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Auction: 23005 - The "Haddenham" Collection of English Coins
Lot: 159

The 'Haddenham' Collection of English Coins | Wessex, Edward the Elder (899-924), 'Portrait' Type, Penny, c. 903-910, Winchester, Wulfræd, + EADVVEARD REX, bare head and draped bust of pleasingly fine style left, no diadem, but hair in knot at nape of neck, rev. • | VVLF+ | + • + | RED MO | • in two lines, divided by two crosses and pellet, pellet above and below, [Spink XRF: 96.32% Ag; 2.22% Cu; 1.05% Au; 0.415% Pb], 1.59g [24.54grns], 4h (Richard Meade [1755], 5b; Sharp [2017], 28; Ruding [1840], Pl. XVI, no. 4 different dies; 'A Hoard of Anglo-Saxon Coins from Rome', NumChron [1884], pp. 225-255, no. 72; Montagu I [1895], 576 = Bliss [1916], 88* = Drabble [1939], 398* = Mallinson 758* this coin; Montagu I [1895], 575 = Murdoch I [1903], 96 same obverse die; McClean [1906], 158 different dies; Roth I [1917], 65 = Ryan II [1952], 740* different dies; Carlyon-Britton [1918] 1659 = Lockett [1958], 2716 = Curwen [1959], 93 different dies; G W Shaw [1924], 564* different dies; Bruun [1925], 75* different dies; Huth [1927], 272; H A Parsons [1929], 97b; 'Rome Hoard II', Glendining, 16 May 1929, lot 39 same obverse die; 'Rome Hoard II', Glendining, 13 November 1930, lot 55 different dies; SCBI 30 [America], 327 different dies; P Finn, FPL 9 [January 1997], no. 77 same dies CTCE 44 [HT9]; North 651; BMC III [Coll. no. 91 = Pl. VII, no. 9 same obverse die]; Spink 1084), a small metal flaw before face and some peripheral striking softness to legends, with a further trace of smoothing and contact marks to cheek, otherwise a thoroughly wholesome coin with a deeply alluring 'fine style' and indeed 'true to life' portrait of 'the Elder' - the undisputed "finest known" of the five traced from this obverse die, and perhaps of any numismatic canon of the House of Wessex; with spots of red wax in fields from earlier plate impressions; with rich and attractive cabinet toning, a handsomely bold very fine / extremely fine, a great rarity and a frequent 'dead-cert' for catalogue illustration in sale dispersals, with an exemplary and entirely reconstructed pedigree since last offered in these rooms in 1984

Provenance

T Mathews, by private treaty, 1985 - £540

Rev. Arnold Mallinson, Spink 39, 6 December 1984, lot 75 - "obverse very fine but bust and hair extensively tooled, reversely extremely fine, very rare" [recte] - £340

Spink, by private treaty with Reverend Mallinson

G Drabble, Part I, Glendining, 4 July 1939, lot 398* - "in beautiful state and very rare" - £7.10.0 [Spink for stock]

T Bliss, Sotheby's, 22 March 1916, lot 88* - "very fine and very rare" - £5.0.0 ["Pauyer"]

H Montagu, First Portion, Sotheby's, 18 November 1895, lot 576 - "very fine and very rare" - £3.5.0 [Verity for Bliss]




In the 1956 Seaby Bulletin, a cataloguer observed: "the bust of fine style, probably a real attempt at portraiture". To this can be added the notice that the reverse die is also to be found with the Circumscription obverse, as recovered from the Morley St. Peter and Cuerdale troves.



The Spink cataloguer for the Mallinson sale, incidentally the last time this example would appear publicly for sale, interpreted the fine detailed incisions of the hair and furroughs of Edward's drapery as 'extensive tooling'. This is simply not shared by the present Spink cataloguer. Unsurprisingly, despite Mallinson's detailed pedigree work pre-dating even the Great War, the Drabble connection was entirely forgotten in 1984, much as Drabble had omitted the Bliss and all-to-sought-after Montagu connection. In the Mallinson catalogue, as well as in study of the Drabble and Bliss plate illustrations, no further disturbance can be noted for or surrounding the portrait.



The mis-interpretation of tooling can be throughly dismissed by direct comparison to the 'Rome Hoard' (1929, lot 39) coin, in which same obverse die was employed. Even from the grainy plate illustration from that sale catalogue, the fine incision-work from the knot of hair to the brow of head are clearly faithful to the original die matrix. The same observation can be made in comparison to the the even clearer example from the Montagu 1895 sale (Portion I, lot 575), where this very coin happened to once sit happily as a venerable neighbour. Were further proof still required, study of the Finn FPL (January 1977, no. 77) provides a recent demonstration of this same remarkable Anglo-Saxon artistic canon. Patrick Finn, commented: "the best and most lifelike portrait I have seen on a coin of Edward the Elder. A coin to be exhibited as an example of Anglo-Saxon art.". Alas, the coin much like the present double-die matched example was a casualty of the low-ebb market and would remain on his books until (FPL 14, 1998, no. 90), but his observation undoubtedly stands the test of time.


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Sold for
£6,500

Starting price
£1500