Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, Penelope 30 March 1800, Guadaloupe (John Small.) officially re-impressed naming, edge bruise at 6 o’clock, otherwise good very fine £3,000-£4,000

Provenance: J. Lawson Whalley Collection 1875; Sotheby, June 1883; Whittaker Collection 1890 and 1897 lists. Another medal to John Small with the single clasp for Penelope was sold by Debenhams in May 1901 and now forms part of the Patiala Collection, Sheesh Mahal Museum, India. One other man of this name, but shown as Smale on muster lists, received a medal for Copenhagen 1801.

12 clasps issued for Penelope 30 March 1800.

John Small is confirmed on the Admiralty rolls (Ref. X/888) as an Able Seaman aboard H.M.S. Penelope for the first clasp, and as a Landsman aboard H.M.S. Loire at Guadaloupe. The existence of a single-clasp medal to this man for the Penelope action suggests that possibly two medals were issued.