The North Yorkshire Moors Collection of British Coins

V: Original Medals by Simon, Sir Thomas Fairfax, 1645, a contemporary cast and chased gold military reward, unsigned, draped and armoured bust left, no legend, rev. post hac meliora, mervisti across field, 24 x 20mm, 4.71g (Platt II, pp.98-100, type B; Nathanson p.13; MI I, 318/151; E 146b). Very fine and very rare; with loop and ring for suspension £3,000-£4,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The North Yorkshire Moors Collection of British Coins.

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Provenance: Glendining Auction, 26 May 1971, lot 432 (part).

Sir Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Baron (1612-71), was Lord General of Parliament’s armies from 1645 to 1650. These medals were the personal gift of Fairfax to those who fought with him at the battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644), to which event, as well as to his other successes, the inscription on the reverse relates. It was attributed to Simon by Vertue, along with numerous others that were not. But this portraiture is completely Simon’s style and work, surely a private commission between him and Fairfax, as opposed to an official issue. The only original documentation for a Fairfax medal, that awarded to John Sharpe, is referred to by Vertue (1780, p.12) but, following its acquisition by the British Museum from a descendant of the recipient in 2005, and publication in The Medal 47, Autumn 2005, p.99, there is now a complete description of the bestowal document (Platt II, pp.101-2)