CAESAR AND HIS COMET, ON A STAFFORDSHIRE PLAQUE, English, c. 1800. This fine cream colored oval plaque is 5-3/8” (14 cm) wide and 6” (15 cm) tall, and bears the raised profile bust of, apparently, Julius Caesar, with a comet and eight stars blazing in the sky, the whole surrounded by a band of leaves (oak leaves, perhaps, and thus the “corona civica” which was awarded to Caesar).
An extremely bright daytime comet, perhaps the brightest in recorded history, appeared
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