Metal Couture

William Llewellyn Griffiths FIPG has spent 48 years making jewellery that looks borrowed from a different century. Working from Melbourne's CBD, the goldsmith builds rings, pendants and automata mechanisms — pieces with moving parts, hidden chambers and poison-ring compartments — drawing on gothic architecture, baroque ornamentation and a fascination with clockwork. The Rinascita Odyssey Pomander runs to $130,000. Nothing here is casual.