Watercolour Painting Group

A Tudor or Stuart period lead-alloy 'hornbook': incomplete rectangular plaque with small rectangular handle; bearing raised, moulded text on the obverse with hatched forms between four registers, which frame the letters of the alphabet 'ABCDE/FG[reversed]HIKL/MNOPq/RST[VW]XYZ'; low-relief octofoil in centre to the reverse. 51 grams, 75 mm



Found Yorkshire, UK. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

The letter 'U' has been omitted from the alphabet as is common with such objects, as has the letter 'J', suggesting that the book was produced prior to the publication of Charles Butler's English Grammar (1633) which first distinguished between I and J. The letter Z is reversed. Hornbooks were employed as learning aids and commonly made from paper mounted onto wood together with a transparent sheet of horn. Smaller, more portable lead-alloy examples such as this one are generally believed to have been mass produced, whilst still falling within the genre of 'hornbooks'. Interestingly, some scholars have argued that the mistakes and inconsistencies found on lead examples rendered them less effective learning tools, used as children's toys in families with low levels of literacy, or possibly serving as dolls' accessories.

Cloison with impressed relief bust of a youthful male with laurel wreath to his brow; surface accretions. 1.26 grams, 17 mm



From the Fadel family collection, London, UK, 1970s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Executed in oil and tempera and gold leaf; the central panel with the veiled head of Mary with her head inclined towards the infant Jesus supported by her left hand, wearing a red maphorion mantle with elaborate golden borders, over an off-white robe, with gold cuffs; the infant facing to left, dressed in blue tunic and wrapped in a yellow shawl, right hand extended in blessing gesture, Greek inscriptions ΜΡ ΘΥ (Μήτηρ (τοῦ) Θεοῦ = Mother of God) flanking Mary's head, and 'ΙϹ ΧϹ' (ΙΗϹΟΥϹ ΧΡΙϹΤΟϹ = Jesus Christ) beside the infant; the side panels with icons of Saints Kosmas and Damianos (upper sections) and Saint George killing the dragon and Saint Barbara (lower sections). 425 grams, 20.5 cm



Property of a London, UK, gentleman collector. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Even after the fall of Constantinople, icons painted on wood remained the principal object of devotion for Orthodox Christians wherever the commonwealth of the Eastern Roman Empire left its traces. The painted icons are still used by the Orthodox for personal devotion, for display in churches on feast days, and to decorate the iconostasis (partition) of the church. This icon is a portable one, for domestic or travel prayers.