The New Zealand Auction Saturday, 31 August 2024 - 11:00 AM start

Lot 0001 View All Lots Next Lot »

Reuben Watts, Sterling Silver, Auckland Returned Soldiers Association (ARSA) Badge

Realised: $140 plus premium

Lot Details

Size: 3.35cm Weight: 6.8 Grams This badge features a finely feathered kiwi in the bush. Exceptionally crisp hallmark "WATTS" and below "Sterling" Reuben Watts (1869 -1940) trained in the Arts and Crafts style in Birmingham, England. He arrived in New Zealand in 1899. In Wellington he worked for the commercial jewellers Littlejohn before he moved to Auckland in 1906 where he worked for A. Kohn. Watts went on to became an independent jeweller exhibiting, for instance, at the Auckland Arts and Crafts Club in 1912. Between 1930 and 1939 he taught at Elam School of Art where he passed on his skills and style. Operating as practitioner and teacher through to 1939 he provides important evidence of the continuation of the style through to the end of the 1930s. Watts is widely regarded as one of New Zealand's finest jewellers/silversmiths and is represented in the collections of Te Papa