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Oliver Horner, Jewellery Assistant from Fellows’ London office, has provided his thoughts on the birthstone for June.
Pearls are among the most popular gem materials used in both period and modern jewellery. Throughout history they have been associated with love and are often used to commemorate benchmarks in a relationship such the 1st anniversary. Victorian Jewellers often used pearls set in heart motifs to portray this message of love, we have a late Victorian gold split pearl bracelet example, Lot 4 in the upcoming 6th of June Jewellery Sale.
Pearls form when a small object such as a grain of sand gets into the shell of a mollusc and irritates the muscle inside. The mollusc will then secrete many layers of a lustrous substance called nacre to protect itself forming a pearl. These layers are the cause of the famous iridescent lustre that make pearls a desirable gemstone. This natural process can be replicated by placing a small bead into the mollusc causing a pearl to form, pearls produced using this method are known as cultured pearls.
An Edwardian 18ct gold moonstone three-stone ring
Moonstones is another popular gemstone that has been used throughout history, we have an Edwardian 18ct gold moonstone three-stone ring example, Lot 5 in the upcoming June 6th Jewellery Sale. We also have a beautiful geometric modern 18ct gold Cartier tank ring example which is Lot 320 in the sale.
One of the first fine sources of moonstone was found in Switzerland and it was historically believed if you held the stone in your mouth during a full moon that you could see the future.
Oliver Horner, Jewellery Assistant from Fellows’ London office.
Posted in Jewellery, Uncategorized
Tagged auction, Birmingham, Edwardian, Fellows, june, london, moonstone, naturalprocess, Pearl, threestone
Comments Off on Birthstone for June: Pearl and Moonstone
February saw some fascinating jewellery go under the hammer. We wanted to explore a resurgence in specific items of jewellery ahead of a special and busy period at Fellows. Annabel Zarandi, Jewellery Specialist from Fellows’ London office, has been discussing items which are hot in the market at the moment.
Annabel said: “Novelty brooches sold very well in February. Swallows and crescent moons seem to be selling amazingly well too. We have sold some lovely old Victorian pieces – and actually anything celestial themed is popular which works out quite well because in our first Fine Jewellery sale we have a Victorian gold moonstone man-in-the-moon brooch (Lot 247).”
Fellows’ first ever Fine Jewellery sale takes place on Thursday 21st March – and the auctions are set to be full of around 500 lots including popular designer, animal, antique jewellery and much more.
A late Victorian gold moonstone man-in-the-moon and diamond star brooch. Featuring in Fellows’ Fine Jewellery sale on March 21st
Annabel has noticed an upward trend in novelty and animal jewellery in recent times.
She said: “I really think that the demand for novelty jewellery has peaked over the past few years – a lot of animal jewellery has sold well. People really like particular symbols at the moment. Symbols have always been used in jewellery to represent a secret meaning. These symbols were especially popular with Victorian jewellery.”
Annabel Zarandi – Jewellery Specialist at Fellows
“The rising popularity in these symbols stems from major fashions houses such as Valentino, Stella McCartney and Cavalli using them in their campaigns from 2016 onwards. It has filtered down into jewellery with modern designers putting their spin on these designs, and it has created a bit of a renaissance for lovely Victorian pieces! We’ve had some great results on crescent moon brooches in February, which puts our next Fine Jewellery auction in good stead with a really beautiful Man in the Moon brooch.”
The Fine Jewellery auction is now available to view online and in person at the following times:
12 March 2019 12noon – 7pm (London)
16 March 2019 11am – 4pm (Birmingham)
19 March 2019 10am – 4pm (Birmingham)
20 March 2019 10am – 4pm (Birmingham)
21 March 2019 8.30am – 11am (Birmingham)
Birthstone for June: Pearl and Moonstone