I
had a very mixed day of provenancing
work yesterday. It felt kinda bad, but I guess it was probably
good in the end. I just hate it (!!!) when I find provenances for coins I no longer own. Two instances yesterday:
- Mario
Ratto, sale 5, 1933, lot 59: L.Mussidius Longus and
Fulvia denarius which I've just released from my
collection. Darn! It
had lovely surfaces but was quite worn and I replaced it with a sharper example
- Sotheby's
Nelson Bunker
Hunt collection, 19 June 1991 lot 651 was a C.Vibius Pansa
denarius that was EF but whose surfaces I never really liked. I'm amazed that
Hunt, with so much spondulix would have chosen to acquire a coin I only bought with some doubts and then got rid of.
Still, I'd have liked to own a
Nelson Bunker
Hunt provenance.
- These two follow from another minor calamity where I disposed of a rather worn
Mark Antony denarius which turned out to be from the fabled Stack's Faelten sale in 1938. When this happens it's sounds like fingernails on a blackboard, or tastes like biting on aluminium foil by accident.
On the upside, I discovered new provenances for both my Antony
cistophori on the same day (pics below). The one with
Octavia on the
reverse is Hess Leu 41 (24 Apr.1969) lot 64 - a great
provenance for a piece I bought at retail with no prior information. That with
Dionysus adds a Stack's November 1967 Hall Park McCullough
provenance, a truly great
collection. It now becomes
Stack's Hall Park McCullough coll. (20 Nov.1967) ex Glendining V.J.E. Ryan coll. (2 Apr.1952) lot 1929 ex J.Schulman (5 Mar.1923) lot 539 M.L. Vierordt coll. ex Jacob Hirsch XVIII (27 May 1907) lot 1835 Friedrich Imhoof-Blumer coll. = Banti-Simonetti Octavia et M. Antonivs 20 (this coin)This is a very common coin
type. What was it about this exact coin that attracted Imhoof-Blumer, Vierordt, Ryan, McCullough and McCabe to it? It must have numismatic pixie-dust on it.
Another well
provenance coin added two more steps; the club symbol as below, which adds the Garrett
collection - another great name and my first Garrett coin which
his catalogue says he bought from
Spink in 1928. It now becomes
NFA Garrett coll. Part I (16-18 May 1984) lot 653 ($180) ex Spink Num.Circ. 10 Jun.1928 ex Leo Hamburger (19 Oct.1925) lot 229 (120 RM) Niklovitch coll. ex RBW coll. = Sear RCTV (2000) vol.1 p.192,632 (this coin)I've so much exhausted the major
catalogue searches that it's very
rare I find a new famous old antique
provenance excepting that is for coins I've got rid of
but some additional late 20th century great collectors are very welcome!