Catherine Southon

The Alfred Jewel is a famous piece of Anglo-Saxon goldsmith craftmanship, a gold-mounted piece of rock crystal enamelled with a portrait of a man and the inscription translating as ‘Alfred ordered me to be made’.

Serpent jewels, symbols of eternity and exoticism, are ever popular and two good examples are on offer this autumn.

The sale held by Catherine Southon at the Farleigh Golf Club in Surrey on April 26-27 includes a single-owner collection of 18th century drinking glasses.

The visit of ‘Revolutionary Wars’ hero Gilbert du Motler, the Marquis of Lafayette, to the US in 1824 spawned a large number of commemoratives.

Myanmar (Burmese) sapphires, renowned for a deep blue colour, are highly prized for reasons of scarcity, quality and history

Trebling its high estimate in a sale in Surrey was a large, in fact elephant folio-sized Atlas Royal… from c.1733

A cache of material from descendants of the Starbuck family, a Quaker whaling family influential in both the abolitionist movement and the founding of Nantucket as a whaling centre, was the highlight of Catherine Southon’s sale on February 8.

A group of watercolours from the collection of the renowned botanist, entomologist William Curtis (1746-99), drew attention in a Surrey sale.

The visit of ‘Revolutionary Wars’ hero Gilbert du Motler, the Marquis of Lafayette, to the US in 1824 spawned a large number of commemoratives.

The Birmingham silversmithing firm of Hukin & Heath received the approval of the progressive (if slightly pompous) writers of The Furniture Gazette when it signed a big name to produce some of its designs in 1878.

An early 19th century child’s mosaic alphabet, c.1820, is estimated at £100- 200 at Catherine Southon’s auction at Farleigh Court on November 16.

Catherine Southon’s (24% buyer’s premium) 10th anniversary auction included a new house record of £47,000 for an early Victorian diamond rivière.

By repute this 15oz silver chamber stick and snuffer with glass hurricane shade was a gift from Queen Victoria to her personal attendant and favourite John Brown (1826-83).

Sold online at £5500 in a February 2 sale held by Catherine Southon (24% buyer’s premium) at Farleigh Court Golf Club in Surrey was a copy in full mottled calf gilt of the first European edition of the works of Confucius (551-479BC).

Aided by the skills of the Alsatian jeweller Georges-Frédéric Strass (1701-77), the boundaries of what could be achieved with paste jewellery were pushed back in the 18th century.