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Lot 172
A silver salver, Sheffield 1964, Viner's Ltd, of square for, with shaped canted corners and stepped rim, raised on four coiled acanthus feet, approx 27cm x 27cm, together with a toddy ladle, inset with a George III coin, 1787, with wrythen baleen handle, approx 37.5cm, two cased sets of six silver cake forks, cased set of six silver teaspoons, silver sugar tongs and a pair of silver grape scissors, Sheffield 1934, Atkin Brothers, approx 15.5cm, approx gross weight 33oz. CONDITION REPORT: Surface scratches to the salver. Cased sets good condition. Toddy ladle with dents. Grape scissors good condition.
Lot 11
Britannia, Catuvellauni and Trinovantes AV Stater. Cunobelin. Camulodunum (Colchester), circa AD 8-41. Grain ear, CA-MV across / Horse jumping to right, branch above, CVNO below. Rudd, ABC 2795 (this coin); BMC 1828; VA 2025. 5.49g, 17mm. Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare, and very well preserved for the type.
Lot 180
Attica, Athens AR Tetradrachm. Circa 490-482 BC. Archaic head of Athena right wearing crested helmet decorated with chevron and dot pattern / Owl standing right, head facing, olive sprig behind, ??? before. Cf. Svoronos Pl. 4, 26. 17.44g, 23mm, 6h. Near Extremely Fine. In unusually good condition for the issue, with a full crest; struck and preserved on sound, lustrous metal. Very Rare. Athens was one of the few Greek cities with significant silver deposits in their immediate territory, a remarkable stroke of fortune upon which Xenophon reflected: 'The Divine Bounty has bestowed upon us inexhaustible mines of silver, and advantages which we enjoy above all our neighbouring cities, who never yet could discover one vein of silver ore in all their dominions.' The mines at Laurion had been worked since the bronze age, but it would be only later in 483 that a massive new vein of ore would be discovered that enabled Athens to finance grand new schemes such as the construction of a fleet of 200 triremes, a fleet that would later prove decisive in defending Greece at the Battle of Salamis. This coin was produced in the period before the discovery of the new deposits at Laurion, around the time of the Ionian Revolt and the subsequent first Persian invasion of Greece. Athens aided the Ionian Greeks in their rebellion against Persian tyranny with both coin and soldiers, participating in the 498 BC march on Sardes which resulted in the capture and sack of that city – the only significant offensive action taken by the Ionians, who were pushed back onto the defensive and eventually subjugated once more. Vowing to punish Athens for their support of the doomed rebellion, the Persian king Darius launched an invasion of Greece, landing at Marathon in 490 BC. Just twenty five miles from Athens, a vastly outnumbered Athenian hoplite army inflicted a crushing defeat on the Persians, who after suffering horrendous casualties turned to their ships and fled.
Lot 233
Kingdom of Macedon, Philip III Arrhidaios AV Stater. In the types of Philip II. Abydos, circa 323-317 BC. Struck under Leonnatos, Arrhidaios, or Antigonos I Monophthalmos. Head of Apollo right, wearing laurel wreath / ?I?I??OY, charioteer, holding kentron in right hand, reins in left, driving biga right; ?? monogram below, grain ear in exergue. Le Rider pl. 90, 12 (same obv. die); Thompson, Philip –; ADM II series IX, 127a (same dies); SNG ANS 305 (same obv. die). 8.70g, 17mm, 6h. Near Extremely Fine. Very Rare issue, Thompson records only six examples from one obverse and two reverse dies (note: her Vinchon and Bourgey sales refer to the same coin).
Lot 244
Thrace, Abdera AV 1/4 Stater. Epimeletes Polyphantos, circa 336-311 BC. ????-??????, Griffin crouching left / Laureate head of Apollo left, ??? ???-??????? around. Unique and unpublished; for the same empimeletes, cf. J.M.F. May, The Coinage of Abdera (540-345 BC), edited by C.M. Kraay and G.K. Jenkins, Issue IX, London 1966, Group CXXXVII 547-8; M. Price, ‘Thrace, 1980’, in Coin Hoards VII, 1985, pp. 42-3, 50, fig. 5, 15 [= Triton sale 2, 1998, 347 (6.40g) = Leschorn II, p. 766]. 2.10g, 12mm, 12h. Very Fine. Unique and of significant numismatic interest. The above mentioned Thrace 1980 hoard found wrapped in a sheet of lead near Abdera is of very considerable numismatic significance. The presence in this uncirculated hoard of posthumous Philip II types issued under Philip III together with the second known Abderan gold stater indicates that May’s period IX, dated to c. 375-360, should be considerably lowered. Another hoard from Kasamovo in Bulgaria, found in 1894 (IGCH 741), but not noted by May, Kraay and Jenkins, in which the epimeletai (overseers or supervisors, commonly called magistrates by modern numismatists) from periods V, VIII and IX are present together with coins of the Thracian Chersonese on a similar weight standard, also argue for the down dating of these three periods. The metrology of the later Abderan coinage is complex in the extreme, to the point that the only gold piece known at the time (signed by the epimeletes ???????, weighing 6.42 and now in Oxford) is defined as a stater on p. 39, but as a half-stater on pp. 265, 267, 269 and on p. 274, catalogue no. 462. The discovery of the Abdera 1980 hoard gold stater signed by Polyphantos confirms a local Thracian weight standard of about 6.4 grams, exactly the double of two extant ‘half-staters’ of nearby Maroneia with an average weight of 3.2 grams (cf, Schönert-Geiss, Maroneia, 597, 1-2). The above newly discovered gold 1/4 Stater is logically based on the ‘Attic’ gold standard, which was presumably intended to circulate with the gold 1/4 staters in the name of Philip of the same weight, dated to c. 336-328 BC (cf, Le Rider 47-82 and SNG ANS 281-227).
![Crete, Aptera AR Stater. Signed by Pythodoros. Circa 4th century BC. ?[??A?????] around head of Artemis Aptera to right, with](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/d527b0c0-5027-4f2f-bb9f-a44c01037011/cdb25d55-5e5d-42e8-803b-257a7c8078f9/468x382.jpg)
Lot 261
Crete, Aptera AR Stater. Signed by Pythodoros. Circa 4th century BC. ?[??A?????] around head of Artemis Aptera to right, with hair elaborately curled upwards around a stephane ornamented with palmettes; she wears an elaborate crescent and solar-disk pendant earring with three drops and a pearl necklace; to right in smaller letters the artist’s signature: ????????? / Warrior hero Apteros, called Ptolioikos, standing facing, his bearded head left, wearing crested helmet and cuirass, holding in his left hand a spear and shield decorated with a sunburst, his right is raised towards a sacred fir tree in left field; ?????????? around. Le Rider, Monnaies crétoises, p. 36, 269-70, pl. 9, 11-12; Svoronos, Crète, p. 15, pl. 1, 10 (same dies); BMC 1, pl. 2, 3 (same dies); BMFA Suppl. 108 (same dies); LIMC VII/1, p. 588, VII/2, sv. Ptolioikos 2 (same rev. die); for the engraver’s signature see L. Forrer, Notes sur les signatures de graveurs sur les monnaies grecques, Bruxelles 1906, pp. 277-284. 11.78g, 24mm, 12h. Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare. Of exceptionally fine style and quality, and among the finest of the very few known examples. From the Eckenheimer Collection. The stunningly beautiful obverse female portrait is that of Artemis Aptera (or Aptara as inscribed on the coins, a local form of the Cretan Artemis Diktynna), the patron goddess of the city. Before her image in small characters proudly appears the name of the artist Pythodoros, a master die-engraver who also worked at Polyrherion on the equally beautifully styled female head which has been defined as that of Britomartis, ‘sweet maiden’ in the Cretan dialect. Also identified as Artemis Diktynna, Britomartis in Cretan myth was caught in a fisherman’s net (diktyon) while trying to escape the advances of Poseidon, and was the subject of several Cretan coin types inspired by a statue then attributed to Daedalos, who was reputed to be the father of Cretan art (cf. Le Rider pp. 114-6, 3-6 pl. 28, 19-38; Svoronos 15-16, pl. 26, 4-5; Traité pl. 261, 25; BMC 1-2). Both images are very much influenced by the Sicilian school of die engraving as epitomised by the celebrated artists such as Kimon, Phrygillos, Eukleidas, Euainetos and Eumenes. The reverse type is of no less mythological and historic interest; the warrior in question is Apteros, called Ptolioikos, a title literally meaning ‘dweller in the city’. He is shown saluting a tree, a scene which can be interpreted as a rendering of what must surely be a now lost myth concerning the oiktistes or founder of the city. The fine remains of the ancient polis of Aptera or Aptara (IACP 947), the modern Palaiokastro, are situated near the Minoan site of Megala Chorapia on the south side of Suda Bay, the safest anchorage in Crete throughout Greek, Venetian and Ottoman times, and which is today an important NATO naval base. Eusebius informs us that the city was founded by an eponymous hero, Apteros in the year 1503 BC (Chronicon 44c). The first historical mention of Aptera dates from the 7th century BC when a contingent of archers is reported to have fought along with Spartans in the war against Messene (Pausanius, Description of Greece IV 20, 8). Various attemps in antiquity were made to explain the city’s name: notably, that it was the site of the song contest of the Muses and Sirens. In this story the latter lost their wings in a fight that ensued after their defeat (Stephen of Byzantium sv. Aptera; ‘aptera’ = ‘wingless’). The city’s name most likely derives from one of the epithets of Artemis, A????? (cf. Inscriptionis Cretae 2), similar to that of the statue in the temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis at Athens, which later took on the name of Nike Apteros, meaning ‘wingless’ Nike. From the fourth century BC Aptera produced coins on the Aiginetan weight standard, but by later Hellenistic times it gradually declined in favour of its powerful neighbour Kydonia and was finally absorbed by Rome in 67 BC.
Lot 264
Crete, Gortyna AR Stater. Circa 4th century BC. Europa seated half right within branches of a tree, her right hand resting on a branch below, her left arm extended before her / Cretan bull standing right, head facing, bee below. Le Rider p. 79, 67, pl. 19, 3 (same dies); Svoronos 70, pl. 14, 17 (same dies). 11.76g, 26mm, 6h. Extremely Fine. Very Rare, and in exceptional condition for the type. From the Eckenheimer Collection.This coin type evokes the myth of Europa and the bull, an ancient story linking the Greek and Semitic worlds. Europa was the daughter of the king of Tyre, and in the Cretan myth, Zeus first takes the form of a bull to carry her off to the island of Crete, and then an eagle, to make love to Europa in a scene reminiscent of Leda and the swan. Her depiction here is unconventional; instead of her usual appearance as a scantily-clad young woman she wears a polos (an archaic headdress which in this period was usually only associated with deities such as Hera or Artemis), and holds a bird-tipped sceptre - both symbols of royalty. Indeed, according to myth Zeus made Europa the first queen of Crete, and it is in that station that we see her now.
Lot 267
Crete, Phaistos AR Stater. Mid 4th century BC. Herakles standing in fighting attitude to right, wearing Nemean lion skin, seizing with his left hand one of the heads of the Lernean Hydra, and with his right hand preparing to strike with; bow and bowcase in left field / Bull standing to left. Svoronos 66, pl. XXIV, 23 (these dies); Le Rider pl. XXIII, 11 (same dies); BMFA Suppl. 125 (same dies). 11.41g, 27mm, 4h. Near Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare, only two examples recorded by Le Rider. From the Eckenheimer Collection. The obverse of this coin depicts the second of Herakles’ Twelve Labours set by Eurystheos, the agent of Hera. He was tasked with slaying the ancient serpent-like monster that resided in the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, which guarded an underwater entrance to the underworld. Upon cutting off each of the Hydra’s heads however, Herakles found that two more would grow back in its place, an expression of the hopelessness of such a struggle for any but the hero. Realizing that he could not defeat the Hydra in this way, Herakles called on his nephew Iolaos for help. Iolaos then came upon the idea (possibly inspired by Athena) of using a firebrand to cauterize the stumps after each decapitation. When Hera saw that Herakles was gaining the upper hand she sent a large crab to distract the hero, but Herakles crushed it underfoot. He cut off the last and strongest of the Hydra’s heads with a golden sword given to him by Athena, and so completed his task. Hera, upset that Herakles had slain the beast she raised to kill him, placed it in the vault of the heavens as the constellation Hydra, and she turned the crab into the constellation Cancer. The encounter with the Lernean Hydra is not only well attested in epic, but is also the subject of some of the earliest securely identifiable Herakles scenes in Greek art. On two Boiotian fibulae of c. 750-700 BC (BM 3025, Philadelphia 75-35-1), the hydra is attacked by Herakles, at whose feet is the crab sent by Hera. This particular form of the scene would later be replicated on the coins of Phaistos (cf. Svoronos 60, pl. XXIV, 20), even including the crab. The present example is the earliest in the Herakles-Hydra series at Phaistos, and consequently is more archaistic in style. It has been extensively argued that the later designs of Phaistos copy a now lost masterpiece of sculpture or painting, perhaps even a statue group by the great sculptor Lysippos (see Lehmann, ‘Statues on Coins’, New York 1946; see also Lacroix, ‘Les Reproductions de Statues sur les Monnaies Grecques’, Liege 1949; see also Lattimore, ‘Lysippian Sculpture on Greek Coins’, California Studies in Classical Antiquity Vol. 5 1972). The present type however most likely draws its inspiration from a locally significant vase or wall painting, given that the composition is pictorial in nature, showing Herakles’ bow and quiver behind him in the field. Though the particular source of inspiration for this type is not known, clear parallels can be seen in surviving Greek art of the late Archaic and early Classical periods, notably on an Attic black figure Lekythos now in the Louvre (CA598) which depicts Herakles and the Hydra in a similar combat pose.
Lot 270
Troas, Alexandreia Troas AR Tetradrachm. Year 174 = 128/7 BC. Anaxikratos, magistrate. Laureate head of Apollo left, with flying wreath ties and two spiral locks falling over back of neck / Apollo Smintheos (the Mouse God), laureate and draped, standing to right holding bow and unstrung arrow in left hand, patera in right, quiver over shoulder; ??????N?? and date PO? to right, monogram and ??????? to left, ??????????? in exergue, ANA?IKPATO? below. BMC -; Bellinger -; Leschorn Lexicon I & II -; for general type cf. Bellinger A133-7. 16.88g, 31mm, 12h. Good Extremely Fine. A historically and artistically important coin. Apparently unique and unpublished, and very possibly the finest known example of the series, which is otherwise only found in heavily circulated condition. Assuming that the era in use began in 301 as Bellinger suggests (p. 94, note 18), the date of this issue, year 174, probably equates to c.128/7 BC. For an up to date commentary on the dating of this coinage cf. A. Meadows, ‘The earliest coinage of Alexandria Troas’ in NC 2004, pp. 47-70, especially p. 70. Recent excavations have revealed that the Hellenistic incarnation of the temple of Apollo Smintheos was constructed circa 150-125 BC, therefore around the supposed time of the striking of this coin. For a very informative discussion on the statue of Apollo Smintheos at the shrine of Hamaxitos near Alexandria Troas attributed to Skopas, who is said to have a mouse at the foot of the god, cf. L. Lacroix, Les reproduction de statues sur les monnaies grecques, pp. 76-86, especially pp. 83-6. In the opening of Homer’s Iliad the shrine of Apollo Smintheos (Smitheos on the coin) is mentioned as the temple where the daughter of the Trojan priest Chryses, (possibly named after the town next to the temple which was sometimes called Chryse), who was called as Chryseis, 'the girl from Chryse', was taken captive by Agamemnon. This provoked Chryses to appeal to the god in the vocative as ??????? (Smintheu, 'O, Sminthian') when imploring him to send a plague against the Greeks, presumably by mice. The epithet Smintheos was attributed by the later Greeks to a Pelasgian or Mysian origin and was taken to mean 'destroyer of mice'. The consonantal string -nth- (e.g. Corinth) is considered by modern philologists to be non-Greek and possibly Luwian in origin. The passage of Homer gives no indication as to its meaning, and so myths about Apollo Smintheos primarily arose from attempts to aetiologise the epithet.
Lot 294
Ionia, Teos AR Stater. Circa 478-449 BC. Female griffin with curved wings crouching to right on semicircle and pellet ornamented base, left forepaw raised; panther’s head below paw, THION around / Quadripartite incuse square. J.M. Balcer, The Early Silver Coinage of Teos, SNR 47 1968, 103; BMC 19. 11.68g, 24mm. Good Extremely Fine. An exceptional example, well struck on a very broad flan. Rare; 20 specimens are present in CoinArchives, of which this is by a considerable margin the finest. Ex Künker 216, 8 October 2012, lot 425; Ex Lanz 30, 26 November 1984, lot 267. Teos was founded by Minyans from Orchomenus along with Ionians and Boiotians perhaps as early as the ninth century BC. On account of its outstanding position between two perfect harbours Teos was a flourishing seaport with strong trade relations throughout the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean until the middle of the sixth century BC when Cyrus the Great invaded Lydia and Ionia. Fearing conquest and enslavement, the inhabitants of Teos fled overseas to the newly founded colonies of Abdera in Thrace and Phanagoria on the Asian side of the Cimmerian Bosporus. Abdera took the principal type of the griffin for its coinage, though the monster now faced to the left, or West, perhaps a consequence of their people’s flight from their homeland. However, Teos appears to have recovered fairly quickly; it seems that Teos was refounded by Abdera sometime soon after the Persian conquest of c. 545. Though this refoundation is not explicitly attested in any extant literature, an intriguing passage in the inscription of public imprecations from Teos (see P. Herrmann, ‘Teos und Abdera im 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr’, Chiron xi, 1981) alludes to ‘my mother’ being Abdera and ‘the mother of my mother’ being Teos, thus providing the only evidence for the refounding of Teos by Abdera. Strabo supports the refoundation hypothesis by stating that some of the colonists of Abdera later returned to Teos (xiv 1.30), and it is highly plausible since the city soon after contributed 17 ships to the Ionian revolt, and the Teians were present at the ill-fated battle of Lade in 494 BC in the centre of the line next to the large Chian navy. This is further supported by the numismatic evidence which shows that Teos’ first coinage was contemporary with that of Abdera, and Abdera’s were struck only soon after its colonization by the refugees from Teos; Kraay (Archaic and Classical Greek Coins, 1976) suggests that the coinages were started in planned conjunction. The present coin is an exemplary specimen of the early classical coinage of Teos, being exceptionally well engraved with a multitude of fine details in a beautiful archaizing style which leaves us in no doubt about the talent of the die cutter; of particular note are the fierce head of the beast and its splendid curved wings. Careful attention has been paid even to the panther head adjunct and the ornate base upon which the griffin crouches.
Lot 347
Mysia, Lampsakos EL Stater. Circa 480-450 BC. Forepart of Pegasos with curved wings to left, vine with bunches of grapes around / Quadripartite incuse square. A. Baldwin, Period I, pl. I, 11; BMC 9; Traité pl. 8, 2. 15.22g, 20mm. Good Extremely Fine. Lampsakos was founded in around 654/3 BC by Phokaian colonists, and in the sixth century became a dependency of Lydia; when the Lampsakenes had captured Miltiades, the Athenian tyrant of the Chersonesos, they were forced by Kroisos to set him free. After the fall of the Lydian kingdom in 547, the city then fell under the dominion of Persia. Lampsakos joined the Ionian cities in revolt in 499, but was conquered by Daurises in 498 or 497, and thereafter remained under Persian control until it was given by Artaxerxes to the exiled Athenian general Themistokles as part of the governorship of the Magnesian district. Themistokles' district also included the cities of Myos, and Magnesia itself, who along with Lampsakos paid him revenue of 50 talents per year, for 'meat', 'bread' and 'wine' respectively. At an uncertain date after the death of Themistokles in 459 BC, Lampsakos joined the Delian League, and is recorded in the tribute lists from 453/2, paying a phoros of fifteen talents. The dating of this issue has long proven to be difficult, with earlier scholars having attributed it to as far back as 525-500, though this has been shown to be unlikely, not least on account of the style being of a more dynamic and baroque nature than the rather static designs of the Archaic period. At the time Baldwin published her study of the electrum coinage of Lampsakos in 1914, she knew of just fourteen varieties encompassing approximately forty specimens of all of Lampsakene electrum. As for coins from the first period under which this coin falls, she knew of just thirteen specimens. Of course while additional specimens have appeared over the past century, this coin is still a rarity. The style is much more refined than the earliest issues of the period, and while it is tempting to perceive the Pegasos motif as one symbolising freedom, and thus try to place this as a product of the Ionian revolt, the general modern consensus is that the issue should belong to the period of 480-450. This being the case, it should reasonably be viewed within the context of Themistokles' control of the city – under his control, Lampsakos was required to pay tribute, for which purpose a substantial issue of coinage was necessary. The subsequent issue has the same types and is also of a highly refined engraving style, but shows the letter ? below the winged horse of the obverse, thus tying it to the Athenian Coinage Decree and the banning of the use of non-Athenian silver soon after 450 BC.
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