Three Attractive Sforza Portrait Testoni

Sale: CNG 82, Lot: 1298. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2009.  Sold For $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Milano (Duchi). Lodovico Sforza. 1494-1499. AR Testone (9.65 g, 11h). Milan mint; im: mitered head. Armored bust right; no annulet to left, tick stops in legend / Ducal coat-of-arms surmounted by crowned helmet left, plumed with winged dragon consuming man; on either side, two buckets hanging from branch arising from flames; C3 to left, M to right; tick stops in legend. CNI V 19 corr. (positions of stops); Crippa 2. Good VF, lightly toned.

The Sforza ("Strivers") dynasty began as many Italian noble houses did, with a successful condottiere (mercenary soldier) seeking respectability for his family by procuring a title and an estate. Muzio Attendolo (1369-1424) founded the family, and his son Francesco seized the duchy of Milan in 1450, having first married the daughter of Maria Philippo Visconti. Francesco's son Galeazzo succeeded him in 1466 and sought to have his position elevated to king, marrying the sister-in-law of the king of France to strengthen his claims. His rule over Milan was harsh, with heavy taxes causing widespread discontent, but his patronage of grand artists and architects was a source of great pride for the city, and his assassination in 1476 by republican sympathizers was met with mixed feelings. In any case, the dynasty survived, in the person of his weak son, Gian Galeazzo.

Originating in Renaissance Milan, where it was first issued in 1468. the testone was a large denomination of good silver and was so-called because its obverse bore a naturalistically-styled head (It. testa) of the reigning duke. Owing to the influx of silver as a result of trade fueled by new sources of ore, the Milanese Sforza family used the denomination to promote their power and regional influence. They followed Renaissance artistic principles, and the portraits of the family are presented in a more naturalistc and accurate manner than the more stylized medieval portraits. Like the French gros tournois of the thirteenth century, the testone gained popular acceptance, and soon other areas in Italy began minting similar coins, bearing portraits of their own rulers. By the end of the fifteenth century, France, England, and Scotland began minting their own versions. known as the teston in France, and the testoon in England and Scotland, these coins with their Renaissance-style portraits may be viewed as the first modern European coinages.