Commemorative, Historical and Art Medals

United Kingdom, British Colonies and unspecified British-made Anti-Slavery Medals, Great Exhibition, Hyde Park, 1851, Juror’s Medal, a copper award by W. Wyon and G.G. Adams, conjoined busts of Victoria and Prince Albert left, dolphins below, trident behind, rev. seated figure of Industry attended by Commerce, receiving wreath of Fame, edge named (Sir H.T. de la Beche, Juror Exhibition 1851), 64mm (Allen A040; BHM 2464; E 1459). Brilliant and practically as struck, an interesting piece with Colonial associations £300-400

Provenance: A Collection of 1851 Great Exhibition Medals, DNW Auction 45, 1 March, 2000, lot 598.

Sir Henry Thomas de la Beche, CB, FRS (1796-1855), geologist; chairman of the Mining, Quarrying, Metallurgical Operations and Mineral Products jury at the Exhibition. De la Beche’s lifelong interest in geology was first kindled as a boy when he lived in Lyme Regis. He became a Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1817 and was elected its president in 1847. He wrote several works on geology and was the mastermind behind the compilation of the Ordnance Survey map of Britain, begun in 1832. He founded the Geological Museum in Jermyn Street, London, opened by Prince Albert in 1851, and funded the issue of two medals – the de la Beche medal of the School of Mines (BHM 2264), instituted as an annual prize in 1857, two years after his death, and the de la Beche Good Conduct Medal of 1841 (BHM 2002 – and see lot 1559), awarded to employees on his paternal estate at Halse Hall, Clarendon, on the island of Jamaica. See also lot 1554 for another medal relating to de la Beche