Bactrian Style Alabaster Bowls

Comprising a slender hoop with shell-shaped shoulders, hinged oval bezel with secret compartment revealing a silvered skull framed by turquoise cabochons, the eyes set with diamonds or other stones; accompanied by a ring box. 3.95 grams, 20.00 mm overall, 16.20 mm internal diameter (approximate size British J, USA 4 3/4, Europe 8.69, Japan 8)



Acquired from Berganza, Hatton Garden, London, 2016. Property of an East Sussex collector. Accompanied by a copy of the Berganza invoice. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11666-197585.

Likely a ring of the memento mori genre.

Each with bell-shaped socket and strap handle; one with white applied decoration including the sun with mask and two flowers with a date of 1605; the other a fragment with reconstituted elements, orange in colour with yellow slashes, star, rosette and partial date '[..]54' for 1654; one restored. 443 grams total, 15-17 cm

Fine condition, one restored.

Acquired in the 1990s. Ex property of a Suffolk collector.

1605 was the year of the 'Gunpowder Plot', a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament which was foiled when, following an anonymous tip-off, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Catholic plotter Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the Parliament building and ordered a search of the area, finding thirty six barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes was arrested for trying to kill King James I and the members who were scheduled to sit together in Parliament the next day. Fawkes spoke the legendary words: 'Remember, remember, the Fifth of November'. In 1654 Oliver Cromwell created a union between England and Scotland, with Scottish representation in the Parliament of England.

Retaining an articulate press, the interior of one plate with four stamp designs, two larger and two smaller, each depicting the Crucifixion. 4.15 kg, 69 cm



Acquired 1960s-1990s. Late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister.