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Greek, Ravel; Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Tarentine Coins formed by M. P. Vlasto - #1099
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Taras, Calabria (Plate Coin)
302 - 281 BC (Period VI)
AR Drachm (16mm, 3.09g, 3h)
Nikokrates, magistrate.
O: Head of Athena right, wearing Attic helmet decorated with Skylla throwing stone.
R: Owl with closed wings standing right on Ionic capital, head facing; [NIKO]KPAT[HΣ] to left, TA to right.
Vlasto 1099 (this coin); HN Italy 1052
From the M.P. Vlasto Collection. ex CNG
“Michel P. Vlasto was born in Athens on the 1st February 1874 and Studied in Marseilles.
… He was a born artist and very good at drawing. His artistic feeling made him a real worshipper of Greek art; everything beautiful charmed him; if he could have done so a museum would have been his home. The real pleasure he felt in admiring a beautiful work of Greek art was so intense that he used to say he could not imagine life without Art and that beauty and Happiness went together. As a result he could not feel happy unless he was surrounded by Beauty. The room where he used to spend most of his leisure was a kind of temple in which a few perfect specimens of Greek art were the idols he worshipped in a real religious way.
… But all these splendid surroundings were only the frame of the world famous collection of Tarentine coins which represented his chief interest in life and really his sole hobby. But he did not limit himself to collecting coins as most collectors do; he was a real self-made scholar; his knowledge of Tarentine numismatic was complete; there was not a single coin in a public or private cabinet which he did not know, and nothing was said or written about Tarentum, its history and its art which escaped him. He published several contributions to numismatics and many of his books are famous.”
~ Oscar E. Ravel (Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Tarentine Coins formed by M. P. Vlasto - 1947)
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