Features

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.

Roman relic up for auction is believed to be from same workshop as famous helmet.

Featuring in Dix Noonan Webb’s Jewellery, Watches, Antiquities & Objects of Vertu sale in London on September 10 is a Hellenistic period single gold earring, c.3rd century BC.

Lyon & Turnbull’s African & Oceanic Art & Antiquities auction in Edinburgh on October 16 includes this Apulian-Corinthian helmet from the late 5th-early 4th century BC.

A selection of silver lots coming up in the salerooms.

Kallos Gallery features this 2nd century Roman marble eagle in its autumn catalogue and on its stand at TEFAF New York in October.

An example of a Bronze Age Yetholm type copper alloy shield from c.1300-975BC is for sale as part of the new Gentleman’s Library Auction format taking place at Suffolk saleroom Bishop & Miller on September 5.

Jeffrey Lassaline has joined Tennants as silver and objects of vertu specialist.

Of the 24 silversmiths known to have worked in the Aberdeenshire town of Banff from the 17th century until the trade died out in the mid-1800s, William Scott the Elder is the first whose name is recorded.

A selection of stand-out auction results for silver in recent sales.

Among the lots in Christie’s antiquities sale in New York on October 28 is a Greek gold oak wreath from the late Classical to early Hellenistic period, c.4th-3rd century BC.

It was decades after the First Fleet landed in Sydney cove in 1788 before anything like a recognisable silver trade developed in Australia, writes Jolyon Warwick James.

The Tribal Art and Antiquities sale at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on September 18-19 includes property from the estate of Ingrid McAlpine (1939-2018), one of London’s most prominent antiquities dealers.

In May 1983 the eyes of arms and armour bidders were fixed firmly on the £6m sale of the Hever Castle collection at Sotheby’s in London.

Fine sets of pistols, preferably nicely cased, have long been the mainstay of London arms and armour sales. This season’s crop were not as plentiful nor so eagerly contested as we sometimes see, but there were some gems on offer and a selection of them are illustrated here.

Fine German sidelock ejectors do not feature often in the London salerooms but Gavin Gardiner’s 25% buyer’s premium) May 1 sale of sporting guns at Sotheby’s in London produced a pair that not only scored on quality but had a history to back it up.

Edged weapons from the East were also an important part of the sale held by Czerny (20% buyer’s premium) in Sarzano, Italy, on June 16.

After more than 20 years in the heart of Munich arms and armour specialist auction house Hermann Historica has moved to bigger premises in the suburbs.

Special Auction Services’ (17.5% buyer’s premium) sale in Newbury on July 9 included a wide selection of edged weapons which was topped by a mid-19th century Japanese short sword or tanto estimated at £200-300.

A Battle of Culloden period Clan MacTavish silver inlaid basket-hilted back sword sold for £4800, just below top estimate, at the Antony Cribb (22% buyer’s premium) auction on July 30.