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Made once, for one hand.

Fine jewellery and bespoke commissions from a single bench on Haddows Road, Nungambakkam. Hallmarked, certified, and set by the same three families since 1987.

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Pictured
Nila solitaire
Stone
1.52 ct round brilliant, D colour, VVS1, GIA 6472 1190
Metal
18k champagne gold, BIS 750
Price
₹18.4 lakh

One bench, three families, thirty-nine years.

Aurelia opened in 1987 with a setter’s bench, a hallmark licence and two rooms above a tailor on Haddows Road. Vasanthi Selvaraj drew the pieces; her husband R. Selvaraj, the third goldsmith in his family from Vellore, made them.

The same three families still make everything that leaves the atelier. The Selvarajs cast and finish, K. Murugesan and his son set the stones, and S. Anbu, who learnt engraving from his father in Kumbakonam, cuts the bangles. Nothing is sent out, and nothing is made twice.

Founded
1987, at 14 Haddows Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai
Bench
Three families: Selvaraj (goldsmiths), Murugesan (setters), Anbu (engraver)
Hallmark
BIS 750 for 18k, 916 for 22k, Pt950 for platinum, with a HUID on every piece
Stones
GIA or GRS certificate with every stone above 0.30 ct
Output
About 160 pieces a year, of which around 40 are commissions
After
Cleaning, claw tightening and re-polishing without charge for life

From the collection

Eight pieces are in the atelier this season. Each is made once; when it is sold, its drawing is retired.

Nila solitaire

₹18.4 lakh

1.52 ct round brilliant, D colour, VVS1, GIA 6472 1190

18k champagne gold, BIS 750

Meenakshi pendant

₹32.5 lakh

2.04 ct Burmese ruby, cushion, unheated, GRS

18k champagne gold, BIS 750

Kaveri line bracelet

₹24.6 lakh

42 round brilliants, 6.10 ct total, F colour, VS

18k white gold, BIS 750

See all eight pieces

Drawn before it is made

Sheet AUR/041 · plan and elevation · scale 4:1 on A3 · millimetres

Sheet AUR/041

Nila solitaire

Nothing is cut until the sheet is signed off. When the piece is sold the sheet is stamped and filed, and that drawing is never worked again.

Drawn V. Selvaraj, 11 January 2026
Checked K. Murugesan, 13 January 2026

Finger
Size 13, 16.70 mm inside diameter
Shank
1.90 mm knife-edge, 20.50 mm outside
Head
5.00 mm above the shank, four claw
Claw
0.90 mm wire, filed to 0.62 mm at the tip
Stone
1.52 ct round brilliant, 7.36 mm girdle
Cut
Table 58%, depth 61.5%, D colour, VVS1
Report
GIA 6472 1190, inscribed on the girdle
Metal
18k champagne gold, BIS 750, 4.31 g finished

Revisions

  1. A · 18 JanShank taken from 2.10 to 1.90 mm. Vasanthi wanted light under the stone.
  2. B · 24 JanClaw wire 1.05 to 0.90 mm. Murugesan filed a sample first and kept it.
  3. C · 2 FebCulet raised 0.4 mm so the pavilion clears the finger when the hand closes.

Sixty-five days, one ring.

Commission 2025/118: a 1.20 carat Ceylon sapphire for Divya Sundaresan of Besant Nagar. The bench keeps a card for every commission, and this is hers, set out to the day.

The wide gap in April is the stone. It went to the GRS laboratory in Bangkok on the second and came back on the twenty-fourth, unheated, with a report. Everything else waited.

  1. 4 Mar

    Wax carved

    R. Selvaraj

  2. 11 Mar

    Tried on the finger

    Divya, at the atelier

  3. 19 Mar

    Cast in 18k, sprue cut

    R. Selvaraj

  4. 2 Apr

    Shank filed and sized

    R. Selvaraj

  5. 24 Apr

    Claws raised, stone set

    K. Murugesan

  6. 3 May

    Hallmarked, HUID struck

    BIS centre, Guindy

  7. 8 May

    Delivered by hand

    K. Murugesan

A commission takes eleven to sixteen weeks.

Around forty a year leave the bench. Most begin with a stone someone already owns, or an occasion with a date on it.

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  1. Week 0Consultation
  2. Weeks 1 to 3Drawings and the stone
  3. Weeks 4 to 6Wax model
  4. Weeks 7 to 13Casting, setting, polishing
  5. Weeks 14 to 16Hallmark and delivery

The bench

One lamp, one loupe, and the stone held in a clamp. Nothing leaves this room half made.

“They sized it to my mother’s finger before the sapphire went in, and Murugesan walked it down to the car himself.”

Divya Sundaresan, Besant Nagar. Commission 2025/118, delivered 8 May.

Setting is done under one lamp with the stone in a clamp and the loupe never further than the bench. Murugesan has set for thirty-four years, the first eleven beside his father. A four-claw solitaire takes him a day and a half; the Kaveri line bracelet, with forty-two baskets, took nine.

Rings are sized to the finger before the stone goes in, because a shank stretched afterwards loosens the claws. It is slower, and it is why the after-care is free.