Corbel with head of a cleric forming the crest of two angled lateral facets; wearing a chaperon with band of inset rectangles to the brow; mounted on a custom-made stand. 6.85 kg, 35 cm including stand

Acquired Trevanion & Dean, UK, 15 October 2016, lot 395.
Property of a Kent collector.

Cf. similar headgear on a slightly earlier stone bust in Musée National du Moyen Âge, Thermes et Hôtel de Cluny, Paris originally placed on Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, west façade.

Rectangular textile panel with six figural scenes within laid work borders; each figure a nimbate saint with couched robes, satin stitch facial features, threaded sequins and other detailing; modern fabric backing. 502 grams, 104 cm

with SVV Prunier, 20 May 2018, no.86.
Ex central London gallery.

Cf. for comparison an embroidered panel part of the dalmatic in MET, accession no.64.101.1381, in Hartt, F., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 4, The Renaissance in Italy and Spain, New York, 1988, pp.67-69.

This substantial embroidered panel comes from an ecclesiastic Dalmatic composed up of various sections, each section comprising an applied figure embroidered in yellow-brown colours with the addition of light blue in some figures. From top to bottom two female saints, probably the Virgin Mary and her Holy Mother Anna; in the second central panels are represented Saint Peter, keys in hand, and probably his brother Andrew. Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas are possibly the subjects of the last two vertical panels. The embroidery technique used is including fine worked nué, in which metallic threads are laid down and worked over in silk, with split stitch.

With painted clean-shaven head wearing a gold crown with stem and star above the brow, luxuriant hair, mail gorget or collar to the throat. 28 grams, 10.6 cm

Monastery Stain Glass, 1998.
Ex central London gallery.

Comprising an annular body decorated with four raised pyramidal knops each set with an amethyst cabochon, interstitial lobes with pounced surface; sword-shaped pin. 3.72 grams, 19 mm

Found near Brandon, Suffolk, UK.
From an East Anglian private collection.

Cf. Deevy, M.B., Medieval Ring Brooches in Ireland, Wicklow, 1998, item RB115, for type.

Wooden triptych with recessed panels to inner face, twine hinges; central image of Mary and infant Jesus flanked by nimbate angels; left panel with baptism scene and triumphant horseman; right panel with crucifixion and two nimbate saints; painted knotwork to obverse, 663 grams, 26.5 x 21 cm

Acquired from Owen Hargreaves, London, UK, March 2004.
Property of an important West London collector, inventory no.355.

Rectangular vellum leaf with hand-coloured composite scene: top left, Mary in blue mantle holding infant Jesus on her knee, addressing a standing robed figure, red Coptic text above 'How the man with a club foot prayed to Our Lady Mary that she might heal him when he saw the bishop's chastisement'; below left, six standing male figures in colourful robes looking left and a seventh turned to the right with an oversized shoe, red Coptic text above the group 'these are the congregation and this is how he hid his foot with his clothing' and the rightmost figure 'this also is the man with the club foot'; right, seated cleric wearing a mitre beneath a canopy, addressing a group of five followers and pointing to a standing man raising his robe to show his leg, red Coptic text in three panels 'Here is the bishop who asked the Frank that his foot might be healed', 'These are the congregation' and 'How he was healed and how the stone fell from his foot'; mounted in a glazed wooden frame with reveal. 1.88 kg total, 47.2 x 44 cm

Collection of David Buxton (1913-2003), author of 'Travels in Ethiopia', 1949.

Cf. similar manuscript of first Gonderine Period in the Art Institute of Chicago, Bound Manuscript: The Miracles of Mary (Te'amire Maryam), 1667-1706, reference no.2002.4, folio 110; Wallis, Budge, E.A.W., The miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and The life of Hannâ (Saint Anne), and The magical prayers of ʻAhĕta Mîkâêl, London, 1900, pls.LXVII-LXVIII; Berzock, K.B., The Miracles of Mary: A Seventeenth Century Manuscript, Chicago, 2000; Mercier et al., L'Arche éthiopienne: Art Chrétien d;Ethiopie, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2000, pp.129-130.

The image refers to the 'Miracle of the Lame Man' in which a man, who had been born lame, prayed before the shrine of the Virgin Mary and was healed. Here, the lame man shows the Archbishop his leg, and explains how he had been healed.

Carved portable icon with integral loop, frontal and rear recesses each with a door hinged with thread; painted scenes within of the Crucifixion and the meeting of Saint Abune Tekle Haimanot and Gabra Manfas Keddus (?), St. George attacking a dragon, Mary and Infant Jesus with angels Gabriel and Michael. 91 grams, 10 cm high

Reece Gallery, c. 2010.
Ex central London gallery.

See Chojnacki, S., 'Notes on Art in Ethiopia in the 16th Century: an Enquiry into the Unknown Author(s)' in Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. 9, July 1971, No. 2 pp. 21-97, figs.14,28, for similar scenes in similar style; cf. also Heldman, M., Munro-Hay Stuart, C., African Zion, The sacred art of Ethiopia, Yale University Press, 1993, cat.11, for an icon in similar style, and p.7.

A series of icons representing the Virgin of Santa Maria Maggiore were produced in Ethiopia in the 16th and 17th centuries; the icon offered here is one such example. Sitting on the left arm of his mother, Christ gives a blessing with his right hand and holds a book in his left hand, both details showing a close relationship with the Santa Maria Maggiore version.

Leaf from a vellum manuscript with hand-coloured image: Mary, right, nimbate in red floor-length robe and blue mantle holding aloft a soul in yellow kilt, its neck seized by two crouching winged dark-skinned demons; a third demon, left, with protruding tongue seizing the upper body of another soul; foreground: two male figures seated on low stools, each with vellum page in one hand and quill in the other; panels of red Coptic text above the scribes, beside their souls; the right edge damaged, left edge folded and pierced for binding. 40 grams, 29.5 x 26 cm

Collection of David Buxton (1913-2003), author of 'Travels in Ethiopia', 1949.

Cf. Wallis, Budge, E.A.W., The miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and The life of Hannâ (Saint Anne), and the magical prayers of ʻAhĕta Mîkâêl, London, 1900, pp.55ff., pls.LV-LVII.

The image is related to the tale of Virgin Mary and the two brothers who were scribes. In this tale, Mary rescues the souls of the scribes who had committed sins whilst they were engaged in writing a copy of the Book of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary.

Hollow-formed figure standing in contrapposto pose, wearing a chiton and draped himation with decorative borders; the hair bound with ribbons into a cone and the loose ends draped onto the shoulders; sockets for separately cast forearms (absent); rear of neck damaged. 2.3 kg, 28 cm

Discovered in a wall of a castle in Hagetaubin, France.
Property of a French collector.

Comprising a flat-section cross with tooling beside the outer edges on both faces, baroque lobed finials and foliage detailing; obverse with applied scroll bearing the 'INRI' legend, fluted starburst panel and Corpus Christi modelled in the round with rivets to the hands and crossed feet. 128 grams, 20.2 cm

Acquired on the UK art market in the 1980s.
From an East Anglian private collection.

Comprising two large mounted and framed assemblages displaying intertwined vines and bunches of grapes, both with a folded scroll to base inscribed with Gothic script, one reading 'Dominus Noster' (for Our Lord). 14 kg total, 79 x 56 - 79.5 x 57.5 cm

with Christie's, New York, 19 April 2018, no.169 (part).
Ex central London gallery.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12090-217450.

Irregular panel with lead frame, detailed portrait of a bearded male with short hair, wearing a shirt with folding collar and dentilled hem, repaired. 188 grams, 23 cm

De Baecque Vente, Paris, France, 5 March 2022, no.58.
Ex central London gallery.