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Pele signed 6x4 colour photo. Edson Arantes do Nascimento is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century. In 1999 he was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and was included in the Time list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. In 2000, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century. His 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which included friendlies, is recognised as a Guinness World Record. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Jacqueline Bisset signed 10x8 colour photo and signed 6x4 colour promo photo. She began her film career in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1968 with roles in The Detective, Bullitt, and The Sweet Ride, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. In the 1970s, she starred in Airport (1970), The Mephisto Waltz (1971), Day for Night (1973), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Murder on the Orient Express (1974), St. Ives (1976), The Deep (1977), The Greek Tycoon (1978) and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress - Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Sylvia Kristel ALS signed dated Amsterdam April 2006 lot comes with risque 10x8 colour photo. Sylvia Maria Kristel (28 September 1952 - 17 October 2012) was a Dutch actress and model who appeared in over 50 films. She is best remembered as the eponymous character in five of the seven Emmanuelle films. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Bernadette Lafont 12x8 signature piece includes signed album page and risque black and white photo fixed to A4 sheet. Bernadette Lafont (28 October 1938 - 25 July 2013) was a French actress who appeared in more than 120 feature films. She has been considered the face of French New Wave. In 1999 she told The New York Times her work was the motor of my existence. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Hafez al-Assad signed 6x4 black and white photo. Hafez al-Assad (6 October 1930 - 10 June 2000) was a Syrian statesman and military officer who served as President of Syria from 1971 to 2000. He was also Prime Minister of Syria from 1970 to 1971, as well as regional secretary of the regional command of the Syrian regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and secretary general of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party from 1970 to 2000. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Angela Merkel signed 6x4 colour CDU photo. Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German former politician and scientist who served as the chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and as Leader of the CDU from 2000 to 2018. Merkel was the first female chancellor of Germany. During her tenure as Chancellor, Merkel was frequently referred to as the de facto leader of the European Union (EU) and the most powerful woman in the world. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

James Leavelle signed 6x4 black and white photo. James Robert Leavelle (August 23, 1920 - August 29, 2019) was a Dallas Police Department homicide detective who, on November 24, 1963, was escorting John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald through the basement of Dallas Police headquarters when Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby. Leavelle prominently appeared in several famous photographs, including one that won a Pulitzer Prize, taken of Oswald just before and as Ruby pulled the trigger. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Jurgen Klopp signed 6x4 colour promo photo. Jürgen Norbert Klopp ( born 16 June 1967) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Premier League club Liverpool. He is widely regarded as one of the best managers in the world. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Dr Who multi signed 14x12 colour photo 20 former cast members of the iconic BBC show includes John Leeson, Caroline Munro, Phillip Voss, Sheila Reid, Christopher Ryan, Dan Peacock, Cheryl Rowlands, Leslie Ash and John D Collins . Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Gordon Banks signed 1966 Retro Replica England World Cup Winners Goalkeeper shirt. Gordon Banks OBE (30 December 1937 - 12 February 2019) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional career, and won 73 caps for England, highlighted by starting every game of the nation's 1966 World Cup victory. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Graham Hill signed 6x4 album page. Norman Graham Hill OBE (15 February 1929 - 29 November 1975) was a British racing driver and team owner, who was the Formula One World Champion twice, winning in 1962 and 1968 as well as being runner up on three occasions (1963, 1964 and 1965). Despite not passing his driving test until 1953 when he was already 24 years of age, and only entering the world of motorsports a year later, Hill would go on to become one of the greatest drivers of his generation. Hill is most celebrated for being the only driver ever to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Ursula Andress signed 10x8 James Bond colour photo. Ursula Andress (born 19 March 1936) is a Swiss actress, former model and sex symbol who has appeared in American, British and Italian films. Her breakthrough role was as Bond girl Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film, Dr. No (1962). She later starred as Vesper Lynd in the 1967 Bond parody Casino Royale. Other credits include Fun in Acapulco (1963), 4 for Texas (1963), She (1965), The 10th Victim (1965), The Blue Max (1966), The Southern Star (1969), Perfect Friday (1970), Red Sun (1971), The Sensuous Nurse (1975), Slave of the Cannibal God (1978), The Fifth Musketeer (1979), Clash of the Titans (1981) and Peter the Great (1986). Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Maria Grazia Cucinotta signed 6x4 colour photo. Maria Grazia Cucinotta (born 27 July 1968) is an Italian actress who has featured in films and television series since 1990. She has also worked as a film producer, screenwriter and model. Internationally she is best known for her roles in Il Postino, as Isabella from HBO television series The Sopranos, and as the Bond girl, credited as a Cigar Girl, in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Keir Dullea signed 6x4 black and white photo. Keir Atwood Dullea (born May 30, 1936) is an American actor who portrayed astronaut David Bowman in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and its 1984 sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact. His other film roles include David and Lisa (1962), Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) and Black Christmas (1974). He studied acting at the Neighbourhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. Dullea has also had a long and successful career on stage in New York City and in regional theatres; he has stated that, despite being more recognized for his film work, he prefers the stage. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Gene Autry signed 6x4 colour post card photo. Orvon Grover Gene Autry (September 29, 1907 - October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning style on radio, in films, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was the owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Merle Oberon signed 6x4 black and white vintage postcard photo. Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 1911 - 23 November 1979) was an Indian-born British actress who began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). After her success in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), she travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel Goldwyn. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Dark Angel (1935). A traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that could have ended her career, but she recovered and remained active in film and television until 1973. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Fred Perry signed 7x5 black and white photo. Frederick John Perry (18 May 1909 - 2 February 1995) was a British tennis and table tennis player and former World No. 1 from England who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slam tournaments and two Pro Slams single titles, as well as six Major doubles titles. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships from 1934 to 1936 and was World Amateur number one tennis player during those three years. Prior to Andy Murray in 2013, Perry was the last British player to win the men's Wimbledon championship, in 1936, and the last British player to win a men's singles Grand Slam title, until Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Nelson Eddy signed 10x8 black and white vintage photo. Nelson Ackerman Eddy (June 29, 1901 - March 6, 1967) was an American singer, baritone and actor who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he co-starred with soprano Jeanette MacDonald. He was one of the first crossover stars, a superstar appealing both to shrieking bobby soxers and opera purists, and in his heyday, he was the highest paid singer in the world. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Bessie Love signed 8x6 black and white vintage photo. Bessie Love (born Juanita Horton; September 10, 1898 - April 26, 1986) was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films. Her acting career spanned eight decades-from silent film to sound film, including theatre, radio, and television-and her performance in The Broadway Melody (1929) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Gracie Allen and George Burns signed 10x8 vintage black and white photo. Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen (c. July 26, 1895 - August 27, 1964) was an American vaudevillian and comedian who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns, her straight man, appearing with him on radio, television, and film as the duo Burns and Allen. George Burns (born Nathan Birnbaum; January 20, 1896 - March 9, 1996) was an American comedian, actor, singer, and writer. He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, radio, film, and television. His arched eyebrow and cigar-smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three-quarters of a century. He and his wife, Gracie Allen, appeared on radio, television, and film as the comedy duo Burns and Allen. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Azam Khan signed 10x8 black and white vintage photo. Azam Khan ( 20 April 1926 - 28 March 2020 ) was a Pakistani squash player who won the British Open Championships four times between 1959 and 1962. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Gareth Edwards signed 10x8 colour photo. Sir Gareth Owen Edwards, CBE (born 12 July 1947) is a Welsh former rugby union player who played scrum-half and has been described by the BBC as arguably the greatest player ever to don a Welsh jersey. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Eddie Edwards signed 10x8 colour montage photo. Michael David Edwards (born 5 December 1963),better known as Eddie the Eagle, is an English ski-jumper and Olympian who in 1988 became the first competitor since 1928 to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping, finishing last in the Normal Hill and Large Hill events. He held the British ski jumping record from 1988 to 2001. He also took part in amateur speed skiing, running at 106.8 km/h (66.4 mph), and became a stunt jumping world record holder for jumping over 6 buses. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard signed album page cutting dated 18. 8. 43. Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO (3 February 1873 10 February 1956) was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the Father of the Royal Air Force. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

Ian Douglas Smith signed Spitfire 50th Anniversary FDC PM Eastleigh Hampshire 5 March 1986. Ian Douglas Smith GCLM ID (8 April 1919 - 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1979. He was the country's first premier not born abroad, and led the predominantly white government that unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in November 1965 following prolonged dispute over the terms, particularly British demands for black majority rule. He remained Prime Minister for almost all of the 14 years of international isolation that followed, and oversaw Rhodesia's security forces during most of the Bush War, which pitted the unrecognised administration against communist-backed black nationalist guerrilla groups. Smith, who has been described as personifying white Rhodesia, remains a highly controversial figure. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £4.99, EU from £6.99, Rest of World from £8.99

El Anatsui (Ghanaian, born 1944)Uli, circa early 1980s carved and incised wooden panels96 x 287 x 2.5cm (37 13/16 x 113 x1in).(in 11 pieces)Footnotes:ProvenanceGifted by the artist;By descent to the present owner.Born in Ghana in 1944, El Anatsui has achieved international success as one of the most highly acclaimed artists working globally today. While perhaps best known for the distinctive cloth-like forms he creates from interlinked bottle caps, wooden sculpture remains at the heart of the artist's practice. The present work, Uli, exemplifies the multi-panelled wooden pieces that El Anatsui has created throughout his career. He typically carves into the surface of the wood to create decorative patterns which extend across the individual panels to produce a unified design. El Anatsui recalls that he created the present work in the 1980s '[a]fter meeting and interacting with Uche Okeke and imbibing some uli aesthetic strategies'. Uche Okeke was a pioneer of Nigerian art who founded the influential Zaria Art Society in the 1970s with fellow students at the Nigeria College of Arts, Science and Technology including Yusuf Grillo, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Demas Nwoko (all artists represented in the present auction). The society championed the fundamental role of indigenous African themes, techniques, and materials in the construction of a contemporary Nigerian aesthetic following the country's independence from colonial rule in the 1960s. Okeke was preoccupied with the uli aesthetic of the Igbo people from southeast Nigeria. Traditionally practiced by female members of the community and employed as a decorative scheme for murals or stained onto the body, uli design is characterised by curvilinear and abstracted forms which are frequently asymmetrical and painted in a spontaneous manner. Ukeke asserted his belief that engagement with this traditional form of mark-making 'will help liberate as well as enrich contemporary thinking in Africa. One can only be oneself, I think, through deeper understanding of one's local traditions' (Uche Okeke, 2019 [1982]: p. 25).In the present work, El Anatsui interprets the uli aesthetic championed by Ukeke through the incised design on the surface of the wooden panels. A rounded form is created using intersecting lines arranged at different angles and with different degrees of curvature. The larger circle encompasses a smaller, heavily incised circle, giving the impression of a biomorphic organic form. A broken line sweeps across the top of the two passages of incisions to unite the design of the work and create a sense of fluidity across the individual panels. The design is both evocative of uli decorative traditions and El Anatsui's own distinctive language of mark-making exemplified in his other wooden sculptures. This reimagining of the indigenous Nigerian aesthetic within his own practice evidences the Ghanian artist's interest in drawing links between contemporary artmaking and the canon of West-African art history. Awarded the Venice Biennale Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2015, El Anatsui has exhibited his works widely in prestigious institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Hayward Gallery in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. In 2019, he received his largest retrospective to date at Munich's Haus der Kunst.BibliographyUche Okeke, Art in Development – A Nigerian Perspective (Germany, 2019 [1982]).This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Clara Etso Ugbodaga-Ngu (Nigerian, 1921-1996)Dancers signed and dated 'Etso C Ugbodaga Ngu '65' (lower right)oil on board46 x 35.8cm (18 1/8 x 14 1/8in).Footnotes:ProvenanceAcquired by Ambassador Elbert G. Mathews in Nigeria in the mid-1960s;A US collection.Clara Etso Ugbodaga-Ngu (1921-1996) is an iconic figure in Nigerian art history. An influential artist and educator, she played a substantial role in the structural advancement of the postcolonial modernist art scene that emerged around the country's independence in 1960. Born in Kano, Ugbodaga-Ngu taught art in mission schools in the North before receiving a scholarship from the colonial administration to study art at the Chelsea School of Art and train as a teacher at the London Institute of Education. On her return to Nigeria, she began work as an art teacher with the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria (NCAST) becoming the first Nigerian - and furthermore, the first female - teacher in the department. This appointment was hugely significant as it placed an African woman in one of the key art institutions of the time.Ugbodaga-Ngu taught the students who went on to form the Zaria Art Society. Popularly described as the 'Zaria rebels', this group of artists played an integral part in the development of the Nigerian art canon, rejecting European modes of art production to develop a unique hybrid art-making practice. Describing her as a 'doyen of the artists, a painter and sculptor', Nigeria Magazine stated that 'she taught most of the leading Nigerian contemporary artists' and Ugbodaga-Ngu herself remarked that the 'majority of the young men who were my students are Nigeria's main source of manpower in institutions of higher learning, museums, industries and the private sector' (N. Akande, 2019). Ugbodaga-Ngu therefore made a vital contribution to the development of the Nigerian art canon as her students went on to play founding roles in nurturing later generations of artists, setting up art schools and influencing the shape of Nigerian art into the present day.Ugbodaga-Ngu was defiant of the one-point perspective or formal representational style adopted by early modernist artists working in Nigeria such as Aina Onabolu (1881-1963). Moving away from a figurative style, she produced completely abstract work early in her career, blending Western and Nigerian traditions, forms, techniques, and ideas to create fresh modernist work. To adopt the language of Modernism was a rebellious act because 'any claim from an African to be a modern artist in [the eyes of the West was] unthinkable and impudent' (E. Nicodemus, 1993: p. 32). The portrayal of local concerns and everyday life made her work distinct in a period where Nigerian modern artists were often preoccupied with producing imagery of 'woman' as the symbol of postcolonial rebirth or presenting versions of a romanticised precolonial past. In 1958, Ugbodaga-Ngu held a solo exhibition at the Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery, London — the first art exhibition by a Nigerian female artist in the UK —followed by an exhibition in Boston, USA (1963). Her work was featured in group shows such as Independence Exhibition (1960), Lagos; Contemporary Nigerian Art (1968), London; and FESTAC '77 (1977), Lagos, where she was one of only seven women among the sixty-three participating artists. Although Ugbodaga-Ngu and her contemporary female artists have been obscured by the colonial, patriarchal biases of art history, recent academic exploration into globalised historical perspectives has prompted scholars to revisit her oeuvre, to highlight, complicate and destabilise orthodox understandings of female Nigerian artists and their contributions to Modernism. For example, her oil painting Abstract (1960) was recently shown as part of Museum global. Microhistories of an Ex-centric Modernism at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany — a project which problematised the centring of Modernism on the Western art canon. Dancers is an exceptional example of Ugbodaga-Ngu's interest in blending Nigerian motifs and subject matter with a semi-abstract style. The painting portrays two dancers within a complex architectural composition, the figures integrated into angular, tapering shapes whose sharp edges, flattened surfaces and geometric elements burst with movement. The rich, vibrant colour palette presents individuals with strength, confidence and purpose: the characters are dancing, engaged in the moment and not performing for the viewer. Ugbodaga-Ngu's recognisable geometric diamond shaping and open contouring of the human form is evident in this painting, which indicates the development of her style from earlier works such as Market Women (1961). These works sit alongside Beggars (1963) or Man and Bird (1963) as fascinating portrayals of the social, cultural and political history of Nigerian people in the moment following Nigerian independence.Dancers was acquired by Elbert G. Mathews in the mid-1960s while he was serving as the United States Ambassador to Nigeria. Appointed to the position by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Mathews remained in the diplomatic role until 1969.We are grateful to Stacey Kennedy for the compilation of the above footnote.BibliographyN. Akande, Uncovered Female Nigerian Artists, exh. cat., FEAAN (London, 2019)E. Nicodemus, 'Meeting Carl Einstein', Third text: Third World perspectives on contemporary art and culture, 23 (1993): 31-38Nigeria Magazine, vol 96 (1968).This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Gerard Sekoto (South African, 1913-1993)Portrait of a youth signed 'G Sekoto' (twice, lower right)oil on canvas61 x 50cm (24 x 19 11/16in).Footnotes:ProvenanceBonhams, London, 24 March 2010, lot 63;Grosvenor Gallery, London;A private collection, Lagos.It is challenging to precisely date the present work, as it forms part of a portrait series which runs through Gerard Sekoto's oeuvre from the 1950s. Portrait of a youth evokes the composition and palette of a series of bust portraits created by the artist in the 1960s – a decade colloquially referred to as Sekoto's 'Blue Head' period. The work illustrates a shift in the artist's style, as the warm yellows and oranges that had dominated his earlier palette are replaced with cool blues and black. The subject is depicted in profile, her head tilted down, so that half of the youth's face is cast in shadow. The areas of high relief – the cheekbone, bridge of the nose, and forehead – are highlighted in white and pick up strokes of buttery yellow in the clothing and background. The dominant cool palette of the present work evokes both Pablo Picasso's Blue Period and the distinctive employment of indigo in the figurative paintings of the pioneer of postcolonial Nigerian art, Yusuf Grillo, who worked contemporaneously to Sekoto. While recognising the influence of art historical references on his practice, the South African artist's decision to employ this palette was primarily motivated by aesthetic preoccupations: 'The reason for my using the blue was merely because I chose it and that it was sufficiently strong to contrast with warmer colours' (Sekoto quoted in Lindop, 1988: p. 122). In the present work, warm pink and yellow highlights powerfully contrast with the blue and black background built up using textured brushstrokes. Presented in the artist's frame, Portrait of a youth thus stands as a skilful depiction of the human subject, expressed through Sekoto's signature handling of form and colour.BibliographyBarbara Lindop, Gerard Sekoto (Randburg, SA, 1988).This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu M.B.E (Nigerian, 1917-1994)My Mama at 80 titled, signed and dated 'MY MAMA/AT 80/ Ben Enwonwu/ 1973' (lower right)oil on canvas72 x 49.5cm (28 3/8 x 19 1/2in).Footnotes:ProvenanceThe artist's family.Painted in 1973, My Mama at 80 offers a striking portrait depicting the mother of the renowned pioneer of African modernism Odinigwe Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu MBE, better known as Ben Enwonwu (1917-1994). The artist's mother, Ajie Iyom Nweze Enwonwu, was born and lived in Onitsha on the eastern bank of the Niger river in Nigeria. She used the city as the base for her successful business trading textiles. While the demands of the textile trade frequently took Iyom Nweze away from the family when Enwonwu was a young child, they developed an exceptionally close relationship in her later years. The depth of this bond is illustrated through the intimate quality of the artist's approach to his subject. His expressive handling of paint is applied using individuated brushstrokes. The tactility of the strokes convey the psychological complexity of the subject through visceral passages of blue-green, creamy white, and deep brown, all juxtaposed with flushed pinks to great effect.Enwonwu's depiction of his mother conveys the matriarch's reputation as a formidable force in family and business matters alike. The composition of the portrait is closely cropped to her head and shoulders to focalise her direct gaze and stoic expression. Her command of authority is further expressed through Enwonwu's decision to paint Iyom Nweze in her Òtù Ọdụ title regalia (also referred to as Omu regalia in S. Ogbechie, 2008: p. 194). The Ọdụ title was granted to Onitsha women who were deemed to be important contributors to the progress, development, and peace of the local community. They were understood to constitute the elite women's socio-political and economic group and were accordingly granted the title Iyom. In the portrait, Enwonwu depicts Iyom Nweze in the official dress of the Òtù Ọdụ: two white loin cloths tied over each other, a white head tie, and a coral bead necklace. These were worn in addition to bangles and anklets made from elephant tusk - a valuable material which symbolises wealth, beauty, royalty, and authority in Onitsha culture. As the only known painting of his mother by the artist, the portrait is exceptional within Enwonwu's oeuvre. The highly personal subject matter situates the work within a broader lineage of artists who sought to represent close family members through their artmaking – a trope particularly prevalent in the Western painterly traditions that constituted a significant part of Enwonwu's training in Nigeria and at the Slade School of Fine Art in London where he studied in the 1940s. The non-representational dappled blue background and passages of pink paint applied to the cheeks of the subject particularly evoke Paul Cézanne's portraits of his wife, Marie-Hortense Fiquet, created in the 1880s. The French artist's experimental approach to painterly technique was of great inspiration to Enwonwu. During his lecture tour in the United States in 1949, he declared, 'Cézanne was a bad technician but he is among the greatest of the Impressionists' (Enwonwu quoted in S. Ogbechie, 2008: p. 107). Taking a similarly experimental approach to his own portraiture, Enwonwu fused such references to Western modes of figurative representation with traditional Igbo tropes to formulate a distinctly modern Nigerian aesthetic. He argued for the importance of embracing Western techniques while retaining the traditions of African art: 'Whatever the neo-African culture is today, art should express it and should employ all the native and acquired means that are possible' (Enwonwu quoted in Ogbechie, 2008: p. 79). This impetus to cultural hybridity championed by Enwonwu was shared by other influential pioneers of Nigerian modernism who were similarly responding to figurative Western traditions including Aina Onabolu (1881-1963) and Akinola Lasekan (1916-1974).Portraiture occupies a significant place in Enwonwu's oeuvre. He developed a signature stylistic approach to the human form as evidenced by the acclaimed portraits of women he created contemporaneously to My Mama at 80 in the early 1970s. Tutu (1974), Christine (1971), and Portrait of Marianne (1972) all feature women with elongated features. Such stylisation was understood by Enwonwu to physicalize the impetus he observed in postcolonial Nigerian society for growth 'in politics, in trade, in art, in every aspect of life' following the country's independence in 1960 (Enwonwu quoted in S. Nkwagu).Enwonwu's portrait of his mother consequently stands as a striking point of distinction. He does not employ his typical stylised elongation of the body, but rather depicts her faithfully with realist proportions to express the intimacy of their relationship. The work therefore stands as a testament to the importance of his mother's role throughout his life, while simultaneously offering a powerful example of the artist's contribution to the emergent aesthetics of a transnational Nigerian modernism.We are grateful to Osa Dahlton Ozigbo-Esere for their assistance researching Òtù Ọdụ title regalia. BibliographySylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist (Rochester, NY: 2008)Solomon Nkwagu, 'Ben Enwonwu', Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art and Google Arts & Culture, online.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Akinola Lasekan (Nigerian, 1921-1972)Femi signed 'Akinola Lasekan' (lower right)oil on board 48 x 38.5cm (18 7/8 x 15 3/16in).Footnotes:'A versatile artist is not just one who works in many stress areas of art, but one who handles each area of his interest with maximum professional competence, making him a master in each area, to the extent that it will be very difficult to really know the primary area of his speciality. He is not a 'Jack of all trades', as the cliché goes, but he is a master of all trades; that is, in each, he is a master. Akinola Lasekan was indeed a versatile artist... He was a painter, illustrator, textile designer, graphic designer, cartoonist, an art teacher, a proprietor and a curator:As a painter, Lasekan distinguished himself as early as 1938 when the Weekly Record newspaper recognised him 'as one of the portrait painters following the footsteps of Aina Onabolu, the pioneer.'The evidence is there with his superb academy colour language that is greatly and gracefully acquired by his portrait works, group compositions, landscapes and one-figure compositions. His paintings were well exhibited all over Nigeria, Ghana and the United Kingdom between 1940 and the early 1970's'.BibliographyProf. Ola Oloidi, 'Lasekan: The Unrivaled Pioneer', Position International Art Review, vol.5, no. 4.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Alexis Preller (South African, 1911-1975)Mapogga Women with a Child signed and dated 'Preller '53' (lower right)oil on canvas51 x 40.8cm (20 1/16 x 16 1/16in).Footnotes:ProvenanceAcquired directly from the artist;By direct descent to the present owners.Created in 1953, Mapogga Women with a Child was painted at the height of South African artist Alexis Preller's engagement with the 'Mapogga' theme. He had first encountered the people he called the 'Mapogga' (a term devised by the Boer settlers to name the Ndzundza group of the Southern Ndebele people) in 1935 on a sketching trip north of Pretoria. He came across a group of Ndebele women working in the fields and followed them to their village. Enraptured by the indigenous dress of the women, Preller embarked upon a career-long artistic project to capture his perception of the 'Mapogga' culture.In his treatment of the theme, Preller was not motivated to produce anthropological studies of the indigenous communities he encountered in South Africa. Crucially, his depictions of the Ndebele women (who served as his greatest source of inspiration) were rather shaped by his desire to formulate an iconic symbol of the essence of Africa – a distinctly modernist enterprise out of step with contemporary attitudes. His female figures are consequently highly stylised with elongated limbs, high-set breasts, and small ovoid heads. In the present work, the arms, necks, and ankles of the women are encircled with the rings typically worn by the Ndebele and their clothing is reimagined as geometric forms that enshroud the figures. Through a process of formal simplification, Preller transforms the matriarchs into icons 'through which I can convey what Africa means to me' (Preller quoted in Esmé Berman and Karel Nel, 2009a: p. 146).Preller conceived of his depiction of the 'Mapogga' people in relation to both his own situated experience and the avant-garde in Western art history. He described his painterly project as a means 'to identify myself with my age and place: Africa and the Twentieth Century' (Preller quoted in Esmé Berman and Karel Nel, 2009b: p. ix). The artist had left for England in 1934 where he studied for a year at the Westminster School of Art. In 1937 he continued his studies at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. Here, he engaged with the paintings of French Post-Impressionists including Paul Gaugin and Vincent van Gogh, along with the work of twentieth-century modernists including Picasso whose paintings dominated the city's galleries in the 1930s. The stylisation of the figures in Preller's 'Mapogga' works resound with references to this European modernism along with the surrealist aesthetic of the Italian artist, Giorgio de Chirico. While the first work on the 'Mapogga' theme was exhibited in 1936, the present work marks Preller's particular interest in the Ndebele women which he began to pursue with renewed vigour in the early 1950s. The compositional arrangement of the figures evidences the influence of the artist's trip to Italy made in 1953, the same year in which the current work was created. The central figure holds a child with one arm, emulating Western art historical imagery of Mary with the baby Jesus. Preller fuses his mythologising of the Ndebele people with the iconography of Christianity to present a reimagining of the mother with child in his distinctive painterly style. BibliographyEsmé Berman and Karel Nel, A Visual Biography. Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows (Saxonwold, Johannesburg, 2009a)Esmé Berman and Karel Nel, A Visual Biography. Alexis Preller: Collected Images (Saxonwold, Johannesburg, 2009b).This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Anton van Wouw (South African, 1862-1945)The Bushman Hunter signed and dated 'A.v.Wouw 1902' (base); further inscribed 'G. NISINI-FUSE - ROMA -' (base)bronze49 x 30 x 33cm (19 5/16 x 11 13/16 x 13in).Footnotes:ProvenanceA private collection, UK.LiteratureUniversity of Pretoria, Anton van Wouw en die van Wouwhuis (Pretoria, 1981), p. 27 (another edition illustrated)A.E. Duffy, Anton van Wouw: The Smaller Works (Pretoria, 2008), pp. 36-38 (another edition illustrated)J Ernst, Anton van Wouw: 'n Biografie deur J. Ernst (Vanderbijilpark, 2006), p. 66 (another edition illustrated)A.J. Werth, PIERNEEF/VAN WOUW: Paintings and sculptures by two South African masters (Cape Town, 1980/81), plate 43 (another edition illustrated).Exemplifying the expressive detail and finely wrought textures associated with Anton van Wouw's masterly sculptural practice, The Bushman Hunter has become one of the artist's most admired works. The small-scale sculpture depicts a male figure in a contrapposto stance, his weight resting on his front leg. The hunter's head is thrust forward as if searching ahead, while his tensed muscles engage in the interplay of action and reaction characteristic of the sculptural scheme. Declaring '[n]ature is the only method that endures', van Wouw pursued a naturalistic mode of representation rooted in his European art training (van Wouw, 1926: p. 9). Indeed, the artist's treatment of the male nude has garnered comparisons to Auguste Rodin's John the Baptist (preaching) (1877-1878), asserting the influence of the French sculptor on van Wouw who had encountered his work while a student at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Rotterdam. Such impetus towards realism represented by The Bushman Hunter positioned the artist at the forefront of the Western sculptural tradition in South Africa. The artist's pursuit of realism is further evidenced in his decision to use highly skilled European foundries to produce his bronzes. He favoured two workshops based in Rome that had developed strong reputations for fine craftsmanship: Galileo Massa and Giovanni Nisini. An inscription to the base of the present sculpture asserts that it was produced by the Nisini foundry. The accomplished casting process highlights van Wouw's masterly approach to capturing the minutiae of the subject's physicality: each forehead wrinkle, fold of skin, and curl upon the head of the hunter are finely articulated in bronze. Van Wouw worked from life, exercising a keen perceptiveness that allowed him to powerfully capture his subjects in diverse moods and situations. Following his emigration from the Netherlands to South Africa in 1889, the artist found himself compelled to represent the indigenous peoples he encountered. The present work depicts Korhaan (also known as Kiewiet) who worked for a year as a servant in van Wouw's household. During this time, he modelled for several works by the artist including a large bust and a body cast of the Bushman made for the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria. Demonstrating the precarity of the lives of the indigenous population in this period, Korhaan was subsequently enslaved and taken to America where he was exhibited in the P T Barnum & Bailey Circus for thirty years.Contextualising small-scale works such as The Bushman Hunter within van Wouw's wider oeuvre, A.E. Duffy opines that they 'do not only attest to Van Wouw's meticulous workmanship but also his profound knowledge of his subject matter' so that 'each individual work of art not only possesses minute detailing but also inner power and monumentality' (A.E. Duffy, 2008: p. 77). Indeed, Van Wouw understood his small sculptures to be a vital part of his oeuvre. It was this aspect of his practice that he chose to foreground in his first solo show which took place in Johannesburg in 1908, following the first presentation of The Bushman Hunter in November 1904 at the premier exhibition of the Pretoria Art Association. Van Wouw's best known sculpture remains central within the artist's body of work, with other Roman casts held in the collections of South African House in London, the Van Wouw Museum in Pretoria, and the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch.BibliographyA.E. Duffy, Anton van Wouw: The Smaller Works (Pretoria, 2008)Anton van Wouw, 'Sculpture', in The Common Room Magazine (Summer, 1926), pp. 8-11.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Vladimir Griegorovich Tretchikoff (South African, 1913-2006)Resurrection signed, dated and inscribed 'TRETCHIKOFF/ SA/ 53' (lower left)oil on linen85.5 x 108.5cm (33 11/16 x 42 11/16in).Footnotes:ProvenanceToronto, Eaton's, American and Canadian Tour Exhibition, September 1954;Private Collection of Jack Hammell (acquired from the above exhibition);Private Collection, Ontario;Waddington's, Toronto, 29 November 1984;A private collection.ExhibitionCape Town; Johannesburg; Durban, Stuttafords Department Store, South African Tour Exhibition, September - November 1952San Jose, CA, Rosicrucian Art Gallery, June 1953USA; Canada, American and Canadian Tour Exhibition, 1953-1954.LiteratureV. Tretchikoff and H. Timmins, Tretchikoff (Cape Town, 1969), n.p (illustrated)Vladimir Tretchikoff and Anthony Hocking, Pigeon's Luck (London, 1973), p. 205 (illustrated, pp. 134 & 136)Andrew Lamprecht, ed., Tretchikoff: The People's Painter (Jeppestown, 2011), p. 166 (illustrated)Boris Gorelik, Incredible Tretchikoff: Life of an Artist and Adventurer (London, 2013), p. 288 (illustrated, p. 138).In 1952, when Tretchikoff was preparing for his first show in America which would launch his international career, a Cape Town director asked him to star in a film. It would be a documentary set in the artist's studio, showing the birth of an artwork from the first sketches to the painted canvas. Tretchikoff accepted the challenge. Although it meant working under the penetrating gaze of the camera, he decided that he could use the colour film to promote his work in the United States. The resultant documentary, Birth of a Painting, traced the creation of Resurrection (1955).At the time, Tretchikoff was fascinated by the idea that, when dying, the old gives way to the new - a theme explored by the artist in Resurrection. 'The painting was to symbolise the emergence of the soul from the body', recounted Tretchikoff. 'I painted a young girl awaking as if from a dream, the reincarnation of the gaunt, black, crooked body that she had been' (V. Tretchikoff and A. Hocking, 1973: p. 205).Cape Town papers reported that the artist's wife, Natalie, acted as a model for the painting. 'I was so cold, it was a wonder I did not get pneumonia', she told the press. However, the existing footage indicates that another nude model sat for Tretchikoff during the filmed sessions.Resurrection was first exhibited during Tretchikoff's tour of South Africa in 1952. The following year, it was taken to California and included in his show at the Rosicrucian Gallery, San Jose. The startling Resurrection was one of the highlights of this exhibition, and reproductions of the work were available for sale. At all of the public talks and lectures to promote the artist's American debut, Tretchikoff showed the Birth of Painting documentary, asserting the significance of Resurrection within his artmaking practice at this time.The commercial success of the San Jose show enabled Tretchikoff to hold a tour of the United States and Canada, which lasted for nearly two years. In September 1954, among the 52,000 visitors who attended his exhibition at Eaton's Toronto, 'Canada's Greatest Store', was the mining magnate Jack Hammell. He became the first owner of Resurrection.Along with Resurrection, Hammell purchased several paintings by Tretchikoff that day, including the iconic Dying Swan (1949). Later, the artist learnt that this prominent collector had only one painting in his private suite: it used to be a Titian, but had been replaced with Resurrection. The 1969 volume of Tretchikoff's works indicates that the painting subsequently belonged to John McKay-Clements of Haileybury in North-eastern Ontario (now part of Temiskaming Shores). Apparently, the new owner purchased the work from Hammell's heirs after 1958. Resurrection first came to auction in 1984, when it was sold by Waddington's in Toronto. For nearly seventy years, this work, highly valued by the artist, has remained in private collections. We are grateful to Boris Gorelik for the composition of the above footnote.BibliographyVladimir Tretchikoff and Anthony Hocking, Pigeon's Luck (London, 1973), p. 205.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu M.B.E (Nigerian, 1917-1994)Ogolo in Motion signed and dated 'BEN ENWONWU/ 1982-1991' (lower right)oil on canvas120.5 x 88cm (47 7/16 x 34 5/8in).Footnotes:ProvenanceA private collection, UK.Painted between 1982 and 1991, Ogolo in Motion depicts the traditional Mmanwu masquerade that preoccupied Ben Enwonwu throughout his career. While masked performance featured in Enwonwu's drawings, sculptures, and paintings as early as 1940, his interest in the Ogolo was heightened in 1987 following the death of his eldest brother, Ike Francis Enwonwu. Masquerades play a significant role in the funerary rites of the Igbo people, including Enwonwu's family who were based in the city of Onitsha in south-east Nigeria. Ike Francis was one of the principal figures in Onitsha's indigenous government and sat on the king's council of high chiefs. He was consequently granted a grand burial and masquerade groups including the Agbogho Mmuo (maiden sprit) and Ogolo (male spirit) travelled to pay their respects. The act of masking allowed the dancers to occupy a liminal position as both performer and bridge to the spiritual realm, symbolising the complexity of human experience through their gestural performances. The masquerades left a marked impression on Enwonwu: 'I saw the Ogolo among a host of other masquerades during my brother's funeral, and it impressed me a lot. I did a lot of drawings of which I am painting one after the other. [In these works] I have focused on the Ogolo masked form [...] It is part of my recent important works [and] a steady flow of thought and development. I find it extremely beautiful' (Enwonwu quoted in S. Ogbechie, 2008: p. 198). This 'steady flow' of artistic production took place between 1988 and 1994. During this mature phase of the artist's career, Enwonwu produced over fifty drawings, paintings, and sculptures on the theme of the masquerade with a particular focus on the Ogolo. He returned with renewed vigour to complete earlier unfinished depictions of the masked performance, including the present work which was created over a period of nine years. While the artist attributes his renewed interest in the Ogolo to the death of his brother, S. Ogbechie suggests that Enwonwu's preoccupation with the spiritual manifestation of male virility might also have allowed the artist to confront his own mortality during the period of illness he endured before his death in 1994.The Ogolo masquerade is typically accompanied by drums that structure the repeated motions of the dancers that build into an explosive performance of athleticism. In Ogolo in Motion, Enwonwu captures three masked figures mid-performance: they crouch low to the ground with bent knees and arms curved away from their bodies. The gestural dynamism of the ritualistic dance is echoed in Enwonwu's handling of pigment. The thinned oil paint drips in fluid tracks down the lower portion of the canvas, while passages of multitoned blues and earthy yellows bleed into one another, echoing earlier depictions of the subject executed in gouache and watercolour. The masks worn by the three figures are not illustrated in the stark white typical of the Ogolo but are instead tinted blue to correspond with the overall scheme of the painting. Similarly, while Enownwu gestures to the conventional colour of the applique costumes with spare strokes of yellow pigment, he executes much of the Uli-inspired patterned fabric in blues and greys. The conical headdress of the central figure is depicted in striking detail using fiery red, zingy yellow, and cobalt blue, focalising the performer through colour and composition. Recognising the self-conscious employment of Western painterly technique in his depictions of Mmanwu performance, Enwonwu notes, '[t]he subject of masquerade is African. The dance is African. I am using the technical Western rendering to bring out its colour, its tonal values. Its vibrancy, and its universal appeal'. He understood this body of work to be an urgent contribution to the development of a postcolonial modernist aesthetic in Nigeria following the country's independence in 1960. Enwownu's pursuit of the masquerade theme can further be situated within his career-long engagement with the relationship between dance and artistic expression as also evidenced in the lyrical lines of stylized female figures in his Negritude series, and in his illustrations of popular dance styles in his Africa Dances series (executed predominantly in the 1970s). Ogolo in Motion can thus be seen as a product of the personal, political, and artistic concerns that preoccupied Enwonwu in the later years of his artistic career.BibliographySylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2008).For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu M.B.E (Nigerian, 1917-1994)Ife Men Dancing signed, initialled and dated 'Ben Enwonwu 75/ B E 75' (lower right)watercolour and pencil on card100 x 65cm (39 3/8 x 25 9/16in).Footnotes:ProvenanceA private collection, UK.Ben Enwonwu created Ife Men Dancing in 1975 during his final year serving as a Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Ife. The first Nigerian to hold the post, he actively participated in discussions concerning the nature of postcolonial African culture following the country's independence from the United Kingdom in 1960. Enwonwu championed the anticolonial ideologies associated with the Negritude movement, particularly the value of a Pan-African aesthetic advocated for by Léopold Sédar Senghor to formulate a black cultural identity rooted in indigenous traditions.Enwonwu embraced the theme of dance to foreground traditional West-African culture in the emergent canon of postcolonial Nigerian art. His pursuit of the theme encompassed a range of dance forms including masquerade, traditional ceremonies, and modern dance. In the 1970s, contemporaneously to the creation of the present work, he produced a series of Negritude paintings illustrating stylised African women using lyrical lines and punchy colour palettes. The figures were intended, not as portraits, but archetypes that symbolised both the feminine force of the earth in Igbo worship and an image of Mother Africa aligned with Negritude iconography. The 1970s also saw Enwonwu return to his Africa Dances series begun in the 1940s while an art student in London. The series, largely executed between 1972 and 1975, took its name from the title of Geoffrey Gorer's 1935 book which recounts the author's journey through Western Africa with Féral Benga, a Senegalese dancer and sought-after model of the Harlem Renaissance. Executed in the 1970s, Ife Man Dancing represents another body of work on the dance theme created contemporaneously to the Africa Dances series. During his tenure at the University of Ife, Enwonwu frequently took sketching trips to the rural suburbs of the city. He was particularly interested in capturing local people engaged in the activities of daily life. It was on one of these trips that he first met Adetutu Ademiluyi, the granddaughter of a previous Ooni (king) of Ife, who became the subject of three portraits – the finest of which set the artist's record at auction when offered by Bonhams in 2018. It is likely that the male dancers captured in the lyrical lines of the present work were also encountered during one of the artist's sketching trips. Enwonwu depicts three figures in dynamic crouched poses. Each dancer raises a single arm which meet towards the upper centre of the watercolour, creating a broadly symmetrical composition that frames the central figure. The movement of the dance is captured through Enwonwu's kinetic mark-making. Overlapping lines articulate the limbs and billowing clothing of the performers, while a sweep of orange-brown pigment to the right of the composition echoes the curved lines established by the dancing bodies. S. Ogbechie identifies the 1970s as a period of transformation in Enwonwu's practice. It was when the artist first began to 'perceive the essence of dance as a conceptual structure (as opposed to a material form)'. This essence was materialised 'by tracking the body in its motions through space, using fractal surfaces and many figures to convey the idea of vigorous movement which carried the eye in quick jumps to multiple points of focus' (S. Ogbechie, 2008: p. 190). In Ife Men Dancing, Enwonwu semi-abstracts the dancers' environment to focalise the gestural performance of their bodies. The stances of the three figures echo one another, referencing the unison of practiced movement associated with dance or perhaps even illustrating an experimentation with pictorial perspective. Appropriating a Cubist representational strategy, the repetition of form might be interpreted as multiple representations of a single body in motion. The present work consequently offers a conceptual and stylistic investigation of the dance theme at a pivotal moment in Enwonwu's practice. BibliographySylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2008).For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Godwin Oluwole Omofemi (Nigerian, born 1988)Lost in Thought 1 signed and dated 'Oluwole Omofemi/ '19' (lower right); further signed, titled and dated (verso)oil and acrylic on canvas 120 x 100cm (47 1/4 x 39 3/8in).Footnotes:ProvenanceA private collection, Nigeria.Using vibrant colour to explore a deeply felt political message of self-love, Oluwole Omofemi has crafted a distinctive approach to contemporary Black portraiture. Born in Ibadan, Nigeria in 1988, Omofemi's aptitude for painting was recognised at a young age and fostered by established artists who collectively drew inspiration from the vibrant city. Through his developing body of work, he has gained a reputation for his dazzling depictions of female subjects, typically set against luminous backgrounds such as the zingy red and cool blue floral motif of the present work. Omofemi arrives at the composition of his paintings through a carefully considered process. He first determines the mood that he wishes to convey through a work and selects the corresponding colour palette and clothing of his subject. He then takes numerous photographs of a model which are narrowed down to one or two images from which he paints. Working in acrylic and oil, he introduces an imaginative element that transcends the photographic image as he stylises the figure, often exaggerating elements such as the model's hair. The realist approach taken to depict the subject are juxtaposed with the flatness of the background which, as in Lost in Thought 1, often feature flowers as a dedication to the artist's mother. While the models for the paintings are typically friends and family of the artist, Omofemi believes they accrue a spiritual quality when transferred to canvas. He understands women to be close to God as he associates the qualities traditionally associated with femininity, including love, acceptance, and forgiveness, with the Divine. As Omofemi explains, 'I don't want to just paint a picture. I want a picture that captures the soul. I want a picture that captures personality. These are the things I want people to see' (Omofemi quoted in P. Laster, 2021). Lost in Thought 1 belongs to a body of work in which Omofemi explores the politicisation of hair to assert a powerful Black subjectivity. He explains, '[i]n my paintings, I try to tell black people to accept who they are; accept their identity; accept their beauty' (Omofemi quoted in P. Laster, 2021). He looks back to the transnational Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s when natural hair was valued as a means to eschew European styles and assert a strong Pan-African identity. In the present work, a woman is presented in profile and her oversized afro dominates the canvas. Entwined, in places, with the floral motif of the background, her hair is presented as a sign of beauty, strength, and power. Reflecting on the symbolic qualities of his subjects' hair, Omofemi notes '[a] surprising capillary effect of Black hair which fills me with awe is no matter how we comb or treat our hair, [it will] never fall down, [but will] rather stretch or rise. To me, hair is a pole or antenna which gives us the power to connect with the Divine' (Omofemi quoted in M. Mobengo, 2021).In the last two years, Omofemi's work has garnered significant critical attention. Since his debut on the secondary market in June 2020, his paintings have incited a string of record-breaking results at auction. He has received two solo exhibitions at Signature Art Gallery in London; The Way We Were (12 March - 9 April 2020) and In Our Days (1-30 September 2021). He has also exhibited work elsewhere in the UK and in Nigeria, Ghana, Italy, Belgium, and the US, asserting his place as one of the most sought-after emerging artists today.BibliographyPaul Laster, 'Reclaiming Identity: Oluwole Omofemi's Paintings Reflect His African Roots', Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, May 2021, online Murielle Mobengo, 'Art Talk with Oluwole Omofemi', Revue {R}évolution, 27 April 2019 (updated September 2021), online.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Wim Botha (South African, active 1974)Prism 18, 2015 signed and numbered '2/3' (bronze verso)bronze with wooden pedestal, edition of 3 + 2APbronze 71 x 35.5 x 33cm (27 15/16 x 14 x 13in)overall 173 x 35.5 x 33cm (68 1/8 x 14 x 13in).Footnotes:ProvenanceStevenson, Cape Town;A private collection (acquired from the above in 2016).Prism 18 (2015) belongs to an ongoing series of semi-abstracted busts created by South African artist, Wim Botha. Botha, who lives and works in Cape Town, has gained a reputation for reconfiguring art historical tropes through his use of unconventional materials including stacked books and government documents. The present work is formed from a polystyrene block which has been roughly shaped using a chainsaw and wire cutter before being cast in bronze. The face of the figure never fully emerges from the carved block. The features remain unarticulated and are further obscured by the intersecting cuts that crisscross the surface of the blackened bronze. The violent treatment of the bust is carried through to the wooden plinth which features a jagged incision to its right side. The angular lines and blackened quality of the bronze sculpture destabilise the meanings traditionally granted to a portrait. Rather than identifying a subject, the bust stands as an index of process, prompting us to reconsider the role of artmaking in the formation of identity and power.Botha's confrontational practice has granted him a number of prestigious awards including the Helgaard Steyn Prize for sculpture in 2013, the Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 2005, and the first Tollman Award in 2003.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe (Ghanaian, born 1990)Untitled, 2017 signed 'Kye' (lower right of canvas illustrating woman with red lips)acrylic and oil on canvaseach canvas: 46 x 45.8cm (18 1/8 x 18 1/16in).(3)Footnotes:ProvenanceCommissioned from the artist by the present owner in 2017.Commissioned by the present owner in 2017, the three works exemplify Ghanian artist Otis Kwame Key Quaicoe's riotous celebration of colour which has come to characterise his approach to portraiture. His kinetic application of richly saturated hues carves out the head and shoulders of the women from backdrops swept with violet purple, mossy green, and bluish grey. For Quaicoe, colour is not simply employed as a pictorial element, but is imbued with feeling. 'Yellow, bright green, orange, pink... they are colors that make me feel alive. Any time I see bright yellow it just makes me really happy' (Quaicoe quoted in Steer, 2021). Quaicoe rejects naturalism to embrace the emotive potential of his palette: 'Color means a great deal where I come from. It's a distinguishing quality – a means of self-expression' (Quaicoe quoted in NevahBlackDown: A Magazine, 2020). The brightly coloured lips of the female figures – fiery red, sunny yellow, and cool blue – act as a device that unites the three works while granting each portrait a distinctive character.Born in 1988 in Accra, Ghana, Quaicoe found early artistic inspiration in the stylized depictions of famous actors featured on the hand-painted movie posters he encountered at cinemas as a child. He began visiting artists' studios to observe their practice and attempted to imitate their techniques. One of these local artists referred Quaicoe to the Ghanatta College of Art and Design where he undertook an MFA in painting. The young artist conceived of his training as a period of experimentation but felt that it was only following his graduation in 2008 that he found his own creative vision. In 2017, he left Ghana for Portland, Oregon, where he continues to live and work today. He has since garnered international acclaim for his empowering depictions of black subjects.The present works were created at a pivotal moment in Quaicoe's practice. They mark a turning point at which the artist moved from a heavily stylised depiction of his figures to pursue figurative realism. The three portraits of women mark an intermediary stage in this transition, casting them as significant works within the artist's developing oeuvre. In his more recent works, the vibrant palette used to articulate the women's faces are restricted to his figures' clothing and the backgrounds, while the blue-grey used to depict the woman with blue lips has become the standard hue of his subjects' skin tones. In 2020 Quaicoe held his first solo exhibition in America at the Roberts Projects, Los Angeles. Titled Black Like Me, the show established the artist's distinctive intervention in contemporary portraiture. His luminous oil paintings of black subjects asserted his ongoing thematic exploration of representation in relation to the Africa diaspora. The exhibition catapulted Quaicoe to critical attention and in 2021 he undertook the prestigious residency at the Rubell Museum, Miami, which culminated in his first solo museum show. Quaicoe is now widely considered to be one of the foremost figurative artists working today. His work is currently on display in the acclaimed exhibition Black American Portraits at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until April 2022. BibliographyEmily Steer, 'Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe: 'Who Is This? Why Are They Staring So Deeply at Me?'', Elephant Magazine, 8 April 2021, online'Black Like Me – Paintings by Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe', NevahBlackDown: A Magazine, 13 January 2020, online.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

Abdoulaye Diarrassouba 'Aboudia' (Ivorian, born 1983)Untitled, 2016 mixed media on canvas178.5 x 182.5cm (70 1/4 x 71 7/8in).Footnotes:ProvenanceThe artist's studio, Brooklyn, NY;Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2016.Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, known as Aboudia, stands at the forefront of the landscape of contemporary art with his energetic paintings rendered in oil stick and acrylic. Born in Abidjan, the major urban centre of Côte d'Ivoire, Aboudia trained at the School of Applied Art in Bingerville before graduating from the Abidjan Institut des Arts in 2005. Aboudia recognises the influence of his experience growing up in Abidjan as central to his artistic practice. His canvases and works on paper fuse imagery drawn from the local street culture of his hometown with traditional West-African sculpture and voodoo iconography. Lines of brightly coloured oil stick articulate figures, traffic and animals atop ghostly passages of semi-opaque acrylic paint that, in places, reveal the layers of newspaper pages, magazine cut-outs, and educational materials typically pasted beneath. The gestural application of pigment and large-scale format favoured by the artist recall both the graffiti murals of Abidjan and the avant-garde formalist experimentations of artists central to the Western canon such as Cy Twombly, whose work Aboudia had greatly admired when visiting the permanent collection at the Tate Modern, London. Recognising the fusion of diverse cultural and artistic references in his work, Aboudia names his stylistic approach Nouchi – a term more typically used to describe the colloquial language spoken in urban Abidjan which blends several Ivorian languages with French. Now working between his studios in Abidjan and Brooklyn, Aboudia employs his artmaking as a vehicle to convey the experiences of the Ivorian youth following the violence of the 2011 civil war. 'As an artist, my contribution is to tell our story for the next generation. Writers will write, singers will sing. I paint' (Aboudia quoted in O'Reilly, 2011). He conceives of the figures that populate his work as representative of this next generation of children who he believes to be central to the future success of the country. Aboudia has achieved global appeal through his kinetic canvases bursting with colour. Since 2007 the artist's work has been widely exhibited in international solo and group exhibitions and is held in major collections including that of the Saatchi Gallery (London), the Nevada Museum of Art (USA), and the Jean Pigozzi Collection of African Art.BibliographyFinbarr O'Reilly, 'Ivorian artist paints as bullets whizz overhead', Reuters, 29 April 2011, online.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * TP* VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.TP Lot will be moved to an offsite storage location (Cadogan Tate, Auction House Services, 241 Acton Lane, London NW10 7NP, UK) and will only be available for collection from this location at the date stated in the catalogue. Please note transfer and storage charges will apply to any lots not collected after 14 calendar days from the auction date.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com

A copy of the Middleham Jewel gilt metal, engraved with a depiction of the crucifixion and collet-set with a blue cabochon paste, in a border of Latin text, the reverse with engraved depiction of the nativity and fifteen various saints, unmarked(Length: 6.5cm)Footnote: In 1985, metal detectorist Ted Seaton, made a miraculous discovery on a bridle path near Middleham Castle in North Yorkshire; the object discovered is miraculous in its survival but also in that Seaton may never have discovered it had he not forgotten to turn his metal detector off while walking back to his car. What he discovered, he initially thought was a lady’s powder compact, but in fact proved to be an important late 15th-Century jewel, engraved with religious motifs and set with 10.00ct cabochon sapphire. The front is engraved with an image of the holy trinity below the sapphire, within an inscribed border reading ‘Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi ... miserere nobis ... tetragramaton ... Ananyzapta’ (Behold the Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world. Have mercy upon us …). The reverse shows the Nativity with the Lamb of God, in a border of fifteen saints, some of which have been identified, such as St Peter, St George, St Anne etc. The original pendant opened to reveal a hidden compartment, identifying the piece as a reliquary. When it was discovered, it contained three small discs of silk embroidered with golden thread, which may have come from a Bishop's cope, soil and roots; but it may originally have held an important religious relic. Various holes around the edge of the pendant also suggest that it may have included a border of pearls, and there is still some trace of blue enamel, hinting at a more colourful original. Until 1471 Middleham Castle was the home of the Neville family, after which it was granted to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III (1452-1485) by his brother King Edward IV (1442-1483). The jewel was clearly a high-status commission, and could only have been made by a wealthy individual, and many scholars believe that it was intended for a female wearer, as an aid to prayer but also more specifically as an aid or talisman during the trials of childbirth. The blue of the enamel, as well as that of the sapphire, reference the Virgin Mary; while sapphires were also believed to have healing properties, such as protecting the body from illness and inclining God to listen to the prayers of the wearer, dispelling depression and calming the mind. The engraved word ‘Ananyzapta’ is believed to be a magic word, protecting the wearer from epilepsy. Among the saints in the border of the reverse, feature St Margaret of Antioch, the patron saint of pregnancy and childbirth. St Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary and patron saint of women in labour and grandmothers, and St Catherine of Alexandria, patron saint of amongst other things, girls and the dying. There is evidence in portraits of noble ladies of the third quarter of the 15th century wearing these lozenge-shaped pendants, all evidence which, along with the location; suggests several possible candidates as the jewel’s owner, all relations of Richard III. His wife, Anne Neville (1456-1485), and his mother Cecily Nevil (1415-1495) are strong candidates, but perhaps the most likely is his mother-in-law, Anne Beauchamp (1426-1492), widow of Warwick the Kingmaker (1428-1471). Anne, was a wealthy woman, and also renowned for her enthusiastic attendance at and help with various childbirths; she was likely in residence at Middleham Castle when Richard’s only, and short-lived, son, Prince Edward (1473/76-1484) was born. Following it’s discovery, the jewel was found not to be subject to Treasure Trove laws, and so was sold by Seaton in Sotheby’s in 1986; splitting the £1.4 million price realised with the landowner and a small syndicate of metal detectorists who were present the day it was discovered. Today, the jewel is part of Yorkshire Museum’s collection in York; while another replica, similar to this one, can be found at Middleham Castle.

A jadeite bracelet composed of collet-set cabochon jadeite links and rectangular links with Chinese character detail, Chinese marks(Length: 17.5cm)Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

A collection of jade jewellery including a necklace composed of five pierced and carved oval jade panels, to a belcher link chain, unmarked; a rectangular carved jade panel brooch, unmarked; and a pair of polished cabochon jade earrings, screw fittings, unmarked(Length of necklace: 41cm)Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

A Victorian articulated bracelet composed of articulated links, unmarked(Length: 19cm)Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

Three diamond rings including a two-stone old round-cut diamond ring, stamped 18; and two single-stone old round-cut diamond rings, unmarked(Ring size: P/Q, Q & L/M)Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

A 1930s jade and diamond ring collet-set with a cabochon jadeite, each shoulder set with six old round-cut diamonds, unmarked; together with the original pencil and water-colour design(Ring size: S)Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

An early 20th-Century jadeite and diamond ring collet-set with a cabochon jadeite, each shoulder set with eight-cut diamonds, stamped PLAT(Ring size: R)Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

An early 20th-Century jadeite, diamond and ruby brooch millegrain-set with a cushion-cut ruby and two old round-cut diamonds, in a quatrefoil polished jadeite border, unmarked(Width: 2.1cm)Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

An early 20th-Century jadeite, ruby and diamond brooch claw-set with a pierced and carved jadeite panel, above a cushion and rose-cut diamond stem, set with two cushion-cut rubies, engraved detail, unmarked(Length: 7.3cm)Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

An early 20th-Century sapphire, rose quartz and pearl necklace the chain of filigree detail, collet-set at intervals with round-cut sapphires and pearls, suspending a millegrain-set cushion-cut sapphire and a polished rose quartz drop(Length of necklace: 44cm)Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

A collection of jewellery including two lady's wristwatches, a Victorian paste set monkey brooch; a Georgian enamelled whistle charm, various bar brooches, pendants, beaded necklaces etc.Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

An ancient Egyptian Faience Scarab Egypt, New Kingdom, 1550 - 1077 B.C., cast faience, in the form of a scarab beetle, the underside stamped with a cobra (uraeus), reed and hieroglyph of Osiris; also included is an ancient Egyptian-style scarab bearing a cartouche of Rameses II and a pair of Roman-style intaglio(Scarab: 1.3cm x 0.8cm)Note: Please note that this collection is accompanied by a handwritten card by Dr. Walter Cockle, indicating that the New Kingdom scarab was shown to Dr. Geoffrey Martin, reader in Egyptology at the British Museum - who confirmed it to be genuine and of age.Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

A collection of costume jewellery including various faux and cultured pearl necklaces, silver and costume jewellery necklaces; various brooches, earrings, beaded necklaces, watches etc.Footnote: Note: Lots 297-310 for part of the collection of Ellen Mary Victoria Fludder (nee Lowe). Ellen was the daughter of John Lowe, whose antiques shop, J. Lowe was a well-known feature of what was then 138 Wardour Street, London, during the early 20th Century, the street numbers have since changed. Originally a watch and clock repairer, John expanded the business to include antiques, primarily jewellery and oriental art. John became a well-known and respected antiquarian and clockmaker, and indeed his youngest son John Harold Lowe remembered visiting Buckingham Palace with his father, where he was employed to wind the clocks for Edward VII or George V. Adverts from the period show a novel approach to marketing, using lines from Shakespeare to expound upon the virtues of dealing with such an exemplary antiquarian as J.Lowe; ‘China dishes, Very Good Dishes! / The Stamp of Merit. / I will buy with you! Sell with You!/ Old and Antique’ reads part of the poem, borrowing lines from The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night among others. This literary flight of fancy rather foreshadows another foray into the literary world the family would later take. Born in May 1897, Ellen was a favourite of her father’s and though she was sent to boarding school in Devon at a young age, she and her brothers were later educated in London, and living above the shop, surrounded by such curiosities and attending various auctions and dealers’ shops, it is little wonder that she began to take a lively interest in her fathers’ business. Though very much a woman in man’s world, she became a well-known fixture in her fathers’ shop and at the London salerooms. Indeed, one of her regular customers, who she met when she was around 18, was the author Edgar Jepson (1863-1938), who was a keen collector of antiques. As well as writing detective fiction, Jepson was also a translator, most notably of the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc, which are currently enjoying a revival on Netflix. He was quite taken with the character Ellen cut in the shop, and certainly, the curiosities of the Far East which filled the shop offered much scope for his creative mind. His 1927 novel, ‘Miss Timmins and Lord Scredington’ is based around J.Lowe and Ellen is the inspiration for the title character, Miss Timmins. ‘Miss Timmins runs an Oriental curio shop, and her adventures with strange and beautiful pieces of jade and lapis lazuli and chalcedony, carved by the artists of the East, and the strange and sometimes dangerous customers they bring her, are always amusing and thrilling.’ Edgar opens the novel with a direct reference to the frustrations of a ‘lady antique dealer’ in a world of men, and throughout her adventures the feisty Miss Timmins enjoys nothing better than getting the better of her male competitors, who often underestimate her. The novel has everything you could want from a 1920s cosmopolitan adventure novel; a rakish Lord smitten with the heroine, tea dances at the best places in town, brushes with the occult and unscrupulous antiquarians; certainly, if only a fraction of it is true, Ellen had a rather interesting life! J.Lowe closed in 1924, after the death of John Lowe, and Ellen later went on to work for Reville Terry, a Couturier on Grosvenor Square as their jewellery buyer, regularly travelling between London and Paris to see the latest collection. Lots 297-310 are not only a collection of beautiful jewels, very much of their time; but also, a lovely throwback to the exploits of Miss Timmins, and her love of Chinese jades; indeed one could almost imagine one of the jadeite brooches on her lapel, next to her infamous jade cloak hook which sent Lord Scredington so wild with envy as she raced about town in search of her next ‘find’.

A copy of the Tara brooch with two collet-set opals and two coloured cabochons, stamped to reverse WATERHOUSE DUBLIN; together with Victorian multi-gem set shield brooch(Width of tara brooch: 10cm)Footnote: The original Tara brooch is currently housed in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, and was found in 1850 by a peasant woman, not on the Hill of Tara from which the piece takes its name, but on a beach in County Meath. She claimed to have come across the piece in a box there, and took it to a local jewellery dealer who, seeing the craftsmanship and value of the item, was quick to rename it after the seat of the high kings of Ireland, aligning it with a period of history which was at the time very popular, and more importantly, lucrative. It dates from about AD700, and is one of the most impressive examples of its kind, cast in silver with intricate gold filigree decoration and glass, amber and enamel detail, it is considered to represent the pinnacle of early medieval Irish metalworkers' achievement. Before it made its way into the Royal Irish Academy's collection in 1872, it was a central piece at The Great Exhibition in London in 1851, and the Paris Exposition Universelle. It was even sent to Windsor Castle for inspection by Queen Victoria before the Dublin exhibition in 1853.

Circle of BARTOLOMÉ ESTEBAN MURILLO (Seville, 1617 - Cadiz, 1682)"Christ Crucified".Oil on canvas.Period frame.Measurements: 62 x 47 cm; 71 x 54 cm. (frame).The figure of the dead Christ was very common in the Spanish Baroque iconography. Murillo made several versions in which, as in the important painting that we show here, the imposing image of the Crucified Christ is outlined on a dark background of twilight lights in contrast with the powerful focus of light that models his powerful anatomy. This is a Christ with three nails, in which the master avoids excessive pathos and, on the contrary, prioritises atmospheric capture, the softness of the forms and chromatic nuances, in order to procure a contemplative immersion for the believer. What is important is to emphasise the magical moment in which humanity is redeemed by the suffering of the Saviour. The composition, the bold iridescence of light and the rapid brushstroke In composition and language this work is very close to Murillo's Christ Crucified in the Museo del Prado. Specialists have pointed to the influence of the Christ that Van Dyck painted for the church of Dendermonde. Dated around 1667, it was possibly bought by Philip V's wife, Isabella of Farnese, and was in her collection in 1746, appearing in her collection three years later in the Palace of Aranjuez, from where it was transferred to the Prado in 1818. Here, too, the cross is a vertical part of the composition, and the body acquires sculptural volume thanks to the masterly handling of the light. The landscape of Golgotha is reduced to an atmospheric impression, establishing a chiaroscuro dialogue with the suffering flesh tones. Here too, the skull and some of the instruments of the Passion are depicted at the foot of the cross. The stylistic and formal correspondences between these two paintings and others from Murillo's mature period lead specialists to believe that they share the same authorship.Little is known about Murillo's childhood and youth, except that he lost his father in 1627 and his mother in 1628, which is why he was taken into the care of his brother-in-law. Around 1635 he must have begun his apprenticeship as a painter, most likely with Juan del Castillo, who was married to a cousin of his. This working and artistic relationship lasted about six years, as was customary at the time. After his marriage in 1645 he embarked on what was to be a brilliant career that gradually made him the most famous and sought-after painter in Seville. The only trip he is known to have made is documented in 1658, when Murillo was in Madrid for several months. It is conceivable that while at court he kept in touch with the painters who lived there, such as Velázquez, Zurbarán and Cano, and that he had access to the collection of paintings in the Royal Palace, a magnificent subject of study for all the artists who passed through the court. Despite the few documentary references to his mature years, we know that he enjoyed a comfortable life, which enabled him to maintain a high standard of living and have several apprentices. Having become the city's leading painter, even surpassing Zurbarán in fame, he was determined to raise the artistic level of local painting. In 1660 he decided, together with Francisco Herrera el Mozo, to found an academy of painting, of which he was the main driving force. His fame spread so far throughout Spain that Palomino states that around 1670 King Charles II offered him the chance to move to Madrid to work there as a court painter. We do not know whether this reference is true, but the fact is that Murillo remained in Seville until the end of his life. Works by Murillo are now in the most important art galleries in the world, such as the Prado Museum, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan in New York and the National Gallery in London.

RICHARD VAN BLEECK (Holland, 1670-1733); circa 1712."Esther Faints before Ahasuerus".Oil on canvas.Retains its original canvas.Signed on the back.Measurements: 46 x 55 cm; 65,5 x 75 cm (frame).The author of this canvas has chosen the most dramatic moment of the biblical story that narrates the life of Esther. In the centre of the scene, a group of people are holding a young woman who is fading away. This is Esther, who appears to be losing consciousness, captured by the artist in a realistic and somewhat scenographic manner, as the young woman's eyes are narrowed, one of her knees is bent in an attempt to support her own weight, her arms are open and drooping, and her extreme whiteness contrasts with the rest of the figures in the scene, indicating the degree of Esther's weakness before the king. Ahasuerus is holding Esther in a foreshortened pose that shows the momentariness of the image, as it seems that he has just risen from his throne with the intention of preventing the young woman from fading away. On the other side, assisting and supporting the sitter, are two women, one standing, wearing an elegant dress and a bejewelled headdress, and the other crouching down, holding part of Esther's dress. The group is completed by a figure in the left corner of the composition, standing at a distance from the group. His clothing suggests that he is a person of religious rank, as if he were the king's adviser, as his position is close to the throne. One of the most notable characteristics of this figure is that he is the only one who looks away from the events that are happening to Esther and turns his eyes towards the viewer, establishing a connection with him and making him a participant in the contemplation of the religious event, although not in an accomplice but in an authoritative manner, as he raises his face and points towards the scene with one of his hands, while with the other he holds a parchment. The work is set in an interior that follows classical canons, centred on perspective and depth, with the usual red curtain and the space open in the background to the landscape through an opening. The scene of the painting presents a narrative from the Book of Esther, which is part of the Old Testament. The painting depicts Esther, the Jewish wife of King Ahasuerus, sometimes referred to as Xerxes in modern texts. After the king ordered the execution of all the Jewish people in the Persian Empire, Esther went to him, without being summoned, to beg him to spare her people. This broke court etiquette and Esther risked death in doing so. She ended up fainting before the king, which led to a change in the king's decision, allowing the Jews to defend themselves from his attack, preventing them from being killed.Richard van Bleeck (1670-1733) was a Dutch painter of the Golden Age. He was born in The Hague. According to the Netherlands Institute of Art History, he was a pupil of Theodor van der Schuer and Daniel Haringh.S e became a portraitist and painted the portrait of the engraver Coenraet Roepel, before moving to London in 1733, where he remained. He was the father of Pieter van Bleeck, who was born in The Hague, possibly moved with him to London, where he also became a portraitist.

17th century Spanish school."Apparition of the Virgin and Child to Saint Simon de Rojas".Oil on canvas.Measurements: 57 x 41 cm; 63 x 46 cm (frame).Frame 19th century.In this work the painter offers us an image of Saint Simón de Rojas, a saint from Valladolid who lived between 1551 and 1624. He was a saint who received a very intense cult due to the greatness of his spiritual work, carried out throughout his life. He was confessor to Queen Isabella of Valois, third wife of Philip III, redeemer of captives, great preacher and assistant to the sick.The composition is approached from a narrative point of view, which seeks to make the scene easy for the faithful to understand, within the naturalist Counter-Reformationist taste, which is combined with a markedly scenographic space, also typically Baroque. This is a work set in the Spanish School of the 17th century, undoubtedly the golden age of the arts in Spain as a result of a sweet cultural moment. In the field of painting, this century was to produce some of the most important artists of all time, not only in Spain, but also in Western art. The Baroque painting of the Golden Age in Spain has a series of more or less common characteristics: religious themes predominate because this was the time of the Counter-Reformation; Spanish painters were influenced by Caravaggio's tenebrism in the treatment of light, although they later abandoned it; there was a deliberate absence of sensuality in painting and, furthermore, the painters' main client was the Church of the time. In the present case, the figure of the saint appears in the centre of the composition in a prayerful pose, holding a rosary in his right hand and a loaf of bread in his left, the figure is perfectly emphasised by his position and the space in which he is depicted. In the upper part of the composition are the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus in a cloud, who appears blessing with his right hand, placed in his mother's arms.

Andalusian school of the late 17th century."Virgin of the Refuge".Oil on canvas. Re-coloured.It presents damages and repainting.Measurements: 56 x 46,5 cm; 63 x 52 cm (frame).In this painting the image of the Virgin with the Child is represented following the model of representation of the Virgin of the Refuge of the Sinners, iconography that refers to one of the invocations of the Lauretan litany. This theme presents Mary as the living ark that preserves men from the evils of the soul and body, the city that shelters the wretched and helpless, the lighthouse tower that gives light to men navigating in the dangerous sea of the world, the one who saves souls from shipwreck. As intercessor and merciful Mother, she is the moon that shines by night for the sinners who call upon her, just as Christ shines by day for the righteous. The origin of the devotion to Our Lady of Refuge is to be found in the Italian town of Frascatti at the beginning of the 18th century, and by 1717 the invocation was established and spread by the Society of Jesus. Shortly afterwards, in the same 18th century, prints and copies of the original image arrived in New Spain, which was the starting point for the new iconography. From then on, the devotion spread rapidly, for didactic and propagandistic purposes, through the Jesuits. The iconography is based on the elements we see here: Mary dressed in red and brown. Jesus appears only covered by a delicate cloth, held by the Virgin on the Child's chest and back.

Spanish reliquary from the 17th century."Saint Sebastian".Carved, polychromed and gilded wood.It presents damages and repainting.Measurements: 36 x 17 x 33 cm.Reliquary in carved and polychrome wood representing the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, with the bust of the saint tied by the hands to a tree, with several arrows stuck in his body (now lost). The saint is depicted as a young man of idealised beauty, whose serene face reflects his submissive acceptance of his martyrdom. His torso has the hole intended to hold the relic, with a gilded border of distinctly Baroque scrolls.Reliquaries of this type were somewhat common from the Gothic period onwards, usually referred to as "testas" in documentation contemporary to their production and used to contain relics of the head, as carvings of arms, etc. were used for relics from other parts of the saint's body. It should be remembered, however, that at that time practically any item that had been in contact with the saint or his mortal remains (cloths, burial soil, etc.) was considered to be a sacred relic. The best examples were made of precious metals, but specimens such as the present one were also highly valued, both for their container and, above all, for their content. The evolution of the centuries can be seen in the details of the carvings.Saint Sebastian (Narbonne, 256 - Rome, 288) was a soldier in the Roman army during the reign of Emperor Diocletian, who appointed him head of the first cohort of the Praetorian Guard until he discovered that he was a Christian. When the saint refused to convert, he was condemned to death: the soldiers tied him to a post and flogged him, leaving him for dead; his friends found him still alive and a Christian noblewoman, Irene, cured him; Sebastian returned to the emperor, reproaching him for his treatment of Christians, condemning him again to be flogged, this time killing him. In art, his depictions are frequent, usually with arrows in his body and bound.

Flemish school of the 17th century."Virgin of the Annunciation".Oil on copper.Measurements: 17 x 14,5 cm; 27,5 x 24,5 cm (frame).Devotional image belonging to the Flemish school of the Baroque in which the author remains faithful to the Flemish formulas: in this painting we see a Virgin of the Annunciation, leaning in front of a table, with her head down in sign of humility and her hands crossed on her chest, indicating her submissive acceptance of the divine message. The figure is located in the foreground against a neutral, dark background.While in the 17th century the demand for religious art for churches radically ceased in the northern provinces of what is now Holland, in Flanders a monumental art in the service of the Catholic Church flourished, partly due to the necessary restoration of the ravages that the wars had caused in churches and convents. In the field of secular art, Flemish painters worked for the court in Brussels and also for the other courts of Europe, producing paintings with classical, mythological and historical themes that were to decorate brilliantly the Royal Sites of Spain, France and England. As a result, there was a proliferation of small and medium-sized works on a wide range of genres, painted by specialised painters who often collaborated on the same work. The present canvas, on the other hand, shows formal innovations but not thematic or compositional ones, as it maintains the formula of the intimate and sober religious painting of the previous century.

Spanish or Italian school; 17th century."Bust of the Virgin.Oil on canvas. Re-drawn.The canvas of this work has been cut out.It presents repainting.Measurements: 39 x 32 cm.This devotional work presents us the face of the Virgin Mary, in the foreground and captured at great size, occupying most of the pictorial surface. It is a monumental figure, worked with great delicacy and directly illuminated by a clear, uniform, classical light. Mary stands out against a neutral, ethereal background, illuminated around her head by the halo of golden light. The Virgin is dressed in a red tunic, alluding to the Passion of Christ and her own grief at the death of her Son, and a blue cloak, common in Marian iconography as a symbol of the concepts of truth and eternity.Baroque painting is one of the most authentic and personal examples of our art, because its conception and form of expression arose from the people and their deepest feelings. With the economy of the state in ruins, the nobility in decline and the clergy heavily taxed, it was the monasteries, parishes and confraternities of clerics and laymen who encouraged its development, with the works sometimes being financed by popular subscription. Painting was thus obliged to express the prevailing ideals in these environments, which were none other than religious ones, at a time when Counter-Reformation doctrine demanded a realistic language from art so that the faithful could understand and identify with what was depicted, and an expression endowed with an intense emotional content to increase the fervour and devotion of the people. Religious themes were therefore the preferred subject matter of Spanish sculpture during this period, which in the early decades of the century was based on a priority interest in capturing the natural world, gradually intensifying throughout the century in the depiction of expressive values.