1. Silver caddy spoon
A George V silver and peacock enamel caddy spoon (above) marked for Omar Ramsden and Alwyn Carr (London 1913) is expected to bring £750-950 at the Cotswold Auction Company, Cirencester, on April 13-14.
View and bid for this Omar Ramsden silver caddy spoon via the saleroom.com.
2. Victorian photographs
Two original Victorian photographs of well-known Pre-Raphaelite muse Julia Prinsep Stephen (nee Jackson) are expected to bring £500-800 as part of the Out of The Ordinary auction at Sworders on April 13-14.
The original supermodel, Julia Jackson was deemed one of the most beautiful women of her age. She sat for many artists including William Holman Hunt (who proposed marriage) and was the favourite model of Julia Margaret Cameron (her maternal aunt and godmother).
After the death of her first husband Herbert Duckworth, a barrister and member of the Somerset landed gentry, she refused to contemplate remarrying for many years. However, in 1878 she accepted the proposal of the writer and critic Leslie Stephen with whom she would have four more children – all of them influential members of what would be known as the Bloomsbury Group.
View and bid for Victorian photographs via the saleroom.com.
3. Catherine the Great terracotta roundel
The sale at Jones & Jacob in Watlington, Oxfordshire, on April 14 includes this 5in (12cm) terracotta roundel of Catherine the Great by the Italian medallist Jean Baptiste Nini (1717-86).
In a technique of his own invention, Nini refined the local clay through a process of elutriation and used it to cast these medallions from finely engraved copper moulds. Estimate £300-500.
View and bid for this terracotta roundel via the saleroom.com.
4. Russian medal
The last lot of the sale at Baldwin’s of St James’s on April 14 is this 4in (10cm) Russian silver commemorative medal marking the opening of the Suram Tunnel in Georgia in 1890. The designer was the German-born medallist Leopold Christianovich Steinman.
As demonstrated to the reverse, the project involved dynamiting through a mountain so oil could be transported to the Black Sea (via the Caucasus Mountains on a track between Baku and Batum). The obverse shows the head of Alexander III (1881-94) alongside female figures personifying the cities of Kutaisi and Tbilisi flanking the tunnel entrance – from which emerges a steam engine. It is estimated £5000-7000.
5. Polar medal
The Polar Medal was instituted by Edward VII following the return of Captain Scott’s Discovery expedition in 1904. The image of Discovery with a sledging party in the foreground was designed by Ernest Gillick, and the bust of King Edward VII by GW de Saulles.
This silver medal was seemingly never awarded as it is stamped ‘specimen’ to the edge. It is estimated £500-700 at Stroud Auctions on April 14-15.
View and bid for this Edward VII polar medal via the saleroom.com.
6. Japanese studio pottery vase
The April 15 sale at H&H Auction Rooms in Carlisle includes a collection of studio ceramics acquired from the Potfest festival and market (held in Penrith since 1994). This large vase by the renowned Japanese potter Fumihiro Fuyushiba has an estimate of £100-150.