Ancient Coins & Artefacts, World Coins, Numismatic Books, Historical Medals and Banknotes

“St. George ”, a line engraving, by W. Wyon, unsigned, c. 1850, 210mm dia ( for a similar design see BDW 15, Lot 819). Mounted on board in a walnut frame, attractive (£60-80)

A magnificent study of St. George by arguably the foremost British medallist of the day which Mark Jones (“Art of the Medal”, p. 108) suggests reflects Wyon’s open and bitter rivalry with Pistrucci and “may have been an attempt to settle the question of their relative merits once and for all”; the design in his view is “both tighter in composition and more credible than the earlier work.”