Bronze Statuette of Mercury

Mixed group comprising of mostly silver issue coins, each worn flat and coin bent into a double-curved 's' profile for use as a token of love. 27.65 grams total, 19-25mm.



Found on various UK sites since 1974. Property of an Essex collector.

The custom of giving a bent coin as a love-token is known from the 17th century in England. The coins were usually smoothed to obliterate the monarch’s head and then bent twice; sometimes they were engraved with initials or symbols such as hearts or knots. If the sweetheart accepted the youth's advances, she kept the token; if not, she disposed of the coin. The tradition is referred to in the children's rhyme 'There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile, he found a crooked sixpence on a crooked stile.'

Group of four green-glazed tiles, each square in plan with raised edges and zoomorphic motif in high relief. 548 grams total, 10.2 x 9.8 - 10.2 x 9.9 cm



Acquired 1990s-early 2000s. Ex East Anglian private collection.

Tile production increased in the second half of the 16th century and during the following centuries. The fragments discovered from various localities (pot-tiles, rectangular, triangular and trapezoidal panels, open-work crest tiles) were all produced in regional workshops, from the end of the 15th century or at the beginning of the 16th century. They all had diverse decorative motifs, mainly animals and geometrical or vegetal combinations, almost all of them singular finds for this study area.

Graduated group of beads, mainly tubular, fusiform and annular types with triangular 'elbow' bead centrepiece. 39 grams, 46 cm



London, UK, art market, 1980-2000s