The recently rediscovered white metal, gilt, coral, lapis lazuli and malachite brooch designed by William Burges, £9500 at Gildings in Market Harborough on March 19.
The discovery, discussed in a festive episode on Christmas Eve, is the third piece by Burges that has surfaced in 13 years. All have been found following chance viewings of Antiques Roadshow.
To recap, it was back in March 2011 that jewellery expert Geoffrey Munn chose a slot on the Roadshow to highlight a series of annotated watercolour brooch designs by Burges held by the Victoria & Albert Museum. He and Charlotte Gere had published them in 1989 in their book Artists Jewellery.
After Munn told viewers he had been searching for one of these Burges brooch for more than 20 years, a Leicestershire lady contacted her local saleroom to show them a gothic revival jewel set with a heart-shaped garnet and turquoises fashioned as forget-me-nots. Munn famously called his ‘Tutankhamun experience’. The brooch was later sold at Gildings in August that year for £31,500.
This Burges brooch, to a different design set with a heart-shaped garnet and turquoises fashioned as forget-me-nots, was discovered 12 years ago. It sold for £31,500 at Gildings in August 2011.
A subsequent edition of the Roadshow featuring the full story of the brooch unearthed another identical example in 2012. The owner again contacted Gildings, who were able to negotiate a private treaty sale with the V&A (it is now on display in the new Jewellery Gallery). It is thought both brooches, engraved to the back with the initials JPMS, were made to mark the wedding of Burges’ friend and fellow architect John Pollard Seddon in 1864.
A detail of the recently rediscovered white metal, gilt, coral, lapis lazuli and malachite brooch designed by William Burges, £9500 at Gildings in Market Harborough on March 19.
The third and most recent discovery is a different white metal and gilt design incorporating coral, lapis lazuli and malachite cabochons. Matching another of the designs in Burges’ sketches, it too is thought to have been made as a bridesmaid gift for the wedding of the Rev’d John Gibson, a scholar-clergyman, who as Dean of Jesus College Cambridge and a key player in the Gothic Revival movement, was involved in the restoration of Jesus College Chapel. He married Caroline Bendyshe, a great-niece of Admiral Lord Nelson in London in January 1864, with the brooch is inscribed with the couple’s initials JCG.
Flora Steel, an art historian living in Rome, had bought it at a Midlands antiques market in 1988 for less than £20. A chance viewing of a Roadshow ‘Most Wanted Finds’ clip on social media led to her own appearance on the 2023 Christmas special.
“I've always adored the Antiques Roadshow, so when the clip popped up on my phone, I said to myself, ‘that reminds me of the brooch I found 35 years ago.’ So, I decided to have a better look at the V&A drawing and lo and behold there was my brooch. I practically fell off my chair!”
Like the previous two owners, Steel contacted Gildings that were delighted to authenticate it and suggest a guide price of £10,000-15,000. Director Will Gilding welcomed the third chapter of an extraordinary story. “So, now another Burges brooch has been discovered via the Antiques Roadshow. For it to happen once, amazing. Twice, remarkable. A third time? Pinch me!”
Sold on March 19 for a price that with premium was £11,800, the brooch has now found a new home with a private collector in the UK. The vendor plans to give the proceeds of the sale to her son and make a donation to a breast cancer research fund.
