Alberic Paul Edouard, Comte Du Chastel De Law Howarderie (1842-1919)
While the bulk of the Du Chastel collection was acquired in 1899 by the Coin Cabinet of the Royal Library in Belgium, a smaller selection of roman gold was sold by Rollin & Feuardent in 1889. Du Chastel was known for his exquisite artistic taste and for the uncompromising quality of his pieces. No less than the esteemed Ernest Babelon (who was commissioned by Belgian Library to examine the collection) remarked that “here is why there is no reason to be surprised if, in the world of numismatics, the Chastel medalist is regarded as unrivaled for artistic beauty and historical interest…among the state collections, the Cabinet of France is perhaps the only one which has a greater number of leading Greek and Roman coins, the Chastel medalist is, from this point of view, superior to the collections of Saint- Petersburg, Munich and Berlin and, it seems, superior even to those of London and Vienna.” Alberic-Paul-Edouard, known as Albert, du Chastel de la Howardries, count of the Holy Roman Empire, was born on December 21, 1842 at the castle of Lannoy. Chosen as the universal heir by the knight Victor de Tenremonde de Mérignies and inheriting from him while still a teenager, he seems to have quickly had a personal fortune which enabled him to build an uncompromising and varied collection. While best known for his collection of coins, he was also a prolific collector of stamps and antiquities and his castle in Spadia was said to resemble a museum
Biblio: Francois De Calatay, Great Collectors (description); John Spring, Ancient Coins Auction Catalogues 1880-1980, London 2009 (image)