RARE ANTIQUE FRENCH COIN SCALE in BOX, 1680, SOTHEBY's
Very rare to find. Signed on the pans "SBOVTOVDO" surrounding an anchor, and marked with crests on each of the counterweights. Hand-held balance with tassel and metal indicator arm, as well as the hanging weight pans, in brass. Includes a set of six brass counterweights. Housed in a gold tooled black leather case.
DIMENSIONS: Case length 8". Width 2.5".
PROVENANCE: The Harriet Wynter Collection, South Kensington, London. SOTHEBY's, London, Auction #LN4594, December 1994. The Kelton Collection of Marine Art & Artifacts.
ESTIMATE PRICE: $1,000 - $5,000.
HISTORY of SALES: A few years ago antique scales were sold on Live Auctioneers and Sotheby's for $2,000, $3,500 and $8,600 - please see the screenshots.
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WIKIPEDIA: Usury (in the original sense of any interest) was denounced by religious leaders and philosophers in the ancient world, including Moses, Plato, Aristotle, Cato, Cicero, Seneca, Aquinas, Gautama Buddha and Muhammad. Certain negative historical renditions of usury carry with them social connotations of perceived "unjust" or "discriminatory" lending practices. The historian Paul Johnson, comments: Most early religious systems in the ancient Near East, and the secular codes arising from them, did not forbid usury. These societies regarded inanimate matter as alive, like plants, animals and people, and capable of reproducing itself. Hence if you lent 'food money', or monetary tokens of any kind, it was legitimate to charge interest. Food money in the shape of olives, dates, seeds or animals was lent out as early as c. 5000 BC, if not earlier. ...Among the Mesopotamians, Hittites, Phoenicians and Egyptians, interest was legal and often fixed by the state. But the Hebrew took a different view of the matter.

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