Features

A selection of sapphires that drew interest at auction over the last two months

Sapphire mining at the Yogo Gulch in Montana began in 1895 after a cigar box of pale blue gems picked from a creek by a local rancher found its way to Tiffany’s in New York, where an appraiser pronounced them “the finest precious gemstones ever found in the United States”.

The career course of Edith Robinson (1862-1929), a London art teacher and painter of chocolate box watercolours was changed in 1893 when she and her new husband, the Stamford artist Nelson Dawson (1859-1941) attended a series of lectures given by the enameller Alexander Fisher.

After nearly a decade, jewellery specialist Joanna Hardy has completed her triology of gemstone books. The latest tome is Sapphire: A Celebration of Colour* which will be published at the end of the month. It follows volumes on emeralds (2013) and rubies (2017)

A selection of the memorable news from ATG editions in the 1970s

A selection of the memorable news from ATG editions in the 1990s

A selection of the memorable news from ATG editions in 2010-21

Getting the first issue of ATG printed was not an easy task but many of the companies featured in it are still going strong today

A review of top stories year-by-year and our pick of the notable objects sold from 1971 to 2021. What can recent trends tell us about the future?

We asked some of our longest-standing subscribers to share their memories of their early years of trading and how the launch of ATG changed their business.

A selection of the memorable news from ATG editions in the 2000s

A selection of the memorable news from ATG editions in the 1980s

This special edition of Antiques Trade Gazette celebrates the newspaper’s 50th anniversary. Every week for the past 50 years, the Gazette has brought unrivalled news coverage and analysis of the fine art and antiques market to readers in the UK and around the world.

Siege money or ‘money of necessity’ was minted in Newark in 1646 during the town’s third siege and the last year of the First English Civil War.

Cyrene, founded by Greeks c.631BC in the uplands near present-day Shahhat in Libya, reached the height of its prosperity in the 5th century BC.

On April 14, 1746, two days before the battle that would seal his fate, Charles Edward Stuart held a lavish meal at Culloden House, the highland estate owned by Hanoverian loyalist Duncan Forbes (1685-1747) that had recently been commandeered by Jacobite forces.

A tin of coins and medals consigned to Morton & Eden’s autumn sale included a number of early pieces from the American colonial period.

Starting his collection with a 1568 sixpence purchased in Swanage in 1957, marine insurance broker Christopher Comber (1944-2019) formed a remarkable collection of Elizabeth I coins.

The sale at Sovereign Rarities on September 21 includes this Charles I (1625-49), silver pattern unite (20 shillings) dated 1630.