Lot 611

Description

Lord Anson, London, 1747 in brass (37.2mm). Wear on high points, otherwise nearly very fine.

Ex John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, part 14, Stack's, May, 2006 (Lot no. 0452, with their ticket). A rare medal honouring the circumnavigator Lord Anson. The identity of the maker is not known. The medal commemorates the British victory over the French at Cape Finisterre in 1747, during the War of the Austrian Succession. The obverse of the medal shows half-length figures of Admiral Lord George Anson and Admiral Sir Peter Warren, while the reverse depicts a sea battle. Anson, who had returned from the extraordinary Centurion voyage just three years earlier, was possibly the most famous Englishman at the time, not least on account of the fabulous prize money that he had earned from a voyage that was in every other sense a disaster. The return of HMS Centurion in the summer of 1744 was the occasion of popular celebration and intense interest in the events of the tumultuous four year voyage round the world, which had culminated in the capture of the Manila treasure galleon. "After the fleet's failure off Toulon in February the navy stood in need of a popular triumph, and the capture of a treasure galleon was in the public mind the next best thing to a fleet victory. Day after day the newspapers carried reports of the homecoming: the procession from Portsmouth to London, with thirty two wagons laden with treasure; the feting of Anson and his men; details of the prize money and the dispute over its allocation..." (Williams, p. 229). The hero-worship of Anson continued apace with his successes against the French. The first Battle off Cape Finisterre, between Anson's thirteen ships of the line and the French Admiral De la Jonquiere's smaller fleet, lasted just three hours with most of the French men-of-war taken.