Jewellery

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

Provenance adds cachet to a varied selection offered in regional sale after London first dibs

Marriage or betrothal rings of the Byzantine period depict the bride and groom with Christ who performs the marriage rite.

With the discovery of the intact tomb of Tutankhamun in 1923, an Egyptian revival swept through the decorative arts. Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels were among the first to design jewels that mixed Egyptian motifs with the geometry and bold colours of the Art Deco era. But other French, British and US ateliers soon followed.

The Art by Four Women exhibition held at the Walker Gallery, London, in 1935 was something of a break-through event for Birmingham-trained goldsmith Dorrie Nossiter (1893-1977).

A sale of royal memorabilia at Colchester saleroom Reeman Dansie (20% buyer’s premium) on February 15 included items from the estate of Miss Beryl Poignand (1887-1965), governess and confidante to HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.

The jewellery department at Woolley & Wallis has built up something of a reputation for selling cameos and intaglios.

Aided by the skills of the Alsatian jeweller Georges-Frédéric Strass (1701-77), the boundaries of what could be achieved with paste jewellery were pushed back in the 18th century.

A locket that tells the story of the brief, and little known, Scottish gold rush of 1869 surfaces in Gloucestershire

A white agate intaglio carrying the name of a giant of Georgian gem engraving surfaced at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in Wisborough Green, West Sussex, on February 22-24.

The Select Jewellery & Watches sale at Lyon & Turnbull (25/20% buyer’s premium) on March 30 includes a number of pieces by the coterie of artist-craftsmen who led a revival of British jewellery making in the 1960s-70s. Like so much of post-war decorative arts, they have roared back into fashion.

The Etruscan, Renaissance and Byzantine revival jewels made by the Civilotti family (Carlo, Antonio and Giuseppe) in Rome are less numerous and less well known than those of the Castellani dynasty.

Dealer and BBC Antiques Roadshow veteran Ian Harris is auctioning the majority of his stock as the company N Bloom & Son closes after more than a century.

Bidders backing their judgment sent two lots to 20-times estimates at Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) jewellery and silver sale

ARP (Art Research Paris), a new auction house opening in the French capital on the Faubourg Saint Honoré, is holding an inaugural sale of over 200 lots of jewellery on February 10.

This classic example of the archaeological revivalist techniques that were so fashionable in jewellery making in the second half of the 19th century was one of the top-selling lots at Skinner (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

Appeal of Weston Hall contents particularly enhanced by 20th century occupants

In a recent Financial Times article titled 'Dangerous baubles for boys', historian and style journalist Nick Foulkes commented that a friend had “described my hands as looking like a cabinet of curiosities trying to emulate a pair of knuckledusters”.

Many sales in late November and early December are assembled with presents in mind and silver and jewellery are much to the fore.

London’s historic diamond and jewellery quarter faces challenges but also opportunities