Jewellery

Differing echoes of the First World War attracted bidders at Dominic Winter’s (20% buyer’s premium) Cirencester auction in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday.

Thirty pieces of antiquarian jewellery discovered next to a joint of meat in an old freezer were sold for £68,000 (plus 24% buyer's premum) at Kidson-Trigg near Highworth, Swindon.

For more than 25 years a regular contributor to BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, John Benjamin recalls his early days in the trade – while reviewing a recent jewellery auction. Additional reporting by Roland Arkell.

It was not catalogued as such, but this silver ring modelled as a standing lion with a gold-coloured mane is designed by Moshe Oved (1885-1958), the owner of celebrated Bloomsbury antique shop Cameo Corner where jewellery expert John Benjamin first learnt his trade.

This early medieval gold ring dates to the time of the Crusades – its decoration of a five-fold ‘Jerusalem’ cross suggesting a link with the Knights Templar.

The 1961 International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery, organised jointly by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and the Victoria and Albert Museum, was the world’s first international display of contemporary jewellery.

Out of favour for a generation, grand tour and ancient intaglios and cameos are enjoying a return to form.

Of the more than 200 jewellery lots for sale at Dawson’s (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead on October 26, a 15ct gold double bracelet (below) displaying Victorian engineering ingenuity was among the most contested.

A letter accompanying this gold, diamond and fire opal brooch, formed as a columbine, below, confirms it was part of the International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery held at The Goldsmiths Hall, London, in 1961.

Jewellery owned by Marie Valerie Hapsburg, the favourite daughter of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, will be auctioned by Dorotheum in Vienna on November 27.

The November 18 sale titled California Jewelry held by Doyle New York on the West Coast includes a group of French Art Nouveau pieces described as ‘Property from an Important Jewel Collector’. Several display the plique-à-jour (‘letting in daylight’) enamelling technique revived in the late 19th century.

A welcome trend in the jewellery market has been the resurgence of the brooch. In October, when Baroness Brenda Hales gave her verdict on Boris Johnson’s ‘illegal’ prorogation of Parliament, what many social media users really wanted to know was ‘where did she get that spider brooch?’

This early-Victorian bracelet comprising eight portrait miniatures and four unusual eye miniatures set in gold is inscribed on the back with a series of identifying names, including that of Josias Nottidge, the children’s father, and his wife Emily. It tells the story of a Victorian scandal.

John Benjamin began his career as a 17-year-old assistant working at Cameo Corner, the Bloomsbury antique jewellery shop founded by Moshe Oved in 1914. “In those far-off days of the early 1970s goods were abundant and prices infinitely affordable. Museum Street was the ideal location for a keen young man to learn all about the antique jewellery business and I absorbed it like a sponge.”

Some of the most striking 19th-20th century jewellery can often be found in design sales.

Local home which provided £300,000 still-life serves up more surprises

Jewellery designer Angela Cummings started a long career at Tiffany & Co aged 23, and eight years later, in 1975, created her first full collection under her own name.

Sold at Bonhams last week, the emerald in this Art Deco brooch is a clue to the remarkable life of its one-time owner Lady Hood.