Cased 1862 London International Exhibition Medal for Waterlow & Sons - Bank of England Printers

For sale, the 1862 London International Exhibition bronze prize medal for the renowned printing company of global currencies and postage stamps, Waterlow & Sons.

This superbly executed medal was awarded and individually engraved to each of the 1862 Exhibitors that were bestowed with a prize for their efforts.

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 Waterlow & Sons. Class VII.

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.

The Waterlow firm was founded in 1810 by a law writer, James Waterlow who recognised the efficiencies that lithography could create in the reproduction of legal documentation which was of course, entirely hand copied during this time. A shop was opened in Birchin Street, London and the firm flourished as a result of the expansion of the railways, shipping, banking and insurance during the industrial revolution. It is interesting to note, that Birchin Street became the place where many early philatelists met to exchange stamps.

During the 1830’s and 1840’s James’s four sons were introduced to the business and in 1849, the founder left the company, now dubbed Waterlow & Sons to the brothers (Alfred, Walter, Sydney & Albert), which now included premises at Birchin Street, Cornhill, London Wall and Parliament Street.

Two years later, during the Great Exhibition, the brothers exhibited numerous printing machines including a machine for folding envelopes, which “attracted very great crowds” and resulted in the company’s first commission for stamp production for British Guiana. Their success was repeated in 1862 where the company’s entrance in Class VII – Machines and Tools employed in the Manufacture of Wood & Metal, won this medal in question for, “a well contrived railway ticket printing and numbering machine”.

It was described as follows:

“These machines are manufactured of best materials in the best possible manner, and have been in use for several years at the offices of some of the principal railway companies in the United Kingdom, the British Colonies, and on the Continent, to whom we