Medieval and Later Dutch Pottery Pit Dug Fragment Group

From an architectural column with a square upper face developing to a rounded base; a decorative frieze carved in the half-round depicting two seated lions, each with its tail looped around its lower body, supporting a pedestal on which a facing bust of a young boy is resting. 25.7 kg, 36 cm

Good condition

with Piasa, 7 June 2013, lot 17. Ex central London gallery. 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.11738-202062.

The form of the capital and the shape of the beasts are similar to those sculptures that survive in churches on the pilgrimage route to Santiago da Compostela – namely in Southern France and Northern Spain, but the bodies of the lions have many correspondences with the capital sculptures of Poitou. The lions were considered to be guardians against evil and the image of the young boy is probably a representation of the prophet Daniel. There is a similar capital in the Church of d'Airvault (Deux-Sèvres) also ornamented with lions and a human head.

Comprising a single cutting edge; scale tang with pommel formed as a bifacial crown with incised detailing; Netherlands. 31 grams, 18.3 cm



Acquired 1960s-1990s. Late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister.

Knife handles can be classified according to their method of attachment into whittle and scale-tang handles. Whittle-tang handles were the most common type used in the early medieval period. Whittle tang handles (like here) were more common later and fixed by pushing the pointed end of the knife tang into the handle.

Comprising a gilt heater shield with enamelled arms 'a bend coticed between six lions rampant' (de Bohun family). 8 grams, 39 mm



Found UK. Acquired on the UK art market after 2000. Ex Stratford collection, Suffolk, UK.