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A RARE SILVER-INLAID IRON MANJU NETSUKEUnsignedJapan, 18th-19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)Of circular form, the two-part manju netsuke very finely worked in flat hirazogan inlay of rinzu, shippo, cash coins, and other formal designs in silver and gold. Himotoshi to the back, the cord attachment within. DIAMETER 4.5Condition: Very good condition with minor typical wear and minuscule losses to inlays.

IKKO: A RARE INLAID WOOD NETSUKE OF KIKUJIDO BENEATH A MOONLIT SKYBy Hasegawa Ikko, signed Ikko 一光Japan, early to mid-19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)Of quadrilobed, manju-style, low table form, finely carved depicting a recumbent Kikujido wearing a mugwort leaf skirt, holding a brush, next to three reishi sprouts, all beneath a cloudy sky with a full moon. The moon and brush are inlaid with mother-of-pearl while the reishi and leaf skirt are inlaid with green stained antler and translucent horn respectively; the eyes are minute inlays of dark buffalo horn. Chrysanthemum leaves decorate the sides, which are carved in openwork, the underside pierced with a single floral himotoshi. Signed to the back IKKO on a mother-of-pearl inlaid tablet.LENGTH 4.1 cmCondition: Very good condition with minor wear and remnants of gold and red lacquer. Some wear to the cord hole.Provenance: From a noted private collection in Geneva, Switzerland, assembled since the 1960s, and thence by descent. An important part of this collection was on permanent loan and was exhibited over several decades at the Asia-Africa Museum in Geneva.Kikujido (the chrysanthemum boy) appears in Makurajido and remained youthful even with the passing of 700 years after writing the lines of the Lotus Sutra, graciously gifted to him by the Emperor, on the leaves of a chrysanthemum, when the dew drops from the chrysanthemum became an elixir for immortality.Literature comparison:Compare a related manju netsuke in the form of a nyoi sceptre, signed Ikko and with similar use of inlays, illustrated in Meinertzhagen, Frederick / Lazarnick, George (1986) MCI, Part A, p. 224.

A RARE TSUISHU LACQUER MANJU NETSUKE WITH CHINESE SCHOLARS AND MULEUnsignedJapan, 18th century, Edo period (1615-1868)An early tsuishu lacquer netsuke of two-part manju type, the front decorated in relief with a Chinese scholar standing next to a mule below a pine tree, the ground bearing a fine asanoha design. The verso shows a further scholar and tree, reishi clouds, craggy rocks, and more of the beautifully incised asanoha ground. Central himotoshi to the back, the looped cord attachment to the black-lacquered interior which shows a finely worked design of a ho-o bird and clouds.DIAMETER 4 cmCondition: Very good condition with minor wear to exterior. The interior with a fine crack and some wear along the edges.Provenance: Austrian private collection, remnants of an old label to the interior.

A RARE ANTLER NETSUKE OF AN ISLANDERJapan, 18th century, Edo period (1615-1868)Carved as an islander sitting on a rocky plinth, the face with an joyful expression, his curly hair falling neatly down on his shoulders, and holding a coral branch in his right hand. Large himotoshi through the base and side of the body.HEIGHT 4.4 cmCondition: Very good condition, natural imperfections and with minor wear.Provenance: German private collection.

A RARE ANTLER RYUSA MANJU NETSUKE OF A STYLIZED 'BAT' DRAGONUnsignedJapan, 19th centuryFinely carved in openwork depicting a bat-like dragon in profile, its long curved beak screeching, surrounded by billowing clouds, the sides with neatly carved lotus leaves, the verso with stylized floral emblems and the himotoshi formed by one oval and one circular opening. The carving shares some characteristics with the famous Asakusa carvers but looks to be earlier of date.DIAMETER 4.1 cmCondition: Excellent condition with minor typical wear, natural imperfections.Literature comparison:A near-identical manju is illustrated in Joly, Henri L. (1966) The W. L. Behrens Collection, Part 1, Netsuke, pl. XXVII, no. 1498.

YOSHITSUGU: A RARE SILVER-PATINATED BRONZE NETSUKE OF JUROJINBy Yoshitsugu, signed Yoshitsugu 美亜Japan, 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)Published: Bushell, Raymond (1985), Netsuke Masks, p. 64, pls. 267.Finely cast depicting Jurojin with his large bushy beard, wrinkled forehead, and large ears with pendulous lobes. His mouth is upturned in a scowl and his brows are furrowed with small eyes, the large nose pierced with nostrils. Signed to the interior YOSHITSUGU. Looped himotoshi to the back. The bronze finely polished and patinated to a silverish tone.HEIGHT 4.3 cmCondition: Excellent condition with minor typical surface wear.Provenance: Ex-collection Raymond Bushell. Sotheby's, Netsuke from the Collection of Raymond and Frances Bushell, 21 March 2000, lot 301. European collection P. Jacquesson, acquired from the above.

SHOUNSAI JORYU: A RARE HONEN (HORNBILL) MASK NETSUKE OF AN ONIBy Shounsai Joryu, signed Shounsai 升雲齋 with kakihanJapan, Edo (Tokyo), first half of 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)Published: Collectors' Encyclopedia of Antiques (1973), no. 568.Bushell, Raymond (1985), Netsuke Masks, pl. 46.The hornbill remarkably carved, thinning at the edges, depicting an oni with an amusing expression, the naturally red areas used for the hair, horns, eyebrows, and blushing cheeks. The reverse with a central himotoshi bar and signed SHOUNSAI (Joryu) with a red kakihan.HEIGHT 3.3 cmCondition: Very good condition with minor wear and few natural age cracks.Provenance: Ex-collection Raymond Bushell. Christie's, The Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection of Netsuke, Part I, 27 October 1987, New York, lot 187. Robert Fleischel, Paris, France. European collection P. Jacquesson, acquired from the above.The hornbill is a bird of the Bucerotidae family having a large bill with a basal bony protuberance partly colored bright orange, known as honen and often used for inlaying the eyes of netsuke depicting rats, rabbits, and other animals whose eyes are red. Netsuke entirely carved from honen are exceedingly rare.Auction comparison:Compare to a closely related oni mask by Joryu's contemproary Jugyoku at Sotheby's, The Katchen Collection of Netsuke, 8 November 2005, London, lot 65 (sold for 5,040 GBP).This item contains ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell, and/or some types of tropical wood and is subject to CITES when exporting outside the EU. It is typically not possible to export such items outside of the EU, including to the UK. Therefore, after this item has the necessary trade certificate, it can only be shipped within the EU or picked up in our gallery in person.

A RARE GILT AND POLYCHROME WOOD FIGURE OF JIZO BOSATSUJapan, 13th-14th century, Kamakura period (1185-1333)Finely carved, the bodhisattva standing on a double lotus dais with beaded rim raised on a naturalistically carved rockwork base supported on a tiered rectangular pedestal carved with diapered floral and rinzu designs. He is dressed in a long flowing robe applied with gilt and colored pigments as well as an ornamental necklace suspending small beads. He is holding the hoju (treasure jewel) in his left hand and the shakujo (staff) suspending loose rings in his right. His serene face with heavy-lidded eyes below gently arched brows centered by a crystal-inlaid byakugo (urna). The lotus dais is inset with a flattened post surmounted by a metal halo applied with three metal foliate elements.HEIGHT 33.2 cmCondition: Good condition with some wear, minor age cracks, minor flaking and small losses to lacquer and pigments, few tiny losses, one foot restored.Provenance: Kyoto Gallery, Brussels, 2000. Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris, acquired from the above. Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert were luminous gallery owners who worked in Paris from 1975 to 2004, and were both informed and avant-garde collectors. They are significant not only because of the analytical and original approach the couple applied in each acquisition, but also because of their visionary take on exhibiting the most radical 20th-century art in their gallery, which was the subject of a 2004 retrospective organized by the Museum of Grenoble. According to Michel Durand-Dessert, who was inspired to open the couple's first gallery by a visit to Documenta in 1968, “it is certain that a collection is a portrait, and that the objects we buy are those in which we sometimes recognize ourselves, sometimes we project ourselves. One way or another, acquiring them means adopting them, in every sense of the word.”Jizo Bosatsu (Ksitigarbha) has been worshipped since the Heian period, particularly as the protector of children. This bodhisattva is a merciful figure who alone among Buddhist deities moves through the six worlds of illusion in his role of saving all sentient beings. As in this example he is usually depicted as a monk with the hoju (treasure jewel) and shakujo, a staff with a finial of rings which jingle to warn small creatures of his approaching footfalls.Museum comparison: Compare a related gilt-decorated wood figure of Jizo dated to the Kamakura period, 13th century, 35.5 cm high, in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art in the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, accession number F1965-19a-h. Compare a related gilt and polychrome wood figure of Jizo standing on a similar gilt double-lotus dais, dated to the 12th century, 88 cm high, in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, object number IN 2262.Auction comparison: Compare a related wood figure of Jizo Bosatsu, with the gilt and pigments mostly lost, dated Heian or Kamakura period, 12th century, 50.4 cm high, at Bonhams, 15 March 2017, New York, lot 6154 (sold for 33,750 USD).

KATSUHIRA: A RARE GOLD OJIME DEPICTING DAIKOKU INSIDE HIS SACKBy Hagiya Katsuhira (born 1859), signed Katsuhira 勝平Japan, Meiji period (1868-19812)Of slightly flattened globular form, superbly worked in the form of a gleefully smiling Daikoku peeking out of his treasure bag with cloud designs inlaid in shakudo and copper, his face framed by the large ears, neatly incised chin beard and hands, and his copper-inlaid hat. Incised with the signature KATSUHIRA to the side above the lower cord hole.HEIGHT 1.5 cmWEIGHT 7.5 gCondition: Excellent condition, minor wear. Provenance: Christie's, 4 July 1984, London, lot 570. A Distinguished Private Collection, acquired from the above.Literature comparison: Compare a related example in silver of Daikoku in his sack illustrated by Kinsey, Robert (1991) Ojime: Magical Jewels of Japan, p. 36, no. 119-12.Auction comparison: Compare two related gold ojime from the same collection as the present lot and also previously at Christie's, 4 July 1984, London, lot 567, at Galerie Zacke, 29 October 2021, Vienna, lot 314 (sold for 17,696 EUR) and 315 (sold for 10,112 EUR).

A RARE INLAID AND LACQUERED KIRI WOOD SINGLE-CASE INRO DEPICTING CHRYSANTHEMUM FLOWERSUnsignedJapan, 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)The ingot-shaped, Rinpa-style single-case inro finely carved from a choice piece of paulownia (kiri) wood and decorated with chrysanthemums (kiku) borne on leafy stems. The stems made of gold takamaki-e and the leaves of red lacquer, gold, and pewter (mitsuda) as well as mother of pearl and antler inlays, some leaves with gold hiramaki-e veins. The wood is of a rich, attractive grain. The interior lacquered in lustrous, black roiro.HEIGHT 5.5 cm, LENGTH 10.2 cmCondition: Good condition with minor wear and rubbing, and a minor loss with associated repair to one of the ringed cord holes.Provenance: From an old private collection in France. The interior and exterior with old collector's numbers, 'No. 39.'

A RARE BLACK AND GOLD LACQUER TONKOTSU DEPICTING A NEW YEAR'S SCENEUnsigned Japan, 19th centuryThe roiro ground lacquered in gold and silver hiramaki-e and takamaki-e to depict two Manzai dancers, one wearing an Okina mask and the other wearing a Hyottoko mask, the latter holding drum and the former wearing an eboshi and a ceremonial sword, all below shimenawa hangings (fern leaves, bitter oranges, dried gourds, and white ritual paper strips suspended from a sacred braided straw rope). The tonkotsu is further decorated with large pine saplings. The interior of the hinged cover splashed with red lacquer.LENGTH 9.5 cmCondition: Very good condition with minor wear, one structural crack to the interior near the hinge, the interior with traces of use. Provenance: French private collection. Old label to underside, '115'.The Shimenawa 注連縄 serves to prevent bad spirits from entering sacred spaces such as shrines and to usher in the Toshigami 歳神, Shinto deity, to protect the new year to descend and stay.

MINKO: A RARE AND IMPRESSIVE UMIMATSU (SEA PINE) KISERUZUTSU OF A CORAL FISHERMANBy Tanaka Juntoku Minko (1735-1816), signed Minko 岷江Japan, Tsu, late 18th to early 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)Of senryu-zutsu type. The large section of umimatsu with stunning greenish marbling and typical concentric, reddish inclusions, carved as an exotic coral fisherman, also known as a South Sea Islander, standing on a rock embellished with inlaid antler barnacles, holding in one hand a large branch of coral, the other hand is held close to the face to secure the pipe. The eyes are inlaid in bone with red and black pupils. The cord channel runs through the right arm of the islander. With a bamboo and silvered metal pipe.LENGTH (without pipe) 21.6 cmCondition: Typical crackling and minor losses to the material as are to be expected. A small section of the inlaid coral is lost near the top. Generally, in very good condition.Provenance: Family collection of either Felix Tikotin (1893-1986) or his son-in-law Louis (Loek) Borensztajn (1935-2021), Netherlands. Felix Tikotin (1893-1986) was an architect, art collector, dealer, and founder of the first Museum of Japanese Art in the Middle East. He became one of the world's leading collectors of Japanese art, starting at the age of 18, and continued to collect and work as an art dealer in Berlin in the 1920s. In the 1930s Felix Tikotin fled from the Nazis and hid his collection in the Netherlands. After the war, he decided that his collection should be taken to Israel, where in 1959 and with the help of Abba Hushi, who was the mayor of Haifa, The Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art was established. The Museum's collection comprises more than 8,000 items of art and crafts.Auction comparison:Compare a closely related umimatsu pipe case, signed Minko with kakihan, at Christie's, The Beresford Jones Collection of Japanese Art, 7 June 200, London, lot 42 (sold for 4,700 GBP).

KAJIKAWA KYUJIRO: AN EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE AND IMPORTANT ANTLER-INLAID LACQUER FOUR CASE INRO DEPICTING A DRAGON, DATED 1647 BY INSCRIPTIONBy Kajikawa Kyujiro, signed Kajikawa Kyujiro 梶川久次郎 with kakihanJapan, dated 1647, Edo period (1615-1868)Published: Wrangham, Edward (1995) The Index of Inro Artists, p. 159 (only the signature is illustrated).Of upright form, the ground of roiro with a dusting of gold powder and mura-nashiji, lacquered in takamaki-e and inlaid in green-stained antler with a sinuously writhing three-clawed two-horned dragon clutching a sacred tama (jewel) amid thick swirling clouds. The base dated Shoho yon hinoto-i shoshun ('early Spring in the fourth year of Shoho', corresponding to 1647) and signed KAJIKAWA KYUJIRO with a red kakihan.The wood ojime is also of unusually large size and is carved a three-sided Bizen-ware sake bottle, a carved rope tied around the neck, two sides worked in relief with a standing Hotei, one holding a fan, one side incised with the signature Ippo. Note also the exceptionally large inro cord.HEIGHT 17.6 cm (the inro) and 4.3 cm (the ojime)Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and expected traces of use. The top with minor dents and discoloration to lacquer. The interior with few small nicks, tiny nibbles, few minor chips and flakes, few minor age cracks.Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 1984. Ex-collection Edward Wrangham (no. 1708), acquired from the above. Bonhams, The Edward Wrangham Collection of Japanese Art Part I, 9 November 2010, London, lot 248 (sold for 36,000 GBP). A Princely Collection, acquired from the above. OId label to ojime, '4772.B'. The interior of the cover lacquered with a collector's number, '25298.'The present inro is unusual and extremely rare for its huge size, which along with the dating inscription make it an important work of art. It was likely commissioned by the shogunate in the mid-17th century.Kyujiro, also known as Kajikawa II, was a direct pupil of Hikobei, the founder of the Kajikawa dynasty. Kyujiro is generally considered to have established the family reputation. He worked for the shogunate, living in Nakabashi in Edo, and in the words of the Soken Kisho of 1781 was 'the best inro maker of the past or present'. His dates are not recorded, but he must have worked in the mid-17th century. Another exceptionally large inro is recorded in the W. L. Behrens collection, no. 468, and shows a design of a snail and bamboo in relief with pewter, gold, and aogai.

A VERY RARE THREE-CASE TOGIDASHI LACQUER INRO DEPICTING A KITSUNE LURED INTO A FOX TRAPUnsignedJapan, 18th-19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)The wide-bodied three-case inro bearing a roiro ground with finely sprinkled silver and gold lacquer, decorated in superb togidashi-e with gold and silver takamaki-e and hiramaki-e, depicting a scene from the Kyogen play Tsurigitsune, the fox disguised as a priest, a hyotan (double gourd) tied to its waist, emerging from the mist amid tall grasses and ferns, looking towards a trap with a rat as the bait, all beneath the crescent moon. The interior cases of dense nashiji with gold fundame rims. With a polychromed wood ittobori-style netsuke.HEIGHT 7.8 cm, LENGTH 8.5 cmCondition: Very good condition with only very minor expected wear. Some light warping to the top case.Provenance: From an old Geneva collection, with an old collection number and label to the interior of the top case.Kitsune are creatures imbued with magical powers and are known to have the ability of shapeshifting. They are also believed to be animated by the devils.The inro depicts a scene from the Kyogen play Tsurigitsune ('Fox trapping'), in which a fox hunter is visited by his uncle, the priest Hakuzosu, who lectures his nephew on the evils of killing foxes. The hunter is nearly convinced, but after the priest departs, he hears the cry of the fox and realizes it wasn't his uncle at all but a fox in disguise. The fox resumes his natural form and reverts to his wild ways, takes the bait in a trap, and is captured by the fox hunter.

A RARE MITSUDA INLAID FOUR-CASE BLACK LACQUER INRO WITH A ROBED FIGURE ON HORSEBACK, ATTRIBUTED TO OGATA KORIN (1658-1716)UnsignedJapan, Edo period (1615-1868)Of upright rectangular form and oval sectional, the four-case inro bearing a fine roiro ground and decorated in gold hiramaki-e, mitsuda (pewter), and aogai to depict a mounted robed figure against a foliate brocade pattern designed to simulate textile. The interior compartments of nashiji with gold fundame edges.HEIGHT 8.5 cm, LENGTH 6.7 cmCondition: Good condition with minor wear, light surface scratches and typical losses, particularly to the pewter-inlaid horse, some with gold-lacquered 'kintsugi' repairs.Provenance: Van Stockum Gallery, The Hague, April 7, 1959. Collection of Robert and Isabelle de Strycker, acquired from the above. An old collector's label to the interior, 'L,548' and '13'. Robert de Strycker (1903-1968) was a French engineer who specialized in metallurgy. He was a Stanford graduate, a professor at the University of Leuven, a director of the Institute of Metallurgy at the Universite Catholique de Louvain, and one of the most influential members of the faculty of applied sciences. After World War II, he made large contributions to France's post-war recovery. Robert and his wife Isabelle (1915-2010) first encountered Chinese art at the British Museum during a stay in London in the 1930s. Enamored with the style and beauty, they both decided to study and collect Chinese works of art. In 1938 they eventually began to build their collection, buying from Belgian, Parisian, and English dealers. They kept close contact with the famous English collector Sir Harry Garner (1891-1977) and noted Czech collector and expert Fritz Low-Beer (1906-1976). In 1964, the couple lent 174 objects from their collection to the Belgian city of Leuven's museum for an exhibition titled Oude kunst in Leuvens Privebezit ('Old Art in Private Collections in Leuven'), and in 1967 they lent around thirty Japanese objects to the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels for their exhibition Kunst van Japan im belgischen Privatverzameingen ('Japanese Art in Belgian Private Collections').Rinpa is a modern term that refers to a distinctive style of Japanese pictorial and applied arts that arose in the early seventeenth century and has continued through modern times. Literally meaning 'school of Korin,' Rinpa derives its name from Ogata Korin (1658-1716), a celebrated painter from Kyoto. It embraces art marked by a bold, graphic abbreviation of natural motifs, frequent reference to traditional court literature and poetry, the lavish use of expensive mineral and metallic pigments, incorporation of calligraphy into painting compositions, and innovative experimentation with new brush techniques. Transmitted by means of pattern books and manuals, the work of the Ogata Korin inspired numerous other craftsmen.Auction comparison:Compare a closely related four-case gold lacquer inro depicting two thatched shelters among bamboo, by Hara Yoyusai, with similarly rendered Rinpa style inlay in mitsuda and aogai, also taken from Korin Hyakuzu , at Bonhams, The Edward Wrangham Collection of Japanese Art, 15 May 2012, London, lot 290 (sold for GBP 22,500).

A RARE FIREMAN'S JACKET WITH SHISHI DESIGNJapan, Edo period (1615-1868)The back of the hikeshi-banten (fireman's jacket) finely decorated with a shishi in a field of blue and white peonies issuing from craggy rocks.HEIGHT 94 cm, WIDTH 115 cmCondition: Good condition with minor wear and some discoloration and light soiling.Typically, the hikeshi-banten jackets were soaked before firemen ran into a fire. The heavy weight cotton used for this jacket was meant to absorb a good deal of water and served to protect the wearer from the flames.Auction comparison:Compare a closely related fireman's jacket, dated to the Edo period, at Zacke, TWO-DAY AUCTION - Asian Art Discoveries - Moving Sale!, 30 June 2022, Vienna, lot 1067 (sold for EUR 3,792).

A RARE SET OF SIX MANDARA FRAGMENTS DEPICTING BODHISATTVAJapan, early Edo period (1615-1868)Ink, watercolor, gouache, and gold paint on paper. Mounted individually behind passepartout. Each finely painted with a bodhisattva seated on a lotus pedestal set on a green ground with gold geometric designs, accompanied by an inscription naming the bodhisattva.Inscriptions: Each panel is inscribed in gold paint on a black reserve with the names of the six bodhisattva: 'Gakkou Bosatsu' [Sanskrit: Chandraprabha; the white bodhisattva of moonlight,], 'Bianji Bosatsu' [Sanskrit: Pratibhana-kuta; the blue bodhisattva of wisdom], 'Kengo Bosatsu' [Sanskrit: Bhadrapala; the red guardian bodhisattva with a flaming tama], 'Vajra Bosatsu' [Sanskrit: Vajrasphota; the red bodhisattva holding a vajra chain], Fukuuken Bosatsu [Sanskrit: Amogha-darsana; the yellow bodhisattva holding a lotus], and 'Fugen Bosatsu' [Sanskrit: Samantabhadra; the green bodhisattva holding coral]. Image SIZE 11.5 x 21 cm (each), SIZE incl. passepartout 28 x 40.5 cmCondition: Good condition with minor wear, small losses to pigment, light rubbing, some signs of insect activity, and minor creases, presenting very well.Provenance: Collection of Robert and Isabelle de Strycker. Robert de Strycker (1903-1968) was a French engineer who specialized in metallurgy. He was a Stanford graduate, a professor at the University of Leuven, a director of the Institute of Metallurgy at the Universite Catholique de Louvain, and one of the most influential members of the faculty of applied sciences. After World War II, he made large contributions to France's post-war recovery. Robert and his wife Isabelle (1915-2010) first encountered Chinese art at the British Museum during a stay in London in the 1930s. Enamored with the style and beauty, they both decided to study and collect Japanese and Chinese works of art. In 1938 they eventually began to build their collection, buying from Belgian, Parisian, and English dealers. They kept close contact with the famous English collector Sir Harry Garner (1891-1977) and noted Czech collector and expert Fritz Low-Beer (1906-1976). In 1964, the couple lent 174 objects from their collection to the Belgian city of Leuven's museum for an exhibition titled Oude kunst in Leuvens Privebezit ('Old Art in Private Collections in Leuven'), and in 1967 they lent around thirty Japanese objects to the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels for their exhibition Kunst van Japan im belgischen Privatverzameingen ('Japanese Art in Belgian Private Collections').

UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE: GREEN BIRDS AND HYDRANGEASBy Utagawa Hiroshige I (1797-1858), signed Hiroshige hitsu with sealsJapan, c. 1830sColor woodblock print on paper. Vertical chutanzakuban. Signed Hiroshige hitsu with seals. Titled Green Birds and Hydrangeas. Comes with a label to the backside and a sticker from its former frame: '07096 / Kennedy & Co. / 693-5th Ave / Rare Prints / "Kacho-ga" / Hiroshige (1797-1858)'.A kacho-ga of a pair of greenfinches swooping down next to hydrangeas in full bloom.SIZE of the sheet 35.2 x 12.3 cmCondition: Shows old wear, fading, material loss, trimmed margins, and browning of paper commensurate with age, otherwise presenting well.Utagawa Hiroshige (also referred to as Ando Hiroshige) is recognized as a master of the ukiyo-e woodblock printing tradition, having created 8,000 prints of everyday life and landscape in Edo-period Japan. Much of Hiroshige's work focuses on landscape. Inspired by Katsushika Hokusai's popular Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, Hiroshige took a softer, less formal approach with his Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido (1833-34), completed after traveling that coastal route linking Edo and Kyoto. Hiroshige's prolific output was somewhat due to his being paid very little per series. Still, this did not deter him, as he receded to Buddhist monkhood in 1856 to complete his brilliant and lasting One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856-58). He died in 1858, 10 years before Monet, Van Gogh, and a lot of Impressionist painters became eager collectors of Japanese art.Museum comparison: An identical print is in the collection of the Art Institute Chicago, reference number 1943.643. Another identical print is in the collection of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio, object number 1950.1149.Auction comparison:Compare a related print sold at Sotheby's, Japanese Art Online, 7 November 2019, London, lot 16 (sold for GBP 1,500).

A VERY RARE AND LARGE GILT BRONZE FIGURE OF AMIDA NYORAI, EDOJapan, 18th to 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)Finely cast in multiple sections, Amida standing on a lotus dais supported by a round pedestal with hands raised in raigo-in (vitarka mudra). He is wearing heavy monastic robes falling in elegant, voluminous folds and opening at the chest. His face bearing a serene expression with heavy-lidded eyes, sinuous brows and a raised byakugo (urna), his hair arranged in tight curls over the domed ushnisha, flanked by beautiful kohai (nimbus) exuding rays.HEIGHT 35.4 cm (figure), 65.6 cm (incl. stand)WEIGHT 7,848 gCondition: Good condition with minor wear, light nicks, small scratches, some rubbing, and repairs to the neck and hands. The bronze is covered in a rich, dark patina. Provenance: Ex-collection of Anton Exner, Vienna, Austria. Each section painted in red 'EX5.' Anton Exner (1882-1952) was the most important dealer, collector, and assessor of East Asian art in Vienna during the interwar period. His collection included all branches of Asian art, from all epochs, and particularly Chinese and Japanese works. During a long sojourn through Canada and the USA from 1908 to 1910, he made first contacts with Chinese dealers and subsequently acquired numerous antiques at various Asian ports, which formed the basis for his future business activities. From then on, he went almost every year on buying trips to the Far East. The Austrian auction house Dorotheum appointed him as a sworn assessor of Asian art, a position he held for c. 25 years. From the early 1920s onwards, he lent objects to most major exhibitions of Asian art held in Austria, and eventually gifted a large part of his personal collection, numbering several thousand objects, to the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, where it is on permanent exhibition to this day.The sculpture represents Amitabha, known in Japanese as Amida Nyorai, or the Buddha of Limitless Light. Amitabha reigns over the Western Pure Land, a paradise to which anyone is welcomed if they faithfully and sincerely incant his name. This place of salvation became central to the Jodo [lit. Pure Land] sect of Buddhism. Propounded in 1175 by the monk Honen, the accessibility of such tenets of redemption allowed this form of Buddhism to proliferate across the nation and feudal classes of Japan. Often depicted with an elaborate mandala, the boat-shaped halo is said to remind his followers that he serves as a guide for them to cross the ocean of suffering which contaminates the living.Japanese gilt bronzes depicting Amida are to be considered extremely rare. Museum comparison:Compare a related earlier gilt bronze figure of Amida, dated 14th-15th century, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET), accession no. 1975.268.168a, b.

A RARE GROUP OF FIVE 'ZODIAC' GLASS FIGURES, QING DYNASTY OR EARLIERChina, Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) or earlier. Comprising a monkey, a snake, a rooster, a dog, and a horse, each of transparent-white glass, painted, and applied with polychrome glass elements.Condition: Good condition with wear, flakes to the paint, and encrustations. The rooster with two small chips, one to the toe, the other to the main tail.Provenance: Estate of Wolfgang Zacke (1942-2022), co-founder of Galerie Zacke, thence by descent.Weight: 311 g in total Dimensions: 4.9 cm - 6.2 cm

A RARE AND LARGE POLYCHROME WOOD FIGURE OF THE PRINCE SHOTOKU TAISHIJapan, dated 1840 by inscriptionThe large figure depicting the semi-legendary regent Shotoku Taishi, standing with his arms folded before him, the wood treated with thick polychrome lacquer and pigments over gofun, the eyes painted behind crystal or glass. Shotoku has a long beard and his hair is tied into two knots covered by a long cloth which is draped over the head and shoulders. The prince's robe is adorned with shippo crests. The figure stands on a square base in the manner of a tatami mat and is inscribed to the base: 天保十一庚子、十月廿五日、仙臺（仙台）、御細工業、某、中川兵吉一山作之 Tempo juuichi kanoe-ne, juugatsu nijuu-go nichi, Sendai, on-saikugyo, nanigashi, Nakagawa Heikichi Issan kore o tsukuru [This is made by Nakagawa Heikichi (Hyokichi), art name Issan, a craftsman, Sendai, on the 25th of the 10th month, in Tempo 11 (1840)].HEIGHT 72.5 cmCondition: Some scattered losses and general wear. The lacquer is slightly loose and is prone to splitting. Overall the figure presents well.Prince Shotoku, or Shotoku Taishi in Japanese, is considered the founder of Buddhism in Japan. Immediately after his death around 622, stories of his miraculous achievements began to form a rich sacred biography, which in turn generated painted and sculpted icons of the statesman.

A CELADON-WHITE JADE 'DRAGON AND TAPIR' PENDANT, QING DYNASTYChina 18th to 19th century. Of flattened rectangular shape with rounded edges, delicately carved in reticulated manner to depict an archaic dragon surrounded by two tapirs. The tapir is a rare subject in Qing dynasty jade carvings. The nephrite of a pure and consistent pale celadon-white tone and with a smooth and silky flat finish and a good patina.Condition: Excellent condition with minor wear. Provenance: Sold these rooms in Fine Chinese Works of Art, in 2017. Private collection in Belgium, acquired from the above.Weight: 29.93 gDimensions: Size 6 x 3.5 cmLiterature comparison: Sotheby's, The Concordia House Collection: Fine Chinese Jades and Important Works of Art from a Midwestern Family, 19 MAR 2007, NEW YORK, lot 31. (for an imperial celadon jade washer with a pair of tapirs)

A rare Great War casualty pair awarded to Forewoman Edith H. Routledge, Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps, who died on 5 March 1919 British War and Victory Medals with copy M.I.D. oak leaves (1585 Fwn. E. H. Routledge. Q.M.A.A.C.) extremely fine (2) £300-£400 --- M.I.D. London Gazette 10 July 1919. Edith Honora ‘Nora’ Routledge was born at Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, in 1889. A telephone operator, she worked in the Head Post Office in Liverpool before volunteering for Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps in July 1917. Sent to France, she contracted influenza in the winter of 1918-19 and died of pneumonia at No. 24 General Hospital in Etaples. Buried in Étaples Military Cemetery, she was later posthumously Mentioned in Despatches.

A rare Great War casualty pair and Memorial Plaque awarded to Worker Violet N. Harding, Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps British War and Victory Medals (15089 Wkr. V. N. Harding. Q.M.A.A.C.); Memorial Plaque ‘She died for Freedom and Honour’ (Violet Nora Harding) good very fine (3) £2,400-£2,800 --- Violet Nora Harding was born in Easington, County Durham, in 1896, the third child of grocer’s assistant John Thomas Harding. She served in France from 21 November 1917 as a Worker in Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps and died of pneumonia at Isleworth, London, on 7 February 1919. She was buried a few days later at Easington Lane Cemetery in Sunderland, a short distance from her family home.

A ‘double-issue’ British War Medal group of three awarded to Nursing Sister Minnie A. Mitchell, British Committee of the French Red Cross, later Canadian Army Medical Corps, who was awarded the rare l’Insigne Special en bronze by the French Authorities on 17 January 1918 British War Medal 1914-20 (2) (M. A. Mitchell.; N.Sister M. A. Mitchell.); Victory Medal 1914-19 (M. A. Mitchell.) generally very fine (3) £200-£240 --- Provenance: Christie’s, March 1990. Minnie Alice Mitchell was born in Durham-Sud, Canada, on 31 October 1880, and came to Britain as a Sister with the British Committee of the French Red Cross. Initially posted to the Johnstone Reckitt French Military Hospital (V.R. 76) from May 1916 to April 1918, she transferred to the Canadian Army Medical Corps and served as Nursing Sister at No. 15 Canadian General Hospital from 24 May 1918 to 12 June 1919. Located on the Astor Estate at Clivedon, the former tennis pavilion and bowling alley became one of the most fully equipped military hospitals in England. Sold with the Insignia in bronze with enamel red cross mounted upon a white riband; the original award certificate to ‘Mademoiselle Minnie Mitchell’ of the General Infirmary, No. 1044, from the French Ministry of War; a fine enamel badge from the Johnstone Reckitt Military Hospital, unnamed; Canadian Honourable Service Badge, No. 24292.; and copied C.A.M.C. service record.

A rare Africa General Service campaign medal awarded to Nursing Sister Gertrude Clayton, Northern Nigeria Medical Department Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Aro 1901-1902 (Nursing Sister G. Clayton.) minor edge bruise, good very fine, rare £400-£500 --- Gertrude Clayton was born in Essex on 17 November 1867, the daughter of farmer William Clayton. Home educated, she took early employment as a probationer assistant at Hillsea. She subsequently qualified as a nurse and in 1894 entered the service of the Fountain Hospital, Tooting. Raised Charge Nurse with responsibility for a ward, her reference in 1896 notes ‘excellent’ performance, her superior adding: ‘I have a very high opinion of her, both as a woman and a nurse.’ In September 1900, Clayton applied to the Colonial Nursing Association for a post abroad. Though technically selected for appointment to the West Africa Frontier Force, this medical element had been absorbed into the civilian medical establishment by the time of her arrival; confirmed on the AGS medal roll as a Nursing Sister in the Northern Nigeria Medical Department, a total of five nurses - four from Southern Nigeria, plus Clayton from Northern Nigeria - qualified for this medal and clasp. Sold with copied Service Record.

British War Medal 1914-20 (3902 C. M. Harris. Shorthand Typist W.R.N.S.) nearly extremely fine and rare £100-£140 --- Provenance: Buckland Dix & Wood, December 1993. Charlotte Mary Harris enrolled in the Women’s Royal Naval Service on 15 July 1918. Appointed to the London Division as Chief Section Leader Shorthand Typist, she later served in Gibraltar at the shore establishment H.M.S. Cormorant, before demobilisation on 30 April 1919.

British War Medal 1914-20 (Miss U. B. Wright. Service with the Royal Navy) minor official correction, nearly very fine and rare £100-£140

An extremely rare Punjab Frontier R.R.C. pair awarded to Senior Nursing Sister Mary E. Barker, Indian Army Nursing Service, who nursed British and Indian soldiers in a Himalayan fort under constant enemy fire Royal Red Cross, 1st Class, V.R., silver-gilt, gold and enamel, on lady’s bow riband; India General Service 1895-1902, 1 clasp, Punjab Frontier 1897-98 (Nursing Sister M. E. Barker. I.A.N.S.) good very fine (2) £3,000-£4,000 --- Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, June 2005. R.R.C. London Gazette 21 April 1899: ‘Miss Mary Ellen Barker, Indian Nursing Service. In recognition of the services rendered by her in connection with the nursing of the sick and wounded during the late operations on the Punjab Frontier.’ One of only 3 R.R.C. awards for this campaign, the other two being announced in the same gazette. Mary Ellen Barker was born in Mansfield, Nottingham, on 25 March 1863, the daughter of a stone merchant. Educated at a Ladies’ Private School in Barlborough, Derbyshire, she entered the Nightingale Fund Training School at St. Thomas’s Hospital in Lambeth in July 1889. Completing her training ‘very satisfactorily’, she was taken onto the permanent staff of the Diptheria Ward and was later appointed Head Nurse on the Surgical Ward. Employed in 1894 as a private nurse, Barker proved instrumental in saving the life of the Dowager Countess of Morley when her bedding caught fire at Whiteway Mansion, Chudleigh, Devon. For this act she was awarded a silver medal and three guineas by the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire at a meeting held on 26 September 1895. Supported by a strong reference from the Earl of Morley, her second application to the Indian Army Nursing Service proved fruitful and she was appointed Nursing Sister on 27 November 1895. Posted to the Station Hospital at Rawalpindi for her first term of five years, Barker soon caught the attention of Lady Superintendent Loch when she noted in her diary: ‘August 1897. Sister B is under orders to go to the Malakand and naturally is in a tremendous state of excitement.’ Detached to the Malakand Frontier Force, Barker served on the North-West Frontier of India from 15 August to 7 October 1897. For her efforts to nurse the sick and wounded she was awarded the R.R.C. and India General Service Medal, the former being presented to her on parade at Murree on 25 July 1899 by General Sir Arthur Power Palmer. A contemporary article published in The Nursing Record & Hospital World on 9 September 1899, adds a little more detail regarding both awards: ‘Miss Barker, during the frontier campaign, was shut up in one of the Malabund forts, being the only woman in it, and worked night and day nursing the wounded, besides being constantly under fire. She also rendered great service at the base hospital during the same campaign. This is not the first occasion on which Miss Barker has distinguished herself. She has already received a medal for saving life from fire, having carried a burning patient out of a hospital (sic) at great risk to her own life.’ Returning to Rawalpindi, Barker completed her first term on 26 November 1900. Signing up for further duties, she transferred to Peshawar in June 1902, and in April 1903 became officiating Senior Sister at Mian Mir. With her health declining, she finally resigned from the service on 15 August 1905. Sold with copied Indian Army Nursing Service Record and private research.

General Service 1962-2007, 1 clasp, Borneo (W/Insp Annie Uzaraga. Sarawak Police.) good very fine and rare £70-£90

A rare ‘Boxer Rebellion’ R.R.C. Pair awarded to Nursing Sister Marion J. Hislop, Indian Army Nursing Service Royal Red Cross, 1st Class, V.R., silver-gilt, gold, and enamel, on lady’s bow riband; China 1900, no clasp (Nursing Sister M. J. Mislop [sic]. I.A.N.S.) good very fine (2) £1,400-£1,800 --- R.R.C. London Gazette 13 December 1901: ‘In recognition of their services to the sick and wounded during the operations in China.’ Marion Jeanette Hislop was appointed Probationer at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London from November 1884 to November 1887, and took her first appointment as Sister at the Great Ormond Street Hospital For Sick Children from June 1889 to October 1890. Appointed to the Indian Army Nursing Service in October 1891, she served as Deputy Superintendent at the Sister’s Quarters of the Station Hospital in Allahabad, subsequently boarding the transport Palamcolla and sailing for Hong Kong for service during the Boxer Rebellion. The Nursing Record and Hospital World offers a little more information regarding this period: ‘Five of the Sisters of the Indian Army Nursing Service are at present serving in China. They are Senior Nursing Sister Marion Jeanette Hislop, and Sisters Agnes Mary Waterhouse, Louisa E. Lingard, Clara Lucy Cusins, and Christian Frances Hill. Their service are, no doubt, much appreciated by our sick soldiers. We hear very little of the nursing arrangements made for the care of our sick and wounded in China, and the news that five experienced Sisters of the Indian Army Nursing Staff are on duty there, is welcome, even though their services may be but as a drop in the ocean.’

An extremely fine Great War R.R.C. and Second Award Bar group of four awarded to Principal Matron Dorothea M. Taylor, Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, who was further recognised by His Majesty the King of Italy for her valuable work with the Italian Expeditionary Force Royal Red Cross, 1st Class (R.R.C.), G.V.R., with Second Award Bar, silver-gilt, gold, and enamel, the reverse privately engraved ‘D. M. Taylor Jan 1916 Q.A.I.M.N.S.’, on lady’s bow riband; British War and Victory Medals, with copy M.I.D. oak leaves (A. Pr. Matron D. M. Taylor.); Italy, Kingdom, Bronze Medal della Salute Publica, unnamed as issued, nearly extremely fine (4) £2,000-£2,400 --- R.R.C. London Gazette 14 January 1916. R.R.C. Second Award Bar London Gazette 1 January 1921. Italy, Medal of Merit for Public Safety London Gazette 2 November 1920. Dorothea Matilda Taylor was born in Edinburgh on 29 November 1873, the daughter of physician William Taylor. Educated at St. George’s High School in Edinburgh, she crossed the Firth of Forth and River Tay to take her nursing training at Dundee Royal Infirmary from May 1900 to May 1903. Appointed Staff Nurse to the Q.A.I.M.N.S. on 10 July 1903, she was raised Sister on 18 November 1904 and sent to Egypt from April 1906 to October 1910. Sent to Khartoum on a tour of duty in 1907, she likely treated people suffering from malaria, yellow fever, and other infections associated with a lack of safe water. Returned to the United Kingdom, Taylor was promoted Acting Matron on 8 August 1914 and placed on home service. Awarded the Royal Red Cross, she received her decoration from the hand of the King at an investiture held in Buckingham Palace on 15 January 1916. Posted overseas to Italy on 8 December 1917, she later wrote a most emotive account of her experiences: ‘On a cold, bleak morning, early in December 1917, I and my party arrived at the Italian Frontier on our way to join the Italian Expeditionary Force. The ground was white with snow, and it was exceedingly cold. The railway station was guarded by Italian soldiers, and even at the door of the refreshment room there was a sentry with a fixed bayonet. We were informed by the Railway Transport Officer that food was very short in Italy, and that he did not know where we were to go, but he would send us on to Turin, where we arrived about 5 p.m. - No one seemed to know anything about us at Turin, so we were again sent on - this time to Genoa - and arrived there about midnight. Again, we were not expected, so we were taken to No. 11 General Hospital to be kindly received and housed until quarters could be found for us.’ Sent to a small hospital in Arquata and then on to Stationary Hospitals at Cremona and Bordighera, Taylor spent New Year’s Day of 1918 at Padova in a ‘dreary and cold hotel’, the night being spent in a cellar as the town received the attention of the enemy. Transferred to work at a Casualty Clearing Station in the foothills of the Austrian Alps, she took solace in the beauty of the landscape and hospitality of the Italian people, before being sent on to a hospital in Taranto and digs in newly constructed Nissen huts. It was at around this time that Taylor’s health began to suffer, likely in consequence of the volume of work and bombing by the armies and air forces of the Central Powers; the recipient’s Service Record notes her struggling with concussion, neuritis and headaches. Sent back to England at the cessation of hostilities, Taylor received the Second Award Bar to her Royal Red Cross at an investiture held at Buckingham Palace on 8 March 1921. Her hard work from 1917 to 1918 was further recognised by the King of Italy, Taylor receiving the rare award of the Bronze Medal della Salute Publica - usually conferred for service to Italian citizens in staving off disease and protecting societal health. Raised Matron on 31 January 1921, Taylor took further appointment at the Officer’s Hospital in Scarborough and the Military Hospital in Cosham, but with her health failing she was invalided on 15 December 1924 and placed on retired pay. She died of pneumonia on 11 October 1928, her last address noted as Swanston Cottage, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft. Sold with the recipient’s original silver Q.A.I.M.N.S. cape badge, hallmarked Birmingham 1915.

‘Terrible trials were averted by those brave airmen, who rose from fog-enveloped aerodromes with little prospect of ever reaching earth again alive. Many a time the report “nothing seen” would be rendered; but seeing nothing themselves they were frequently seen by their prey and so frustrated many a raider. If the list of unknown heroes were being compiled these would assuredly figure amongst the first.’ (The German Air Raids on Great Britain, by Captain J. Morris refers) An early and rare Great War ‘Defence of Great Britain’ M.C. group of four awarded to Captain R. C. L. Holme, Royal Flying Corps, late Somerset Light Infantry, who distinguished himself in the fight against raiding Zeppelins with 39 (Home Defence) Squadron, alongside such pilots as ‘Bomber’ Harris and William Leefe-Robinson. Transferring to 33 Squadron, Holme crashed on take-off whilst attempting to intercept one of the 16 airships intent on raiding London - one of which, SL11, was shot down by Leefe-Robinson during his V.C. winning exploits on 2-3 September 1916. Holme suffered badly both physically and mentally as a result of his crash - having to be removed from underneath his burning aircraft. Despite these setbacks, he went on to be posted to France as a Flight Commander with 29 Squadron and gained ‘Ace’ status in SE.5a single seater fighters during 1918. Holme survived the War, only to tragically die as a result of injuries and burns sustained as a passenger in a Vickers Vernon which crashed in Baghdad in October 1922 Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (2. Lieut. R. C. L. Holme. Som. L.I.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Capt. R. C. L. Holme. R.A.F.) generally very fine or better (4) £3,000-£4,000 --- Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, September 2000. M.C. London Gazette 24 January 1917 (Home Honours): ‘For valuable services rendered in connection with the War.’ One of a handful of known ‘Home Defence’ gallantry awards for the Air Defence of Great Britain during the Great War, five of which were awarded in respect of gallantry during 1916 and 1917 - these including a V.C., a D.S.O., a Second Award Bar to the M.C., and 2 M.C.’s (the latter including Holme’s award). These early awards were for actions against Zeppelins, whilst the remainder were primarily for actions against Giants and Gothas in 1918. M.I.D. London Gazette 25 January 1917: ‘For distinguished services rendered in connection with the War.’ Robert Charles Lyon Holme was born in Reading, Berkshire, in November 1896, and in his youth resided in Norton-sub-Hampden, Somerset, and Barnes, London. He was educated at Repton and Sandhurst, and was commissioned into Prince Albert’s Somerset Light Infantry 11 November 1914, the day after his 18th birthday. Holme served with the Regiment in France from December 1914 to March 1915. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps later that year, and despite being initially seconded as an Observer to 16 Squadron, Holme qualified on a Maurice Farman for Aviator’s Certificate No. 1665 at the British Flying School, Le Crotoy, on 28 August 1915. He had already been in combat with 16 Squadron, with Second Lieutenant H.M. Goode as his pilot, on 17 June 1915. On this date the pair carried out a reconnaissance in a BE.2a over Seclin, armed only with an automatic rifle, when they engaged an Aviatik bi-plane: 'The German machine was first seen going south over Gondecourt, where upon we changed our course in order to get within range – when within about 200 yards we made a sharp turn heading north and opened fire, we followed him as far as Loos firing all the time. By then he had increased his lead to some 1,000 yards and was losing height rapidly, we then turned and continued our reconnaissance. During the later point of the combat we were in range of the Lille anti-aircraft guns which had opened an ineffective fire.' (Combat Report refers) A ‘Dash’ with ‘Bomber’ Harris Holme was officially seconded as a Flying Officer (Observer) in the Royal Flying Corps in September 1915, and left 16 Squadron the same month. He was posted for Home Defence duties, for the defence of Great Britain, in December 1915. Holme carried out further training as a pilot, and served with 39 (Home Defence) Squadron (BE.2cs) at Sutton’s Farm and Hainault Farm, Hounslow. By the start of the new year, he was up in the air trying to intercept Zeppelins: ‘On the night of 25/26 April 1916, one of Holme’s squadron colleagues, Captain A. T. Harris, became the first to use the new and still experimental Brock explosive bullets against a raiding Zeppelin (LZ97). (Harris would gain undying fame in the Second World War as ‘Bomber’ Harris). Soon after closing with LZ97, Harris’ Lewis gun jammed and whilst he was clearing it, the Zeppelin slipped away into the surrounding gloom. Holme and another colleague spied the same Zeppelin in the distance, coned in the light of searchlights, but it was too far away to be caught.’ (The Military Cross to Flying Personnel of Great Britain and the Empire 1914-1919, by H. Giblin and N. Franks refers) Holme, Harris and one Lieutenant W. Leefe-Robinson (later V.C.) had attempted an attack on one of five raiding Zeppelins that night. Both Harris and Leefe-Robinson were unsuccessful, and Holme took up the pursuit. However, he encountered a fuel problem and was forced to make a dead-stick landing at Chingford. Hunting Zeppelins with Leefe-Robinson Holme advanced to Temporary Captain, and transferred as a Flight Commander to 33 Squadron (BE.2cs) at Bramham Moor. The Squadron was engaged on Home Defence duties, protecting the Midlands and the North against Zeppelin raids. On the night of 28-29 July 1916, the Squadron received information from the Humber Garrison Commander that hostile airships (six Imperial Navy Zeppelins) had been sighted 40 miles east of the mouth of the Humber proceeding due west. At this time, however, a thick fog in the vicinity of the aerodrome precluded any attempt being made to despatch aeroplanes. At 2 a.m. a further report was received of a Zeppelin proceeding from Driffield towards Hull. The weather being slightly clearer by this time, Lieutenant Holme was the only pilot to ascend from Bramham Moor, but at 3,500 feet above the aerodrome could barely see the landing flares and as the fog was becoming thicker he was forced to descend. So bad was the weather that he was forced to abandon his attempt to stalk Kapitanleutnant Koch’s L24, which had been reported in the Hull area. On the night of 2-3 August 1916, six Zeppelins raided England, whilst the Squadron was operating from Beverley. Although the German force confined their raid to the eastern counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, 33 Squadron sent out a protective patrol over Hull and the Humber. Holme took off at 2.25 am and patrolled towards Driffield, then turning south he circled round Hull at 10,000 feet. Visibility was bad and he could see nothing on his own level, so descending to 8,000 feet he went out over Hedon to the coast and followed it north to Atwick, where Holmes stated: 'I now saw a searchlight at Beverley giving me the pre-arranged signal that all was over, accordingly I throttled to come down. My lights had gone out and wishing to keep my headlamp until near the ground I came down without it to 4,000 feet. When trying my engine I got into a mild nose dive but came out of it all right and landed without damage at 3.35 am.’ Exactly one month later, on the night of Leefe-Robinson’s V.C. victory over SL11, Holme crashed on take-off in BE.2c 2661 at one o&rsqu...

An extremely rare Boer War D.C.M. awarded to Sergeant-Major, later Lieutenant, R. J. Stallwood, Canadian Scouts, one of only 16 Boer War D.C.M.s awarded to Canadian recipients and the only one named to the Canadian Scouts Distinguished Conduct Medal, E.VII.R. (Serjt:- Maj: R. J. Stallwood. Canadian Scouts) good very fine £2,800-£3,200 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- D.C.M. London Gazette 31 October 1902. Robert Jabez Stallwood was born in Hagersville, Ontario, Canada, in May 1877. He was a Rancher, who enlisted as a Gunner in the Royal Canadian Field Artillery at Kingston, in January 1900. Stallwood initially served during the Second Boer War with ‘C’ (Special Service) Battery, R.C.F.A. (entitled to Q.S.A. with ‘Cape Colony’, ‘Orange Free State’, ‘Transvaal’ and ‘Rhodesia’ clasps). He was discharged to join ‘Howard’s Scouts’ (the Canadian Scouts, under the command of Major A. L. ‘Gat’ Howard, a British Irregular unit predominantly manned by Canadians) 12 December 1900. Stallwood advanced to Sergeant-Major, and was Mentioned in Lord Kitchener's Despatch of 23 June 1902. He was discharged 13 January 1901, only to re-engage for service during the Great War. Stallwood was commissioned Lieutenant in the 228th Canadian Infantry Battalion in March 1916, and embarked for England in February of the following year. He transferred to the 6th Battalion, Canadian Railway Troops, and served with them as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the French theatre of war from May 1917. Stallwood returned to Canada in May 1919, and was discharged 15 November 1919. Sold with copied research.

A Great War ‘Loos Crassier, April 1917’ D.C.M. and M.M. group of seven awarded to Colour Sergeant H.G. Emms, York and Lancaster Regiment, which also includes a rare single clasp K.S.A. Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (4821 Sjt: H. G. Emms. 2/Y. & L.R.); Military Medal, G.V.R. (4821 Sjt: H. G. Emms. 2/Y. & L.R.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Relief of Ladysmith, Orange Free State (4821 Corl. H. Emms. 1: Yk: & Lanc: Regt.) top clasp attached with wire connection; King’s South Africa 1901-02, 1 clasp, South Africa 1902 (4821 Pte. H. G. Emms.1/York: & Lanc: Regt.); 1914 Star (4821 Pte. H. G. Emms. 2/York: & Lanc: R.); British War and Victory Medals (4821 C. Sjt.H. G. Emms. York. & Lanc. R.) nearly very fine and better (7) £1,800-£2,200 --- D.C.M. London Gazette 18 July 1917: ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Despite heavy casualties, and the absence of any officer, he stuck to his post in a most advanced position. He was subjected to an intense bombardment, and beat off three counter-attacks.’ Annotated gazette states: ‘Loos Crassier.’
 M.M. London Gazette 22 January 1917. 

Henry George Emms was born at Norwich, Norfolk, and attested for the York and Lancaster Regiment on 18 January 1897, aged 19 years 6 months, a clerk by trade. He served in the Boer War with the 1st Battalion and proceeded to South Africa on 13 December 1899. He was wounded by a gun shot to the right forearm at Venters Spruit on 21 January 1900, and invalided to England on 18 March 1900. He returned to South Africa on 9 January 1902 until November of that year, when he proceeded to India. He served with the 2nd Battalion in France and Flanders from 10 September 1914, and was a Prisoner of War in Germany from 21 March 1918, until repatriated on 3 December 1918. Sold with copied research including confirmation of Boer War medals and clasps, Attestation papers and War Diary entries.

A fine Great War ‘Minesweeping’ D.S.M. and rare campaign combination group of seven awarded to Chief Petty Officer C. H. Grant, Royal Navy Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (116429. C. Grant, C.P.O. H.M.S. Pekin. Minesweeping. 1917.); Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, 3 clasps, Alexandria 11th July, Suakin 1884, Suakin 1885 (C. H. Grant... oy. 1 Cl: H.M.S. “A......) edge details worn in places; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (C. H. Grant, P.O. 1 Cl., H.M.S. Gibraltar.); British War and Victory Medals (116429 C. H. Grant. Act. C.P.O. R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (116429. CH. Grant. Act. C.P.O. H.M.S. Pekin.); Khedive’s Star, dated 1882, unnamed as issued, mounted for wear, toned, contact marks to Egypt Medal, remainder generally very fine or better (7) £1,400-£1,800 --- D.S.M. London Gazette 17 April 1918: ‘In recognition of their services in minesweeping operations between the 1st April and 31st December 1917.’ Approximately 110 Egypt Medals with 3 clasps awarded to the Royal Navy, of which 7 are known with this combination. Charles Henry Grant was born in Lymington, Hampshire in November 1865. He joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in June 1881, advanced to Boy 1st Class later that year and served with H.M.S. Alexandria from June 1882 to January 1883. Grant then served with H.M.S. Carysfort between February 1883 and June 1886. He advanced to Petty Officer 1st Class in August 1898, and served with H.M.S. Gibraltar from March 1901 through to February 1904. Grant was shore pensioned in July 1909, and transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve. Grant reengaged for service during the Great War, advanced to Chief Petty Officer, and served on minesweeping duties whilst based at H.M.S. Pekin (auxiliary patrol shore base, Grimsby) from November 1915 until November 1919 (awarded L.S. & G.C. in March 1920). Sold with copied service papers and research.

A rare and early Great War ‘Western Front’ M.M. and ‘First Day of the Somme’ Second Award Bar group of five awarded to Acting Sergeant W. K. Palmer, 15th Field Company, Royal Engineers Military Medal, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar (17739 Cpl. W. K. Palmer. 15/Fd: Co: R.E.); 1914 Star, with clasp (17739 2. Cpl. W. K. Palmer. R.E.); British War and Victory Medals, with modern M.I.D. oak leaves (17739 A. Sjt. W. K. Palmer. R.E.) ; Army L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue with fixed suspension (17739 W.O. Cl. II. W. K. Palmer. M.M. R.E.) mounted on card for display, light contact marks, otherwise very fine and better (5) £1,400-£1,800 --- M.M. London Gazette 3 June 1916: the first list of awards of the newly instituted Military Medal . M.M. Second Award Bar London Gazette 1 September 1916: just two such awards listed including Palmer. Prior to this gazette, 10 Bars to the M.M. had been awarded, in the gazettes of 10 August 1916 (2 awards) and 23 August 1916 (7 awards), thus making Palmer’s award one of the first 12 Bars awarded. M.I.D. London Gazette 1 January 1916. The 15th Field Company War Diary records the presentation of the M.M. to Palmer by the G.O.C. at Henencourt on 27 June 1916, and later the award of his second M.M. [Bar] ‘for conspicuous gallantry on the nights of 1st July and 17th’. The 15th Field Company was at Ovillers Post, near La Boiselle, on 1 July and in action there and on the night of 17-18 were involved in a night operation to consolidate a mine crater under heavy fire near the front line at Beuvry, but were shelled out. Sold with copied research including War Diary extracts.

Pair: Private M. Kempton, 59th Regiment of Foot Afghanistan 1878-80, 1 clasp, Kandahar [see footnote] (1239, Pte. M. Kempton, 59th. Foot); Kabul to Kandahar Star 1880 (1239 Private Michl. Kempton 59th. Regt.) third digit of number over-struck on Star; light contact marks and wear to first, good fine and better and extremely rare to unit (2) £500-£700 --- British Battles and Medals states just 13 Afghan Medals with clasp Kandahar; and just 9 Kabul to Kandahar Stars awarded to the 59th Foot. Michael Kempton was born in Glasgow in 1850. He is recorded in the British Army, Worldwide Index 1871, as serving from 1 April 1871 to 30 June 1871 with the 59th Regiment of Foot at Mhow and Bombay, India. He later fought at the Battle of Kandahar on 1 September 1880, and was discharged to pension on 19 June 1883. He died in Gateshead in December 1913. Note: The Kandahar clasp is not confirmed on the roll, and appears to have been added later as the top lugs are still present.

Three: Private J. F. Down, St John Ambulance Brigade and Exeter Fire Brigade St. John Medal for South Africa 1899-1902 (316 Pte. J. F. Down. S.J.A.B.); National Fire Brigades’ Union, Ambulance Division Tribute Medal for South Africa 1899-1902 (J. F. Down. Fire Brigade. Exeter, Devon); Exeter Fire Brigade Medal for Gallantry, silver (Presented by the Council of Exeter, to James Fredk. Down, for gallantry in saving life from fire. 24th Sepr. 1890) very fine and rare (3) £800-£1,000 --- Forty-four members of the N.F.B.U. Ambulance Division served in South Africa, all of whom received the Q.S.A. medal and the N.F.B.U.A.D. Tribute medal (Hibbard J5). Private Down is also entitled to the Q.S.A. with clasp for Cape Colony, named to Imperial Yeomanry Hospital Staff.

An extremely rare Great War A.R.R.C. pair awarded to Lady Superintendent Ellen D. Harris, Indian Army Nursing Service, later Voluntary Aid Detachment, who served alongside a small and hand-picked band of nursing staff during the Black Mountain Expedition Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class (A.R.R.C.), G.V.R., silver and enamel; India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Hazara 1888 (Sister E. D. Harris Indian Nursing Service) extremely fine (2) £600-£800 --- Provenance: Brigadier H. Bullock Collection, 1956; Tilling Collection. A.R.R.C. London Gazette 6 August 1919: ‘Miss Ellen Harris, Matron, Blytheswood Auxiliary Hospital, West Byfleet.’ Ellen Dovede Harris trained as a nurse at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London from 1885 to 1888. Registered with the Royal British Nurses Association on 2 May 1890, she was selected by Lady Superintendent Loch from the Staff of St. Bartholomew’s and appointed to the Indian Army Nursing Service as one of the original complement of two Lady Superintendents and twelve Nursing Sisters on 21 February 1888. The following day she sailed for India aboard the Malabar. Arriving in April 1888, Harris and four colleagues were posted to Rawalpindi under Lady Superintendent Loch. Here she served as part of the Black Mountain Expedition, receiving the India General Service Medal with clasp. Tasked with attacking the Pathan tribes of Hassanzais and Akezais, the Expedition represented one of the first major campaigns on the North-West Frontier of India. Advancing into unknown and perilous territory, British casualties soon mounted up, especially following the action at Shingri and further engagements at Towara and Kotkai, the British resorting to burning villages in order to achieve capitulation by the tribal elders. Promoted Deputy Lady Superintendent on 1 October 1891, Harris completed her first term of engagement at Peshawar and returned home in 1893. On 19 December 1894, she offered her resignation with six months’ notice in order to take up the position of Superintendent of Lady Robert’s Nurses. These ladies had charge of the Officer’s Hospital at Muree, giving their services to the Station Hospital at Sialkot in the winter. Remaining in India, Harris is later recorded in 1906 as Lady Superintendent at the English Home, M.A.O. College, Aligarh, a post which she held until the commencement of the Great War. Recalled to England, she ended her impressive nursing career in Surrey at the 45-bed Blythswood Auxiliary Hospital, staffed by local members of the V.A.D.

Seven: Sergeant R. Kirk, Coldstream Guards, later Corps of Military Police and 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade, who was reprimanded for shooting down a Luftwaffe plane during the Evacuation at Dunkirk, and later became a Gold Medal winning philatelist General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine (2656638. Gdsmn. R. Kirk. C. Gds.) number officially corrected; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted court-style for display; together with the recipient’s Dunkirk Medal, traces of verdigris to F&G Star, otherwise good very fine (8) £180-£220 --- Reginald Kirk, a native of Wincobank, near Sheffield, attested for the Coldstream Guards in 1934 for four years where he took part in the Trooping the Colour and guarding of Buckingham and St James' Palaces and the Tower of London in 1935. His unit had a rare inspection by King Edward VIII at Wellington Barracks. He served with the 3rd Battalion in Palestine in 1936, where he had a painful encounter with a scorpion. Discharged on 12 August 1938, having served in an exemplary manner, he spent a short time at Sheffield Post Office, before he was back in as a reservist in June 1939. At this time the authorities were building up the Corps of Military Police (about a 1000 Guardsmen had joined the Military Police), and Kirk followed, joining them on 2 September 1939, two days before the declaration of the War. Kirk went with the Military Police to Arras with the British Expeditionary Force on 7 September 1939. On 10 May 1940 the Germans cut off Arras and the Channel Ports. On that morning, having heard heavy gunfire, Kirk took a motorbike to escort Staff Officer Colonel Herbert to Brussels, they were stopped at the Belgian border and let through after some arguments, and returned back to Arras later going through towns which were sometimes under fire from dive bombing Stukas. ‘A few days before Dunkirk evacuation, Kirk acted on his own initiative and found himself in trouble. A flight of Stuka dive bombers flew 400 feet over the flat Belgian fields. He had kept his short Lee Enfield Mark III loaded with five rounds, he pointed it an aircraft’s length in front of one of the Stukas and fired all the rounds off at the Luftwaffe Aircraft, he hit it and it crashed into the sea, he was ecstatic but there was no commendation for Reg Kirk, in fact he was quizzed “Who told you to fire on that plane?” by the miserable Sergeant “Tombstone Joe”. He had to produce his Army Book and told “You’ll be on an Army Form B252, a charge sheet”, fortunately for him the Commanding Officer had moved on, and the process of dealing with this simply fizzled away.’ Serving in Italy in 1943 Kirk volunteered for the 2nd Parachute Brigade, to complete the War as a Paratrooper. On one occasion he was photographed as his unit landed in Salonica, Greece in late 1944 by flat bottom landing craft. Demobilised in November 1945, he transferred to the Class Z Reserve on 27 August 1946. Returning to the Sheffield Post Office, Kirk subsequently became a keen philatelist, and built up a good collection of Hong Kong stamps, followed by a collection of covers, envelopes and post-cards carried by vessels of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. At the World Philatelic Exhibition in Stockholm he was awarded a gold medal for his display of P & O covers between 1836 and 1914. Sold with copied research.

Six: Chief Petty Officer S. W. Scrace, Royal Navy 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (J.113782. S. W. Scrace. P.O. H.M.S. Ironclad.) good very fine, last rare to ship (6) £80-£100 --- Sidney William Scrace was born in Bedwelty, Monmouthshire, on 23 November 1909. He joined the Royal Navy in November 1927 on a twelve year service which continued because of the Second World War. His postings included H.M.S. Pegasus in February 1938, a training ship for seaplane pilots and to evaluate aircraft catapult operations and techniques; H.M.S. Sharpshooter from 26 August 1938 to April 1940: in June 1939 this ship helped look for the submarine Thetis, which had sunk in Liverpool Bay, and was later based in Scapa Flow; H.M.S. Farndale from 18 April 1941 to 2 March 1942 which was involved with Malta Convoys, Atlantic and the Arctic and North Africa; and H.M.S. Ironclad, a shore base in Diego Suarez, Madagascar from from 16 June 1942 to 11 August 1943. Scrace was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 23 June 1943, which was sent to H.M.S. Caroline in June 1944. Further study of the navy medal rolls show only two long service medals were awarded to H.M.S. Ironclad, the other being to a John Alfred Leake on 26 March 1943. He was advanced Chief Petty Officer on 15 May 1945, and was discharged to shore in 1949. He died in Reading in 1986. He would also have been entitled to the Arctic Star. Sold with copied service papers.

A rare ‘Shannon With Chesapeake’ 2-clasp Naval General Service Medal awarded to Private G. Morris, Royal Marines, combining the Nile, Nelson's first annihilating Fleet Victory, with the Classic American Frigate Action, a Duel the Admiralty considers to be ‘The Finest Single-Ship Action in the Age of Sail’. After a furious exchange of multiple broadsides at very close range, Shannon’s Royal Marines joined their agile but less disciplined seamen comrades to board and capture U.S.S Chesapeake, overpowering their counterparts of the U.S. Marine Corps in vicious hand-to-hand combat Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, Nile, Shannon Wh Chesapeake (Griffiths Morris.) good very fine £14,000-£18,000 --- Provenance: Spink, December 1965; Turl Collection, Spink, July 2010. Approximately 42 ‘Shannon Wh. Chesapeake’ clasps issued. One of only two medals issued with this combination of clasps. The name ‘Griffiths Morris’ is unique on the N.G.S. rolls, and his presence during the actions is verified by the muster rolls of both ships. Griffiths Morris was born in Wrexham, Denbighshire, near the border of north-east Wales, in 1772/73. A carpenter by trade, he voluntarily enlisted at Warminster, Wiltshire and attested as a Private in the Marines on 24 February 1796, aged 23. Marines were all volunteers, unlike the seamen, who included in their ranks reluctant-to-serve ‘pressed’ men, orphan boys sent by the Marine Society and ‘Quota men’ often collected from goals, hospitals and workhouses. In 1802 they were awarded the honour of becoming Royal Marines, which meant for Morris a new uniform with ‘royal’ blue cuffs and collar facings. Royal Marines were equipped with a shortened ‘sea service’ musket and were divided for administrative purposes into men with less than 7 years of service, those from 7-14 years and those who had served for over 14 years. Marines were the ship’s security force. On punishment days the Marines would parade under arms in a location overlooking the proceedings, ready to intervene if the crew became mutinous; they took part in boarding, cutting-out and littoral expeditions; they performed ceremonial duties, guarded the sensitive parts of the ship such as the spirit room and the Captain’s quarters and provided extra ‘muscle’ when needed. Marines could be and often were used as crew members of a great gun or to assist in working the ship from the deck, but they could not be ordered onto the yards to work the sails. Some volunteered as topmen, becoming sailors to increase their pay, as even the least skilled seaman, rated as ‘landsman’, was paid £1 2s 6d a lunar month compared to £0 19s 3d for a Marine private. Even after 14 years of service, a private earned just £1 3s 4d per month. When ‘Beat to Quarters’ was ordered, the Marines were stationed in detachments on the Foc’sle, Quarterdeck and in the fighting tops on the masts. Marines were trained to take cover behind the bulwarks and hammock netting while reloading their weapons, and then move to a different firing position. This involved “springing sideways with Life and Spirit”. The command “Marine Firing” allowed individual Marines to pick and engage their own target, then kneel for reloading. “The best marksmen shall be picked out, and ordered to Take Aim, and Fire at the Port-Holes; Two or Three expert Men killed at a Gun may silence it for half an hour.” In a boarding action, Marines fired volleys to clear the way for the agile but less disciplined seamen who were armed with hand-to-hand weapons such as boarding axes, cutlasses and pistols. Marines would help secure the enemy ship’s upper decks, mop up with their bayonets, secure prisoners below at musket point and guard them until they could be sent off the ship. Battle of the Nile Morris served as one of the 67 Marines on board H.M.S. Audacious during Nelson's action in Aboukir Bay, 1 August 1798, as verified by the ship’s muster. Audacious was the third of five battleships to pass the head of the line of French warships anchored close in-shore and then sail down its port side, trapping each of the leading French ships in a crossfire from two British vessels. Audacious anchored between Guerriere and Conquerant, the first and second in the French line of 74s, and engaged them for forty minutes with raking fire until the latter struck her colours, then used a spring to shift its fire onto Spartiate for another two hours. Audacious suffered casualties of one killed, thirty-five (including two marines) wounded. Audacious then took part in the blockades of Malta and Genoa for the rest of 1798 and into 1799. She escorted a convoy to Britain in late 1800, and on arrival was paid off. Morris is recorded as having deserted on 30 June 1802, during the brief peace following the Treaty of Amiens and after six years of service. He re-joined 13 months later, on 28 July 1803, two months after the resumption of hostilities. It is unclear whether he returned of his own volition or was identified as a deserter and reclaimed by the Royal Marines. The desertion probably explains why he was still serving in the same rank after 16 years of service, although with the greater seniority of 2nd Class Private, Plymouth Division, in H.M.S. Shannon (38), during the historic capture of the American frigate Chesapeake (38) in Boston Bay on 1 June 1813. Shannon with Chesapeake In the 1790s the Americans had built six large, heavily armed frigates. When war broke out between Great Britain and the United States, these vessels won a series of single-ship actions; U.S.S. Constitution captured H.M.S. Guerriere and H.M.S. Java whilst U.S.S. United States overwhelmed H.M.S. Macedonian. In response, the Admiralty instituted a closer blockade of American ports. H.M.S. Shannon, commanded by Captain Philip Broke, was one of the ships patrolling the coast of the United States. During his seven years as her Captain, Broke had worked up his ship to a peak of fighting efficiency. His gun crews were trained to fire into the hull of the enemy ship to kill the crew; his Marines were skilful snipers and their government-issue muskets were supplemented with a number of rifled carbines privately purchased for them by their officers. During a long patrol off Boston, Broke sent ashore a number of verbal messages to the Americans intended to provoke a battle, and followed up with a written message to Chesapeake’s Captain: “As the Chesapeake appears now ready for sea, I request you will do me the favour to meet the Shannon with her, ship to ship, to try the fortune of our respective flags...” In the early afternoon of 1 June 1813, the American frigate sailed out to challenge Shannon, accompanied by pleasure boats carrying spectators desirous of witnessing how quickly an American could 'whip' a British frigate. Chesapeake was slightly bigger and heavier, displacing 1,244 tons compared to the 951 tons for Shannon. The broadside weight of their great guns was similar at 540lbs for Shannon compared to 580lbs for Chesapeake; although the Chesapeake carried a greater weight of heavy close-quarter guns, the Shannon’s close action armament was more versatile. The key difference lay in the crews - Broke had 330 men (including 43 Marines) to Chesapeake’s 390 (including 44 US Marines). His superiority in manpower should have given the American Captain an advantage in fighting his ship, but this was blunted because both the Captain and his diverse crew (which included a significant number of Royal Navy deserters) were new on board Chesapeake and had not got used to working together. In contrast, 30...

The outstanding N.G.S. medal awarded to Captain Thomas Moore, Royal Marines, whose distinguished services with the marines of the Amphion over a period of 8 years gained him three mentions in despatches and the Brevet of Captain; he was senior officer of marines in the action off Lissa, was twice very severely wounded and twice rewarded from the Patriotic Fund Naval General Service 1793-1840, 3 clasps, 28 Aug Boat Service 1809, 28 June Boat Service 1810, Lissa, fitted with a fourth unofficial clasp inscribed ‘Umago’ (Thomas Moore, 1st Lieut. R.M.) fitted with contemporary ribbon and silver ribbon brooch, pin lacking on this, extremely fine and rare £12,000-£15,000 --- Provenance: Sotheby, November 1979 and June 1990; John Goddard Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, November 2015. ‘28 Aug Boat Service 1809’ [15 clasps issued - real date of action 27 August] of which 5 are known, Lieutenant Moore being the only R.M. officer to receive this clasp: David Buchanan, Yeoman of the Sheets; C. G. R. Phillott, Lieutenant R.N. (Royal Naval Museum); Charles H. Ross, Midshipman (Patiala Collection, Sheesh Mahal Museum, India); William Slaughter, Lieutenant R.N. (National Maritime Museum). ‘28 June Boat Service 1810’ [25 clasps issued] - of which 13 are known, including examples in the National Maritime Museum; Royal Naval Museum (2); and the Patiala Collection (Sheesh Mahal Museum, India). ‘Lissa’ [124 clasps issued] - including 3 Royal Marine officers: William S. Knapman, 1st Lieutenant, Volage; John Mears, 2nd Lieutenant, Active; and Thomas Moore, 1st Lieutenant, Amphion. ‘Umago’ - this unofficial, privately added clasp commemorates Captain Moore’s part in the destruction, at the town of that name, of a 2-gun battery and the capture of 4 vessels, loaded with wine, that had been scuttled on 8 June 1813. Thomas Moore joined the Royal Marines as a Second Lieutenant on 14 January 1801; First Lieutenant, 15 August 1805; Captain, 21 November 1810; Barrack-Master, Portsmouth Division, Royal Marines, 16 August 1827, which position he held for upwards of 30 years. Captain Moore’s distinguished and gallant services are thus concisely stated in Major Hart’s Army List for the year 1857: ‘Captain Moore served in H.M.S. Amphion from May 1803 to July 1811; was in the action with and capture of four Spanish frigates off Cape St. Mary’s; action with flotilla of gun-boats in Gibraltar Bay; cutting out a schooner in Corsica; a severe action with a French frigate, and driven on shore under the batteries in the Bay of Rosas in 1808. Served at the taking of Pessara, and capture of large convoys. Commanded the marines at the taking of Cortelazza in 1809, and taking 6 gun-boats. Commanded the marines of the squadron at the taking of Grao and large convoys laden with military stores, after a most sanguinary action with a garrison of French troops at the point of the bayonet, when the whole of the garrison were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners - for this action and previous services he was made Brevet Captain. Present also at the capture of several other towns on the coast of the Adriatic, and destruction of convoys. He was senior officer of marines in the action off Lissa, 13th March 1811. Was twice very severely wounded, and twice rewarded from the Patriotic Fund. He has been in upwards of 30 successful contests with the enemy, and frequently officially mentioned for gallantry. Has received the War Medal with three clasps.’ Mentioned in despatches London Gazette 1809, pp 479-481 (taking of Cortelazza, 27 August 1809). Mentioned in despatches London Gazette 1810 p 319 (taking of Grao, 28 June 1810: ‘It is hard to particularise where all distinguish themselves, but the conduct of Lieutenant Moore, who commanded the Marines... is spoken of in such high terms by all, that I feel it a duty to mention him, and I do it in that confidence of his worth which his exemplary behaviour, during Five Years’ Service together, has long insured him.’). Mentioned in despatches London Gazette 1811 pp 159, 162 (action off Lissa: ‘Captain Moore of the Royal Marines, of this ship, received a wound, but returned to his quarters immediately it was dressed.’). Sold with copied research including gazette extracts mentioned above.

Newcastle Volunteers Prize Medal 1806, 46mm, silver, the engraved obverse depicting a figure in Roman costume presenting a volunteer to a seated Britannia, the reverse engraved ‘Prize Medal presd. by Coll. Clennell to Willm. Mountain Right Battn. N.V. Decr. 24 1806’, with ‘England Expects Every Man to do his Duty’ around, indistinct hallmarks to edge, with flat silver loop suspension, edge bruising, otherwise good very fine and rare £200-£240 --- Referenced in Blamer, V.667; and Hastings Irwin p.369 (one of three Newcastle Volunteers Medal, all different, recorded) William Mountain was bon in Swillington, Yorkshire, on 16 January 1778. He is shown in the Muster Lists for the 2nd Company of Newcastle Loyal Volunteers for 1804. Sold with copied research. Note: Owing to the uncertainty that exists with the original provenance and manufacture of some early engraved Regimental and Volunteer Medals, this lot is sold as viewed.

18 Hussars Regimental Medal, a late Victorian piece comprising a uniface struck five-pointed silver star with ball finials, 65mm diameter excluding suspension, unmarked, ‘XVIII HUSSARS’ and motto of the regiment within a Garter and wreath below a crown, two arms bearing battle honours for ‘Peninsula’ and ‘Waterloo’, fitted with swivelling scroll suspension, very fine and rare, apparently unrecorded £140-£180

An Iron Cross First Class 1939. A very Rare Variant ‘Round Three’ Type. No maker’s mark. The hinge plate is the large plate found on early Deschler and Sohn Iron Crosses First Class, good very fine and an extremely rare issued example of this type £500-£700

A 1939 Clasp to the Iron Cross First Class 1914. A rare 1st Pattern example, with scalloped edges to the ‘1939’ date box. Believed to be a Boerger, Berlin production, but not maker marked. Large hinge plate. Straight pin, extremely fine £360-£440

An Iron Cross Second Class 1939, Schinkel Type. A rare 1st Pattern with smaller dimensions than the later standard pattern Iron Cross, probably by Wilhelm Deumer, Ludenscheid, a one piece model. Not maker marked, but almost identical to the Deumer pattern First Class. Some very slight wear to the black finish, otherwise retaining most bright factory finish, extremely fine £240-£280

A 1939 Clasp to the Iron Cross Second Class 1914. A rare 1st Pattern, with scalloped edges to the ‘1939’ date box. Believed to be a Paul Meybauer, Berlin production, but not maker marked. 2 long vertical pins in the rear centre. Slight tarnishing, good very fine £360-£440

A M.1936 Spanish Civil War Wound Badge in Silver. A rare variation with a slightly curved wreath, flat plate on reverse, and flat tapering pin. Appears to be an issued example. Excellent quality, very good condition £150-£200

A Condor Legion 1936 Tank Assault Badge. A rare variant having loops on the back for attachment to the tunic, rather than the standard pin. Of the 2 loops, one is now missing and the other is bent over. The detail is excellent, but the silver-plated finish is worn both on the front and on the back, reasonable condition and an exceptionally rare variant of a rare badge £800-£1,000

A Wehrmacht Close Combat Clasp in Gold. A very rare example in gold anodised aluminium. Very good condition, and retaining most original factory finish, and bright blued metal centre plate. Maker marked ‘GWL’ in raised circle [Gebruder Weber, Ludenscheid]. Thin tapered flat pin. Slight fading to the gold plating, very good condition £800-£1,000

A Kriegsmarine E-Boat Badge. A very good early 1st pattern tombac example by Schwerin, in excellent condition. Wreath retaining 95% original gold finish, E-Boat almost all silver finish, and waves grey gunmetal colour, reverse about 95% grey finish. Maker’s raised mark ‘Schwerin Berlin 68’. Horizontal wide tampering pin and top hook, extremely good condition, rare £800-£1,000

A Luftwaffe Pilot’s Badge in its Original Presentation Box. A late War c.1944-45 production by Emil Juttner. Zinc, heavy type, wreath in grey, probably never silver-plated, eagle in slightly polished grey, very good detail, bright silver coloured wide tapering pin. Pale cream cardboard box, lid printed in Roman black script ‘Luftwaffe Flugzeugfuhrer-Abzeichen’, staples at corners, very good condition £300-£400 --- Emil Juttner was one of the smaller Ludenscheid makers, producing a limited number of types. Of these, some like the Panzer Assault Badge are marked ‘EJL’ in a circle, whilst others are unmarked. Any of his productions are very rare. All the Luftwaffe Presentation boxes in cardboard are scarce.

A Luftwaffe Ground Combat Badge. A rare silver bullion wire eagle and wreath cloth type badge, black cotton lightning bolt edged in silver wire on faded dark blue felt, the version for officers. Exceptional quality. Issued example, good condition £200-£240 --- Provenance: Colonel Dodkins Collection.

An Eastern People’s Silver Award First Class with Swords for Bravery. This is the extremely rare variation having a deep concave back and wide pin, but with the pin stamped ‘100 [Rudolf Wachter & Lange, Mittwaida’ ]. Silver plating worn on part of right side, good condition and extremely rare for this maker £100-£140

Royal Regiment of Artillery Officer’s Shako Plate c.1812-16. A fine and rare die stamped copper gilt example crowned rococo plate, garter strap with ‘Royal Regt. of Artillery’, with ‘GR’ cypher to the centre, below two fused cannon balls with a mortar, four drilled holes for attachment to the shako, old solder repair at the base of the crown, service wear to the gilt, overall good condition £300-£400 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK ---

18th (Royal Irish) Regiment Grenadier Company Officer’s Shako Plate c.1812-16. A very scarce gilt fused grenade with stippled edge, to the centre engraved ‘18’, holes drilled into plate for attachment to the shako, gilt tarnished overall, fair condition, rare £800-£1,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 18th Regiment of Foot both served in the West Indies during the early 1800s.

3rd Royal Jersey Militia Officer’s 1829 Pattern Shako. A good quality untouched example, the black beaver body with flush leather top bound, front peak and bracing bands, to the front standard 1829 pattern gilt crowned back plate with gilt overlaid laurels, to the centre title belt ‘Royal Jersey Militia’ and ‘3’ on a gilt ground, correct pattern side ornaments bearing the royal crest, copper gilt chin chains with original leather and buckle mounts held up behind the shako plate, full gold embroidered cap lines attached to the peak with ornate pommels, bottom leaf missing from shako plate, no sweat band remaining, silk red lining a later addition, very good condition, rare £2,600-£3,000