The Puddester Collection

The Uniform Coinage of India, East India Company: Patterns, William IV, original silver Pattern Rupee, 1835 [1836], Bombay, bust right with long truncation, m.d. [perhaps Frederick McGillivray and Bazette Doveton] on truncation, william iiii , king . in small widely-spaced lettering, rev. one rupee, yek rupiya within laurel wreath with 19 berries, east india company above, date below with stop to right, edge grained, 30.3mm, 11.62g/6h (Prid. 179 [Sale, lot 62, this coin]; SW 1.34, this coin; KM. Pn12). Trifling obverse hairlines, otherwise brilliant and virtually as struck, attractive grey tone, of the highest rarity and almost certainly the only specimen in private hands £15,000-£20,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Puddester Collection.

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Collection

G.W. Egmont Bieber Collection, Sotheby Auction (London), 13-18 May 1889, lot 652 (part)
J.G. Murdoch Collection, Sotheby Auction (London), 21-30 July 1903, lot 192 (part)
A. Rowand Collection, Sotheby Auction (London), 22 April 1910, lot 85 (part)
A.N. Brushfield Collection, Part V, Glendining Auction (London), 2-3 November 1949, lot 195 (part)
F. Pridmore Collection, Part II, Glendining Auction (London), 18-19 October 1982, lot 62 [from Baldwin (London) July 1970], ticket.

Owner’s ticket, envelope and record card.

In an attempt to reduce their dependency on Calcutta for matrix dies, officers at the Bombay mint appear to have engaged a native of Cutch to engrave dies for a rupee and matrix dies for a half-rupee (see next Lot). Specimens of both coins were submitted to the Mint Committee on 24 December 1836, but the Bombay government, on seeking permission from Calcutta to strike coins from them, were refused and advised that they must use matrices supplied by the Calcutta mint. The suggestion that the initials md represent the artist Jean-Baptiste Merlen [Designer], first alluded to by the cataloguer of the Murdoch collection and copied by several sources since, is doubtless fanciful; far more plausible is the suggestion put forward by Paul Stevens that they represent the talented Bombay mint engineer, Capt Frederick McGillivray (1801-38), Bombay Engineers, and the then Bombay Mint Master, Bazette Doveton (1788-1848)