Features

Glyphic art was one of the success stories of 2019. The return to collecting fashion of this once dusty academic field is bringing more hardstone gems to the market.

Lambertsville, New Jersey, auction house Rago/Wright is to launch a new sale category on February 12 titled 'Studio Jewelry 1900-Present'.

The impressive arms offered in London from a collection which supplied weapons for many films were far from being theatrical props

One fascinating section of a recent Thomas Del Mar (25% buyer’s premium) sale featured Stone Age and Viking weapons and artefacts from a European private collection.

Any museum or collector seeking a centrepiece for their display need look no further than the Gatling gun – a pivotal invention that makes its presence felt by its sheer size and bling.

December 10 marked a significant step in the history of specialist sporting and antique gun auction house Holts (25-20% buyer’s premium).

If proof were needed that firearms sales are simply conducted on a completely different scale in the US, one need look no further than the three-day sale at Rock Island Auctions (18.5% buyer’s premium) in Illinois on December 6-8.

Two spectacular early-19th century British presentation sabres have turned up in the salerooms recently, one in London and the other in Munich.

Edged weapons from the East continue to feature regularly among the top lots in auctions across the world. Awareness of the rich array of culturally-significant weapons to be found in Western collections has grown as internet technology reaches a new international audience.

Rare and well-preserved armour from pre-history to the 17th century was well received in the pre-Christmas sales. Three examples are pictured here.

Shirley Mueller is a US neuroscientist, author and Asian art collector focused on Chinese export porcelain. Her book 'Inside the Head of a Collector: Neuropsychological Forces at Play' has recently been published.

Victorian silver novelties do not come much better than this claret jug, formed as a 9in (23cm) tall kneeling elephant by James Barclay Hennell, London 1881. The hinged head (currently lacking tusks) forms the cover.

This impressive and rare pair of silver table candlesticks with cluster columns, square bases and drip cups had no visible hallmarks but is probably Dutch and late 17th century in date.

Alongside pieces made in Kinsale, Galway and Waterford, silver from the small County Cork town of Youghal is among the scarcest of all Irish provincial silver. Only a handful of pieces survive that carry the punning town mark of a yawl.

The sale at Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) in Cambridge on December 12 included a cache of Victorian and earlier silver from the collection of Delaval Astley, 23rd Baron Hastings (b.1960).

This small Gothic Revival beaker was made by ecclesiastical metal manufacturer John Hardman (Birmingham, 1848) at the height of the first partnership with AWN Pugin.

The typical Georgian silver coffee pot is one of the great bargains of 21st century antiques collecting.

Pin cushions have their own niche market in the novelty silver field. Nineteen Edwardian examples were offered at a sale at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury last year.

Edwardian silver table bells modelled as tortoises are not too hard to find but silver pigs are a much rarer beast. Accordingly, it was surprising to see two appear on two successive days at winter sales.

Originally medieval drinking vessels, wassail bowls became highly decorative status symbols by the 19th century as this large silver-mounted walnut example shows.