The Phoenix Medal

The Phoenix Medal, the death of Charles I and the accession of Charles II, silver medal, 1649, by Thomas Rawlins, laureate bust right, signed "R" below, CAROLVS I DG MAG BR FR ET HI REX, rev., a phoenix, wings spread, rises from the flames, CAROLVS II DG MAG BRIT FRAN ET HIBER REX - EX CINERIBVS, beaded border to both sides and diagonally milled edge, 31mm (MI 352/211; MI Plate XXX/12; Platt I, p. 253). Good very fine, perhaps better, grey tone and an exceptional rarity.

Platt writes, "An excessively rare medal, known only in silver". MI lists two specimens, one in the Hunterian Collection, the other in the Bavarian Royal Collection, Munich [now housed in the Münchner Residenz]. The British Museum subsequently acquired their specimen in 1899 and it appears in the Plates to MI. The medal is hard to date, old obverse die medal displays a slight central die flaw from the top to bottom and another, more marked, extending from the beak of the phoenix to the edge (between HIBER and REX). The reverse is in a somewhat differing style and no other medals of the period have a milled edge. The dies may have broken, this would explain its rarity, but the theme of the medal with the name of Charles II linked with the image of a phoenix would not have been popular in Cromwellian England. Thomas Rawlins was believed to have moved to France by 1648 and although he returned to England in 1652 he was no reinstated as Chief Engraver at the Mint till after the Restoration in 1660.

Provenance: Bt D. Fearon, January, 2014; A. Morris Collection; ex. Glendining's. 22 January, 1996 (lot 555)