Post Medieval Nest of Bronze Cup Weights

Composed of a gold centre with expanding bezel, central oval turquoise cabochon flanked by heart-shaped stones, all with gold settings against a horn or lignum vitae field. 3.40 grams, 20.99 mm overall, 14.89 mm internal diameter (approximate size British G 1/2, USA 3 1/2, Europe 5.55, Japan 5)



Swiss art market, 1996.

Depicted crowned and nimbate in a central panel, the bust of the Virgin encased in a medallion with a cross pendant, with inside the Holy Spirit under shape of dove and with nimbus, four nimbate figures of Saint Anna, Saint Basil the Great, Saint Simeon and another Saint below; text in the fields. 796 grams, 28 cm

The timber shows some old insect flight holes and we are advised that this piece has been recently treated with Permthrin, as a precaution.

Ex French gallery, Paris.

The rare Marian iconographic typology is called ''Mother of God who softens sick hearts', where she carries the Holy Spirit on her breast, represented by a dove emitting rays of light. In particular, it is a variant of the Madonna Odighitria. Both the mother and the child are depicted as the queen and king of the universe: the Virgin wears a crown on her head and holds the Child, who is also blessing with the right hand.

Signed in the bottom right corner of the watercolour; framed and glazed with loops for suspension to the reverse. 1.65 kgs, 40.4 cm



Ex Albert Ward collection, Essex, UK.

J.W.S. Cox (1911-1982) was an American watercolourist renowned for developing the wet-on-wet painting technique. He grew up in New York, where he avidly sketched landscapes from an early age. The artist graduated from Pratt Institute NYC in 1933 and worked various jobs through the Great Depression. In 1936, he studied at the Acadamie Colarossie in Paris, and with Fauvist Othon Friesz for a short time, although later dismissed the Fauvist style as 'sloppy'. He went on to teach watercolour painting to students at Boston University, founding a studio on Bearskin Neck, Rockport, where he developed his 'sponge painting' and palette-knife techniques. He painted with an individualistic style, becoming a member of the Boston Watercolour Society. Cox shunned publicity as he believed it robbed him of painting time and turned down membership to the National Academy because he 'wouldn't play the game'. A Renaissance man, Cox spoke 12 languages with a goal to present himself 'and the soul of nature as truthfully and with as much inspiration, vitality and freshness as is possible, through the medium of watercolour'. He died of a heart attack in Florida in 1982.