Auction Highlights
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Etruscan Painted Terracotta Architectural Cornice
Sold for (Inc. bp): £3,900
A fragment of amorphous form, decorated in relief with scrolling tendrils and anthemion, painted egg-and-dart ornament above, surmounted by moulded bands and a frieze of meander and chequerboard panels; remains of red and black painted pigment. -
Roman Bronze Eros Cradling Goose Applique
Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,950
Formed as the bust of Eros looking upwards, stub wings to his shoulders, holding a goose to his chest; conical socket above each wing; eyes with silver inserts; old collector's label '1994 51.75' to the reverse; mounted on a custom-made stand; likely a socket base. -
Roman Silver-Gilt Military Buckle for an Elite Imperial Officer
Sold for (Inc. bp): £7,800
Comprising a rectangular plate, richly decorated with embossed laurel leaves in a grid, framed with raised bosses, the buckle loop comprising opposing dragons with open mouths, holding a spherical tongue-rest, another pair of smaller dragon heads to base, the tongue with a smaller pair of punch-decorated dragon heads. -
South Arabian Bronze Bowl with Mythical Animals
Sold for (Inc. bp): £5,850
Hemispherical in form, repoussé interior displaying graduated concentric registers of stylised and mythical animals within tessellating cartouches; a low relief mesomphalos decorated with rosette at centre; geometric ornament around the rim. -
Assyrian Bronze Relief Fragment
Sold for (Inc. bp): £16,900
Displaying a corrugated rim above and below; two advancing soldiers, each striding forwards over the headless body of a dead enemy, carrying a severed head in each hand; the soldiers shown bearded and each wearing a pointed and segmented helmet with a recess to accommodate the ears, a cuirass and thigh-length tunic, with a bow over one shoulder and a sword slung from a waist belt; mounted on a custom-made display stand. -
Bronze Age Gold Bracelet with Torc-Shaped Terminals
Sold for (Inc. bp): £11,440
Of penannular form with expanded sections at the centre and to both shoulders. -
'The Oving' Anglo-Saxon Gilt Bronze Great Square-Headed Brooch
Sold for (Inc. bp): £4,160
Comprising a rectangular headplate with two panels of chip-carved Style I ornament, flanking a beast-head with triangular muzzle and two pellet eyes, raised three-sided frame and outer band of pellets above beast-heads with lentoid eyes; the shallow bow with raised median rib, flanges to the edges and punched pellet detailing; footplate with beast-head between curved pellet lines, pierced horse-head lappets, lozengiform central panel with knot of Style I limbs; two lateral discs, one pierced to accept a stud and the other with a domed stud in place; the finial a disc with human mask inverted; pin-lug and part of catch to the reverse. -
Anglo-Saxon Gilt Bronze Great Square-Headed Brooch
Sold for (Inc. bp): £3,900
Displaying chased panels populated with Style I zoomorphs and geometric forms, borders of annulets, raised masks to the upper corners of the headplate; applied discoid boss to bow decorated with a rosette, addorsed beast heads below; extensive remains of gilding; pin lug and catchplate to reverse and remains of ancient repair, lower part absent. -
'The Tenby' Hiberno-Norse Viking Penannular Brooch
Sold for (Inc. bp): £3,640
Comprising a round-section crescent with flared ends terminating in two curved spatulate flat panels, each with a ropework border surrounding a two-band knotwork motif; cleaned and conserved. -
Medieval Oil Painting of Sorrowful Virgin
Sold for (Inc. bp): £9,100
The weeping Virgin with her head bowed to the left and hands raised to her chest on a dotted gilt background, an expression of pain on her delicately formed face; wearing a white veil and a black long-sleeved robe, the veil arranged as a headdress and covering her hair; on wood and mounted in a later carved wooden architectural frame. -
Medieval Stained Glass Panel With Saint Martin on Horseback
Sold for (Inc. bp): £2,080
Shown beneath an arcade, offering his cloak on the end of his sword to the beggar at his feet; polychrome detailing; repaired with lead cames and held in a wooden frame. -
Medieval Stained Glass Panel with The Virgin and Child
Sold for (Inc. bp): £2,860
Composed from irregular painted panels bearing mainly foliage designs and figural elements; Mary crowned and enthroned with infant Jesus on her knee, in a lobed vesica-shaped panel held with lead cames; mounted in a wooden frame with modern replacements. -
Medieval Stone Column Capital with Lion and Human Face
Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,950
Carved in the half-round with a frieze composed of interlaced foliage with two rows of acanthus leaves and foliage scrolls, framing a lion's head on one side and a human head on the other, remains of lion's mane to the third; drilled holes to the raised surfaces and sockets for the insertion of decorative stones. -
'The Kirkleavington' Medieval Bronze Inscribed Purse Frame
Sold for (Inc. bp): £3,640
The bar with central D-shaped block pierced vertically by a stud surmounted by the suspension loop, with four pierced flanges to the underside; the frame in two sections, the larger a U-shaped rod with pivot for the bar, the smaller pivoting within the inner face, both pierced on the inner face; the block inscribed to one face with capital S and to the other with intersecting Vs; the bar inscribed to one face in capitals 'A DOMINI TECVM' and to the other in coarsely incised capitals 'AVEMARIA G[R]ACIAPLE[NA]'; the smaller rod inscribed in capitals 'CREATOREN CELI ET TERRE ET IN [IES]VN'; the larger inscribed with a band of scrolled decoration and the text in Lombardic capitals 'SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA'; the accompanying letter discusses the texts (1) Ave Maria G[r]acia ple[n]a Dominus Tecum 'Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord [is] with thee'; (2) Soli Deo Honor et Gloria 'Honour and glory to God alone'; (3) Creatorem celi et terrae et inferum 'creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus'. The intersecting Vs may form a monogram for A[ve] M[aria]; the 1847 letter describes the findspot as 'found at Kirkleavington near Yarm in the sill of a brook' in the North Riding of Yorkshire. -
'The Roxwell' Medieval Gold Signet Ring of 'King's Serjeant William Skrene'
Sold for (Inc. bp): £23,400
Gold hoop and discoid bezel with incuse ropework border; incuse image of a bird of prey perching with wings spread and head turned; blackletter incuse and reversed inscription in an arc above the bird's head and pinions '·al : for : ye : best ·' (all for the best); repair to hoop. -
Medieval Silver 'Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Rutland' Royal Hawking Vervel
Sold for (Inc. bp): £9,750
Or a leg ring inscribed '+Earle of Rutland' in derivative black letter script, for a female merlin or sparrow hawk (due to the youth of Edmund Plantagenet who died aged 17); the ring with a convex interior face. -
Post Medieval Gold Memento Mori Ring with Inscribed Posy 'In God Alone Wee Two Are One'
Sold for (Inc. bp): £4,680
Displaying large flower heads, foliage and a skull to the outer face, enhanced with black enamelling; interior inscribed in a cursive script 'In god alone wee two are one', together with possible maker's stamps 'D' and 'F' in two rectangular cartouches. -
Heavy Post Medieval Gold 'Love Is The Bond Of Pease' Posy Ring
Sold for (Inc. bp): £2,860
Composed of a gently carinated hoop, the interior inscribed in cursive script 'Love is the bond of pease'. -
Post Medieval Gold 'Live Life to the Full' Decorated Posy Ring
Sold for (Inc. bp): £3,380
Composed of a decoratively notched hoop divided into chased rhomboidal panels displaying foliate tendrils and horizontal hatching alternately; the interior inscribed in Roman capitals with the Latin phrase: 'x x x x VIVE x VT x VIVAS'. -
English Milled Coins - George VI - 1937 - Cased RM Proof Coronation Gold Set [4]
Sold for (Inc. bp): £11,700
Set comprising gold five pounds, two pounds, sovereign and half sovereign. Obvs: profile bust with GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX F D IND IMP legends. Revs: St George and dragon; date in exergue; with original Royal Mint hinged red leatherette case of issue.
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Bedouin Silver-Coloured Metal Ring Group
20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £59
Comprising a mixed group of silver-coloured metal finger rings of various types with engraved and raised motifs to the hoops and shoulders, with blue, red and green stone inserts bearing stylised animal, human or insect figures. 93 grams total, 26-32 mm
Property of a North London gentleman. -
Pre-Columbian Late Inca Polychrome Wooden Kero
15th-16th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £572
Decorated using pigmented resin inlay to depict a frieze of figures and birds within panels created by ribbons radiating from masks, medial band of geometric forms, floral motifs below; cleaned and conserved. 998 grams, 19 cm high
Fine condition, cleaned and conserved.
Acquired 1960s-1970s. Jan Pelles / Lyngbye collection. Senatus Consulto, Denmark, 2010. Ex private collection of Mr N.J., Leicester, UK.
These early colonial drinking cups display a combination of Spanish influence in the depiction of figures and flowers while retaining the indigenous preference for geometric design. -
Prehispanic Grooved Polished Diorite Axehead
16th century A.D. or earlierSold for (Inc. bp): £143
With rounded butt, waisted neck for tie attachment and lentoid-section cheeks, tapering on both sides towards the cutting edge; old inked collection inventory number to one face: 'R.0500.15.00'. 344 grams, 11.5 cm
Ex private U.K. family collection formed in the early 1970s. The property of Mr and Mrs P. R. of East Sussex. Thence by descent to family members.
The butt end is rounded making this axe also an effective hammer. Axes like these would have made very effective fighting weapons, able to inflict devastating damage to the body with a single blow. -
Large Prehispanic Grooved Polished Stone Axehead
Neolithic, 6th-3rd millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £208
Lentoid in section with tongue-shaped cheeks, shallow groove to neck and broadly trapezoidal head with rounded butt; numbered collector's id labels applied to one face. 1.1 kg, 18.5 cm
Ex private collection, Mézières-lez-Cléry, France, 1970. Acquired by inheritance in 2022. -
Prehispanic Jamacoque Terracotta Mask
500 B.C.-500 A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £143
Fragment, featuring stylised facial detailing in relief; attachment piercings to the forehead. 159 grams, 12.5 cm
Ex private collection since the 1980s. With Acreman St antiques auction, Sherborne, UK. -
Pre-Columbian Chavin Polished Stone Macehead
2nd century B.C.-1st century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £364
With central circular socket for hafting, four raised lobes to the shoulder with rounded conical knops between; old inked collection inventory number to the lower edge: 'R.0280.15.00'. 403 grams, 87 mm
Fine condition.
Private U.K. family collection formed in the early 1970s. The property of Mr and Mrs P. R. of East Sussex. Thence by descent to family members. -
Pre-Columbian Mayan Polychrome Pottery Dish
Circa 7th-8th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £338
Composed of a shallow body and a small loop handle to the rim, the upper face with geometric decoration in red and black. 2.7 kg, 39 cm wide
From an old Hampshire, UK, family collection. -
Prehispanic Stone Arrowhead and Implement Collection
16th century A.D. or earlierSold for (Inc. bp): £39
Comprising knapped agate and jasper arrowheads and other implements; most with an old inked collection inventory number. 293 grams total, 20-63 mm
Fine condition.
Private U.K. family collection formed in the early 1970s. The property of Mr and Mrs P. R. of East Sussex. Thence by descent to family members. -
Pre-Columbian Nazca Painted Ceramic Bowl with Anthropomorphic Feline
Circa 400-1000 A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £247
The polychrome bowl with tapering sidewall, everted rim and rounded base, decorated with an anthropomorphic animal, likely a feline with large whiskers, its tail and head emerging at opposite sides of the bowl, and a 'mythical' face to either side. 21 grams, 11 cm diameter
Ex private U.K. family collection formed in the early 1970s. The property of Mr and Mrs P.R. of East Sussex. Thence by descent to family members. -
Pre-Columbian Anthropomorphic Terracotta Pipe
20th century A.D. or earlierSold for (Inc. bp): £72
Green-glazed ceramic barrel-shaped pot with applied human figure and extending serpent's head stem; sgraffito detailing. 120 grams, 14 cm
From the collection of H.N., Milton Keynes, 1980s-1990s. -
Pre-Columbian Casas Grandes Redware Jar
Circa mid 13th-mid 15th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £124
Of bulbous form with rounded base, incised decoration to the body. 2.5 kg, 23 cm high
Ex private Sussex, UK, collection; collected in the 1970s. -
Archaeological Books - Munich - Rom und Byzan Exhibition Catalogue
Published 1999 A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £7
Wamser, Herausgegeben von Ludwig and Zahlhaus, Gisela, Rom und Byzanz - Archäologische Kostbarkeiten aus Bayern, Munich, 1998; pictorial paperback; fully illustrated. 1.2 kg, 28 x 22 cm
Near new condition.
Ex libris a Suffolk gentleman.