SWEDEN/U.S.A., Johann Ericssons död [Death of Johan Ericsson], 1889, an aluminium medal by H. Rydén, bust left, arms of Sweden and the U.S.A. above, rev. elevation of the Halda Fickurfabrik [Halda Pocket Watch] factory, 45mm, 8.01g. Practically mint state, rare £40-£50

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Silich Collection of Historical and Art Medals.

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DNW Auction 44, 17 November 1999, lot 834.

Johann Ericsson (1803-89), Swedish-American engineer and inventor; an early creation of his, the locomotive Novelty, participated in the Rainhill Trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in October 1829. Moving to the U.S.A. in 1839, he designed the US navy’s ill-fated first screw-propelled steam frigate, then the first armoured ironclad warship equipped with a rotating gun turret. Later he designed other naval vessels and weapons, including a type of torpedo and a torpedo boat that could fire a cannon from an underwater port. The Halda Fickurfabrik at Svängsta was founded in 1887 by Henning Hammarlund (1857-1922)