Jewellery

Jewellery dealer Cornelia Perquin of Precious Flora is no stranger to antiques fairs, but this month she is branching out. She will be offering her selection of antique and vintage flower jewellery in a slightly different setting: the Royal Horticultural Society’s Plant and Art Fair.

A hairwork bracelet offered at auction was inscribed to a gold mount: From the Mane of the Charger Copenhagen which carried the Duke of Wellington 18 successive hours on the 18th June 1815, The Battle of Waterloo.

Woolley & Wallis is currently selling across a number of sales a cache of items from the family of HG Murphy (1884-1939), whose Falcon Studio produced some of the finest English silver of the inter-war era.

Legend has it that, while on safari in Africa with her lover and employer Louis Cartier, Jeanne Toussaint spotted a panther and immediately exclaimed: “Onyx, diamonds, emeralds – a brooch!” The Cartier range of feline jewels was born.

This red coral necklace had formed part of The International Fisheries Exhibition staged at the Royal Horticultural Society grounds in South Kensington in 1883.

This Egyptian revival gold, enamel and gem-set collar necklace below established a new record for the jewellery of Marie Zimmermann (1879-1972) at Rago in Lambertville, New Jersey (25% buyer’s premium) on June 10.

Designer Vicki Ambery-Smith is regularly selected to show at the prestigious annual Goldsmiths Fair at Goldsmiths Hall in London.

Gemma Redmond of Gemma Redmond Vintage specialises in costume jewellery and stands at the Windsor Antiques Fair.

Matthew Adams is moving into bling – well, vintage and antique jewellery from the Georgian period onwards.

Main stage at the design auction at Dorotheum in Vienna on May 30 is taken by jewellery designed by Josef Hoffmann, one of the leading lights of the Wiener Werkstätte.

A selection of glittering items on offer in English auctions.

Characterised by high-quality craftsmanship, a bold use of colour plus a love of whimsy, the menagerie of gem-set or enamel animal designs are particularly recognisable as signature Kutchinsky pieces.

Unlike other European jewellers, where designers and makers were often shrouded in anonymity, the Georg Jensen Co promoted its craftspeople and encouraged them to become names in their own right.

An old photo of a former owner and a memorial inscription will seldom add commercial value to a Victorian locket. However, the example by the Phillips Brothers of Cockspur Street offered by Mallams (20% buyer’s premium) in Oxford on March 21 carried the inscription 'Julia Hay Norman, Died 3rd October 1873'.