Features

For more than 25 years a regular contributor to BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, John Benjamin recalls his early days in the trade – while reviewing a recent jewellery auction. Additional reporting by Roland Arkell.

It was not catalogued as such, but this silver ring modelled as a standing lion with a gold-coloured mane is designed by Moshe Oved (1885-1958), the owner of celebrated Bloomsbury antique shop Cameo Corner where jewellery expert John Benjamin first learnt his trade.

This early medieval gold ring dates to the time of the Crusades – its decoration of a five-fold ‘Jerusalem’ cross suggesting a link with the Knights Templar.

The Watch Sale at Fellows in Birmingham on November 26 includes this Ref 105.002-62 Omega Speedmaster chronograph.

The 1961 International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery, organised jointly by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and the Victoria and Albert Museum, was the world’s first international display of contemporary jewellery.

Of the more than 200 jewellery lots for sale at Dawson’s (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead on October 26, a 15ct gold double bracelet (below) displaying Victorian engineering ingenuity was among the most contested.

Out of favour for a generation, grand tour and ancient intaglios and cameos are enjoying a return to form.

Jewellery owned by Marie Valerie Hapsburg, the favourite daughter of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, will be auctioned by Dorotheum in Vienna on November 27.

A letter accompanying this gold, diamond and fire opal brooch, formed as a columbine, below, confirms it was part of the International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery held at The Goldsmiths Hall, London, in 1961.

Musket that fired the first shot in 1775 American revolution battle appears in US saleroom.

A welcome trend in the jewellery market has been the resurgence of the brooch. In October, when Baroness Brenda Hales gave her verdict on Boris Johnson’s ‘illegal’ prorogation of Parliament, what many social media users really wanted to know was ‘where did she get that spider brooch?’

The November 18 sale titled California Jewelry held by Doyle New York on the West Coast includes a group of French Art Nouveau pieces described as ‘Property from an Important Jewel Collector’. Several display the plique-à-jour (‘letting in daylight’) enamelling technique revived in the late 19th century.

This early-Victorian bracelet comprising eight portrait miniatures and four unusual eye miniatures set in gold is inscribed on the back with a series of identifying names, including that of Josias Nottidge, the children’s father, and his wife Emily. It tells the story of a Victorian scandal.

This unassuming Grana military issue c.1945 shown below forms part of the so-called Dirty Dozen wristwatches made by 12 Swiss manufacturers for the British army.

John Benjamin began his career as a 17-year-old assistant working at Cameo Corner, the Bloomsbury antique jewellery shop founded by Moshe Oved in 1914. “In those far-off days of the early 1970s goods were abundant and prices infinitely affordable. Museum Street was the ideal location for a keen young man to learn all about the antique jewellery business and I absorbed it like a sponge.”

Some of the most striking 19th-20th century jewellery can often be found in design sales.

A sale at Rago Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in its New Jersey rooms offered potential buyers the Andrew Furer and Elle Douglas collection: 27 lots of Martinware (mostly composed of the potters’ iconic Wally Bird creations).

A large selection of around 250 lots of Martin Brothers wares will be offered in the next British Art Pottery sale at Woolley & Wallis on November 27.

‘Dream’ Martinware cache from family of factory patron surfaces for sale in Berkshire

The modern market for Martin Brothers pottery has been defined by key exhibitions and the sales of important collections. Here is ATG's pick of five events in the last 50 years.