English design and craftsmanship at its very best.
Besselink & Jones’ roots extend back more than fifty years with the foundation of Jack Cadman’s original ceramic conversion and brass-turning workshops in Surrey. Hank Besselink, who came from a precision engineering background, began working alongside Jack to develop new designs and techniques.
Attracting craftsmen in the fields of gilding, woodturning, cabinetry and engineering gave the workshops the skills and experience to handle more delicate and complex projects and before long they became regularly involved in more specialist restoration of everything from chandeliers to furniture.
Nearly a decade later, Hank formed a partnership with designer and accomplished artist Nigel Jones and so Besselink & Jones was born. As with all the best collaborations, our founders brought together contrasting but entirely complementary skills. What they had in common was a desire to create exquisite lighting of the highest caliber. A renewed passion for engineering decorative pieces, which combined the very best of English design and craftsmanship together with a painstaking eye for detail, paid considerable dividends. The initial Besselink & Jones commission was for some stylish library lights destined for Windsor Castle. The Besselink & Jones reputation was growing steadily.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, demand for our ever expanding range continued to increase and our fine lighting became more widely available at premium stockists. Our own dedicated shop opened in Walton Street, Chelsea, offering a select collection of lighting alongside beautiful handpicked antiques and the classic lamps and chandeliers enjoyed considerable success, both at home and overseas. Indeed, the adjustable ‘Smartie’ floor lamp proved to be particularly popular and is still part of our range today. Besselink & Jones continued to go from strength to strength.
Although today we have an archive of over 750 designs, we are by no means a mass producer of lights and have a small and experienced team of artists and craftsmen working with us. We have opened another workshop for traditional hand-building techniques, together with artist studios for our gilding and hand-painting projects. Here, our skilled engineers and craftsmen take great pride in incorporating all the elements of traditional quality with modern manufacturing techniques.
Meanwhile, our trade showroom in Chelsea Harbour Design Centre is a regular destination for members of the design community who are seeking the perfect lighting solution for their clients.
Besselink & Jones pieces light the interiors and exteriors of many wonderful private homes along with royal residences, hotels, clubs, galleries, yachts and public buildings located around the globe. We like to think our success is in no small part attributable to our unwavering commitment to maintaining the exemplary standards of design, quality engineering and functionality which our clients have quite rightly come to expect. Besselink & Jones is now one of the leading creators of fine, hand-built English decorative lighting. Our passion lives on.
The Company : Timeline
