Irish Medals in Gold and Silver from the Collection of James Spencer

Dungannon, Dungannon Farming Society (Inst. 1844), a silver award medal by I. Parkes, farm animals standing outside a house, trees in right background, farm workers baling hay in left background, rev. plough, named (To C.P. Leslie, Esq, M.P., for the best Brood Mare At Show of 1847), 43mm. Edge nicks, otherwise very fine and extremely rare (£180-220)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Irish Medals in Gold and Silver from the Collection of James Spencer.

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Charles Powell Leslie (1821-71), Glaslough, MP for Monaghan 1842-71, honorary colonel of the Monaghan Militia and bon vivant. Charles and his brother John (1822-1916), the pre-Rapahelite painter, were said to be extremely kind landlords, particularly during the period of the Great Famine, 1845-7, even suspending the payment of rents from so-called hardship cases in those years. They also organised relief work in the building of an estate wall surrounding their 1,000 acres at Glaslough, a work that surely saved hundreds of lives; the wall still stands and is locally called the ‘Famine Wall’ to this day. Charles Leslie died unmarried at the age of 50 after allegedly choking on a fishbone