Features

New rules surrounded by a constant lack of clarity are affecting deliveries both across the pond and the Channel. But specialist firms are finding solutions.

Halls’ (24% buyer’s premium) Militaria, Naval and Aviation Auction included a medal group with an intriguing link to a famous figure of the First World War, British nurse Edith Cavell.

Acting Lt Cdr Richard Lovelace Bigg-Wither not only had a memorable name but a Second World War career in the Fleet Air Arm that was also definitely one to remember.

An honour hailing from the Second World War demonstrates the peculiarity of this collecting market

It was announced on September 6 that the University of Staffordshire has partnered with Stoke-on-Trent City Council to house the Thornhill collection of predominantly Chinese ceramics at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley, with the aim of exhibiting it to the public for the first time since the 1980s.

Coinex, the most important event on the British calendar for many serious coin collectors, opens at the Biltmore Hotel in Mayfair’s Grosvenor Square on September 26-27

That Willow became the most popular and persistent of the many transfer-printed landscape patterns was in part due to a stroke of 19th century marketing genius.

Wartski’s Katherine Purcell stages a museum-quality loan exhibition devoted to the history and the magnificence of a classic jewellery form

Head from your local cinema to London’s Piccadilly: jeweller Bentley & Skinner is offering 13 pieces featured in the new film Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.

From electronics to furniture, Dieter Rams laid the foundations for modern industrial design

A gold pendant, Tête aux Seins, by Max Ernst is one of the artist-made jewels starring at Louisa Guinness Gallery’s Surrealist Jewels 101 show.

A “very fine” bronze helmet of Corinthian type, c.350BC, hammered from a single sheet, with a domed crown, almond-shaped eye cutouts and a prominent nose guard, sold for £32,000 at Apollo Art Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in London on July 27.

Second World War airborne memorabilia is another in-demand section of the militaria market.

Halls’ (24% buyer’s premium) latest Militaria, Naval and Aviation Auction in Shrewsbury offered a tempting selection of lots such as First World War uniforms in decent condition.

Sold at £250, this brooch probably commemorates the opening of Hill House Military Hospital, also known as School Hill House Hospital, in Lewes.

The first auction staged as a partnership between two renowned specialists produced a wide range of encouraging results

Following the recent trend of 18th and 19th century helmets making strong prices at auction, this striking example hammered at £5200.