Ex Brand Collection

Triton XIX, Lot: 2258. Estimate $100000. Sold for $250000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOHEMIA, Holy Roman Empire. České království (Kingdom of Bohemia). Ferdinand III. 1627-1657. AV 50 Dukát (75mm, 172.4 g, 12h). Commemorating his Coronation as King of Hungary & Bohemia. Praha (Prague) mint. Dated 1629. FERDINANDVS · III · D : G : HVNG : BOHEMIÆ · REX :, armored and draped bust right, wearing elaborate ruff and Collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece; all within wreath; 50 (denomination) engraved in medallion at bottom of wreath / AVSTRIÆE ARDCHIDVX, crowned garnished coat-of-arms with dragon supporters above Collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece; 16 29 below; all within wreath. Herinek 82; Dietiker –; KM –; Friedberg 44. VF, scattered marks and scratched, edge knocks, double struck.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex Virgil M. Brand Collection (Part 8, Sotheby’s, 24 January 1985), lot 304 (purchased from J. Hirsch 27 November 1919).

Ferdinand ascended to the throne of Hungary and Bohemia at the tender age of nineteen. Though his reign here was characterized by a strengthening of the authority of the central government, the young ruler’s greatest challenges came when he succeeded his father, Ferdinand II, as Holy Roman Emperor in 1637. By this point, the Empire had been mired in a conflict – later known as the Thirty Years’ War – that had ravaged the continent for nineteen years. Ferdinand sought peace, but in order to secure his German allies for the negotiations, he resorted to granting them the authority to determine their own foreign policy, an act which would greatly increase their autonomy and ultimately lead to the gradual dissolution of the Empire itself. The Peace of Westphalia finally ended the conflict in 1648.