The Bruce Hagen Collection of Polar Medals

Great Britain, Royal Geographical Society, silver Nansen medal, 1896, by Allan Wyon for Pinches, bust of Fridtjof Nansen l., reverse the ship Fram in snow ice, arctic canoe and paddle and two sprigs of laurel below, in a card box inscribed on the side “Den Kongelige Mynt”, 70mm, 155.1 gms (cf. Poulsom p. 86; MJP p. 153; BDM —; BHM —). A beautiful example, virtually as struck, two very trivial nicks to rim, attractively toned, with prooflike brilliance, extremely rare (£400-500)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bruce Hagen Collection of Polar Medals.

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Neville Poulsom, The White Ribbon, A Medallic Record of Polar Exploration only records the gold medal awarded to Hansen. M. J. Pinches, on the other hand, Medals by John Pinches, states: “A special gold medal was presented to Nansen, five silver to his officers and eight bronze to the crew of the Fram.” There were no examples of this medal in the John Pinches Archive Collection, although plated in MJP a work based on the archive. There is no reason to believe the case is connected with the medal.

Fridjof Nansen is one of the most important modern Norwegians. The 1893-1896 voyage of the Fram (Forwards) to the Arctic was one legends are made of. Using the specially constructed ship to set itself into the pack ice and drift northwards, Nansen and his hand-picked small crew spent three years drifting in that ice until breaking free and returning to Norway. At what point Nansen felt was a desirable point, he headed on ski and sledge towards the North Pole with Hjalmar Johansen. He attained the farthest North point ever reached by a human and by returning alive was able to do the “talk show circuit” of the day which was lecturing. The Royal Geographical Society held Nansen in the highest regard, striking this spectacular medal by Allen Wyon (an artist frequently employed by the firm of Pinches for their most prestigious projects). Significantly, these feats legitimised the cause of Norwegian independence due to the stature Nansen had attained, especially in the British community and a few years later Haakon VII (a cousin of Queen Victoria) became King of Norway in 1905.

The Fram made two other significant voyages. The first was by Otto Sverdrup who no one ever talks about, though he charted about 300,000 square miles of new land along the North West Passage route and did much other significant scientific work. He also improved the techniques of polar exploration including the use of sledge dogs. The second journey was the command of Amundsen in 1911 when he was scheduled to drift the Northwest Passage for five years, but instead took the crew and himself to the Antarctic where he attained the South Pole first with three men.

Ex NASCA CICF sale, March, 1982 (lot 2090)