Jewellery

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.

There was some good old fashioned auction drama in Ruislip on October 7 when a loose sapphire hammered for £332,000, a house record for any of the Adam Partridge salerooms.

The 300th anniversary of the birth of the English radical journalist and politician John Wilkes (1725-97) on October 17 is being marked by a small exhibition featuring items from the personal collection and stock of dealer Timothy Millett.

London jeweller Wartski has the perfect gift for Halloween: a late 17th century pendant fashioned from a lizard’s leg.

Auction house Fellows has a new owner, with 100% of the business - previously owned by the Whittaker family - having been sold to a private investor.