1595

Six-link section of an exceptionally ornate gold belt, 106.72 grams total, fineness 21K, ex-Maravill

Currency:USD Category:Artifacts / Shipwreck Artifacts Start Price:60,000.00 USD Estimated At:75,000.00 - 150,000.00 USD
Six-link section of an exceptionally ornate gold belt, 106.72 grams total, fineness 21K, ex-Maravill
CURRENT BID
0.00USD
ENTER YOUR MAXIMUM ABSENTEE BID[?]
You must bid at least
60,000.00USD
USD
60,000.00 x 1 unit = 60,000.00USDApplicable fees & taxes are added at checkout.
[?]Live Online Auction Starts In 2026 May 08 @ 17:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
By registering for our auction, you agree to the terms and conditions.
Six-link section of an exceptionally ornate gold belt, 106.72 grams total, fineness 21K, ex-Maravillas (1656), ex-Barfield, Marx Plate, Weller Plate. 9½" long. This fabulous artifact consists of six diamond-shaped links in ornate scrollwork of marvelously fine craftsmanship in high-karat gold (XRF tested at 21K), no doubt rather valuable even in its own time, in as-found condition coated here and there with light white coral, a significant showpiece that surely once belonged to Spanish royalty.

These six links are part of a long belt that was found in sections, starting with five links recovered during Bob Marx's work on the Maravillas in the summer of 1974 by diver Dick Anderson, who wrote about it (among other things) in his article "More Treasure from the World's Richest Wreck" in Argosy Magazine's 1976 Treasure Hunting Annual, which opens with a picture of him holding the five links (big smile, of course), a photo that was reproduced in Marx's 1979 book Diving for Adventure. In 1976, Anderson thought it was a bracelet, but examination of portraits of 17th Spanish royalty revealed that the links were just a section of a long belt, which Marx acknowledged in 1979. Marx's 1982 book Quest for Treasure shows a picture of that chain of five links too, with a comment that they did not find the entire belt, just those five links. Eventually, though, twenty-eight more links were found on the wreck, thus completing a thirty-three-link belt, as pictured in Marx's 1998 book Deep, Deeper, Deepest, captioned as "recovered by Marx." Each link is connected to the next by means of two easily removable stud-links with matching design, so that anyone could modify the length as needed. This six-link segment originates from a larger group of sixteen acquired by Bob "Frogfoot" Weller and later incorporated into a private collection.

It speaks to the importance of this artifact that various forms of the whole belt are pictured in at least four of Bob Marx's books (and one of Weller's). We encourage potential bidders to consider the stature of this piece as a sort of "Queens Jewels" like what you see in Royal museums around the world; we are all extremely fortunate to have the chance to own such a thing today. From the Maravillas (1656), pedigreed to the Barfield Collection, plated on page 39 of Bob Marx's book Diving for Adventure (1979), page 236 of his book Quest for Treasure (1982), photo-plate opposite page 27 of his book Sunken Treasure: How to Find It, page 322 of his book Deep, Deeper, Deepest (1998), and page 160 of Bob "Frogfoot" Weller's book Galleon Alley (2001), with photo-certificates, accompanied by a copy of Argosy Magazine's 1976 Treasure Hunting Annual containing Dick Anderson's article.


Click here to access the full digital flipbook catalog 39