Treaty of Ryswick

Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 1311. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $925. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papal Coinage. Innocent XII. 1691-1700. AR Half Piastra (15.78 g, 12h). Ferdinand de Saint-Urbain, engraver. Dated RY 7 (1697). Bust right wearing stole; S • V • below / Noah’s Ark coming to rest upon the summit of Mt. Ararat; S •V • and Farsetti arms in exergue. CNI XVI 103; Muntoni III 28; Berman 2235; KM 607. Near VF, toned. A masterwork of die-cutting.

From the Alexandre de Barros Collection.

This type commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick, which ended the War of the Grand Alliance (1688-1697). This wide-ranging conflict was an attempt by the “Grand Alliance” – composed of the Holy Roman Empire, the German states, Sweden, Spain, and the Dutch Republic – to check the growing power of France under the expansionist Louis XIV. During the conflict, the papacy supported the Grand Alliance. Innocent XII uses a religiously inspired allegorical scene to celebrate the treaty. In this scene, Noah’s ark comes to rest on Mt. Ararat as the flood waters (signifying war, or perhaps France?) recede.