CALABRIA. Tarentum. Circa 325-280 BC. Diobol (Silver, 13 mm, 1.05 g, 10 h). Head of Athena to right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet decorated with Skylla, hurling a stone with her right hand, to right on the bowl and single pendant earring. Rev. Youthful Herakles kneeling right, holding club in his right hand and wrestling the Nemean Lion, which crouches left, clawing at his leg; above, strigil. HN Italy 976. Vlasto 1334. Beautifully toned and with an exceptional 19th century pedigree. Very minor die rust on the reverse, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.



Prosper Dupré (1771-1866) was a French draftsman and engraver who served as Director of the Saltworks of the Rhine Provinces under Napoleon and, under Louis XVIII, as Director of the Royal Saltworks in Moyenvic. He sold his first collection, among others, to Honoré Théodoric d’Albert de Luynes, while his second collection was auctioned in Paris by H. Hoffmann in 1867, a year after his death.

Charles-Hippolyte de Paravey (1771-1866), born in the Ardennes in 1787, was an engineer and a co-founder of the Société Asiatique in 1822. In his extensive writings, he developed a theory of the history of civilizations, tracing all of them to a common origin in the Near or Middle East. His library is now housed in the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris, the oldest public library in France.