Lot 1407

Description

Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition, 1887, First Order of Merit, in bronze (75mm) (C.1887/5), by E.A.Altmann, Melbourne, unnamed. In original fitted case and gold blocked onto lid lining is name, 'Geo.C.Levey. C.M.G.', small edge nick on obverse, residue of lacquer (?) on a part of the reverse, otherwise extremely fine.

Ex Leslie J. Carlisle Collection (Noble Numismatics Sale 113, lot 3282).

Mr Geo.C.Levey was Secretary to the London Commission of the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition. He also applied for the position of secretary to the 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition Committee but his services were declined.

George Collins Levey, journalist and politician, was born in London on 13 April 1835. He arrived in Melbourne with his two brothers in 1851. He toured Western Europe and wrote for the English press, was at one time editor and chief proprietor of the Herald and contributor and occasionally editor of the Age newspaper. For a time he was also a Member of Parliament. In 1879 he was appointed secretary to the commissioners at the Sydney Exhibition and later held the same post representing Victoria and other colonies at exhibitions in Melbourne in 1872, 1875 and 1880-81, London and Vienna in 1873, Philadelphia in 1876, Paris in 1878 (awarded Legion of Honour), Amsterdam in 1883, Crystal Palace in 1884, Adelaide in 1887, Tasmania in 1894 and to the colonial committee of the British royal commission to the Paris Exhibition in 1900. He was appointed CMG in 1878 for his services as an eminently successful emissary for the colonies. He also served on the royal commission inquiring into the Kelly outbreak and performance of the police. He died in London on 13 April 1919. See his full biography by Suzanne G. Mellor published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 5, (MUP), 1974.