Post Medieval Bone China Portrait of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar

Each with bell-shaped socket and strap handle; one with white applied decoration including the sun with mask and two flowers with a date of 1605; the other a fragment with reconstituted elements, orange in colour with yellow slashes, star, rosette and partial date '[..]54' for 1654; one restored. 443 grams total, 15-17 cm

Fine condition, one restored.

Acquired in the 1990s. Ex property of a Suffolk collector.

1605 was the year of the 'Gunpowder Plot', a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament which was foiled when, following an anonymous tip-off, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Catholic plotter Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the Parliament building and ordered a search of the area, finding thirty six barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes was arrested for trying to kill King James I and the members who were scheduled to sit together in Parliament the next day. Fawkes spoke the legendary words: 'Remember, remember, the Fifth of November'. In 1654 Oliver Cromwell created a union between England and Scotland, with Scottish representation in the Parliament of England.

Comprising the upper body of a young female figure, likely the goddess Venus, shrouded in a palla mantle worn over the robe and draped over the head as a hood; the left arm bent to form folds and gatherings in the cloth, the right arm shown beneath the cloth held bent to the right breast. 133 kg, 84 cm high



French collection, 1960s-early 2000s. From an important Paris gallery, France. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11687-199355.

In Roman mythology, Venus was the goddess of love, sex, beauty and fertility. Married to the god Vulcan, Venus's principal divine lover was Mars, with whom she was famously trapped in bed with a net by Vulcan. The goddess also had numerous mortal lovers - Adonis for example. The earliest known instance of a temple dedicated to Venus was founded on the Aventine Hill in 295 B.C. She is most closely associated with the month of April, the beginning of the season of spring.

Produced using parchment; rectangular with inked geometric borders; leading edge with panel of nimbate winged cherubim; two panels of Coptic text divided by a series of saltire motifs, facing masks and quatrefoils, traces of red and green pigment; old seam repair; linen binding tape. 114 grams, 2.20 m long



Ex Adalberto Frezza, 2004. Ex central London gallery.