Treasure House Fair – London’s flagship summer art fair – running from June 24-30, 2026, has established itself as the UK’s leading destination for historic and antique jewellery.
This year, the fair returns to the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea with its roster of leading dealers, and welcomes Rosior – Portugal’s cult jewellery maison – making its debut at a European fair.
Martyn Downer, specialist dealer in historic objects and works of art, will devote his stand to a Hamnet-era mourning jewel, rediscovered four centuries after it was immortalised in one of Britain’s most enigmatic and celebrated 17th-century family portraits.
Set within a dramatic scenography, the pendant will respond with another rediscovered piece of history on the booth of Greens of Cheltenham: a 16th-century ring that belonged to a knight close to Henry VIII and Queen Anne, from a family later erased from the history books after its entanglement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
This year’s line-up brings together long-established London specialists, including S.J. Phillips – a 150-year-old Mayfair institution beloved by tastemakers such as Anna Wintour – and Wartski, the jewellers to The Royal Family whose high-profile commissions include the wedding bands of Their Majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla, as well as that of the Princess of Wales.
They will be joined by two other leading names in the field of antique jewellery, Greens of Cheltenham and Sandra Cronan.
Making their first appearance at a European fair, Rosior – one of Portugal’s most distinguished jewellery houses – will showcase pieces from the rarefied 130 one-of-a-kind works they produce annually.
TWO BRITISH HISTORIC JEWELS REDISCOVERED
Hamnet-era mourning jewel identified after four centuries
Martyn Downer, specialist dealer in historic objects and
works of art, will devote his entire stand – conceived as a
dramatic scenography exploring death in the time of
Shakespeare – to this Memento Mori jewel long believed lost to history.
Made to commemorate the death of Sir Thomas Aston’s
six-year-old son, Robert, who died in 1634, the heart-shaped
pendant poignantly suspends a tassel of the child’s blonde hair.
Sir Thomas is depicted wearing the jewel in the monumental
life-size 1635 masterpiece Sir Thomas Aston at the Deathbed of His Wife by John Souch, now in the collection of Manchester Art Gallery.
Although the artist rendered the jewel with remarkable precision, only now – through the discovery of the actual pendant – can its full meaning, details, and inscriptions be understood.
Heart-shaped and surrounded by a golden wreath, the pendant jewel is enamelled in black and white with a death’s head skull and inscriptions in Latin on both sides, translated as: ‛Your Robert died 4th May 1634’ (front) / ‘In whom was our delight, through whom was our consolation, with whom the hope of his parents first perished’ (reverse).
Sir Thomas Tresham’s Signet Ring, circa 1557
Presented by Greens of Cheltenham, London
The gold and crystal ring, of strikingly large proportions and likely intended to be worn over a gloved thumb, was made for Sir Thomas Tresham (d.1559), a knight and one of England’s most ardent Catholic recusants. A close confidant of Henry VIII and Queen Anne, he was entrusted with some of the monarchs’ most delicate missions – including welcoming Henry’s fourth wife, Anne of Clèves, at Calais.
ROYAL PROVENANCE
The 16th Duke of Alba’s order of the golden-fleece
presented by S.J. Phillips, London
The Nephew of Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, Carlos María Fitz-James Stuart y Portocarrero y Palafox XVI Duke of Alba de Tormes (1849-1901) was invested in April 1900 as a Knight of the distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece, the highest Spanish chivalric Honour. This diamond, sapphire and ruby full order with stickpin and medal miniature were commissioned in 1900 from Chaumet by the wife of the Duke, María del Rosario Falcó y Osorio, XII Countess of Siruela.
