Michael Inkpen FGA Ltd is an Independent Professional Jewellery Valuation Service, for private clients, insurance companies and quality jewellers throughout the South West of England.
A visit to our comfortable air conditioned office in Plympton provides an efficient service by appointment. We also specialise in providing a discrete, and timely service for those with larger collections who find it difficult to travel. Our special Home Visit Service is available in the South Hams region of South Devon and other areas by arrangement.
Michael has over forty years trade experience and began as a sixteen-year-old trainee jewellery designer/diamond mounter at the Central School of Art, Holborn, London. After leaving art school he worked in West End jewellery workshops as a jewellery designer and diamond mounter for eighteen years before moving to Devon
He is a Fellow of the Gemmological Association, the learned body that is responsible for founding the very science of gemmology. Gem-A, as it is now known, runs the world-famous gemmology study course. This two-year course must be taken in two parts – foundation followed by diploma. Successfully passing both examinations results in the qualification of Fellow of the Gemmological Association which Michael holds.
During the 1990’s he owned and ran his own jewellery shop but now works as an independent jewellery valuer and gemmologist. Formally a Fellow of the Institute of Registered Valuers, he satisfied the valuation committee of the Institute that he had an appropriate degree of trade experience and qualification to carry out valuations to the exacting standards they laid down. From the beginning of 2020 he became a founder member of a new organisation which will maintain and monitor standards among the leading valuers in the UK. He has been awarded the “David Wilkins Award 2011-2012” by the National Association of Goldsmiths Institute of Registered Valuers and was the first valuer to be awarded this accolade for the second time in 2018.
He regularly attends the Jewellery Valuers Association conference at Loughborough University. Michael has also attended workshops provided by the Academy of Jewellery Valuers. Michael is a member of the Society of Jewellery Historians and a founder member of the Association of Independent Jewellery Valuers. Michael formally served on the management committee of the NAJ′s Institute of Registered Valuers and more recently that of the Jewellery Valuers Association.