Thursday 24 June 2010

Battle of Waterloo Box in New Silver Exhibition

This summer's selling exhibition at The London Silver Vaults, Chancery Lane, London WC2, is a wonderful opportunity for novice collectors and specialists alike to acquire small but covetable antique and C20th silver items at prices from around £100up to £10,000.

A major highlight of the exhibition is a rare collector’s item and piece of military history: a silver gilt cigar box, understood to have been a presentation gift made in 1855 to surviving officers who fought at the Battle of Waterloo. Made by John Harris of London, the Latin motto on the front reads 'I favour the brave'. On the reverse is engraved the standard of the 1st Royal Dragoons cavalry regiment, an eagle and the word, Waterloo. The cigar box is offered for sale by M. Sedler and is priced at £2500.

Other interesting silver boxes include:

- a Queen Anne commemorative patch box, probably a memento of her coronation, made by Thomas Kedder, dated circa 1702, priced at £695. (Linden & Co)
- a charming Victorian silver nutmeg holder with grater, in the form of a nutmeg, inscribed "D C P Christmas 1882" (42mm long, weight 21.8gm) Hilliard & Thomason of Birmingham, £1495. (Gideon Cohen)
- a pair of sterling silver table card boxes with a cat and dog modelled on lids, and box base to hold calling cards (lid hinged to side), 1907 by Berthold Müller, £3500. (Bryan Douglas)
- an exquisitely carved Chinese tortoiseshell box of the late C19th. (S&J Stodel)
- a rare antique silver jewellery box in the form of a grand piano, a hidden velvet-lined drawer pops open when you depress the piano pedals! London, 1905, £2785. (Silstar Antiques Ltd)

Boxing Clever runs until the end September 2010

See the Boxing Clever picture gallery and catalogue at www.thesilvervaults.com

Thursday 17 June 2010

Chess set made from Nelson’s HMS Victory

Here's a little bit of history, literally: a specially commissioned chess set has been created in collaboration with Diarmuid Byron-O'Connor, the sculptor. The very lifelike chess pieces are the English Navy on one side, led by Lord Admiral Nelson and cast in silver. The French on the other side, led by Villeneuve, the naval officer in charge of the French fleet, are cast in silver and then gilded.

But the the squares of the chess board are made from certified oak and mahogany taken from the original HMS Victory - on which Nelson served - when the ship was refitted in 1905. The copper corners on the board are from the copper plating on the original ship's hull. The chess set featured in the recent selling exhibition called Silver in the Study at the London Silver Vaults and is available from Langfords’ shop at the Silver Vaults, Chancery Lane WC2A 1QS.

Byron-O’Connor is best known for his Peter Pan statue outside Great Ormond Street Hospital.