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| Bearded Man ivory no date, no location British Museum |
"I shall not answer any more questions. I shall even try not to ask myself any more. While waiting I shall tell myself stories, if I can. They will not be the same kind of stories as hitherto, that is all. They will be neither beautiful nor ugly, they will be calm, there will be no ugliness or beauty or fever in them any more, they will be almost lifeless, like the teller. What was that I said? It does not matter. I look forward to their giving me great satisfaction, some satisfaction. I am satisfied, there, I have enough, I am repaid, I need nothing more. Let me say before I go any further that I forgive nobody. I wish them all an atrocious life and then the fires and ices of hell and in the execrable generations to come an honoured name. Enough for this evening."
– from Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett, originally published in French in 1951, first published in the author's English translation by Grove Press in 1956
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| Angelo Amastini Cameo - Pscyhe 18th century onyx British Museum |
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| Bust of Socrates lapis lazuli no date, no location British Museum bequeathed by Sir Hans Sloane |
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| Anonymous Gem-cutter Cameo - Bust of Young Woman ca. 1400-1450 (cameo - Italy) ca. 1530-50 (mount - Antwerp) onyx cameo, gold, ruby, emerald British Museum |
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| John Bacon the Younger Portrait-bust of Richard Payne Knight 1812 marble British Museum |
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| Anonymous English Gem-cutter Cameo - Queen Elizabeth I 17th century sardonyx Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| The Lyte Jewel Locket with Miniature portrait of King James I by Nicolas Hilliard 1610 enameled gold, diamonds British Museum |
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| Roman Empire Miniature Bust of Man in Armor AD 235-250 carved bone British Museum |
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| Anonymous European jeweler Pendant - Nereid with child late 16th century enameled-gold pearls, emeralds, rubies, diamonds British Museum |
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| Louis François Roubiliac Portrait-bust of King Charles I 1759 terracotta British Museum |
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| Roman Empire Cameo - Trajan and Plotina AD 117-138 sardonyx British Museum |
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| Sèvres Manufactory Bust of Denis Diderot modeled by Marie-Anne Collot ca. 1768 porcelain British Museum |
"Ideas of power also have their sublime aspect, but power that threatens has greater impact than power that protects. The bull is more beautiful than the cow; the horned bull that bellows more beautiful than the the bull idly at pasture; the wild horse, its mane flaying in the wind, more than the horse mounted by its rider; the wild ass more than the donkey; the tyrant more than the king; crime, perhaps, more than virtue, and cruel gods more than well-intentioned gods, as the sacred law-makers know well."
– from the Salon of 1767 by Denis Diderot, English translation by John Goodman (Yale University Press, 1995)
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| David Le Marchand Relief of Louis XIV Victorious ca. 1690-96 ivory British Museum |
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| Sèvres Manufactory Busts of Voltaire and of Jean-Philippe Rameau ca. 1767-73 porcelain British Museum |