Eagle's Cry: A Novel of the Louisiana Purchase

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are leading the nation from an incipient aristocracy toward a modern democracy in what Jefferson would call the Second Revolution.

But with the death of George Washington comes the two party system and
struggles for which the young nation is ill prepared. First comes an internal coup attempt and then the threat of Napoleon's army landing in New Orleans which leads ultimately to the triumphant Louisiana Purchase and the emergence of America as a continental nation. All this as the greatest minds and visionaries of young America lay the foundation for the America we know today.

The "Antioch Chalice," first half of 6th century Byzantine; Made in Antioch or Kaper Koraon (?) Silver, silver-gilt; 7 1/2 x 5 7/8 in. (19 x 15 cm) The Cloisters Collection, 1950 (50.4) When it was discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century, this "chalice" was claimed to have been found in Antioch, a city so important to the early Christians that it was recognized with Rome and Alexandria as one of the great sees of the church. The chalice's plain silver interior bowl was then ambitiously identified as the Holy Grail, the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper. The elaborate footed shell enclosing it was thought to have been made within a century after the death of Christ to encase and honor the Grail. The fruited grapevine forming the rinceau pattern of the gilded shell is inhabited by birds, including an eagle; animals, including a lamb and a rabbit; and twelve human figures holding scrolls and seated in high-backed chairs. Two of the figures are thought to be images of Christ. The other ten figures have been variously identified as ten of the twelve apostles, or philosophers of the classical age, who, like the prophets of the Old Testament, had foretold the coming of Christ. The sixth-century chronicler Malalas of Antioch was among those who sought to make such links between Christianity and classical philosophy. The identification of the "Antioch Chalice" as the Holy Grail has not been sustained, and even its authenticity has at times been challenged. The work has usually been considered a sixth-century chalice for the Eucharist. Most recently, however, its shape has been recognized as more closely resembling sixth-century standing lamps, its decoration possibly in recognition of Christ's words "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). It has been argued to be part of a treasure of liturgical objects found in 1908 belonging to the Church of Saint Sergios in the town of Kaper Koraon southeast of Antioch. If so, Saint Sergios' parishioners might well have traveled to Antioch to purchase the object as a donation for their church. Or it may have been used in one of the churches in or near Antioch.

Crete, Gortyna, stater, c. 330-270 BC, Europa, semi-nude, seated facing in plain tree with trunk in the form of left-facing bull's head, raising veil toward her head with right hand and with left holding eagle with spread wings on her lap, rev., bull standing left with head turned back to ward off fly from his left rear hoof, 11.52g, die axis 7.00, the finest of apparently only three known examples of this variety, extremely fine and of the highest rarity, of exceptional quality References: Kunstfreund 206 = Nomos 1, Zurich, 6 May 2009, 89, same dies; Svoronos 85 (a worn and pierced example in the Royal Coin Cabinet, Utrecht), same dies; BMC -; Le Rider -. Provenance: Purchased Spink, 30 June 1965. Note: This is certainly one of the finest known staters of Gortyna depicting Europa with, unusually, Zeus in his two disguises on the obverse, both as an eagle and as a bull. A different, less powerful, die is known of the same type (as Svoronos 84 and BMC 30) which is combined with a more conventional bull on the reverse. Cretan coins of the 4th and 3rd centuries were overstruck on coins brought back to the island by mercenaries returning from abroad. Consequently they are normally found in indifferent state with traces of the undertypes interfering with the local designs which mostly represent Cretan mythology. The present coin and the stater of Phaistos in the following lot distinguish themselves as being carefully struck on flans that show no evidence of overstriking (although the broadness of their flans suggests otherwise). ME10242011, 126

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