Master Sculpture from Four Millennia

Italian, 17th/ 18th century

Intaglio with Sappho

Auction Closed

July 3, 02:32 PM GMT

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Italian, 17th/ 18th century

Intaglio with the Head of a young woman, traditionally identified as Sappho

chrome chalcedony, in a modern ring mount

14 by 11mm., 5/8 by 1/2 in.

UK ring size: T

John Stanhope MP (1705-1748);

by descent to his brother Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773);

George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough (1739-1817), Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire;

William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough (1704-1793);

George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough (1739-1817) Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire;

thence by descent to John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough (1822-1883), Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire;

David Bromilow, Bitteswell Hall, Lutterworth, until 1898;

by descent to Julia Harriet Mary Jary (née Bromilow);

Christie’s, London, 26 June 1899, lot 501a (sold to Ready; £11)

T. Worlidge, A Select Collection of Drawings from Curious Antique Gems; most of them in the possession of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom; etched after the manner of Rembrandt by T. Worlidge, painter, London, 1768, p. 149;

N. Story-Maskelyne, The Marlborough Gems: Being a Collection of Works in Cameo and Intaglio Formed by George, Third Duke of Marlborough, London, 1870, p. 65, no 353;

J. Boardman, et al., The Marlborough Gems, Formerly at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, London, 2009, p. 144, no. 310