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LOT 1839
Celtic Style Bearded Stone Head
20TH CENTURY A.D. OR EARLIER
11 5/8 in. (6.95 kg total, 29.5 cm including stand).
Carved in the half-round with prominent brow, nose and beard, lips parted and tongue visible within the mouth; mounted on a custom-made display stand. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceFrom a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000.
From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.
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AUCTIONS:
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Bactrian Style Lapis Lazuli Bead Necklace
20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £52
Restrung with fish-shaped tabular beads and seed beads. 13.6 grams, 37.5 cm
Acquired on the London, UK, art market in the 1990s. Ex London, UK, gallery. -
Tibetan Style Giant Carnelian Necklace Bead Group
20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £20
Comprising three large barrel-shaped beads, asymmetrical and likely reworked. 87 grams total, 42-56 mm
UK gallery, early 2000s. -
William III Silver Love Token Group
1694-1702 A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Group of three love tokens, each a sixpence coin bent into a double-curved profile; one pierced and with initials to each face. 7.45 grams total, 20 mm each
Acquired on the UK art market. Property of an Essex, UK, gentleman.
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."