Large Ship's Gilt Wood Dolphin Mount

Comprising a hefty hoop with scooped upper face, alternating applied skulls and crossed bones on the upper face decorated with white enamel, the eyes, noses and mouths of the skulls set with diamonds(?). 10.99 grams, 27.06 mm overall, 15.95 mm internal diameter (approximate size British K 1/2, USA 5 1/2, Europe 10.58, Japan 10)



Private collection of a North London lady before 2000. Property of a London, UK, gentleman. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12771-237884. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

The memento mori jewellery of the 16th and 17th centuries served as wearable ‘reminders of mortality’. Typical motifs within this genre included skulls, skeletons, crossbones, hourglasses, coffins, the gravedigger’s pick and shovel, and various other emblems of death and decay.

With narrow tongue-shaped iron blade and copper-alloy hilt formed as a hippocamp. 10.7 grams, 87 mm



From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Hollow-formed miniature of a sphinx couchant with forelegs extended, wearing the nemes crown and with tasseled braid placed along the spine; mounted on a wooden display stand. 1.44 kg total, 25 wide including stand



From the private collection of a S.W. London gentleman, acquired in the 1970s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

The most celebrated Sphinx in Egyptian mythology is the monument built near the pyramids as a protective symbol, to wish the pharaoh a peaceful afterlife. It has a leonine body and a human head. The Sphinx could be shown as male or female, depending on the pharaoh or queen it had to protect. The inclusion of sphinxes in temple complexes became a tradition lasting into the Roman period and Late Antiquity. Many pharaohs had their heads carved atop the guardian statues of their tombs, in part to show their close relationship with the powerful solar deity Sekhmet, a lioness. This cast bronze sphinx is a fine example of neoclassical sculptural art under the influence of Egyptomania and the renewed interest in the culture of ancient Egypt sparked by Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign from 1798. At a time when only few could afford a trip to Egypt during the peak of Egyptomania contact could be made with Egyptian culture through literature, architecture and art. Particularly influential were Vivant Denon’s Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte, the Institute of Egypt's Description de l'Égypte, Robert Adams's interior decoration, Verdi’s Aida and the pedestal sphinxes protecting the obelisk of Tuthmosis III (Cleopatra's Needle).