This year’s International Silver and Jewellery Fair and Seminar is featuring a loan exhibition called “Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen Scots: History and Myth”. There are thirty-five pieces in the exhibition, divided into three groups, all associated in some way with the two queens. The smallest group, and most treasured, are authentic pieces with unbroken provenances from royal donors. Then there are historical revival pieces made mostly in the nineteenth century and finally, the deliberate fakes. Participating in the fair, now in its seventh year, will be over thirty international dealers who specialise in silver, jewellery, enamels, portrait miniatures and objets de vertu. Among those taking part are A.D.C. Heritage, Cartier, E. & C.T. Koopman & Son and Wartski from London as well as Axel Vervoordt from Antwerp. The success of the fair is due to the enthusiasm of a specialised group which congregates from far and wide and the high standards of both catalogue and lectures. The lecture programme opens with: “Revived Renaissance Jewellery of the Nineteenth Century” by Shirley Bury, and includes: “Nineteenth Century Treasures of German and Austrian Revivalist Jewellery” by Dr Brigitte Marquardt; “The Jewel House 1660-1790” by Philippa Glanville; “The Art of the Table in France under the Empire and the Role of the Celebrated ‘Carème’” by Catherine Arminjon and “The French Crown Jewels and their Tragic Destiny” by Dr Alexander Herzog von Württemberg. The fair will be at the Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly, from 8 to 11 February.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Royal jewellery: real, revived and faked'
