Qing Collectible Jewelry

Christie's: West East The Niall Hobhouse Collection, 2008, Anglo Indian Collection. A fascinating selection of exquisite treasures from both the West...

Sotheby's: The T. Y. Chao Private and Family Trust Collections of Important Chinese Ceramics and Jade Carvings: Part 1, Hong Kong October 1986. Rare First Edition hardcover with dust...

Beautiful mini stools made of the fantastic Wenge wood with rounded corners and sturdy solid legs. Wenge wood is highly prized for its density and distinctive grain pattern. These st...

Miniature Huanghuali wood Chinese sideboard. An expertly crafted miniature architectural model in Huanhuali wood with brass hardware. A late 20th centu...

Nicely carved Jade pendant. Weight: 29.13 grams. Jewelry / Necklace.

This English 1950s heavy sterling silver bracelet has 17 large three-dimensional charms and opens or closes with a heart shaped padlock on a little safety chain. Some of the charms have moving or opening parts. The windmill really turns, the lid of the beer mug opens, the ship opens up, the leaves on the orange are separate from the orange, the bellow bellows, the treasury chest opens, the corn has loose leaves and the scissors 'cut'. Three of them are European solid silver pendants: the acorn (Italy 925) the long pendant (sword Dutch 835, used from 1906-1953) the German beer mug...

Chinese Export sterling silver walking stick handle, circa 1900. Monogram of the famous ichthyologist Dr. Hugh McCormick Smith, "H...

Carved Turkish Figural Meerschaum Pipe with Moorish Turkish Bearded head. Meerschaum pipe is a smoking pipe made from the mineral sepiolite, also known as meerschaum. Meerschaum , German for "sea foam" is sometimes found floating on the Black Sea and is rather suggestive of sea foam (hence the German origin of the name, as well as the French name for the same substance, écume de mer). Meerschaum, also known as curlstone, is a unique mineral mined in the Anatolian province of Eskisehir. Local artisans hand carve the stone into collectibles, most notably tobacco pipes...

19th century sterling silver Malaysian Dagger. Original carved mahogany wood handle. Sterting silver carved crown. Damascene steel. The kris is an as...

PRESENTING an EXTREMELY UNIQUE and RARE 19C British Tunbridgeware Hair Pin/Bobbin or Slide. This slide is unlike any of it’s kind we have seen before, it is a VERY RARE survivor. From circa 1860 – 80 and made in Tunbridge Wells, England. Made of walnut with gorgeous marquetry inlay on the entirety of the front with classic Tunbridgeware micro-mosaic all over the front. The rear is walnut. The marquetry inlay appears to be various different woods, namely, maple, walnut and satinwood. Would have been worn in a Lady’s hair bun with the micro-mosaic facing forward. This would have belonged to a VERY ELEGANT LADY in the mid to late 19th Century. Tunbridge ware is a form of decoratively inlaid woodwork, typically in the form of boxes, that is characteristic of Tonbridge and the spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent in the 18th and 19th centuries. The decoration typically consists of a mosaic of many very small pieces of different coloured woods that form a pictorial vignette. Shaped rods and slivers of wood were first carefully glued together, then cut into many thin slices of identical pictorial veneer with a fine saw. Elaborately striped and feathered bandings for framing were pre-formed in a similar fashion. There is a collection of Tunbridge ware in the Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery in Tunbridge Wells. The famous makers of Tunbridge ware were in the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent; their most notable work was from circa 1830-1900. Early makers of Tunbridge ware, in Tunbridge Wells in the mid-18th century, were the Burrows family, and Fenner and Co. In the 19th century, around 1830, James Burrows invented a technique of creating mosaics from wooden tesserae. Henry Hollamby, apprenticed to the Burrows family, set up on his own in 1842 and became an important manufacturer of Tunbridge ware, employing about 40 people. Edmund Nye (1797–1863) and his father took over the Fenner company when William Fenner retired in 1840, after 30 years in partnership with him. Thomas Barton (1819–1903), previously apprenticed at the Wise factory, joined the Nyes in 1836, and worked as Nye’s designer; he took over the business in 1863 and continued there until his death. In Tonbridge (near to Tunbridge Wells), George Wise (1703–1779) is known to have had a business in 1746. It continued with his son Thomas, and Thomas’s nephew George (1779–1869), who took over in 1806. In its early years the company made articles such as workboxes and tea caddies with prints of popular views; later items had pictures created from mosaics. Their workshop in Tonbridge, Wise’s Tunbridge Ware Manufactory, was next to the Big Bridge over the Medway; the building was demolished in 1886 to widen the approach to the bridge. Tunbridge ware became popular with visitors to the spa town of Tunbridge Wells, who bought them as souvenirs and gifts. Articles included cribbage boards, paperweights, writing slopes, snuffboxes and glove boxes. At the Great Exhibition of 1851, Tunbridge ware by Edmund Nye, Robert Russell and Henry Hollamby was shown; Edmund Nye received a commendation from the judges for his work. He exhibited a table depicting a mosaic of a ship at sea; 110,800 tesserae were used in making the picture. The manufacturers of Tunbridge ware were cottage industries, and they were no more than nine in Tunbridge Wells and one in Tonbridge. The number declined in the 1880s; competent craftsmen were hard to find, and public tastes changed. After the death of Thomas Barton in 1903 the only surviving firm was Boyce, Brown and Kemp, which closed in 1927. Marquetry was an old technique which was continued by Nye and Barton to create images such as birds or butterflies. ‘Green Oak’ as caused by the fungus Chlorociboria aeruginascens. Stickware and half-square mosaic was invented by James Burrows in about 1830: a bunch of wooden sticks of different colours, each having triangular or diamond-shaped cross section, were tightly glued together; in the case of stickware, the resulting block was dried, then turned to form an article such as the base of a pincushion. For half-square mosaic, thin slices were taken from the composite block, and applied to a surface. Tesselated mosaic, was a development by James Burrows of half-square mosaic; it was adopted by George Wise and Edmund Nye. Minute tesserae were used to form a wide variety of geometric and pictorial designs. Many sorts of wood were used for the various colours; about 40 were in regular use. Only natural colors were used; green was provided by “green oak”, produced by the action of fungus on fallen oak. Designs for articles were often taken from designs of Berlin wool work.

Bucket burns perfume in bronze resting on three feet. The body is sculpted with a band frieze with an archaic motif. Two inverted U-shaped handles punctuate the edge. This type of bronze bucket was cast with lost wax from molds in several parts and assembled when the piece was poured, these are the traces that can be seen on the back of the bucket. . The bronze has a beautiful green and dark gray excavation patina. This perfume burner was originally to have longer feet, no doubt arched, cut very long ago since the place of the cut has the same patina as the rest of the piece. China Zhou Dynasty...

Impressive handmade large and powerfully cast Japanese tripod bronze censer of the 19th century, made during the Meiji period and with mythical animals...