Medieval and Later Bronze and Other Artefact Collection

With a wide flat-section hoop and square bezel, chevron motifs to the shoulders, bezel with a stylised hourglass or X-motif flanked by two pairs of hatched triangles. 8.47 grams, 20.83 mm overall, 19.14 mm internal diameter (approximate size British S, USA 9, Europe 20, Japan 19)



UK private collection before 2000. On the UK art market. Property of a London gentleman.

Of various types including rectangular holes, ellipsoid holes with countersinking, one with lobed outer edge. 1.2 kg total, 10.2-12.4 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.

Carved naturalistically in the round as a mature male figure with short wavy hair, full beard and moustache, his brow furrowed and mouth held slightly ajar; repaired. 3.8 kg, 18 cm



Acquired in Europe before 1996. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11809-206816.

The head was carved as an image of a saint, Apostle or a prophet. The accomplished and sophisticated style of carving on this head can be compared to some of the most celebrated Romanesque buildings of Southern France. The carving of the head resembles the representations of heads and faces of 12th century French Romanesque art, for example those of Saint Trophime in Arles. This imposing head once served as an important architectural part of a lavishly decorated church, possibly in western France. Its form and the size suggest that the head was not only decorative but that it would have been structurally important – perhaps part of a row of statues of apostles and prophets like those depicted on the Saint Trophime façade.