Silver & Silver-plated items

The many models of anthropomorphic primates that proliferated British decorative arts in the 1860s typically reference Charles Darwin’s provocative and often lampooned 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection', first published in 1859.

This 2ft 6in (75cm) high five-light candelabrum hallmarked for Sheffield 1844 and the firm Creswick & Co (Thomas, James and Nathaniel Creswick) is both an impressive example of early Victorian table silver and a memento of the heroic era of polar exploration.

Spoons are among the very few pieces of English silver surviving from the period of Wars of the Roses.

A lot offering a Shanghai Municipal Jubilee Medal, November 17, 1893, proved so appealing that it sold at five times the top estimate.

This bright-eyed and bushy-tailed claret jug designed in 1882 by Alexander Crichton sold at a hammer price of £36,000 at Tennants of North Yorkshire.

All too often kind words are expressed about someone only when one learns of their sad demise.

Silverware with connections to key figures from the famous French firm of Puiforcat proved to be a major component in a sale of items from a Parisian family collection held by Beaussant Lefèvre (28% buyer’s premium).

I read with particular interest Graham Smith’s announcement last June of his intention to retire after 50 years in the antiques business. He began working for Owen Humble in April 1973.

As this year commemorates VE and VJ days, there are likely to be even more collectors and dealers than usual converging on the first of 2025’s biannual Britannia Medal Fairs on Sunday, May 11.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including works by Stuart Devlin being consigned to auction by the late designer’s widow.

As a token of their appreciation for his work as administrator of the region around the German town of Geldern, a few miles from the Dutch border, 16 mayors from local towns presented the Prussian politician and bureaucrat Georg von Eerde with a monumental silver centrepiece.

Archibald Knox (1864-1933) is known today as the genius behind the Cymric and Tudric ranges sold by Liberty & Co in the early 20th century.

When Anthony Bernbaum curated the exhibition Archibald Knox, Beauty and Modernity, a Designer Ahead of his Time at the Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair in 2014, he was working in investment banking.

A closer look at the post-war appreciation of the great designer including exhibitions and auction landmarks

A fine example of early 18th century Ottoman metalwork sold for many times its estimate at Stockholms Auktionsverk (20% buyer’s premium) on February 20.

Dr Stephen Martin first encountered Archibald Knox in a New York bookstore in 1990.