Egyptian Style Blue Glazed Hippopotamus

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.

With profile bust reserved in high-relief, set into the bezel of a silver finger ring. 11.22 grams, 32.35 mm overall, 20.09 mm internal diameter (approximate size British T 1/2, USA 9 3/4, Europe 21.89, Japan 21)



Acquired by the vendor's father on the UK art market, before 1990.

With painted rosette and floral detailing, filling chamber to the shoulder. 491 grams, 24 cm high



Ex Cotswold, UK, collection, 1970-1990.