Stained Glass Menorah Panel

A shallow translucent glass dish displaying a polychrome cross with chevrons to each quarter. 104 grams, 12 cm wide



From a UK private collection.

A painting on wood of the Virgin of Tenderness, copying an earlier work, depicting Mary dressed in blue robe ornamented with gold stars with an off-white veil delicately framing her face; gently supporting the Child dressed in red tunic; both figures nimbate and affectionately leaning towards each other with their cheeks touching; the scene enclosed in a gilt pseudo-Gothic crenelated frame, an inscription in new Gothic uncial style to the bottom reading 'AVE GRATIA PLENA' for 'hail full of grace'; mounted on a 19th century crenelated wooden pedestal fitted with candle holder to each side in the shape of a flower. 279 grams, 29.5 cm high



Property of a London lady, part of her family's collection.

The panel has many stylistic similarities with that of Icilio Federico Joni (1866-1946) assigned to the style of Sano di Pietro. Compared to that, the head of the Virgin has been realised in a more archaic Gothic style. With their faces gently pressed together, the interaction between the Virgin and the Child evokes a tender intimacy. This motif appears in numerous works by Sano di Pietro and his workshop (for example, in another painting in the Lehman Collection in MET, 975.1.39). The particular manner of concealing the Child’s right cheek behind the Virgin’s face was probably inspired by Madonna painted by the Sienese master Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena).

A gilt-silver dress pin composed of a round-section body and roughly spherical head, decorated with granules and filigree trefoils and roundels above and below a medial band. 2.8 grams, 62 mm



Acquired on the UK antiques market between 1974-1985. Albert Ward collection, Essex, UK.