Features

It is a quarter of a century since ATG’s first overview of London’s numismatic auction market. Here we review the heads and the tails of 2018.

ATG’s selection of 11 coins and medals lots that were among the highlights sold at UK auctions in 2018.

In the latest of our occasional series of collector interviews, we talk to Musa Igrek, who won the ABA Book Collecting Prize 2018 for his assemblage of secretly funded government-sponsored works during the Cold War.

Group amassed over 20 years now going under the hammer at Bonhams is attracting worldwide interest from would-be bidders.

Gold rush era jewellery from Down Under is a rare visitor to UK salerooms but, remarkably, several pieces have appeared for sale in recent months.

Among the more eagerly contested entries to the Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) sale on January 24 was a late 19th century replica of the Alfred Jewel: the great example of Anglo-Saxon goldsmithing found in Somerset in 1693 and today one of the most popular exhibits at the Ashmolean Museum.

The rivière – one of the most popular and enduring styles of necklace to come out of the Georgian period – features an endless line of matched or subtly graduated gems set within inconspicuous collets.

A rare Longines centre seconds military wristwatch – a type developed in 1944 for the rigours of airborne work by the Research & Development team of the War Department – sold for a multi-estimate £11,200 at Barbara Kirk (15% buyer’s premium) in Penzance on November 27 last year.

The opening 96 lots of the sale at Skinner (23% buyer’s premium) in Boston on December 4 were from the stock of the former New York dealership Edith Weber Antique Jewelry.

Deemed a little ostentatious in some circles, tiaras have enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years, particularly in Russia and the Baltic states where jeans and a diamond fascinator are de rigueur at informal high-society events.

Pictured here are two exceptional pieces of Art Deco jewellery sold by Christie’s Paris (25% buyer’s premium) for multi-estimate sums on December 4.

A local family that could trace a clear line back to the 1750 was the consignor of this gold, white enamel and citrine mourning ring to Henry Adams in Chichester.

Sapphires have been mined in Burma (now Myanmar) for over a millennium, the stones admired for their colour saturation and dark hues.

A selection of 10 stand-out jewellery lots offered at auction in February-April 2019.

Jean Ghika, global director of jewellery at Bonhams, closed out 2018 on a positive note.

Although the centre never closed during the Crossrail project, as that work winds down Grays Antiques Market now has a fresh chance to showcase the many exceptional dealers based in the Edwardian building on Davies Street in London. As one might expect near Bond Street, period jewellery, from Roman rings to 1970s retro, is the main stock in trade.

In the latest of our occasional series of collector interviews, we talk to Penny Savill who collects irons, buttonhooks and jigsaw puzzles. She recently co-ordinated Pressing Matters, a display of irons presented by members of the British Iron Collectors group at the Art & Antiques for Everyone Fair at the NEC in November.

Pistols remain one of the most popular of all categories among gun collectors and the winter sales in London proved a bumper season for handguns, from the earliest wheel-locks of the late 16th century to the semi-automatics which ushered in the modern age at the end of the 19th century.

The Thomas Del Mar (24% buyer’s premium) sale in London on December 5 included several excellent pairs of English pistols.

This rare 1870s Zulu shield or Isihlangu below sold for £1650 at the C&T (20% buyer’s premium) auction of the Mick Woodfield collection of Zulu and other tribal weapons in Tunbridge Wells on January 9.