Silver & Silver-plated items

Underpinned by bids from the internet, silver from beyond the British Isles is these days a stronger feature of provincial sales.

Russian works of art are coming up for sale at Dr Fischer in Heilbronn on May 17.

Satirical magazine Private Eye once ran a series highlighting the fatuity of interviews by supposedly asking famous names their feelings towards spoons, there being nothing more mundane or less worthy of comment. But the appeal of an antique spoon to the cognoscenti is not difficult to appreciate.

An Elkington electroplated duck press outsold silver proper at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) of Shrewsbury on March 20.

Two cased Stuart Devlin silver gilt surprise eggs of unique designs sold for £4400 at 1818 Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Milnthorpe on April 1.

On account of its relative scarcity, all Irish silver carries a premium. It is the pieces made in small provincial centres that are most highly prized.

Offered as a sale within a sale, 34 silver snuff boxes and vinaigrettes came fresh to market at Lawrences’ April 9 sale after decades in a private collection.

After almost 50 years on public display in the silver galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a James I silver shell-form spice or sugar box was offered for sale at Salisbury saleroom Woolley & Wallis.

Bearing later Georgian or Victorian embossed decoration, this 13¾in (35cm) diameter, 22oz silver charger, below, was a much earlier work.

A charity antiques fair in aid of a Kent hospice will run at the Skinners School in Tunbridge Wells on Sunday, April 28.

Having produced only 700-800 works in his short-lived career, Gilbert Marks (1861-1905) is not among the best-known silversmiths of his generation but was considered one of the foremost craftsmen of his day.

Stephen Kalms set up his antique silver business in The London Silver Vaults in 1991. He specialises in 18th-20th century works, particularly Victorian and Edwardian pieces up to the present.

Silver across five centuries caught the eye at provincial sales in February.

The plethora of single-collection sales at the start of the year was not at the expense of old-fashioned auctions offering good-quality offerings across the range of dealing and collecting – such as the Winter Fine Arts sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) of Dorchester.

The models used in 17th century ceramics were typically derived from contemporary metalwork – and occasionally vice versa.

Out-sold by the 100-times estimate £22,000 Japanese vase featured on last week’s News pages (ATG No 2380), this gold and silver-gilt chalice, right, offered at Lytham St Annes auction house Gerrards (18% buyer’s premium) on February 7 was a more predictable five-figure star.

The Vogels bought 17th and early 18th century silver from How of Edinburgh, SJ Phillips in London and Shrubsole in New York.

ATG has learned that the collection of rare Danish silver advertised on two pages of ATG No 2359 as stolen has been returned to its owner.

This mid-19th century cruet stand is one of several lots of English silver to be offered by Clarke Auction Gallery in Larchmont, New York, on February 10.