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Crossed Lines with Lyre. Nervii. c.115-100 BC. Celtic gold stater. 19mm. 7.54g.
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Auctioneer has chosen not to publish the price of this lot
Norwich, Norfolk
Description
Crossed Lines with Lyre. Sills Bb1, workshop 2, class 1c, dies 10/10, fig. 49c and pl. 11.354 (same dies). Scheers class IIa. Nervii. c.115-100 BC. Gold stater. 19mm. 7.54g. Branch-like motif of thick diagonal lines stemming from single central vertical line, superimposed on seemingly random pattern of thinner lines./ Globular horse galloping left, a bird-like rider is perched on the horse's rump holding a long lance; behind him is a nine-pellet solar rosette; below the horse a lyre lies horizontally to the left; another longer line extends diagonally from under the horse. cf. ABC 10, LT 8694, Scheers/GB fig. 95-97, VA 33, S 4. Good VF, chunky piece of golden gold, crossed lines clear, bold horse and lyre. VERY RARE type,only 22 others recorded, EXCESSIVELY RARE this pair of dies, only two others recorded.
This simple design stuck to essentials for an emergency issue of good gold staters late in the second century BC. Home territories in Belgica were threatened by raiders from the North, and expensive reinforcements were needed - especially, it seems, from Britain, where the stater denomination is more often found than it is on the Continent (see John Sills, Chris Rudd List 53 pp.2-3 and GGC pp.165ff). The obverse may reference a custom of casting divination sticks before going to war, but also suggests a propitious, evergreen World Tree. On the reverse, a lyre identifies the issuing authority - probably Nervii, one of the three most powerful Belgic peoples. The solar horse speeds left towards dawn with a night-darkened sun-disk behind, and this engraver cleverly depicts its crouching rider/driver as a reversible, rotating figure with bird-like heads at both ends. One drives forward, the other pecks the horse’s rump. This - more mare than stallion - may also stand for homelands themselves. An umbilical shaft connects its fertile belly to the Earth, while its muzzle trails a tendril: breath, life, and perhaps a restraining rope from which it has pulled free.
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Crossed Lines with Lyre. Sills Bb1, workshop 2, class 1c, dies 10/10, fig. 49c and pl. 11.354 (same dies). Scheers class IIa. Nervii. c.115-100 BC. Gold stater. 19mm. 7.54g. Branch-like motif of thick diagonal lines stemming from single central vertical line, superimposed on seemingly random pattern of thinner lines./ Globular horse galloping left, a bird-like rider is perched on the horse's rump holding a long lance; behind him is a nine-pellet solar rosette; below the horse a lyre lies horizontally to the left; another longer line extends diagonally from under the horse. cf. ABC 10, LT 8694, Scheers/GB fig. 95-97, VA 33, S 4. Good VF, chunky piece of golden gold, crossed lines clear, bold horse and lyre. VERY RARE type,only 22 others recorded, EXCESSIVELY RARE this pair of dies, only two others recorded.
This simple design stuck to essentials for an emergency issue of good gold staters late in the second century BC. Home territories in Belgica were threatened by raiders from the North, and expensive reinforcements were needed - especially, it seems, from Britain, where the stater denomination is more often found than it is on the Continent (see John Sills, Chris Rudd List 53 pp.2-3 and GGC pp.165ff). The obverse may reference a custom of casting divination sticks before going to war, but also suggests a propitious, evergreen World Tree. On the reverse, a lyre identifies the issuing authority - probably Nervii, one of the three most powerful Belgic peoples. The solar horse speeds left towards dawn with a night-darkened sun-disk behind, and this engraver cleverly depicts its crouching rider/driver as a reversible, rotating figure with bird-like heads at both ends. One drives forward, the other pecks the horse’s rump. This - more mare than stallion - may also stand for homelands themselves. An umbilical shaft connects its fertile belly to the Earth, while its muzzle trails a tendril: breath, life, and perhaps a restraining rope from which it has pulled free.
Chris Rudd Auction 196
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