Charles Alexander, baron de Cosson

Charles Alexander, baron de Cosson (1846-1929) was the go-between when the duc de Dino sold the first Lambousa silver to the British Museum. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1886 and was, in the words of his Antiquaries Journal obituary, a leading authority on arms and armour; of French parentage, he lived at Chertsey, later in Brittany and Florence, where he died on 8 February 1929^1,3. In 1897 the duc de Dino, with whom he had corresponded since 1893, asked him to catalogue his arms and armour; the catalogue appeared in 1901¹.

In July 1898 Dino brought to London the Byzantine silver he had bought in Larnaca, and Charles Hercules Read inspected it. Cosson "acted as go-between", and Read asked him to find the price. Dino had paid 150 pounds in Cyprus and asked 1,000; an independent valuation was 400, and 500 pounds was agreed once "duplicate spoons" were withdrawn¹. Read called him his "old friend" in a letter of 26 July 1898¹. On 20 April 1899 Dino sent Cosson 1,000 francs as commission, with news of the 500 pound cheque¹. Merrillees thinks Cosson may have suggested the sale to the British Museum, but says it is not clear who did¹.

Four spoons from the hoard went to Constantino Ressman, whose inventory entry is crossed out and annotated "(à Cosson)"; Merrillees says they later came into Cosson's possession, and suggests they may be the four spoons the Metropolitan Museum bought on the market in 1913¹.