Clocks, Watches & Jewellery

Philippe Auguste Courvoisier (1803-73), a member of the famed Courvoisier family of Swiss watchmakers, specialised in the production of watches with portraits of 19th century royalty, such as Queen Victoria, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte or, in the case of watches sold in London and Stuttgart, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid I.

Jean Rousseau (1606-84) came from a renowned watchmaking family that settled in Geneva, the cradle for prosecuted French Protestants in the 1630s.

Early November is always a busy time for pocket watch collectors. In the space of a few days, specialist sales are traditionally held in Switzerland and Germany which offer a broad selection of historical watches for all tastes and most budgets.

The Rolex reference 6150, often dubbed the ‘Pre-Explorer’, was introduced in 1953 and famously tested by various Everest mountaineering expeditions over the coming years, including the first official summit by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.

Auctions with half an eye on the gift-giving season proliferate throughout late November and early December.

Lovers’ eyes became a la mode from c.1790 and remained fashionable in the courts and affluent families of England, Russia, France and North America until the early 1830s.

The gold rush that followed the discovery of significant deposits in New South Wales and Victoria in 1851, was a catalyst for the first colonial jewellery expressing an Australian identify.

Norman Grant, a student of David Hodge at Gray’s School of Art, began to design and make jewellery from his garden shed in the late 1960s.

This small silver ‘V for Victory’ pendant made by the London firm of John Pinches Medallists for Cartier London is engraved Winston Churchill 1951-1955.

One of the eight York Rose brooches given by Prince Albert (later George VI) to the bridesmaids who attended his marriage to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother) in 1923, will be offered at Noonans in Mayfair on November 25.

Proving once again that fine tiaras associated with royalty and or aristocracy carry a financial premium, Lyon & Turnbull (26% buyer’s premium) sold the Airlie tiara on October 22.

Jewellery shows great artistic and technical sophistication that catches the eyes of collectors

This late Victorian diamond tiara set with old mine, old European and old cut diamonds comes for sale at Adam’s in Dublin on December 2 by descent from Dermot Chichester, 7th Marquess of Donegall (1916-2007).

The unexpected highpoint of the sale at Potteries Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in Staffordshire on November 7 – a sale otherwise dominated by 20th century collectable ceramics – was this high-carat gold signet or seal ring.

Serendipity had it that three jewels by the Guild and School of Handicraft emerged for sale across three UK salerooms on November 5-6.

Phillips set a new auction record for Adolf Loos (1870-1933) when a dwarf longcase clock, a prime example of his work, drew strong competition on November 4.