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An Italian micromosaic, Rome, circa 1800, depicting a recumbent brown and white spaniel, within a grassy landscape, with trees beyond, the oval panel edged with a red and white millefiore pellet surround, mounted as a brooch within a finely chased gold floral border, with glazed hinged locket compartment verso, and ring suspension above, dimensions 35 x 28mm. The micromosaic is in the manner of Antonio Aguatti (late 18th century - 1846). £1,200-£1,500 --- Provenance: A similar example depicting the same composition was sold at Christie’s, 11 April 2002, Sale 6674, The Dr Anton C R Dreesmann Collection. Lot 842. In the 18th century, large-scale Italian mosaics, inspired by the grand works of Ancient Rome, were falling out of favour. Reserved mainly for decorating the floors of Rome’s religious buildings– ie St Peter’s Basilica - the artisans responsible for creating them were increasingly short of work. Employed by the Studio del Mosaico della Fabbrica della Basilica di San Pietro, later known as the Vatican Mosaic Workshop, they supplemented their income by creating miniaturised versions of their mosaics to sell to private customers.  Giacomo Raffaelli (1775-1836) is widely considered to be the founding father of the craft of micromosaics. These miniature works of art grew in popularity with the arrival of wealthy travellers on the Grand Tour, perfectly capturing Italy’s rich artistic tradition in miniature, and making the perfect souvenir from their travels in Italy. The art form of micromosaics made dramatic advances from the classically inspired images of architecture prevalent in the late 18th century, towards more natural representations, due largely to the mosaicist Antonio Aguatti. Aguatti worked for the Vatican workshops whilst simultaneously running his own studio, and is credited with perfecting the techniques to create a variety of tesserae shapes, rather than just the uniform square and rectangular forms, and for the skills to blend different coloured tints. These multicoloured shaped tesserae lent greater realism to the the portrayal of plants, flowers, birds and animals. By the 1820s, Aguatti’s images were widely copied by other workshops, making exact attribution to an individual master impossible without signatures on each work. The depiction of dogs was highly popular as part of the romantic genre of the 19th century, dogs being symbolic of faithful love. Due to their association with royalty, King Charles spaniels were frequently portrayed in paintings and micromosaics, this trend for pets as subjects largely led by the artist Edwin Landseer (1802-73). Literature: Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel: The Gilbert Collection, Micromosaics, London 2002: For the similar composition of a spaniel in micromosaic signed by Antonio Aguatti, see p.75, no. 23. Condition Report The panel is in very good condition, using shaped and vari-tinted tesserae. Non missing. Light surface wear only to the gold mount visible from the reverse. Gross weight 14.8gm.

Ca. 224-651 AD. A silver boat-shaped vessel with sloping sides and rounded bottom. The Sassanian empire which ruled from Afghanistan to Iraq during the third to seventh centuries AD is famed for the high quality of its ceremonial metalware, which was used both during banqueting and during religious rituals. Size: L:168mm / W:136mm ; 230g Provenance: Property of a West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1990s.

Ca. 224-651 AD. A bronze boat-shaped bowl with a raised prow and stern, and a rounded base. The bowl was created using the technique of lost-wax casting, which involved the pouring of molten metal into a wax mold. These bowls have been used for religious ceremonies or for storing food or precious objects. For a similar example see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 49.112.1.Size: L:150mm / W:90mm ; 215gProvenance: Property of a London Ancient Art gallery; formerly in Welbank collection since 1980s.

Western Asiatic, Ca. 1200-700 BC. A bronze axe head with a curved blade, tapering cheek, and a wedge-shaped adze to the rear. The shaft short and cylindrical. An axe such as this one would have been an important symbol of rank, and have served a purpose in warfare, but also in religious contexts as axes were common votive offerings in shrines.Size: L:95mm / W:250mm ; 1.23kgProvenance: Property of a West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1990s.

Ca. 3000 BC. An alabaster idol of cylindrical form with rounded ends and drilled interior. Stone idols like this example are known in a variety of fascinating forms throughout the pre-literate ancient world. They are attested across the vast expanses of Western Asia from the Caspian Sea to Afghanistan, including ancient Bactria. Their precise meaning remains elusive, but the many hours of labour required for their manufacture indicate that these were prestige items, perhaps used during religious ceremonies. Size: L:110mm / W:40mm ; 275gProvenance: Property of a West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1990s.

Ca. 3000 BC. A group of four alabaster votive vessels, each of cylindrical form with drilled interior. The vessels are made of a fine, light alabaster, and feature a flat base and rather flared lip. The Bactrian culture, which flourished in the modern day Central Asian countries of Afghanistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan, had a long and storied history of using alabaster for their vessels. Alabaster was a highly prized material, and it was used to create a variety of vessels for different purposes. Cylindrical alabaster vessels were used for storing food, for burying the dead, and for religious ceremonies.Size: L:75-100mm / W:35-45mm ; 810gProvenance: Property of a West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1990s.

Ca. 2nd-1st millennium BC. A restrung necklace comprising of spherical-shaped beads, interspersed with large tubular beads. The necklace is made from carnelian, a type of red-orange quartz, which has been highly prized since antiquity for its beauty and symbolism. In the Bactria region, necklaces made of carnelian were worn by both men and women. They were used to indicate a person's wealth and status and were believed to provide protection from evil or bring good luck. They were also used as decorations for religious ceremonies, as offerings to gods and goddesses, and as part of wedding rituals.Size: L:445/890mm / W:mm ; 48.72gProvenance: Property of a West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1990s.

Ca. 600-550 BC. A charming pottery aryballos - a type of vessel used to store oils and perfumes, with a classic apple-shaped body, a short neck supporting a discoid rim, and a handle connecting the rim with a shoulder. Aryballos were used by the ancient Greeks in a variety of contexts. They were used to store and transport oil, both for domestic and religious purposes, to anoint the body during rituals, and as offerings to the gods. They were also used as grave gifts, as well as for decorative purposes. The aryballos was a distinctively Corinthian form of pottery, and was often associated with the goddess Aphrodite, the patron goddess of Corinth. For a type, see The Louvre Museum, Collection number: Cp 12422.Size: L:70mm / W:65mm ; 75gProvenance: Property of a London collector; ex European art market 1990s.

Ca. 600-500 BC. A fine group of three bronze vessels including two with a carinated profile and one hemispherical bowl. These types of vessels were often used in religious ceremonies and burials and were believed to have magical powers. In addition, they were often exchanged as gifts between family members and friends. The Etruscans were a powerful civilization that lived in Central Italy between the 8th and 3rd centuries BC. They are famous for their intricate metalwork, especially in bronze.Size: L:60-95mm / W:90-120mm ; 420gProvenance: Property of a West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1980s

Ca. 400-500 AD . A lovely Roman cup/beaker with knobbed decoration gathered into a triangle. The vessel is defined by its slightly rounded bottom, inverted bell-shaped body, and flaring rim. Probably it was used for religious ceremonies and/or for drinking. This beaker has been produced in Roman glassmaking workshops, which used sand, nitrate, and high temperatures to create intricate shapes and designs as this beaker exemplifies.Size: L:100mm / W:120mm ; 215gProvenance: Property of a West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1980s

Ca. 200-300 AD. A beautiful bronze bowl of a hemispherical body with a brilliant patina enhancing the entire surface. These bowls were often used to serve meals, but also to hold liquids like wine or oil, which were important not just for sustenance, but also for religious ceremonies.Size: L:190mm / W:60mm ; 365gProvenance: Property of a West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1990s.

Ca. 100-300 AD. A fine group of five distinctly shaped glass flasks used to store perfumed oil, or unguentum. The shapes in this lot include globular, piriform, and cylindrical. These glass vessels were an integral part of life in the Roman Empire, used for religious ceremonies, personal grooming, and medicinal purposes in the home.Size: L:35-125mm / W:15-70mm ; 135gProvenance: Property of a North London gentleman; previously acquire on the UK/European art market in the 1980s.

Ca. 100-300 AD. A group of five glass flasks including the piriform, the cylindrical, and the globular. The piriform is the most common of these shapes, characterized by a pear-like shape with a long, narrow neck. The cylindrical type has indented walls and a slightly flared opening, while the globular is a rounded shape with a short, but wide neck. Glassmaking in the Roman Empire was a highly advanced craft, with glassmakers producing a wide variety of decorative objects for domestic and religious use. These glass unguentaria were highly valued and considered a sign of wealth and luxury in the Roman world. They have become a fascinating window into the past, providing us with a glimpse into the daily life of the ancient Romans.Size: L:50-128mm / W:25-40mm ; 120gProvenance: Property of a North London gentleman; previously acquire on the UK/European art market in the 1980s.

Ca. 100-300 AD. A fine collection of five Roman glass flasks to store perfumed oil, or unguentum. These glass vessels were an integral part of life in the Roman Empire, used for religious ceremonies, personal grooming, and medicinal purposes in the home. Glass was a major manufacturing industry in the Roman Empire, especially after the invention of glassblowing in the middle of the first century BC, when glass became used for a variety of purposes including vessels, jewellery and construction materials such as glass or tiles. Size: L:45-125mm / W:20-50mm ; 100gProvenance: Property of a North London gentleman; previously acquire on the UK/European art market in the 1980s.

Ca. 9th-8th century BC. A nicely carved Neo-Assyrian black stone cylinder seal from the nineth to eighth century BC. It depicts a winged gazelle and a griffon, as well as a number of religious motifs including a six-pointed star and a lunar crescent.Size: L:37.4mm / W:11.2mm ; 7.88gProvenance: Private London collection of an Ancient Art dealer; Formerly in a central London family collections 1990s; Suggested to be examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.; ex. 1970s/early80s UK art market.

Ca. 1800-1600 BC. A nicely carved Old Babylian black stone cylinder seal from the first half of the second millennium BC. It depicts a divine hero and another deity and two religious symbols, a crooked staff of the god Amurru and a lion-headed standard. Studied by PD Dr. habil. Pieter Gert van der Veen, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.Size: L:17.8mm / W:9mm ; 3.86gProvenance: Private London collection of an Ancient Art dealer; Formerly in a central London family collections 1990s; Suggested to be examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.; ex. 1970s/early80s UK art market.

Ca. 8th-7th century BC or later. A finely carved Neo-Babylonian/Chaldean cylinder seal with kingly figures and deities (Arwium on the gazelle and Adad on the bull). Several religious astral symbols (six-pointed star, lunar crescent, two-winged sun disk) in the exergue. Studied by PD Dr. habil. Pieter Gert van der Veen, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.Size: L:42mm / W:20mm ; 32.05gProvenance: Private London collection of an Ancient Art dealer; Formerly in a central London family collections 1990s; Suggested to be examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.; ex. 1970s/early80s UK art market.

Ca. 900-1100 AD. A stunning silver pendant in the shape of a Mjölnir (Thor's hammer) decorated with engraved dots and crosses. Good condition. Thor's hammer pendants were worn as religious amulets throughout the Viking era; they were usually made of silver and hung on silver chains. Thor was a prominent Norse god and his Mjölnir is depicted in Norse mythology as one of the most fearsome weapons, capable of levelling mountains. Though generally recognised and depicted as a hammer, Mjölnir is sometimes referred to as an axe or club. This item is in wearable condition and it comes with a modern necklace cord. To find out more about the Vikings and their art, see Graham-Campbell, J. (2013). Viking Art. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. For more information on Viking Jewellery, see Arbman, H. (1940). Birka I Die Gräber. Uppsala and Hubbard, B. (2016) The Viking Warrior. Amber Books Ltd, London, 61-65.Size: L:65mm / W:45mm ; 30gProvenance: Property of a European private collector; formerly acquired from UK private collection.

Mid Victorian 'Star of Snowdoun' enamel and pearl parcel gilt pendant brooch, crowned heart design, with green enamel laurel wreath enclosing a half pearl set star motif, above a trio of blue enamel forget-me-not flowerheads, suspending a white enamel tapered drop, inscribed verso 'Ladies Rock' Eph. III.17.19, Phil IV. 7', height approx 8cm, in original fitted case with "Star of Snowdoun 1859" stamped to the silk. The 'Star of Snowdoun' brooches were commissioned by William Drummond of Sterling for the female members of his family. They were presented at the time of the inauguration of the Drummond funded Virgin Martyrs' Memorial sculpture located in The Valley Cemetery, Sterling. The memorial commemorates the 'Wigtown Martyrs' or 'Solway Martyrs' -Margaret Wilson, her sister Agnes, and Margaret McLauchlin. The two Margaret's were sentenced to death via drowning in the Solway waters on May 11th 1685 for their religious faith and refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to James VII of Scotland (James II). The brooch features a half pearl, to symbolise purity and the Christian name Margaret, three forget-me-nots, to commemorate the women involved, and a laurel wreath to represent martyrdom, in tribute to those who died for their religious beliefs during this period in Scotland, sometimes referred to as 'the killing times'. Three similar brooches can be found in the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum.

A WHITE MARBLE HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA, NORTHERN QI DYNASTYOpinion: Northern Qi sculptures of this size are exceedingly rare, as the art from this period was fashioned during a short twenty-five-year span and relatively confined to the northern provinces of Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, and Anhui.China, 550-577. Exquisitely carved, the face with a serene expression, an entrancing gaze from deep-set eyes above an aquiline nose and pursed lips, with hair combed into a chignon held together by a crown having both sides tied with ribbons trailing from floral medallions.Provenance: Christie's Amsterdam, 30 October 2000, lot 83, sold for NLG 17,553 or approx. EUR 13,500 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). Roger Hollander, acquired from the above. Roger Hollander (1934-2018) was a graduate of Yale and a true American businessman, having turned a small family operation into a globally recognized industry. He was known for his expertise in Indian and Chinese textiles, and for his sprawling country estate on the edge of Yellowstone National Park that housed a vast wine cellar, research library, and many thousands of ethnographic artifacts. The estate, known as Irma Lake Lodge, once belonged to 'Buffalo' Bill Cody and was eventually sold by Hollander to Bill Gates for USD 9,000,000.Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, losses, nicks, scratches, structural cracks, minor old repairs and fills, signs of weathering and erosion, and encrustations.Weight: 11.8 kg (incl. stand)Dimensions: Height 28 cm (excl. stand) and 38 cm (incl. stand)The Northern Qi dynasty was one of the most vibrant periods in the history of Chinese art, both religious and secular, as its openness towards foreigners, their ideas, beliefs, and goods immensely enriched the local cultural climate. It was within this cosmopolitan climate that Buddhist sculpture experienced perhaps its most glorious moment. The present head aligns with a simplified style of white marble carvings from this period found in Quyang of Hebei province. The complete figure would have been an exceptionally large standing polychromed bodhisattva, a type depicted with the left arm bent at the side while holding an attribute, wearing simplified jewelry and robes, and standing above a double-lotus petal base on a plinth.Expert's note: According to Osvald Siren, marble figures modeled in gently rounded forms, such as the present example, were typically produced during the second half of the 6th century. See Osvald Siren, Chinese Marble Sculptures of the Transition Period, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 12, Stockholm, 1940, pp. 473-496. Also compare a closely related, very rare and important painted white marble Buddhist votive stele, Northern Qi dynasty, at Christie's New York, 17 March 2009, lot 357. Christie's notes the “massive size” of this important stele at 170 cm, but one must consider that the scale of our head suggests it is from a figure over twice as large. This comparison gives an invaluable picture of a complete bodhisattva from the Northern Qi period, and no doubt with numerous similarities, but leaves one wondering about the importance of the complete work that our head must have once been a part of.Literature comparison: Compare a closely related marble figure of Buddha, with near identical facial features, in the Royal Ontario Museum, object number 921.31.21, illustrated in Angela F. Howard, Buddhist Cave Sculpture of the Northern Qi Dynasty: Shaping a New Style, Formulating New Iconographies, Archives of Asian Art, vol. 49, 1996, pp. 6-25, fig. 19.  Compare a closely related head in Imprints of Buddhas, Buddhist Art in the National Palace Museum Collection, page 119, number 47.Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Bonhams New York, 19 September 2022, lot 265 Price: USD 94,875 or approx. EUR 85,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Description: A Rare White Marble Head of a Bearded Sage, Laozi, Northern Qi-Sui Dynasty, 6th Century Expert remark: Compare the material, manner of carving and style. Note the similar size (32 cm).北齊漢白玉菩薩頭像中國，550-577年。雕刻精美，表情安詳，彎眉連著鼻頸，眼睛微閉，嘴唇微噘，頭髮梳成髮髻，由一頂王冠固定在一起，兩邊都繫著從花卉絲帶。如此規模的北齊雕塑極為罕見，因為這一時期的藝術特徵在短短的二十五年內形成，並且相對局限於山東、河北、河南、山西和安徽等北方省份。 來源：阿姆斯特丹佳士得，2000年10月30日，lot 83，售價 NLG 17,553 或相當於 EUR 13,500 (根據通貨膨脹率)；Roger Hollander購於上述拍賣。Roger Hollander (1934-2018年) 畢業於耶魯大學，是一位真正的美國商人，將一家小型家族企業發展成為全球知名的行業。他以在印度和中國紡織品方面的專業知識，以及在黃石國家公園邊緣的廣闊鄉村莊園而聞名，莊園內有一個巨大的酒窖、研究圖書館和數以千計的民族志文物。這座被稱為伊爾瑪湖旅館的莊園曾經屬於“布法羅”比爾科迪，最終被Hollander以 900 萬美元的價格賣給了比爾蓋茨。品相：狀態極好，大量磨損、缺損、刻痕、劃痕、結構裂縫、小修補和填充、風化和結殼。 重量：11.8 公斤 (含底座) 尺寸：高28 厘米 (不含底座) 與38 厘米 (含底座)

A RARE BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA, MON DVARAVATI PERIODScientific Analysis Report: A thermoluminescence analysis report issued by Oxford Authentication on 12 February 2020, based on sample number N120b91, sets the firing date of one sample taken between 1000 and 1600 years ago. A copy of the report, signed by Helen Mason and Doreen Stoneham for Oxford Authentication, accompanies this lot.Thailand, 8th-9th century. Superbly cast standing with the hands extended, draped in a dhoti and sanghati, his face with benign expression, downcast eyes, arched joined brows, full lips, and a broad nose, flanked by pendulous earlobes, his hair in tight curls over a high ushnisha.Provenance: From an old Belgian private collection.Condition: Good condition commensurate with age. As expected there is extensive wear, some casting flaws, losses to the hands, signs of weathering and erosion, few nicks and shallow surface scratches. The back drilled with a hole from sample-taking. Naturally grown patina of a fine malachite-green tone overall, with distinct areas of cuprite encrustations.Weight: 1,812 g (excl. base) and 2,586 g (incl. base)Dimensions: Height 31 cm (excl. base and tang), 36 cm (excl. base) and 42 cm (incl. base)With a modern base. (2)The Mon polity of Dvaravati was one of the earliest and most important societies in mainland Southeast Asia. Based around the Chao Phraya and Mae Klang river basins of central Thailand, Dvaravati was known from early Chinese textual sources, as well as being mentioned in a single local inscription that dates to roughly 550-650 AD. Due to the large numbers of Buddhist sculptures associated with the culture, it is most likely that the rulers were patrons of the Buddhist faith. The images of Buddha were influenced by contemporary Indian sculptural works, including the Gupta style based around the site of Sarnath. The facial features of the Mon Dvaravati Buddhist images, however, display arched, joined eyebrows which are unlike those found in India, and are therefore characteristic of Mon Dvaravati. Compared to earlier and later Thai kingdoms, Dvaravati was geographically and economically isolated, which contributed to the distinct qualities of its sculpture. Their style was bold, self-assured, recognizable, and highly influential on subsequent Thai sculpture and artistic production throughout Southeast Asia.Within the context of the dominant Theravada school of Buddhism, which emphasized the singularity of the Buddha Shakyamuni, bronze sculptures from this area also demonstrate a remarkably cohesive design. As unifying features, the Buddha is clad in the humble dress of a religious renunciant, with the thin garment clinging closely to the body to reveal his delicate proportions and graceful contours that lie beneath. His face is characterized by high cheekbones, full lips, prominent eyes, and - as stated - the curved brows that form the characteristic V-shape at the bridge of the nose.As expressed by Jean Boisselier, "The school of Dvaravati may stand alongside the great Buddhist artistic traditions of India, so enduring were its innovations and so persuasive its influence on most of the art of Southeast Asia" (J. Boisselier, The Heritage of Thai Sculpture, 1975, page 73). Bronze sculptures of this type and large size are exceedingly rare.Further emphasizing the presence of Buddha in the world of the devotee, the figure is depicted as if in motion, with the hems of the robe gently swaying to the sides. This stance, which also draws upon the classic tribhanga posture of Indian sculpture, presages the famous “Walking Buddhas” of Thailand that would grow prominent many centuries later. The bronze caster has masterfully captured the youthful appearance of Buddha that gives the spiritual themes imported from India their highly unique and refined local expressivity.Auction result comparison:Type: Closely relatedAuction: Christie's New York, 17 March 2015, lot 29Price: USD 269,000 or approx. EUR 318,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: A Bronze Figure of Buddha, Thailand, 8th CenturyExpert remark: Compare the closely related pose, facial features, expression, robe, and size (36.1 cm)Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie's New York, 15 March 2017, lot 244 Price: USD 68,750 or approx. EUR 80,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: A bronze figure of Buddha, Thailand, Mon Dvaravati style, 9th century Expert remark: Compare the closely related pose, facial features, expression, curls, ushnisha, and robe. Note that the figure is of slightly larger size (42.5 cm).Auction result comparison:Type: Closely relatedAuction: Christie's New York, 16 September 2008, lot 572Price: USD 32,500 or approx. EUR 43,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: A bronze figure of Buddha, Thailand, Mon-Dvaravati, 8th/9th centuryExpert remark: Compare the closely related pose, facial features, expression, and robe. Note that the figure is of smaller size (21.6 cm).

A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI, KANDYAN PERIODExpert's note: Sri Lankan figures of Buddha are noted for remarkable stylistic conservativism, having followed a consistent canon of proportions from their earliest origins. The later Kandyan period, however, saw considerable variation in the rendering of the robe, marked by highly precise linear patterns worked into the folds. There are elements to this specific bronze, from the softer casting style of the shoulders and arms to the pronounced surface wear, that make it feel a bit older than most of the Kandyan Period examples on the market.Sri Lanka, 17th-18th century. Solidly cast seated in vajraparyankasana with his hands folded in dhyanamudra, the Buddha's broad-shouldered form is fitted in a finely pleated sanghati draped over his left shoulder. His face bares a calm, meditative expression and was likely once framed by pendulous earlobes and surmounted by a flaming siraspata.Provenance: The Phillips Family Collection, Lawrence and Shirley Phillips, and thence by descent to Michael Phillips (born 1943), who is an Academy Award-winning film producer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, his parents were Lawrence and Shirley Phillips, noted New York dealers in Asian fine arts, selling to the Met, the LACMA, the Chicago Art Institute, and the British Museum among others. Michael Phillips is a collector of Asian art himself, particularly Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan sculpture. His most important films include The Sting (winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1973), Taxi Driver (winning the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival), and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.Condition: Some wear and casting irregularities, minor losses, soldering marks, small nicks, light scratches. The head has been reattached at some point in time. Fine, naturally grown, rich patina.Weight: 3,340 gDimensions: Height 15.5 cmAfter three hundred years of internecine civil conflict and successive waves of European imperialists, the Kingdom of Kandy emerged as the pre-eminent Sinhalese political authority. Under its stability and the avid patronage of its kings, Sri Lanka witnessed a Buddhist revival with an unprecedented amount of building and restoring of monastic institutions. Bronze Buddha images proliferated, most of them either gilded or non-gilded depicting the sage in a standing pose. Fewer portrayed the Buddha seated, like the present example.Two predominant forces inform the distinctive style of Kandyan Buddhist art. One is the continuance of Sinhalese tradition in depicting Buddha with a broad body type wrapped in a pleated robe, set by colossal statues of the Anuradhapura and Polunnaruwa periods. The other is a South Indian tradition of expressing dynastic identity through artistic patronage of religious objects, pursued with enthusiasm by the Nayak princes, who were invited to assume Kandy's throne after its last Sinhalese king died without an heir in 1739. Such fusion is exemplified by the present sculpture, whose massive shoulders and air of empyrean authority evoke tradition, while the mesmerizing crinkles of the garment, abstracted physiognomy, and enlarged flame finial summon Kandyan panache.Literature comparison:Compare a closely related bronze figure of Buddha dated to the 18th century, in the Art Institute of Chicago, gifted by Lawrence and Shirley Phillips, the previous owners of the present lot, reference number 1984.1304. Compare fifteenth and sixteenth-century Buddhas from the Divided Kingdoms period (c. 1232-1597), see U. von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures of Sri Lanka, p. 467, pls. 144 D-G.Auction result comparison:Type: RelatedAuction: Bonhams Hong Kong, 30 November 2022, lot 1047Price: HKD 355,800 or approx. EUR 42,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: A Silvered Copper Alloy Figure Of Seated Buddha, Sri Lanka, Kandyan Period, 18th CenturyExpert remark: Note the closely related style of the garment folds. Also note that the figure is silvered and significantly larger (26.5 cm) than the present lot.13% VAT will be added to the hammer price additional to the buyer's premium - only for buyers within the EU.

A BRONZE FIGURE OF A STANDING BUDDHA, POST-GUPTA PERIOD, INDIA, C. 7TH CENTURYFinely cast standing in contrapposto on an integral lotus-petal base upon a square plinth, the right arm extended to the earth, the open palm exaggerated, the left hand grasping the hem of the robe.Provenance: Steven Finkelman, The Buddha Gallery, California, USA, 2014. Michael Phillips, acquired from the above. Steven Finkelman is a retired social work service director with over 30 years of experience in collecting and selling Buddhist and Hindu sculpture. Michael Phillips (born 1943) is an Academy Award-winning film producer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, his parents were Lawrence and Shirley Phillips, noted New York dealers in Asian fine arts, selling to the Met, the LACMA, the Chicago Art Institute, and the British Museum among others. Michael Phillips is a collector of Asian art himself, particularly Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan sculpture. His most important films include The Sting (winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1973), Taxi Driver (winning the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival), and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Wear, minor dents, small nicks, light scratches, casting flaws, signs of weathering and erosion, losses.Weight: 189.7 g Dimensions: Height 11 cmThe present lot is characteristic of Indian art from the post-Gupta period. This small type of portable figure is thought to be one of the earliest kinds of Buddhist images to have been produced by local craftsmen, reflecting the spread of Buddhism throughout India and the rest of Asia after the 3rd century. We see this type of figure replicated in regional styles all the way out to Myanmar. It was even reported by the Chinese scholar Xuanzang (602-664), who traveled to India in the 7th century, that the monks of India had small icons of Buddha in their quarters that they venerated with chanting, ritual bathing, and small offerings of incense and food. He identified these as a small group of metal standing Buddha figures. The Ajanta Caves are approximately thirty Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BC to about 480 AD in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. Textual records suggest that these caves served as a monsoon retreat for monks, as well as a resting site for merchants and pilgrims in ancient India. The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures described as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, particularly expressive works that present emotions through gesture, pose and form. They are universally regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist religious art. The caves were built in two phases, the first starting around the second century BC and the second occurring from 400 to 650 AD. They constitute ancient monasteries (Chaityas) and worship-halls (Viharas) of different Buddhist traditions carved into a 75-meter (246 ft) wall of rock. The caves also present paintings depicting the past lives and rebirths of the Buddha, pictorial tales from Aryasura's Jatakamala, and rock-cut sculptures of Buddhist deities. The patron and bronze founder of the present lot were clearly intimately familiar with the Ajanta site. In cave 4 for example, see a standing Buddha closely related to the present lot.Literature comparison: Compare a related carved relief of a standing Buddha in Cave 19 at the Ajanta complex, taken by Henry Cousens around 1880, from the Archaeological Survey of India Collections. See Sarita Khettry, 'Portable' Images (Buddhist) from Gandhara, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 72, 2011, pp. 204-11. Compare also a related pillar painting in Cave 10. Compare a closely related figure, 11 cm high, dated 7th-8th century, at Galerie Hioco, June 24, 2019.13% VAT will be added to the hammer price additional to the buyer's premium - only for buyers within the EU.

A TERRACOTTA PLAQUE DEPICTING A MOTHER GODDESS, EASTERN INDIA, CHANDRAKETUGARH, C. 1ST CENTURY BC TO 1ST CENTURY ADScientific Analysis Report: A thermoluminescence sample analysis was conducted by Arcadia, Tecnologie Per I Beni Culturali, Milan. The result is consistent with the suggested period of manufacture. A copy of the thermoluminescence analysis report, dated 20 January 2023, accompanies this lot.Of rectangular form, exquisitely modeled with a goddess standing atop a jar, her right hand placed on her hip and her left lowered, the body with narrow shoulders, heavy breasts, wide hips, and attenuated limbs, richly adorned in jewelry and wearing an elaborate headdress, surrounded by children and attendants within an architectural frame.Provenance: An important private collection of a distinguished gentleman in Milan, Italy, assembled in the 1990s and early 2000s. Leonardo Vigorelli, Bergamo, Italy, acquired from the above. Leonardo Vigorelli is a retired Italian art dealer and noted collector, specializing in African and ancient Hindu-Buddhist art. After studying anthropology and decades of travel as well as extensive field research in India, the Himalayan region, Southeast Asia, and Africa, he founded the Dalton Somare art gallery in Milan, Italy, which today is being run by his two sons. Condition: Commensurate with age. Extensive wear, firing flaws, minor losses, nicks, scratches, chips, signs of weathering and erosion, and encrustations. Four major cracks and associated losses have been professionally restored. Overall presenting remarkably well.Dimensions: Height 50 cm (excl. stand) and 52 cm (incl. stand)Fitted with a modern metal stand. (2)Terracotta was the traditional material for religious images in the Ganges Valley and in the Mauryan and Shunga periods (3rd-1st century BC). Considerable numbers of terracotta plaques have also been excavated at the ancient urban site of Chandraketugarh, in Bengal, suggesting that they served as icons for personal devotion in households or were placed at outdoor shrines. All are dominated by a hieratically enlarged central female figure whose precise identity is unknown to us. In this early phase of image worship in India, the goddess routinely appears with weapons projecting from her headdress, a form later associated with Durga. She is naked, apart from heavy jewelry and a massive hip belt. The honorific umbrella suggests she is a deity, as does the lowered hand gesture denoting the granting of boons.Chandraketugarh is a 2,500 years old archaeological site located near the Bidyadhari river, about 35 km northeast of Kolkata, India, once an important hub of international maritime trade. The Asutosh Museum of Indian Art conducted excavations on the site from 1957 to 1968, which revealed relics of several historical periods, although the chronological classification remains incomplete to this day. Most of the Chandraketugarh terracottas are now in collections of museums in India and abroad, and only a few remain in private collections. According to some historians, the Chandraketugarh site and surrounding area could be the place known to ancient Greek and Roman writers as having the same name as the river Ganges.Literature comparison:Compare a related terracotta plaque, 26.7 cm high, attributed to Chandraketugarh and dated 1st century BC to 1st century AD, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1990.281.

A SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI, PAGAN KINGDOMBurma, 12th-13th century. Finely cast seated in dhyanasana with his left hand resting in his lap and the right lowered in bhumisparsha mudra. He is wearing a diaphanous sanghati draped over his left shoulder and with folds gathering below his feet. His oval face with silver-inlaid almond-shaped eyes and a circular urna, aquiline nose, and pursed lips forming a serene smile, flanked by long pendulous earlobes, his hair arranged in tight curls rising to a domed ushnisha. The back with a long and massive tang. Provenance: English trade. Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear and weathering as expected, some losses with associated old fills mostly around the base, casting flaws, foundry grit, nicks and dents, shallow surface scratches, encrustations. Naturally grown, rich malachite-green patina overall.Weight: 3,408 g Dimensions: Height 26 cmThe Kingdom of Pagan was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-day Myanmar. Pagan's 250-year rule over the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery laid the foundation for the ascent of Burmese language and culture, the spread of Bamar ethnicity in Upper Myanmar, and the growth of Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar and in mainland Southeast Asia. The Burmese language and culture gradually became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu, Mon, and Pali norms by the late 12th century. Theravada Buddhism slowly began to spread to the village level although Tantric, Mahayana, Brahmanic, and animist practices remained heavily entrenched at all social strata. Pagan's rulers built over 10,000 Buddhist temples in the Bagan Archaeological Zone of which over 2,000 remain today. The wealthy donated tax-free land to religious authorities. The kingdom went into decline in the mid-13th century as the continuous growth of tax-free religious wealth by the 1280s had severely affected the crown's ability to retain the loyalty of courtiers and military servicemen. This ushered in a vicious circle of internal disorders and external challenges by the Arakanese, Mons, Mongols and Shans. Repeated Mongol invasions between 1277 and 1301 toppled the four-century-old kingdom.Literature comparison: Compare a closely related Pagan bronze figure of a seated Buddha, with a similar tang to the back (referred to as a “strut”), 34 cm high, also dated 12th-13th century, in the British Museum, registration number 1971,0727.1. Compare a related Pagan bronze figure of a standing Buddha, with a similar expression and silver-inlaid eyes, 50.5 cm high, also dated 12th-13th century, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1993.235.1.Auction result comparison: Type: Related Auction: Christie's New York, 17 September 1998, lot 170 Price: USD 134,500 or approx. EUR 231,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Description: A large bronze figure of Buddha, Burma, Pagan period, 12th centuryExpert remark: Compare the closely related expression, with similar silver-inlaid eyes, and rich green patina. Note the standing pose and larger size (50.5 cm).

A GILT BRONZE FIGURE OF CHAKRASAMVARA, LATE MALLA, THREE KINGDOMS PERIODNepal, 1520-1768. Striding in alidhasana with his consort Vajravarahi in yab-yum, the four-headed deity surmounted by a skull crown, his primary hands embracing his consort and holding a vajra and ghanta, the other ten hands holding attributes including damaru, kapala, kartika, and katvanga, dressed in a beaded loincloth, his legs flanked by two billowing scarfs, Vajravarahi wearing an elaborate skirt with skull pendant. Their faces finely incised with gently arched eyebrows centered by an urna, with almond shaped eyes, and a subtle smile.Provenance: British trade. Condition: Very good condition with expected old wear to the gilt, minimal losses, minor casting flaws, and few small malachite encrustations. The stand with few chips to the edges and natural age cracks.Weight: 1,269 g (incl. stand) Dimensions: Height 20.4 cm (incl stand)With a fitted hardwood base, probably Zitan, finely carved as a double lotus throne. (2)The Three Kingdoms period - the time of the later Mallas - began in 1520 and lasted until the mid-eighteenth century. The complete flowering of the unique culture of the Kathmandu Valley occurred during this period, and it was also during this time that the old palace complexes in the three main towns achieved much of their present-day forms. The kings still based their legitimate rule on their role as protectors of dharma, and often they were devout donors to religious shrines. Kings built many of the older temples in the valley, gems of late medieval art and architecture, during this final Malla period. The present figure seems to be rather early in the period, e.g., 16th to mid-17th century.The vision of Twelve-armed Samvara in an ecstatic, dance-like embrace with his consort Vajravarahi is one of the most exquisite subjects in Vajrayana Buddhist art. Meaning 'Wheel of Bliss' in Sanskrit, the union of the two deities is known as Chakrasamvara, as represented in this near-complete example. The deities embody the attainment of the highest yoga tantra tradition and Tibetan Buddhism's supreme ideal: the skilled union of perfect wisdom (Vajravarahi) and compassion (Samvara).Being so complex, only the very best artists were fit to undertake the challenge of casting Chakrasamvara. The task most often fell to Newari master craftsmen from Nepal who produced such sculptures for domestic and Tibetan worship. The stylistic preferences of each audience are somewhat slightly different. While many contemporaneous Tibetan examples emphasize the ferociousness of Chakrasamvara's facial expressions, here instead, a benign intimacy is shared between the deities gazing into each other's eyes. The sentiment betrays a preference in Nepal for showing divine couples in harmony, as representatives of ideal matrimony.Literature comparison:Compare a related two-armed gilt bronze figure of Chakrasamvara, Nepal, 16th century, in the collection of the British Museum, museum number 1921,0219.1.Auction result comparison:Type: RelatedAuction: Christie's New York, 15 September 2015, lot 35Price: USD 32,500 or approx. EUR 39,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: A gilt bronze figure of Durga, Nepal, 16th/17th centuryExpert remark: Compare the related motif, gilt accents, fine casting work, and stand. Note the size (16.5 cm).馬拉王朝末年，三國時期，銅鎏金勝樂金剛像尼泊爾，1520-1768年。勝樂金剛勝四頭，十二臂，兩足，弓步。主尊頭戴五葉冠，上有太陽和新月符。主臂兩手分別持金剛杵和金剛鈴，另外兩手擁抱明妃金剛亥母。其餘各手分別持不同的法器，如三叉戟、匕首、卡巴拉碗等。脖子上掛人首做成的項鍊，雙足奮力踩踏兩個魔鬼，威力無比。金剛亥母雙腿盤在勝樂金剛腰間，，穿著花飾腰帶，佩戴著珠飾。金剛及其明妃面容表情細緻入微，眉毛微彎，微笑。 來源：英國古玩交易。 品相：狀況極好，鎏金有磨損，小缺損，輕微鑄造缺陷，少量孔雀石色結殼。底座邊緣輕微碎屑和自然老化裂縫。 重量：1,269 克 (含底座) 尺寸：高20.4 厘米 (含底座) 硬木底座，可能爲紫檀，精美雕刻雙層蓮座。 (2) 尼泊爾三國時期，即馬拉王朝末年——始於 1520 年，一直持續到十八世紀中葉。加德滿都谷地獨特文化的全面發展就在這一時期，也是在這一時期，三個主要城鎮的舊宮殿建築群形成了今天的大致規模。國王們的合法統治仍然基於他們作為佛法保護者的角色，而且他們經常是宗教聖地的虔誠捐助者。在馬拉王朝末年，國王們在山谷中建造了許多古老的寺廟，這些寺廟是中世紀晚期藝術和建築的瑰寶。目前這件造像可能來自十六世紀至十七世紀中葉。

A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA, ZANABAZAR SCHOOLMongolia, 17th-18th century. Heavily cast, seated in dhyanasana with the right hand lowered in bhumisparsha mudra and the left on the lap, wearing a long-flowing robe, the hems incised with a geometric border, the serene face with downcast eyes painted with black pupils, the red mouth with a gentle smile, flanked by elongated ears, the hair in tight curls surmounted by an ushnisha with globular jewel, the base with an original seal in the form of a double vajra. Provenance: From the collection of a gentleman in London, United Kingdom, who has been collecting Asian works of art for the last 50 years, and thence by descent. Two labels, 'Antique gilt bronze Buddha on lotus base shrine. 17/18 century', 'HC21/04.75'. A lacquered inventory number '222.14.QI' to the base, indicating an earlier museum deaccession. Another inventory number, '222' lacquered to the top of the base. Condition: Very good condition with minor old wear, few nicks, small dents, light scratches, and expected casting flaws.Weight: 1,137 g Dimensions: Height 15.8 cmThis heavily cast bronze belongs to the Zanabazar artistic school of Mongolia, founded in the 17th century by Jetsun Lobzong Tenpai Gyaltsen (1635-1723). He was an important Mongolian religious figure and personal guru to the Kangxi Emperor. Zanabazar was at an early age recognized by both the Panchen Lama and Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the Tibetan Lama, Taranatha (1575-1634), and proclaimed the First Jetsundamba, an honorific title. He traveled to Tibet to continue his religious instruction before returning to Mongolia in 1651, bringing fifty sculptors and painters with him in an attempt to establish the Geluk order amongst the Mongols.During his time as a religious leader of the Khalkha Mongols, Zanabazar oversaw a proliferation of Buddhist art in the region. He is especially known for his visualization and design of gilt-bronze sculpture, subsequently carried out by Nepalese bronze casters, which are widely recognized as some of the finest Buddhist gilt-bronze sculptures created.Zanabazar bronze sculptures exhibit a cohesive style testament to the vision of the great leader, characterized by richly gilt surfaces overall, finely modeled and smoothly sloping contours with embellishments limited to borders, full figures standing or seated on an elevated double-lotus base, and a minimalist aesthetic that endows the figures with a sense of stability. Auction result comparison:Type: RelatedAuction: Bonhams London, 14 May 2014, lot 209Price: GBP 20,000 or approx. EUR 31,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: A fine gilt-bronze figure of Buddha, Zanabazar School, 17th centuryExpert remark: Compare the related pose, facial expression, lotus base, and gilding. Note the smaller size (11.2 cm).Auction result comparison:Type: RelatedAuction: Bonhams Hong Kong, 2 October 2018, lot 127Price: HKD 500,000 or approx. EUR 65,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: A gilt copper alloy figure of Amitabha, Mongolia, Zanabazar school, 17th centuryExpert remark: Compare the related pose, facial features, lotus base, and fine incision work. Note the slightly smaller size (13.5 cm).札那巴札爾派銅鎏金佛像蒙古，十七至十八世紀。佛陀結跏趺座，右手觸地印，左手擱膝，身著長袍，面容安詳，垂眸塗黑瞳，面帶溫和的微笑，兩側是細長的耳垂，螺髻中央頂寶珠。雙金剛杵印密封底。 來源：英國倫敦紳士收藏，收藏亞洲藝術已超過五十年，保存至今。兩個標籤'Antique gilt bronze Buddha on lotus base shrine. 17/18 century'與 'HC21/04.75'；底部一個收藏編號 '222.14.QI'，表明可能來自博物館；另一個收藏編號 '222' 。 品相：狀況極好，有輕微的磨損、少量劃痕、小凹痕和鑄造缺陷。 重量：1,137 克 尺寸：高 15.8 厘米

A RARE GILT BRONZE FIGURE OF VARAHA, NEPAL, 16TH-17TH CENTURYCast striding on a nagaraja above a lotus base, dressed in a loin cloth, adorned with beaded jewelry and bangles, his left arm raised supporting the goddess Bhudevi, his face in the form of a boar with long snout and two protruding fangs, standing on a coiled snake next to a small depiction of Buddha Muchalinda. The base sealed and incised with a double vajra.Provenance: From the private collection of Angela Trueb, Somerset, United Kingdom, and thence by descent in the same family. Angela Trueb (1918-1991) was the wife of Swiss coffee planter Hans Trueb. During her childhood, she spent many years in a coffee estate in Doddengudda, South India, and later moved to India again with her husband. Trueb inherited her mother's passion for Indian religious sculptures and art. During her stay in India, Trueb invested a lot of time and energy into researching Indian temple sites and started her collection, which was later moved to her home when her family returned to Somerset in 1967. Condition: Very good condition with expected old wear, few nicks and dents, light surface scratches, and casting flaws. Very good, naturally grown patina overall. Sealed.Weight: 646.5 g Dimensions: Height 14.1 cmThe present figure depicts Vishnu as the cosmic boar Varaha telling the scene where the god prevents the earth from flooding. The earth goddess Bhudevi was captured by the demon Hiranayaksha and trapped in the cosmic waters when Vishnu took the form of a divine boar and rescued her after defeating the primeval serpent monster.Auction result comparison:Type: RelatedAuction: Christie's New York, 15 September 2015, lot 22Price: USD 12,500 or approx. EUR 15,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: A gilt bronze figure of an animal-headed attendant, Tibet, 16th/17th centuryExpert remark: Compare the related pose, beast head, and size (15 cm)十六至十七世紀尼泊爾罕見銅鎏金筏羅訶像豬頭大聖左腿膝蓋微屈，大開步站在蓮座上，長鼻子和兩顆獠牙突出，腰圍圍裙，佩戴珠飾和手鐲，左臂高舉，托著女神布德維；脚下盤繞的蛇，一側坐著那迦龍王目支鄰陀像。底座用雙金剛杵密封。 來源：英國薩默塞特Angela Trueb收藏，在同一家族保存至今。Angela Trueb (1918-1991) 是瑞士咖啡豆莊園主Hans Trueb的妻子。童年時代，她在南印度多登古達的一個咖啡莊園度過多年，後來隨丈夫再次移居印度。Trueb 繼承了她母親對印度宗教雕塑和藝術的熱情。在印度逗留期間，Trueb投入了大量時間和精力研究印度寺廟遺址，並開始了她的收藏，後來當她的家人於 1967 年返回薩默塞特時，這些收藏被搬到了她的家中。 品相：狀況極好，有磨損，輕微刻痕和凹痕，表面有輕微的劃痕和鑄造缺陷。自然包漿。密封。 重量：646.5 克 尺寸：高 14.1 厘米 這件造像將毗湿奴描繪成豬頭大聖筏羅訶，阻止大地洪水氾濫的場景。大地女神布德維被惡魔俘虜並被困在水域中，毗湿奴在擊敗蛇怪後化身為神豬並將她救出。 拍賣結果比較： 形制：相近 拍賣：紐約佳士得， 2015年9月15日，lot 22 價格：USD 12,500（相當於今日EUR 15,000） 描述：A gilt bronze figure of an animal-headed attendant，Tibet，16th/17th century 專家評論：比較相近的姿勢、獸首和尺寸(15 厘米)。

AN EXTREMELY RARE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF AVALOKITESHVARA IN ROYAL EASE, YONGLE INCISED SIX-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIODChina, 1402-1424. Superbly cast seated in rajalilasana, with swaying torso and head inclined, the left leg drawn up and the right folded in front, the left hand raised and held in vitarka mudra and the right elegantly resting on the rear of the double-lotus pedestal base with beaded rims. The front left corner at the top of the base is neatly incised with the six-character mark Da Ming Yongle nianzhi and of the period.Provenance: From the private collection of a gentleman in the United Kingdom. Condition: Superb condition with only minor wear, minimal casting flaws, minuscule nicks, and remnants of old varnish. The base retains the original sealing.X-Ray Images: Available upon request.Weight: 1,441 g Dimensions: Height 17 cmExpert's remark: The present figure was in private ownership for a long time. Until just recently, it was covered entirely by a thick layer of old varnish, which had blackened completely over the years. The six-character mark was unrecognizably hidden under this coating, and the owner was unaware of its presence. A significant portion of the varnish has now been removed to reveal the magnificent original gilding hidden below. Needless to say, this was done in a most sensitive manner, without scratching the gilding, using only pure alcohol and cotton. There are still some remains of varnish, mostly in the many corners and recesses, which may also be removed if one wishes. Prospective bidders are encouraged to study our high-resolution images in full detail. These will confirm that most of the black areas remaining are ancient varnish, under which the gilding is well preserved.The bodhisattva is wearing a finely detailed foliate tiara, a profusion of beaded jewels around the neck, arms, waist and ankles, a diaphanous scarf billowing at either side, and a voluminous lower garment gathered at the waist with a jeweled girdle and spreading onto the lotus pedestal. The face is exquisitely modeled to provide a benevolent expression with downcast eyes, gently arched brows, circular urna, and smiling lips. The neatly incised hair is drawn up into a knotted jatamakuta topped by a cintamani jewel and elegantly falling in tresses over the shoulders.Bronzes in the Tibetan-Chinese style produced during the reign of Emperor Yongle in the first quarter of the 15th century and bearing his reign mark are highly distinguished for their unsurpassed craftsmanship, overall refinement and gracefulness. Executed by the Imperial ateliers, they display a highly consistent and uniform style, which evolved out of the influence of the Nepalese artist Anige (1244-1306) at the Yuan court and the close links with Tibet established by the Yongle Emperor. The distinct Imperial style includes double-lotus bases with beaded rims and characteristic facial features with broadened outline, gently arched brows above the lidded eyes and subtle smile, all finished with great attention to detail.The future Yongle Emperor was likely introduced to Tibetan Buddhism and became interested in it around 1380, when he was enfeoffed in Beijing, and of course he had strong ties to the Mongol military elite, who were also adherents of lamaist Buddhism, so it appears that he continued to practice this form of Buddhism for the rest of his life. Certainly more works of art depicting lamaist Buddhist deities and imagery were produced during his reign period than under any other Chinese emperor, with the exception of the Qing Emperor Qianlong. For further discussion of this topic see J.C.Y. Watt and D.P. Leidy, Defining Yongle: Imperial Art in Early Fifteenth-Century China, Yale University Press, 2005.In 1406, the Yongle Emperor sent a mission to Tibet inviting the famous hierarch of the Karmapa monastery, Halima, to Nanjing, to take part in the memorial services for the Hongwu Emperor and Empress Ma. Halima first sent a tribute mission, and then in the Spring of 1407 came to the Ming court in person. There he was received with great honor, given the title Dabao Fawang (Great Precious Religious Prince) and asked to perform religious ceremonies for the Emperor's deceased parents. After his return to Tibet, Halima continued to exchange gifts with the Emperor. The Yongle Emperor also invited the hierarch of the Sakyapa to the court at Nanjing in 1413 and treated him too with great honor. Thereafter missions were sent from Sakya abbots until the 1430s. A high-ranking representative of the Yellow Sect was invited to Nanjing in 1413 and was also greatly honored and returned to Tibet in 1416 with many gifts. Gifts and missions continued to be exchanged with the Yellow Sect until the 1430s.Literature comparison: Compare a closely related figure of Avalokiteshvara, also with the Yongle mark incised to the front left corner at the top of the base, below Avalokiteshvara's left knee, at exactly the same place where it is found on the present lot, in the Norbulingka Palace in Lhasa, recorded by von Schroeder in his survey of the holdings of Tibetan monastery collections, illustrated in von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, pp. 1270-1, pl. 353D, and in E. F. Lo Bue (ed.), Tesori del Tibet: Offetti d'arte dai Monasteri di Lhasa, 1994, p. 110, no. 70. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Sotheby's London, 7 November 2007, lot 362 Price: GBP 546,900 or approx. EUR 939,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Description: A rare and extremely fine gilt-bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara, erased mark of Yongle and of the period Expert remark: Compare the regal pose, bodhisattva jewelry, smiling expression, double-lotus pedestal base with beaded rims, and near identical size (18 cm). Note that this figure has an erased Yongle reign mark.永樂款罕見銅鎏金觀音中國，1402-1424年。蓮台座面上題刻“大明永樂年製”，為明宮廷風格的作品。 來源：英國一位紳士私人收藏。 品相：狀況極佳，只有輕微磨損、極小的鑄造缺陷、劃痕和舊清漆殘留。底座保留了原來的密封。X光檢測圖片:如有需可經詢問提供。 重量：1,441 克 尺寸：高17 厘米

An 18th Century Italian school oil on board portrait painting study depicting a religious figure / elderly gentleman. The sitter with beard and modelled in a green robe. Set within a Fine Art Trade Guild frame. Measures approx; 21cm x 18cm. 

Three framed mixed media works on paper by Sandra Bowden, titled, " Volume I & II", "Reading II", and "Word" each signed and dated '95. Condition AS IS, some scratches and cracks to plexi shadow boxes. Sandra Bowden is an artist and painter from New York, known for her religious imagery. Bowden's work is in the permanent collection of the Vatican Museum of Contemporary Religious Art in Rome and in the Haifa Museum of Art in Israel. Overall size: 11 1/4 x 14 1/4 in. Sight size: 6 3/8 x 7 1/2 in.

Dale Silver, numbered (398/450) titled "mountain of god." The image depicts the Western wall in Jerusalem. Arguably the most important religious site in the Jewish religion, it is the last remaining wall of the ancient Jewish Temple. She studied at the American Academy of Art at age 10 and has a bachelors degree in art education from the University of Wisconsin. As a teacher at the colegiate level for the past 30 years in Florida, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Ohio she is both a role model and spokesperson for her students. Her personal projects have been on display across the country including at Walt Disney World's Flower and Garden Festival. Overall size: 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 in. Sight size: 13 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.

William Scott RA (1913 - 1989)Still Life No.2 (1970)Gouache on paper, 59 x 78cm (23¼ x 30¾")Signed and dated 1970Provenance: Collection of R.W. Wilson, DublinStill Life No.2 (1970) is representative of the approach to such themes painted by William Scott at this time.  Over the years, Scott had explored a range of thematic subjects, from the early biblical narratives and genre scenes, to the landscapes and nudes that featured repeatedly throughout his oeuvre. However, Scott consistently reverted to still life as the primary theme of interest across his life as an artist. William Scott’s earliest still life images are relatively naturalistic, though always stylised rather than strictly mimetic. Following a series of phases of exploration, the forms in Scott’s paintings became increasingly distilled, typically based on the familiar domestic objects typical of his childhood in Greenock, Scotland, where he was born. He later moved with his family to his father’s native Enniskillen, and remained in Northern Ireland where he began his education as an artist. He continued his education at the Royal Academy Schools in London, eventually settling in Somerset. Scott was ground-breaking in creating art that combined the familiar and mundane useful object with his perspective on Modernism abstracted form.Still life has attracted artists for centuries, providing an opportunity to represent a host of significant objects. The earliest examples in western art present still life elements in religious altarpieces, particularly in Northern Europe, prioritising the potential of objects, some ordinary, others precious, to carry symbolic meaning: thus this genre provided a readable array of distinctive ‘attributes’, by which the character of religious characters could be defined - a vital visual language in an era of low literacy. Over time, still life emerged as a subject in its own right, though it continued to embody a host of readable symbols for purposes of morality, intended as reminders of the perceived wisdom at the time.  In time, still life became a celebration of the ordinary, as artists began to focus on mundane objects for their own sake, to signify the familiar and to evoke nostalgia. From the late nineteenth century, towards the emergence of Modernism, the possibilities of forms of expression that challenged academic principles, provided an impetus for alternative methods of seeing: from the colours and shapes of the objects themselves, to how they could be located in space.William Scott had the opportunity to observe methods of expression through the work of artists encountered in exhibitions and art galleries, ranging from the Renaissance to the present, from Piero della Francesca to Henri Matisse, via Jean Siméon Chardin and Paul Cézanne. His visits to the United States from 1953, for his own exhibitions there, provided unique opportunities to observe the most contemporary developments and to meet some of the leading exponents as an equal – artists like Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman – and Mark Rothko, who visited him in Somerset some years later. Still Life No.2 (1970) demonstrates characteristics that can be observed in iconic works by William Scott, such as Still Life Brown with Black Note (1969)(1). Still Life No.2 comprises colours and forms typified by the artist at the time: a flat black profile appears suspended, suggestive of the profile of a skillet, familiar in Scott’s work. A white circular object to the left is cut off by the edge of the painting, while on the right a white jug, another form that appears in Scott’s work, is presented like a stencil against the red-brown ground. The background shows the marks of the brush, and there is a suggestion of shadows thrown by some of the objects. The slight ‘bleeding’ of paint at the edges of objects, softens their otherwise austere profiles, and indicates the hand-crafted dimension of the artwork, and introduces a human dimension to the austerity of the arrangement. The composition is spare and spacious, a marked distinction from Scott’s still life paintings of the 1950s, which featured crowded, almost chaotic, ‘table top’ images connecting the artist and viewer more closely with the domestic realities of a busy kitchen environment. The present painting reflects the more abstract and symbolic nature associated with the later works of the painter. Once he divested his repertoire of the food items (fish, eggs, vegetables) evident in his earliest work, Scott’s particular selection of items reflects his stated preference for man-made over ‘natural’ things, perhaps identifying with durability despite repeated use, over organic fragility.William Scott is recorded as commenting on his practice in a lecture delivered at the British Council in 1961 that sheds light on his approach to still life:“My pictures now contained not only recognisable imagery but textures and a freedom to distort. I again painted a profusion of objects that spread themselves across the canvas, often clinging to the edges leaving the centre open …’.(2)Dr. Yvonne Scott, January 20231 William Scott, Still Life Brown with Black Note (1969), oil on canvas, 121.9 x 183 cm, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. See Norbert Lynton, William Scott, Thames & Hudson Ltd., London, 2004, p.313.2 William Scott, British Council lecture, quoted in Sarah Whitfield and Lucy Inglis (eds.), William Scott, Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings,       Vol.2, 1952–1959, Thames & Hudson,in association with the William Scott Foundation, London, 1913, p.18.Condition Report: Very good overall conditionWe have no additional documentation, the painting was consigned from a deceased estate The edges or the hand made paper are a little scuffed in places, see images

Harry Clarke RHA (1889 - 1931)Our Lady and Child adored by St Aidan of Ferns and St Adrian (O'Keefe memorial), (1918), cartoon designed for the Catholic Church of the Assumption, Bride Street, Wexford Town A pair, Charcoal and conté on paper, 202 x 48.5 (79½ x 19) & 204 x 48.5cm (80 x 19")Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SCFollowing the rapturous reception of Harry Clarke’s series of windows for Honan Hostel chapel (1915–17), located on the campus of UCC – the commission which was largely responsible for propelling his stained glass career forward – individuals began to seek him out for memorial windows. Two such commissions which arrived in 1918 were for the Church of Ireland, Killiney, County Dublin and the Catholic Church of the Assumption in the heart of Wexford town; Clarke worked on both jobs concurrently and in fact on one day in September he had a meeting with the Killiney donor in the morning and the Wexford donor in the afternoon.(1) The latter was ordered by a Matilda, wife of William O’Keefe who was a merchant and maltster of Faythe House, Wexford town and the window was in memory of their second son, Lieutenant William Henry O’Keefe. William Jnr was a graduate of Castleknock College and had entered the Royal College of Science, Dublin with the intention of becoming an engineer before obtaining a commission in the Royal Field Artillery. In August 1915 he went on active service in France and was killed by a German shell aged twenty-one in May 1917 at Arras where he is buried.(2) Worth noting is that his memorial window represents one of a very small number in Catholic churches to soldiers who fell in WWI compared with a significant amount in Protestant churches. For Harry Clarke, meeting a client and visiting the location was very important so that each work would be truly individual and would respond to the wishes of the donor, as well as the more practical and aesthetic considerations: the orientation of the window within the church, its height from ground level, the style of architecture, etc. A small-scale, though very precise, preliminary design, usually executed in pencil and watercolour, would then be prepared. Amendments were made if requested by the patron and the next stage was for Clarke to create a ‘cartoon’, a full-scale monochrome plan, usually drawn mainly in charcoal on a single sheet cut from a roll of paper which would accurately show the lead-lines and the key elements of the design. Clarke’s cartoons from this period are remarkably detailed and indisputably works of art in their own right. Perhaps surprisingly for an artist who excelled in crisp black and white illustrations which he made in parallel with his stained glass career, his cartoons for stained glass windows are distinctly tonal and indicate how he intended to paint the different pieces of glass which would comprise the completed window. The only significant absence from these cartoons were the inscriptions – though a designated space was clearly assigned for them – as this was an aspect of the window which Clarke did not enjoy doing, and usually the inscriptions were executed by other artists in the studio under his direction. Details of the O’Keefe coat of arms and family moto are likewise left blank on the Wexford cartoon but fully realised in the window as executed. Clarke created his cartoon for Our Lady and Child adored by St Aidan of Ferns and St Adrian in November and December 1918, and the stained glass window itself was completed in early May 1919.When the leading expert on Harry Clarke, Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe, was assembling an exhibition of his work for the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College in 1979 – which was responsible for reigniting interest in Clarke – she selected several of his finest cartoons from the collection of the artist’s son, David Clarke, and among those she chose for exhibition were his cartoons for Killiney and Wexford. In her catalogue notes accompanying the exhibition Dr Gordon Bowe eloquently wrote of the Wexford window: ‘the alert Child sits on the lap of the demure and neat little Madonna, whose silken cloak is strewn with stars and jewels and whose pompom’d slippers rest on a tasselled cushion. They hover over the coastline of Ireland, adored by the kneeling, devout Aiden of Ferns (with tiny replica of the early Cathedral and settlement he founded and a splendid crozier), while behind him the proud, graceful St Adrian stands with a jewelled and chased cross in a Burne-Jones helmet. The sea, at whose edge they worship and the sky around them are lightly inscribed with a wealth of tiny symbolic motifs, amongst which are tiny perfectly detailed scenes of a Crucifixion and the Ascension, a chalice set in a flaming aureole, an exquisite tiny galleon, one of Clarke’s favourite motifs, another chalice, symbolic of the young man’s sacrifice after great suffering, one triangle set with an eye, another struck by lightning, the young man’s initials (W.O.K.) and a delightful vignette of Bride Street Church as seen across Wexford Harbour… When he had time, his personal deeply religious, poetic and unique vision permeated in intricate detail everything he touched.’ (3)Dr David CaronNicola Gordon Bowe, Harry Clarke – the Life and Work (second edition, 2012), p. 146.I am grateful to Reiltín Murphy for information on the O’Keefe family.Nicola Gordon Bowe, Harry Clarke (monograph and catalogue of exhibition in Douglas Hyde Gallery, TCD, 1979), pp. 106–07.Condition Report: Additional photos of some of the repaired areasAlso of the creases and abrasionsPresumably occurred during the process of creating the windows, these were working cartoons of course See additional images

LUDOVICO POGLIAGHI (Milan, 1857 -, Varese, 1950)."Siege. 1890.Oil on paper pasted on cardboard.With label on the back and handwritten inscription.Signed at the lower left.Provenance: private collection conceived since the 70's between London and Madrid.Measurements: 38 x 54 cm.Ludovico Pogliaghi was born in an upper middle class Milanese family. He enrolled at the Brera Academy at a very early age; and in 1889 he completed his studies. Among his strongest influences was Giuseppe Bertini, who taught him painting. During the 1880s he obtained important commissions for the artistic decoration of palaces belonging to the Milanese aristocracy. He also executed religious works and embarked on a career as an illustrator of historical subjects for the Treves publishing house in Milan. He was appointed professor of decoration at the Brera Academy in 1890, and in 1895 won a prestigious competition to design the bronze doors of the Duomo in Milan. One of his works is the Pietà above the entrance to the Expiatori Chapel in Monza. As a leading exponent of an eclectic academicism oriented towards the restoration of earlier classical styles, he engaged in an intense activity that saw him involved in all the major official works of the time, including as a consultant to the Department of Antiquities and Fine Arts, and as a restorer. During the 1920s, while continuing with his official duties, he gradually withdrew from the art world, devoting himself mainly to ecclesiastical commissions. In his mature years, from the mid-1880s onwards, he retired to the house-museum of the Sacro Monte di Varese, where he assembled his collection of antique art, which is displayed together with models of his own works.

LUDOVICO POGLIAGHI (Milan, 1857 - Varese, 1950)."The Death of Pliny in Pompeii", 1890.With label on the back and handwritten inscription.Signed at the lower left.Provenance: private collection conceived since the 1970s between London and Madrid.Measurements: 37 x 55 cm.Ludovico Pogliaghi was born in an upper middle class Milanese family. He enrolled at the Brera Academy at a very early age; and in 1889 he completed his studies. Among his strongest influences was Giuseppe Bertini, who taught him painting. During the 1880s he obtained important commissions for the artistic decoration of palaces belonging to the Milanese aristocracy. He also executed religious works and embarked on a career as an illustrator of historical subjects for the Treves publishing house in Milan. He was appointed professor of decoration at the Brera Academy in 1890, and in 1895 won a prestigious competition to design the bronze doors of the Duomo in Milan. One of his works is the Pietà above the entrance to the Expiatori Chapel in Monza. As a leading exponent of an eclectic academicism oriented towards the restoration of earlier classical styles, he engaged in an intense activity that saw him involved in all the major official works of the time, including as a consultant to the Department of Antiquities and Fine Arts, and as a restorer. During the 1920s, while continuing with his official duties, he gradually withdrew from the art world, devoting himself mainly to ecclesiastical commissions. In his mature years, from the mid-1880s onwards, he retired to the house-museum of the Sacro Monte di Varese, where he assembled his collection of antique art, which is displayed together with models of his own works.

Colonial School. Mexico. 17th century."The Immaculate Virgin with St. Barbara and St. Anthony of Padua"Oil on copper. Nun’s breast shield. Diameter: 13 cm. As Professor Ilona Katzew, Curator and Head of the Latin American Art Department at the LACMA in Los Angeles, notes with respect to these nun’s shields:"This small-scale painting is a badge worn by nuns of the Order of the Immaculate Conception (also known as Conceptionists) in Mexico as part of their dress. Painted badges originated in Mexico in response to religious reforms introduced by the archbishop Francisco Manso y Zúñiga (ruled 1629-1635), who attempted to curtail the luxury and privilege of the convent lifestyle. He forbade nuns to wear shields made of gold, precious stones, and enamel. The nuns circumvented this rule by commissioning shields painted on copper or parchment, and set into frames made of tortoiseshell. Many of the badges were painted by the best artists of the day."This genre of devotional art was widespread during the 17th and 18th centuries in Spain and the New Hispanic world.They tended to be small pictures painted or embroidered with religious scenes, which nuns wore on their chests as they took their vows.It is in the classic portraits of crowned nuns, also with flowers, veils and other ornaments, where we can see the relevance these badges had.On occasions, artists of the calibre of José de Páez, Miguel Cabrera and Luis Juárez made some of these shields. This lot has been imported, therefore its exportation permit from the Ministry of Culture is guaranteed.

A 20th century Art Deco Eugenio Pattarino (1885 - 1971), pottery carnival wall mask hand signed "Prof. E Pattarino, Italy" (verso). 38 cms x 23 cms. (A/F - chip to rosette on tri-corn hat, old restorations to gilt frilled edge).Italian ceramics artist and sculptor Eugenio Pattarino studied under Giovanni Fattori and was known for his large-scale religious statues. He was born in Florence in (1885 - 1971), and he studied art there as well as in Venice and Frankfurt. At his studio near Ponte Vecchio Bridge he designed earthenware, ceramic, and terracotta pottery in addition to his sculptures. Pattarino's ceramic pottery and sculpting reflected his love for modern, traditional, and antique styles.Sculptor Pattarino retired in 1966 following a flood destroyed the bulk of the designs, master molds, and models in his studio.

PAMELA BONE (1925-2021) Six Creative Colour Landscapes, printed or framed 2012, a set of six colour photographs, Cibachrome prints, each from (1970s?) negatives of manipulated images using pre-digital technology, some or all these prints are from multiple superimposed negatives, five signed in ink on the image, four with photographer's hand written notes taped verso regarding the images and framing, images 31cm x 29.3cm, in identical glazed frames 51cm x 49cm Note 1: These six photographs were selected by Pamela Bone and were displayed together at her in residence in Dorking, Surrey Note 2: : Pamela Bone (Lady Pamela Goodale) Pamela Bone (British, 1925-2021) created a significant body of experimental photographic works between 1952 and 1992. Though some of her works were published and exhibited in her lifetime – and she collaborated with notable figures in the world of film, conceptual art and electronic music during the 1970s – this innovative work is now being re-assessed and appreciated. At her death Bone bequeathed her photographic works to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Martin Barnes, Senior Curator, Photography, at the V&A oversaw the accession of this collection. Pamela Bone’s estate included some multiples and small editions of some of her works, these have been released for sale by auction at Flints. Please note that purchasers acquire the original physical print or artwork, where an image is also held in the V&A’s collection, the V&A holds copyright to reproduction of that image. Martin Barnes has summarised Pamela Bone’s career and work: “Bone attended Guildford School of Art between 1952-54, creating black and white still-lifes and portraiture alongside colour work. In 1953, she also studied in Paris with advertising and portrait photographer André Thevenet and worked in advertising. Her photographs were published in Photomonde, Vogue, Queen and House and Garden magazines. In 1958, she went to stay with a student friend in Calcutta and from there travelled throughout the following year in India, Sikkim and Kashmir. On returning to the UK, she abandoned commercial photography and focussed on independent art practice. She photographed in North Uist, Outer Hebrides and around Dartmoor, for her Dartmoor Trees and River series. She also studied sound recording. From 1965 Bone began experimenting with a conceptual slide show of her transparencies, based around the themes of her travels, the seasons and children, still life and landscape. She applied this approach in her printing methods, which combined and overlayed transparencies and prints from different periods with photograms to create dreamlike, textured impressions of imagined landscapes. This culminated in Circle of Light, (1972) an experimental film created from transparencies by Bone collaborating with filmmaker Anthony Roland, video art and installation artist Elsa Stansfield (1945-2004) and composer Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001) of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (and who famously recorded the Doctor Who theme tune). A VHS copy of Circle of Light is in the V&A National Art Library (NAL). Bone’s approach to collaging and recombining works became her main approach and is a pre-cursor to contemporary practices of sampling. In 1973, she married Sir Ernest William Goodale, becoming Lady Pamela Goodale, but she continued to sign her artworks with her maiden-name. Bone was a lifelong follower of Christian Science. There were many books by the movement’s founder, the religious leader and author Mary Baker Eddy (1821- 1910) in her library. Bone was shy and reclusive and worked largely in seclusion. She set up a Cibachrome colour processing darkroom in 1981 in an outbuilding at her home in Dorking. This process allowed her to make her own direct colour positive prints from her colour transparencies. She made use of ‘lith’ printing as overlay masking for her cibachromes, and also produced pictures using silks. An exhibition of cibachrome prints, Let There Be Light was shown at West Dean College in 1991. Bone ceased printing in 1992 but began meticulously preserving her works. Towards the end of her life, she produced two limited-edition, hand-printed publications of her photographs, Wings of the Wind (2000) and Seven Doors: Finding Freedom of Expression Through Photography (2009) both in the NAL”

An assortment of Zippo lighters, various ages and designs, including Motor Racing, Smiley, Tattoo Art, Religious and more (parcel), unused, UK postal shipment only

Andalusian school of the second half of the 17th century."The Adoration of the Shepherds".Oil on canvas. Re-coloured.It has repainting, restorations and leaps.With 20th century frame.Measurements: 169 x 126 cm; 193 x 151 cm (frame).This canvas represents a classic theme in the History of Art, that of the shepherds adoring the newborn Baby Jesus in the Bethlehem's portal. It is a scene which, as in this case, lends itself to being interpreted as a large composition with numerous figures, worked in a costumbrista style, and was therefore very much to the taste of Baroque painters, who sought above all a natural and intimate art that would move the faithful and make them feel close to what was represented on the canvas, to the sacred story. Thus, the divine elements are reduced to a minimum, with only a Glory break in the upper part, with two child angels attending the event. As is typical of the early Baroque, this heavenly space is clearly differentiated from the earthly one, a clear separation which, however, would disappear in the second Baroque. As for the rest of the figures, all are arranged in the lower part of the composition and are notable for their gestural emphasis and individualised clothing. All of them are presented around the Christ Child, who is placed in the centre of the composition as the absolute protagonist, directly illuminated by a divine light. In short, we see in this canvas a theme that has been repeated many times throughout the history of art, and which experienced a notable boom during the Andalusian Baroque period. The humanity that pervades the scene made the faithful identify with it, an intention that would characterise Spanish religious art from the Counter-Reformation onwards.

Flemish school of the 17th century.Pair of "Country scenes".Oil on canvas.With documentation of Fine Art, Restoration Co.Size: 48 x 64 cm; 60 x 75.5 cm (frame).The works show idealised landscapes: a series of trees mark a series of pronounced vertical lines, only slightly counterbalanced by the lines of the land and its hills. Both depict characters in the foreground, all individualised in their attire, gestures and postures, as does the white horse in one of the works. The relatively high viewpoint allows more distance to be shown towards the background and much more detail of the terrain. The taste for the anecdotal is shown in figures and details with no apparent relationship between them, and in the absence of a subject of importance to justify the landscape, something that is characteristic of both the period and the school to which the painting belongs. The construction of successive planes was common in Flemish painting from the 15th century onwards.In the West, landscape painting did not appear as a fully independent genre in art until almost the 17th century, thanks to Dutch painting (especially Jacob van Ruysdael). It was treated as a mere backdrop in the Middle Ages until the Renaissance began to show interest in it. It is striking to note the large production of the period, which was aimed at the increasingly wealthy urban bourgeoisie, an abundance of works and a proliferation of pictorial genres. One of these genres was landscape, which developed greatly from the 17th century, a time when it had not yet appeared as an independent theme, without needing the presence of an anecdote in order to exist.Like other genres that became very popular in Flanders during the 17th century, landscape painting has its roots in the Dutch pictorial tradition of the 15th century. The background landscapes in the religious works of Van Eyck, de Bouts and van der Goes occupy a much more important place as an artistic element in these works than landscape painting in Italian painting of the same period. With regard to the representation of the narrative, the landscape of the Flemish Primitives plays an essential role, not only as a natural setting for the characters but also to separate and set the various episodes of the story narrated in the work. With regard to the imitation of nature, 15th-century Flemish painters sought to depict the countryside and towns of their native country in their religious landscapes, detailing their flora with botanical precision and even giving an idea of the time of day and the season of the year in which the scene takes place. This special interest in depicting the landscape increased as the 16th century progressed, when a new type of landscape was developed and popularised for sacred scenes: the panoramic view. Very soon, however, it was the depiction of the landscape itself that was to receive the attention of painters and, of course, of the public. In the panoramic views of Joachim Patinir and his followers the roles are reversed: the religious subject is an excuse for the landscape. In these paintings the landscape becomes completely independent of any narrative, and this is the direction that the Flemish and Dutch painters of the late 16th and early 17th centuries were to follow, a time when landscape painting became very popular in the Low Countries and specialists in the genre began to proliferate. Gillis van Coninxloo, Paul Bril, Jan Brueghel the Elder and Joos de Momper are the most distinguished landscape painters of the transition from the 16th to the 17th century, and each of them gave their vision of landscape a very personal stamp.

Flemish school; 16th century."Saint Jerome.Oil on panel.Measures: 64 x 48 cm.In this work the artist reveals an exceptional sense of drawing through which he has described the saint's anatomy, showing a great precision. Particularly successful is the anatomical capture which is revealed through the slender but defined muscles, which give a glimpse of the saint's life as a hermit. His anatomy shows a certain elongation of the forms, which makes the hands stand out in particular, rounded but at the same time defined and refined. The face also reveals this technical care, which is determined by the treatment of the wrinkles and bags under the saint's expressive eyes. The detail with which the hair has been painted is also noteworthy, with each hair forming part of the beard visible. This shows the artist's interest in capturing an almost microscopic reality. This emphasis on detail and quality is a characteristic feature of the Flemish school. This, together with the hieratic and emphatic nature of the figure, suggests aesthetic compositions similar to those of the painter Ambrosius Benson (Lombardy, ca. 1490-1500 - Bruges, January 1550), whose Saint Jerome in the collection of the Mayer van den Bergh Museum, Antwerp, is very similar to the present work. In both works the saint is immersed in a rocky interior that opens slightly onto the landscape in the upper left corner. In the centre of the composition, Saint Jerome, dressed in a greyish tunic that reveals a glimpse of his torso, holds a cross with the body of Christ in his hands. It is on this point that the two works differ, as in the present painting the saint only holds the cross. Finally, the work is completed with the iconographic attributes typical of Saint Jerome, such as the lion and the skull. Ambrosius Benson was one of the so-called masters of the tradition, a successor of Van der Goes, and was influenced by Van Eyck, Van der Weyden and the Flemish Primitives in general. Nonetheless, his work reveals 16th-century features from Italy, such as the triangular composition in the present work. Originally from Lombardy, his painting reveals more Italianate features. As can be seen in the present panel, his personal use of colour is particularly important, with a predominance of maroon tones in contrast to the whites and light tones of the flesh tones, which are thus very much emphasised in the composition. Also typical of his work is the velvety quality of the cloaks. Benson was a painter of religious subjects and portraits and trained with Gerard David in Bruges from 1518, the year in which he became a citizen.The depiction of Saint Jerome has been one of the most frequently depicted subjects in the world of art. Whether as a penitent or as a sage, the saint's biography has served to connect with the faithful and to convey the values of the Church. Saint Jerome was born near Aquileia (Italy) in 347. Trained in Rome, he was an accomplished rhetorician, as well as a polyglot. Baptised at the age of nineteen, between 375 and 378 he withdrew to the Syrian desert to lead an anchorite's life. He returned to Rome in 382 and became a collaborator of Pope Damasus. The accumulation of books and scrolls next to the saint alludes to the saint's translation of the Bible into Latin, which was considered the only official translation since the Council of Trent. The theme of Saint Jerome hearing the trumpet of the Last Judgement would become fashionable in Counter-Reformation Europe and would gradually take hold, displacing previous interpretations of the saint as a sage or penitent.

RENÉ LALIQUE (Ay, France, 1860- Paris, 1945)."Vase no. 3. France, ca. 1925.Art Deco tabletop centrepiece of circular form in acid-etched moulded glass with vegetal decorations and borders.Signed R. Lalique in the central area.Work reproduced in "Le Catalogue Raisonné del L'Ouvre en Verre de R. Lalique", by Felix Marcilhac, Les Editions de l'Amateur , Pag. 702, nº. 3020 with photo.Procedure: Private Collection, Spain between 1970-1990.Measurements: 2.5 cm (height); 23.5 cm (diameter).The firm Lalique was originally founded by René Jules Lalique (1860 - 1945), one of the most prominent glassmakers of the time, and one of the first to sculpt glass for large monumental works, such as the fountains on the Champs Elysées. He enjoyed great renown for his original creations of jewellery, perfume bottles, glasses, plates, etc., in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles. He trained with the Parisian jeweller Louis Aucoq, and then continued his studies at Sudenham Art College in London. The excellence of his creations and the taste he applied to his work earned him important commissions for the interior decoration of ships, trains such as the Orient Express, churches such as Saint-Nicasius in Reims, and numerous religious and civil goldsmiths' works. Lalique was not content with simply designing his models, but also founded a factory to produce them in large quantities, patenting several innovative glass manufacturing processes, and various technical effects such as "Lalique satin" or opalescent glass. Pieces by Lalique are preserved in prominent museums such as the Corning Museum of Glass and the Metropolitan Museum of Glass in New York, the Louvre and the Orsay Museum in Paris, among many others.

Ca. 300-1 BC. A substantial ceramic bull's head from a rhyton with naturalistic features; modelled with short horns, ears, frowning face, eyes, snout and fleshy muzzle. A rhyton is a roughly conical container from which fluids were intended to be drunk or to be poured, whether as part of a religious ritual or during feasting. See Ebbinghaus, S., Animal Shaped Vessels of the Ancient World, Feasting with Gods, Heroes and Kings, Harvard Art Museums, 2018, p.314, for a sketch of a similar. Size: L:165mm / W:86mm; 408gProvenance: Private London collector; obtained from an important London W1, gallery; previously acquired 1970s-1980s.

Ca.100-300 AD. A silver wine bowl with a hemispherical body and smooth walls. Banqueting was a major part of the aristocratic culture in antiquity and required a range of specialised utensils and vessels such as this one. Such items could also have religious purposes, used when making offerings to the gods.Size: L:30mm / W:100mm ; 65gProvenance: Property of a West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1980s.

Ca. 600-800 AD. A wearable, religious gold pendant in a circular form with a beaded border enclosing a relief decoration of two doves facing each other and perching o a trefoil-shaped tendril. In Christianity, the dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, also it was the dove that brought the olive branch to Noah on the Ark. This item is in wearable condition and it comes with a modern necklace cord.Size: L:22.5mm / W:20.1mm ; 2gProvenance: From an old British collection, acquired on the UK art market in the 1980s.

Ca. 224–651 AD.. Sassanian. A hemispherical bowl hammered from one sheet. The interior is decorated with a medallion showing a gilded animal surrounded by a circle of geometric motifs. The Sassanian empire is famed for the high quality of its ceremonial metalware, which was used both during banqueting and during religious rituals. Under the Sasanians, Iranian art experienced a general renaissance. Artistically, this period witnessed some of the highest achievements of Iranian civilization. Metalwork and gem engraving became highly sophisticated. For more information, please see Harper, Prudence Oliver and Meyers, Pieter (1981). Silver Vessels of the Sasanian Period, Vol. I. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And Gunter, A. C. and Jett, P. (1992). Ancient Iranian Metalwork in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art. MainzSize: L:46mm / W:125mm ; 89gProvenance: Acquiried from M.A.; Previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market since the 1970s.

Western Asiatic, Ca. 1200-700 BC. An attractive ceremonial axe head with flared blade and wide, cylindrical shaft tube. On the back, a solid bronze animal climbs the poll of the axe. The diligently worked-out muscular body is fixed on the shaft. Bronze weaponry production flourished from the 2nd millennium BC to about 700 BC when it was gradually replaced by iron. Swords, mace heads, spears, and arrows were exchanged via trade and war and are discovered in both civic and ritual contexts. An axe head such as this one would have been an important symbol of rank, and have served a purpose in warfare, but also in religious contexts as mace heads were common votive offerings in shrines. Size: L:145mm / W:100mm ; 650gProvenance: Property of a North London gentleman; previously acquired on the UK/European art market in the 1970s.

Ca. 1500-1000 BC. A bronze axe head featuring a curved blade with a tapering cheek, and a pick end with four spikes. An axe such as this one would have been an important symbol of rank, and have served a purpose in warfare, but also in religious contexts as axes were common votive offerings in shrines.Size: L:190mm / W:60mm ; 355gProvenance: Property of a West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1980s.

Ca. 2000-700 BC. A bronze axe head with a curved blade, tapering cheek, and a wedge-shaped adze to the rear. The shaft long and cylindrical. An axe such as this one would have been an important symbol of rank, and have served a purpose in warfare, but also in religious contexts as axes were common votive offerings in shrines.Size: L:245mm / W:90mm ; 1.64kgProvenance: Property of a West London gentleman; previously in a collection formed on the UK/International art market in the 1980s.

Ca. 3rd millennium BC. A cast bronze mace head/cudgel of a tubular shape. The upper part is decorated with 9 rows of raised chevrons, separated by a series of vertically orientated bands and framed above and below by three raised bands. A mace head such as this one would have been an important symbol of rank, and have served a purpose in warfare, but also in religious contexts as mace heads were common votive offerings in shrines. Reference: O. W. Muscarella, Bronze and Iron. Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, item 516, p. 391.Size: L:235mm / W:30mm ; 460gProvenance: From the collection of a London gentleman; formerly acquired in early 2000s in France; previously in 1970s European collection.

Ca. 3rd millennium BC. A cast bronze mace head/cudgel of a tubular shape. The upper part is decorated with panels of 13 rows of raised chevrons, separated by a series of vertically orientated bands and framed above and below by three raised bands. A mace head such as this one would have been an important symbol of rank, and have served a purpose in warfare, but also in religious contexts as mace heads were common votive offerings in shrines. Reference: O. W. Muscarella, Bronze and Iron. Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, item 516, p. 391.Size: L:220mm / W:30mm ; 430gProvenance: From the collection of a London gentleman; formerly acquired in early 2000s in France; previously in 1970s European collection.

A Collection of Various 19th Century and Later Metalwares, including pewter tankards, a large pewter tyg, silver plated entree dish, Art Nouveau brass andirons, an early 20th century Arts & Crafts copper mounted twin-handled vessel decorated with religious subjects, miniature brass fire curb, pewter caddies, candelabra; together with early 19th century wooden handled knives and forks, a sextant, plated cocktail shaker and a Victorian miniature cast iron fireplace etc (two shelves)From the Estate of Stephen Hamilton Rawlings, Scarborough.

OTTO DIX (Untermhaus, near Gera, Germany, 1891-Singen (Hohentwiel), 1969)."Portrait of Ursus", 1927.Pencil and sanguine drawing on paper.Signed and dated in the lower margin.Size: 31 x 37 cm.A representative of the New Objectivity and German Expressionism, Otto Dix became popular for his paintings of war painted during the First World War, a war in which he enlisted as a volunteer. Notable works from this period include Artillery (1914, Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf) and The War (1929-1930, Dresden Museum), The Trench (Schützengraben 1921-1923) and the series of 50 etchings entitled War (1924). His output includes 500 sketches and various portraits, as well as canvases and watercolours evoking the Renaissance period. Otto Dix trained at the School of Decorative Arts in Dresden, where he remained until 1914. After the war he returned to Dresden, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and worked as an independent artist, forming part of the Dresdner Sezession Gruppe from 1919, while participating in group exhibitions throughout Germany. He subsequently became a leading figure in the New Objectivity movement, with works that evinced his revulsion at the social injustice of post-war Germany. The acid colours of his compositions attest to this. From 1927 to 1933 Dix taught at the Dresden Academy until 1937, when he was dismissed by the Nazis, who included him in their Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition. Some of his paintings were burnt. From 1930 onwards his works show a period in which he stylistically approached both Lucas Cranach the Elder, Albrecht Dürer and Matthias Grünewald and Expressionist forms. In 1939 he was arrested and falsely accused of being involved in a plot against Adolf Hitler, but was later released. Without leaving Germany, he retired to Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance, where he devoted himself to landscape painting and depicting religious themes in a style close to that of Albrecht Altdorfer. He is currently represented in the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, the Fundación Juan March, the Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf, the Dresden Museum, the Schützengraben and the Bern Art Museum, among many other institutions worldwide.

§ GRAHAM SUTHERLAND O.M. (BRITISH 1903-1980) CRAY FIELDS, 1925 (TASSI 19) Etching, signed in pencil to marginDimensions:image size 11.5cm (4 1/2in), 12cm (4 3/4in)Provenance:Provenance: Mrs A. M. Bernhard-Smith, Twenty-One Gallery, LondonChristie's, South Kensington, 19th May 2016, lot 55.Literature: Roberto Tassi and Edward Quinn, Graham Sutherland: Complete Graphic Work, London 1988, no.19.Gordon Cooke, Graham Sutherland: Early Etchings, London 1993, no.11. Note: Graham Sutherland specialised in etching whilst a student at London University’s Goldsmith’s College School of Art between 1921 and 1926. He was taught by Malcolm Osborne and Stanley Anderson and trained alongside Paul Drury and William Larkins. It was during this formative period that he made the following group of etchings, with May Green created in 1927; all of them reveal his precocious and emerging talent. Indeed, Sutherland established his professional standing as a printmaker and held his first solo exhibition in 1924, at the Twenty-One Gallery in London. The following year he was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engraves. Shortly after graduating, he was appointed to the staff of Chelsea College of Art, where he taught engraving until 1932.In 1924, Larkins found an impression of The Herdman’s Cottage etching of 1850 by the visionary artist Samuel Palmer (1805-81) in a shop on the Charing Cross Road and showed it to his fellow students. Sutherland recalled the impact it had on him: ‘I remember that I was amazed at its completeness, both emotional and technical. It was unheard of at the school to cover the plate almost completely with work and quite new to us that the complex variety of the multiplicity of lines could form a tone of such luminosity…As we became familiar with Palmer’s later etchings, we ‘bit’ our plates deeper. We had always been warned against ‘overbiting’. But we did ‘overbite’ and we ‘burnished’ our way through innumerable ‘states’ quite unrepentant at the way we punished and maltreated the copper…It seemed to me wonderful that a strong emotion, such as was Palmer’s, could change and transform the appearance of things.’ (1)Palmer’s reputation had diminished since his death in 1881, but was resurrected when an exhibition of his work was mounted at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1926. As illustrated in the current group, Roberto Tassi has explained that Palmer’s influence on Sutherland’s etchings showed ‘in the presence of the sun and its light shining through the trees, the starry sky streaked with horizontal clouds, the contrast between the evening dusk that is already creeping over the land in thickening shadows and the soaring beams of the setting sun.’ (2)Sutherland engaged with and extended the English pastoral tradition and its idealism, with Gordon Cooke proclaiming: ‘Prints such as Village, Pecken Wood, Cray Fields, St Mary Hatch, Lammas and May Green concern the unchanging experience of life in the countryside, the generations which have worked in it and lived from it and the manner in which nature rules such a way of life.’ (3) Yet Sutherland’s etched images of the mid-1920s are also laced with nostalgia - as rural communities changed - and with an embracing of religion which culminated in his acceptance into the Roman Catholic church in 1926.Tassi continues: ‘Throughout this period, the influence of Palmer continues, most noticeably in the atmosphere, which seems to be suspended, wrapped in mystery and a tinge of mysticism. The sun, the doves, the stars, the birds and the sheep all become religious symbols; the air is one of enchantment; the contrast between light and shade, though violent, is not disturbing, but seems rather to diffuse an air or quietude over the world. In general, however, the feeling is one of abstraction rather than life.’ (4)Sutherland’s success as an etcher came to an abrupt end with the collapse of the art market following the Wall Street crash of 1929. He turned to painting, but returned to print-making at various points during his career, including lithography in the 1940s and 1950s before a resumption of etching in the 1970s.(1) As quoted in Ronald Alley, Graham Sutherland, London, 1982, p 9.(2) Roberto Tassi and Edward Quinn, Graham Sutherland: Complete Graphic Work, London 1978, p.19(3) Gordon Cooke, Graham Sutherland: Early Etchings, London 1993, unpaginated(4) Tassi op.cit., p.20 Note: Gordon Cooke has noted that 'the Cray is a river, rising at St Mary Cray, near Farningham, where Graham Sutherland moved in 1927' (op.cit., unpaginated). Roberto Tassi has remarked that in this work ‘the bewitching atmosphere of [Samuel] Palmer…is clearly in the ascendant here, as we can see from the stars, the tall spikes and line of hop-poles’. (op.cit., p. 20)

§ GRAHAM SUTHERLAND O.M. (BRITISH 1903-1980) THE VILLAGE, 1925 (TASSI 20) Etching, signed in pencil to marginDimensions:17cm (6 3/4in), 22cm (8 3/4in)Provenance:Provenance: Christie's, South Kensington, 16th April 2014, lot 120.Literature: Roberto Tassi and Edward Quinn, Graham Sutherland: Complete Graphic Work, London 1988, no.20.Gordon Cooke, Graham Sutherland: Early Etchings, London 1993, no. 9. Note: Graham Sutherland specialised in etching whilst a student at London University’s Goldsmith’s College School of Art between 1921 and 1926. He was taught by Malcolm Osborne and Stanley Anderson and trained alongside Paul Drury and William Larkins. It was during this formative period that he made the following group of etchings, with May Green created in 1927; all of them reveal his precocious and emerging talent. Indeed, Sutherland established his professional standing as a printmaker and held his first solo exhibition in 1924, at the Twenty-One Gallery in London. The following year he was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engraves. Shortly after graduating, he was appointed to the staff of Chelsea College of Art, where he taught engraving until 1932.In 1924, Larkins found an impression of The Herdman’s Cottage etching of 1850 by the visionary artist Samuel Palmer (1805-81) in a shop on the Charing Cross Road and showed it to his fellow students. Sutherland recalled the impact it had on him: ‘I remember that I was amazed at its completeness, both emotional and technical. It was unheard of at the school to cover the plate almost completely with work and quite new to us that the complex variety of the multiplicity of lines could form a tone of such luminosity…As we became familiar with Palmer’s later etchings, we ‘bit’ our plates deeper. We had always been warned against ‘overbiting’. But we did ‘overbite’ and we ‘burnished’ our way through innumerable ‘states’ quite unrepentant at the way we punished and maltreated the copper…It seemed to me wonderful that a strong emotion, such as was Palmer’s, could change and transform the appearance of things.’ (1)Palmer’s reputation had diminished since his death in 1881, but was resurrected when an exhibition of his work was mounted at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1926. As illustrated in the current group, Roberto Tassi has explained that Palmer’s influence on Sutherland’s etchings showed ‘in the presence of the sun and its light shining through the trees, the starry sky streaked with horizontal clouds, the contrast between the evening dusk that is already creeping over the land in thickening shadows and the soaring beams of the setting sun.’ (2)Sutherland engaged with and extended the English pastoral tradition and its idealism, with Gordon Cooke proclaiming: ‘Prints such as Village, Pecken Wood, Cray Fields, St Mary Hatch, Lammas and May Green concern the unchanging experience of life in the countryside, the generations which have worked in it and lived from it and the manner in which nature rules such a way of life.’ (3) Yet Sutherland’s etched images of the mid-1920s are also laced with nostalgia - as rural communities changed - and with an embracing of religion which culminated in his acceptance into the Roman Catholic church in 1926.Tassi continues: ‘Throughout this period, the influence of Palmer continues, most noticeably in the atmosphere, which seems to be suspended, wrapped in mystery and a tinge of mysticism. The sun, the doves, the stars, the birds and the sheep all become religious symbols; the air is one of enchantment; the contrast between light and shade, though violent, is not disturbing, but seems rather to diffuse an air of quietude over the world. In general, however, the feeling is one of abstraction rather than life.’ (4)Sutherland’s success as an etcher came to an abrupt end with the collapse of the art market following the Wall Street crash of 1929. He turned to painting, but returned to print-making at various points during his career, including lithography in the 1940s and 1950s before a resumption of etching in the 1970s.(1) As quoted in Ronald Alley, Graham Sutherland, London, 1982, p 9.(2) Roberto Tassi and Edward Quinn, Graham Sutherland: Complete Graphic Work, London 1978, p.19(3) Gordon Cooke, Graham Sutherland: Early Etchings, London 1993, unpaginated(4) Tassi op.cit., p.20Note: Gordon Cooke has linked The Village to Samuel Palmer's etching The Bellman of 1879 (op.cit., unpaginated, see Victoria & Albert Museum collection acc. no.E.1465-1926). In contrast, Roberto Tassi detected the influence of Jean-François Millet and declared that The Village revealed 'a new and absolutely original vision...with tilled fields, weary labourers, their wretched cottages and the evening stillness that weighs on everything.' (op.cit., p. 19) Ronald Alley has explained that the scene depicted was 'based mainly on scenery around Cudham in Kent, but with elements from Warning Camp in Sussex.’ (Ronald Alley, Graham Sutherland, London 1982, p. 58.)

§ GRAHAM SUTHERLAND O.M. (BRITISH 1903-1980) PECKEN WOOD, 1925 (TASSI 21) Etching, signed in pencil to marginDimensions:13.5cm (5 1/4in), 18cm (7in)Provenance:Provenance: Mrs A. M. Bernhard-Smith, Twenty-One Gallery, LondonChristie's, South Kensington, 19th May 2016, lot 51.Literature: Roberto Tassi and Edward Quinn, Graham Sutherland: Complete Graphic Work, London 1988, no.21.Gordon Cooke, Graham Sutherland: Early Etchings, London 1993, no.10. Note: Graham Sutherland specialised in etching whilst a student at London University’s Goldsmith’s College School of Art between 1921 and 1926. He was taught by Malcolm Osborne and Stanley Anderson and trained alongside Paul Drury and William Larkins. It was during this formative period that he made the following group of etchings, with May Green created in 1927; all of them reveal his precocious and emerging talent. Indeed, Sutherland established his professional standing as a printmaker and held his first solo exhibition in 1924, at the Twenty-One Gallery in London. The following year he was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engraves. Shortly after graduating, he was appointed to the staff of Chelsea College of Art, where he taught engraving until 1932.In 1924, Larkins found an impression of The Herdman’s Cottage etching of 1850 by the visionary artist Samuel Palmer (1805-81) in a shop on the Charing Cross Road and showed it to his fellow students. Sutherland recalled the impact it had on him: ‘I remember that I was amazed at its completeness, both emotional and technical. It was unheard of at the school to cover the plate almost completely with work and quite new to us that the complex variety of the multiplicity of lines could form a tone of such luminosity…As we became familiar with Palmer’s later etchings, we ‘bit’ our plates deeper. We had always been warned against ‘overbiting’. But we did ‘overbite’ and we ‘burnished’ our way through innumerable ‘states’ quite unrepentant at the way we punished and maltreated the copper…It seemed to me wonderful that a strong emotion, such as was Palmer’s, could change and transform the appearance of things.’ (1)Palmer’s reputation had diminished since his death in 1881, but was resurrected when an exhibition of his work was mounted at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1926. As illustrated in the current group, Roberto Tassi has explained that Palmer’s influence on Sutherland’s etchings showed ‘in the presence of the sun and its light shining through the trees, the starry sky streaked with horizontal clouds, the contrast between the evening dusk that is already creeping over the land in thickening shadows and the soaring beams of the setting sun.’ (2)Sutherland engaged with and extended the English pastoral tradition and its idealism, with Gordon Cooke proclaiming: ‘Prints such as Village, Pecken Wood, Cray Fields, St Mary Hatch, Lammas and May Green concern the unchanging experience of life in the countryside, the generations which have worked in it and lived from it and the manner in which nature rules such a way of life.’ (3) Yet Sutherland’s etched images of the mid-1920s are also laced with nostalgia - as rural communities changed - and with an embracing of religion which culminated in his acceptance into the Roman Catholic church in 1926.Tassi continues: ‘Throughout this period, the influence of Palmer continues, most noticeably in the atmosphere, which seems to be suspended, wrapped in mystery and a tinge of mysticism. The sun, the doves, the stars, the birds and the sheep all become religious symbols; the air is one of enchantment; the contrast between light and shade, though violent, is not disturbing, but seems rather to diffuse an air or quietude over the world. In general, however, the feeling is one of abstraction rather than life.’ (4)Sutherland’s success as an etcher came to an abrupt end with the collapse of the art market following the Wall Street crash of 1929. He turned to painting, but returned to print-making at various points during his career, including lithography in the 1940s and 1950s before a resumption of etching in the 1970s.(1) As quoted in Ronald Alley, Graham Sutherland, London, 1982, p 9.(2) Roberto Tassi and Edward Quinn, Graham Sutherland: Complete Graphic Work, London 1978, p.19(3) Gordon Cooke, Graham Sutherland: Early Etchings, London 1993, unpaginated(4) Tassi op.cit., p.20 Note: Ronald Alley has written about this work that the rural world it depicts ‘is one of the past, the evocation of a mode of village life which had almost completely passed away. The emphasis is on the autumnal fertility of nature, with man living in communion with nature and...the moment depicted is when the sun is setting, or near setting and the stars are beginning to come out.' (Ronald Alley, Graham Sutherland, London 1983, p. 59)

§ GRAHAM SUTHERLAND O.M. (BRITISH 1903-1980) ST. MARY'S HATCH, 1926 (TASSI 22) Etching, signed in pencil to marginDimensions:12cm (4 3/4in), 18cm (7in)Provenance:Provenance: Mrs A. M. Bernhard-Smith, Twenty-One Gallery, LondonChristie's, South Kensington, 19th May 2016, lot 52.Literature: Roberto Tassi and Edward Quinn, Graham Sutherland: Complete Graphic Work, London 1988, no.22.Gordon Cooke, Graham Sutherland: Early Etchings, London 1993, no.13. Note: Graham Sutherland specialised in etching whilst a student at London University’s Goldsmith’s College School of Art between 1921 and 1926. He was taught by Malcolm Osborne and Stanley Anderson and trained alongside Paul Drury and William Larkins. It was during this formative period that he made the following group of etchings, with May Green created in 1927; all of them reveal his precocious and emerging talent. Indeed, Sutherland established his professional standing as a printmaker and held his first solo exhibition in 1924, at the Twenty-One Gallery in London. The following year he was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engraves. Shortly after graduating, he was appointed to the staff of Chelsea College of Art, where he taught engraving until 1932.In 1924, Larkins found an impression of The Herdman’s Cottage etching of 1850 by the visionary artist Samuel Palmer (1805-81) in a shop on the Charing Cross Road and showed it to his fellow students. Sutherland recalled the impact it had on him: ‘I remember that I was amazed at its completeness, both emotional and technical. It was unheard of at the school to cover the plate almost completely with work and quite new to us that the complex variety of the multiplicity of lines could form a tone of such luminosity…As we became familiar with Palmer’s later etchings, we ‘bit’ our plates deeper. We had always been warned against ‘overbiting’. But we did ‘overbite’ and we ‘burnished’ our way through innumerable ‘states’ quite unrepentant at the way we punished and maltreated the copper…It seemed to me wonderful that a strong emotion, such as was Palmer’s, could change and transform the appearance of things.’ (1)Palmer’s reputation had diminished since his death in 1881, but was resurrected when an exhibition of his work was mounted at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1926. As illustrated in the current group, Roberto Tassi has explained that Palmer’s influence on Sutherland’s etchings showed ‘in the presence of the sun and its light shining through the trees, the starry sky streaked with horizontal clouds, the contrast between the evening dusk that is already creeping over the land in thickening shadows and the soaring beams of the setting sun.’ (2)Sutherland engaged with and extended the English pastoral tradition and its idealism, with Gordon Cooke proclaiming: ‘Prints such as Village, Pecken Wood, Cray Fields, St Mary Hatch, Lammas and May Green concern the unchanging experience of life in the countryside, the generations which have worked in it and lived from it and the manner in which nature rules such a way of life.’ (3) Yet Sutherland’s etched images of the mid-1920s are also laced with nostalgia - as rural communities changed - and with an embracing of religion which culminated in his acceptance into the Roman Catholic church in 1926.Tassi continues: ‘Throughout this period, the influence of Palmer continues, most noticeably in the atmosphere, which seems to be suspended, wrapped in mystery and a tinge of mysticism. The sun, the doves, the stars, the birds and the sheep all become religious symbols; the air is one of enchantment; the contrast between light and shade, though violent, is not disturbing, but seems rather to diffuse an air or quietude over the world. In general, however, the feeling is one of abstraction rather than life.’ (4)Sutherland’s success as an etcher came to an abrupt end with the collapse of the art market following the Wall Street crash of 1929. He turned to painting, but returned to print-making at various points during his career, including lithography in the 1940s and 1950s before a resumption of etching in the 1970s.(1) As quoted in Ronald Alley, Graham Sutherland, London, 1982, p 9.(2) Roberto Tassi and Edward Quinn, Graham Sutherland: Complete Graphic Work, London 1978, p.19(3) Gordon Cooke, Graham Sutherland: Early Etchings, London 1993, unpaginated(4) Tassi op.cit., p.20Note: St Mary's Hatch comes from ‘a series of small, densely worked etchings of rural England, thatched cottages and churches, fields with stooks of corn, the setting sun and the first evening stars, which were intensely poetic evocations of a more or less lost world of innocence and religious piety.’ (Ronald Alley, Graham Sutherland, London 1982, p. 9)

§ GRAHAM SUTHERLAND O.M. (BRITISH 1903-1980) MAY GREEN, 1927 (TASSI 24) Etching, signed in pencil to marginDimensions:11cm (4 1/4in), 16cm (6 1/4in)Provenance:Provenance: Christie's, South Kensington, 16th April 2014, lot 121.Literature: Roberto Tassi and Edward Quinn, Graham Sutherland: Complete Graphic Work, London 1988, no.24.Gordon Cooke, Graham Sutherland: Early Etchings, London 1993, no.16. Note: Graham Sutherland specialised in etching whilst a student at London University’s Goldsmith’s College School of Art between 1921 and 1926. He was taught by Malcolm Osborne and Stanley Anderson and trained alongside Paul Drury and William Larkins. It was during this formative period that he made the following group of etchings, with May Green created in 1927; all of them reveal his precocious and emerging talent. Indeed, Sutherland established his professional standing as a printmaker and held his first solo exhibition in 1924, at the Twenty-One Gallery in London. The following year he was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engraves. Shortly after graduating, he was appointed to the staff of Chelsea College of Art, where he taught engraving until 1932.In 1924, Larkins found an impression of The Herdman’s Cottage etching of 1850 by the visionary artist Samuel Palmer (1805-81) in a shop on the Charing Cross Road and showed it to his fellow students. Sutherland recalled the impact it had on him: ‘I remember that I was amazed at its completeness, both emotional and technical. It was unheard of at the school to cover the plate almost completely with work and quite new to us that the complex variety of the multiplicity of lines could form a tone of such luminosity…As we became familiar with Palmer’s later etchings, we ‘bit’ our plates deeper. We had always been warned against ‘overbiting’. But we did ‘overbite’ and we ‘burnished’ our way through innumerable ‘states’ quite unrepentant at the way we punished and maltreated the copper…It seemed to me wonderful that a strong emotion, such as was Palmer’s, could change and transform the appearance of things.’ (1)Palmer’s reputation had diminished since his death in 1881, but was resurrected when an exhibition of his work was mounted at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1926. As illustrated in the current group, Roberto Tassi has explained that Palmer’s influence on Sutherland’s etchings showed ‘in the presence of the sun and its light shining through the trees, the starry sky streaked with horizontal clouds, the contrast between the evening dusk that is already creeping over the land in thickening shadows and the soaring beams of the setting sun.’ (2)Sutherland engaged with and extended the English pastoral tradition and its idealism, with Gordon Cooke proclaiming: ‘Prints such as Village, Pecken Wood, Cray Fields, St Mary Hatch, Lammas and May Green concern the unchanging experience of life in the countryside, the generations which have worked in it and lived from it and the manner in which nature rules such a way of life.’ (3) Yet Sutherland’s etched images of the mid-1920s are also laced with nostalgia - as rural communities changed - and with an embracing of religion which culminated in his acceptance into the Roman Catholic church in 1926.Tassi continues: ‘Throughout this period, the influence of Palmer continues, most noticeably in the atmosphere, which seems to be suspended, wrapped in mystery and a tinge of mysticism. The sun, the doves, the stars, the birds and the sheep all become religious symbols; the air is one of enchantment; the contrast between light and shade, though violent, is not disturbing, but seems rather to diffuse an air or quietude over the world. In general, however, the feeling is one of abstraction rather than life.’ (4)Sutherland’s success as an etcher came to an abrupt end with the collapse of the art market following the Wall Street crash of 1929. He turned to painting, but returned to print-making at various points during his career, including lithography in the 1940s and 1950s before a resumption of etching in the 1970s.(1) As quoted in Ronald Alley, Graham Sutherland, London, 1982, p 9.(2) Roberto Tassi and Edward Quinn, Graham Sutherland: Complete Graphic Work, London 1978, p.19(3) Gordon Cooke, Graham Sutherland: Early Etchings, London 1993, unpaginated(4) Tassi op.cit., p.20 Note: According to Gordon Cooke, this was the only etching which Sutherland made in 1927 (op.cit, unpaginated). He has also explained that it is the last in a series of four etchings, including Cray Fields and St Mary Hatch, ‘which seem to celebrate both religious and rural values, anchoring the scenes to the calendar and particular places.’