Category Archives: News

The one that got away…

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In the early 1950s, L.S. Lowry completed a very small number of large industrial landscape compositions, each of which included many, if not all, of his favourite motifs, people, chimneys, dogs, children, houses, lakes, etc… this particular 1953 ‘Industrial’ features another favourite, Stockport Viaduct, seen towards the rear of the composition.

In a letter from Lowry to the Tate about the 1955 large Industrial in their collection, Lowry writes ‘this is a composite picture, a blank canvas, I didn’t have the slightest idea when I started the picture, but it eventually came out the way you see it, this is the way I like working best.’

In fact, there are only four of these monumental Lowry industrial landscapes, all were painted between 1950 and 1955. The picture below, which I first encountered in 1988, dates from 1953 and was at the time, the only one of the four still left in private hands and available to own. The other three were already part of permanent Museum collections.

Then one day in the late summer of 1988 I received a call out of the blue from the director of a kitchen manufacturer in Manchester, he told me that they owned a Lowry ‘industrial’ painting and that for fiduciary reasons the company needed to sell it before the end of the year and could we (Christie’s) help. At this stage, I knew very little about the picture, as back then there was no email or internet, so I was flying blind as to whether it was th one I was thinking it was or a print or something else…

I put the phone down having made an appointment to see it the next day and I made my way up to Manchester, arriving at an unpromising anonymous industrial estate just outside the centre.

As I made my way up to the top floor, I notice there was nothing on the walls anywhere except for a few Lowry poster type prints. I was beginning to think I was on a wild goose chase when as I turned a corner, there in front of me on the director’s office wall was an utterly monumental and glorious 45” x 60” inch industrial landscape oil painting, truly a Lowry masterpiece!!

I was blown away by it but manage to compose myself enough for a conversation with the MD who was charming and easy to talk to. I established that in principle the company was very happy to sell it with me, at Christie’s in our upcoming 11th November 1988 auction with a then world record estimate of £100,00-150,000. Today it would probably be £3-5 million! However, in every good auction tale, there is a wrinkle. In this case the MD had offered the Salford Art Gallery the option to buy the picture before the auction if they could raise £100,000 in time. Back then, Salford City Council’s Lowry collection was housed on the top floor of the Salford Museum and Art Gallery, in Peel Park, Salford. The state of the art ‘Lowry’ Art Gallery and theatre complex was just a twinkle in somebody’s eye.

Let’s step back for a moment and set the scene back in 1988: the Art market, particularly Modern and Impressionist Art, was roaring away. Contemporary Art was 30 years away from being the dominant force it is today and the market for Art and Antiques was at an all-time high, even today some of the prices achieved back then have never been beaten and buyers were hungry for rare pictures. Interestingly, also at this time Donald Trump was in London making his first ‘state’ visit. He and his wife Ivana were in town and appeared as guests on Terry Wogan’s nightly TV chat show, Wogan even makes a rare ‘slip up’ by calling Ivana, ‘Diana’. Donald doesn’t even notice the gaff as he launches into his ideas on how he ‘could make America great again’.

A few days after my visit the Lowry picture arrived safely from Manchester and I was relieved and pleased to see it matched up with all our research so we could get on and prepare our catalogue entry and get it photographed for the upcoming 11th November auction, where it was included as lot 480. The catalogue came out in the second week of October and calls began to come in for the various lots, including lot 480, which was beginning to create a real buzz around it. I remember one major dealer coming in to view it before the public viewing and telling me that he thought it could make £250,000 or more, and that he was prepared to bid up to £350,000, a price well over three times the then world record. This would have set the Lowry market alight which is what I was secretly hoping for…

Of course, I was also hoping Salford would be able to acquire the picture and as the auction day drew nearer this looked increasingly likely and indeed, I think by Wednesday 9th November I had verbal followed by written confirmation that Salford has purchased the piece and the picture was duly withdrawn from sale and later transported up to Salford where it hangs today in pride of place in the Lowry Salford Quays next to the new Media Centre.

This was truly one that got away and looking back I am certain that if it had been offered there was enough presale interest for it to have made a huge price, thus electrifying the Lowry market 20 years earlier. Had that been the case, who knows where prices would be now!!

Reflections on the old master sales

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It is hard to know what to make of the Old Master Sales at the beginning of July. The totals of Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams at under £50m were only just above half of what they were last year at £80m.

The wonderful Lucas Cranach (lot 6 in Christie’s evening sale) of the Nymph of the Spring, a naked girl in a rocky river landscape, sold for £9.4m. More than the whole of the Sotheby’s Evening Sale put together (£7.1m).

There were some strong individual prices, just not enough of them. I’ve chosen 3 pictures from last weeks crop of Old Masters to write about, one from each of the major London salerooms.

What these three have in common is that they are all in beautiful state and, to my mind, are attractive images, but they are all slightly old-fashioned English “Country House” taste. It was going to be very interesting to see how they fared, in a market obsessed with the quirky and the novel.

My Bonhams choice was lot 60, a fine horse portrait by James Seymour. It was described as “a brown thoroughbred”, traditionally identified as “Spanking Roger”. I thought the presence of two foxhounds and a groom who looked as if he was wearing Beaufort Hunt livery implied that he was a hunter, but my brother-in-law, Hamish Alexander, who is in the racing world said the horse was too fine-boned to be a hunter. I take his word for it. He is an expert and Bonhams got it right.

Despite a suggestion that the signature and date were added later, he galloped away from an estimate of £30,000-50,000 to a very respectable £157,000.

My Sotheby’s choice was the star lot, a marvellous Willem van de Velde the Younger of “The Surrender of the Royal Prince during the Four Days’ Battle”. Although the subject was war, there was no gore, not too many burning vessels, nor drowning sailors and the composition was well -balanced and harmonious, but it didn’t find a buyer. I think the problem was the estimate; at £4-6m the top end was already a world record for the artist at auction. At half that estimate, it would have sailed away.

We finish on an optimistic note! Christie’s offered, as lot 12 in their evening sale, a Pastoral Landscape by Jacob van Ruisdael, the great Haarlem landscape painter. There was a panel join in the sky, but it hardly showed and the evening sun catching the sandy bank of the stream in the foreground, was just the sort of touch that appealed so much in Jacob’s work to John Constable. He owned four of them and made copies of others. This painting more than doubled the estimate with the price of £3.4m including buyer’s premium. It was painted in oil on a small oak panel, just over 2 feet wide and it was a very gentle subject, but it struck a chord in the hearts of several bidders.

If there is a lesson to be learned from these sales, it is that good Old Masters still command strong prices, but it is difficult for auctioneers to persuade collectors to part with their paintings in a time of conflict and inflation.

The one that got away…

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Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Back in 2005, I was newly married, London based and high on life. Money was tight, but we were cool. I’ve always loved poster art. Remember Athena? Later New York subway graffiti album cover art and band posters. Maybe because that’s all I could afford. At that time we read alternative magazines, went to all manner of clubs, listened to house music and drank Smirnoff ice.

However, the Country was also at war. Mobile phone and personal computers were becoming commonplace, and the traditional methods of communication and control were on the wane. There felt a real burgeoning of youthful expression against the ‘accepted norm’. Artists such as Faile, Eulus and Banksy, to name but a few, were hosting the odd show and having read an article on Banksy, an early Internet search took me to the now notorious and now defunct ‘Pictures on Walls’.

On their website was Banksy’s CND Soldiers and Jack and Jill. Signed copies were £156.50. I forget how much the unsigned copies were.

So, for my birthday we went all in and bought a signed Banksy CND soldiers. Limited Edition of 350. Arrived rolled up in a tube! It shows two soldiers in full combat gear surreptitiously painting a red CND sign on a wall. I loved it. It said everything about my views on the current war, the bold colours, glorious details and it was subversive in a very nice way!

We had it framed and it hung in our house, carefully shaded from sunlight for 10 years.

By 2016, I was a single mum of two boisterous boys whose parkour moves were practised upon all pieces of furniture and under the gaze of the, often wonky, CND soldiers. I had followed in the rise of Banksy and one day realised I really should insure it. An art broker friend suggested to have it insured for between £7,000 and £10,000. I was stunned. I simply did not have the money to insure the picture, coupled with the fact I needed a new kitchen.

So, with the help of my broker, a nice Belgian gentleman offered an astounding £14,000 (inc fees) and also offered to pay for packing and transport. I did offer it to the Andipa gallery in Knightsbridge, but they felt £7,000 was the most they would go to.

So, off my Banksy went to Belgium, as part of a pension pot, and I built a lovely kitchen. However, within a couple of years the same picture went for £32,000 at auction and now commands in the region of £50,000.

Yes, I am gutted I sold the picture, as it would be in my pension pot now. However, that piece of art gave a single mum the chance to have a new heart to her home. To feel good about having people over and to look to the future. The one that got away, yes, but left great memories, and sometimes that might be more worthwhile.

The one that got away…

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I don’t recall the life-changing opportunity that was missed; perhaps that’s just as well. It would be galling to know that one had passed up an opportunity to buy something that went on to make multiple times the purchase price.

I do remember seeing two wonderful pairs of enamel cufflinks being sold very inexpensively at an antiques fair. The seller was insistent that he would only accept cash, and as I didn’t have that sum of money on me I asked him to hold them whilst I went to a cash point. When I returned, having extracted the maximum possible from three bank accounts, he nonchalantly informed me he’d sold them to someone else. Hard money on the spot clearly talks.

I also remember the insurance valuation I did for a couple who had recently downsized. Referring to a previous valuation schedule I queried the whereabouts of an impressive Victorian inkstand by a well-regarded maker. They informed me that they had had to dispose of a great deal in the move and they had sent the inkstand to a local charity shop, believing it to be silver plate and of little consequence. They were stoic about the discovery. No point in crying over spilt ink!

What has got away from me is trends. I wish I could have called the rise and fall of gold prices better. If only I’d known that as cigarette smoking fell from grace, there would be an unexpected rise in the popularity of cigars and cigar related memorabilia. Thirty odd years ago American Marvin R. Shanken launched Cigar Aficionado, and this venture set off perhaps the most unforeseen social craze of the 1990s — the renaissance of cigars and an explosion in the popularity of all cigar-related paraphernalia. This too has now largely fallen away.

One of my career-long passions has been cufflinks. I have supplied literally thousands of pairs of antique and vintage cufflinks to organisations both here and in America. I’ve constantly been told that they would be going out of fashion and that no one would want the bother of double cuffed shirts anymore. However, even as the tie has fallen from grace, the tailored shirt has remained a wardrobe staple and notwithstanding the hiatus of the pandemic cufflink sales are on rise again as workers return to offices. I have just sourced an Art Deco dress set for a well-known film franchise that wanted the genuine article and not a modern copy. I’m really glad that one didn’t get away.

The great thing about our world is that there is always tomorrow. There is endless speculation about where trends are going and what individual pieces might make. It’s one of the things that makes the art world so interesting. We all bring our expertise to bear on determining accurate prices, but the marketplace can be capricious and that’s what makes it exciting. Fashions come and go, and unexpected left-field shifts like the rise of NFTs can cause a significant change in thinking. Being able to foresee these repositioning of market forces would be a really useful superpower.

Eventually, most people are pragmatic about missed opportunities, which sometimes presents a chance to rethink and learn. I have a huge collection of single cufflinks that are partnerless. I shall let you decide if this collection should be viewed as the ones that got away or the ones that were saved. I prefer to think of them in the latter category, however, I’d be overjoyed to find their partners and restore the marriages.

The one that got away…

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The “ones that got away” would be a more apt description of my career! Jan van de Capelle, Hugo van de Goes, John Constable, they have all slipped through my hands.

When you are young, you don’t always back your own judgement: you buy paintings speculatively and then start to research them. This involves showing photographs or the picture itself to whoever is the acknowledged expert. If they come back to you and say: “no, it isn’t by such and such”, you take it on the chin. You would never have the temerity to ask them to justify their opinion. That comes later, when you are older and have seen how fallible scholars are.

The picture I have chosen is a Transfiguration by Ludovico Carracci. I bought it at Phillips Son and Neale (now Bonhams) 40 years ago, catalogued as Italian School. I thought it was beautifully painted and probably Bolognese. It had a noble provenance “The Earl of Darnley” and was housed in a fine, if bulky, William IV carved and giltwood frame, all of which felt very positive to me. My brother, James, still has the frame with a mirror in it, in his hall.

After cleaning, which revealed a surface in remarkable condition, I had it photographed and sent images to the two most eminent scholars on Bolognese Baroque Art, one in the USA and the other in Germany. Their names are available upon request! Sadly, neither of them had a clue who painted my picture, nor did they show any enthusiasm for it. I advertised it in Apollo (Art Magazine) as “Italian School” and there was no response to that either!

Several years passed and I got a call from a friend who had found an old copy of Apollo and wondered if I still had the painting and, of course, I did. By some extraordinary fluke he had been working in a provincial museum Print Room and had come across two 17th Century engravings after my painting where the author was given as Ludovico Carracci, so he immediately realised the significance of what he’d seen. He asked me what the best price was and we shook hands on £6,000. It had cost me £3,000 before cleaning and reframing so it wasn’t a greedy price despite looking as if I had doubled my money.

He was not a rich man so I knew that he must know who the author of my Transfiguration was and that’s when he told me about the two prints. Good luck to him but, why on earth didn’t the two scholars I had consulted know about the prints and, therefore, the missing picture? Anyway, my friend kept it for decades, but in 2007 he sold it to the National Gallery of Scotland where it hangs to this day.

The moral of the story is… be patient and back your own judgement.

The one that got away…

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The world of watches is not only a fascinating one, but also a frustrating one. For example in 2014 had I known that the world of Rolex sports watches would have become such a lucrative market place I would have purchased their entire stock and waited for the elevated position that their most desirable watches currently occupy.

There are of course limited runs of pieces that you always would like to own, but only when as it transpires, they are all sold out and you are late to the party – this is a classic situation with the Rolex Submariner with the famous green bezel…

The year was 2009 and a Rolex Submariner was known to be one of the most desirable sports watches on the planet with… wait for it, sometimes a waiting list if the authorised dealer of your choice didn’t have the model you required, fast forward to today – you would almost be laughed out of a dealer if you asked to buy a brand new Submariner – it is that popular.

Rolex had made a bold move, they had issued the fairly conservative Submariner with a green bezel. Instantly every Rolex aficionado let it be known how appalled and disgusted they were that such a great mark could do such a thing.

So, back to that year of 2009 when I happened to be speaking to a Rolex dealer, whom shall remain nameless when I was offered the ‘Kermit’ (I don’t think Rolex nicknames were such a big thing then) for the unimaginable price of £4,800, and if I took two of them then it would come with a discounted price of £9,000.

Fast forward to this moment in time and the green bezel Submariner is one of the most desirable watches on the planet, with similar incarnations such as the ‘Starbucks’ and the ‘Hulk’ offering buyers additional variations on a theme, with secondary market figures varying from £18,000-£25,000 each.

The next incident is actually ongoing and may well change over the next year, but currently one of the hottest pieces on the secondary market is the Swatch and Omega collaboration the ‘Moonswatch’. A ‘bioceramic’ (basically plastic) quartz watch in the manner of the Omega classic moonwatch.

Announced on the internet with 48 hours’ notice, the range of watches instantly became the most sought after item from either Swatch or Omega with Swatch boutiques having to close and call in for police security after mobs started storming the little shops all around the world – the demand was so huge they had to apologise.

Within hours the watches were appearing on secondary market sites for up to £3,000 – and considering this was a £200 watch, it seemed rather sad and cynical however.

The one thing that we can be sure of though is that the watch market will be constantly reinventing itself with new and different ways to attract buyers and collectors and as long as this keeps happening, no doubt I will always be looking to make sure no more items get away!

The one that got away…

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Some time ago, I worked at Bonhams, in the jewellery department. Along with the regular monthly sales held in Knightsbridge were pawnbrokers’ auctions. These were comprised of any jewellery items which had not been redeemed by a customer and needed to be sold on the open market to obtain a fair price and hopefully achieve the best price for it.

The excitement and unpredictability of an auction never fades and each sale kept us on our toes. With pawnbroker sales, that unpredictability was tenfold. Because a pawnbroker client had until the very last moment to redeem his/her item, this meant that items could be withdrawn from an auction at any point prior to the item’s lot number being called out by the auctioneer.

In this case, the one that got away was a magnificent Burmese sapphire ring up for sale in the pawnbroker’s auction. Because pawnbroker auctions are so volatile, there are no catalogues and therefore no image, so I will do my best to convey this ring’s uniqueness.

The sapphire was Burmese. That in itself, is usually indication enough to express the velvety blue hue that sapphires from this part of the world have. Burmese, or Kashmir, sapphires are the most coveted sapphires, considered to have the deepest, intense and rich blue hue. Also known as “Royal Blue”.

Sapphires belong to the same family as rubies, they are corundum. Any coloured corundum, other than red, is called a sapphire. Sapphires differ from rubies in that they have iron as part of their crystal lattice.

Both sapphires and rubies from Burma make for the most exquisite gems. The value in a Burmese sapphire lies in the depth of colour and its dispersion. This is due to minute crystalline inclusions in the stone. Inclusions are small “imperfections” captured in a stone during its formation.

They are like fingerprints, unique to every gem. Below are a few examples of inclusions which are found in sapphires. These help identify where a gem formed, where it was mined and if the gem is natural (as opposed to synthetic, or man-made) and if it has had any treatment to enhance the colour or make inclusions less visible.

Mogok Sapphires

The sapphire in the ring that was up for auction had beautiful silk crystal inclusions and certainly had that “Royal Blue” hue about it. The most famous “Royal Blue” sapphire is probably the one set in Kate Middleton’s sapphire and diamond engagement ring, which belonged to her mother-in-law, the late Princess Diana.

The sapphire weighs 12 carats and is set within a surround of brilliant-cut diamonds. When it was made in 1981, the sapphire ring cost £50,000. Because of the provenance and history of the ring, it has become a priceless piece of jewellery, but one could estimate its current price to be around £500,000.

The world’s most expensive sapphire to sell at auction was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on the 7th October 2015. It weighed 27.68 carats of natural Kashmir origin and made $6,702,564, $242,415 per carat.

It is common for these exceptional sapphires to be accompanied by multiple certificates. If one is to buy a gem, whether for pleasure or investment purposes, it is recommended to buy one with a certificate from a reputable laboratory such as SSEF, GIA, Gubelin.

Don’t be fooled by reports sold with sapphires in markets which simply state that the sapphire is a corundum and details its shape and weight. The stone could well have been man-made in a laboratory in which case a report should state “natural” or “synthetic”.

A gem can also be treated to make it more desirable. It is common practise for sapphires to be heat-treated to bring out more colour in the stone. This should also be mentioned in the report, along with any other enhancements.

Whatever the price of the gem, look for clarity from the seller/dealer/jeweller. If there is transparency and one knows what they are paying for then an honest transaction can proceed. If in doubt, walk away.

I was convinced this sapphire ring was a good investment opportunity. And I would have been right! Sapphires, like rubies and emeralds for example, have seen a net increase in value in the recent years. A similar ring to this superb sapphire ring selling for £25,000, would probably exceed £100,000 at auction in the present climate.

Unfortunately, the sapphire ring was to be pulled from auction moments before the sale was to start and this will forever be The One That Got Away…

G for Garnet

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Garnet is one of the oldest known stones to man. It is the first gem mentioned in the Bible, in Hebrew “nophek”. Indeed the Talmud mentions garnet as being Noah’s only source of light in the Ark in the form of a carbuncle. A carbuncle often refers to ancient red garnet and red stones in general. It was one of four stones to be given by God to King Solomon.

Garnets have also been found to adorm Egyptian mummies, set in necklaces and other jewels. The oldest red garnet bead necklace to have been found is believed to be from 5,000 BC.

In ancient Rome, signet rings with carved garnets were used to stamp the wax that secured important documents.

Because the gem comes in such a wide range of colours, they each have a specific name.

The green garnets are also called tsavorite – named after the Tsavo Game Reserve in Kenya where it was first found by British geologist Campbell R. Bridges in 1967 and named by Harry Platt of Tiffany & Company.

My favourite is perhaps the demantoid garnet for the inclusion it sometimes hold: a horsetail. An inclusion is any material trapped within a stone during formation. In the case of a horsetail, a formation of golden feathery inclusions of chrysolite form in curves resembling the tail of a horse.

Rhodolite is a purplish red variety. Red garnets are also called almandine, pyrope, whereas the more orangey type are called spessartite, almandite and hessonite.

Red garnets were made even more popular in the mid-16th century when a large deposit was discovered in Central Europe. It became one of the most widely traded gems by the late 1800s.

Its current retail cost could reach £38,000 at a specialised antiques jeweller.

Garnet rates a 6.5-7.5/10 on the Mohs scale. The Mohs scale of mineral hardness was created by Friedrich Mohs in 1822 and determines the scratch resistance of minerals when scratched by another mineral.

The Mohs scale is used to manufacture everyday objects: your mobile phone’s screen glass is made of a material that scratches at level 6, some at level 7.

Garnets are stable to light and chemicals which make it a popular choice to set in jewellery. However, it should always be cleaned with care as these gems are sometimes treated to make their appearance even more desirable. The most common treatment for this gem would be fracture filled: if there was a small fracture within the stone, it would be filled with resin or similar composite to fill in the gap and make it look “flawless”. The fillings can usually be spotted with a magnifier and causes a flash of light when positioned at the right angle.

In general, it is safe to assume garnets are untreated. But the economic impact on garnets such as demantoid and tsavorite can dictate whether a stone is treated or not. These two types are garnets are often considered to be the most desirable and usually found in small sizes, so their value goes up significantly with size.

Fabergé Platinum Round Demantoid & Diamond Set Halo Ring selling for £34,200. Mounted in platinum, it has a 2.50cts round demantoid garnet with an SSEF certificate indicating it is Russian, and has been heating to enhance colour, and set with 130 round white diamonds totalling 0.90ct.

If the budget doesn’t stretch that high, other garnets, like rhodolite, are far more common in larger sizes.

It’s easy to understand the appeal of garnet. It offers a multitude of different readily available hues to suit all sorts of budget. The key then when choosing an item with garnet is really to think with what outfit would look best with that colour.

Photomicrography – What it is and how it helps us in determining the value of a gem

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As a valuer and gemmologist I work with gemstones daily. Testing, grading and valuing coloured gems is a personal highlight of my work and it was around 5 years ago when testing a Ceylon sapphire that I first fell in love with photomicrography.

I noticed that viewing the stone under the microscope allowed me to dive deeper into understanding the gem and its value. Since then, what was a routine part of gem testing has become a hobby of mine and I can spend hours viewing one gemstone, trying to capture the perfect photomicrograph. In 2021 I was awarded second place in the Gem-A photography competition for this image.

So what is photomicrography?

Put simply, photomicrography is the photography of objects (gemstones in this case) under a microscope.

To begin, I start by thoroughly cleaning the gemstone or item of jewellery I am working on. It’s important not to have any dirt, grease, or dirt on the stone prior to inspection. I will then spend some time viewing the stone in several positions and angles to allow me to find the perfect inclusion scene for my photography. It’s not uncommon for me to spend 30 minutes just getting the perfect lighting and angle for my image. Sometimes I take several photographs at very slightly different focal lengths and then stack the images together using computer software. This can create a sense of depth within the finished piece. This image is made from a stack of 20 photomicrographs.

What can photomicrography tell us about a gemstone?

Natural or Synthetic?

With a higher level of zoom than a jeweller’s loupe, the microscope allows us a more in-depth view of the gem. This can allow us to determine if a gemstone is natural or synthetic; in this image of a synthetic ruby for example where we can see curved striae indicative of Verneuil Flame Fusion growth. In the case of natural stones, we may find crystal inclusions, colour-zoning and/or fingerprints. The microscope can also be a useful step in identifying synthetic diamonds.

Treatments

We can also detect treatments such as coating, dyeing and fracture filling. This image shows a natural ruby which has been lead-glass filled to improve its apparent clarity. This is an important treatment to be able to identify before carrying out any repairs as the filler is unstable and can degrade severely under high heat, like that of a jeweller’s torch – or by cleaning in ultrasonic or steam cleaners. You will see from the image that the surface of the stone appears ‘crazed’ under magnification. At a higher level of magnification we may also encounter bubbles within the glass, another tell-tale sign of treatment.

Heat treatment is considered a standard treatment within the trade for most gemstones but for sapphires and rubies most importantly, evidence of no heat treatment can increase the stone’s value greatly if the stone is otherwise of nice quality. This image shows undissolved rutile ‘silk’ inclusions within a Sri Lankan sapphire. This is evidence of no, or very low heat treatment and allowed me to value the stone accordingly.

In the following image we see amber containing ‘sun spangles’, which are indicative of heat treatment.

Origin Determination

Another important use of photomicrography is determining the origin of a gemstone. In this image we can see a three-phase inclusion which contains a liquid within a cavity, a gas, and a solid which in this case is a calcite crystal. There are also some blocky two-phase inclusions visible. This emerald was determined to be of Zambian origin. Determining the origin of a gemstone allows us to value it more accurately as some localities carry a premium, such as Colombian Muzo emeralds and Burmese sapphires and rubies from the infamous Mogok.

Let’s look at a price comparison to show how origin affects a gem’s value. In the case of this emerald from Zambia, the retail price per carat was £4950. The equivalent stone of same quality but with a Colombian origin would have a retail price per carat of £5850, that’s more than an 18% price difference.

Conclusion

For me, photomicrography is an incredibly useful tool which allows me to accurately value gemstones. But its also become a passion and something I thoroughly enjoy doing. I am always trying to improve on my image quality and find new stones with interesting inclusions which people may not have seen before. If you’d like to see more of my photomicrography, you can check out my Instagram page: Instagram.com/Sammantha_maclachlan_fga_ltd

Helen Bradley (1900-1979)

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Many of us promise ourselves that we will take up painting in retirement, few of us ever do and even fewer stick at it and only a tiny few achieve commercial and critical success with their Art. Helen Bradley was one of these tiny few and in her own uniquely British way she created a whole new life for herself with her Art when at the age of 65 she began painting pictures each one recalling a memory of her Edwardian childhood. To begin with her paintings were a way for her to show her grandchildren just how different a place the world was for her as a child in the Edwardian Era.

Born in 1900 Helen Bradley was like the late Queen Mother, the same age as the century she lived in. She was born in Lees just outside Oldham in Lancashire and showed enough early artistic talent for her to study Art but only for one year from 1913, when as for so many others the Great War intervened stopping her art studies in their tracks , then marriage and children followed.

At first glance you might think that Helen Bradley’s paintings look a little like L S Lowry’s figure compositions, however she had her own unique style and technique just as Lowry has his. Indeed the two artists met early on in Bradley’s career, they got on well and Lowry continued to encourage Bradley in her work and the two developed a firm friendship. Neither artist followed or was influenced by the other and both held a strong admiration for each other’s work.

The majority of Bradley’s figure pictures depict specific remembered events and are often accompanied by a story handwritten in biro on a parcel label and usually attached to the back of the picture. These notes explain to some extent what the viewer is looking at in the composition and the characters, Bradley sets the scene for us to share her memories and individual characters the most famous of which is Miss Carter . This excerpt from her online biography explains a little about her characters.

She mixed a little pink colour, she painted the dress of a tiny figure. From that moment was created the enchanting land that was to delight millions. The figure she painted was that of Miss Carter (who wore pink) who features in most of Helen Bradley’s paintings. Other characters you will find are her mother, grandmother, her three maiden aunts, Mr Taylor (the bank manager) Helen herself with brother George and their dogs Gyp and Barney and many others.

These narrative paintings were first exhibited at The Saddleworth Art Society in 1965, followed by a London exhibition in 1966, and a sell out exhibition at the appropriately named Carter Gallery in Los Angeles in 1968.

In 1971 Jonathan Cape published the first of four books “And Miss Carter Wore Pink”. This was an instant success. German, French, Dutch and Japanese editions were published, and a special edition produced for the U.S.A.

Requests for illustrations of her work were satisfied by the publication of 30 Signed Limited Edition Prints, 3 Unsigned Limited Edition Prints and 11 Open Edition Prints.

Magazine features, appearances on television and radio endeared Bradley to the general public and led to her being awarded the M.B.E. for services to the arts, unfortunately she died on the 19th of July 1979 shortly before she was due to receive her M.B.E. from Her Majesty The Queen.

The market for Helen Bradley’s work is very well established and her work is regularly available at auction and in galleries and I hope that this little snapshot will whet your appetite for further investigation perhaps even a purchase. To start with you could consider buying one of her beautifully illustrated books of story pictures, all are out of print but are available online or in specialist galleries for around £15 to 30, the signed limited edition prints start at around £350.