Auctioneers

Although Roamer fell victim to the ‘quartz crisis’ – the introduction of quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s that largely replaced mechanical watches – in the 1950s-60s the firm enjoyed a good reputation as the maker of good-quality, affordable automatic mechanical watches.

The Omega Seamaster 300, launched in 1957 simultaneously with the Railmaster and the Speedmaster, appears in numerous variations.

This early medieval gold cross was discovered by a metal detectorist in a field in Sutton St Edmund, Lincolnshire, in April 2019. After two years, going through the Treasure process, the cross was returned to the finder, who is selling it at Dix Noonan Webb on March 15.

The Select Jewellery & Watches sale at Lyon & Turnbull (25/20% buyer’s premium) on March 30 includes a number of pieces by the coterie of artist-craftsmen who led a revival of British jewellery making in the 1960s-70s. Like so much of post-war decorative arts, they have roared back into fashion.

The jewellery department at Woolley & Wallis has built up something of a reputation for selling cameos and intaglios.

Ecclesiastical commissions are integral to the Mouseman story – it was the friendship between Father Paul Neville and Robert Thompson that led to the work at Ampleforth College – but in commercial terms these can be relatively difficult pieces.

Among the most traditional of antiques, the William and Mary oyster veneered walnut chest of drawers remains a welcome visitor to the saleroom.

A sale of royal memorabilia at Colchester saleroom Reeman Dansie (20% buyer’s premium) on February 15 included items from the estate of Miss Beryl Poignand (1887-1965), governess and confidante to HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.

A white agate intaglio carrying the name of a giant of Georgian gem engraving surfaced at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in Wisborough Green, West Sussex, on February 22-24.

The unexpected highlight of the Sworders (25% buyer’s premium) Out of the Ordinary sale on February 15 was this plaster version of the Jean-Jacques Feuchère (1807-52) sculpture Mephistopheles.

From the early 1930s, the London potter Phyllis Keyes (1881-1968), with a studio in Warren Street and later in Clipstone Street, supplied Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and other members of the Bloomsbury Group with earthenware teawares, jugs and vases for decoration.

The Art by Four Women exhibition held at the Walker Gallery, London, in 1935 was something of a break-through event for Birmingham-trained goldsmith Dorrie Nossiter (1893-1977).

One of the stand-out lots at Sotheby’s New York (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) was a 1949 first printing of The Intelligent Investor.

A locket that tells the story of the brief, and little known, Scottish gold rush of 1869 surfaces in Gloucestershire

The Etruscan, Renaissance and Byzantine revival jewels made by the Civilotti family (Carlo, Antonio and Giuseppe) in Rome are less numerous and less well known than those of the Castellani dynasty.

Collectors use the name ‘Snowflake’ to refer the range of Tudor Submariners produced from 1969-75.

Aided by the skills of the Alsatian jeweller Georges-Frédéric Strass (1701-77), the boundaries of what could be achieved with paste jewellery were pushed back in the 18th century.

As a Doulton ‘lifer’ George Tinworth’s (1843-1913) output was immense.

A set of the four volumes that make up William G Johnstone & Alexander Croall’s 'Nature-Printed British Sea-Weeds' of 1859-60 was offered in a December 21 sale at John Nicholson’s (20% buyer’s premium) in Fernhurst, Surrey.

Italian liqueur tempts buyer to pay highest price at dedicated sale