The time comes for the denouement. After D. C., I traveled to Asheville. I had read that @Aethelred had a shop there, so I decided to pay a visit. It was a very pleasant experience meeting him, and it was very interesting talking about what other members he’d met. I’ll write about what I got there soon. Well, for one of them at least. I suppose this 2 sen needs no explanation. After him, I went to the Biltmore Estate. It was fascinating to see the sheer size and age of things in the house. One Chinese vase had the pottery marks visible, so I could date it to 1521-1567. It was very neat seeing a collection of Albrecht Durer’s prints. My favorite was the rhinoceros. The Meissen porcelain in the Music Room was interesting due to some of it being made for Maria Theresia, of Thaler fame. I loved the library, which contained about 11,000 books. The exhibit there was Chihuli glass. It was interesting to see the varieties of blown glass. Thus ends the saga of my trip. In retrospect, I feel like I should have added more discussion questions. Better late than never. Have you ever been to any of these places? What were your favorite things you saw there? What are your favorites out of my photos? Part 1 can be found here. Part 2 can be found here. Part 3 can be found here. Here’s another picture from Dumbarton Oaks, to keep this ancient. A four-solidi weight gold seal of Theodora. This weight would be reserved for the Sultan of Egypt or the Caliph of Baghdad.
What a great trip @Milesofwho it sounds like you had a blast. Despite living in the D.C. area for over 10 years I have yet to see the National Numismatic Collection. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has the largest collection of Faberge works outside of Russia. If I ever have the chance to visit Asheville I will be sure to stop in and see @Aethelre Hopefully he will have some nice medievals just waiting to become part of TheRed collection of medieval coins.
Oh wow, thanks for sharing all those cool pics @Milesofwho ! I had to look up that giganto ruble, man...I thought that was a coin die! Neat!
Thanks for sharing your trip with us. I enjoyed all the pics, especially the ones from Dumbarton Oaks.
As I have posted several times before, I am a fan and member of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. They display rather few coins but have a nice selection of which their dekadrachm is far from my favorite. The ancient section claim to fame is their full length statue of Caligula. It's recent renovation and repair probably shot the budget for a while. They also display an embarrassing, cobbled together statue of Septimius Severus with some parts far from ancient but you can't win them all. Caligula: Septimius:
Aha! @Aethelred's shop! I was there before it officially opened, and there again last weekend. The Dürers were always some of my favorite things at Biltmore. And Napoleon's chess set table from Saint Helena.
