32 21st January 2012 coins Prosperous Prospero!


Richard Falkiner reports


THE first ten days or so of January are always a riot of sales centred on the prestigious New York International Convention. This year was the 40th, and it is no exaggeration to say that it was


a landmark. The main attraction was the Prospero


Collection of invariably high-quality Classical Greek coins. The owner elected to conceal his identity behind the apt pseudonym with reference to the quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Act IV, Scene 1.) “…such stuff as dreams are made on”. Less romantic, but as accurate, a


museum scholar friend of mine referred to a similar collection as “…like doing Greek coins on acid”. Quite simply the Prospero sale, which


was set up by Baldwin’s of London, is probably the most spectacular sale of its type ever. (I am looking back over the last two centuries in considering this.) We have to go back to the Kunstfreund (Charles Gillet) sale in Zurich in 1974, which offered 249 lots, to come even close. The Hunt dispersal of 597 lots in New York in 1990 was probably the next most significant sale of Greek coins, but even then they were not of the quality of Prospero, which offered 642 dream lots. The last 30 years or more have seen


a shortage of scholars in the Classical Greek field, at least in Britain. The early 1980s saw the premature deaths of Otto Morkholm (Copenhagen, 1983) and Colin Kraay (Oxford, 1982) and until now they have hardly been replaced. Fortunately


they both wrote standard works which complement each other and still hold sway. However, the Prospero catalogue


shows that we have a new and young star in this field: Baldwin’s Paul Hill, who compiled it, thus confirming his place among the pantheon of scholars. The sale totalled $22.2m (£14.2m), just


under treble the estimate. The star lot, as illustrated on last week’s front page, was the catalogue cover lot, an 18mm in diameter, 9.12g gold stater struck (c.350- 300BC) in the Greek city of Panticapaeum (modern Kerch in the Crimea) which took a record $3.25m (£2m) against an estimate of $650,000. I understand that it was purchased by a London-based collector.


ANTIQUES & COLLECTORS’ AUCTION SALE


Saturday 28th January at 10.00am prompt In the THE PADDOCK SUITE Stratford-upon-Avon Racecourse, Luddington Road, CV37 9SE


On view: 9.30am – 6pm Friday 27th January and 8am – 10am morning of the Sale


To include: silver and silver plate, jewellery, stamps, militaria, ephemera, manuscripts, antiquarian and other books, clocks, paintings and prints, ceramics and glassware, metalware, furniture. In all approx. 800 lots.


Telephone Enquiries: 07778 595952 Stratford Racecourse: 01789 297994 (Tues – Sun 12 noon only) Catalogues: £3 (£4 by post) week of sale only Online catalogue: approx. seven days prior to sale at: www.the-saleroom.com/stevenbruce www.sbbrucesales.co.uk and www.auctionswarwickshire.co.uk Images and condition reports: AuctionEnquiries@aol.com Easy access • Good car parking facilities • Light refreshments Buyer’s premium: 15% + VAT Next Sale: 25th February


Napoleon Bonaparte. War Department warrant/order/ promotion signed Bonaparte when he became 1st Consul; with original paper seal. Good, crisp con- dition/vellum with service details of the officer from 1760 with campaigns, actions, wounds. Estimate: £400-600


PLEASE NOTE: The saleroom closes at 6.30pm on day of the sale, reopens Sunday from 9.30am to 12.30pm for collection of goods. Office closed 30th and 31st January, re-opens Wednesday 1st February.


THE AUCTION COMPANY BROADWA Y


AUCTIONEERS & VALUERS


AUCTION: Saturday 21st January 2012 | Sale to commence at 11.00am VIEWINGS: Wednesday 18th January 2012 | 9:00am until 6:00pm Thursday 19th January 2012 | 9:00am until 6:00pm Friday 20th January 2012 | 9:00am until 8:00pm


To Include: Fine Art, Antiques, Jewellery, Silver, Gold, Porcelain, Coins, etc.


Edmond van Coppenolle (1846-1914)


Fully illustrated catalogue online at www.auctionsbroadway.com & www.the-saleroom.com


Edward IV Rose Noble (1464-1470)


New Antique Centre opening shortly in Broadway for silver, porcelain, jewellery and collectables - Spaces available - Call for details


KENNEL LANE BROADWAY WORCESTERSHIRE WR12 7DJ T: 01386 858120


E: auction@auctionsbroadway.com W: www.auctionsbroadway.com This coin and much other Greek art is


a salutary reminder to the Greek political authorities that not all – not much even – of ancient Greek art was made within the borders of what we know as Greece today. The following lot was also a stater


of Panticapaeum but with the head in straight profile. Estimated at $55,000, it made $120,000 (£76,900). Seventeen of the coins sold in the Hunt


Above: the Panticapaeum (Kerch, Crimea) gold stater which realised a record $3.25m (£2m) at the Prospero sale organised by Baldwin’s.


Left: the more common variety with profile head of the Panticapaeum stater, which realised $120,000 (£76,900).


Left: more affordable, this silver tetradrachm of Hellenistic ruler Perseus (179-168BC) took $1600 (£1025).


The record for a Greek coin had


previously been set at $520,000 (then about £310,000), paid for a decadrachm (c.409-406BC) of Akragas (Sicily) at Sotheby’s Hunt sale in New York in 1990. The estimate then was $250,000- 350,000. This was superseded at Numismatica


Genevensis (Geneva) in November 2010 by the SFr1m (then about £540,500) paid for a gold stater of Abydos (c.412 BC) against an estimate of SFr350,000. The Prospero Panticapaeum stater


is probably the only one left in non- institutional hands and must rank as the most aesthetically exciting of the whole Greek series on account of the die engraver representing a head in three- dimensional perspective for the first time.


sale appeared again here and made 5.7 times what they fetched in 1990. This price hike for Greek coins started


around two years ago and was further illustrated by the £3.37m taken for 168 lots at Morton and Eden on October 24 – almost double the estimate (see ATG No 2015). I warned then that with so few high rollers it is a fragile market, but if the trend continues it could well firm up. As a general pointer it appears that the


rarest pre-Alexander the Great (d.323BC) coins are making the most noteworthy prices. The fragmentation of the Alexandrine Empire saw a marked increase in the use of coinage in trade, with coins circulated over vast areas rather than remaining local to their mint. For instance, Athenian coins came to be copied in the Yemen. This means that the coins of the


Hellenistic rulers are easier to find and the denominations were larger. The normal coin, the tetradrachm, is about an inch in diameter and it has an enhanced sculptural style, which is less of an acquired taste to the modern eye. It is still possible to acquire aesthetically pleasing examples for hundreds rather than thousands of pounds. At the more affordable end, Prospero


offered a tetradrachm of the Hellenistic ruler Perseus (179-168BC), estimated at $2000, which took $1600 (£1025). This was a nice example but nothing exceptional.


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