Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Earl Howe, Glorious First of June 1794, a rare openwork oval gold badge, 50x41mm, with fouled anchor in centre, engraved on both sides, ‘EARL HOWE . JUNE 1:1794 RULE BRITANNIA’, lacking integral suspension ring, otherwise extremely fine and very rare £4,000-£5,000

Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma, Sotheby’s, March 2021: ‘Commissioned by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Richard Howe, 1st and last Earl Howe, K.G. (1726-1799), the victor of the Glorious 1st of June; His daughter Louisa-Catherine, Marchioness of Sligo (1767-1817)’, thence by descent.

On the subject of these particular badges commemorating the ‘Glorious First of June’, Mr D. Hastings Irwin notes in his work War Medals and Decorations: ‘They are of various designs, some being circular, and have different inscriptions. That of Earl Howe, which was shown with his other decorations at the Naval Exhibition in 1891, was engraved on the outside border, Rule Britannia. They all, however, carry the “foul anchor” in the centre.’

A badge of the same form as that now offered above was sold in the collection of British Naval Medals formed by Admiral the Marquess of Milford Haven by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, in July 1919 (Lot 166), and an identical example [also lacking suspension ring and pierced at 12 o’clock] is in the Patiala Collection (Sheesh Mahal Museum, India).