Historical and Art Medals, Numismatic Books

British Historical Medals, First Scottish International Aviation Meeting, Lanark, 1910, a gold badge by Elkington, monoplane flying over Glasgow City Chambers, rev. biplane, worlds records altitude & speed, named (C. Grace, Esq), hallmarked Birmingham 1910, 35 x 22mm, 9ct, 11.46g (Brodie 354). Extremely fine and very rare; with integral loop and ring for suspension (£300-400)

Cecil Grace (1880-1910), one of the very earliest British aviators, was a participant in most of the principal flying meetings held in 1910, piloting his Short-Farman biplane at Bournemouth, Lanark and elsewhere. The Lanark meeting was the first of its kind in Scotland and witnessed 21 aviators competing for a number of prizes. Born in Chile, the son of a scion of the banking house of W.R. Grace & Co, New York, Cecil Grace graduated from Columbia University and later studied at Oxford. Based at Shellbeach on the Isle of Sheppey, with the likes of C.S. Rolls and Moore Brabazon, Grace flew his biplane from Dover to Sangatte on 22 December 1910, but went missing, presumed lost at sea, when attempting the return journey the same day in foggy conditions. Some of his personal effects were washed up on the Belgian coast near Mariakerke in January 1911. Sold with copies of newspaper documentation recording the Lanark meeting and a copy photograph of Grace at the controls of his machine