England

Spanish writing desks of this period are the most distinctive pieces of Spanish furniture conceived as visual displays of incredible virtuosity. The characteristic decoration of the ...

Wer are delighted to offer this exceptionally rare pair of King James 1st 1615 English Heraldic Lion Newel Finials with period Polychrome paint Where ...

This cabinet is one of a small group that were made in the 1620s as taste and fashion veered towards the use of a paesina stone with its characteristic evocative veining which exhibi...

Portrait of Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) Attributed to Antiveduto Della Grammatica (1571-1626) Oil on Canvas 1605-1609 Framed in a Nineteenth Century gild and composite frame 44....

Exceptionally rare, large, museum quality, Tuscan, Baroque, walnut, rent or center table or tavolino with detachable top and single drawer - This beautiful, rent table is an unco...

Rare, early 17th century, Spanish, leather, ‘Arcon’ or domed travelling coffer with a gilded armorial & ornamented with brass studwork. Surviving utalitarian pieces such as travel...

A rare pair of late-Renaissance, Italian, upholstered, walnut, throne, open, armchairs or coppia di seggioloni, retaining their original armorials These throne armchairs are charact...

An exceptional, fine and impressive, rare antique German silver quart tankard; an addition to our range of collectable 17th century silverware This exceptional antique German silver tankard has a plain tapering cylindrical form onto a circular shaped domed foot. The surface of this antique tankard is embellished with impressive partial gilt chased scrolling decoration accented with central fruit and floral sprays in addition to undulating leaf designs, all on a matte background. The upper rim of this lady's tankard is encompassed with an applied moulded border. This rare silver tankard retains the original domed cover encircled with further chased scrolling ornamentation, reflecting that of the body and features a cast figural thumbpiece. The plain domed portion of the cover is surmounted with the original and impressive cast tiered finial. The impressive cylindrical hinge is ornamented with further matte textures. This antique German tankard...

An excellent Queen Anne solid silver bleeding bowl / dish with a magnificent pierced handle. The bowl has a slightly bellied shape with a narrow straight...

An exceptional, fine and impressive antique Charles I English sterling silver chalice; an addition to our collectable range of 17th century silverware. This exceptional antique Char...

The countye of Monmouth with the situation of the townshire described Anno, 1610 The reverse with Monmouthshire, Chapter VI and an alphabetical list of towns. In a beautiful Flemish oak polished and gilded frame Cartographer: John Speed...

An early 17th century painting in oil on canvas from the Spanish School depicting the Lamentation of Christ. In this moving depiction of the Lamentation Christ...

This is the first lamp designed by Alain Richard. It defined his style: Functional, elegant and simple with a precise sense of design and proportion. Available in its original format...

Exceptionally Rare Pair Of 17th Century, Flemish, Windows, 17th Century Flemish Baroque, Original Limewash, Shutters, Glazing & Ironwork These windows have come from the property th...

Visit our other items to see a large selection of views of Oxford and Cambridge. Michael Drayton (1563-1631) Map of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely (1...

Produced in Germany during the early 17th Century, this table is Baroque in style and period. The table stands on four rectilinear legs, their square profiles tapering from top to bo...

A set of exceptionally rare, English, late-Renaissance, oak, architectural, backstools upholstered in a sage green 19th century Renaissance-revival velvet - The architectural insp...

This vernacular chest exudes character and charm. The moulded panels and inlay inject gravitas. It has a lovely mellow lustrous patina. It is unusual being large and providing a copi...

- This table is the most original and superior example of a small surviving group of a rare, early model of gateleg table dating between 1620 and 1650. - It is more sophisticated t...

English School, (circa 1600) Portrait of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke Oil on panel, oval Image size: 29¼ x 23⅞ inches Painted wooden frame Provenance: 176, Collection of Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick. The Trustees of the Lord Brooks’ Settlement, (removed from Warwick Castle). Sotheby’s, London, 22nd March 1968, lot 81. Painted onto wooden panel, this portrait shows a dark haired gentleman in profile sporting an open white shirt. On top of this garments is a richly detailed black cloak, decorated with gold thread and lined with a sumptuous crimson lining. With the red silk inside it’s all very expensive and would fall under sumptuary laws – so this is a nobleman of high degree. It’s melancholic air conforms to the contemporary popularity of this very human condition, evident in fashionable poetry and music of the period. In comparison to our own modern prejudices, melancholy was associated with creativity in this period. This portrait appeared in the earliest described list of pictures of Warwick castle dating to 1762. Compiled by collector and antiquary Sir William Musgrave ‘taken from the information of Lord & Lady Warwick’ (Add. MSS, 5726 fol. 3) is described; ‘8. Earl of Essex – an original by Zuccharo – seen in profile with black hair. Holding a black robe across his breast with his right hand.’ As tempting as it is to imagine that this is a portrait of Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl Essex, we might take this with a pinch of salt. Its identification with this romantic and fatal Elizabethan might well have been an attempt to add romance to Warwick Castle’s walls. It doesn’t correspond all that well with Essex’s portraits around 1600 after his return from Cadiz. Notably, this picture was presumably hung not too far away from the castle’s two portraits of Queen Elizabeth I. The first, and undoubtedly the best, being the exquisite coronation portrait that was sold by Lord Brooke in the late 1970s and now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. The second, described as being ‘a copy from the original at Ld Hydes’, has yet to resurface. The portrait eventually ended up being hung in the State Bedroom of Warwick Castle. Archival documents present one other interesting candidate. The Greville family’s earliest inventory of paintings, made in 1630 at their home Brooke House in Holborn, London, describes five portraits of identified figures. All five belonged to the courtier, politician and poet Sir Fulke Greville (1554-1628), 1st Baron Brooke, and were hung in the ‘Gallerie’ of Brooke House behind yellow curtains. One of them was described as being of ‘Lord of Pembrooke’, which is likely to have been William Herbert (1580-1630), 3rd Earl of Pembroke. William was the eldest son of Greville’s best friend’s sister Mary Sidney, and was brought up in the particularly literary and poetically orientated household which his mother had supported. Notably, the 3rd Earl was one of the figures that Shakespeare’s first folio was dedicated to in 1623. The melancholic air to the portrait corresponds to William’s own pretensions as a learned and poetic figure. The richness of the robe in the painting, sporting golden thread and a spotted black fabric, is indicative of wealth beyond that of a simple poet or actor. The portrait’s dating to around the year 1600 might have coincided with William’s father death and his own rise to the Pembroke Earldom. This period of his life too was imbued with personal sadness, as an illicit affair with a Mary Fitton had resulted in a pregnancy and eventual banishment by Elizabeth I to Wilton after a short spell in Fleet Prison. His illegitimate son died shortly after being born. Despite being a close follower of the Earl of Essex, William had side-stepped supporting Devereux in the fatal uprising against the Queen and eventually regained favour at the court of the next monarch James I. His linen shirt is edged with a delicate border of lace and his black cloak is lined on the inside with sumptuous scarlet and richly decorated on the outside with gold braid and a pattern of embroidered black spots. Despite the richness of his clothes, William Herbert has been presented in a dishevelled state of semi-undress, his shirt unlaced far down his chest with the ties lying limply over his hand, indicating that he is in a state of distracted detachment. It has been suggested that the fashion for melancholy was rooted in an increase in self-consciousness and introspective reflection during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In contemporary literature melancholy was said to be caused by a plenitude of the melancholy humor, one of the four vital humors, which were thought to regulate the functions of the body. An abundance of the melancholia humor was associated with a heightened creativity and intellectual ability and hence melancholy was linked to the notion of genius, as reflected in the work of the Oxford scholar Robert Burton, who in his work ‘The Anatomy of Melancholy’, described the Malcontent as ‘of all others [the]… most witty, [who] causeth many times divine ravishment, and a kind of enthusiamus… which stirreth them up to be excellent Philosophers, Poets and Prophets.’ (R. Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, London, 1621 in R. Strong, ‘Elizabethan Malady: Melancholy in Elizabethan and Jacobean Portraits’, Apollo, LXXIX, 1964). Melancholy was viewed as a highly fashionable affliction under Elizabeth I, and her successor James I, and a dejected demeanour was adopted by wealthy young men, often presenting themselves as scholars or despondent lovers, as reflected in the portraiture and literature from this period. Although the sitter in this portrait is, as yet, unidentified, it seems probable that he was a nobleman with literary or artistic ambitions, following in the same vain as such famous figures as the aristocratic poet and dramatist, Edward de Vere...

Rare 17th century Neapolitan ebony and bone inlaid walnut giltwood mounted toilet mirror. The rarity of this small piece cannot be overstated. The veneered inlaid columns are superb ...

Stuart rock crystal love knot ring. The central oval rose cut domed rock crystal in closed back collet setting, surmounting a complicated love knot in gold thread, to a D-shape shank...

An English Oak Refectory Table, dating back the late Elizabethan period . circa 1600, a rare and stunning example . The table is surprisingly original . Retaining all its original...