Jason Clarke Antiques has dated this 1862 Bronze Prize Medal to the 1860s.
Struck entirely from bronze, the obverse face shows Britannia seated with shield to her side and a sleeping lion at her feet. She is surrounded by six women each individually representing Industry, Agriculture and The Arts. The rim below the lion is marked with, D. Maclise R.A. DES. & Leonard C. Wyon FEC.
The reverse shows a wreath of oak running around the inner circumference with the words, 1862 Londini Honoris Causa which effectively translates to “London, a mark of esteem or respect” to the centre. In small letters to the base, the name of L.C. Wyon FEC is repeated.
The edge of the medal is further engraved to De Grave, Short & Fanner. Class XIII.
The International Exhibition was declared open by The Duke of Cambridge on the 1st of May 1862 in South Kensington on a site which is now occupied by The Natural History Museum. To give some idea of its scale, it featured nearly thirty thousand exhibitors from thirty six countries throughout the six months of its existence and welcomed over six million visitors.
This second exhibition was meant to follow up on the huge success of the 1851 Exhibition, originally intended to have been opened in 1861, it was delayed due to the Italian War of Independence, the Civil War in America and not least because of the death of Prince Albert, its Chief Patron and supporter. The latter reason is of course why Queen Victoria was not present at the delayed opening in 1862.
The building that housed the Exhibition was designed using brick and iron by the architect Captain Francis Fowke and contracted out to the firm of Kelk & Lucas. Sadly, Parliament declined the Government’s wishes to purchase the building after the Exhibition but the materials which were reclaimed were eventually put to use in the building of Alexandra Palace. Fowke was also responsible for proposing the building of The Natural history Museum which was eventually constructed in 1881 and remains on the site to this day.
De Grave, Short & Fanner’s appearance at The 1851 Exhibition cemented the company’s already fine reputation and they gained numerous Governmental and international commissions thereafter. Their appearance at the 1862 Exhibition just eleven years later was therefore inevitable and they followed up their previous success with this medal which according to the catalogue, was awarded, “For balances of good workmanship”.
The company was placed within Class XIII – Philosophical Instruments and it is worth mentioned some of the other names with whom De Grave exhibited alongside. Patrick Adie, Charles Babbage, Louis Casella, T. Cooke & Sons, JH Dallmeyer, JB Dancer, Elliott Brothers, J. Hicks, Kew Observatory, Negretti & Zambra, Pastorelli, Pillischer and Smith Beck & Beck were just a few of the names that appeared and like De Grave, won medals for their fine products. To see all of these great makers in the same room would have been simply astonishing!
Almost all of the Victorian scientific instrument making exhibitors made great use of this medal’s image on letterheads, trade cards, catalogues and other associated ephemera, to find an example of the original medal for one of these makers is extraordinarily rare.
Note: The images which support this piece also include an image of one of the company’s later trade cards which was pasted to a scale case I have previously sold. The image of the medal can be seen to the top right of the image.
The De Grave dynasty are perhaps one of the earliest and most recognisable of all the scalemakers. Their later trade labels confidently boast of a history dating back to
Jason Clarke Antiques has dated this 1862 Bronze Prize Medal to the 1860s.
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The 1862 International Exhibition Prize Medal Awarded to De Grave Short & Fanner London
