Lot 423

Description

Voyage of the Vostok and Mirny, 1819, in bronze (42mm) by I. Shilov. Bust of Alexander I (of Russia) to the right, reverse legend in Russian translated (The sloops Orient and Pacific year 1819). (M.H. 226; Smirnov 406). Good very fine and rare.

These two vessels, under Cmdr T. Bellingshausen, circumnavigated Antarctica on their world voyage and visited Sydney. Silver medals are believed to have been handed out to natives in the same fashion as the Resolution and Adventure medals on Cook's second voyage. (see Journal of the Russian Numismatic Society, no.35, 1989).