Victorian Lava Cameo with Hermes

Lucian Aigner silver gelatin print, 1935, photographer stamp verso, Anthony Eden, Pierre Laval, Francois Piétri, and Henri Berenger meeting; Cecil Stoughton, Lyndon B Johnson being sworn in as president after the assassination of J.F.K. in 1963, printed 2008, signed recto. 64 grams total, 25.5 x 20.2 - 35.3 x 28 cm



Acquired on the UK art market. Property of a Harwich, UK, collector.

Large-format engraved plate illustrating amulets of various types (figures of Bes and Pataikos, multiple wedjat, Taweret with dorsal pillar, etc.), from the book series La Description de l'Egypte published after the French army's Egyptian campaign (1798-1801), Book A, Volume V, plate 88; mounted in a modern glazed frame. 3 kg total, 70.6 x 53 cm including frame



Ex private collection, London, UK.

Produced between February 1802 and 1830 on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte; published between 1809 and 1828. Just 1,000 copies were distributed to various institutions, printed on laid paper with an 'Égypte ancienne et moderne' watermark. The book is subtitled Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l’expédition de l’Armée française, publié par les ordres de Sa Majesté l’Empereur Napoléon le Grand (Gathering of observations and discoveries which were made in Egypt during the expedition of the French army, published on the orders of His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon the Great). It was the world's first encyclopedia devoted exclusively to the remains of ancient Egypt.

Finely engraved intaglio portraying a left-facing bust of Henry IV (1553–1610), King of France, in armour, with a decorated gorget and distinctive curled beard, set in a high-carat gold bezel and later fitted with a modern plain shank; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 5.24 grams, 21.83 mm overall, 19.35 mm internal diameter (approximate size British P, USA 7 1/2, Europe 16.23, Japan 15)



Acquired on the European art market.

The engraving is directly after a medallic portrait by Guillaume Dupré, Henry IV’s official medallist, which was widely circulated during the king’s reign and thereafter. The king’s profile is clearly drawn from a familiar medallic type, often used in the 17th and 18th centuries as a symbol of royal authority and dynastic legitimacy.