Each week they produce 30,000 brushes in more than 500 types, shapes and sizes - and every one is made by hand.

Ounce for ounce sable is worth its weight in gold. It arrives in small single-length bundles, pre-cut from 25mm to 57mm. Only the best quality hair is used, the finest reserved for the Diana range - acknowledged worldwide as the creme de la creme of Kolinsky sable brushes.

Although the hair is pre-dressed when it arrives in La Romana, it is combed again and again to remove any small tangles.

Since each hair naturally tapers to a fine tip, single strays facing the wrong way are picked out with tweezers and discarded. It's a process known as de-blunting and one which requires the eyesight of a desert hawk.

The hair is then cut to length according to the brush size, and just the right amount is fed into a metal ferrule. Too much and the hairs will splay. Too little and they won't fit snugly.

The brushmaker feeds the hair into a small brass cylinder, taps it to bring each strand into line, then lifts and twists it out of the cannon with a diaphragm. This action pulls the outside hairs down, producing the candle-shaped knot. Brush heads to a size 9 are secured with a dab of glue. Larger sizes are hand-tied with cotton thread.

The ferrule is heated briefly over a Bunsen burner before the birch wood handle is slipped into place. As the metal cools, it grips tight.

To make absolutely sure it's securely in place, the brush is fed by hand into a small vice, the only machine in the room. This hand-operated device crimps the metal and creates the distinctive decorative border at the top of the ferrule, called the knurl.

The handle is printed with the appropriate model name and size, using a small printing press - the only other machine in the workshop.