Electrotypes & Copies

Lot 4675    Session 17 (11.30am Friday 25 November) Terry Naughton Colle    Electrotypes & Copies

Estimate $100
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $90

BRUTTIUM, Terina, electrotype copy of silver nomos of type (c.425-420 B.C.), (7.50 g), obv. female head to right, wreath around, rev. Nike seated right on hydria, holding kerykeion, bird behind, (S.-, Holloway & Jenkins 36 (this piece as the copy), HN Italy 2589). Very fine, toned.

Ex I.S. Wright, Sydney, October 12, 2006.
The edge has the letter R (Ready) into edge. Robert Cooper Ready and his sons made tens of thousands of electrotype copies of coins, medals and seals in the British Museum's collection between 1859 and 1931. Robert Cooper Ready (1811-1901), a modeler and sealmaker, was hired by the British Museum in 1859 to make copies of its coins, medals and seals, using the new technique of electrotyping. Ready made over 22,000 electrotypes and trained his sons to continue the tradition into the twentieth century. The Readys made copies for research and display purposes and with the permission of the British Museum these were sold to museums and collectors around the world. In the early 1920s the British Museum advertised the price as 2s. 6d. each.