Historical and Art Medals, Numismatic Books

Dublin, Trinity College, Berkeley Prize for Greek, a gold award medal by J.S. and A.B. Wyon, stallion galloping to left, g * b 1752 in exergue, rev. arms, vos exemplaria graeca, etc, edge named (Archibald Robinson, 1876), 36mm, 30.52g (Went, Heritage 116-17; Frazer p.325). Tiny obverse rim nick at 10 o’clock and pierced for suspension, otherwise extremely fine and attractive, very rare (£250-300)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Irish Medals in Gold and Silver from the Collection of James Spencer.

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Collection

Provenance:
Baldwin FPL 1995 (140a).

The prize is named for George Berkeley (1685-1753), who entered Trinity College in 1700, graduated in 1704 and continued to hold a fellowship there until 1724, latterly as a lecturer in Greek and Hebrew. In 1728 he emigrated to Newport, Rhode Island, where he bought a farm and intended to build a college in Bermuda to train the sons of colonists, but funds were not forthcoming and he returned to Ireland, being consecrated bishop of Cloyne in May 1734