The composition of the notable coin collection put together by Charles Montagu Crompton-Roberts (1865-1931), heir to a partnership in an exceptionally profitable paints and varnishes business, has remained obscure because when the Spink firm purchased it in 1920 they initially offered it for sale in the Numismatic Circular without any mention of its past ownership by Crompton-Roberts. The collection was especially strong in the Anglo-Saxon series, and the present note explains that virtually all the Anglo-Saxon coins involved were acquired by Crompton-Roberts within the years 1893-6 through commissions for lots in Sotheby coin auction sales placed by him with the dealer Frederick William Lincoln. A list of the coins in question is attached : it may seem alarmingly lengthy, but it should be useful for future researchers.
Numismatic History
A Forgotten Coin Auction at Carlisle in 1870 – Hugh Pagan
Although auction sales of coin collections certainly took place in England outside London in the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century, the evidence for them is patchy. The present note records such a sale which took place in Carlisle in 1870. Unusually, a contemporary newspaper report of the sale both reports the results and names the buyers of the lots that contained coins ranging in date from Celtic times to the reign of William and Mary. The buyers involved included the London coin dealer Julius Jessop and the Yorkshire coin dealer W.H.Eggleston, from Dewsbury, and the latter turns out to have been the original employer and coin dealing partner of the better known dealer James Verity.
John White: the Cambridgeshire Connection – Hugh Pagan
This note draws attention to previously unnoticed evidence that John White, coin dealer, coin forger, and straw hat vendor in Newgate Street, London, had personal and family connections with Cambridge and Cambridgeshire.
Walter Jonathan Andrew and his Resignation from the Numismatic Society of London – Hugh Pagan
This note identifies a review in the periodical The Reliquary as the first spark in the sequence of flash-points that led to the foundation of the British Numismatic Society in 1903.
Richard Southgate (1729-1795) – Hugh Pagan
Richard Southgate (1729-1795) took on responsibility for the British Museum’s coin collection on his appointment to the British Museum staff in 1784, and remained in charge of the collection until his death. The present note sets his role as a numismatist in the context of his wider career.
‘Vigorous, Conscientious, Judicious’: the Reverend PrebendaryJoseph William Hamlet, Vicar of Barrington – a Previously Unknown Contributor to British Numismatics – A.G. Bliss
The Reverend Joseph William Hamlet (1857-1926) was Vicar of Barrington, Somerset, from 1885 till his death in 1926. Though previously known during this period as a key member of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (SANHS), antiquarian and beloved parish priest, no specific evidence of numismatic knowledge had previously been observed. This note publishes a suite of recently emerged items likely owned by him, suggesting both knowledge of and engagement with the discipline.
A new female coin collector of the 18th century: Katherine Blount (née Butler) – Andrew Burnett
We can now identify a new addition to the relatively small number of female coin collectors of the past. Katherine Blount (née Butler) (1676-1752) had an extensive collection of over a thousand coins, mostly Roman and British, as described in the fairly detailed inventory made of her collection after her death. Picture is more difficult as, despite consulting experts, we have been unable to find the Kneller portrait which is mentioned in the literature. Perhaps we could consider a page from the Inventory?
Roderick Maingy Murchison 1830-1873 – Hugh Pagan
The collection of coins formed by Capt. Roderick Maingy Murchison (1830-1873), dispersed at two Sotheby sales in the mid 1860s, is one of the most prestigious in the British series, and the present note seeks to explain the development of Murchison’s collection in relation to what is known of his life and career.
The Chronology of The Preparation of Plates For Martin Folkes’s Writings on English Gold and Silver Coins – Hugh Pagan
The Winchester Cabinet – Lucy Moore
The British Numismatic Society awarded a grant of £475 to the University of Leeds to support an experimental interpretation project based on the Winchester Cabinet held there. This blog reveals details about the project and why the approach taken was chosen.
