Silver & Silver-plated items

Barkentin and Krall chalice

Barkentin and Krall chalice - £27,500 at JS Auctions.

When it comes to antique silverware, the size and weight of objects does not always determine value. Grand works by the likes of London-based Huguenot Paul de Lamerie or the Germain family in Paris have acquired huge status and value, while small objects such as nutmeg graters, early spoons or vesta cases can command high sums as they have a strong specialist collecting base.

The system of silver hallmarks serves as a quality control, giving an official stamp from showing the metal is of requisite purity, but the marks (or punches) also reveal the year, the place of origin and the identity of the maker, providing pieces of silverware with their own stamped passport of information.


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Qing trophy won by an Australian bidder

05 September 2022

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

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Irish ‘freedom’ boxes bring fierce bidding battles in Oxfordshire auction

05 September 2022

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

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British and overseas silver at Fellows

05 September 2022

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.

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Silver: The growing fame of the Highlands ‘hammermen’

05 September 2022

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

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Victorian kettle modelled as a curling stone doubles estimate in Edinburgh

05 September 2022

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

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Brontë family link boosts silver jug result

05 September 2022

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

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Dreweatts to hold sale of items from Windsor House Antiques

29 August 2022

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

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In the emperor’s service

15 August 2022

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

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Trafalgar celebrated with a splash of vinegar

15 August 2022

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.

1616359 Inkstand, NTI James Dobson

National Trust snaps up Castlereagh’s silver inkstand ahead of exhibition

11 August 2022

The National Trust has acquired a silver inkstand used by Viscount Castlereagh (1769-1822), the Anglo-Irish politician and statesman.

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Silversmiths who left Britain in search of fortune

08 August 2022

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

Linnean Society of London Darwin-Wallace Medal

Eight Wallace medals stay together as one bidder buys them all

25 July 2022

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.

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Five-figure Ashbee assessment

25 July 2022

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.

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Specialist takes a shine to Persian silver

25 July 2022

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.

Prayer nut

Vendor’s prayers answered by a £480,000 nut

11 July 2022

The major summer sales of works of art included a boxwood prayer nut and Rothschild provenanced vases.

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Colman buyers keen as mustard

11 July 2022

Ninety lots from family’s Norfolk home gave a taster of the traditional items they collected

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English tea caddy on offer at Butterscotch

11 July 2022

Butterscotch in New York is holding its summer estates auction on July 17.

Silver tankard

Pick of the week: High demand for rare Hull silver

04 July 2022

Abraham Barachin became the last silversmith to use the Hull town mark of three ducal coronets.

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Medals: not just for the military

13 June 2022

Spotlight on honours sold recently includes courageous lifesavers from civilian backgrounds.

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Previews: Jewellery, watches and silver

13 June 2022

A look ahead to auction house and dealer highlights this summer.

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