Post Medieval Coral-Coloured Bead Group

Finely engraved intaglio portraying a left-facing bust of Henry IV (1553–1610), King of France, in armour, with a decorated gorget and distinctive curled beard, set in a high-carat gold bezel and later fitted with a modern plain shank; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 5.24 grams, 21.83 mm overall, 19.35 mm internal diameter (approximate size British P, USA 7 1/2, Europe 16.23, Japan 15)



Acquired on the European art market.

The engraving is directly after a medallic portrait by Guillaume Dupré, Henry IV’s official medallist, which was widely circulated during the king’s reign and thereafter. The king’s profile is clearly drawn from a familiar medallic type, often used in the 17th and 18th centuries as a symbol of royal authority and dynastic legitimacy.

The head, carved from pale green chalcedony, polished to a smooth lustre and with a drilled aperture at the crown, the hair in tight curls around the nape and crown; the silver-gilt torso dressed in a draped toga carefully chased with deep folds and traces of gilding across the high points; mounted on a later patinated bronze column stand in the neoclassical manner. 208 grams total, 10.9 cm high including stand



Acquired on the European art market.

This small-scale portrait evokes the Roman tradition of imperial portraiture and the early modern fascination with the ancient world. From the seventeenth century onwards, artists and collectors revived classical subjects through hardstone and gilt-metal compositions, often intended for display in Kunstkammer or Grand Tour contexts. The combination of a reused ancient or earlier element with a later mount was a practice typical of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, reflecting the period’s reverence for antiquity and its imaginative recontextualisation of ancient forms.

Oval cameo with a profile bust of a mature warrior with a long beard, wearing a draped tunic and a helmet with a face mask. 2.4 grams, 24 mm



Acquired on the European art market.