Necklace

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

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.

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.

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.

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).

A selection of four upcoming jewellery lots including a necklace comprising 21 cameos and intaglios previously owned by the Duke of Wellington.

Sapphire mining at the Yogo Gulch in Montana began in 1895 after a cigar box of pale blue gems picked from a creek by a local rancher found its way to Tiffany’s in New York, where an appraiser pronounced them “the finest precious gemstones ever found in the United States”.

This Victorian snake necklace is one of the best of its kind to appear on the regional market in recent memory.

A quintessential example of avant-garde Art Deco jewellery by a French designer who was renowned for such modernist pieces was the toast of Christie’s (25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) online Jewellery sale in Paris which closed on July 7.

An episode of BBC Antiques Roadshow filmed at Windermere and broadcast in February included this 18ct gold and pearl necklace by HG Murphy.

A recent Fine Jewellery sale at Fellows (23% buyer’s premium) in Birmingham included an unusual Victorian necklace.

Far more fluent in the language of jewellery and stones, the Georgians and the Victorians would immediately have made the link between snakes and eternal love.

Jewellery provided one of the great expressions of the Art Nouveau style. Here ATG reports on four exceptional items made in four different countries in the early years of the 20th century

Among the many successful online-only jewellery auctions that took place during the lockdown was that held by Bromley-based saleroom Catherine Southon (18% buyer’s premium), writes John Benjamin.

Archaeological discoveries were a continuous source of inspiration for jewellery in the 19th century. Ancient goldsmithing techniques were studied and relearned. Jewels found during excavations of Roman, Egyptian, Hellenistic and particularly Etruscan sites were copied or reinterpreted.

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.

Among the best known of Castellani’s essays in the archaeological revival style is this ‘Etruscan’ gold and glass grapevine pattern necklace.

A sale at Gildings in Market Harborough this month included 10 lots from the family of Albert and Nora McGill – influential industrialists credited with a key role in the founding of Russia’s cotton mill industry in the mid-19th century.