British Historical Medals from Various Properties
ALS from Daniel Maclise at 4 Cheyne walk, Chelsea, SW [London], August 6 1861, to Thomas Baring, Esq, MP, regarding his design for the International Exhibition Prize Medal, 1862 (Allen A10; BHM 2747), 4pp. Very fine
£80-£100
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The text reads: “My Dear Sir, I came to dwell here a year ago and I find it a very pleasant change. I inhabit one of the Old Queen’s alm houses – positively a [——]staircase – and a back garden that has surprised me by a show of some roses. I am very glad you approve the designs for the medal executed somewhat hurriedly and I perfectly agree in your judgement that Britannia’s bellicose aspect should not be insisted on. I allow that I intended the fair Islander to be armed, but I had in him rather a designers [—] than any deep design in so treating the figure – all the other figures are bareheaded and it was felt to be a difference and source of distraction to place [a] helmet on her head. Nothing can be so easy as to draw another figure or head for the guidance of the engraver [——] trying to alter the figure in the drawing. Might it not answer to substitute the other kind of Helmet, not that indicator of war, but of a very different idea, wisdom. Minerva’s classic casque would perhaps answer my ends and yours, and be subject to no adverse interpretation – you know it is like this [sketch by Maclise follows] but I shall feel delighted to be quite at your disposal in the matter. I may mention that in error I made a drawing of the Queen for the reverse, placed in a wreath of Rose, Thistle, Shamrock, treated rationally, not heraldically, but I found the [——] had determined re Coats of Arms of the nations. I remain my dear Sir, very faithfully yours, Danl. Maclise”.
Daniel Maclise, RA (1806-70), Irish historical painter; b. Cork; moved to London 1827; entered the RA schools 1828 and first exhibited at the RA in 1829; elected RA 1840; designed illustrations for several books by Charles Dickens. This letter was written shortly before Maclise entered a lengthy period of ill-health, which caused him to decline the offer of the presidency of the RA in 1865; he died of acute pneumonia at 4 Cheyne walk on 25 April 1870.
Thomas Baring (1799-1873), joined the family bank, Baring Bros, in 1828, becoming a senior partner in the late 1840s; MP for Great Yarmouth 1835-7 and Huntingdon, 1844-73; chairman of Lloyd’s, director of the Bank of England, president of the Royal Institution and a close associate of Benjamin Disraeli
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For more information, additional images and to bid on this lot please go to the auctioneers website, www.dnw.co.uk
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ALS from Daniel Maclise at 4 Cheyne walk, Chelsea, SW [London], August 6 1861, to Thomas Baring, Esq, MP, regarding his design for the International Exhibition Prize Medal, 1862 (Allen A10; BHM 2747), 4pp. Very fine
£80-£100
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The text reads: “My Dear Sir, I came to dwell here a year ago and I find it a very pleasant change. I inhabit one of the Old Queen’s alm houses – positively a [——]staircase – and a back garden that has surprised me by a show of some roses. I am very glad you approve the designs for the medal executed somewhat hurriedly and I perfectly agree in your judgement that Britannia’s bellicose aspect should not be insisted on. I allow that I intended the fair Islander to be armed, but I had in him rather a designers [—] than any deep design in so treating the figure – all the other figures are bareheaded and it was felt to be a difference and source of distraction to place [a] helmet on her head. Nothing can be so easy as to draw another figure or head for the guidance of the engraver [——] trying to alter the figure in the drawing. Might it not answer to substitute the other kind of Helmet, not that indicator of war, but of a very different idea, wisdom. Minerva’s classic casque would perhaps answer my ends and yours, and be subject to no adverse interpretation – you know it is like this [sketch by Maclise follows] but I shall feel delighted to be quite at your disposal in the matter. I may mention that in error I made a drawing of the Queen for the reverse, placed in a wreath of Rose, Thistle, Shamrock, treated rationally, not heraldically, but I found the [——] had determined re Coats of Arms of the nations. I remain my dear Sir, very faithfully yours, Danl. Maclise”.
Daniel Maclise, RA (1806-70), Irish historical painter; b. Cork; moved to London 1827; entered the RA schools 1828 and first exhibited at the RA in 1829; elected RA 1840; designed illustrations for several books by Charles Dickens. This letter was written shortly before Maclise entered a lengthy period of ill-health, which caused him to decline the offer of the presidency of the RA in 1865; he died of acute pneumonia at 4 Cheyne walk on 25 April 1870.
Thomas Baring (1799-1873), joined the family bank, Baring Bros, in 1828, becoming a senior partner in the late 1840s; MP for Great Yarmouth 1835-7 and Huntingdon, 1844-73; chairman of Lloyd’s, director of the Bank of England, president of the Royal Institution and a close associate of Benjamin Disraeli
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For more information, additional images and to bid on this lot please go to the auctioneers website, www.dnw.co.uk
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Time, Location
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