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Click here to subscribeAN URBINO MAIOLICA TWO-HANDLED OVIFORM VASE MID TO LATE 16TH CENTURY, PROBABLY FONTANA WORKSHOP With mask terminals and snake handles, painted with the Triumph of Galatea, the nymph borne by Hippocampi, in a continuous seascape; broken socle and damages 16¼ in. (41.3 cm.) high View on Christie's.com
A FINE FRENCH GOLD-HILTED SWORD WITH RED JASPER GRIP PRESENTED TO BARON MORGAN DE BELLOY, MAYOR OF AMIENS, BY THE TOWN IN RECOGNITION OF HIS SERVICE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS IN 1815, PARIS GOLD MARKS FOR 1809-15, MAKER`S MARKS `AF` FOR ANTOINE MODESTE FOURNERA with tapering blade of hollow-triangular section, etched and gilt on a blued panel on the lower third, decorated with a cornucopia, a crossed sword and frond, and fasces on one side and further designs of foliage including a laurel wreath on the other, signed `Coulaux Frères` and `Manuf. Royale de Klingenthal` on a gilt panel at the forte, gold hilt cast and chased in low relief, comprising double shell-guard formed with scrolling terminals beneath the quillons, decorated on the reverse with a sun rising over a rocky seascape and on the front with delicate scrolls of foliage surmounted by the fully supported town arms and motto on a matted ground, a turned down brim front and back decorated with the presentation inscription and a panel of conventional foliage centring on a flower respectively, a pair of scrolling quillons with bifurcated terminals each chased with a classical profile on the front and an expanded flower head on the reverse, quillon-block chased with a band of foliage, knuckle-guard decorated en suite and interrupted by a further classical profile, and the pommel formed as a plumed helmet with barred visor, red jasper grip (small chips and one small crack), retained on each side by a gold panel, the front applied with a delicate gold scrollwork panel incorporating a central rondel filled with the letter `M` and with an anthemion moulding top and bottom, the reverse with a gold oval and a Caduceus as an attribute of Peace personified, in a later leather scabbard with gold locket, middle bands and chape 83.8cm; 33in blade The presentation inscription reads: `A Mr. A. J. B. M. J. R./MORGAN. MAIRE. LA VILLE D`AMIENS. RECONNOISSANTE` Adrien Marie Jean-Baptiste Morgan de Belloy (1766-1834) was Mayor of Amiens from 1808 to 1815 and subsequently a Member of Parliament from 1815 to 1824. He was created Baron by Napoléon I in 1811. Four years later, during the one hundred days of Napoléon`s exile on Elba, there was considerable unrest throughout much of France and the mayor managed to maintain a proper harmony between the citizens of Amiens and the troops residing there. For this success, the City Council honoured him with the present of an "épée d`honneur", which was decided on 11th July 1815. His title of nobility was confirmed by Louis XVIII in 1816. See A. De Galonne 1906, p. 95.
A WELL PRESENTED AND DETAILED 32`:1" SCALE WATERLINE MODEL OF THE S.S. POLITICIAN (1923) modelled by R.A. Wilson with a carved and plated hull, deck details, masts and rigging as appropriate, the superstructure complete with funnel finished in T. & J. Harrison livery, set in a moulded and painted seascape within wood-bound plexi-glass case Ñ 7 x 22 x 8in. (18 x 56 x 20cm.) overall. Carry case, historical notes, A conventional passenger-cargo steamer, the S.S. Politician unwittingly gave rise to one of the more celebrated Ealing comedies when, on the 5th of February 1942, she foundered in poor visibility on rocks off the Eriskay Sound. She was carrying a mixed cargo, but to the delight of the Barra lifeboat men who saved crew who had not already got off, it included 22,000 cases of Scotch whisky. Over the next two months the islanders played a game of cat-and-mouse with H.M. Customs as the wreck was revisited again and again despite the authorities` best efforts to preserve the cargo. Arrests were made and sixteen islanders served terms between four and six weeks. After the War, Compton Mackenzie published a popular book about the event called "Whisky Galore" with the ship called the S.S. Cabinet Minister and the island renamed "Todday" and a year later in 1948 it was turned into a hit film of the same name (in the U.S. it was called "Tight Little Island" and in France "Whisky a Go-Go").
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