Antiques Magazine Archive, January 2022

A year of turbulence 2021

You will have celebrated New Year by the time you've read this. Wherever you are in the world, you will have seen the new year in with those you love, your family and friends.

There’s nothing more luxurious than flower shaped jewellery – it has a feeling of opulence and a distinct whiff of extravagance to it, while reminding you of the outdoors and of nature’s colourful palette.

Of course that all depends on the amount of workmanship that’s gone into the item and the resource used, they don’t always have to be naturally occurring stones either, even costume jewellery from simple man made materials can be just as effective.

St Valentine’s Day

For those in Wales, St Valentine’s Day will have been celebrated in January for the Welsh equivalent of this most romantic days of the year.

The Ivory Act is due to come into force in Spring 2022. From this time, it will be illegal to deal in ivory apart from items that meet one of the five narrow and carefully defined exemptions and is registered or has an exemption certificate. 

The five exemptions are:

• Pre-1947 items containing less than 10% ivory by volume.
• Pre-1975 musical instruments containing less than 20% ivory by volume.
• Pre-1918 portrait miniatures with a surface area of no more than 320cm2.
• Sales to and hire agreements with qualifying museums. This applies to museums accredited by Arts Council England, the Welsh Government, the Scottish Government, or the Northern Ireland Museums Council in the UK, or, for museums outside the UK, the International Council of Museums.
• Pre-1918 items with outstanding artistic, cultural, or historic value.

We are developing an awareness campaign on the Ivory Act to help ensure understanding of the ban and to support compliance among commercial dealers of ivory and members of the public.
 

If you have potential valuables in your attic, then it's a good idea to have them valued. This is so that you can have them accurately insured in case of theft, and in case you choose to sell or auction in the future.

Valentine’s Day, for many people, is a day for looking toward the future. We declare our love for someone, or propose to our partner, or even send a secret admirer card in the hope of future developments. But, just this once, why don’t we look back in order to look forward? What I mean is, why not give the gift of an antique, to show just how much you love someone!

It's the perfect time of year with which to indulge yourself with a break away from the January curse of constant rain. The pristine white snow, the crisp blue sky and the perfect white slope, just waiting for you to cover it with your tracks.
 

Full customs controls came into effect on 1‌‌ ‌January‌‌ ‌2022. You might be affected if you move goods between Great Britain (GB) and countries in the European Union (EU).