Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 1164. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Isaac I Comnenus. 1057-1059. PB Seal (34mm, 32 g, 12h). +EMMA NOVHA, facing bust of Christ Pantokrator; IC XC flanking / [+ICAA]KIOC RACI LEVC PwM, crowned half-length facing bust of Isaac, wearing chiton and cuirass, holding sword in right hand and globus cruciger in left. BLS I 86c; DOCBS -; Seyrig -; Vatican -; Orghidan -; Jordanov -. VF, gray patina.

From the Robert E. Hecht Collection.

Isaac was a general who gained the imperial throne with the support of the army in 1057. He proudly displays himself as a military man on this seal, as he did on his coins. This type of imagery offended some of Isaac’s contemporaries, who interpreted it as suggesting that the emperor owed his accession to his military skills and not to divine providence.