Coleridge sues Sotheby's - Telegraph He said there was no warning to Lord Coleridge that it could be worth vastly more. The collar was sold as part of efforts to prevent the sale of Lord Coleridge's ancestral home, the Chanter's House. Mr Munro said Miss Mitchell should have tested the metal content of the collar at the London Assay Office, where it was later found to be 20 carat gold except for a central Tudor rose, which was 22 carat. The court heard that, until 1798, the gold standard in England was 22 carat, apart from five years between 1546-1551, when the standard was lowered to 20 carat. The gold content of the Coleridge Collar dates it to the final years of the reign of Henry VIII, Mr Munro said, arguing that it was most likely that it was passed down to Lord Coleridge from his ancestor, John Duke Coleridge, the last Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Describing the artefact, Mr Munro said: "It consists of 27 figures of the letter 'S" and 26 intertwined knots linked together alternately. Each 'S" is decorated with a five-petalled flower flanked by a spray of leaves. In the centre of the collar is a rose flanked by two portcullises. The rose is a Tudor rose. He said Miss Mitchell was "held out as the expert at Sotheby's best qualified to evaluate the collar" but had "slipped below the standard of care" required. Richard Edwards, for Sotheby's, is expected to argue that the collar is a copy that dates from the 17th century, absolving Miss Mitchell. He will submit that the original collar is unlikely to have survived the Civil War, when most English gold was melted down to pay troops" wages.