Ending 31st Aug, 2025 20:00
ANTIQUE & 20TH CENTURY SILVER - BATH SALEROOM - TIMED AUCTION
20
DUTCH (V.O.C.) SILVER INGOT BAR SALVAGE ROOSWIJK CARGO CIRCA 1739
A maritime Dutch East India Company V.O.C. (Vereenigde Oost-indische Compagnie ) silver ingot bar 1739. The silver ingot was salvaged from the shipwreck of the Rooswijk in 2004. The ingot having V.O.C conjoined stamp with A for Amsterdam, together with assay masters stamp of a rampant goat. Weight approx. 1960g / 69.13 ozt / 1260.30 dwt. Salvage tag number: RK05AS0182
Measures approx. 16.3cm L
Notes: The Rooswijk, a VOC (Vereenigde Oost-indische Compagnie) ship was built in 1737. The Rooswijk sank on the second trip. On the 9th January 1740, whilst on a voyage from Texel (in the Netherlands) to Batavia it faced a storm that left no survivors. There were 237 crew members, and an unknown number of passengers that lost their lives and many chests full of coins and silver ingots that sank to the bottom of the water. The Rooswijk sank on the Goodwin sands off the coast of Kent, a notoriously treacherous stretch of water, where the sands constantly shift with the tides making them hard to navigate. Many ships have been wrecked there. In January 1740, a chest full of letters and the crew’s personal effects washed ashore. The English government realised that the ship had sunk to the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Kent. These letters were the last words written before the Rooswijk sank. In December 2004, the sands that had swallowed the wreck of the Rooswijk changed in such a way that they allowed amateur diver Ken Welling to find the treasure of the Rooswijk. The recovery was made public in 2005. Organised by the Dutch and British governments and the scientific expedition was led by Rex Cowan.The cargo was primarily in the form of silver ingots and “coins of eight,” Mexican Reales from the 1720s and 1730s. The Dutch had little to offer in Asia but silver and gold. Therefore VOC ships had to sail to Asia with silver bars and gold coins to pay for Asian goods. The bars were cast in private factories, run by assayers, from melted-down silver coins, mainly Spanish American “Reales”. Once in Asia, these bars were melted down again and minted into coins and silver objects that could be used to pay for purchases in the East. Some of the dive team were given silver ingots salvaged from the wreckage as payment for their work.
Sold for £4,150
Auction: ANTIQUE & 20TH CENTURY SILVER - BATH SALEROOM - TIMED AUCTION, ending 31st Aug, 2025
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