Silver & Silver-plated items

This rare medal by the Glasgow silversmith Robert Gray & Son from c.1807 commemorates a successful campaign of the previous year to resist imposition of duties on the local tobacco trade.

Two major silver collections will be sold by UK provincial salerooms in the autumn season. Edinburgh-based auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull will offer for sale the first part of the Chen collection in London on November 23, while Salisbury’s Woolley & Wallis will complement their October silver sale with a single-owner catalogue devoted to the collection of the late George Petzall.

A COLLECTION of gold boxes that hadn’t seen the light of day for 200 years, a charming collection of novelty silver animals, a good quality spoon collection and plenty else in between all contributed to the highest total ever seen for a silver sale at Bonhams Bond Street on July 2.

Treasures of the English Church, an exhibition of more than 300 pieces of sacred silver and gold goes on show at the Goldsmiths' Hall in London from May 30 until July 12.

A rare intervention by the London Assay Office has resulted in the wholesale withdrawal of a 124-lot collection of silver bosun’s calls scheduled to be sold in London last week.

Burglars made off with a large cache of Doulton figures and silver in a sophisticated raid on Bagham Barn Antiques of Chilham, Kent last month.

AS part of this year’s 550th anniversary of hallmarking in Scotland, the National Museum of Scotland are hosting The Scottish Seminar from April 11-13.

It’s not just the London salerooms that are benefiting from the renewed enthusiasm for Russian works of art. The highlight of the sale conducted by David Lay of Penzance on February 28-29 was this late 19th century silver gilt and cloisonné enamel presentation vodka set.

This rare medal issued to those involved in the 1916 Easter Rising is up for grabs in the collector’s auction at Plymouth Auction Rooms on February 16.

SILVER sales at the Woolley and Wallis’ Castle Street Salerooms – that last year totalled an impressive £1.9m – are tailored to catch the prevailing winds of the marketplace.

DEALERS are being asked to look out for the couple, pictured here, who attempted to steal a tea caddy from Patrick Sandberg Antiques in London’s Kensington Church Street on November 28.

THE National Museum of Scotland have announced that they are to host the largest exhibition of Scottish silver ever seen.

In the 1950s, a farmer in Ingatestone, Essex found a tiny silver tag measuring just 3/4in (1.8cm) long on his farm. Shaped like a shield with a ring, one side was engraved LORD RICH above a stylised bird and the other featured a family crest.

Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis are to sell the collection of early English, Scottish and Irish silver belonging to the well-known London dealership How.

A recent federal law, designed to preserve the integrity of United States medals and decorations, is creating chaos within the militaria collecting field.

This early 18th century Channel Islands silver punch bowl, measuring 11in (28cm) in diameter and weighing 52oz, was among the highlights of a 100-lot single owner collection of silver, stored in a Channel Islands bank for over 30 years, offered by Martel Maides of Guernsey on September 28.

IN an unusual trade initative, three London dealers have combined forces to buy and sell one of the largest silver collections in private hands and one of the biggest for sheer numbers ever to be offered in the trade.