Item 1980/1 - Letter from Peter Seaby with three attachments

4 items, 3 paper & 1 photographic

Letter from Peter Seaby, in typescript, three pages on three folios (recto only), dated 4 April 1977, with three attachments; in the letter, PJS thanks IS for his letter of 22 May – see attachment (a) – and for the corrections and comments on his [Stephen] paper. He states his intention to have a look at the supposed Pevensey coin from South Kyme when next in the BM and says that he has acquired a good photo of Mack 187y from the Museum of fine Arts in Moscow, with a brief discussion on the latter. He mentions the Prestwich coins that "Marion [Archibald] had to one side" and wonders what evidence ties them to the north of England, in as much as "both the Prestwich and the Nottingham hoards have a substantial East Anglia element". Discussion then turns to the Eustace lion type, which PJS says holds a special fascination for him. He believes that it is "meant to be a representation of the consolation Leo in the act of rending its associate consolation Hydra", with the "strange arches" depicting "the loops of the serpent visible above the sea". The annulets and crosses must represent, he says, the major stars of the consolation, namely Denebola, Zosma, Al-Giebha and Regulus. Leo also occurs on other coins, e.g. lion dirhems of the Seljuk Sultan Kay-Khusru II and contemporary deniers of Count Godfrey II of Louvain, a kinsman of Eustace of Boulogne, and PJS associates them with Second Crusade. He says that he would like to obtain an enlarged photograph of the coin. There is a PS referring to "extraordinary Matilda hoard in Cardiff.
The attachments consist in:
(a) photocopy of a letter from IS to PJS, in manuscript, two pages, dated 22 May 1980, acknowledging that he has read PJS's "Stephen [paper] with much interest and pleasure". IS agrees that there indeed appears to be a pattern to Stephen's coinage but cautions that it may be more casual than PJS suggests. He goes on to comment about specific points in PJS's paper and expresses his eagerness to see the "precious paper in print". In closing, IS mentions that he now owns "Bird 300, Mabbott 999, ex LAL"; upon showing it to his seven-year-old son, the son said "That's not a lion", and IS agrees, wondering whether it might have been copied from the 8th-century coins of Eadberht or other animal types of the period. [NB: Mabbott 999, from the collection of Thomas Ollive Mabbott, is described in the Schulman sale catalogue of the collection, part IV (26-28 May 1970), as a Eustace Fitzjohn, "lion type", broken, which Mabbott acquired in a trade with Lawrence.]
(b) photograph of three coins, with marginal transcriptions of the legends :IMPERATRI above and +HELWINE DE CAIRDI below.
(c) a drawing of the Leo and Hydra consolations, unattributed and undated.