temp. HANOVER. Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Venetian explorer, actor, and engineer. 1778-1823. AR Medal (53mm, 72.78 g, 12h). The Second Pyramid of Giza. By T. I. Wells. Manufactured by E. Thomason. Dated 1818 (though struck circa 1822).

Triton XXV
Lot: 1367. Estimated: $ 2 000

British Medals, Silver

Sold For $ 2 750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

temp. HANOVER. Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Venetian explorer, actor, and engineer. 1778-1823. AR Medal (53mm, 72.78 g, 12h). The Second Pyramid of Giza. By T. I. Wells. Manufactured by E. Thomason. Dated 1818 (though struck circa 1822). GIOVANNI BELZONI, bare head left / OPENED BY G. BELZONI, view of the Second Pyramid of Giza; MARCH 2ND 1818 in exergue. BHM 969; Eimer 1105. Rich cabinet toning. In PCGS encapsulation 34481935, graded SP 63. Very rare.

From the DMS Collection. Ex Stacks Bowers & Ponterio (11 January 2018), lot 20351.

A veritable Renaissance man, Giovanni Battista Belzoni was born in Padua in 1778, and became famous on multiple accounts as an actor, explorer, engineer, and Egyptologist. His exceptional stature and strength gave him an impressive stage presence, and became known as ‘The Great Belzoni’ around Europe. His travels eventually led him to Egypt, where he first attempted to introduce improved hydraulic machines for raising the waters of the Nile. This engineering pursuit gave way to the acquisition and promotion of Egyptian antiquities, overseeing the removal and shipment of the massive bust Rameses II (known as the ‘Young Memnon’) to the British Museum, as well as exploring and opening the Second Pyramid of Giza (known as the Pyramid of Khafre/Chefren). Belzoni’s exploits were tragically cut short, however, as he died from dysentery in a small village in modern-day Nigeria.

The final winners of all Triton XXV lots will be determined at the live public sale that will be held on 11-12 January 2022. Triton XXV – Session Four – Early Medieval & Islamic Coinage through Large Lots will be held Wednesday afternoon, 12 January 2022 beginning at 2:00 PM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 20% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 22.50% for all others.

We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and the stable previous version of Mozilla Firefox and Chrome.