PREVIEW: THE SILICH COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL & ART MEDALS: PART 1: 6 MARCH

The final defeat of Napoleon echoed across Europe, with the victors elevated to almost godlike status. How to mark the triumph and honour the leaders of the Alliance behind it?

William Wellesley Pole (1763-1845), Master of the Mint and the Duke of Wellington’s elder brother, invited designs from the Royal Academy for a gold medal intended to be given to the rulers of the Alliance, their generals and senior ministers.

 

The Prince Regent, however, overruled the Academicians, instead approving the design submitted by Benedetto Pistrucci (1783-1855), the Italian gem engraver and medallist who worked at the Mint.

Pistrucci was much involved with the new coinage of 1816, and it was not until 1819 that preparatory wax models were submitted for approval. In all, it took 30 years before the dies were completed, by which time all of the intended recipients of the medal, with the sole exception of Wellington, had died.

Pistrucci had been removed from helping to develop the coinage at the Mint in 1823 after refusing to copy another’s work, and it has been argued that he delayed the completion of the medal for fear of being sacked from the Mint altogether.

Once he completed the medal matrices in 1849, the Mint refused to harden them for fear of damage, owing to their great size at more than 130mm in diameter. The compromise was to take only electrotypes, with their softer impressions.

The electrotype copies, the majority with obverse and reverse not united as this specimen is, were eventually produced in 1852, the year the Iron Duke finally passed away.

Depicting, on the obverse, laureate busts of the Prince Regent, Francis II of Austria, Alexander I of Russia, and Frederick William III of Prussia conjoined left, the medal shows them surrounded by mythological scenes.

To the reverse are Wellington and Blücher in Roman dress on horseback, guided by Victory, with Jupiter in a quadriga above, with a frieze depicting the battle of the giants below.

Extremely fine and rare, it is being offered with an estimate of £500-700.