418, Lot: 595. Estimate $400. Sold for $380. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Guasttalla (contea). Ferrante I Gonzaga. 1539-1557. Æ Medal (69mm, 135.3 g, 12h). By Jacopo Nizolla da Trezzo. Later cast after a circa 1552 original. FER · GONZ · PRÆF · GAL · CISAL TRIB · MAX · LEGG · CAROLI · V · CAES · AVG, armored and draped bust left, wearing ruff / VIRTVTIS FORMÆ Q PRÆVIA, figure right, holding apples and torch, in chariot pulled by pegasus; countryside below. Armand I, p. 164:12; cf. Molinari 59 (for rev. type). Good VF.

Ex Coin Galleries (15 April 1991), lot 1628.

Collector’s note: “A military commander of the Imperial forces in Italy, Ferrante Gonzaga purchased Guastalla from the last female descendant of the Torelli in AD 1539. This Milanese medallist was born in AD 1515, died in Madrid in AD 1589, and was celebrated as a gem engraver as well as medallist. Ferrante Gonzaga was the father of Ippolyta, whose own medal with this reverse is cited in the Molinari reference. ”