Art & Crafts and Art Nouveau jewellery star in Bellman’s sale of dealers’ private collection
04 April 2024 Jewellery is at the heart of this collection built up by dealers to the stars
Estimated at £1000-1500, this 20th century moonstone and diamond pendant is attributed to Archibald Knox, the primary designer at Liberty when it was at the height of its power.
A group of Arts & Crafts jewellery from the collection of the late dealers Anthony Gardner and Michael Becker will be sold by Sussex auction house Bellmans on April 16 in The Purple Shop, named for the pair’s iconic firm.
Gardner and Becker launched the shop in the 1960s, specialising in fur coats before moving into costume jewellery, Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts and Art Deco. Their shop on the King’s Road became an institution selling to stars such as Vivienne Westwood, Princess Margaret and Barbra Streisand.
This sale comprises over 600 lots drawn from the pair’s private collection – and includes over 300 lots of jewellery and Gardner’s assortment of nearly 100 Arts & Crafts belt buckles. Among the jewels are those by Edward Colonna, Sybil Dunlop, Cartier and Boucheron, and there is also a wide variety of decorative Art Nouveau and Deco pieces.
Here we look at some of the highlights going under the hammer.
Depicting an angel on an integrated pendant with oval belcher swag chains, this Omar Ramsden and Alwyn Carr necklace. Hallmarked for London, 1903, it is estimated at £1500-2500.
Featuring an embossed fruiting pomegranate motif, this Arts & Crafts copper square repoussé wall mirror is estimated at £300-500.
This gentleman’s gold cartier ‘Losange’ manual wristwatch, c.1971, is signed LeCoultre Co. cal. 845 and is estimated at £30,000-70,000.
Estimated at £1000-2000, this lithograph La Plume is by Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), a Czech artist at the forefront of the Art Nouveau movement.
