constanius Posted October 28, 2013 Report Share Posted October 28, 2013 Theordore van Berckel was working on another new medal of, and for, the Emperor Joseph II when the Brabant Revolution & its subsequent proclamation of independence in 1790 from Austria occurred. He carried on working as the General Engraver of the Brussel's Mint but now he produced coins for the short-lived regime, when it collapsed he again retained his post under the new Emperor Leopold II, who had succeeded because Joseph II had died. Ergo that medal he was engraving of Joseph was never finished but a lead trial strike exists. Imagine my surprise when I found this "unknown medal", which I believe, could be a tin splash(37/38mm) of the above at an early stage in the engraving, before the clothes were added, head broadened at the rear, etc. Link http://www.theodoorvanberckel.nl/biography.htm to the Theodore Van Berckle Biography Web Site, the source of the above picture. Note the 2 laurel berries positions & the way the laurel crown is raised above the hair, I cannot find another medal or coin of Joseph II by Berckel the same, that might just be my failure.......but at least it does not appear to be a splash from a finished medal, or coin if the design was later reduced in size, but from one in the development stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmarotta Posted October 28, 2013 Report Share Posted October 28, 2013 Fascinating. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeOldeCollector Posted October 28, 2013 Report Share Posted October 28, 2013 An amazing piece of history, Pat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank Posted October 28, 2013 Report Share Posted October 28, 2013 Nifty history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
constanius Posted July 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 The collector that owns the large trial strike of Joseph II in armour, which I compared my tin splash to, joined another numismatic forum(where I had posted the same topic recently) to give me some useful information. Firstly he discounted that my splash was connected with the 'armoured' trial strike, for the obvious reason that he had taken a picture of an unfinished die in the Royal Belgian Mint matching my splash! UNFINISHED DIE COURTESY OF THE ROYAL BELGIAN MINT. I took the liberty of cropping & flipping the image to directly compare the two. He also supplied another of his images of a hub which is very closely related. HUB COURTESY OF THE ROYAL BELGIAN MINT. Then, as he owned the larger 'armoured' trial strike he suggested we both measured from the emperor's corner of his eye to his nose tip. "Theodore van Berckel made many different portraits of Emperor Joseph II in all kind of different sizes. And it's true that Van Berckel on several occasions made different portraits with the same hub by engraving hair, clothes or other features directly into the die that was created with the hub. But in this particular case he probably used two different hubs. Maybe we both could do some measuring. I have that large splash of Joseph II in my collection (in fact I took that picture that is in your post). I could measure it from the tip of the nose to the left corner of the eyelid (where the eyeball touches the corner). If you do the same with your splash we can compare these measurements. If both differ we know that it can't be the same hub, but if they are the same we should try to do another measurement to be sure" "Thanks for measuring the face of his Imperial Majesty. I have done the same with the same results. Maybe your theory is sound after all. It is interesting enough to do some further investigation" Both measured 5.5mm so even if there is no direct relationship between the two the scale is the same regarding the head. He thinks it warrants some further investigation, to see if at first they shared a common hub and then went their own way in development. He is the gentleman, that with others, began the Theodore Van Berckle Biography Web Site http://www.theodoorvanberckel.nl/biography.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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