Jewellery

Woolley & Wallis followed the Shannon collection with a mixed-owner sale on November 1. Together the auctions brought a premium-inclusive £2.1m.

Heritage Auctions’ Fine Jewelry Signature sale in New York on December 3 includes two rings by London-based designer and virtuoso goldsmith Elizabeth Gage.

The white-glove sale of the Shannon collection of jewellery at Woolley & Wallis was topped at £22,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) by a gold bracelet by Omar Ramsden.

Jewellery is the single biggest element of the LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair (September 13-19), with 13 specialist dealers and a handful of others who will include items of personal adornment alongside decorative arts or antiquities.

His daring organic sculptural designs re-energised the British jewellery scene in post-war Britain. Now Andrew Grima’s (1921-2007) creations are leading the revival of 1960s and ‘70s designer jewellery on the secondary market.

This agate, enamel and gemset cameo brooch carved with the profile of a classical maiden is signed verso for Georges Bissinger.

Victoria, Princess Royal (1840-1901), shed her first baby tooth at the age of seven while the royal family was a guest of the Duke of Abercorn at Ardverikie, by Loch Laggan. Her father Prince Albert tugged the tooth free himself and had it set in gold and enamel as a brooch. The milk tooth formed the blossom of thistle.

An exhibition dedicated to the colourful creations of modern jewellery designer Wendy Ramshaw (b.1939) runs at the Goldsmiths’ Fair in London from September 25-October 7.

A demi-parure of mid-18th century Swedish gold jewellery offered by Brightwells (22% buyer’s premium) in Leominster was accompanied by a painted portrait miniature of the original owner wearing the set. The miniature, although uninscribed, was dated 1845.

Far more fluent in the language of jewellery and stones, the Georgians and Victorians would have immediately made the link between snakes and eternal love. The ouroboros – a serpent swallowing its own tail – was commonly understood as a symbol of eternity.

Ahead of its season-opening September 18 jewellery sale, Chiswick Auctions invited Jessica Diamond, the suitably-named jewellery editor for 'Condé Nast Traveller', to pick her top 10 lots from the catalogue.

Forthcoming jewellery auction highlights at home and abroad – from the first ‘smart’ watch to the first female mayor in the British Empire.