Sale: Nomos 1, Lot: 192. Estimate CHF7500.  Closing Date: Tuesday, 5 May 2009.  Sold For CHF500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

AUSTRIA, Antwerp. Alexander Farnese, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands. 1578-1592. Medal (Silver, 45mm, 25.62 g), by Jacob Jonghelinck, 1585. ALEXANDER FARNES:PAR:PLA.DVX.BELG:DVM:GVB Armored bust of Alexander Farnese to right, wearing ruff and order of the Golden Fleece; on shoulder truncation, ÆT.40 Rev. CONCIPE CERTAS SPES 1585 Allegorical scene showing Alexander the Great, with the features of Alexander Farnese, in a tent during the siege of Tyre, being shown the way to victory by a satyr who stands before him, pointing towards a ship sailing towards a pontoon bridge with the city in the distance; on the rocks below, ΣATYROΣ. Armand II, p. 265, 14. Lanna 471. Smolderen 99. Van Loon I, p. 350, 1. Very rare. A toned original cast of high quality. Nearly extremely fine.

Alexander Farnese was the son of Margaret of Austria, wife of Ottavio Farnese. He was a good general and an able diplomat who was the Spanish commander in the Netherlands early during the Dutch Revolt. He recovered most of the southern Netherlands and began to besiege Antwerp in 1584. The city fell the following year but Farnese avoided the massacres that stained earlier Spanish advances. This medal commemorates the fall of he city with a scene from legendary history of Alexander the Great.