Fabergé photo frame snapped up

The top lot in Sworders’ Jewellery and Silver sale in Essex was a stunning Fabergé gold and silver photograph frame, which was hammered down at £30,000.

Signed ‘Fabergé, the 50 x 53mm diamond and pearl-backed triangular frame with sky-blue guilloché enamel ground was the work of Johan Viktor Aarnean of the St Petersburg workshop. The item was made c.1893-1903 and comes in its original Hollywood fitted case.

Other jewellery highlights in the 600-plus lot sale included a single stone diamond ring of 4.27 carats that took £8000, a Victorian gold single stone emerald ring that went for £5000 and a George III 18 ct two-colour gold snuffbox, dating to 1809 and made in London by Alexander J Strachan. The hand-engraved inscription to the inside of the lid read ‘From a Sincere friend’, while the interior base showed an earl’s coronet with monogram below and the message ’37, Chesham Place. Finder will be Rewarded’. It sold for £4200.

Best amongst the silver was a late 17^th century Scandinavian silver tankard and cover with the maker’s mark K, probably for Christian Johansen Kruse of Trondheim. Presented at Trondheim by H.R.H the Prince of Wales and inscribed to Commander W.H. Fawkes, it was presented as the winner’s trophy for the 1885 Bembridge Regatta. Here it fetched £4000.