English Hammered Provenance "Ex Lucas".

[ArthurD]

HI Folks, my first posting even though I've been reading the forums for a while.

I keep seeing a provenance for hammered silver as "ex Lucas" - what or who was Lucas? I've noticed it in particular for Edward The Confessor and Norman period coins. Over the past couple of years I've picked up quite a knowledge of coins from this period but this reference eludes me, I'm probably missing something obvious, not for the first time I hasten to add

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks

[Rob]

A Commander Lucas who sold parcels to Spink in the 1970s. Some of them were sold in Spink 1, 11/10/1978 and others at Glens in 1976, but others must have been sold without coming to auction. These were all(?) from the Shillington Hoard (1871)

He was likely related to a family of that name known to be living in a manor house close to the Shillington find, and they had been passed down in the preceding 100 years.

Edited April 1, 2016 by Rob

[Rob]

There is however a spanner to throw into the works. The William II type 1 from Worcester in the Stewartby sale had a speck of wax on it, meaning that it had been illustrated somewhere. If passed down through the family you would not expect to see this, unless there was an outside chance that someone like the BM had taken a cast in the first half of the 20th century as they did when there was a coin for which they did not have a die duplicate.

[ArthurD]

Thanks very much indeed for the replies, much appreciated. I'll carry out some more research around the 1970's. It's a common provenance with hammered from this period so I'm sure there will be some info. somewhere. The coin I bought from the Spink Stewartby auction has a couple of old tickets which should also help me.

I spend so much time researching coins before I buy them but this provenance just escaped me!

Cheers

[Rob]

Hint. NC 1992.

[ArthurD]

Thanks again, the article specifically mentions the pre Conquest coins in the Lucas collection - these are the ones I'm interested in at the moment. I'll take a look for the Glendining and Spink catalogues mentioned.

Cheers

[Rob]

None of the coins in the two sales mentioned were in Stewartby, so he may have had first choice, or bought them privately from Lucas' widow.