Mr Boulton's Trafalgar Medal (gold), 1860-95
Obverse, a bust of Lord Admiral Nelson facing left |
Reverse, a depiction of a sea-battle with Trafalgar's name and date given in the exergue |
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Obverse, a bust of Lord Admiral Nelson facing left |
Reverse, a depiction of a sea-battle with Trafalgar's name and date given in the exergue |
After Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar in 1805 the prominent Birmingham industrialist Matthew Boulton distributed about 15,000 Trafalgar Medals at his own expense to participants in the battle. These medals were all in white metal, but subsequent years saw a number of presentation issues in other metals, and between 1860 and 1895 the London die-sinker W. J. Taylor was commissioned by Boulton's heir to produce a new run, which included for the first time an issue in gold of which this piece is one.
The medals all share the same design, which shows a view of the battle, with Nelson’s signal ‘ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY’ above.
As this was not one of the original issue, it had no recipient and its first owner is unknown. Lester Watson purchased it at some point before 1928.