Clocks, Watches & Jewellery

This silver and labradorite floral necklace designed by Georg Jensen c.1915 sold for $17,000 (£10,970) at a recent auction held by Skinner of Boston.

Bonhams of Bond Street are to sell what is perhaps the most significant collection of cameos and intaglios seen on the market for decades.

Details have emerged of a theft of a significant collection of British pocket watches from a property in London earlier this year.

For some years now, Far Eastern buyers have been demonstrating their fascination with so-called ‘sing-songs’ – the elaborate 18th century automaton table clocks made for the Chinese market by paying ever-increasing sums to secure them.

The most historically interesting entry in Bonhams’ clock sale held in their New Bond Street rooms came from the ten-lot section devoted to marine chronometers.

A strong selection of Tudric (pewter) and Cymric (silver) creations by Archibald Knox for Liberty & Co was the focus of keen bidding at Bonhams’ decorative arts from 1860 sale in New Bond Street.

Martel Maides of St Peter Port, Guernsey offered a single-strand pearl necklace for sale with a £1500-2000 estimate on the assumption they were natural saltwater pearls – the highest bidder reserving the right to send them for laboratory testing prior to settling the bill.

Despite countless offers to leave France, Suzanne Belperron (1900-83) remained in German-occupied Paris throughout the Second World War – a jewellery maker and a Resistance fighter.

Was this the ring of the Tiger of Mysore, taken from his body when he was killed in battle?

After seven years together, Ben Wright and Jonathan Carter of Gloucestershire-based Carter Wright Fine & Interesting Clocks have decided to go their separate ways after an amicable split.

The run on pearls continues with two spectacular prices paid for exceptional natural saltwater gems at auctions on either side of the Atlantic this week.

Sotheby’s have had to buy back the 59.60 carat flawless fancy vivid pink diamond they sold in Geneva last November for a world record $83m.

All five of John Harrison’s famous timekeepers will be on display in a new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum this summer.

Salisbury Museum is hoping to host a remarkable hoard of Bronze Age jewellery in a new gallery set to open this summer.

This Charles II eight-day longcase clock by Joseph Knibb – a ‘snapshot’ of early longcase clock development – doubled its estimate to sell for £240,000 at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions sale in Donnington Priory.

A young clock conservator, Jonathon Kelly, is being given an opportunity to work on a rare 18th century musical and mechanical clock made by George Pyke.

This Art Deco 18ct gold Egyptian Revival gem-set winged scarab brooch with rose-cut diamonds will appear in the Antique & Modern Jewellery sale being held by Fellows of Birmingham.

Optimism permeated the UK’s regional auction market across much of the last year.

The annual Christmas Present sale held by George Kidner at their saleroom in Lymington included this French Art Deco ruby and diamond-set brooch or jabot pin.

A Victorian diamond rivière necklace sold to an anonymous bidder for £190,000 at Duke’s of Dorchester earlier this month.