Features

Due to the current Covid-19 situation, ‘non-essential’ businesses such as antique shops, centres and galleries have been closed since last Tuesday. However, many dealerships are very much ‘open’, working at home and trading via email and websites. Pictured here is a selection of fine pieces of period jewellery for sale today.

The minaudière, a case for storing several personal items in a small space, first appeared during the 1930s.

Three Victorian bangles were among the most popular lots of Dreweatts’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of Fine Jewellery, Silver, Watches and Objects of Vertu.

Topaz in its natural state is a golden brown to yellow, a characteristic which means it is sometimes confused with the less valuable gemstone citrine.

The London entrepreneur James Cox (c.1723-1800) is best known as a specialist in the intricate clockwork curios encrusted with gold, silver and jewel, referred to as ‘sing-songs.’

A recent Stroud Auctions sale featured a private collection of more than 120 pieces of Georgian and Victorian jewellery. Most were rings, among them many examples of mourning jewellery in a wide range of forms and materials.

This Grand Tour-era ring sold at Great Western Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Glasgow features an unusual banded carnelian intaglio carved with a putti holding the leg of a large grasshopper.

This collection of 10 carnelian intaglios carved to depict classical figures and scenes once formed part of the collection of Prince Stanislas Poniatowski (1754-1833). His past possessions are always of interest to collectors.

An aquamarine pendant telling the story of the founder of the Women’s Land Army and a rare Tudor ring shine at Dix Noonan Webb. By Roland Arkell and John Benjamin.

This flag offered at East Bristol Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) carries inscriptions for HMS Swiftsure – British Pacific Fleet – 1945, and the Japanese cities Sasebo and Tokyo.

A First World War medal fashioned from a Mexican eight reales coin was an unusual feature of a group sold at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (23% buyer’s premium) on February 19.

Four military maps encompassing Siam (Thailand), Hong Kong, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia took an unexpected £3700 at the Peter Wilson (22% buyer’s premium) Arms, Militaria, Medals & Firearms auction earlier this year.

The Crimea medal awarded to one of only two officers taken prisoner by the Russians during the calamitous Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 sold for £14,000 at London saleroom Dix Noonan Webb (25% buyer’s premium).

Interest from bidders in more than 40 countries competed for what Stroud Auctions (18% buyer’s premium plus VAT) called a “world-class private collection of over 4000 military badges”.

The best-seller lists these days will always include a good number of explosive memoirs written by special forces veterans and their heroic stories usually also mean high interest at auction.

The Church of England was Geoffrey Garner’s vocation in life – collecting military badges his hobby

Bosleys has launched a new format for its auctions, including a move from Marlow to Staffordshire.

Before British female nurses could even help with the wounded they faced a battle to be accepted, as the story behind a medal winner reveals.

“Something awful. Never witnessed anything like it before. After a bombardment of a week the Germans mounted their own trenches and the infantry reckon that every German had a machine gun…”

Our selection of highlights from this year’s TEFAF Maastricht