Celebrated 1644 Cartouche Pound
From the Bridgewater House Collection

312, Lot: 38. Estimate $100000. Sold for $210000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

STUART. Charles I. 1625-1649. AR Pound (52mm, 118.97 g, 10h). Attributed to Thomas Rawlins. Declaration (in cartouche) type. Oxford mint; im: plume (with bands). Dated 1644. (plume) : CAROLVS : D : G : MAG : BRIT : FRA : ET : HIBER : REX :, Charles, holding reins with left hand and sword in right, on horseback left, trampling arms below; Oxford plume to right / - EXVRGAT - DEVS - DISSIPENTVR - INIMICI -, RELIG : PROT/: LEG : ANG :/LIBER : PAR : in three lines within cartouche; above, large Oxford plume above -XX- (mark of value); below, 1644 above OX. Morrieson, Oxford, dies A/1; Brooker 865 (same dies); North 2402; SCBC 2943. EF, attractive dark cabinet tone. Extremely rare. Among the finest of less than ten specimens in private hands.

From the Clearwater Collection. Ex Roderick Richardson, Circular (New Year 2001), no. 117; Spink Numismatic Circular XCIII.2 (March 1985), no. 918; Bridgewater House Collection (Sotheby & Co., 15 June 1972), lot 268 (purchased by Spink).

The celebrated Cartouche pound of 1644 is remarkable for its exquisite design, as well as its rarity. The obverse die was the same as was used to strike lots 34 and 35, but has been extensively reworked for unknown reasons. The king is depicted in higher relief, and his upper body and head have been brought forward. Furthermore, the arms and armor below the horse have been enhanced in certain areas. To complement this revitalized obverse, Rawlins chose to adopt an entirely new reverse design that displayed Charles’s Declaration of Wellington in an ornate cartouche. The resulting coin is, in the words of the Reverend Arnold Mallinson, ‘probably the finest thing in English coins, and stands unrivaled by similar pieces elsewhere.’