Brittany. Anne (1498-1499) gold Cadière d'Or ND (c. 1498) AU58 NGC, Nantes mint, Fr-97 (same dies), Dieudonné-Unl., cf. PdA-1401 (there, with N at end of obverse legend), Dup-358A/358, Boudeau-Unl., Bigot-Unl., cf. Jéz-430 (there, with N at end of obverse legend), Dhénin, "La Cadière d'Or d'Anne de Bretagne" (Bulletin du Club Français de la Médaille Vol. 84, 1984), D2-R3. 3.46gm. (ermines): ANNA: ∂: G: FRAИCORV: REGIA: ET: BRITONVM: ∂VCISSA: (double annulet stops), Anne, crowned, enthroned facing, sword in right hand, scepter in left / +SIT • NϴMEN • ∂OMINI • BENE∂ICTVM • N (ermines stops), cross égale with small n at center, crowns with rays in angles. A coin which rightly earns its moniker as one of the rarest gold issues of medieval France and one of the most historically important and evocative in the history of Brittany. Produced following the death of Charles VIII--who Anne had been forced to marry 7 years earlier--the Cadière very much stood front-and-center in Anne's program to reassert Brittany's independence and sovereignty from the French crown. In addition to establishing the Chancellery of Brittany and relocating the Chamber of Accounts in Vannes, the production of coins such as this proclaimed in a numismatic medium Anne's status as the head of the Bretons, represented in majesty, and accompanied by all the same attributes of sovereign power as she chose to use on her official seal. Executed by the royal painter Jean Bourdichon, though the designs are clearly evocative of the Chaise d'Or of Philippe VI, they betray early influences of Renaissance style as it was beginning to seep into High Medieval France. Absent from the obverse scene is the Gothic tressure that serves as a framing device on so many earlier gold coinages, the floor beneath Anne appearing textured (an artistic device that smacks of Renaissance painting), and the lettering shows a clear tendency towards Latin, rather than ornate Gothic, font. Anne's Cadière's are known in two primary types (together with numerous subvarieties): one in a slightly more Gothic style (like the present), and the other in a more Renaissance style with the date in Arabic numerals beneath the throne. The latter of which represents the first French coin to bear a date--something that would not be implemented on royal coinage until 1549 under Henri II, following in a line of Breton innovation that included the first use of letters to distinguish mint workshops. Of these two principle subtypes, the undated emissions are by far the rarer of the two, with none in such famous collections as Jean Rousseau, Georges Motte, and even the holdings of the Musée Dobrée in Nantes. This die pairing in particular is even rarer, with only two other examples known according to our research: 1) The Bibliothèque Nationale specimen (BNF 44981308). Benjamin Fillon Collection. Illustrated by Dhénin. 2) iNumis (December 2009, Lot 188); Spink Taisei Auction 3 (February 1988, Lot 555) = Fr-97 Plate Coin Of these specimens, the offering seen here comes struck on a notably fuller flan than that sold by iNumis (which also shows clear unevenness of strike), while traces of waviness can clearly be detected in the BnF example. Presently the only representative yet certified, and likely only the second in private hands, we can think of no better coin to stand as the centerpiece of the Brittany Collection--the last minted by an independent Brittany before Anne was forced to marry Louis XII in January 1499, and the coinage was formally folded into the purview of the French crown. Notably, this type serves as the cover coin for the first volume of Duplessy's Les monnaies françaises féodales.

HID09801242017

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