The Bramhall Collection

CNG 93, Lot: 1295. Estimate $200. Sold for $280. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anastasius I. 491-518. AV Tremissis (15mm, 1.50 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck 492-518. Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Victory advancing right, head left, holding wreath and globus cruciger; star to right; CONOB. DOC 10a; MIBE 12; SB 8. Good VF, minor deposits and marks, die shift on reverse.

From the Bramhall Collection. Ex Auctiones 18 (21 September 1989), lot 1112.

We are pleased to offer the Bramhall collection of Byzantine coins, consisting of approximately 400 pieces that are being sold either in CNG Auction 93 or concurrently in CNG Electronic Auction 303. This collection has been built by an English collector over more than three decades and is highlighted by many specimens acquired directly from the earlier Robert Bridge collection.

Robert Bridge (1904-1997) was a gifted linguist – fluent in German, Italian, and French – who found application for his talents in Britain’s secret intelligence service. He spent WWII in military intelligence and after the war became Berlin station chief for MI6. Among his more interesting assignments can be mentioned his interrogation of the infamous Gestapo chief of Rome, Herbert Kappler, who was captured by the British while unsuccessfully trying to seek refuge in the Vatican. Berlin in the immediate post-war period was a focal point for espionage, and in much later years Bridge would privately describe experiences that seem straight out of John le Carré – the secret station office entered through what appeared to be an ordinary shop, late night meetings in a cemetery with an eastern source, and his abiding anger toward one of the “Cambridge Spies” with whom he had worked and whom he blamed for many deaths.

Bridge was also one of the most prominent 20th century English collectors of Byzantine coins, and began collecting in earnest around the 1960s. Many coins from his collection are cited in MIB 1 and 2, and 18 of his coins are illustrated on the plates. In 1990, he donated to the British Museum 274 Byzantine coins previously unrepresented in the national collection (including a solidus of the revolt of Heraclius). Much of his remaining collection was sold in a 1990 Glendining’s sale (catalogued by Baldwin’s), Byzantine Coins from the R.N. Bridge Collection. The Robert Bridge coins in the Bramhall Collection were acquired directly from Bridge by the present owner, prior to the later dispersal of Bridge’s remaining coins through donation to the British Museum and sale by Glendining’s. Most of the Robert Bridge coins are accompanied by Bridge’s own handwritten tickets.

In CNG 93, the Bramhall Collection comprises the following lots: 1295, 1296, 1298, 1299, 1302-6, 1308-15, 1319-21, 1323, 1327-30, 1334, 1338, 1341-4, 1348, 1351, 1354-9, 1366, 1369, 1371, 1372, and 1375-7.