Silver & Silver-plated items

Appealing to a range of different types of collectors, particularly aficionados of sewing antiques, Victorian and Edwardian animal pin cushions have their own niche in the novelty silver field.

Estimated at £20,000-30,000, this cast of the Warwick vase by John Samuel Hunt, London 1845, sold for £32,000.

Henry William Dee, the son of Soho silversmith Thomas William Dee (c.1792- 1869), made a speciality of producing silver novelties for Garrard, Leuchars & Son and Asprey’s and other retail goldsmiths. There was real genius here and the patterns for many were patented.

For many years the largest city outside London, Norwich had its own silver assay office during three periods from 1565-1702.

Fashion retailer’s extensive and wide-ranging French collection sets a €4m total in Paris

Early silver will go under the hammer this month at Drouot when Jean-Marc Delvaux offers items from the collection of Stéphane Faniel (1909-78).

The collecting history of English silver spoons spans well over a century.

Among the eye-catchers in the general auction at Metz in Heidelberg on March 25-26 is a small, partly enamelled silver box with a gilt interior.

More than 600 lots at Neumeister’s Munich sale on March 30 have been hidden from public view for 90 years, packed in wooden crates.

This silver-gilt chinoiserie garniture would not have looked out of place at the Brighton Pavilion.

An imposing silver gilt jug and basin by a master goldsmith of the Empire period is one of the highlights of Osenat’s L’Empire à Fontainebleau auction.

This cloisonné and plique à jour enamel silver presentation tankard will be one of the highlights of the Gilded Age auction at Freeman’s in Philadelphia on February 24.

A Plymouth solicitor’s lifetime appreciation of West Country silver was shared by enthusiastic bidders at Chilcotts’ (21% buyer’s premium) Honiton rooms.

Bidders backing their judgment sent two lots to 20-times estimates at Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) jewellery and silver sale

The potent mix of China, horseracing and the 1851 Great Exhibition yielded a strong price for this splendid ‘export’ silver trophy at auction.

Marked for Savage & Lyman, Montreal, c.1855-60, this silver tankard was awarded to British bare-knuckle boxer Tom Sayers.

Christopher Dresser created a number of daring geometric designs for silver and silver-plated toast racks in the late 1870s and early 1880s, both for Hukin & Heath and for James Dixon & Son.

Brass and steel ‘combination’ or ‘puzzle’ boxes enjoyed a vogue in the late 18th and 19th centuries.