Clocks, Watches & Jewellery

MADAM: I refer to the article (ATG No 2410) on a necklace and bracelet composed of 1st and 2nd century Roman gold Aurei coins said to have been commissioned by the Emperor Napoleon as a gift for his sister the Princess Pauline Borghese.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Oktoberfest, the world’s largest volksfest held annually in Bavaria in September and October, is just one reason to travel to Germany in the autumn. Another is the plethora of auctions held in what is traditionally a busy season for the country’s salerooms

Pitched at £500-800, this grand sonnerie carriage clock came with little information for bidders at Jacobs & Hunt’s (22% buyer’s premium) sale in Liss other than plentiful illustrations and the name C Marcks & Co, Bombay and Poona engraved to the silvered dial.

More reliable today than they ever were in their lifetime, the male line of the Stuarts attracted the familiar devoted following at the annual Scottish Silver & Applied Arts sale at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium).

Benefiting from the continuing fashion for late 19th century novelty mantel clocks, a gilt-brass and steel example by Guilmet made the running at Peter Wilson (22% buyer’s premium) of Nantwich.

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

This 1940s Jaeger-LeCoutre Triple Calendar 273175 Mechanical watch is offered for £4200 at the next Arley Hall Antiques & Fine Art Fair.

Auction house Bellmans has announced the appointment of Samantha Dunn-Davies to head its new London office in Brook Street, Mayfair.

Featuring in Dix Noonan Webb’s Jewellery, Watches, Antiquities & Objects of Vertu sale in London on September 10 is a Hellenistic period single gold earring, c.3rd century BC.

Clock produced by Englishman influential in French horology impresses in Norfolk auction.

Did a watch offered for sale in Carlisle at the end of July once belong to Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)? Two centuries of provenance suggest it did.

The marathon 12-hour 'Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence' auction of jewellery and works of art from the Al Thani family held in New York last month was a once-in-a-generation event.

This pair of green stained ivory cufflinks offered by Dreweatts (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of Donnington Priory was made by Child & Child after a design by the eminent Pre-Raphaelite painter and jewellery designer Edward Burne-Jones.

A recent sale at Dix Noonan Webb (20% buyer’s premium) included a private collection of antique jewels, gold and enamelled boxes and pocket watches.

A collection of diamond jewellery attracted international competition at Greenslade Taylor Hunt’s (19.5% buyer’s premium) June sale in Taunton. The cache of pre-war jewels was consigned following a house call by gemmologist and valuer Richard Slater. “It was a wonderful selection of jewellery. The owner had great taste,” he said.