Inscribed Gemstone

Carved in the round, loop of hair in a gusseted retaining band. 1.41 kg, 11.5 cm



From 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.

With stepped lozengiform bezel, central gilt plaque with skeleton and star, guilloche to the shoulder; inscribed in florid italic hand to the inner face of the hoop 'Vive Memor Leti' (be mindful of death in life). 4.14 grams, 22.92 mm overall, 18.42 mm internal diameter (approximate size British Q, USA 8, Europe 17.49, Japan 16)



Private collection, Arundel, West Sussex, UK, 1980s.

The Latin phrase is taken from the work of the 1st century AD poet Aulus Persius Flaccus, Satires V 151-3: vive memor leti ! fugit hora; hoc quod loquor inde est (Live mindful of death. Time is fleeting [and] every word I speak is [borrowed] from it.).

Comprising four bricks with raised designs: scrolling vegetation; two monograms, one a merchant's mark, in roundels divided by an object with tiered base and billeted border; male and female facing busts within dot-dash border; worn crowned shield issuing flowering vegetation. 6.4 kg total, 13-14 cm



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

These glazed stove or floor tiles are similar to the ones of the great hall and the Tudor kitchens at Hampton Court Palace, made of ceramic, with a glaze to make it hard-wearing and washable. Not just the furnishings, but the palaces themselves were multi-coloured, with brick walls painted red, and exposed timbers in yellow, red, green and white