Sardonyx Cameo of the Greek Goddess Athena in Gold Mount

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: a pastel of a young girl dressed in a green dress, playing with sand, her bare feet sinking in the sand, and shallow waves lapping in the background; the other pastel showing a young boy dressed in blue and holding a ball in his hands, gazing into the distance where a group of people are playing in the water; both set in glazed frames and signed to the bottom right-hand corner. 4.65 kg total, 46 x 54 - 47 x 54.5 cm



Property of an Essex, UK, lady. Accompanied by two original receipts from Frinton Gallery.

Rectangular openwork plaque showing the Archangel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary within an architectural arch. 44.2 grams, 11.7 cm



Acquired on the European art market.