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Click here to subscribeIonia, Klazomenai, stater, c. 500 BC, forepart of winged boar flying right, rev., quadripartite incuse square, 6.98g (SNG von Aulock 1981; SNG Lockett 2788; Boston 1847; Kraay-Hirmer 607), slight area of horn silver, toned, extremely fine and rare. Provenance: Westminster School collection, Sotheby’s, 26 May 1976, lot 103; Hermann Robinow collection, Morton & Eden 51, 24 October 2011, lot 145; Nomos 7, 15 May 2013, lot 131.
JALAYRID, TEMP. HASAN BUZURG (736-757h), Dinar, Aydhaj, undated (but see below). Obverse: as an Ilkhanid dinar of Abu Sa‘id, dated 719h (Diler 488). Reverse: kalima in angular calligraphy arranged in square, names of Rashidun around; in centre: duriba bi-Aydhaj. Weight: 4.22g . Good very fine and excessively rare, apparently unpublished. This is a remarkable coin. The obverse appears to have been struck from an official Ilkhanid die of Abu Sa‘id, and the date – 719h – is clearly visible. Frustratingly, the mint-name on this side is difficult to interpret; it may have originally been Bazar, but the die appears to have been either modified or deliberately defaced at this point. The reverse die is anonymous, although the design and calligraphy is very similar to Jalayrid dinars of Hasan Buzurg and Uways I issued during the 750s. Exceptionally, however, the centre contains the mint – Aydhaj – which is very clearly engraved. Aydhaj appears to be unknown as an Ilkhanid mint but silver coins were struck there during the 750s by the Atabegs of Lur Buzurg (various dates from 751-757h), the Jalayrids (known for 756h only) and the Muzaffarids (various dates from 759h onwards). With the exception of the present coin, gold coins from this period appear to be unknown. It seems plausible to suggest that it was produced during the period when Aydhaj came under Hasan Buzurg’s control in 756h, although the existence of silver coins from Aydhaj dated 756h and 757h struck in the name of the atabeg Nur Award argues that Hasan Buzurg can only have claimed power there briefly. This would be fitting with this coin having been produced as an emergency issue, for which an obsolete Ilkhanid die was pressed into service for the obverse.
FATIMID, AL-MU‘IZZ (341-365h), Dirham, Tabariya 359h. Weight: 2.10g Reference: Nicol 325, citing a single specimen (apparently with the ‘9’ unclear). Wavy flan and with small edge split, almost very fine for issue and extremely rare. This is the earliest recorded date for Fatimid silver coins from Tabariya.
‡FATIMID, AL-MU‘IZZ (341-365h), Dinar, Makka 363h. Weight: 4.19g Reference: Nicol 385, citing a single example known only from ‘notes taken in 1979…present whereabouts unknown.’. Small area of weak striking in margin, otherwise almost extremely fine and excessively rare. THE FIRST FATIMID DINAR STRUCK IN THE HOLY CITY OF MAKKA, During the 3rd/9th century, the Abbasid caliphs were responsible for ensuring that Makka itself was secure and that both trade and pilgrimage routes in the region were safe. As the power of the caliphs dwindled under al-Muqtadir and his successors, this role was increasingly assumed by local sharifs from the early 4th/10th century onwards. The chief threat to Makka during this period came from the Qarmatids, a radical Isma‘ili sect with its origins in Eastern Arabia. In 317h they attacked Makka itself, killing many people and carrying off the Black Stone. It was only after the Fatimids arranged to pay 50,000 dinars to the Qarmatids that the Stone was returned in 339h, and one contemporary writer records that it had been broken in two so that silver bars were used to repair it. The sharifs who governed Makka can hardly have been well-disposed towards the Qarmatids, who also had a bad reputation for attacking pilgrims – which was not only impious but also affected the commercial wellbeing of the city. But they seem to have had little choice but to cooperate with them to a certain extent, and for the first half of the fourth century it seems that an awkward but pragmatic relationship developed between Qarmatids and sharifs. Virtually no coins were struck at Makka during the first half of the 4th/10th century. Production of standard Abbasid dinars and dirhams seems to have ceased circa 302h, after which undated silver sudaysis were struck there by the Rassid al-Nasir Ahmad b. Yahya (301-325h). Thereafter we have a lacuna of some thirty years until 354h, when a dinar was struck there acknowledging the Abbasid caliph al-Muti‘ and also bearing the single letter kaf, in reference to Kafur, the Ikhshidid ruler in Egypt. It is not clear who issued this coin: it might conceivably have been produced anonymously by one of the sharifs, but the piece has obvious similarities with contemporary dinars issued by the amirs of ‘Athar from the late 330s until the early 350s. The link to Kafur is confirmed by the existence of a dinar struck at Makka three years later, in 357h, on which Kafur’s name is given in full. Whoever struck these coins evidently felt Kafur and the Ikhshidids were the most important power in the region at that time. The arrival of the Fatimids in the region changed this uneasy balance of power. Following the death of Kafur in 357h the Ikhshidid succession was disputed between Ahmad, the eleven-year-old son of ‘Ali b. al-Ikhshid, and the ambitious general al-Hasan b. ‘Ubaydallah. Meanwhile, Egypt was also struggling with economic and agricultural problems caused by poor Nile floods which sparked social unrest. The Fatimids took advantage of these difficulties by sending an army under Jawhar which successfully captured Egypt in 358h, whereupon they briefly concluded a peace treaty with the Qarmatids. For several years afterwards Fatimid armies struggled to seize control of Syria and Palestine; their opponents were the Qarmatids, supported variously by the remnants of the Ikhshidids, the ‘Uqaylids, the Buwayhids, and financially by the Hamdanids, all of whom had their reasons for wanting the Fatimids driven out of the region. Although the Fatimids already had a strong presence in the area and the sharifs of Makka had originally accepted Fatimid authority, the Qarmatids seem to have been able to drive out the pro-Fatimid element and establish themselves in Makka by 359h. Surviving dinars indicate that they continued to control the city as late as 362h, but they suffered a serious blow when the Fatimids defeated a Qarmatid army near Cairo in the following year. This defeat was clearly a major blow given that virtually no Qarmatid coins were struck in the region during the year 363h, while the Fatimids were able to issue both gold and silver coins in Palestine during this year. It is tempting to suggest that this Qarmatid defeat also weakened their position in Makka. Our sources confirm that al-Mu‘izz’s name was acknowledged in the khutba in both Makka and Madina in 363h and 364h, and it is entirely appropriate that Fatimid coins should also have been produced there in these two years. This beautifully engraved and excessively rare dinar remains a tangible expression of Fatimid sovereignty there.
ABBASID, AL-MUQTADIR (295-320h), Dinar, Tarsus 307h. Weight: 3.88g Reference: cf Bernardi 242Gk [this date not listed]. Edge crimped, considerable weak striking but mint and date clear, fine to good fine for issue and of the highest rarity, apparently an unpublished date for this extremely rare Abbasid gold mint. The site of Tarsus has been occupied continually for more than six thousand years, with its origins stretching back to Neolithic times. Its name dates back at least to Hittite times and is also found in the written records of the Assyrians, who ruled Tarsus before the city came under Persian control. Tarsus was the seat of a Persian satrapy in 400 BC, later becoming part of the Hellenistic world after Alexander the Great passed through the city in 333 BC. Pompey the Great made Tarsus subject to Rome in 67BC, and the city continued to be an important cultural and political centre during the Roman period. The Roman emperor Julian the Apostate died and was buried there in 363h, having been wounded at the Battle of Samarra during his campaigns against the Persians and following his unsuccessful attempt to capture Ctesiphon. It seems that Muslim armies first reached Tarsus during the 30s Hijri, if not earlier, and Tarsus seems to have found itself on the frontier between Islam and Byzantium. The emperor Heraclius reportedly abandoned the city and its hinterland, withdrawing the population and leaving the region between Tarsus and Antioch as a ‘dead zone.’ Neither side seems to have attempted to occupy the city for more than a century thereafter, until Harun al-Rashid rebuilt it as a frontier fortress and settled 5,000 people there. It was recaptured by the Byzantines soon afterwards, who were only dislodged after the end of the civil war between al-Amin and al-Ma’mun. It was under al-Ma’mun that Tarsus became a key base for the frequent raids into Byzantine territory conducted during the third century Hijri. Tarsus remained under Abbasid control until the mid-260s, when it was granted to Ahmad b. Tulun. The Tulunids continued to hold the city, with a few brief interruptions, until al-Mu‘tadid brought it back under Abbasid authority in the early 280s. Four decades later, as Abbasid authority dwindled, the city came firstly under the control of the Ikhshidids and then of the Hamdanids, before the Byzantines finally took control of Tarsus in the mid-fourth century. Numismatically, the first Islamic coins struck at Tarsus were copper issues issued under the Abbasids and Tulunids. With the exception of a silver dirham tentatively assigned to 302h, it seems that production of regular Abbasid silver and gold began there in 307h – the year in which this unpublished dinar was produced.
‡ABBASID, AL-MUQTADIR (295-320h), Dinar, Madinat Zaranj 302h. Obverse: without name of heir in field. Weight: 4.15g References: Bernardi 237Of RRR = Lloyd, Saffarids GZA302. About extremely fine and excessively rare. For much of the third century Zaranj had been the centre of the powerful Saffarid dynasty, whose armies had come within 40 miles of capturing Baghdad itself during the early 260s. By the late 290s, however, the dynasty’s power was shrinking rapidly as a number of rivals struggled for supremacy. Saffarid authority in the region was temporarily extinguished when the Samanids captured Zaranj in 298h, but there was still strong local support for the dynasty and yet another local warlord, Muhammad b. Hurmuz, seized power there in the name of a young scion of the Saffarid family. The Samanids quickly returned to suppress this revolt and duly retook Zaranj in 300h, leaving the Samanid amir Ahmad b. Isma‘il as the caliph’s designated governor of Sijistan. But Ahmad himself was assassinated in the following year causing turmoil in the Samanid lands, and the Samanid general, Simjur Dawati, was forced out of Zaranj in 301h. Meanwhile, news that the Samanids no longer controlled Sijistan had reached the ears of the caliph through a local finance officer. While al-Muqtadir had been happy to offer the Samanids a degree of support and encouragement against the Saffarids, who represented a common enemy, he was not inclined to leave them in control of Sijistan now that an opportunity had come to reassert caliphal control in the region. Prompt action by the caliph’s vizier saw al-Muqtadir’s envoys received with great ceremony in Zaranj later that year, and so from 301h until 304h coins of standard Abbasid type were struck there. Silver dirhams all bear the provincial name Sijistan, while the extremely rare gold dinars, all of which bear the date 302h, have that of the capital Zaranj. This is the only year for which Abbasid dinars of Zaranj are known.
A Victorian Copeland style white bisque oval biscuit box, moulded in relief with swags and ribbons, with a silver plated handled mount and cover, 25cm high over handle; a Royal Doulton figure, Antoinette, HN2326; Charles Mayes Wigg, by and after, Horning Ferry Hotel, near Wroxham, Norfolk, signed in pencil, etching no.9 of 20, 14.5cm x 18cm, framed (3)
A George II Rococo silver pear-shaped coffee pot, of small proportions, fluted knop finial, chased throughout with flowers, C-scrolls and foliage, fruitwood scroll-capped handle, skirted base, 21cm high, Thomas Whipham & William Williams, London 1740, 18.5oz gross
An early Victorian silver and porcelain-mounted devotional, presented to Mary Fellows, the binding enclosing The Book of Common Prayer [...], Printed at the University Press, Oxford 1844, chromolithographic full-page title and sub-title pieces, cream silk endpapers and all edges gilt, the upper ivory cover centred by a Continental porcelain oval plaque painted with the Holy Family within a chased and cut silver scrolling framework, the outer border chased with reserves of diaper trellis and foliate scrolls, the silver spine chased in the Rococo Revival taste and inscribed with the owner's name, shaped bipartite clasps chased conforming, 14.5cm x 9cm, 18mo
An Elizabeth II silver five-glass carriage clock, made for the Mappin & Webb Bi-Centenary 1775 - 1975, 6.5cm rectangular dial with Roman numerals, double-fusee movement, the case bright-cut engraved with flowers and stiff leaves, bevelled panes, swing carrying handle, bun feet, 16cm high, limited edition no. 138/200, London 1975, cased, certificate
Anthony and Mary Swainson, medallions struck to commemorate their marriage 9th May 1811, 40mm, obv. conjoined portraits,signed by J. Moore on truncastion and by J,. Mayer below, Anthony and Mary Swainson; rev. legend within orle of stars,Anthony Swainson/born March XIX/MCDCCLXXXII/Mary Clay/born July XVII/MDCCLXXXVII/Married/May IX/MDCCCXII: suite of three bronze, 29.1g , silver, 32.5g and gold, 47.9g, all in trefoil velvet and Morocco leather case with folding strut, also another , copper GEF in case of issue (2) Anthony Swainson (1782-1865) was a prominent Preston cotton manufacturer and industrialist; his wife Mary was born 1787 and died 1864. Condition Report: gold medal edge knock at 2 o'clock, o/w AEF; silver, AVF edge knock at 8 o'clock; copper EF edge knock at 11 o'clock; boxed copper GEF.
Ecclesiastical Interest - a George III style silver-plated wine or water cruet, baluster reservoir, hinged domed cover with Bolsini cross finial, shell to sparrow beak, scroll-capped handle, circular plinth foot, 15.5cm high, 20th century; another similar, smaller, Pectoral cross finial, 15cm high, 20th century; a 19th century French gilt brass missal stand or lectern, the chased plateau adjustable on a ratchet, above a frieze above a Baroque Revival frieze of profuse foliage, outswept scrolling feet, 36.5cm wide, c. 1880; a 19th century French black leather rectangular ciborium box, for A Chertier, Orfèvrerie et Bronzes Religeux, Paris, labelled, the slightly domed hinged cover enclosing a fitted purple velvet interior, Gothic Revival brass clasped hinged and carrying handle, brass bun feet, 17.5cm high, 31cm wide, c. 1880, [4]
William Pit club medal silver gilt member's medal, 53.5mm by Thomas Wyon Junior, obv,. bust of William Pitt the younger,signed on truncation: Rt. Honble. William Pitt/Liverpool Pitt Club 1814; obv. Britannia crowned by Peace and Victory, Britain Victorious/Tyranny overthrown/Europe protected/Peace Restored, signed in exergue with rose thistle and shamrock below. in yellow metal bezel with convex glass front and back with hinged bow suspense. matt field, EF, Eimer 1039 n.
A George III silver table snuff box, of substantial proportions, hinged cover, chased borders of flowering and fruiting foliage, the base centred by a rectangular panel bright-cut engraved with radiating lines, hinged cover, gilt interior, 9.5cm wide, Joseph Willmore, Birmingham 1817
A George III silver three piece half-fluted boat shaped tea service, comprising teapot, milk jug and sugar basin, acanthus-capped angular scroll handles, ball feet, gilt interiors, the teapot with flush-hinged cover and knop finial, 27.5cm long, London 1816; a pair of sugar associated King's pattern sugar bows, London 1818 (4), 41oz gross
A George IV rounded rectangular silver snuff box, the hinged cover centred by a C-scroll presentation cartouche inscribed Woodhouse, Presented to Mr Joseph Potter, Jany. 18th 1849 by the Ratepayers, on a field of wrigglework, conforming base, reeded sides, shaped thumbpiece, gilt interior, 7.5cm wide, maker's mark TP, London 1828
A George IV silver half-fluted pedestal cream jug, gadrooned everted rim, acanthus scroll handle, 13.5cm long, London 1827; a George V silver porringer and cover, of 17th century design, scroll capped handles, 15cm wide, Stokes & Ireland, Chester 1927 (2), 12oz gross
A George V silver circular waiter, of George III design, fluted border, C-scroll feet, pad feet, 20.5cm diam, R & W Sorley (Glasgow retailed), Sheffield 1936, 11.5oz The inscription reads: MV Silver Fox 1st May 1937.The waiter commemorates the launch of MV Silver Fox built as Rosneath in 1938 by James A Silver Ltd., as a twin diesel motor yacht, order no. 165227, one of a series. Recently Silver Cloud was offered for sale for £30,000.
A George V silver four piece boat shaped tea service, comprising teapot, water jug, milk jug and sugar basin, gadrooned borders, scroll-capped handles, ball feet, the tea and water pots with ebony fittings, the latter 21.5cm high, John Hunt, London 1911, 46oz gross
A George V silver oval inkwell, hinged domed cover, spreading base, 15cm wide, A J Zimmerman & Co, Birmingham 1924; a George V silver rectangular cigarette box, the hinged cover engine turned, cedar lined, 18cm wide, Walker & Hall, Sheffield 1929; a George V silver curved rounded rectangular hip flask, 9cm wide, Walker & Hall, Sheffield 1926 (3)
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