Gold! July 4th is a treasure-trove…
Our July 4th sale is overflowing with some very exciting gold items.
Gold has a way of accumulating quietly over generations — passed down, tucked away, eventually forgotten in the back of a drawer or the bottom of a jewellery box. Auction 15o draws together the results of that quiet accumulation: nearly a hundred lots of gold jewellery and watches, ranging from Georgian sentimental rings to Melbourne colonial goldsmithing to Swiss pocket watches of considerable distinction.
Among the rings, the range is considerable. A Georgian gold posy ring (Lot 63) carries a single old-cut diamond set on the interior of the shank — invisible when worn, a private stone against the skin, which is exactly the point. A double-heart ring in 18ct gold set with sapphires, rubies and old-cut diamonds (Lot 80) represents the Victorian sentimental tradition at its most deliberate. An Edwardian gypsy ring hallmarked Chester in 18ct gold (Lot 64), with its star-engraved diamond and ruby settings, is a textbook piece of the period. A 22ct gold ring set with a central ruby and ten natural sea pearls, hallmarked S&B in the 1880s (Lot 77), is the sort of high-carat Victorian ring that doesn’t come to market as often as it once did.
The watches deserve particular attention. A Movado gentleman’s watch in 18ct gold (Lot 185) carries on its inner dust cover an engraved record of five international exposition medals — Paris 1900, Liège 1905, Brussels 1910 — and the legend Grand Prix avec Félicitations du Jury. It runs well. A Zenith half-hunter in 18ct gold (Lot 56, above) is a piece of real substance in every sense: 17-jewel adjusted movement, case numbered and stamped, and a total weight of 115 grams, in 18 carat gold that makes the intrinsic gold value alone worth calculating before you bid. The Swiss 14ct gold lady’s hunter (Lot 179), its case engraved overall with rococo scrollwork and scallop shells in high relief, is among the most decorative pocket watches in the sale. For Australian collectors, the Dunklings tonneau wristwatch in 9ct gold (Lot 192) is a quiet pleasure — Melbourne-retailed, Art Deco in proportion, the kind of thing that last sat in a Dunklings display case on Collins Street in 1935.
The Colonial Australian material is, as usual, where things get interesting. The Palfrey lorgnette in 9ct rose gold (Lot 102) — entirely engraved with scrolling foliate ornament, 20.6 grams closed, stamped with Victorian manufacturing jeweller’s marks — is a rare and beautifully made object from a period when Melbourne goldsmiths were producing work of genuine ambition. The Willis and Sons bow brooch/pendant in 15ct gold and seed pearls (Lot 92), with its unicorn head maker’s mark and Manufacturing Jewellers Association guarantee, is another fine example of that tradition. An Art Nouveau necklace in 9ct gold with aquamarine stones by Wallis & Sons, Melbourne (Lot 118), rounds out a strong showing from the colonial makers.
And then there is the French 18ct gold greyhound fob and Trichinopoly chain seen at the top of this page (Lot 53) — a miniature masterpiece of a recumbent greyhound cast in the round, coat naturalistically engraved, black stone eyes alert and a ball between his paws, the long Trichinopoly book chain, clips, and dog with a total weight of 27.4 grams of deep yellow 18ct gold. It carries two French assay marks: the pre-1893 oak leaf and the post-1893 sun and crescent moon, indicating the chain re-entered the French assay system after 1893. It is one of the finest single pieces in the sale, and certain to be keenly contested by those who admire quality…..
Moorabool’s July 4th auction is live on Invaluable.
