Heritage World Coin Auctions
NYINC Signature Sale 3061 7-8 Jan 2018
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Ancients
NORTHEAST GAUL. The Parisii. Ca. 100-50 BC. AV stater (20mm, 7.24 gm, 12h). Choice XF. Class I. Celticized head of Apollo to right, with wavy hair and a floral ornament before / Disjointed and stylized horse galloping left, fan-like quatrefoil checkerboard design above, floret below. Colbert de Beaulieu Class I, p. 6, 3. Sills 497. Rare. Somewhat tight flan, light mark on cheek, otherwise a lovely stater from the high-water mark of Celtic coinage.
The Gallic tribe of the Parisii was centered in Lutetia, a village on an island in the Seine, and eventually gave its name to the great city that would grow up on the spot. While many British, Gallic and Danubian tribes produced coins of inimitable style, those of the Parisii are commonly acknowledged to be the most beautiful and distinctive of all Celtic coinages. Distantly based on the ubiquitous gold staters of Macedon struck by Philip II (359-336 BC), the design is highly evolved and features a strikingly stylized male head with a flowing mane of leonine hair. The galloping horse on the reverse, its sinuous form resembling the famous "White Horse of Uffington" carved into a hilltop in Oxfordshire, England, bears a distinctive feature usually described as a "wing," festooned with a dotted checkerboard pattern, which may represent the "canopy of heaven." Twenty centuries after the heyday of Celtic culture, its unique artistic sensibilities would be reborn in the pioneering work of Picasso, Chagall and other "modern" artists.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 12000-15000 USD
NORTHEAST GAUL. The Parisii. Ca. 100-50 BC. AV stater (20mm, 7.24 gm, 12h). Choice XF. Class I. Celticized head of Apollo to right, with wavy hair and a floral ornament before / Disjointed and stylized horse galloping left, fan-like quatrefoil checkerboard design above, floret below. Colbert de Beaulieu Class I, p. 6, 3. Sills 497. Rare. Somewhat tight flan, light mark on cheek, otherwise a lovely stater from the high-water mark of Celtic coinage.
The Gallic tribe of the Parisii was centered in Lutetia, a village on an island in the Seine, and eventually gave its name to the great city that would grow up on the spot. While many British, Gallic and Danubian tribes produced coins of inimitable style, those of the Parisii are commonly acknowledged to be the most beautiful and distinctive of all Celtic coinages. Distantly based on the ubiquitous gold staters of Macedon struck by Philip II (359-336 BC), the design is highly evolved and features a strikingly stylized male head with a flowing mane of leonine hair. The galloping horse on the reverse, its sinuous form resembling the famous "White Horse of Uffington" carved into a hilltop in Oxfordshire, England, bears a distinctive feature usually described as a "wing," festooned with a dotted checkerboard pattern, which may represent the "canopy of heaven." Twenty centuries after the heyday of Celtic culture, its unique artistic sensibilities would be reborn in the pioneering work of Picasso, Chagall and other "modern" artists.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 12000-15000 USD