Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 1238. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $120. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CELTIC ENGLAND. Atrebates in Essex and Sussex. Epaticcus. Circa 35-42 AD. AR Minim (0.27 gm). Roman-style bust right; pellet in ring before / Dog (a mastiff?) right, foreleg raised, E below, tree (or animal) to left. Hobbs 2358-63; Van Arsdell -; SCBC 362; CCI 03.0396. Good VF, porous surfaces. Very rare, only 17 others recorded. ($200)

From the Cotswold Collection. Ex Michael Trenerry; John Cummings, June 1990; probably ex Wanborough Hoard, Surrey, 1985.

In late Iron Age Britain "dogs were the general purpose animals used for hunting, herding and probably as pets…At Highfield about twenty dogs were found, of which five were of foxhound type, one like a retriever and one rather smaller than a fox terrier." (Barry Cunliffe, Iron Age Communities in Britain, pg. 382). When the Greek geographer Strabo listed the principal exports from Britain, he included "dogs that are by nature suited to the purposes of the chase" (Geog. 4.5.2). This exquisitely engraved minim undoubtedly depicts a hunting dog, perhaps reminiscent of a boar hunt or deer hunt that Epaticcus once enjoyed in the New Forest, Hampshire. (The figure to the left of the dog appears to be a flayed animal. Perhaps a hare caught on the hunt?)