COLLECTION OF NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE MEDALS DATING FROM 1793-1840 FETCHES £263,922 AT DIX NOONAN WEBB

A Collection of 55 Naval General Service Medals dating from 1793 – 1840 sold for £263,922 in International coins, medals, banknotes and jewellery specialists Dix Noonan Webb’s live online auction of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria on Thursday, June 18, 2020.

Two medals from the collection achieved the two highest prices of the sale. A very rare 2-clasp Naval General Service Medal awarded to Carpenter Archibald Gray, who was on board the Arrow sloop on the occasion of her formidable defence on 3 February 1805; realised £39,680 – double its pre-sale estimate of £14,000-18,000 [lot 415]. While a very fine 1 clasp from Sybille dating from 28 Feby 1799 (Samuel Butler) fetched £27,280 against an estimate of £16,000-20,000. Both were bought by Private Collectors [lot 374].

Also of note was the superb Great War 1916 ‘High Wood’ M.C., ‘Life Saving’ A.M. group of seven awarded to Captain W. L. C. Rathbone, 15th Battalion, London Regiment (Civil Service Rifles), formerly Devonshire Regiment, who was awarded the Albert Medal for great gallantly in disarming a ‘madman’ who had run amok in a trench carrying a loaded rifle with fixed bayonet. They sold for £19,840, against an estimate of £8,000-12,000 [lot 24].

The rare Second War D.S.O., D.F.C., D.F.M. group of seven awarded to Flight Lieutenant R. J. Cook, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who as an Observer with 15 Squadron and took part in numerous sorties against targets in France and Germany in 1941 and then was Captain of the ill fated ‘Star Dust’ Avro Lancastrian airliner that disappeared without trace on a flight between Buenos Aires and Santiago in 1947. The wreckage of his aircraft was only discovered in 1998. It was being sold by Cook’s family and fetched £16,120 against an estimate of £12,000-15,000. It was bought by a collector [lot 8].


The outstanding and rare Great War ‘Western Front’ Lovat’s Scouts ‘sharpshooters’ M.C., 1919 ‘Archangel’ D.C.M. and M.M. group of eleven awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel J. Whammond fetched £16,120 against an estimate of £8,000-12,000. It bought by a collector. Whammond - a Scot who served in the Boer War with the Cape Mounted Police, and during the 1914-15 campaign in German South West Africa as a Regimental Sergeant Major in the South African Mounted Rifles, before being commissioned into Lovat’s Scouts. Resigning his Commission in 1919, he volunteered for service in the ranks of the 46th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, winning his last two awards for gallantry in North Russia, August to September 1919 [lot 25].

Dix Noonan Webb are donating 5% of their Buyer’s Premium to NHS Charities Together, and a total of £37,355 is being donated to the charity from the auctions since the lockdown due to COVID-19. The ongoing total can be seen on the homepage of DNW’s website. NHS Charities Together works with over 250 charities across the UK helping the NHS do more to look after people. For more information about NHS Charities Together and the outstanding work they do, click here to visit their website.

***Please note that these prices include Buyers Premium (24%)***

FORTHCOMING SALES AT DNW
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 - BRITISH, IRISH AND WORLD BANKNOTES
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8 – COINS & HISTORICAL MEDALS
THURSDAY, JULY 16 - ORDERS, DECORATIONS, MEDALS AND MILITARIA
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20 - ORDERS, DECORATIONS, MEDALS AND MILITARIA
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 – JEWELLERY, WATCHES, ANTIQUITIES
AND OBJECTS OF VERTU
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – COINS & HISTORICAL MEDALS
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 - ORDERS, DECORATIONS, MEDALS AND MILITARIA

Free online bidding is available is www.dnw.co.uk
For more information, please call 020 7016 1700

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
Dix Noonan Webb – a brief history
In 1991, its first year of trading, the company held three medal auctions and sold 1,200 lots for a total hammer price of £553,000. Two years later it opened a coin department which also auctions commemorative medals and tokens and in 2015 DNW added jewellery to its sales calendar. In 2018, it set up a standalone banknotes department and expanded into premises next door. In the same year, DNW achieved a total hammer price of £11,676,580 and the total number of lots across all departments was 20,273. To date the company has sold in excess of 300,000 lots totalling £155 million.

For further press information and images please contact:
Rachel Aked
Tel: 07790732448
Email: Rachel@rachelaked.co.uk
June 2020