Historical and Art Medals, Numismatic Books

18th Century, Completion of Freemason's Hall, Subscriber’s Medal, 1780, a silver award by L. Pingo, standing figure of Fame inscribing column, holding trumpet and a plan of the Hall in her left hand, rev. grand lodge of free masons in england, etc, named (Tho. Sandby Esq g·a·), 47mm (Harris 111; Eimer 60; BHM –; E 787). Traces of old mount on edge and a few rim nicks, otherwise very fine and very rare by association (£600-800)

Thomas Sandby (1721-98), a cartographer from Nottingham who served as a draughtsman to the Duke of Cumberland at the battles of Dettingen and Culloden, became an eminent English architect, whose most notable commission was the design of Freemason's Hall at Great Queen street, London; his design linked two houses purchased by the United Grand Lodge of England in 1775. A founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768, he served as its first Professor of Architecture. Sandby was himself a Freemason, and this medal thus serves as being of considerable documentary interest, combining as it does the history of Freemason’s Hall and the architect responsible for its original design (cf. H. Poole, History of Freemasonry, 1951, vol.III, p.65)