The Siege of Cambrai

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 1239. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $1100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LOW COUNTRIES, Kamerijk (Cambrai). CU Twintig patard Klippe (13.35 g). Siege issue. Dated (15)95. HENRICO (trefoil) PROTECTORE, Crowned French royal coat-of-arms; all within pearl border; XX stamp to left; P stamp to right; coat-of-arms of governor, Jean de Montluc de Balagny, below / Blank. Brause-Mansfeld pl. X (illustration unnumbered); Robert pl. XL, 2; Mailliet 6². VF, brown and green patina. Rare.

Ex Georg Baum Collection (Künker 116, 27 September 2006), lot 4067.

Weakened by a series of religious wars in the 1590s, France under Henry IV was ill-equipped to deal with the powerful Spanish threat on its border with the Netherlands. In several quick and decisive moves, the Spanish captured the French-held fortress of Cambrai in 1595, followed soon by Calais and the strategically important fortress of Amiens.