medal
- Museum number
- M.5474
- Description
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Gold medal. (whole)
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Laureate head of Tsar Alexander I, right. (obverse)
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Britannia seated left holding olive branch and trident. (reverse)
- Production date
- 1814
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 34.000 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Brown 1980 states:
This piece commemorates the visit of the Tsar Alexander I together with the other allied sovereigns to celebrate the peace of 1814. Catherine, the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg, had arrived in England on the 31st March and accompanied her brother the Tsar on his state visit.
Richard Sainthill states in his 'Olla Podrida' (vol. I, p. 28), that the Duchess of Oldenburg was so pleased with the portrait of her brother on the medal that on the day following the visit to the mint she sent Wyon a ring comprising an amethyst surrounded by 123 brilliants. Sainthill valued it at one hundred guineas. It would seem that the reverse die soon broke and Wyon used the obverse for his medal commemorating the visit of the Tsar to London. In a letter to R. S. Valebrook dated May 6, 1814, Wyon states that 'the whole [of this medal] invented by Lord St Helen's executed under Lord Bathurst's direction, in a great hurry'.
In a note of 23 April 1814 Sarah Sophia Banks writes that the Grand Duchess struck two or three of these medals during her visit to the Royal Mint. The first was presented to the Grand Duchess, whilst 'the second Mr. Atkinson brought to me, to which I attach much additional Value for having been struck by Her Imperial Highness'.
Bibliography: Forrer, L. 'Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, etc.', Vol. London, Reprinted 1980, VI/646.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Commemoration of: Visit of Tsar Alexander I and the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg to England, 1814
- Department
- Money and Medals
- Registration number
- M.5474
- C&M catalogue number
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MB3 (Brown 1) (202) (845)