He began selling old lots of costume jewellery through online auction sites, and soon became familiar with the fast-paced nature of online retail and the importance of good customer service; he kept this job throughout high school, familiarising himself with smaller pieces of Antique Jewellery, charms and other curiosities, the world of online sales, and all that came with it. Fast forward 10 years… After graduating from Warwick University, where he majored in Philosophy and minored in Business Management, he went full force with what would later become Butter Lane Antiques. After meeting Monty, Alex’s right hand man, they began building the brand. With a long list of international clients, they ship out hundreds of pieces of Jewellery from their Manchester offices each month. Day-to-day, Alex is very active in all aspects of the business and is solely responsible for the buying. Alex’s next project is to curate and introduce a line of smaller classic pieces of jewellery alongside the Antiques. He is looking to launch this in late-Spring 2017, and is currently working tirelessly with his jeweller designing and managing the production. Alex currently lives with his 4 year old pug Sidney in Manchester, UK. Want to know anything else? Get in touch :D
Monty's Story...
Not many people know that Monty is also called Alex, but to save confusion all round he took a new name (of course, inspired by Monty Don from Gardeners’ World). Monty read Classical Music Composition at Edinburgh University, before moving to Manchester where he met Alex and fell into Antique Jewellery. Now responsible for making the jewels look pretty online, and general day-to-day running of the office, he can usually be found photographing antique diamonds – preferably listening to 2Pac. In his spare time Monty enjoys wildlife photography and free improvisation, regularly performing spaced-out future music to small audiences around the UK.
