Morton & Eden Ltd.
Lot 392
*Italy, Fabrizio del Carretto, Grand Master of the Knights of St. John at Rhodes (1513-1521), cast gold medal to the weight of 10 ducats by an unknown North Italian medallist, bearded bust left wearing cap; f fabricivs de carretto magnvs m r around, rev., his coat of arms; deo et beate virgini around, 39.8mm, 35.18g (Hill 730d, this piece; Furse p. 318, with mention of this piece; cf. Arm. III, 195, C, in silver = Friedlander collection, acquired 1861 = Börner 265), flan slightly buckled and edge smoothed from possibly having been mounted, a few marks on the reverse, a fine early cast, extremely rare Ex Prince Montenuovo collection, Vienna; Cav. Giancarlo Rossi collection, Dura & Sambon auction, Rome, 6 December 1880, lot 3687 (2,000 gold lira) and illustrated with line drawing (where the marks on the reverse are reproduced); Alfred Morrison collection, part 1, Christie’s, 23 July 1965, lot 96 and Christie’s, 23 November 1971, lot 89. The silver example listed by Börner in the Bode Museum, Berlin, is struck and yet the internal and external measurements of the present piece are virtually identical so that it is most likely to be a first generation cast. Hill lists four examples of this medal as follows: (a) the silver example in Berlin which is struck; (b) a gold example in Malta; (c) formerly Bardini, metal not mentioned; and (d) the present medal.
