Clocks, Watches & Jewellery

Vintage Dior jewellery regularly takes thousands of pounds at auction, but buyers at an upcoming Catherine Southon sale have the chance to score some classic pieces at three-figure sums.

The tragic story of the last of the imperial Russian family does not have an immediately obvious connection with a Yorkshire spa town but it is nonetheless a strong one.

A gold ring set with a carved ivory scene given by the young Napoleon Bonaparte to an early love, Caroline du Colombier, is coming up for auction in Fontainebleau, France next month.

Antique jewellery dealer SJ Phillips is moving out of Bond Street next month to a second floor of Bruton Street in Mayfair.

Police are appealing to the antiques trade to look out for a rose gold Victorian ring that was among a collection of jewellery stolen from a home in Godalming, Surrey.

Here are five of ATG's ‘best of the best’ picks of the week from 2016 – all remarkable both for their price and the stories they tell.

If a Chanel snow globe, a Fabergé bracelet or a blue table by Yves Klein are on the list for Father Christmas this year then head to Christie’s Paris showroom this weekend.

A 3000-year old torc found in a field in east Cambridgeshire is one of the largest and heaviest to be unearthed in the UK.

A rare early model of the ‘mystery clock’ invented by magician and horologist Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805-1871) is up for sale at Chiswick Auctions next month.

Phillips set a record price for a wristwatch sold at auction over the weekend when a Patek Philippe Reference 1518 was knocked down for SFr9.6m (£7.7m).

A Rolex watch that was bought in 1966 for £69.10 has sold at auction for £140,000. The rare Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner stainless steel model is highly desired by collectors due to its 3-6-9 Explorer dial.

This late medieval marriage ring, unearthed by a metal detectorist last year in North Yorkshire, has been sold to London dealers Wartski for a five-figure sum after a private deal was negotiated by independent valuer Mark Littler.

Two Russian diamond necklaces, with links to Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, will be auctioned by Sotheby’s in Geneva next month with a $10m estimate.

A remarkable Australian gold rush era bracelet was sold by Chorley’s of Prinknash Abbey Park earlier this month for £57,000. The buyer was an Australian private collector.

Buyers at a recent Fellows auction in Birmingham showed the strength in the market for amber.

A historic jewellers in Bolton is in the process of closing after reporting that the decline of the high street and the rise of the internet made trading impossible for them.

Opposition to the ‘outsourcing’ of UK hallmarks overseas is gathering momentum in the trade. Campaigners say the use of British hallmarks in India threatens a 700-year-old system for stamping precious metals.

London Bridge is falling down, goes the song. A bit further upstream, it turns out that the Houses of Parliament are actually doing the falling down.

A temporary export bar has been placed on the coronet designed for Queen Victoria by her husband Prince Albert, giving UK buyers an opportunity to raise the £5m (plus £1m VAT) asking price to keep it in the country.

The imminent arrival of Crossrail services in London are threatening the character of the Hatton Garden jewellery quarter.