Silver & Silver-plated items

The theft of an Elizabethan silver chalice in Dorset has sparked fears it could be the latest in a spate targeting churches across the country.

George II coronation bell has considerable regal appeal at £7200

The May 18 sale of Jewellery, Watches & Silver at Dawsons includes a pair of silver sauce tureens by William Bateman for Rundell, Bridge & Co, London 1837.

Numismatic dealer Daniel Fearon has sold a group of bronzed galvano medals depicting Charles (then nearly five years old), The Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Margaret to the British Museum’s department of coins and medals just ahead of this year’s coronation.

Alex Styles (1922-2017) was in 1966 given a glowing accolade in The Times: “Many think he is the finest designer of hand-made silver in England.”

Objects from Norwich, York, Ireland and Newcastle in recent sales give a snapshot of the market

This pair of silver-mounted frosted glass claret jugs has marks for James Samuel Hunt and London, 1844.

While probably not made specifically for export, Chinese silver rice wine pots had arrived in Europe as early as the late 17th century.

This 12in (30cm) high gilt-copper electrotype tankard by Elkington of Birmingham copies an 17th century ivory tankard with silver mounts.

The George III silver wine jug sold by Tennants in Leyburn in March is the exact pair to another the auction house offered on behalf of a different vendor two years ago.

A still-life and the vessel it depicts showed up at the same Maastricht fair unexpectedly this year, as did a painting and its study

A once neglected aspect of the silver market received a showpiece sale in February. ATG reports on the Stewart collection of Anglo-Indian silver from the Raj period.

Dr Christopher Dresser’s conical sugar bowl with three angled leg-like supports is one of the great ‘eureka’ moments in Victorian design.

Cups with coconut bowls mounted in silver or silver-gilt were fashionable rarities in western Europe throughout the 16th and early 17th century. At the time the coconut was, like other ‘exotics’ such as nautilus shells or imported pottery and porcelain, held in high esteem.

Size, quality and sheer Irishness made the tankard shown here the toast of the silver sold at Ipswich auction house Lockdales (19.5% buyer’s premium).

The quasi-medieval silver and glass ‘claret bottle’ designed by Charles Robert Ashbee for the Guild of Handicraft is one of the great pieces of the Arts & Crafts movement. Ashbee mentions it in his 1909 book Modern English Silver, saying: “The shape is taken from an Elizabethan sack-bottle found when digging the foundations of [my home] the Magpie and Stump in Chelsea.”

Military history and regimental glamour combine in a Victorian silver cigar case offered at Ripon auction house Elstob & Elstob (25% buyer’s premium).

A private collection of naval and military vinaigrettes was among the highlights of a recent Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’ premium) Silver & Objects of Vertu auction. It included examples of both familiar and less-familiar models.

The Assay Office in Norwich closed in 1702, so secular objects in particular that bear the city’s mark are rare. Rarer still are pieces bearing the mark of the only female silversmith registered in Norwich towards the end of that period.