Coins, Paper Money, Tokens and Historical Medals

A Group of Medals awarded to and associated with Sir Francis Grant, President of the Royal Academy 1866-1878, and his son Ferdinand Hope Grant, chaplain to the future Edward VII

Benjamin West, 1815, a copper medal by G. Mills, 41mm (BHM 865); Royal Scottish Academy, 1838, award medals by B. Wyon after J.N. Paton (3), in silver (2), named (Francis Grant, Elected Academician mdcccxxix; Sir Francis Grant, R.A., H.R.S.A., President, Royal Academy of Arts, 1866), and in copper, named (Francis Grant, R.A., Elected Honorary Member mdcccliii), all 68mm (BHM 1884; E 1323; Brodie 585); National Thanksgiving for the Recovery of the Prince of Wales from Typhoid, 1872, a silver medal by J.S. & A.B. Wyon, named (Revd. F.C. Hope Grant), 58mm (W & E 1161A.2; BHM 2929; E 1619); International Exhibition of Fine Arts Industries and Inventions, 1873, a white metal medal by G.T. Morgan, named (Sir Francis Grant, P.R.A., Catalogue No. 516 etc and for Services), 70mm (BHM 2964; E 1622; Taylor 180a); International Exhibition of all Fine Arts Industries and Inventions, 1874, a bronze award medal by G.T. Morgan, named (Sir Francis Grant, P.R.A., for Services), 52mm (BHM 2992; E 1633; Taylor 180b); Victoria, Diamond Jubilee, 1897, a bronze medal by G.W. de Saulles, 55mm (W & E 3000.3; BHM 3506; E 1817a); FRANCE, Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1867, copper award medals by H. Ponscarme (3), last named (Francis Grant), 37 (2) and 68mm (Divo 539, 543, 545); USA, International Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, a bronze medal by H. Mitchell, 76mm (Julian p.283, AM10; BDM VIII, 67; cf. DNW M5, 1487) [12]. The 1897 medal extremely fine and in case of issue, others fine and better but several with rim knocks £200-260

Sir Francis Grant (1803-78), born at Bridge of Earn, Perthshire and educated at Harrow, intended to study law but took up painting, in which he was largely self-taught. Elected to the Royal Academy in 1829, he was exhibiting there by 1834 and between then and 1879 he contributed no less than 253 works to Academy exhibitions. He was elected president of the Academy in 1866 after Sir Edwin Landseer turned the appointment down, holding office until his death of heart failure at home in Melton Mowbray on 5 October 1878. One of his children was Ferdinand Cecil Hope Grant (1839-75), who played first-class cricket for the MCC in 1862-3, was the vicar at Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire from 1868-75 and served as a chaplain to the Prince of Wales