Albert Joachim (1560-1654)

Albert Joachim (1560-1654), Ambassador from the States General of the United Provinces (aged 86), uniface cast silver portrait medal, 1646, by Abraham Simon, robed and bearded bust left, plain collar, hair short, rev., engraved inscription, THo PARR / AGED 152 / AND 2 MONETHS, 35mm (for the obverse see MI 324/162; Eimer 151; Platt II, pp. 178-79). Nearly very fine, a cast of considerable age.

The inscription on the reverse is intriguing and fits well with this medal. Thomas Parr or Old Tom Parr (1483 (?) - 1635) of Winington in the Parish of Alberbury, was indeed reputed to be 152 years old at the time of his death, having lived on a diet of "subrancid cheese and milk in every form, coarse and hard bread and small drink, generally sour whey". He was said to have had an affair when he was over 100 years old and fathered a child born out of wedlock. After the death of his first wife, he married his child's mother at the alleged age of 122. On his death Charles I arranged that he be buried in Westminster Abbey. See also the previous lot. The medal's previous owner, James David Anthony [J. D. A.] Thompson, a curator at the Ashmolean Museum, would have relished the reverse inscription.

Provenance: Ex. J. D. A. Thompson (d. 1970) Collection; ex. Glendining Auction, 3 October, 2002 (lot 1082).