Clocks, Watches & Jewellery

Two years after a Wiltshire auction house set a record for Titanic memorabilia with “the watch recovered from the body of John Jacob Astor”, another timekeeper making precisely the same claim is coming to market.

A remarkable assortment of jewellery is on offer at this spring’s Classic Antique Fairs.

Inspired by developments across the Channel, 19th century English clockmakers quickly adopted this the portable timepiece known as the carriage clock. Today the finest examples from the 19th and early 20th century are in strong demand

The latest Special Antiques Sale at TW Gaze (22% buyer’s premium) in Diss included this rare Ralph Gout of London gilt brass horse-rider’s pedometer watch.

A longcase clock from the English Golden Age sold for £90,000 at Hutchinson Scott (25% buyer’s premium) in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

If the period from the 19th to early 20th century was the ‘golden age’ for carriage clocks, it was equally a superb age for pocket watches

While London throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries produced much fine watchmaking, Paris could also lay claim to some of the limelight.

Very little is known about the late-18th century London maker John Grantham other than that he made many watches for the Chinese market, one of which came up for sale at Cortrie (21% buyer’s premium) in Hamburg.

A private collection of 17th century lantern and longcase clocks recently came for sale at Dawsons (27.5% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead.

Discovered as a ‘box of bits’ in the late 1960s when clearing the attic of a London residence, a ‘First Period’ lantern clock was placed in storage until being put back together in the 1980s.

Charlotte Gere, who has died aged 88, was loved and admired by her family, but also by art historians, curators and dealers, from across the world.

The golden age of topaz was the 18th and early 19th century.

Stand-out lots from seven upcoming sales

Inventive pieces that can be broken down into modular elements – transformable jewels – began with the French parure in the court of Louis XIV.

Holbeinesque is the term used to describe Victorian jewellery inspired by the Northern Renaissance and the jewels shown in the paintings and sketches of Hans Holbein.