Auction Highlights
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Egyptian Granite Head of a Dignitary
Sold for (Inc. bp): £28,600
Carved with soft facial features and carefully executed cosmetic lines around the eye, earring, and carefully detailed duplex wig with gently wavy curls; likely from the Ramesside Period; mounted on a custom-made stand. -
Etruscan Bronze Statuette of Herakles
Sold for (Inc. bp): £18,200
Modelled in the round with a muscular nude body, his club resting on his shoulder and the hair dressed in rows of tight, close-set curls underneath the Nemean lionskin hood with cloak billowing over his left arm, the paws tied across his chest; mounted on a custom-made display stand. -
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Roman Marble Portrait of a Boy as Worshipper of Isis
Sold for (Inc. bp): £17,550
Carved head of a prepubescent worshipper of Isis, with soft facial features, long nose, small downturned mouth, heavy-lidded eyes, the whole giving the face a sombre or mournful appearance; the hair textured to indicate a short cut and combed forward across the scalp, sidelock above the right ear; mounted on a 16th century carved breccia upper body with leather cuirass and pteruges to right shoulder, cloak draped across the shoulders and fastened at the clavicle on the right side with a disc-brooch; socle base; some restoration. -
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Larger Than Life-Size Roman Bronze Sandaled Foot
Sold for (Inc. bp): £39,000
Modelled in the round and originally part of a monumental statue, the naturalistic right foot encased in a trochades leather sandal with median reversed tongue secured with side straps and thick looped laces; the thick platform sole slightly curved, toes and nails well defined; mounted on a substantial custom-made display stand. -
Life-Size Roman Marble Sleeping Girl from a Sarcophagus Lid
Sold for (Inc. bp): £20,800
Modelled in the half-round, nude with eyelids half-closed in sleep; a drapery partly covering the head and wrapping around the lower body under the hips; the hairstyle similar to those of the Antonine Dynasty, the peaceful face supported by the hands and the ear pierced to accept an earring; iron reinforcing rod to the feet and the right arm's armilla a later replacement; upper head restored in Parian marble. -
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Byzantine Porphyry Relief with Cross Surrounded by Two Birds
Sold for (Inc. bp): £28,600
An imposing panel divided to four sections by a central cross on a stepped pedestal, the lower and upper arm with branch-like extensions; the upper quadrants with a circlet surrounding a palm tree-shaped motif; each lower quadrant with a bird in profile facing back; mounted on a custom-made display stand. -
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Carved Marble Memento Mori Skull
Sold for (Inc. bp): £16,900
Carved skull on a short neck with musculature and blood vessels; mandible in place with some teeth in sockets, wisps of hair adhering to the dome of the skull; one zygomatic bone partly absent; square-section socle base. -
'The Kelton' Gandharan Head of a Bodhisattva
Sold for (Inc. bp): £24,700
Carved in the half-round head of a Bodhisattva (probably Maitreya) with fine detailing to the arched brow, aquiline nose, neat moustache and full lips; the eyes heavily lidded, urna to the forehead, long open lobes to the ears; the hair in multi-stranded curling locks gathered into an ushnisha with brow-band below; heavily cleaned, conserved, and mounted on a custom-made stand; supplied with original old wooden base with collector's label: 'Head of Bodhisattva / Fine grain schist / Gandhara, Northwest Pakistan / 4th century'.
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Medieval and Later Bronze Buckle Collection
Circa 14th-19th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £46
Mixed group of buckles and buckle-plates including D-shaped, double-loop, trapezoidal and other types. 414 grams total, 12-57 mm
Found Hertfordshire, UK. -
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Medieval Period Bronze Equine Strap Slide and Mount Group
Circa 13th-15th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £65
Domed and rosette types with dentilled rim. 107 grams total, 22-44 mm
Property of the vendor's grandfather, thence by family descent, circa 1985. From the private collection of a New York, USA gentleman. -
Medieval and Later Bronze Artefact Group
Circa 13th-20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £65
Including buttons, casket key, dress pin, finger rings, buckle frames and other items. 363 grams total, 8-76 mm
Found on various UK sites since 1974. Property of an Essex collector. -
Late Medieval Stone Mould with Phallic Motif
14th-16th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £338
A soapstone mould carved on one side with a phallic motif of an elongated double groove with domed top and projecting terminal, possibly for casting scabbard fittings; on the verso four elongated strips, possibly strap ends or pendants, with decorative terminals; with lightly incised inscription to the obverse 'IN SUN[...]SUN'. 910 grams, 20.5 cm
Acquired in the 1980s. From an old German collection. Private collection, England. -
Medieval and Later Bronze Artefact Collection
Circa 14th-19th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Including a scabbard chape, curtain-pull, hooked fastener, belt and harness fittings and other items; many of these objects are published in the Detector Finds book series. 516 grams total, 22-78 mm
From the collection of the famous author, writer and speaker, Gordon Bailey, Essex, UK; formed since 1968. -
Medieval Bronze Ring with Niello
15th-16th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £351
With sloping shoulders decorated with a median scrolled band on a scrolled plaque, rectangular bezel with stud to each corner and niello-filled border. reserved scrolled tendrils. 10.14 grams, 23.70 mm overall, 17.09 mm internal diameter (approximate size British K, USA 5 1/4, Europe 9.95, Japan 9)
Ex German art market, 2000s. Acquired from an EU collector living in London. From the collection of Surrey, UK, gentleman. -
Medieval Lead Seal Matrix Collection
14th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
Each with a loop to the reverse, central rosette and surrounding legend to the rim. 36.93 grams total, 26-29 mm
From the collection of the famous author, writer and speaker, Gordon Bailey, Essex, UK; formed since 1968. -
Framed Medieval Lead Seal Matrix of Sare Daughter of Sare
13th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £59
Vesica-shaped and fitted with attachment loop, legend in Latin script around a stylised bird, reading 'S. SARE FIL.SARE' i.e. 'SEAL OF SARE DAUGHTER OF SARE', a stylised flower to the reverse. 136 grams, 17 x 13 cm
From the collection of the famous author, writer and speaker, Gordon Bailey, Essex, UK; formed since 1968.
The lady of a wealthy family of merchants would have had her own small seal used for sealing her private letters, and the design of the matrix would have reflected this. On the vesica seals the legend around the border usually started at 12 o'clock position with a cross or a star (like here) and the word sigillum (seal) often indicated only by the letter S. Then, normally, the name of the owner and the one of the parent, after the letter F. (FILIUS or FILIA = son or daughter). -
Medieval Iron Bell Collection
Circa 14th-16th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £26
Including conical and rectangular types, some with clapper in place. 264 grams total, 40-72 mm
From the collection of the famous author, writer and speaker, Gordon Bailey, Essex, UK; formed since 1968. -
Medieval Lead Papal Bulla Seal of Pope Alexander IV
1254-1261 A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £195
The obverse depicting the busts of St Peter and St Paul each within an inverted pear shaped compartment defined by pellets; cross pattee supported on a staff between the busts and at the top of the bulla in the centre the letters 'SPASPE', abbreviations for St Paul and St Peter; reverse inscribed over three lines 'ALE/XANDER/PP.IIII', with an omega above the letters 'PP'; both obverse and reverse faces with a pelleted perimeter. 31.1 grams, 30 mm
Private collection, UK.
The 'PP' abbreviation stands for 'pastor pastorum', translated as 'shepherd of the shepherds'. The bulla was so named because it was attached to Papal documents or 'Bullae'. They were sent from the offices of the Pope in Rome and the seal signified that the document was issued with the Pope's authority. Alexander's pontificate was signalled by efforts to reunite the Eastern Orthodox churches with the Catholic Church, by the establishment of the Inquisition in France, by favours shown to the mendicant orders, and by an attempt to organize a crusade against the Mongols after the second Mongol raid against Poland in 1259. -
Medieval and Later 'Published' Bronze Casket Key and Padlock Collection
15th-17th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £72
Including barrel-shank and other key types, tumbler and barrel locks. 57 grams total, 31-41 mm
From the collection of the famous author, writer and speaker, Gordon Bailey, Essex, UK; formed since 1968. -
Medieval Lead Pilgrim's Holy Water Ampulla Group
14th-15th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Each with lateral loops and low-profile rosette detailing to the bulb. 83 grams total, 51-52 mm
From the collection of the famous author, writer and speaker, Gordon Bailey, Essex, UK; formed since 1968.
