Bijoux de Byblos

A silversmith's bench within sight of Byblos castle, working the port city's nine thousand years of motifs: Phoenician boats, cedar cones, the alphabet that sailed from this harbour. Pieces are cast or forged in recycled silver and finished by hand.

The workshop stamps each piece and logs it as a lot, jeweller's way: alloy, weight, maker. Half the bench is apprentices from the town — the point, the founder says, is that in thirty years someone else's name is on the stamp.