Chiswick Auctions

Coloured diamonds aside, rubies command higher prices per carat than any other gemstone. Graded using the traditional criteria of the four Cs (colour, cut, clarity and carat weight), they are also evaluated on the basis of geographic origin with the stones from Burma commanding the most interest.

The term ‘duty dodgers’ is applied to pieces that were not sent for assay during the period 1720-58 when a steep tax was placed on silver. Silversmiths had a variety of methods of escaping this tax – including transposing marks from small articles to large or overstriking marks from older pieces.

Just four months after identifying two tiny compositional drawings as the work of John Constable (1776- 1837) and selling them for close to £90,000, west London saleroom Chiswick Auctions struck gold again with a third ‘rediscovered’ landscape.

Two musical boxes catching the eye and ear among the small vertu sections at summer silver sales.

Combining fine 18th and 19th work by major silversmiths with rarities of scholarly interest, the comprehensively catalogued silver sale at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) appealed to specialists across the market spectrum.

During an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic in 1996, a marine chronometer made by JW Ray, Liverpool, was recovered and brought ashore.

Antiquities and tribal art will be on offer at Chiswick Auctions in west London on June 27.

Although the antiquities market is more stringently regulated than ever before, the possibility of illicit material continues to cause concern for collectors of antiquities. This places a greater financial value on pieces with long watertight provenances.

Chiswick Auctions’ May 20 sale in west London titled 'Wood Speaks: From Chinese furniture to Scholar’s Treasures' includes a collection of 200 Qing dynasty carved wood displays.

An interior scene by one of the lesser-known members of the Camden Town Group shone in a Modern and Post War British Art sale at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium) in west London on April 16.

Seemingly, whatever fashion website or Instagram influencer you choose, the brooch is this season’s ‘on-trend’ accessory. One might argue that in the trade, demand for good period examples of this ‘forgotten’ or ‘old fashioned’ item of jewellery has never really gone away.

A private single-owner collection of around 180 lots from one vintage photographer was the subject of a recent sale held by Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in London.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.