Commemorative, Historical and Art Medals

St Vincent, Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, London (Inst. 1754), a silver award medal by T. Pingo, Britannia seated, receiving honours from Mercury and Minerva, rev. wreath, named (To Mr. Alexr. Anderson MDCCXCVIII, Botanic Garden Reestablished in St Vincent), 43mm, 40.95g (Eimer 9; M.I. II, 684/401; E 648). Extremely fine £250-300

Provenance: Glendining Auction, 1 October 1986, lot 354.

Alexander Anderson, FRSE, FLS (†1811 on St Vincent) was a Scottish surgeon and botanist from Aberdeen. A student at Edinburgh University, he worked in the Chelsea Physic Garden before emigrating to New York in 1774. In 1785 he was appointed Superintendent of the Government Botanic Garden in St. Vincent, from where he published many learned papers and sent plants to Sir Joseph Banks. A paper on the plants in the garden was started but never completed. He resigned his post in July 1811 and died later the same year. An extract from the notes of the Society of Arts, 1798, reads ‘In consequence of the following communication from Mr Alexander Anderson relative to the culture of useful plants in the Botanic Garden in the Island of St. Vincent, the Society, this session, voted to him the Silver medal and elected him a corresponding member’