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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Natural History - Argentinian Campo del Cielo Meteorite
Fell 6000-5000 years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £78
With irregular surfaces, classified as a nickel iron (IAB) meteorite, composition 92.9% iron, 6.7% nickel. 94 grams, 42 mm
Discovered 1576 A.D., Chaco Province, Argentina. From a Lincolnshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Fossil Basilosaurus Jaw Fragment
Eocene Period, 41-34 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £260
Comprising three teeth on a jaw fragment. 205 grams, 18.5 cm
From a Cambridgeshire, UK, collection.
Basilosaurus was a large predatory whale that hunted for sharks, large fish and other marine mammals. -
Natural History - Deltadromeus Dinosaur Fossil Bone Section
Cretaceous Period, 90 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
From the front leg of Deltadromeus agilis on a matrix; repaired. 1.1 kg, 22.5 cm long
From the Kem-Kem Basin, Morocco, North Africa. From an old German paleontological collection.
Deltadromeus had extraordinarily delicate and long limbs making it one of the fastest dinosaurs to have existed. This meat-eating dinosaur was an early off-shoot of the theropod line on northern continents that gave rise to Tyrannosaurus and the raptor Deinonychus. -
Natural History - Extinct Fossil Shark and Other Tooth Collection
Cretaceous-Eocene Period, 70-50 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £65
Comprising specimens of different sizes, including examples retaining some or most of the root, enamel and/or serration. 940 grams total, 5-29 mm
Acquired 1990s-early 2000s. East Anglian private collection. -
Natural History - Campo del Cielo Meteorite Group
Fell 6000-5000 years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £52
A trio of differently sized nickel iron (IAB) meteorites with a composition of 92.9% iron, 6.7% nickel. 5.95 grams total, 14-15 mm
Discovered 1576 A.D., Chaco Province, Argentina. Ex German dealer 2018. UK private collection.
A crater field of roughly 26 craters was found in the vicinity of this crater, which is estimated to date to 4-5 thousand years BP. The age of the meteorite itself is thought to be c.4.5 billion years, formed as part of the development of this solar system. The largest two fragments, the 30.8 ton Gancedo and 28.8 ton El Chaco, are among the heaviest meteorite masses ever recovered on Earth. In 1576, the governor of a province in Northern Argentina commissioned the military to search for a large mass of iron, which it was believed local people claimed had fallen from the sky and which they used for their weapon production. The expedition discovered a large mass of metal which was assumed to be an iron mine and brought back a few samples, which were described as being of unusual purity. Following the legends, in 1774 Don Bartolomé Francisco de Maguna rediscovered the iron mass. He himself did not believe that the stone had fallen from the sky and assumed that it had formed by a volcanic eruption. However, he sent the samples to the Royal Society of London. In 1990 it became protected by law. -
Natural History - Three-Dimensional Mosasaur Skull with Vertebrae
Cretaceous Period, 145-65 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £2,080
Displaying the skull with at least 33 teeth surviving in the upper and lower jaw, many with remains of enamel, alongside the remains of at least 15 of the animal's vertebrae; a juvenile on a sedimentary matrix wrapped in a plaster field jacket. 19.7 kg, 62 cm wide
From a Cambridgeshire, UK, collection. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11722-197505.
Mosasaurs (from the Greek for 'lizard') were aquatic dinosaurs which probably gave birth to live young. -
Natural History - Fossil Saltasaurus Egg Shell Group
Jurassic Period, 199-145 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £20
Comprising four fossilised fragments. 28.4 grams total, 30-34 mm
From Patagonia. From a Cambridgeshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Mastodon Fossil Tusk Carving
Pliocene Period, 5.2-2.5 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £130
Featuring a later carved stylised face in relief. 121 grams, 83 mm
Ex private collection of a Shropshire, UK, gentleman, 1990s. -
Natural History - Chinese Nantan Meteorite
Fell 1516 A.D., found 1958 A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £85
Nickel iron meteorite (1AB), cleaned. 3.5 grams, 31 mm
Found Nantan, Nandan County, Guangzi Region, China. Property of a Sussex, UK, teacher. Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Silver Moon Crystals, Southport, UK.
The Nantan meteorite fell in 1516, as recorded in ancient Chinese texts; the fall exploded during descent which resulted in a shower of many individual iron meteorites over an area some 28km x 8km in Nantan County, Guangxi, China. Classified as an iron meteorite; 111CD Course Octohedrite, the composition is approximately 92% iron, 6% nickel and contains more than ten other minerals including kamacite, taenite, dominate, plessite, schreibersite, triolite, graphite and others. In 2000, pieces of the Nantan meteorite were incorporated into an art installation for The Bull Ring Shopping Centre in Birmingham, England. Today, a plaque commemorates the occasion. -
Natural History - Insects in Copal
Oligocene Period, circa 45 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £46
Displaying several insects together with other inclusions. 19 grams, 15.5 cm
From a Lincolnshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Extinct Fossil Shark and Other Tooth Collection
Cretaceous-Eocene Period, 70-50 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £59
Comprising specimens of different sizes, including examples retaining some or most of the root, enamel and/or serration. 940 grams total, 7-27 mm
Acquired 1990s-early 2000s. East Anglian private collection. -
Natural History - Fossil Mosasaur Marine Dinosaur Tooth Collection
Cretaceous Period, 140-65 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £20
Comprising four Mosasaur sp. fossil teeth with remains of enamelling. 15.4 grams total, 17-30 mm
Private UK collection formed in the 1980s.