by Hadrien Rambach
Frédéric Engel-Gros came from a family of Mulhouse industrialists. He served during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, and moved afterwards to his recently-purchased castle Gundeldingen (just outside Basel) where he devoted himself to collecting. He would later buy the Château de Ripaille (near Thonon-les-Bains on the Lake Geneva).
His sons, who took part in WWI, and daughters gave numerous items from his collections to French museums and libraries, but sold the rest in a series of auctions in Paris between 1921 and 1923. Feuardent and Leman acted as experts of the sale of the ancient coins and art medals (December 1921), whilst Florange/Ciani sold the Renaissance medals that were auctioned in December 1922.
Bibliography:
- John Spring, Ancient Coins Auction Catalogues 1880-1980, London 2009, pp. 63-64.
- Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 91: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part I, Zurich, 23 May 2016, pp. [67]-[79];
- Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 99: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part II, Zurich, 29 May 2017, pp. 47-63;
- Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 105: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part III, Zurich, 9 May 2018, pp. 82-105.
This article was first published in a catalogue of auction house Numismatica Ars Classica.
