Silver

Harry Williams-Bulkeley joined Christie’s in 1990 and has worked on many of the greatest collections to appear at auction in the last twenty years. He has catalogued and researched English, French and other European silver for sale in London, Geneva and Paris. He became head of silver at Christie’s King Street in 1996 and has worked on many of the landmark silver sales of the last fifteen years. He became European Head of Department in 2010.

He has worked on many single owner collections and is very aware of the importance of provenance and history when offering great silver for sale. He has a particular interest in and knowledge of British and European history and heraldry.

In his role as European Head of Department he coordinated the marketing and sale strategy of the Benson Collection, working very closely with his colleagues in Paris, London and New York to ensure the spoons are presented to the highest standard, marketed in the most effective manner and promoted to the widest possible audience of potential buyers.

Isabelle Cartier-Stone first joined Christie’s in 1997 working in Geneva and Monaco before opening the first silver auctions in Paris in 2001 with the Karl Lagerfeld collection. In 2006, she became a consultant working on important sales such the Yves-Saint-Laurent collection in 2009 or the Pinto collection in 2017. During that period, she also wrote and contributed to several publications on French, Belgian and German silver. In 2018, she returned to Christie’s London working for the silver and the gold boxes departments. A specialist in continental silver, Isabelle has a strong interest in researching provenance and history of objects with a view to reaching a new audience of collectors.

Anthony Phillips retired, after 42 years, in 2009 as Christie's International director of the Silver, Objects of Vertu and Russian Works of Art departments. He continues to work on a consultancy basis with these departments worldwide.

Having joined Christie’s in 1967 to work as the personal assistant to Arthur Grimwade, who is recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on English antique silver, Anthony catalogued many of the major sales in London, Geneva, and Amsterdam for nearly a decade before moving to New York in 1976 where he set up and headed the Silver, Objects of Vertu and Russian departments, and was, from 1990-1996 head of all the specialist departments. In the latter year he returned to London to concentrate on developing the silver market on a world-wide basis.

Anthony has made many significant discoveries in the silver world, particularly in the field of early German silver. Amongst his most remarkable discoveries was the identification of the maker of a previously unknown enamelled silver service, dated 1615 as being David Altenstetter, the leading German Renaissance enameller and silversmith of his day. In addition the service of 36 pieces is the earliest recorded complete set of table-silver by some 70 years. His extensive research contributed to the extraordinary price it realised: £1 million in 2005. He went on to receive an email one morning from a Portuguese client with pictures attached which he immediately recognised as being of exceptional artistic importance. Following research in Vienna and Munich the Cunha-Braga Cup sold for £1.9 million against an estimate of £200,000-300,000 in 2006. Anthony also played an instrumental part in securing the consignment of the record breaking Rothschild Fabergé Egg Clock, which realised £8.9 million in 2007.

His last year as international director was marked by the record breaking 100% sale of silver and objects of Vertu in the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierrre Berge.

Eleonora Pontiggia is a Sales Coordinator for the Classic Art Group, based in London. Eleonora joined Christie’s in 2020 in the Old Master Paintings department before moving on to work with the Estates, Appraisal & Valuations team as a Valuation Coordinator. In 2024 she joined the Classic Art Group as Sales Coordinator working primarily with the Antiquities and Ceramics departments. Eleonora holds a Master Degree in Art History and Art World Practice from Christie’s Education with a particular focus on English and European Decorative Arts.