PREVIEW: JEWELLERY, WATCHES, SILVER & OBJECTS OF VERTU: 17 JUNE

Medieval and Post-Medieval ancient rings provide a series of fascinating highlights for this auction, along with a very strong selection of decorative cigarette, cigar and match cases.

Leading the way among the Medieval rings is an iconographic ring depicting St Catherine, circa 1400-1500AD. The oblong bezel shows the saint in draped robes, accompanied by her martyr’s wheel; the shoulders have five petalled flowers and the band is of diagonally twisted decoration with beaded detail.

St Catherine of Alexandria was a popular saint in England, particularly as the patroness of girls and of learning. By tradition, she was a Christian saint and virgin, martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the Emperor Maxentius. According to her hagiography, she was both a princess and a noted scholar. At the age of around 14 she became a Christian, converting hundreds of people to Christianity, and was martyred aged 18. 

Maxentius had tried to win Catherine over by proposing marriage, which Catherine refused, declaring her spouse to be Jesus Christ, to whom she had consecrated her virginity. The furious emperor condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel, but at her touch it shattered - the wheel became her identifying symbol. The emperor then ordered her to be beheaded.

During the Middle Ages, the virgin martyrs, particularly St Catherine, were the focus of devotion for women and regarded as models of feminine Christian behaviour.

The 2.7gm ring is size M and estimated at £2,000-3,000.

A circa 1350-1450 AD gold posy ring has a flat gold band engraved to the exterior ‘en bon an’ in black letter script, the words interspersed with floral sprays, with traces of white enamel surviving to the lettering.

Registered with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the ring was a detectorist find in March 2024. It is size L and guided at £2,000-3,000.

Another detectorist find is a circa 1600-1750 post-Medieval gold fede posy ring, the gold band cast with a bezel of clasped hands between triple banded cuffs. The interior is inscribed in italic script ‘A frend at need doth goold exced’ [sic], and it bears the maker’s mark ‘DA’ in a square punch.  

Found by a detectorist in Appledore, near Ashford in Kent in 2023, it is recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database, it is ring size O and pitched at £500-700.

As well as an exceptional range of cigarette cases displaying erotic images previewed in the last newsletter, the auction includes a series of eye-catching vesta cases. First among these is an 18ct gold case dating to 1904, enamelled with depictions of the Four Vices - drinking, horse racing, gambling and women. To the lower right are four screws, meaning ‘Vis’ or Vice, hence a pictogram of ‘MY FOUR VICES’. With import marks for Murrle Bennet & Co, of London, the estimate is £1,200-1,600.

A silver and enamel case by Sampson Mordan & Co, depicting a scene of a coach and four, with coachman, a lady and three top-hatted gentleman on the box. Numbered 22, and dated for London 1892, the reverse is initialled. It is expected to fetch £500-600.

Two rare silver vesta cases depict famous British military leaders: an enamelled portrait of Major-General Baden-Powell, Hero of Mafeking and founder of the Scout Movement; and another of General French, initial commander of the British Expeditionary Force in the First World War.

Each was created when the individuals concerned were at the height of their fame: 1900 for Baden-Powell and 1914 for French.

The Baden Powell case was by Cornelius Desormeaux Saunders & James Francis Hollings (Frank) Shepherd of Birmingham, while the French case was by Patterson & Sons Ltd, also of Birmingham 1914. Each is estimated at £300-360.

A silver and enamel cigarette case, of rectangular form, has a vivid cover depicting a scene of the Nile, with camel and figures, within a turquoise enamelled engine-turned border. Created by Henry Clifford Davis, of Birmingham in 1930, it should sell for £160-200.

Russian taste comes in the form of a late 19th century silver and niello cigar case, reserving a panel of the Kremlin and bridge over the Moskva river, on a ground of formal scrolling leaves and flowerheads. The guide is £300-400.

Highlights among the watches include a circa 2021 stainless steel Rolex Submariner at £6,500-8,500; a circa 2010 Co-Axial Seamaster Aqua Terra lady’s pink gold and diamond-set automatic Omega wristwatch, at £4,000-6,000; and a circa 1989 Oyster Perpetual Datejust Rolex lady’s gold automatic wristwatch with date and bracelet (with later set diamonds), also at £4,000-6,000.