Herakles Epitrapezios
Ex M. L. and Gillet Collections

Triton XXII, Lot: 99. Estimate $5000. Sold for $7500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTTIUM, Kroton. Circa 400-325 BC. AR Nomos (21mm, 7.63 g, 5h). Head of Hera Lakinia facing slightly right, wearing necklace with pendants and stephanos decorated with palmettes; [Δ to right] / Herakles Epitrapezios: young Herakles, nude, holding cup in extended right hand, reclining left on lion skin draped over rock; above, crossed bow and club above MΔ; KPOT[Ω] and tripod to left. Attianese 141 (same dies as illustration); HN Italy 2164; SNG ANS 382 (same dies); SNG Gale 1085 (same dies); Gillet 237 (this coin); Hunt II 215 (same dies); Pozzi 242 (same dies). Near EF, toned, a little off center (as usual).

From the Gasvoda Collection. Ex M. L. Collection of Coins of Magna Graecia and Sicily (Numismatica Ars Classica 82, 20 May 2015), lot 29; Charles Gillet Collection.

From the consignor: The type of Herakles Epitrapezios ("Herakles at the table") shows the hero reclining in the midst of his labors, enjoying a relaxing cup of wine. Phyllis Lehmann, in Statues on Coins of Southern Italy and Sicily in the Classical Period (New York: H. Bittner & Co., 1946), makes a connection between this coin type and a series of later statues in the manner of Lysippos, linking both to a common source, probably an earlier statue at the temple of Hera Lakinia at Kroton, one of the most prominent sanctuaries in Italy.