Silver & Silver-plated items

Novelty condiment sets inspired by the far reaches of the British Empire are a feature of Victorian silver.

Styles Silver of Hungerford has moved a few doors down the road. The LAPADA member started trading at 12 Bridge Street in Hungerford in 1979 and has now moved down the street to number 3.

The Royal Medal for Astronomy is presented each year by the Royal Society for distinguished contributions to the applied sciences.

Although an auction house since 1918, stamps specialist Harmers is a relative newcomer to the London numismatic sales.

This textbook Edwardian Arts & Crafts planished silver chalice by Omar Ramsden and fellow Sheffield-born designer Alwyn Carr, pictured below, is of extra interest for its inscription.

Cheffins’ (24.5% buyer’s premium) latest silver offering in Cambridge was topped by a Qing trophy, c.1850.

The sale at Swan Fine Art (21% buyer’s premium) in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, on August 11-12 included two Irish ‘freedom’ boxes, c.1775.

The Silver, Coins & Medals auction at Fellows in Birmingham on September 13 will include this garniture of three George V silver pedestal bowls with lion and serpent embellishments. estimated at £1500-2500.

Edinburgh auction highlights work of the Highlands silversmiths who operated far from the control of the assay office in the Scottish capital

Nineteenth and early 20th century novelty silver continues to be one of the strengths of the collecting category.

Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) summer silver sale included a Victorian jug by Robert Hennell with Brontë family connections.

Auction house Dreweatts will conduct a sale at Barnwell Manor, Northamptonshire – home to dealership Windsor House Antiques – on September 7.

The French silver-gilt table knife and fork shown here, c.1810, is from a service made for Napoleon Bonaparte.

This example of the well-known Nelson memorial vinaigrette made by Matthew Linwood of Birmingham in 1805 sold for £2800 at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne.

Sale tells a tale of the English and Scottish makers who headed out to India for work

A group of medals awarded to the great scientist, explorer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was fiercely contested at auction last week, hammered down for a £273,000 (or £327,600 with buyer’s premium) total against a high estimate of £80,900.

A strong price for a porringer that Arts & Crafts designer Charles Robert Ashbee produced for the Guild of Handicraft was achieved in a Decorative Arts auction held in Cincinnati.

With 207 pieces of silver from the Levant and all points East to China on offer at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium), the stand-out pieces were the work of Iranian smiths.