Dies by the Demareteion Master

CNG 102, Lot: 105. Estimate $4000. Sold for $6000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Leontini. Circa 466-460 BC. AR Tetradrachm (28mm, 17.32 g, 1h). Dies by the Demareteion master. Charioteer, holding kentron in right hand and reins in both, driving slow quadriga right; above, Nike flying left, crowning charioteer with open wreath held in both hands; in exergue, lion right / Head of Apollo right, wearing laurel wreath; three leaves and LEO[NTI-N]O-N around; below, lion right. Boehringer, Münzgeschichte 29 (same dies); HGC 2, 665 (same rev. die as illustration); SNG ANS 218 (same dies); SNG Lloyd 1046 (same dies); Basel 348 (same rev. die); Dewing 623/622 (same obv./rev. dies); Gillet 439 (same rev. die); Kraay & Hirmer 19 (same obv. die); Rizzo pl. XXII, 14 (same obv. die). Near VF, toned. Rare.

From the estate of Thomas Bentley Cederlind. Ex Stack’s Bowers and Ponterio (6 January 2012), lot 88.

One of the earliest of the recognized masters of Sicilian engraving, the unknown artist who created the Demareteion dekadrachm of Syracuse was also responsible for several dies at the neighboring city of Leontini. R. Ross Holloway discusses the relationship of the Leontini tetradrachms with the masterworks of the "Demareteion Master" at Syracuse in "Damarete's Lion," ANSMN XI, pp. 1-11. He regards them as works of the same hand, while Carmen Arnold-Biucchi, in her work on the Randazzo Hoard, sees influence from, but not the work of, the master, with the Leontini piece being a few years later and in a more developed realistic style. In any event, these tetradrachms of Leontini are among the finest works of Sicilian numismatic art.