Features

Some exceptional pieces of Lowestoft featured in Bonhams’ (27.5/25% buyer’s premium) sale on June 23 – many of them from a single vendor.

These two teapots – among the top-selling lots at the Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer's premium) sale of English and European Ceramics and Glass on June 16 – came for sale from the family of Lady Kate Davson, known to many by her maiden name of Kate Foster (1938-2020).

Back in 1990, following a famous and much-repeated Henry Sandon valuation on BBC Antiques Roadshow, a late 17th century slipware owl jug and cover was acquired by the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent for £22,000.

Enjoy a brief trip down memory lane as we look back on 2500 editions of ATG and prepare for our 50th anniversary in September

TV programmes have brought restoration and conservation into the public spotlight recently, but what is life really like for those working in the field at a time when training and jobs are under pressure?

Priory Polishes sells restoration products to the antiques trade and was originally founded by Allan Worrell in Lancashire and later run by Paul Cartwright. Last year antiques and restoration firm Driscoll’s Antiques in Clitheroe, Lancashire, run by James Driscoll, took over the firm and Priory Polishes is now run by daughters Isabel (age 21) and Ruby (age 18).

Conservation and restoration firm Plowden & Smith is now run by managing director Camilla Hughes-Hunt with a team of 13 qualified full-time conservation specialists.

West Dean College recently merged with KLC School of Design in London.

Lizzie Neville, head of school of conservation at West Dean College of Arts & Conservation, works with 15 full-time members of staff and more than 50 visiting lecturers

Ceri House is an artist and restorer and currently works with Nick Shipton and the Brothership Studio team in Hertford.

Described recently in a How To Spend It article in the Financial Times as a “part sleuth, part therapist and part miracle worker… a modern master of illumination”, Simon Gillespie runs a team of seven conservators, restorers and specialists in his studio above New Bond Street in central London.

The appeal of this bracelet hung with eight enamel charms depicting Snow White and Seven Dwarfs lies in its Disney subject matter and its association with Cartier.

An episode of BBC Antiques Roadshow filmed at Windermere and broadcast in February included this 18ct gold and pearl necklace by HG Murphy.

The star of a recent Chiswick Auctions’ (25/12% buyer’s premium) Jewellery auction was an Art Deco diamond and rock crystal Cartier brooch, c.1925.

Here we feature a selection of very different brooches coming up for sale in the UK regions in July.

This liver bird brooch, hallmarked for 1943, appears to have been commissioned as a bespoke order for Margaret Hall, the daughter of a lord mayor of Liverpool who, from 1935-6, was herself the lady mayoress of the city.

In the thrifty years after the Wall Street Crash, many Cartier jewels used fewer large diamonds and more colourful secondary stones. What they lost in intrinsic value they more than made up for with the ‘wow’ factor.

These two fine examples of archaeological revival gold jewellery come for sale in the regions in July.

Kashmir sapphires have acquired a near-legendary status, due to their lustrous cornflower colour, soft velvety texture and extreme rarity.

The collection of about 800 engraved gems formed by the nobleman and politician George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough (1739-1817), was the largest and most important of the age.