VOC Silver bar (1753) – Bredenhof Shipwreck

With assayer mark GVD for Gerrit van Driel an VOC monogram with letters M (Middelburg) and Z (Zeeland).
 
EXTREMELY RARE
 
Ex Christie’s Amsterdam, 4 December 1986 – ORIGINAL CHRISTIE’S POUCH INCLUDED
 
Recovered from the wreck of the VOC ship ‘Bredenhof’
 
The Bredenhof was a Dutch East Indiaman transport ship that wrecked in the Mozambique Channel only 21 km off the African coast, near the Cape of Good Hope, on 6 June 1753. Two weeks after setting sail from the Cape to Ceylon they ran into treacherous waters and the Bredenhof sailed onto a reef. Captain Jan Nielsen’s orders were to throw all the silver bars overboard so that it could not be plundered by any member of the crew. Despite the attempt to recover the silver bars and copper coins in the 1750s, modern divers found the shipwreck in 1986 and a salvaging company was called in by the South African Government. A third part of the treasure was sent to South Africa and the part which corresponded to the salvaging company was sold at an auction at Christie’s Amsterdam in that same year.