Renaissance Gemstone with Mercury

Each differently sized and displaying a design in relief, including elaborate floral motifs, heraldic lion within lozenge and heraldic shields. 5.12 kg total, 13.5 - 14.5 cm



Acquired 1990s-early 2000s. East Anglian private collection.

These glazed stove or floor tiles are similar to the ones of the great hall and the Tudor kitchens at Hampton Court Palace, made of ceramic, with a glaze to make it hard-wearing and washable. Not just the furnishings, but the palaces themselves were multi-coloured, with brick walls painted red, and exposed timbers in yellow, red, green and white.

In a glazed wooden case with various artefacts including musket balls, ceramic fragments, and three complete clay pipes by Robert Younge of Soutwell, Nottingham; at the bottom a raised plaque inscribed: 'CIVIL WAR RELICS / from the siege of NEWARK / 1645 - 1646 / found at the site of the camp / of troops of the Earl of Lincoln / nr. Clay Lane Newark'. 5.7 kg, 60 cm



From a 19th century collection based on the inscribed plaque and frame. From an old collection of antiquities collected by the Gilstrap family, wine merchants in Newark, Nottinghamshire, UK.

The Third Siege of Newark was the longest and lasted 26th November 1645 - 8th May 1646. King Charles I's army had been destroyed at the Battle of Naseby and many of his important cities and fortresses had been lost. Newark was one of the last Royalist towns capable of resisting a Roundhead army. Newark was besieged by 17,000 soldiers made up of Roundheads from the surrounding East Midlands and London, plus the Scottish Presbyterians called Covenanters. The siege lasted six months and the people of Newark suffered hunger, an extremely cold winter and and outbreaks of disease. On the 6th May 1646, King Charles I surrendered to the Scots in the nearby town of Southwell. Two days later Newark surrendered.

Hinged suspension loop, two recessed halves hollow to the reverse, low-relief figure in orans pose to the obverse, geometric ornament to the reverse. 126 grams, 10.5 cm



Acquired 1980-1990s. From the private collection of H.N., Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire, UK.

Usually the reliquary crosses or enkolpia, were composed of two separate halves, inside of which a relic of a saint was contained; this could have been a piece of cloth or a bone. The practice, in the Orthodox Church, is still in place today, sometimes by using reproductions of ancient styles, like our specimen, probably realised at the beginning of the last century.