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Lot Essay
In September 1752 the Dutch council of Seventeen of the V.O.C. ordered the Chamber of Middelburg to send the ‘Bredenhof’ via Ceylon to Bengal. The ‘Bredenhof’, built in 1746 was a vessel of 136 feet and 800 ton. The ‘Bredenhof’ sailed from Zeeland on December 31st 1752. Around the end of April, after leaving the Cape it was wrecked on a reef about 120 miles south from Mocambique.
The cargo consisted of 29 chests of bar silver and one chest with 5,000 gold ducats. The gold ducats were salvaged during the wreckage. The silver was destined for Bengal to be minted into silver Rupees. Because of the importance of the cargo, The V.O.C. ordered in 1754 and in 1755 two salvage attempts to rescue the chests with silver. A year later a detailed report of the unsuccessful salvage expeditions were sent to the Council of Seventeen in Holland. Finally in 1986 the wreck salvaged.
Random testing on four individual bars, listed in the Christie’s Amsterdam catalogue, December 4th 1986, indicated the silver content as between 979 and 988 parts per thousand. The testing also indicated a gold content of 2 parts per thousand.
The cargo consisted of 29 chests of bar silver and one chest with 5,000 gold ducats. The gold ducats were salvaged during the wreckage. The silver was destined for Bengal to be minted into silver Rupees. Because of the importance of the cargo, The V.O.C. ordered in 1754 and in 1755 two salvage attempts to rescue the chests with silver. A year later a detailed report of the unsuccessful salvage expeditions were sent to the Council of Seventeen in Holland. Finally in 1986 the wreck salvaged.
Random testing on four individual bars, listed in the Christie’s Amsterdam catalogue, December 4th 1986, indicated the silver content as between 979 and 988 parts per thousand. The testing also indicated a gold content of 2 parts per thousand.