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Ghuzz Rulers of Syr Darya, ‘Abdallah b. Tahir (213-230h) and Muhammad, drachm, without mint or date, obv., bust to right with ‘Abdallah b. Tahir before, rev., horseman riding right, Muhammad behind his back, 1.47g (Goncharov/Nastich Type I), some weak striking, good very fine and struck in good silver very rare
Ghuzz Rulers of Syr Darya, ‘Abdallah b. Tahir (213-230h) and Namij Jabuya, drachm, without mint or date, obv., bust to right with ‘Abdallah b. Tahir before, rev., horseman riding right, Namij Jabu-ya behind his back, 1.68g (Goncharov/Nastich Type II), in good silver, good very fine for issue and very rare
Umayyad, dinar, Ma‘din Amir al-Mu’minin 92h, obv., in field: la ilaha illa | Allah wahdahu | la sharik lahu | Ma‘din Amir | al-Mu’minin; rev., standard Umayyad type with date legend in margin, point below b of duriba, 4.25g (SICA 10, 487, same obverse die; Bernardi 47), minor marks in reverse field but generally good very fine, historically important and extremely rare. Enigmatic, historically intriguing, and of the highest rarity, Umayyad dinars from the ‘Mine of the Commander of the Faithful’ have fascinated numismatists for more than a century. The circumstances under which they were issued are still the subject of scholarly debate, although recent research and newly published coins have advanced our knowledge considerably in recent years. Examples dated 89h, 92h and 105h have been sold in these rooms previously (the unique coin of 89h on 23 April 2012 and the other two dates on 4 April 2011). The phrase ‘Ma‘din Amir al-Mu’minin’ is found on two groups of gold coins. The earlier group, known for the years 89h, 91h and 92h and to which this coin belongs, carries these words in the obverse field below the normal inscriptions. On the later coins, known only for the year 105h, the phrase is expanded to read ‘Ma‘din Amir al-Mu’minin bi’l-Hijaz,’ ‘Mine of the Commander of the Faithful in the Hejaz,’ and is placed in the lower part of the reverse field. The significance of the Ma‘din inscription is still debated but, as has previously been argued, there is much to be said for the simplest explanation: that it refers to a mine belonging to the caliph. While the word ‘mine’ can be used metaphorically in Arabic, all other legends found on post-Reform Umayyad gold and silver coins are either religious (verses from the Qur’an) or factual (stating where and when the coin was struck). That being said, it seems difficult to treat it as a normal mint-name, which one would expect to find in the margin with the date, and for which there would certainly have been space to include there. It has also been observed that the mints on the Umayyad silver coinage were set up in cities, or perhaps at places where the army halted on campaign, but are not otherwise known to have been set up at a mine itself. There are several with the title Madinat, city,’ but none with Ma‘din, ‘mine.’ It seems more plausible that this inscription denotes to the source of the gold, indicating that it had been extracted from a mine owned by the caliph himself. It has been plausibly suggested that ‘Mine of the Commander of the Faithful’ dinars may have been struck at a travelling mint which accompanied the caliph. If this was staffed by workers from the Damascus mint using their usual tools and equipment, one would expect the coins they produced to look identical, whether struck in the capital or on the road. But coins of all three dates known for this issue – 89h, 91h and 92h, and indeed of the related coins dated 105h, all share dated reverse dies with standard mintless Umayyad dinars which are generally accepted as having been struck in or near Damascus. These reverse dies also bear the date, which means that they can only (or should only) have been used for the one year engraved on them. It therefore follows that if these reverse dies did indeed leave Damascus with a travelling mint they can only have been away from the capital for more than a few months at most. On the other hand we know that an obverse die with the Ma‘din Amir al-Mu’minin legend was shared between coins struck over a period of at least four years. Clearly this special die was not considered redundant at the year’s end but was kept for future use. For a single die to survive for four years also suggests that these ‘Mine of the Commander of the Faithful’ dinars can only have been produced in very small numbers, which is consistent with their great rarity today. Where might the caliph’s mines have been located? The legend Ma‘din Amir al-Mu’minin bi’l-Hijaz found on dinars of 105h, together with the fact that the Umayyad caliph ‘Umar is recorded as having purchased a plot of land containing a gold mine in the Hejaz area (Miles, op. cit., p. 266), has led scholars to propose that the gold used to strike these earlier dinars also came from the Hejaz. It has also been suggested that the caliph might have visited mines in this area while travelling to the Holy Places. In his catalogue of the Turath Collection, Ilisch hypothesized that ‘a travelling “court mint”, dependent on the main mint and Damascus and working for the caliphal private treasury...was in operation on several occasions: in connection with the construction work for the great mosque in Medina (built...in 88-91 A.H.) [and] during the visit of the caliph al-Walid to Medina in 91/92 A.H., when he led the Hajj.’ This in turn raises several interesting questions: Did gold from the caliph’s personal mines have a different status from gold obtained from other sources? Was this gold somehow treated differently from gold brought to the mint through tax revenues or by private individuals? Might it reflect an early distinction between state funds and the privy purse? Or might they even have been personal gifts from the caliph himself? For further discussion of this coinage and a specialist bibliography, please see Morton and Eden auction 48, 4 April 2011 where two other ‘Mine of the Commander of the Faithful’ dinars were sold, dated 92h (sold for £648,000) and 105h (sold for £3,720,000).
Umayyad, temp. ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan (65-86h), dirham, Arminiya 78h, obv., with Muhammad rasul Allah…in margin, rev., with mint/date formula in margin, wa at beginning of third line in field, 2.77g (Klat 45 = Naqshabandi and Bakri 3), toned, good very fine and excessively rare. All Umayyad post-Reform silver from the year 78h is of the highest rarity, to the extent that Walker, writing in 1956, was unaware that any even existed. Since then, barely a dozen examples of this date have come to light, but these few coins have transformed our understanding of how the reform of the silver coinage came about. Unaware that dirhams dated 78h existed, Walker believed that the earliest post-Reform silver coin was a mintless dirham dated 79h (Walker p.104, Kh.4; an example of this issue was sold in these rooms, 22 April 2013, lot 10), which he attributed – almost certainly correctly – to the mint of Damascus. He considered that this was an experimental piece, issued without mint-name to conform to the pattern set by the gold dinar coinage, but that when a number of other mints began striking the new dirhams in 79h it was decided to add the mint-name to Damascus dirhams also. But the existence of dirhams dated 78h from five different mints – Adharbayjan, Arminiya (as here), Jayy, Shaqq al-Taymara and al-Kufa, all of which were active in the year before production began at Damascus, demonstrates that the reformed dirham coinage was not something begun in the capital and gradually adopted elsewhere, as Walker’s explanation implied. Instead, it seems that the decision to begin issuing the new dirhams began in the year 78h, with dozens of mints involved, but for practical reasons not all were able to begin production immediately. Those which were already striking silver coins might be expected to have begun issuing the new coins sooner, while others, including those which were geographically more remote, or where a mint had been reopened or a new facility established, would surely have taken longer. The calligraphy on this piece has clear similarities with that found on Armenian drachms issued circa 75-78h under Muhammad b. Marwan, the caliph’s brother and governor of the province, and the presence of local workers who were able to produce new dies on site may have been another reason why Armenia was able to begin striking post-Reform dirhams more quickly than other locations. This might also explain why the legends are placed differently on this specimen – as an exceptionally early issue it was struck before the precise format of the design had evolved. It may be noted that the placing of the mint/date formula on the reverse, as on this piece, rather than on the obverse where later Umayyad dirhams carry it, is exactly the same arrangement as adopted on the post-Reform gold coinage. So Armenia, which was producing its own distinctive regional coinage at the time of the reforms, may well have been in a position to strike dirhams before Damascus, whose own silver coinage during the 70s is restricted to a few experimental types which never seem to have been struck in quantity.
A selection of silver items to include: a pair of pepperettes, half lobed bodies, square stepped feet, both engraved with the cipher SD?, indistinct maker's mark , Birmingham 1891; a pair of sugar tongs, pierced feathered and foliate engraved sides, indistinct maker's mark, London 1912; a cut glass scent bottle with silver collar, by W H Carrington & Co, Chester; a scent phial by C C May & Sons, Birmingham, 82gms gross weighable silver (5) (faults)
A Victorian walking stick with carved ivory terminal in the form of a hand clasping an orb, the silver coloured metal collar embossed and engraved with scrolling foliage, marked with Chinese characters and 'Royal Goedewaagen', narrow beech shaft, white metal ferrule, 85.5cm high (faults)
A Chinese silver box, the pierced lid and sides elaborately chased and embossed with four toed dragons and stylised clouds, some of the dragons chasing the flaming pearl, vacant oval cartouche to hinged lid, four scrolling foliate cast feet, by Wang Hing, base marked WH90, 9.5cm high, 17cm wide, 494gms
An exceptionally fine large Japanese bronze vase of tall, slightly tapered form, the shallow neck detailed with butterflies and insects, the body engraved and decorated in high and low relief with flying finch amidst mop head hydrangeas, leafage and blossoms, all in silver, gold, copper and shakudo, stepped circular foot, 47cm high, signed 大日本嘉幸造 Dai-Nihon Kako zo [Made by Kako, Great Japan], the artist Suzuki Chokichi 鈴木長吉(1848-1919), whose art name was Kako 嘉幸., an Imperial Craftsman, Meiji period (converted for electricity and partially drilled through signature, the top bearing three solder points to the upper rim)嘉幸 Kakō (Suzuki Chōkichi鈴木長吉) was born on the 15th of the eighth month of Kaei 1 (1848) and was appointed as the chief of the metal craft division of the Kiryu Kosho Company. He exhibited at many of the inland and international expositions of the time. In Meiji 29 (1896), he was appointed as an Imperial Craftsman (Teishitsu Gigei-in 帝室技芸員). He died on the 20th of January, Taisho 8 (1919), aged 72. In Meiji 28 (1895), he exhibited a bronze Eagle at the Nuremburg Exhibition, Germany. He exhibited at the 1876 Philadelphia, at the 1893 Chicago Columbus, at the 1900 Paris Expositions and won many awards. In Japan, he exhibited at the 1881 Second Inland and 1890 Third Inland Industrial Exhibitions. His works can be found in the Khalili collection.
A selection of silver items to include: a pair of candlesticks, the bodies chased and embossed with birds and scrolling foliage, by W I Broadway & Co, Birmingham 1961(filled); a silver topped dressing table jar, the body cut with hobnail pattern, the lid chased and embossed with scrolling foliage, central cartouche engraved with the initials ME?, by A & J Zimmerman Ltd, Birmingham 1907; a cut glass scent bottle with plain silver collar, by Henry Perkins & Sons, London 1927, 18cm high (4) (faults)
A selection of items to include: a pair of gilded brass beakers with blue and white champlevé enamelling, bases marked ΜΕΤΑΠΠ and 9φυ, each 6cm high; a Russian champlevé enamelled silver coloured metal table salt, green and red foliage to body, clear glass liner, marked Hommet?; a second Russian silver coloured metal table set embossed with scrolling foliage, clear glass liner, marked Hommet (4) (faults)
An unusual Doulton pottery miniature saucepan with silver lid, simulated iron glaze to exterior of pot, grey glaze to the interior, base stamped Doulton Lambeth England 8489 1653 B, lid with reeded handle by Cornelius Desormeaux Saunders & James Francis Hollings, Chester 1893, 5cm high, 10cm wide
Russian Judaica - a 19th Century gem set ebony yad and sleeve, the yad with silver pommel centred on a facet cut ruby? the six segments applied silver wire and raised collets set turquoise, the collar beneath with six garnet cabochons above brass spear points, further conforming collars with brass and silver foliate detailed larger collars, the base with chamfered lozenge shaped pointer, the sleeve with upper gem set collar with collet set turquoise, sapphires, garnets, carnelians and emerald, conforming brass foliate trail decoration with applied tear shape carnelian cabochons, the base with collars of turquoise carnelians and garnets, pair of suspension rings, 58cm long
A silver dressing table set, each piece with very pale green enamel above engine turned detailing, hand painted sakura / cherry blossoms, the dressing table jar with floral moulded glass body and smoothed pontil scar, mirror to inside of lid, by Adie Brothers Ltd, Birmingham 1958/9, hand mirror 27.5cm high, 13cm wide (5) (faults)
A good Iranian silver coloured metal tray, the rectangular body profusely engraved with scrolling foliage surrounding three scenes, the central scallop rimmed cartouche depicting two mythical beasts watching a pair of fleeing rabbits, with the scenes to either side showing different palaces, raised reeded rim, silver marks? to body, 2cm high, 38.5cm wide, 27.5cm deep, 903gms
A near pair of 17th Century Dutch silver dishes, the lobed oval bodies engraved with simple line detailing, conforming pedestal feet, applied scroll handles, the finials on the larger dish in the form of stylised dragons heads, the smaller dish's finials in the form of men's heads, each body engraved to one side with differing crest (one of which is dated 1702?), possibly by Groninger, 398gms gross
An unusual Norwegian silver folding spoon, cast scrolls and double headed terminal, the broad bowl engraved with 'Memento Mori' to scrolling ribbon formed as a stylised arrow head and surrounded by foliage, the stem engraved with 'Anno', dots and inverted scallops, conforming sliding clasp to hold spoon open, by Marius Hammer, marked MH 830S, 9cm long folded, 14cm long unfolded, 43gms
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2475480 item(s)/page