Three silver VOC bullion from the "Bredenhof"

One stamped V.O.C. and Z for Zeeland and the hallmark of the alloy office of Middelburg (M), the assay masters' mark of Francois Engelsen Jr. who was also the "deken" of the silversmith guild in Middelburg. and Z for Zeeland. Size ca 13 x 4, 14 x 3,5, 14,5 x 4 cm

The V.O.C. "Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie" was divided into six Chambers: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Middelburg, Delft, Hoorn and Enkhuizen.

In September 1752 the Dutch Council of Seventeen "Heeren XVII" of the V.O.C. ordered the Chamber of Middelburg to send the vessel Bredenhof via Ceylon to Bengal. The Bredenhof, built in 1746, was a large vessel. The silver carried was divided into 29 chests of bar silver valued at 300.000 guilders. You can imagine that the value of the V.O.C. silver (and gold "dukaten")had a great influence on the money market at that time. The silver was set apart for Bengal to be minted into silver Rupees. This voyage would be the third and last of the Bredenhof to the East Indies. On the 31st of December 1752 the Bredenhof sailed from Zeeland, on the 6th of June 1753 the ship was wrecked on a reef some 120 miles from Mozambique, the Portugese settlement. The captain Jan Nielsen decided to throw the silver overboard to prevent plundering. After this event several attempts of salvaging the load have been done with help of survivors of the wreckage. First in 1754, again in 1755 with no success, until in 1986 the salvage was finally successful. The German captain Ernst Klaar had formed a multinational team. This time a magnetometer was used and a diver found "sliver of silver" in a sandy gulley. Soon the team found many ingots as well as anchors, canons and copper "duiten" of 1752. After more than 200 years the load of captain Nielsen was found and salvaged.

Provenance: From the Christie's Amsterdam auction "The Bredenhof Bullion", 4th of December 1986