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Lot 186
A Japanese bronze vase, decorated in relief with a coastal scene, a bird and a butterfly, three character mark to base, 25 cm high, and four others (5) Condition report Report by MWGeneral wear to the items with the usual scratches, marks etc of general wear.The sensor cover Dog of Fo has been attached with screws/rivets to the cover, otherwise condition is commensurate with age, which is probably first quarter 20th century, but no earlier.
Lot 163
A bamboo sword stick/cane, and a walking stick with a bronze elephant head handle (2) Condition report Report by GHLength of blade is approx. 41 cm. Blade is of square tapering shape.Nice and clean with no obvious damage, shaft and brass collar also in good condition.Report by GHNo obvious damage to elephant stick.
Lot 317
Seleukid Empire, Diodotos Tryphon Æ Tetarton (1/4 Mina) Weight. Circa 142-138 BC. Spiked Macedonian helmet to right, with cheek guards, adorned with ibex horn above visor; ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΤΡVΦΩΝΟΣ upwards to left, TE-TAPTON upwards to right / Latticework design. Unpublished in the standard references, for similar Seleukid weights cf. J. Forien de Rochesnard, Album des poids antiques 2, L Gece Antique, pp. 50-89 and Gewichte aus Syrien-Phoenizien, Münzzentrum Köln sale 49, 1983, 5078-5085. 130.15g, 57x57mm. Preserved in outstanding condition; concretions remaining on rev. Extremely Rare. This Seleukid commercial weight is remarkable on a number of counts. Firstly, unlike the majority of its surviving counterparts, it is bronze, not lead. Secondly, it specifically names the king, Tryphon, as the issuing authority, unlike most of the surviving weights which are civic issues. Lastly, it utilises as its main type the same motif that adorns the coinage of Tryphon, namely the spiked and horned helmet. The obverses of commercial weights such as this were often decorated with popular Seleukid motifs, but also necessarily featured a clear indication of their weight. The reverses were often given a pattern as a security measure to ensure that any modification should be apparent. The lattice, as on this piece, was a common reverse pattern.
Lot 308
Seleukid Empire, Antiochos I Soter AV Stater. Aï Khanoum, circa 280-271 BC. Diademed head right / Horned and bridled horse head to right, with braided, horn-like forelock; ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ to left, ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ below, pellet-in-Δ within circle at upper right. SC 426-7 (same reverse symbol position as 426, same obverse die as pl. 20, 427b); cf. ESM 676, 683-4. 8.43g, 16mm, 7h. Good Extremely Fine. An apparently unique variety of an exceedingly rare issue. Newell (The Coinage of the Eastern Seleucid Mints from Seleucus I to Antiochus III) attributed the important series of gold, silver and bronze coins, of which the present specimen is an exceptionally rare and beautiful example, to Baktra, the capital city of Baktria. Subsequent excavations at Aï Khanoum, which was perhaps the Alexandria Oxiana mentioned by Ptolemy (6.12.6), revealed many coins there of the type assigned to Baktra. A more thorough study by Kritt (Seleucid Coins of Bactria, pp. 27-30), utilising the newly discovered information, reassigned the entire Baktra series to Aï Khanoum. The existence of an active mint there was confirmed by the excavation of a large palace complex complete with administrative offices, treasury and unstruck bronze flans. This reattribution was further supported by the discovery of a bronze coin depicting the river Oxus – a type appropriate to Aï Khanoum, but not Baktra. Antiochos I himself was possibly in residence at Aï Khanoum when he received word of his father’s assassination. Houghton and Lorber (Seleucid Coins, p. 151) note that this city’s monetary output grew in importance during Antiochos’ sole reign, probably rendering other local coinages obsolete. The horned horse head type has often been mistakenly thought to represent Alexander’s beloved warhorse Bukephalas, which apart from the mythical Pegasos was certainly the most celebrated horse of antiquity. The type was instituted by Seleukos, who used it at Pergamon for a brief issue of commemorative silver, at Apameia and Carrhae for small bronze, and at Ekbatana for an extremely rare issue depicting both horned horse and rider. Used more extensively by Antiochos I, the horned horse head seems, according to Miller and Walters (Seleucid coinage and the legend of the horned Bucephalas, SNR 83, 2004) “to have been a personal symbol of Seleukos I, and not an oblique claim to legitimisation via reference to Alexander’s favourite steed”. Several scholars including Hoover (1996) cite a statue mentioned by John Malalas (Chronographia, c. AD 491-578) which he says bore the inscription: “On this Seleukos fled Antigonos and was saved; returning and conquering him, he destroyed him.” It is clear that the use of bulls’ horns comes to represent royalty and divinity, a custom perhaps derived from ancient near-eastern religious motifs, and the usage of such horns was perpetuated on the portraits of Seluekos II, Antiochos III, and several later Baktrian kings. If Malalas may be believed then, the present horned horse type could easily represent this honoured steed that saved Seleukos - it is certainly the only horse we have any mention of in connection with him.
Lot 120
Kingdom of Macedon, Philip V AR Tetradrachm. In the name and types of Alexander III. Pella, circa 180 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin headdress / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left, holding sceptre; AΛEΞANΔPOY to right, club in left field, B below throne. Price 636; Müller -; Roma XIII, 194. 16.71g, 30mm, 1h. Good Very Fine. Rare. This coin is part of the final issue of 'Alexanders' struck in Macedon, as outlined by Seyrig (H. Seyrig, 'Monnaies héllenistiques, 5. Philippe V ou les Bottiéens', RN 1963, 14-8, pl. ii). Price notes: It represents a revival of the coinage that is much later than the groups of the early part of Antigonos' reign. Seyrig showed that the style of the head of Herakles on these later issues compared closely with that on bronze issues in the name of Philip V, dated from the use of the same symbol and monograms as are found on the silver tetradrachms to the later years of his reign. The Alexander issue is not, however, marked with the controls of the royal coinage of Philip, and was presumably struck to make a particular payment for which this type of coinage was stipulated. The letter B which occurs on the Alexanders of this group may be related to the name of the Bottiaeans of the Emanthian plain around Pella, who at this time struck fractional coinage parallel to the royal issues of Philip V. This suggestion is strengthened by the symbol of the prow (Price 640-2) which echoes the reverse type of the coinage of the Bottiaeans. F. W. Walbank (Philip V of Macedon, Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 265) notes however that there is now evidence of at least three other regional issues - those of the Amphaxians, coined at Thessalonica, and those of two Paeonian peoples, the Doberes and Paroreians. Additionally, many cities minted in their own names including Amphipolis, Aphytis in Chalkidike, Apollonia, Pella and Thessalonica. Walbank concludes that this represents a concession of the king's centralised political authority and an unprecedented devolution of minting authority. Rather than necessarily indicating weakness or insecurity though, Walbank makes the case for this devolution being a method of achieving some consolidation following the absolutist policies of the Antigonids, who had ever restricted coining rights, even to the great trading cities on the coasts. He proposes that the success Philip achieved with this policy should be measured by the prosperity of Macedon and the loyalty of its people to the king; the state of the Macedonian state on the eve of the Third Macedonian War indicates that this concession "weakened neither nation nor monarchy".
Lot 432
Severus Alexander Æ Drachm of Alexandria, Egypt. Dated RY 10 = AD 230/231. Α ΚΑΙ ΜΑΡ ΑΥΡ СЄV ΑΛЄΞΑΝΔΡΟС ЄΥϹЄ, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / Hermanubis standing right wearing kalathos, holding winged caduceus and palm branch, jackal behind to left, palm branch to right; L I (date) to left. Emmett 3165A.10; Dattari (Savio) -; RPC VI Online 10455 (temporary). 26.22g, 34mm, 12h. Good Extremely Fine, the finest known example. Extremely Rare. The reign of Severus Alexander witnessed what is probably quite fair to describe as the last great flourishing of numismatic art at the mint of Alexandria, before several centuries of steady decline. The mint had ceased operations following the great massacre perpetrated by Caracalla in 215, and was only reopened after his assassination and the accession of Macrinus, under whose rule it produced an extremely limited coinage. Under Elagabalus output increased markedly, though by now the principal denomination had long been the tetradrachm, and the bronze drachm was struck in very limited numbers. In the reign of Severus Alexander a renewed threat from the East presented by the Sassanids, who had entirely overwhelmed Rome’s old adversary the Parthian Empire, required a fresh output of coinage on a larger scale than Alexandria could fulfil. As a result, tetradrachms were struck both at Alexandria and at Rome, whence they were imported into Egypt. Severus Alexander’s reign also saw the reintroduction of the drachm on a much greater scale (only two types had been struck under his predecessor), with a wide variety of types both old and new, fully utilising the skills of the engravers evidently brought back to work at Alexandria under Elagabalus. Struck on large flans with dies engraved as competently as any during the ‘golden age’ reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, this would be the last ever issue of bronze drachms from Alexandria before the demonination was forever rendered obsolete by inflationary forces and retained only as a unit of account. In his paper entitled “The Onomastic Evidence for the God Hermanubis” (Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Papyrology, 2007), Amin Benaissa succinctly describes the conflation of the Greek god Hermes with the Egyptian god Anubis: “Hermanubis is known from a handful of epigraphic and literary sources, mostly of the Roman period. Plutarch cites the name as a designation of Anubis in his underworldly aspect (De Is. et Os. 375e), while Porphyry refers to Hermanubis as ‘composite,’ and ‘half-Greek’ (De imaginibus fr. 8, p. 18.1–2 Bidez). The name has been restored in a second-century BC dedicatory inscription from Delos (ID 2156.2), which would be its earliest attestation, but otherwise it appears in three inscriptions of the Roman period, two from Egypt and one from Thessalonike. It is clear that the name is a result of the assimilation of the Egyptian god Anubis to the Greek god Hermes, which is well attested in a number of literary, epigraphic, and artistic sources. Although Hermes was traditionally equated with the Egyptian Thoth, his function as psychopompos encouraged his association with Anubis given the latter's comparable funerary role in Egyptian religion as embalmer and guardian of the dead and as leader of the deceased to the tribunal of Osiris. This assimilation resulted in widespread Greco-Roman representations of the canine-headed Anubis with attributes of the Greek Hermes, such as the distinctive staff known as the kerykeion or winged sandals. In Roman Alexandria there emerges a new iconographical type, well represented in coins and sculpture, in which a fully anthropomorphic young god is flanked by a dog and holds the same attributes as the said Anubis, in addition to wearing the kalathos headdress. It is this type that art historians have traditionally labelled ‘Hermanubis’.”
Lot 884
Byzantine Empire Æ Three Unciae Commercial Weight. Circa 5th-7th Century AD. Γ° Γ; menorah above, all within wreath divided by four annulets; circular border containing annulets / Blank. Cf. Bendall 116. 74.62g, 38mm, 9mm thick. An attractive circular commercial weight with a pleasing patina. Recessed top, two grooves around the edge. Engraved on this remarkable Jewish-Byzantine three-unciae official imperial weight, in the typical ‘angular chisel’ technique often favoured in this period, is with what Christians at the time would have considered a blasphemous image replacing the usual Christian Holy Cross. It was conceivably engraved at the time of the Byzantine-Sasanian War of 602-628 CE, when many disgruntled Jews sided against the Byzantines in the Jewish revolt against Heraclius, which successfully assisted the invading Persians led by Khosru II in conquering the Byzantine Empire’s richest provinces in the Diocese of the East: Antioch in 611, Jerusalem in 614, Alexandria in 619 and the rest of Egypt by 621. Most of the Byzantine mints closed at this time, with the exception of that of the second city of the empire, Alexandria, which continued to produce imperial standard bronze coin denominations in the form of 12, 6, 3 and 1 nummi, without imperial titles, but with the characteristic Persian symbols of the sun and moon (cf. MIB 202, 211, 214 and 215). Another possible period for this Jewish-Byzantine weight might be after the death of Muhammad in 632 and the rise of the first Caliph Abu Bakr, who set in motion a military expansion that in a few short decades overwhelmed the whole the Levant, starting with the province of Syria in 634, the Exarchate of Africa in 686 and Visigothic Spain by 712-716. The new Islamic authorities in Syria, North Africa and Spain continued the Byzantine monetary system by issuing what we call Arab-Byzantine coins, until they were gradually replaced by the Umayyad Post-Reform coinage starting in 696/7 (77H) with its own well recorded weights and measures (cf. G. Bernardi, ‘Umayyad Caliphate Globular Coins’ in Arabic Gold Coins I, Trieste 2010, pp. 101-104 and S. Album, Checklist of Islamic Coins, Santa Rosa 2011, 115-124). These Muslim invaders were seen as a liberating force by the long suffering Jewish population within the Christian empire. Eager to aid the Arab invaders in administering the newly conquered territories many towns and garrisons were left in the hands of the Jews while the invaders proceeded further west and north. The destruction of the Second Temple by Titus in 70 CE and the subsequent triumphal procession in Rome was a momentous event celebrated by many coin issues over several years and the erection of a triumphal arch in the Forum. The renowned Arch of Titus depicts Roman soldiers carrying away the spoils of the Second Temple, in particular, the seven-branched menorah, or candelabrum. The menorah was then deposited in the temple of Pax, where it remained until it was looted by the Vandals in 455 and taken to their capital, Carthage. After the fall of Carthage in 533 to the Byzantine general Belisarius the menorah was removed to Constantinople and later sent to Jerusalem (Prociopius, Vandal Wars IV.9.5). There exists no record of it after this and it was probably destroyed when Jerusalem was sacked by the Sasanian Persians in 614, when the Holy Cross was carried off to Ctesiphon. After the destruction of Jerusalem at the end of the Bar Kokhba War in 135, the menorah had become the iconic symbol of the Jewish Diaspora and the festival of Sukkot. In a religiously tolerant pagan Roman Empire the menorah image was placed prominently on signet rings, lamps, and amulets and even appears in the roundels of prestigious Roman gold glass cups, along with other Jewish symbols. With Constantine I the empire became Christian, and under the Theodosian Code of 404 Jews were excluded from certain governmental posts and by 425 all public offices, both civilian and military - a prohibition that was repeated under the Justinian Code of 545. Although the Justinian Code remained in force in the Eastern Empire until the ninth century, the period following Justinian's reign was generally characterised by tolerance of non-Christians, particularly the Jews. However, the Jewish revolt against Heraclius provoked severe anti-Jewish measures to be enacted throughout the empire and applied as far away as Byzantine North Africa, Merovingian France and Visigothic Spain, the alleged provenance of this weight. The first Visigothic rulers of Spain were not much interested in the religious affairs of the kingdom until 506, when Alaric II (484–507) published his Breviarium Alaricianum or Lex Romana Visigothorum, which adopted the laws Byzantium. Following the conversion of the Visigothic royal family under Recared from Arianism to Catholicism in 587, the situation became far worse for Jews, now subject to forced conversion, resulting in the utter embitterment and alienation of Spanish Catholic rule by the time of the Muslim invasion in 711. Under Muslim rule Jews experienced tolerance and integration and given the status of dhimmi, by which they remained second class citizens, but were accorded many rights and protections as a “people of the book’.
Lot 437
Roman Republic AV 60 Asses. Rome, circa 211-207 BC. Bearded head of Mars right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet; ↓X (mark of value) behind / Eagle standing right on thunderbolt, with spread wings; ROMA below. Crawford 44/2; RBW 160-1; Bahrfeldt 4a. 3.36g, 15mm, 5h. Good Extremely Fine. Struck circa 211 BC during the latter stages of the Second Punic War, the types chosen for the three small gold denominations valued at 60, 40, and 20 asses like the present piece, could not have been more fitting. On the obverse we find Mars, God of War and defender of Rome, who in myth was the father of Romulus, the city founder. The eagle on the reverse symbolised strength and immortality in the face of adversity, and together these types make a very appropriate opening statement for the gold coinage of Rome, most especially when struck at a time of war. The war with Carthage had ravaged the Italian peninsula, and in addition to the wholesale destruction of Rome's armies, the most crucial damage inflicted by Hannibal's invasion of Italy was the total collapse of Rome's young monetary system. At that time, the Roman currency was based entirely on bronze, for which the demand in wartime was competing with the needs for weaponry. The weights of the bronze currency were radically decreased, and it therefore became necessary to make bronze convertible to silver which, however, was also in short supply. The strain on the Roman treasury was extreme. The decision was therefore taken in circa 216 BC to issue a gold coinage as an attempt to provide further stability for and increase faith in the bronze coinage by creating the impression that bronze could be freely exchanged for gold, thus making the token bronze coinage acceptable. In "The Mars/eagle and thunderbolt gold and Ptolemaic involvement in the Second Punic War" (Essays Hersh, 1998) A. R. Meadows convincingly argues that the influx of gold after the decision of 216 most likely came from the Ptolemaic kingdom in response to a direct appeal for help and that the reverse type of eagle on thunderbolt, so clearly similar to the Ptolemaic coinage, was the tacit acknowledgement of the financial aid that was received by Rome.
Lot 6126C
A Ballet Dresses from the production of Sleeping Beauty 1977/78 at the Royal Opera House, London, metal zipperThe production performed by the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden.A fine tulle top bodice made in fine tulle which is edged indecorative braiding in gold, the bodice is heavily embellished in shades of gold and bronze, the wide scalloped waistband is edged in gold braid, the skirt has Bo Peep type paniers in a figured lace edged in decorative braiding, over a lemon tulle tutuCharacter: Songbird Fairy and dancer was Leslie Collier
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