Features

This Machine Man lithographed tinplate Japanese battery powered robot is the rarest of the post war group of so called ‘Gang of Five’ robots made by Masudaya.

On October 6 Susanin’s in Chicago will be offering a 132-lot auction of British and American studio ceramics from the Estate of Patricia Nicol Barnes featuring works by a wide range of different artists.

This 4ft (1.2m) long Tongan Aku-Tau ironwood war club will feature in a sale of Militaria and Ethnographica to be held by Tennants in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, on September 4.

Pictured below are three lots of Oceanic art that proved to be in much demand during UK sales held in August.

Organisers of the Parcours des Mondes decided to go ahead with this edition instead of heading online – but only after careful deliberation

Included in the African section of the African and Oceanic Art and Antiquities auction to be held by Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on September 16, this 10in (25cm) high Lega mask is from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This beaded hide Sioux Elk Dreamers’ Society tobacco bag is one of the pieces of beadwork from the Robert Jerich collection that is included in Cowan’s September 18 American Indian Art auction in Cincinnati.

A number of single-owner collections feature in Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury’s September 22 Tribal Art and Antiquities auction. These include the Michael G Johnson collection which makes up over 100 lots in the North American section.

One of the highest prices in the large 650-plus lot American Indian and Ethnographic Arts auction held by Skinner (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Massachusetts was the $4000 (£3075) paid against a $400-600 guide for a trio of Eskimo baskets woven from baleen.

Japonisme, the craze for Japanese art first described by the French critic and collector Philippe Burty in 1872, became a key part of Tiffany & Co’s jewellery oeuvre from c.1877.

Circumstances are quickly changing the way items are bought and sold at auction – but the first principles of quality, keen pricing and provenance still apply.

This brooch – an agate cameo in a diamond and enamel surround – has French assay marks for the Berlin-born, Paris-based historicist jeweller Jules Wièse (1818-90).

Most antique shops, centres and galleries, closed between March and June, are now open once more and are eager to make up for lost business. Pictured here is a selection of fine pieces of period jewellery for sale today.

Alongside an extensive range of more conventional auction catalogue shots, Fellows has (since July 2019) been picturing every one of its fine jewellery lots being worn.

The highlight of Bonhams Australia’s (27.5/25% buyer’s premium) latest Jewels sale was this agate intaglio seal from the collection of Brisbane Catholic priest Father Peter Grice (1943-2019).

One of the highlights of Leonard Joel’s jewellery auction in Sydney on August 26 is this Art Deco platinum and diamond bracelet dated to c.1930 fashioned as an articulated line of geometric links of carré, baguette and circular cut diamonds weighing a total of approximately 33cts.

This 19th century gold diamond, pearl and blue enamel locket and necklace, sold by Reeman Dansie (20% buyer’s premium) in Colchester on August 11 for £2800, came with a little Hollywood stardust.

Many jewels by Anglo-Italian designer Andrew Grima carry the mark HJCo for the Haller Jewellery Company, the workshop of Grima’s father-in-law where he first found work in the accounts department in 1946. It was not until two years later that (untrained) he moved into design.

Far more fluent in the language of jewellery and stones, the Georgians and the Victorians would immediately have made the link between snakes and eternal love.

The jewellery section of the two-day Summer’s Bounty auction to be held by Thomaston Place Auction Galleries on August 29-30 includes a number of pieces from estate of Rosemarie Wolfe of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and Palm Beach, Florida.