Silver & Silver-plated items
When it comes to antique silverware, the size and weight of objects does not always determine value. Grand works by the likes of London-based Huguenot Paul de Lamerie or the Germain family in Paris have acquired huge status and value, while small objects such as nutmeg graters, early spoons or vesta cases can command high sums as they have a strong specialist collecting base.
The system of silver hallmarks serves as a quality control, giving an official stamp from showing the metal is of requisite purity, but the marks (or punches) also reveal the year, the place of origin and the identity of the maker, providing pieces of silverware with their own stamped passport of information.
Walpole wanderer returns
08 April 2003IT’S not often that Britain recovers a highly important work from the United States – most of the traffic is usually the other way. However, Norfolk Museums Service are celebrating silver dealer Christopher Hartop’s triumph in negotiating the return of Sir Robert Walpole’s sterling silver tureen, which has now been put on show in the silver gallery at Norwich Castle.
Engraved and back from the grave
11 March 2003Unseen hoards of silver like this don’t appear on the market very often, so it is little wonder that the UK trade were out in force when it came under the hammer at Christie’s Amsterdam’s (23.2% buyer’s premium) Dutch and foreign silver sale on March 4. The wealth of silver came to light when part of a cellar wall collapsed during the demolition of a house on Breitenstrasse in Bad-Hersfeld, Germany in February 1967.
Arts and Crafts lighten silver woes
20 January 2003THE sad plight of silver is as well known as the boom in all Arts and Crafts pieces – what happens when the two come together was the question at Sworders’ sale when this pair of plated candlesticks, right, were offered.
Tea and sympathisers
06 December 2002Historians have spent many enjoyable hours attempting to decipher the symbolism of pictures on the back of Georgian teaspoons such as those illustrated right. Like the club tie or the secret society handshake, the picture back teaspoon was an English gentleman’s discreet method of signalling loyalties to potential sympathisers when serving afternoon tea.
Where the most appealing ingredients mix, silver shows it can still shine
06 December 2002November 19 was a very busy day for silver fanciers, obliged to make a decision about which of a trio of overlapping London sales they wished to attend in person. As well as King Sreet's main sale, there were more standard offerings at Christie’s South Kensington and Bonhams Knightsbridge (each 17.5/10% buyer’s premium).
Success on the plate
21 November 2002Some dealers believe that the market for plated silver has never been the same since the Italians ducked out in the mid 1990s, and while it is true that types such as entrée dishes and tureens have gone off the boil, there is still (always?) demand for candelabra, anything set with mother or pearl or ivory (American interest here) and table centrepieces like the three examples illustrated here which were offered at Bonhams Chester (buyer’s premium 17.5/10 per cent) on November 6.
Bids blossom for Greenock rarity
15 November 2002Back on October 8, Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% per cent buyer’s premium) held one of their periodic silver sales where the emphasis is on Scottish and Irish silver. There is a keen collector’s market for such pieces if they are unusual in some way (carrying scarce Scottish provincial marks, for example), but standard material, as with much else in the silver field, is less eagerly snapped up unless very keenly priced. So it proved here.
Commercial mix and keen estimates help standard offering to high take-up
15 November 2002There were no massed ranks of Prussian royal silver on offer at Sotheby’s Olympia (17.5/10% per cent buyer’s premium) on October 24. On offer here was a good 350-lot commercial mix of English and Continental fare from a variety of sources which netted £310,000.
Rich on the humble thimble
08 October 2002Charles Horner of Halifax: A Celebration of his Life and Work by Tom J Lawson, published by GML Publishing, Leicester, distributed by the Antique Collectors’ Club Ltd., Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4SD. ISBN 0954235401 £45hb
Enamel brightens silver
08 October 2002Novelty pieces and collector’s items like this Art Nouveau enamelled silver double-photograph locket, right, were the pieces mainly in demand at the silver and jewellery sale held by Fellows (15% buyer’s premium) at Birmingham on September 5.
£13,000 for pair whose estimate was anything but punchy
01 October 2002Benefiting from the long summer gap but seeing the best-and-rest polarisation that affects most categories of the art market these days, there were mixed results for Christie’s South Kensington’s 299-lot sale of Selected Silver on September 10.
Trade interest justifies new policy on gems and silver
23 September 2002THERE was no notable furniture in Mallams 495-lot sale on August 28 (buyer's premium: 15 per cent), but a healthy selling rate for silver and jewellery and some good prices for an assortment of oddities and decorative entries, boosted overall figures.
Essex bidders eye profits to be made under the table…
23 September 2002THERE was only one spectacular price but plenty of exceptional results at this vast Essex dispersal at Sworder's, September 10-11 (Buyer's premium: 15 per cent) – a reminder to the trade that quality goods may be hard to find but wider margins can be made from low-value material.
Putting a tiger in the tankard
10 September 2002WHILE prices for run-of-the-mill silver have been all but flat-lining since the extraordinary Seventies boom, there are welcome blips from time to time to show the market isn’t quite dead.
Doubling up in Dublin
27 August 2002There is to be a major sale of Irish coins and medals in Dublin next year, on Friday, February 21, at the time of the Dublin International Coin Fair. This is being jointly hosted by James Adam of Dublin and Bonhams under their alias Glendining’s.
Coffee break for new saleroom
14 August 2002THIS 10 1/2in (27cm) tall George III silver coffee pot, will be offered for sale at Hambleton Auctions in Thornaby when they hold their debut auction on August 22.
Vectis launch new auction house on Teesside
12 August 2002The Hambleton Group, who have built the world’s largest toy auction house, Vectis, launch a new auction business on Teesside with a sale of Georgian silver on August 22.
Late 18th century silver watch sells for £10,000
30 July 2002In the week before the world’s leading golfers competed for a silver claret jug on the Muirfield links outside Edinburgh, a much older prize from the Leith Links of the Honourable Company of Golfers of Edinburgh was being contested in Cheshire.
Specialist bidders go for nuts and wine at Leominster
24 July 2002Specialist items, including a collection of five nut crackers and novelty silver entries, encouraged buyers to travel to Herefordshire to bid in this 1080-lot sale at Brightwells on 11 June, which was 70 per cent sold by lot.
A gem of a reference work
05 July 2002Bradbury’s Book of Hallmarks, revised edition 2002, published by the Sheffield Assay Office, Guardians Hall, 137 Portobello Road, Sheffield Sl 4DS. Tel: 0114 275 5111 Hardback £16 ISBN l872212026. Paperback ISBN 1872212034 £5.50
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