Silver & Silver-plated items

A still-life and the vessel it depicts showed up at the same Maastricht fair unexpectedly this year, as did a painting and its study

A once neglected aspect of the silver market received a showpiece sale in February. ATG reports on the Stewart collection of Anglo-Indian silver from the Raj period.

Dr Christopher Dresser’s conical sugar bowl with three angled leg-like supports is one of the great ‘eureka’ moments in Victorian design.

Cups with coconut bowls mounted in silver or silver-gilt were fashionable rarities in western Europe throughout the 16th and early 17th century. At the time the coconut was, like other ‘exotics’ such as nautilus shells or imported pottery and porcelain, held in high esteem.

Size, quality and sheer Irishness made the tankard shown here the toast of the silver sold at Ipswich auction house Lockdales (19.5% buyer’s premium).

The quasi-medieval silver and glass ‘claret bottle’ designed by Charles Robert Ashbee for the Guild of Handicraft is one of the great pieces of the Arts & Crafts movement. Ashbee mentions it in his 1909 book Modern English Silver, saying: “The shape is taken from an Elizabethan sack-bottle found when digging the foundations of [my home] the Magpie and Stump in Chelsea.”

Military history and regimental glamour combine in a Victorian silver cigar case offered at Ripon auction house Elstob & Elstob (25% buyer’s premium).

A private collection of naval and military vinaigrettes was among the highlights of a recent Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’ premium) Silver & Objects of Vertu auction. It included examples of both familiar and less-familiar models.

The Assay Office in Norwich closed in 1702, so secular objects in particular that bear the city’s mark are rare. Rarer still are pieces bearing the mark of the only female silversmith registered in Norwich towards the end of that period.

Cheffins’ sale of Jewellery, Silver & Watches on April 6 includes, as part of a 100-piece single-owner collection, this 145oz George III silver gilt presentation two-handled cup and cover.

While they may not appear such comfortable bedfellows today, the novel weapons of mass destruction created during the First World War were deemed a perfectly suitable subject for novelty trinkets of the day.

Lawrences of Crewkerne kicks off 2023 with an extensive £1m (premium-inclusive) series of sales over several days

The unexpected but very welcome increase in demand that the market experienced amid Covid lockdowns continued in 2022 as restrictions eased – and auction houses are optimistic about another strong performance this year

The completion of the US transcontinental railroad in 1869 was the marvel of its age.

The Shanghai Jubilee Medal was instituted in 1893 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first British consul created after the Treaty of Nanking in 1843.

Italianate coffee pots and covered sugar basins are the most recognisable domestic forms in Maltese silver. And they are much coveted.

Chiswick Auctions will conduct what it believes is the first ever auction devoted to Indian and Burmese silver of the Raj period on February 14.

This otherwise mundane late 18th century fiddle pattern silver dessert spoon is from Lord Nelson’s first personal service.

A late 19th century novelty silver teapot offered at Halls (22% buyer’s premium) was made by US silversmith Gorham of Rhode Island.