Commemorative, Historical and Art Medals

India, Society of Arts (Inst. 1753), gilt plated cliché replicas of an award medal by G.F. Pidgeon, conjoined busts of Mercury and Minerva, rev. wreath, named (To C.A. Bruce Esq, For Discovering Tea Tracts & Cultivating & Preparing Tea in Assam, 1840), both 51mm (E 643); together with a Georgian silver toddy spoon, the handle engraved ‘B’ [Bruce], hallmarked aw Edinburgh 1826 [2]. First fine, spoon very fine £50-100

Provenance: By descent to Robert Bruce Campbell, Hastings.

In the early 19th century all Britain’s tea came from China, but following the revision of its charter in 1833 the EIC’s monopoly of the tea trade came to an end. Some years previously, stated by most authorities to have been 1823, a Major Robert Bruce (†1824), a Scottish trader and explorer, had learnt of the existence of a beverage brewed from locally growing plants in Assam and visited Rangpur to obtain samples to send to the Company’s Botanic Gardens at Calcutta, who declined to confirm them as tea. Lt Andrew Charlton, on service with the Chai Assam Light Infantry, stationed in Sadiya and reporting to a Capt F. Jenkins, sent some similar plants to the Agricultural and Horticultural Society in Calcutta, noting that they tasted of Chinese tea when dried, but official recognition was once again denied. On 1 February 1834 Lord Bentinck, the Governor-General, set up the Tea Committee and once again Charlton collected indigenous plants and sent them to Calcutta. This time his samples were pronounced genuine and Charles Alexander Bruce (1793-1871), younger brother of Robert, was appointed superintendent of the government tea plantations. The first chests of Assamese tea were sent to London in 1838. For his presumed contribution in the discovery of Assam tea plant Bruce was awarded the Society of Arts medal, presented through the Agricultural and Historical Society of Bengal, but Jenkins and Charlton strongly disputed this decision and both staked their claims for the honour. Acrimonious correspondence followed but both of them eventually received a medal from the Society. Charlton’s medal, with its poignant legend, was sold in these rooms, 10 December 2009, lot 709