Historical and Art Medals, Numismatic Books

19th Century, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Launch of the SS Great Britain, 1843, a brass medal by J. Gardner, vessel under sail, rev. this iron steam ship, etc, 27mm (BHM 2119); Bristol Tramways & Carriage Co Ltd, 1901, silver award medals for Loyalty (3), unsigned, St George and dragon, revs. named (Insr. E.H. Bowles; Dvr. G. Came; Condr. V. Moseley), all 38mm (cf. DNW 30, 626); Clifton, Opening of the Clifton Rocks Railway, 1893, a cruciform white metal medal by H.B. Sale, view of the funicular railway, rev. issued to the passengers on the opening day, etc, 35mm (BHM 3459) [5]. First good fine, third brilliant mint state, others very fine; the Bristol Tramways pieces with clips and rings for suspension, blue ribbons and clasps; third in maroon case of issue by the Bristol Goldsmiths Alliance, 30 College Green (£60-80)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Gloucestershire Medals from the Collection of the Late Barry Greenaway.

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Collection

Provenance:
First bt R. Parsons December 1997.

The steamship SS Great Britain, conceived by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was launched on 19 July 1843 by Prince Albert. The Bristol Tramways & Carriage Co Ltd was formed in 1887, with the city’s transport entrepreneur, Sir George White, as chairman. White saw to it that Bristol employed the first conventional overhead electric tramway system in the UK, on which open-topped cars first ran on 14 October 1895. Following a direct hit by a bomb on St Philip’s bridge on 11 April 1941 and the consequent cutting of the power cables, trams ceased to run in the city; sold with a detailed archive of technical information on the Bristol tramway system. The Clifton Rocks railway, opened on 11 March 1893, ran from Hotwells road to the top of Zion Hill; it was closed on 29 September 1934