VIDEO: VAN LOON MEDALS

Van Loon Medals at the New York International Show

Recently added to NNP is a group of videos produced by David Lisot, covering four major shows from early 2020 (FUN, New York International, Spring ANA, and Long Beach). The New York International featured a presentation by Andrew E. Absil of Schulman b.v. Amsterdam on the subject of Van Loon medals related to the Eighty Years' War. David Menchell introduced Absil at the Medal Collectors of America (MCA) meeting held on January 16, 2020 at the New York show.

The Eighty Years' War (1566-1648), pitting the low countries against Phillip II of Spain, resulted in an independent Dutch state, leading to the rise of the Dutch colonial empire. Undercurrents of religious difference (Spanish Catholics vs. Calvinist Protestants in the Netherlands) played a role throughout the conflict. Dutch independence was concluded with the 1648 Peace of Munster.

The history of medals tends to be the history of war, and the Eighty Years' War resulted in a host of medallic tributes. Absil provides an overview of these historic pieces as cataloged by van Loon (1683-1758), who documented these, and many other contemporary medals, in a four-volume set published between 1723 and 1731. A popular French edition followed, from 1732 to 1737. Sets of these works are highly prized today and valued in the four-figure range. John W. Adams summed it up in the December 2009 Medal Collectors Advisory: "As a reference work, ‘van Loon' deserves its reputation for meticulous line drawings, accurate legends (and translations), well-described devices and copious historical support. A numismatic library that does not have a set of van Loon is not, simply put, a numismatic library."

Illustrated here is the 1624 Maurice Prince of Orange medal, commemorating a Dutch naval victory over Spain off the Peruvian and Brazilian coasts.

Image: 1624 Maurice Prince of Orange, Van Loon vol. 2:155. From Stack's Bowers Rarities Night, 8/9/2012, lot 11116, realized $12,925.

Link to video Van Loon Medals Relating to the 80 Year War in the Netherlands:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/581573

Link to the David Lisot Video Library on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/multimediadetail/522852

Link to Medal Collectors Advisory (December 2009):
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/publisherdetail/510765?Year=2009&displayAmt=50

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