Post Medieval 'I LIVE IN LOVE' Bronze Posy Ring

Tiered hoop and shoulders supporting a cup bezel with scallop detailing, inset with an octagonal cloison. 7.07 grams, 27.56 mm overall, 19.87 x 19.76 mm internal diameter (approximate size British U, USA 10, Europe 22.52, Japan 21)



Private collection, Europe. Acquired on the English art market. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.13048-248385.

Parallels for the ring type are dated 16th century. A related finger ring is also available in the British Museum collection. The chalice-shaped workmanship of the bezel betrays a strong Italian influence in the workmanship of the ring section.

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.

Comprising monochrome gloss prints of NASA launches: an astronaut walking through a crowd of air force and navy personnel, endorsed 'NASA For Release February 22, 1962. NASA Photo no. 62-MA6-121. Cape Canaveral, FLA Aboard USS Randolph Astronaut John H. Glenn walks down the aircraft carrier's hangar deck following world orbital flight.'; rocket on launchpad in flames, endorsed 'Nasa Photo Unclassified 3-2-65 Nasa/Centaur. Cape Kennedy, FLA : 8:25 A.M. EST. March 2. 1966. The fifth experimental Atlas Centaur launch vehicle lifted off the pad, and the main stage prematurely cut off, causing the vehicle to fall back on the pad and explode.'; rocket leaving launchpad, endorsed 'U.S.Air Force Photo / Air Force Eastern T[est] Range / Photographic lLboratory Operated by [Y}CA. / P-66-75271 8/25/66 C[.]YA, Titan... Lift off of Titan ...Unclassified'; rocket on launchpad, endorsed 'NASA For Release: December 12, 1970 / Photo No. 70-H-1641 70-HC-1160 ... Kenya, Africa -- Italy to launch U.S. satellite - The first American satellite to be launched by another country will be placed in Earth orbit by a team of Italian space engineers operating from a mobile launch platform located in the Indian Ocean. The launch will take place off the coast of Kenya in East Africa, no earlier than December 12. The spacecraft is the Small Astronomy Satellite-A (SAS-A) 42 in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Explorer series. It is the first satellite equipped with sensitive experiments to detect high-energy X-ray sources in space, and is also known as the X-ray Explorer. Successful operation of the astronomy satellite will allow scientists to take the next giant step in astronomy -- the cataloguing of powerful X-ray sources both within and outside our galaxy, the Milky Way. During the first day of operation of its scientific instruments, the satellite is expected to collect more data than has been obtained with sounding rockets in the eight years since the science of X-ray astronomy was born.' 71 grams total, 25.3 x 20.4 - 25.3 x 20.3 cm



Acquired on the UK art market. Property of a Harwich, UK, collector.