Lot 4567

Description

Gallo-Belgic, Imported to Britain, Uninscribed Coinage, Gallo-Belgic Aa2, class 1b, right facing type with bird, Ambiani, (c.175-120 B.C.), gold quarter stater, (1.78 g), obv. elaborate wreathed head right, rev. Celticised horse to right, stylised charioteer above, bird below, (S.6, Sills 271, ABC 28 var, DT 559a, LT 7879, CCI 01.1445 [this coin]). Good facial detail, clear bird on reverse, very fine - good very fine and very rare.

Private purchase from Chris Rudd, list 127, #6 with tickets.



Ex Gary Leeke Collection, previously Spink & Son. Formerly in the collection of Andrew Fountaine (1676-1753). Fountaine was a scholar of Anglo-Saxon history and a major collector of art, maiolica, books and coins in the early 18th century. Knighted in 1699, he was elevated as a Knight of the Bath and became warden of the Royal Mint in 1727. To pay for his large country estate, Narford, he sold a large part of his coin collection to the Earl of Pembroke, the Duke of Devonshire and the Venetian ambassador, Cornaro. A friend of Jonathan Swift and Cosimo III de'Medici, he died in 1753. The remainder of his collection was sold by Christies in 1884 and was so large it took four days to auction.



This rare quarter stater is one of only four known and was discovered in Tiptree, Essex.