SALES REVIEW
THE CHRISTOPHER FOLEY COLLECTION OF BRITISH MEDALS Featured on the front cover of the previous Sale News, medals from the Christopher Foley, F.S.A., Collection of British Medals of the 15 - 17th Centuries brought a sale total of over half a million pounds in the October sale.
Estimates ranged from £20 - £40,000. A busy view over two days during London’s Coinex and viewing in Salisbury combined with considerable coverage from coin and medal publications gave enthusiasts the opportunity to see the entire collection and drew buyers in from all over the world. Christopher Foley, a long-established dealer in early English paintings and director of
Lane Fine Art Limited, bought his first medal as little more than a souvenir of a successful sale of the famous George Gower ‘Sieve’ portrait of the Queen.
The sale included no fewer than 10 of the oval portrait medals by Simon de Passe (d.1647). He engraved counters of the Royal Family and later he moved to the service of the King of Denmark. The first of the de Passe lots was lot 127, Elizabeth I, circa 1616, which was keenly contested in the room and online, exceeding the upper estimate, selling for £16,500, another of James I, Queen Anne, and Prince Charles, an oval silver portrait medal sold for £17,100, to the same American collector.
Undoubtedly the highlight of the £585,000 sale was lot 366, The Naval Reward for Captains, a gold medal, 1653, by Thomas Simon, estimated at £30,000 - £40,000 this example is only the fourth to have appeared at public auction since the war, although about 80 are thought to have been made. Bidding quickly gathered pace with phone bidders, internet interest and buyers in the room all keen to purchase this ‘extremely fine and excessively rare, superb gold medal.’ Bought through the internet on behalf of a client by the English trade, the lot sold for £44,000.
SILVER The collection of wax jacks featured in the previous Sale News had collectors keen to purchase. Selling for over double the top estimate, a George III silver example by William Abdy, London 1812 sold for £3,900.
The highlight of the sale was a Queen Anne ewer, made by Robert Cooper and dated 1701. Bought by an overseas buyer on the internet for £9,700.
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