Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals

A pair of medals awarded to Thomas Grissell and Samuel Peto, the construction engineers responsible for building Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London:

Institute of Civil Engineers, Telford Medal, 1828, a silver award medal by J.S. & A.B. Wyon after W. Wyon, bust of Telford left, rev. Menai Suspension Bridge, edge named (Thomas Grissell, Assoc. Inst. C.E.…1844), 58mm (BHM 1328; E 1206);

New Houses of Parliament, 1847, an electromagnetic medal by J. Davis, elevation of Parliament, vessels on River Thames in foreground, rev. legend (This Specimen of Electro Metallurgy is Respectfully Presented to T. Grissell and S.M. Peto Esquires), 74mm (BHM –) [2].

First mint state, in glazed lunettes and fitted case of issue, second with some marks, otherwise very fine; a very rare and significant pair of awards £500-1,000

Thomas Grissell (1801-74), b. Stockwell; articled to his uncle, the contractor Henry Peto (1780-1830), 1815; became Peto’s partner, 1825, then following Peto’s death brought his cousin, Samuel Morton Peto (1809-89) into the partnership. Together, Grissell and Peto established a rapidly growing business, constructing many important buildings in London, including the Oxford & Cambridge Club (1830), Hungerford Market (1832-3), the Lyceum Theatre (1834), St James’s Theatre (1835), the Reform Club (1836), Conservative Club (1840), Nelson’s Column (1843), and others. Apart from these, the firm engaged in early railway construction for the Great Western and South Eastern Railways. The partnership was dissolved amicably in March 1846, Grissell retaining the building contracts and Peto the railway work. The contract for the new Houses of Parliament, with Charles Barry as the architect and begun in 1840, was not fully completed because of a dispute about the pricing of some of the refined craftwork by Augustus Pugin. Grissell lived at Kensington Gardens, and later at Norbury Park, Mickleham, where he became High Sheriff of Surrey in 1853. Peto went into partnership with his brother-in-law, the railway contractor Edward Betts (1815-72), working in Canada and Russia; he also served as MP for, successively, Norwich, Finsbury and Bristol between 1847 and 1868, but lost his seat, and much of his reputation, as a result of the financial crisis of 1866. Sold with further biographical detail

The first medal is silver