UK

Walter Child (1840-1930) and Harold Child (1848-1915), the sons of an East End pawnbroker who left a fortune of £30,000, opened as art jewellers in 1880 at 1 Seville Street, Belgravia.

Sotheby’s €7m sale of the original Hermès Birkin handbag, custom made for late actress and singer Jane Birkin in 1985, has given some welcome exposure to the market for preloved luxury accessories. And for many of today’s collectors, vintage is best.

Kate Button of Blackdog Events tells us that the first summer brocante held in June in the atmospheric surroundings of the ruins of Creake Abbey in Norfolk was a success.

With a trio of leading dealers bringing the best of British horology, the Treasure House Fair has become a focus for the clock trade, just as Grosvenor House and Masterpiece were before it.

A previously unrecorded Elizabethan gold and enamel signet ring, a gift from the influential Tudor financier and merchant, Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-79), sold for £42,000 at Noonans (24% buyer’s premium).

Just a month after a rare Christian Dior (1905-57) musical brooch was sold Tajan in Paris, two more examples appeared for sale at Fellows’ (30% buyer’s premium inc VAT) Handbags & Accessories auction in Birmingham on June 24.

A modestly estimated Van Cleef & Arpels, 18ct yellow gold gem set charm bracelet from c.1960 did particularly well for Dreweatts.

Described as “rare and exquisite” when it came up for auction at C&T (22% buyer’s premium), an early painted carved wooden doll lived up to her billing.

Antique and vintage jewellery remains a strong suit across a broad range of styles, periods and values.

Crowning the summer jewellery sales was the spectacular Cartier London turquoise and diamond tiara from 1930 offered by Bonhams (28/27/21/14.5% buyer’s premium).

A first edition copy of 'The Left Bank and Other Stories' by the Dominican author Jean Rhys (1890-1979) and 'Portrait of New York' by Cecil Beaton (1904-80) were offered together at Ewbank’s (25% buyer’s premium).

The finest mourning jewels pertain to historical events, royalty, and well-known personages. A good selection has come to market in recent weeks

For a sector often tainted by an inadequate supply of fresh and top-draw material, the latest series of Old Master auctions in London certainly had moments where the core market woes seemed mysteriously absent.

A group lot of works by or pertaining to CS Lewis performed rather better than its modest guide at Scottish firm Taylors Auction Rooms (26% buyer’s premium).

Onwards and upwards as Guernsey auction house thrives on island life

The family of Allan George Hare are sad to report that Allan passed away on the evening of June 7, 2025 at the age of 74.

Winsor Birch set out in the spring to put together a collection of exceptional works from three centuries of British art. It appears it succeeded.

Three portraits that came fresh to the market with an unbroken provenance drew strong interest at Bonhams’ latest Old Master auction in London.

A Chaumet Art Deco white gold, rock crystal, diamond and ruby lapel clip brooch seen in a 1990s episode of Antiques Roadshow reappeared at a recent Roseberys (26/25/20% buyer’s premium) jewellery auction in West Norwood, London.

While TS Eliot’s poem 'The Waste Land' had appeared in book form in the US in 1922 – and in two magazines the same year – the edition published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press in Richmond, Surrey in 1923 was the first in the UK.