What the Reserve Collection is
Reserve is not a catalogue. It is the designation for a plate designed once, for one person, in precious metal and — where the client wishes — with set stones. Every Reserve piece carries its own design record, its own valuation and its own place in the client's registry.
How a commission begins
With the clinical plan, always. Material, profile and attachment are established as they are for any patient. Only then does the design conversation begin, and it begins with what the client wants the piece to mean rather than with a drawing. Most commissions take several conversations before anything is drawn.
What clients commission
Marking an anniversary or a completion. A stone from an inherited piece reset into something worn permanently. A pair designed as a matched set. A collection of interchangeable plates in graduated formality, from a plain everyday steel plate to a pavé-set platinum piece worn twice a year. The Institute has executed all of these.
Time and cost
Reserve commissions run months rather than weeks, and materials are procured for one client and cannot be returned to stock, which is why a separate materials deposit is taken at procurement. Private Client Services quotes the piece against the design at concept stage and reconfirms before procurement begins.
What the Institute will not do
Nothing in a commission may compromise the clinical system: not the setting depth, not the profile, not the attachment, not the finish. Where a concept would, the Studio offers an alternative — a different placement, a different setting, a different plate in an interchangeable collection — rather than a compromised piece.
Content is reviewed with the relevant clinical, nursing, materials or administrative department before publication.