De Wit collection

The de Wit coin collection is the "most important auctioned universal collection of the Middle Ages since the collection of Lord Grantley (1855-1943)" (B. Kluge, Numismatik des Mittelalters, p. 198). In 2007/2008 it was auctioned in three parts by the Künker auction house in Osnabrück. The collection, documented in four catalogs with numerous numismatic features, comprised a total of more than 4,500 objects from all over Europe between the 4th and early 16th centuries.

Collector

Prof. GW de Wit was born in 1926. He taught physics at the University of Leiden / Netherlands. In 1947 he moved to the "Nationale Levensverzekeringsbank" (later Nationale-Nederlanden, now ING), where he stayed until his retirement. During his professional activity he taught insurance economics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and is the author of scientific articles in the field of insurance economics. After his retirement he wrote a book entitled "Thoughts about economics" in which he formulated his ideas about the role of the economy in the society of the future.

Building the collection

In the 50s and 60s, Prof. de Wit and his wife made a number of trips to Italy and were fascinated by the sacred art of the Middle Ages, especially church paintings. One scene above all caught his attention again and again: The Annunciation to Mary by the Archangel Gabriel . And that's exactly what he found on a piece of gold from Naples: a salut d'or of Charles I of Anjou (1266–1278). This coin gave him the opportunity to bring home a small piece of the art that so fascinated him. This was the cornerstone for the universal collection of the Middle Ages.

In the beginning, the collection was limited to Italian medieval coins until Professor de Wit bought a small coin with a depiction in 1967 that spontaneously aroused his interest, but without knowing what it was actually about at the time. This coin was the first of more than 400 Sceattas that later became the property of the Fitzwilliam Museum / Cambridge - one of the most important collections of Anglo-Saxon-Frisian coins worldwide.

De Wit always paid special attention to the preservation of his coins. “Art is only beautiful if it is of the highest quality,” was the guideline of his trade and for him, coins were true miniature works of art from the Middle Ages. Through the art of the Romanesque he came to the German bracteates of the Staufer period . In his eyes, they represented the art of die-cutting of the highest technical standard. In more than 30 years of collecting, he has amassed more than 300 hollow pennies . A large part came from other well-known medieval collections such as As the collection Allertseder , collection Bonhoff , collection Hohenstaufenring time , collection Kennepohl or collection Reuttner of Weyl .

These three main parts of the collection were supplemented by objects from almost all medieval territories from the period 500–1500. In the course of 40 years one of the largest special collections of the Middle Ages was created, which went far beyond the scope of a collection of “Christian-medieval iconography in small format”.

In 2004, at the age of 78, Professor de Wit made the decision to have his collection auctioned off by the Fritz Rudolf Künker coin dealership in Osnabrück. An indispensable prerequisite for him was to provide the collection catalog with extensive historical comments on the individual coins in order to create a complete and permanent documentation of his collection and thus to maintain or arouse interest in the numismatics of the Middle Ages .

Auction and highlights of the de Wit collection

For the auction, the collection was divided into three staggered auctions of around 1,500 pieces each, with the individual segments comprising regions and time periods related to the history of coins.

The first part, with 1,514 copies, included the early days of medieval coinage during the Migration Period (with the outstanding follis of the Ostrogoth king Theodahad , auction 121 / No. 118), the Merovingian Empire and the Carolingians. It was followed by coins from France up to the late Middle Ages, some mints from Scandinavia and finally the extensive part of Dutch coins with the highlight of the auction - a Thuyn d'or (also Agnel d'or) by Willem VI. (Auction 121 / No. 770). The second part comprised 1,520 coins from Central and Eastern Europe. Above all, the approximately 1,000 coins from the territory of the German Empire from the time of the Ottonians to the Habsburgs. A bracteate by Konrad I from the Meißen mint (auction 130 / No. 2276) was particularly attractive. From the center of Europe it went via Switzerland and Austria to the east of the continent. The denarius Boleslav II from the Prague mint was a numismatic rarity (auction 130 / No. 2700). Mints from Moravia, Poland, Silesia and Hungary as well as the Baltic states also belonged to this part of the collection.

In the third part, there were 1,221 objects from England and the regions along the coast of the Mediterranean (including Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Balkans and the Crusader states). The largest parts of the collection comprised England (339 pieces) and Italy (312 pieces) - which also represented the collector's numismatic interests. Of particular importance were, for example, a penny from Archbishop Coelnoth of Canterbury (auction 137 / no. 3055) and a 1/2 grosso of Frederick II from the Como mint (auction 137 / no. 3593). An extensive collection of medieval tokens , arithmetic pennies and coin weights were also part of this part of the collection. The absolute highlight was a complete set of 18 coin weights (auction 137 / no. 4248) according to the so-called “munttarif” of 1499, for which Professor de Wit together with EJA v. Beck wrote an article in the Numismatic Circle Rotterdam in 1978.

According to Prof. de Wit, the unique collection of 481 Sceattas was to be preserved as a whole and therefore became the property of the Fitzwilliam Museum / Cambridge. In order to keep them at hand for those interested in numismatics, this chapter of Anglo-Saxon-Medieval coin history was also published in a separate fourth catalog with the comments of Prof. de Wit. In this way, the de Wit Collection is permanently presented in its complete state.

Numismatic-historical commentaries

The catalogs are written in English so that the collection can be made known and understandable to the international specialist public.

In order to be able to follow the "path of the coins" through various collections, all objects were provided with an extensive directory of provenances . All images have been enlarged to a scale of 1.5: 1, as the individual medieval characters are often very small. In this way, the craftsmanship of the medieval die cutters can also be better recognized without a magnifying glass.

The collector's extensive historical commentaries deserve special attention. There are also numerous comments on the coin images, such as B. the remarks on the development of “châtel tournois” and “tête chinonaise” on French coins (auction 121, pp. 125–126, fig. 11), the medieval die cutters of the 12th century (auction 130, p. 272– 276), the representation of horses on equestrian bracteatas (auction 130, pp. 256–257, fig. 12) and the Dutch imitations of English nobles (auction 137, pp. 71–73 and 76).

However, many of the often non-written forms could not be assigned unequivocally. Thus, this documentation does not finally close the chapter on medieval coin history, but rather is an occasion for further scientific discussions.

Scientific importance

With the high-quality and detailed illustrations and the comprehensive numismatic-historical commentaries, the four catalogs of the de Wit Collection are a detailed, easy-to-use and therefore extremely helpful reference work on medieval coinage.

In conjunction with the relevant standard works and handbooks on medieval numismatics, they represent a valuable addition for a detailed insight into the history of coins and money in medieval Europe.

literature

B. Kluge: Numismatics of the Middle Ages. Handbook and Thesaurus Nummorum Medii Aevi. Berlin / Vienna 2007.
S. Steinbach: 1,000 years of European coin history in fast motion. Creation, cataloging and auction of the de Wit collection. In: Numismatisches Nachrichtenblatt. 6/2008, pp. 230-232.
Auction catalogs of the de Wit Collection:

Part I: Migration Period, Merovingians, Carolingians, France, Scandinavia and the Netherlands, March 2007 (Fritz Rudolf Künker auction 121).
Part II: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Silesia, Poland, Baltic States, Russia and the Golden Horde, October 2007 (Fritz Rudolf Künker auction 130).
Part III: England, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Balkan, The Middle East, Jetons and Weights, March 2008 (Fritz Rudolf Künker auction 137).
Part IV: Sceattas, March 2008 (inventory catalog of the coins owned by the Fitzwilliam Museum / Cambridge).