Tiffany gem
Estimate $50,000-$70,000 Sold $552,000
Every December, Sotheby’s in New York holds an auction dedicated to high-calibre works produced by Tiffany & Co and Tiffany Studios over a century ago, with lots ranging from exquisite stained glass windows and Favrile glass vases, to mosaic lamps and enamelled bonbon boxes. This stunning table coffer, which has a Renaissance feel, was part of the personal collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany or ‘LCT’ (1848-1933), who set up Tiffany Studios and who also took on the role of design director at Tiffany & Co in 1902, after the death of his father, Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of the original jewellery and luxury goods company. The small chest is covered in mother-of-pearl mosaic and coloured glass dots that gleam, and was made for the annual Paris Salons design showcase in 1906. Displayed with two pieces of Tiffany ‘art jewellery’ – the famous ‘Medusa’ brooch (now in the Tiffany & Co Archives), and the equally gorgeous ‘Peacock’ necklace (on display at The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art), it impressed the critics and reinforced LCT’s reputation as a supreme colourist. After the Paris Salons, the coffer was kept at Laurelton Hall, the designer’s Long Island home, before entering the collection of Maude Feld and thence by descent, in 1995, to Alan and Suzanne Feld. The piece is described as the ‘Holy Grail’ and fetched a fittingly exalted price. sothebys.com
Victorian bling
Estimate £500-£800 Sold £1,820
Victorian jewellery can be anything but old fashioned, as a chunky, ‘fancy-link’ articulated bracelet, sold at Mallams’ Jewellery auction, proved. At a width of 1.35cm and a keeper width of 2.75cm, the bracelet makes a bold statement, but is softened by rope-twist borders and an Etruscan-style keeper engraved with flowers and leaves. It is adjustable too, making it suitable for most wrists. As paintings of Queen Victoria show, large bracelets were part of female dress in the 19th century, and were frequently worn on both wrists. Look out for bangles and bracelets to augment a jewellery collection. mallams.co.uk
Sleeping beauty
Estimate £500-£700 Sold £3,674
When a rare drawing by one of the UK’s leading wildlife artists came up for sale at Roseberys’ Modern British Art auction, collectors went in hot pursuit. Lioness by Gary Hodges was first exhibited at the Medici Gallery in London, where it sold for £320 to a private collector. Most of Hodges’ auctioned works are limited-edition prints, making this expressive pencil-on-paper drawing especially desirable. The increase in interest in the artist may also be due to his ‘Drawn from the Heart’ charity exhibition, held last year in aid of the Born Free Foundation at Mall Galleries, which highlighted his superb skill.
roseberys.co.uk
Light touch
Estimate £600-£800 Sold £2,772
A continental tole and porcelain 10-light chandelier lit up Lyon & Turnbull in January as part of the Bernard Kelly Collection. A merchant banker, Kelly was a keen collector, whose tastes encompassed 20th-century modern British art, Art Deco figures, 18th-century portraits and Italian and Flemish bronzes. The 314-lot collection, housed in his apartment in the Piper Building in Fulham before his death in 2022, included fine furniture, such as armchairs, commodes and tables. This century-old chandelier is mounted with tole leaves and white ceramic flowers and is wired for electricity. lyonandturnbull.com
Cat’s whiskers
Estimate €100,000-€150,000 Sold €453,600
Simone Veil, the French politician and Holocaust survivor, was laid to rest with her husband, Antoine, in Paris’s Panthéon mausoleum in 2018. Understandably, when the couple’s art collection came up for sale at Christie’s Paris, it garnered beady-eyed attention. Among the 59 lots were three creations by the Swiss furniture-maker Diego Giacometti, brother to the famous sculptor Alberto. First to be sold were two bronze and glass coffee tables c1965, then a bronze entitled Chat maître d’hôtel, dating to 1967. At nearly 30cm tall, the regal feline was surely in homage to Diego’s cats, who lived with him at his Parisian studio. christies.com
Medieval marvel
Estimate $60,000-$90,000 Sold $114,800
The Kelmscott Chaucer – the complete works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) – was celebrated when it was published in 1896 by the Kelmscott Press in an edition of just 425 copies. Kelmscott was a private press founded by designer William Morris, with close collaboration from Edward Burne-Jones, to produce richly illustrated, hand-printed books for subscribers. This example was part of a complete collection of Kelmscott Press books amassed in the 1960s and 1970s by American collector Joseph Mark Van Horn. The collection was consigned to Bonhams New York, where all 53 books sold. bonhams.com
Tea for two
Estimate £100-£150 Sold £1,803
A Regency-era porcelain ‘cabaret’ tray was a hot lot at Tennants’ Country House Sale, where it sold along with two bread-and-butter plates in the same pattern. Made by the Spode factory as part of a ‘cabaret set’ – a small, decorative tea set for two to four people – marks on the underside dated the ornate square tray to c1820-25. The sumptuous and labour-intensive design, named pattern 1166, was launched in 1806, and early examples have long been favoured by Spode collectors for their beautifully hand-painted sprays of flowers and gilded scales, set against a cobalt ground. tennants.co.uk
