Celtic Style Bearded Stone Head

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.

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.

Including discoid type with flange rim, heart-shaped, teardrop and other types. 223 grams total, 13-38 mm



Ex Simmons gallery, 1990s. From a North London, UK, collection.

Substantial hoop with segmented profile, high-relief with clasped hands motif to the underside, ellipsoid bezel with facing skull motif in the half-round, 'cross and M' monogram to the back of the bezel. 12.14 grams, 26.33 mm overall, 17.88 mm internal diameter (approximate size British P, USA 7 1/2, Europe 16.23, Japan 15)



Private collection, Arundel, West Sussex, UK, 1975-late 1990s.