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Sale 53
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Lot 2597
Great Britain. 5 Guineas, 1692. S-3422; Fr-299; KM-479.1. William and Mary, 1688-1694. Variety with 7 strings to harp and 11 pellets by lion. Conjoined heads of William and Mary right, William laureate. Reverse: Crowned, ornately garnished shield, with central small escutcheon, and shell "wings" at sides, lettered edge reads +DECVS.ET.TVTAMEN.ANNO.REGNI QVARTO+. Sharply struck with a lovely reddish tone and reflective fields.
Historical note: Few coins show two rulers, and the side-by-side style is highly unusual, this issue type showing the dominant king's portrait in the forefront despite the fact that his queen, Mary Stuart, actually had more claim to the English throne than did William, formerly Prince William of Orange (whose rampant Lion of Nassau occupies the central device on the reverse of this coin), or as he was known in his day "The Little Dutchman." Mary was the daughter of James II and Anne Hyde, born in 1662 during the reign of Charles II early in the Restoration; she died young, aged 32, in 1694, and was thus succeeded by her husband, who thereafter ruled as sole sovereign from 1694 until 1702. They had married in 1677 while living in Holland. They came to the English throne in 1689 as a result of the so-called Bloodless Revolution, in which Parliament selected a successor to the disgraced James II, who had turned to Catholicism and thereby thrust the nation back into the throes of religious strife (which Elizabeth had sought so hard to end). The reverse of the distinctive 5 Guineas of these joint sovereigns is as unusual as was their rule, inasmuch as it featured a regal shield seen on no other "fivers" which turned the normally staid rendition of the crest into a work of Renaissance art. To left and right of the shield, adorning the field, is a seashell opened to reveal its scalloping. This adornment may well have been influenced by the 15th-century Italian master Sandro Botticelli, whose painting the "Birth of Venus" features prominently just such a seashell, out of which the goddess of love is stepping. William & Mary may have known little or nothing of this masterpiece but not the engraver of this coin, John Roettier, ironically a Catholic who had long experience engraving coins and seals for Charles II. That king had brought marvelous paintings to the Royal Collection, and was known as an art lover. The royal collection in fact was founded by him. Botticelli's painting was not then known by its current name, but it was admired instead as representing the mythical arrival of Venus on a Mediterranean island. It thus was known in William & Mary's day as celebrating the theme of "arrival" amid good fortune - surely most appropriate in the case of these joint sovereigns' coming to power after the last arduous days of their Catholic predecessor. The theme was carried throughout this reign, then abandoned and not used again. The question has never really been answered: did Roettier intend his seashell adornment as symbolic, or merely as an ornament? Truth may lie entirely within the eye of the beholder, and here indeed is a specimen to behold! NGC graded MS-61.
Estimated Value $20,000 - 22,000.
Purchased Baldwins 1943 for £70; Ex: Spink Sale #163, Slaney Collection; The "Sylvia" Collection, through Mark Rasmussen by private treaty.
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| Realized $32,200 |
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