Post Medieval Leather Hebrew Scroll

Two halves of a flat lead-alloy seal, one with advancing cockerel and legend to the rim 'WALTER NICKOLES MAKING', the other with sun-in-splendour motif and legend 'COXALL 100 BAYES 1633'. 13.9 grams total, 62-71 mm



Found on the Thames foreshore, London, UK, circa mid 1980s. Property of an Essex collector.

Cast and chased badge of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, by Thomas Simon (or Thomas Rawlins?), bifacial with obverse portrait bust of the Earl of Essex turned slightly to left, and to the reverse an oval garnished shield of Essex, surmounted by coronet; Platt II, type G. 5.39 grams, 30.20 mm



From a late 19th-early 20th century collection based on the old handwritten coin tickets. Acquired on the UK art market in the 1980s. From an East Anglian private collection. Accompanied by two old faded handwritten coin tickets.

Essex became Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentary forces in the Civil War before being displaced in 1645. Badges of several types and varieties bearing his image were presented to various ranks in the army. The grandson of Francis Walsingham, the Principal Secretary and 'spymaster' of Elizabeth I, as well as the son of Elizabeth's favourite, Robert Devereux figured prominently in the First English Civil War. At its outset, he became the first Captain-General or Chief Commander of the Parliamentarian army, known as the 'Roundheads.' However, unable and unwilling to defeat the Royalist forces during the Lostwithiel Campaign in 1644, Devereux became overshadowed by the ascending Oliver Cromwell and, less than six months after resigning from his commission, died without an heir in 1646.

Comprising three ancient Egyptian style artefacts after the antique: a copper-alloy sphinx statuette; a stone lion statuette; a cartonnage fragment with textile to the outer face and printed friezes applied to the interior. 970 grams total, 11-14.5 cm



Acquired from a private UK collection in the late 1990s. Private collection of Mr T.H., Norfolk, UK.