Watch List notes:

Germany, Augsburg, Alexander Schwarz (1478-c.1532), uniface bronze medal by Hans Schwarz (1518), alexandri svvartz avgvstani aet ann xl, bust left aged 40, wearing hat and cloak with high collar, unclear monogram (?) on truncation, 68.8mm (Kastenholz 25; Habich 124, pl. 19, 2), traces of solder on the reverse, otherwise an extremely fine contemporary cast and very rare. Hans Schwarz is credited with the introduction of medals as an art form into Germany and the present piece dates from the period when he produced his first series of medals often depicting individuals attending the Augsburg Diet in 1518. Many of Hans Schwarz's sketches have survived and the present medal is based on one of the sitter, now in the Staatsbibliothek, Bamberg (Inv. No. IA 38; Kastenholz p. 246, fig. 151). Other specimens of the medal exist in Augsburg, Berlin, Paris and Vienna – and bear the unexplained incised monogram (?) on the truncation of the bust, as present here. The example in the British Museum has been enamelled and so too was the example in the Michael Hall collection (lot 2476) and a specimen without the outer legend which featured in the Münzen und Medaillen sale 90, 14 June 2000, lot 444. According to Habich (who wrongly dated the medal to 1521) Alexander Schwarz was a relative of the medallist, a builder in Augsburg who appears in the Schwarz family portrait painting by Hans Holbein the Elder now in the Maximiliansmuseum, Augsburg.
Estimate: £4,000 - 6000