Commemorative, Historical and Art Medals

Medals of the Early Colonial Period and the European Heritage, Capture of Tobago, 1677, a copper medal by J. Mauger and H. le Breton, bust of Louis XIV right with long hair, rev. panorama of the fort attacked by eleven vessels, magazine exploding from mortar fired from the left, 41mm (Divo 167; Betts 59; van Loon III, 210). Extremely fine £100-150

Provenance: Bowers and Merena Auction 75, 25-6 March 1985, lot 1725.

In May 1676 a Dutch fleet under Admiral Jacob Blinck captured both Cayenne and Tobago; however the French recaptured Tobago the following year and, under the terms of the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678, it remained in their possession. The medal’s reverse depicts the explosion that killed the Dutch commander, Jacob Bickens, and about 250 of his men