Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

James II and Mary, the birth of Prince James, silver medal, 1688, perhaps by George Bower, conjoined busts of James and Mary right, he laureate, rev., radiant sun disperses rain and clouds over a map of the British Isles marked ANGLI, SCOTIA and HIBERNIA, ILLAS FVGAT RECREAT ISTAS, five line legend in ex., 35mm (MI 629/49; Eim 293; Woolf 1:4b). Nearly extremely fine, the reverse with die flaw (approx. 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock), toned and very rare.

The medal was commissioned, following a directive from Whitehall, by Sir Gabriel Wood (sometimes known by his Latinised name "Sylvius"), Ambassador to the Court of Denmark and Norway and distributed at a celebratory fete held to commemorate the birth of the Prince who, as the medal's reverse depicts, might dissipate the storms of the Protestant ascendancy. There are two varieties of the medal, the first to show a map of the British Isles, and both rare, Neil Guthrie, The Material Culture of the Jacobites [2013], suggests the medallist is Bower rather than B. Meier to whom it has also been attributed.

Provenance: Bt. Classical Numismatic Group, March, 2012.