted to retire and offered Neil, Ewan and another employee the chance to take over the business.

Their work together has brought them numerous awards over the years, including the accolade of Jeweller of the Year at the 2018 Scottish Wedding Awards.