Auctioneers

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.

Newbury auction house Dreweatts (27% buyer’s premium) held a sale last month titled Syrie Maugham: A Family Collection, offering items from the interior designer and her descendants.

The books sale at Koller (25% buyer’s premium) in Zurich on September 17 was topped at SwFr250,000 (£237,250) by a first edition of the book Einstein described as “perhaps the greatest intellectual stride that it has ever been granted to any man to make”.

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.

The renewed fashion for ancient bronzes during the Qing period reflected a confluence of scholarly interest, artistic expression and political strategy.

Jewellery shows great artistic and technical sophistication that catches the eyes of collectors

A musket ball-riddled handkerchief of a Royal Navy captain cut down at the Battle of Trafalgar stood out at a London sale, but it was a letter to his eight-year-old daughter also retrieved from his pocket that added a particularly poignant touch.

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).

Rare stalking owl catches the eye in Lewes as local vendor sells Lalique car mascots and advertising signs

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.

This late 19th century French gilt bronze and griotte rouge marble tripod table-stand in the Japonisme style sold for £15,000 (estimate £4000-6000) at Hansons (26.5% buyer’s premium) in Richmond, south-west London.

Influential scientific papers were originally bought by library after a bequest from a local surgeon