Payne and Son replica of the Anglo Saxon Alfred Jewel, in silver gilt, rock crystal and enamel, £3500 at Catherine Southon.
Thought to be the handle from an aestel (a pointer used to follow the text on ancient manuscripts), this jewel was found in a field in Somerset in the late 17th century. It now belongs to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford but is on loan to the Museum of Somerset.
As a relic with connections to a famous ruler it has generated much interest over the centuries so it is not surprising that replicas of this small and precious object have been produced.
A number of these were made around the turn of the 20th century at the time of the 1901 celebrations for King Alfred’s millennium. One group was commissioned and distributed by Elliot Stock, a London bookseller and publisher. It included the example sold at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury in 2019 for £2600 and probably the one sold (with a related pendant and souvenir spoon) by Gloucestershire auction house Dominic Winter for £4000 in 2020.
Another group of electrotype replicas was produced by WH Young for the Ashmolean Museum around 1909 and a third set in 1901 also for the millennium celebration by Payne & Son of Oxford. It was one of the latter that came up for sale at Kent auction house Catherine Southon (22% buyer’s premium) on May 15 (auctions held in Surrey).
Reproduced in silver gilt and rock crystal, this version had a printed Payne & Son paper label dated 1901 and numbered 306 and the bonus of the original fitted red leather case stamped Payne and Son High Street Oxford.
Estimated at £500-800, it generated keen competition and ended up selling for £3500.
Sample example
Cased set of gold plated late Victorian rings ring thought to be jeweller samples, £850 at Catherine Southon.
Also proving popular in a sizeable jewellery section was a set of 18ct gold-plated late Victorian period buckle rings, all with slightly varying carved floral and foliate designs and set in a leather display case with two gaps for missing rings.
Thought to be a jeweller’s sample case, this was, said Southon, the “most-watched lot” and ended up selling for £850 against an £80-120 guide.
Engraved silver box from a series commissioned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono as a Christmas gift in 1980, sold for £13,000 at Catherine Southon.
A more recent piece of silver was one with the additional attraction of a link to John Lennon. This was a Cartier retailed sterling silver box that was a gift to Lennon’s ex-bank manager at the Bank of Tokyo on December 30, 1980. It was consigned on behalf of the original recipient.
It is thought that a dozen of the boxes were commissioned by the couple as Christmas gifts for friends. After Lennon was killed on December 8, 1980, Yoko Ono fulfilled his wishes and sent them after Christmas.
The 6.38oz, 4in (10cm) rectangular box by Schroth’s Silversmiths, engraved to the lid Double Fantasy Christmas 1980 N.Y.C John & Yoko, came with a wealth of original packaging elements such as the original Cartier blue pouch, outer case and paper wrapping, a letter from Gerry Caron (at Lenono, Studio One) on headed paper and an airwaybill and outer paper envelope. It sold for £13,000, over three times the £3000-5000 estimate.
The labels fit
Part of a large collection of branded sample labels printed by James Upton Ltd of Birmingham, £6200 at Catherine Southon.
Making more than any of these pieces of silver and jewellery, however, was a very different ensemble: a large collection of pre-war printed ephemera.
This was a group of several hundred 1920s-30s sample branded trade labels printed by James Upton Ltd, of Birmingham.
Contained in several albums with some loose examples, these had a good primary provenance. They had been consigned by the daughter of Leslie Darlington, a salesman/ representative for James Upton, and featured colour printed labels for a wide variety of products including bottle labels for cider, beer, spirits, wines, fortified wines and soft drinks, labels for preserves, canned and potted goods, puddings, confectionary, sweets, cosmetics, soap and perfume.
“I thought it was a good collection,” the auction house’s Tom Blest told ATG, and he felt it would make more than the £200- 300 estimate. And so it proved with considerable interest and information requests before the sale including several potential buyers who expressed interest in the beer labels.
Whether the value was in the group as a whole as a ready-made collection or in certain individual elements or a combination of both, there was certainly enough demand on the day to send the final price to a very substantial £6200.
