Three well-carved pieces performed with particular gusto bringing sums 10-times the modest estimates.
Sold at £5000 was a c.1800 cameo depicting the seated Achilles mourning his friend Patroclus, who was killed in battle by the Trojan, Hector (above right). To the left of Achilles is his slave and concubine Briseis and the Greek warrior Antilochus leaning on a column.
Also from the neoclassical period, an agate cameo, depicting Hercules with short curled hair and beard, wearing his lion cloak (above left) sold at £11,000.
While its border was badly damaged, there was also strong competition for a Renaissance hardstone fragment, depicting Cleopatra wearing two strings of pearls and holding asps in each hand to her breast (below left).
This 16th-century survivor took £4800.
