320, Lot: 704. Estimate $200. Sold for $475. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Lot of nineteen (19) sulphur casts of sestertii made by Admiral William Henry Smyth (1788-1865). A diverse group of casts of sestertii, seemingly belonging to the manufacturer as most of them are described in Smyth’s publication of his collection, Descriptive catalogue of a cabinet of Roman Imperial large-brass medals (Bedford, 1834). Lot includes the following, with page and no. in Smyth’s catalogue whenever applicable: 1) ANTONIA. Claudius standing left. Page 23, XXVIII. 2) OTHO. Large S C (Antioch Æ). Page 50, LXIII. 3) VESPASIAN. Roma seated right on the seven hills of Rome. 4) TITUS. Roma, holding Victory, seated left. 5) TITUS. Domitian on prancing horse left. 6) HADRIAN. Hadrian on horseback left. Page 100, CLIV. (Broken into 3 pieces) 7) HADRIAN. ADVENTVS AVG MAVRETANIAE. Page 107, CLXXVIII. 8) ANTONINUS PIUS. Pius on horseback left. P. 124, CCXXI. 9) COMMODUS. Sacrificial scene (emperor as priest). Page 164, CCCVI. 10) COMMODUS. Trophy with two captives. 11) COMMODUS. The emperor addressing the troops. 12) SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. Dea Caelestis riding lion right, head right, holding thunderbolt and scepter. Page 186, CCCXXXIV. 13) ELAGABALUS. Elagabalus on horseback left. Page 214, CCCLXXIX 14) SEVERUS ALEXANDER. Severus on horseback right preceded by Victory. Page 231, CCCCI. 15) DIVA PAULINA. Paulina, raising hand and holding scepter, reclining left on peacock flying upward to the right. Page 241, CCCCXV. 16) PHILIP I. Lion standing right. Page 267, CCCCLIV. 17) PHILIP I. Gazelle standing left. Page 267, CCCCLVII. 18) PHILIP II. Elk (or moose) standing left. Page 273, CCCCLXIV. 19) VOLUSIAN. Apollo standing left on the omphalos(?). As made, except for the Hadrian that is broken into three pieces.

A sailor, hydrographer, astronomer, author, and numismatist, British Admiral William Henry Smyth had a remarkable career. His twenty year service as a sailor took him around the Mediterranean, exposing him to other disciplines which he would devote himself to more fervently after 1824, when his naval career effectively ended. Most notable was his publication in 1844 of Cycle of Celestial Objects, which remained the standard astronomical reference for many years, and which earned him the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society and the presidency of the Society. Heavily involved in learned institutions throughout Europe, Smyth was one of the founders of both the Royal Geographic Society in 1830 and the Royal Numismatic Society in 1836.

Smyth’s coin collection was pieced together across the Mediterranean and was remarkable for featuring many of the rarest and most sought after sestertii. Aside from the publication of his own collection, in 1834 he authored his Descriptive catalogue of a cabinet of Roman family coins belonging to his Grace the Duke of Northumbria.