Lot 1713

Description

Sir Julius Vogel, Prime Minister of New Zealand, Born 1835, Died 1899 - memorial plaque cast in bronze, uniface (110x83mm), by Kormis (Fred Kormis). Very fine.

Sir Julius Vogel, KCMG (24 February 1835 - 12 March 1899) was the fifth Premier of New Zealand. His administration is best remembered for the issuing of bonds to fund railway construction and other public works. He remains the only practising Jewish prime minister of New Zealand. Historian Warwick R.Armstrong assesses Vogel's strengths and weaknesses:

Vogel's politics were like his nature, imaginative - and occasionally brilliant - but reckless and speculative. He was an excellent policymaker but he needed a strong leader to restrain him....Yet Vogel had vision. He saw New Zealand as a potential 'Britain of the South Seas', strong both in agriculture and in industry, and inhabited by a large and flourishing population.
(Information courtesy of Wikipedia).

Fred (Fritz) Kormis (1897-1986) was born and trained in Frankfurt. He fled Germany when Hitler came to power for Holland in 1933 and then to England in 1934. Kormis produced medals of many British and World leaders. On a larger scale, his public commissions included the Prisoner of War memorial in Willesden (North-West London) in 1970. A bronze medal by him of Edward VIII is in the National Portrait Gallery in London.