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LOT 1864
Medieval Bronze Chess Piece Personal Seal Matrix with Fox-Bishop
14TH CENTURY A.D.
3/4 in. (7.09 grams, 18.65 mm high).
With a beaded border, a long-eared fox with a bishop’s crozier preaches to a congregation of birds; this hugely popular satirical motif in which the pastor becomes the predator, preying on his flock, was originally directed against the mendicant friars but soon came to criticise the regular
clergy too; the two pairs of letters, either side of the ‘preacher’, appear to read 'IE ME', perhaps Anglo-Norman for ‘I love’. [No Reserve]
Found Gloucestershire, UK.
Acquired from the early 1980s.
From the private collection of a late Gloucestershire, UK, gentleman; thence by descent.
See Jones, M., The Secret Middle Ages, Cheltenham, 2025, pp.276-7, 282-3.
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LOT 1864
Medieval Bronze Chess Piece Personal Seal Matrix with Fox-Bishop
Sold for (Inc. bp): £143
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Medieval Bronze Ring with Dove of Peace
Circa 12th-15th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £65
D-section hoop with fluted shoulders, bezel with a standing dove with wings spread, holding an olive sprig in its beak. 4.61 grams, 23.11 mm overall, 18.58 x 20.13 mm internal diameter (approximate size British R, USA 8 1/2, Europe 18 3/4, Japan 18)
Ex German art market, 2000s. Acquired from an EU collector living in London. From the collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman. -
Medieval Stained Glass Panel of the Annunciate Virgin
Western France, 1250-1275 A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £5,460
Depicting Mary clad in red and green, with a green halo outlining her head, raising her hands in exclamation. 1.92 kg, 53 x 23.5 cm
Eglise Saint-Malo, Dinan, France, by repute. Acquired from the above by Mr and Mrs Junius P. Morgan, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. The Dalva Brothers collection. Accompanied by a previous cataloguing document. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12994-246433.
Although her garments are uncharacteristic of figures of the Virgin, she nevertheless almost certainly represents Mary as she appeared in a scene of the Annunciation. Both in terms of the choice of colours, and in the style and treatment of her features and drapery folds, she can be compared very closely with window panels from the third quarter of the thirteenth century removed from the Church of Saint Radegonde in Poitiers, including a window now in the Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn which shows in its lowermost vignette an identically dressed Virgin riding side saddle on a donkey during her flight into Egypt (fig. 1a-b). -
Medieval Bronze Buckle
European, 17th century A.D.Estimate: £100 - 140 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £50
Pointed outer edge on rounded loop, bifid knop on either end of the strap bar, surface decorated with stylised vegetal ornaments. 253 grams, 95 mm
Private collection, UK.
These buckles usually have one rectangular and one rounded D-shaped loop on either side of the central bar. During the late 16th and 17th centuries the range of asymmetrical buckles becomes very wide.
