Features

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

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

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.

Exotic blades from all parts of the world are making headlines in the salerooms. Recent auctions have produced some interesting results from unlooked-for places, but none was less expected than the £42,000 paid for a 19th century Siamese niello and silver-gilt mounted sword in the Japanese taste at Thomas Del Mar (24% buyer’s premium) in London on December 5.

Following the fall of Seringapatam in India on May 4, 1799, portions of the spoils were variously allocated to senior officers of the British force.

Once breech-loading guns became the norm, the gun itself was only one part of the equation. Ammunition was the great variable, as demonstrated by the advertising display boards produced in large numbers for the gun shops and ironmongers of the United Kingdom.

Many weapons have to remain silent witnesses to the conflicts in which they took part, so there is always extra interest in arms which can be linked directly to a particular soldier or battle.

It was not a vintage season for armour in the salerooms, but in Thomas Del Mar’s (24% buyer’s premium) auction on December 5 this very original English or Flemish close helmet of c.1560 reached £11,000.

Two suits of armour that emerged in recent auctions at Continental salerooms.

A selection of eight top items sold at regional salerooms who reported hammer totals for ATG's annual round-up of the auction market for 2018.

In the first of a new occasional series of collector interviews ATG talks to barrister, author and illustrator, Frank Hinks QC.

The laws surrounding antiques made with the parts of endangered species are subject to frequent change. Kim McDonald of The Taxidermy Law Company provides a refresher guide...

Brexit uncertainty. Tick. A weak pound. Tick. The ivory ban. Tick. Some of the themes that will permeate 2019 are already clear. But what else might the next 12 months bring for the art and antiques trade and its buying audience? ATG does a little crystal-ball gazing...

The arrival of the ivory ban in late 2019 is not the only piece of imminent legislation that the antiques trade should be aware of. The efforts of global art and antiques trade body CINOA are currently focused on two broad issues: anti-money-laundering legislation and laws surrounding the import of cultural goods.

"In 2018 we have not seen a great deal of movement in the price of gold and silver, but things could change considerably as we move into 2019," says precious metals dealer Michael Bloomstein of Brighton.

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in April 2018.