A particular passion for the late mother – with many collected from such famous venues as the Portobello Market – the cases are many and varied.
Of particular note is lot 202, an 1887 sterling silver and enamelled case featuring a British bulldog, lot 203 – an 1899 floral themed version inlaid with heads and buds of purple violets – and lot 205, comprising three cases dating from 1881-1906 with engraved tennis and motoring themes.
The auction also features a 20th century silver collection from Launceston, Tasmania, including such gems as Harrods candelabra (lots 252 and 256), and a rare 1765 Georgian basket (Lot 263 ) by maker Elizabeth Aldridge – an 18th century English silversmith whose works are hardly ever seen on the auction market.
Other items of interest include art deco lamps (lots 449 and 450) and art deco figures (lots 35-101), with particular emphasis on an Egyptian themed table lamp (Lot 73 ), dancing figure by Limousin (Lot 75 ) a bronze “flutiste” (Lot 77 ) and art nouveau Bacchanalian bronze figure (Lot 78 ).
Several of the more interesting Australian art items are Sydney Long (1871-19555) etchings, including one which is a sand grain image of trees (lot 428).
The following evening, Monday 6 May, Philips will hold their monthly Luxury, Modern & Antique Jewellery sale.
The sale will include more than 100 pieces of jewellery belonging to ninety-two-year-old Perth widow Ruth Foreman – most left by her jeweller father – and donate the proceeds to a women’s charity in Western Australia.
Her main reason for doing so is that she has no children to leave the pieces to and would like them to be of public benefit.
Ruth’s father Mathew Cohen, who died in 1976, owned a jewellery store in Perth during the 1930s and often attended auctions to buy pieces he could resell in his shop – or purchased items directly from customers wishing to sell.
On finding a nice piece, he often would give it to his wife or Ruth rather than sell it.
She remembers being given a set of Victorian drop earrings originally worn by her grandmother Annie Feinberg who, with husband Michael, emigrated in 1904 to Australia from Russia.
“The earrings were originally designed for pierced ears but were converted to screw on because I had not had my ears pierced,” she said.
Ruth’s mother died several years before her father, so when he died as an only child she inherited the entire collection and have now been in her possession for the past 43 years, many carrying the original tags her Mathew attached.
One of the pieces, a gold fob chain, was made from a gold nugget brought into the store by a miner and is 23.8 carats, or pure gold.
Philips Auctions resident gemmologist Tanya Philips says she has never seen jewellery made from a gold nugget before – nor have any of her fellow Melbourne experts.
Items in the collection bound to attract auction goers include an antique nine-carat gold padlock bracelet with charms, a selection of six coin pendants and one medallion and an antique nine-carat horseshoe locket.
The pendants comprise 22-carat yellow gold 1905 French 20 franc, 1910 Perth Mint sovereign, Arabic coin, 1908 gold half sovereign and 1852 American $1 piece. The sixth coin is a 21.6-carat 1882 United States of America $5 piece and the railway medallion is nine carats.
Other jewellery items include an opal ring and opal earrings – by prominent Melbourne jeweller Gary Bradley famous for using wave gold to hold stone in place without claws.
An antique pearl set signet ring is another attraction along with an antique peridot, white enamel and seed pearl brooch, an antique amethyst and seed pearl brooch and dress ring and two gold portrait brooches.