LOT 3241
Sogdiana, Lord King of Bukhara AR Drachm. 6th-8th century AD.
Crowned bust right / Fire altar with ribbon flanked by attendants; crowned bust of Bahram right superimposed upon altar. ACW 1550. Very Fine.(3.12g, 26mm, 4h.).
ProvenanceProperty of a London, UK, private collector.
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Thessaly, Pharsalos AR Drachm. Late 5th-mid 4th century BC. Signed by the engraver ΤΗΛΕΦΑΝΤΟΣ (Telephantos) and ΙΠ- (Ip-).
Estimate: £2,500 - 3,500 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £1,250
Head of Athena to right, wearing crested Attic helmet with raised cheek pieces; behind neck, ΤΗ above ΙΠ (engravers' initials) in small lettering / Φ-Α-Ρ-Σ clockwise around Thessalian cavalryman riding horse prancing to right, wearing petasos, chlamys and chiton, and holding lagobolon over his right shoulder; in exergue, Τ (engraver's initial). Lavva 86 (O43/R51); BCD Thessaly I 1284 var. (TH in exergue); BCD Thessaly II 639 var. (no ΙΠ); HGC 4, 624. 5.95gr, 18mm, 9h.
Good Extremely Fine. Tiny cut on reverse. Attractive toning with golden iridescence around the devices. Sharply struck and surprisingly detailed.
From a Swiss collection, acquired prior to 2005. Ex Nomos AG, Auction 21, 21 November 2020, lot 145 (company's ticket included).
If the harmony and the aristocratic inner peace of the portraits are the first thing that catches our attention, it is the extremely detailed rendering of the figures, especially on the reverse, that makes the viewer cling more to their admiration for this coin. Each depiction of Athena’s head in these emissions of Pharsalos makes us believe that she has her own character and that no two are the same, even though they share the same characteristics. Athena in our coin looks like a tender girl with a serious but innocent look in her eyes. Her divine power, despite her young age, is not violent; it is simply inherent in the serenity of her gaze. On the other hand, the detailed rendering of the cavalryman’s and horse's face, the texture of his chlamys, the harmonious matching of muscles and joints in the horse's body, and even the pronounced veins in the horse's belly convince us of a talented engraver and a gifted artist. -
Scythian, Imitative of Eukratides I AR Tetradrachm. c.130-80 BC.
Sold for (Inc. bp): £260
Diademed and draped bust right, wearing horned Boiotian helmet, within bead-and-reel border / ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΕΥΚΡΑΤΙΔΟΥ, Dioscuri on horseback charging right, with couched spears and holding palm branches, monogram ANT in lower right field. HGC 12, 150. 15.63gr, 32mm, 12h.
Very Fine. Toned.
Property of a London, UK, private collector. -
Phoenicia, Sidon. Ba'alsillem (Sakton) II AR Dishekel. Undated issue, struck circa 401-370 BC.
Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,430
Phoenician galley to left; B (in Phoenician) above, waves below / Persian king and driver in chariot to left; to right, king of Sidon, in Egyptian style garments, holding cultic sceptre, walking to left. E&E-S Group IV.1.1; HGC 10, 236. 27.25gr, 29mm, 12h.
Near Very Fine.
Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. From a private collection, Switzerland; thence by descent. From a private collection, since the late 1990s.
