Lovely pair of Russian hand painted brass Icons, late 19th century, one of the Novgorod icon of the mother of God 'Of the Sign', depicting the Virgin Mary with arms raised in prayer with the Christ child inset to robes with hands in blessing, the other depicting Saint Nicholas with closed gospel in left hand and the right arm slightly raised in stavros blessing, flanked with inset depictions of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, both hand painted on brass with incised halos and continuous geometric ground, mounted within gilded and incised architectural frames with geometric motifs, each accented with five blue and white enamel stars set to the arches, 43 cm x 34.5 cm (2)